A lifelong friend in Pittsburgh who reads these geezer thoughts reminded me yesterday she hadn't seen my blog-ravings recently, thus I thought it might be wise to scribe again, asap! My brief self-imposed "hiatus" in this blog space had nothing to do with today's blog topics, below. As I've noted here previously, and somewhat germane to the "hiatus", when I asked the late Chet Huntley if he missed the news business, he said, "Oh, God, no. The news is coming in such big chunks these days it would be overwhelming to try to determine what would be the lead story". Chet stated that during one of the KSTP-TV SKI SCENE programs on which I was proud to have him as a guest and interviewee. The tape still exists. Thanks to Tom Oszman's TCMEDIANOW archives, anyone with access to the Internet can watch the interview in its entirety.

Regardless, I hope at least one of today's topics will strike a responsive chord and all very divorced from the more prevalent news of the day, to wit:

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES, INCLUDING MINE - This morning, ABC-TV's GOOD MORNING AMERICA featured a story about a woman who clinically died and came back to life. She said part of her temporary death experience was witnessing a blindingly bright white light illuminating her vision during that period of time. For those who've never experienced anything like that, I can attest it can happen. It happened to me the night of August 4, 1968, in my room at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas. I had been hospitalized there a month earlier, after having contracted Valley Fever (97 percent fatal), encephalitis and meningitis, thanks to breathing in dust from a dust storm through which I drove near Modesto, California, in The San Joaquin Valley, on my way to a business trip in San Francisco in late June that year. I knew I had a high fever when I asked to be admitted to the hospital July 4th, but had no idea it was Valley Fever (named after The San Joaquin Valley) and was/is a fatal and incurable disease, mostly contracted by migrant workers working in newly-developed agricultural fields. (The disease is also prevalent in Arizona's Salt River Valley.) I actually didn't know I had it until after I was ready to be discharged from the hospital and my doctor then told me. He had recognized it the first few minutes I had been admitted but chose to not tell me in order to keep my spirits as positive as they could be. Regardless, I had never thought about death, especially MY death, prior to that August night (one night prior to my 31st birthday). Shortly after my head hit the pillow that night, I began to go to sleep, but during that early sleep period, a blinding white light engulfed all of my vision in what appeared to be a long tunnel. Far in the distance, at the end of the tunnel, were at least five human figures diffused in a shadowy-gray hue (the color of the long robes they were wearing), beckoning me to come to them. I remember repeating often to myself, and to the figures, "No. I don't want to die. It's not my time. No. Please, no.". Then the light began to slowly fade, as did the characters in the distance, and I went to sleep. The next morning, a nurse took one of the every-other-day spinal taps I'd been receiving for a month. A half hour later, the doctor, named Norman Venger, told me all signs of meningitis and encephalitis had disappeared. He didn't say anything about the Valley Fever (cocsidiomicosis in medical terminology), but did say I was free to go home the next day. Two weeks later, in a post-hospital visit with Dr. Venger, I related to him the story I just wrote regarding the clinical or near-death experience I'd had. He then told me he'd heard of people wishing death away and apparently I'd been successful in that regard. SIDEBAR: Upon discharge, when I went to pay the hospital bill, the cashier told me I didn't owe anything because "Mr. Hughes has paid the entire bill". It was Howard Hughes, my boss at that time, who owned the television station for which I was then working ((KLAS-TV, Channel 8)). There are people still alive (in Oakland, California, Omaha, Nebraska and Colorado Springs, Colorado) who were there when it happened and know this is all true. Seeing the GMA story this morning triggered my decision to relate this personal parallel experience to emphasize coming back to life, or refuting death...at least temporarily...can really happen.

PREMATURE WINTERS - They've happened before and they'll happen again. I think at least one word sums it up for a lot of us: Yuck! (Except for those who make their livelihoods operating and managing our local ski areas. Their one word might be Hooray!, justifiably so.)

IMDb - If anyone accesses that site about people who are or have been in the film industry as actors, actresses, producers, directors, etc.,, I'm listed. Nice to be listed, but incorrect information I've been asking IMDb to correct via their correction site, for at least five years, hasn't resulted in the correction. The correction needed is the listing of the city of my birth. IMDb lists it as New York, NY. Wrong. It's (proudly) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (West Penn Hospital), that should be listed, as that's what it is! Glad you can at least see it here!

Thanks for taking the time to read these disparate, but not desperate, scribblings. Happy pre-winter.