Due to the Thanksgiving holiday and a particularly hectic schedule at the Geek Compound (more on that in future posts), I’m just getting around to telling y’all about my recent 20 second brush with fame.
Unbeknownst to most of you, I like to shop for groceries. At first blush, that would seem pretty weird unless you factor in that I like to eat (a lot!) and that my first job was sacking groceries for Randall’s in Houston. For over four years, I worked at the Dairy Ashford & Memorial location. Because of all this (and that Brandy hates to grocery shop), I handle all the food shopping for the Geek Compound.
In mid-October during my weekly sojourn, I was approached by a familiar-looking woman. I searched my mind for who the hell she was. This isn’t that uncommon for me. After living in Austin for 24 years, I’ve met a lot of people. Problem is that even though I have a great memory for faces, names often elude me. (So if you run into me and I look dumbfounded, it’s because I’m trying to recall your name)
Turns out the well-dressed woman was the local NBC affiliate KXAN evening anchor Leslie Rhode. She stopped me because I was the only guy she could find in the grocery store who was using re-usable bags. They were doing a story on the cleanliness (or not) of the bags. She asked if she could take two of my bags to test for bacteria levels. They’d give me two brand new bags right then and return my bags after the piece ran.
Leslie Rhode
Seemed like a dumb idea for a news report but what the hell. We exchanged the bags and I continued my shopping.
Soon after, Leslie and a cameraman advanced on me. "I’ve been looking for you. We’d like to interview you on camera." While the cameraman prepped, Leslie told me how impressed she was that I did all the grocery shopping. Apparently her husband can’t be trusted to do it right. They interviewed me for a few minutes.
The piece finally ran on November 21. I appear on camera for all of about 20 seconds, saying something snarky. A transcript and video are available on the KXAN site.
Our bags to be tested are on the far right.