Domestic terrorism is what this is shaping up to be.

She deserves a promotion!

At least it hasn’t ripped your surviving family members apart. So much can come between otherwise-loving people at times like that.

Family stuff is often MISERABLE.

How do you make sure YOU get the good seat at these things?

Get there early, and position the seating strategically. For round-table occasions, we’d tip one chair inward against the table. That makes it look “reserved.”

Then, start setting up the microphones (starting with your own) pointed toward that tipped chair. Then everybody assumes that’s where the talent is supposed to sit.

For good measure, go to the other tables and set them up that way.

These things would be scheduled for the entertainment media all the time. We’d go to these junkets to cover some new movie and the PR people would assemble the lead cast members, the director, the scriptwriter, producer, and maybe chief stunt coordinator if it was some sort of action movie, special effects guru if it was one of those films, etc.

I was stunned to see how well and how consistently that trick worked! I always got a good seat.

Sometimes, though, the advantageous position was ACROSS the table from the talent, so you’d be, in effect, face-to-face with him or her and you could make eye contact and get your questions in more effectively. They’d see you and acknowledge you ‘cause you were right in front of them. And it amazed me to study the body language to see if the talent looked up at you when they were speaking to you, or they were mumbling down at the tabletop or just not really intent on connecting with the folks they were speaking to.

That was a pretty cool job. Demanding as hell. But hey, the perks could sometimes be mind-blowing, like - I got to sit right next to Sean Connery!

I wish we had a liberal organization or patron that could start buying up some hate radio properties, and then changing the format away from trump-talk.