Jason's DeBlog

This morning I tweeted "Tonight's Good Question: How to tell kids that Santa's having a rough financial year. Anyone have any great parenting experts for me?"  My twitter account cross-posts to my Facebook page, updating my status.

Often, I like to share my story concept ahead of time, so my blog readers, twitter followers and Facebook friends can contribute.  You guys really came through today.

angied But Martha Stewart told me that Santa shops at Macy's. So how bad could it be?
PowerBaby Mom would ike to think there is no such thing as a "parenting expert"
afterglide Just tell them Santa has scurvy-related medical bills. Too many cookies
thebrandi Santa c/n make it b/c he's busy standing in the unemplymnt line. Also, his sleigh was repo'd. That's what my mom's been tellin me.
Graham J. Lampa Santa was heavily invested in reindeer default swaps...
Mark Shields "Sorry Timmy, Santa has started drinking because you cry so much. Man up - and better luck next year."
Sean Skinner Is Santa laying off any Elves? That could really hurt the local economy up there.
Jennifer A Carlson Sarah Palin shot all of the reindeer and Santa can't afford the price of gas to drive his SUV?
Jeremy Wadzinski "Sorry lil' Jimmy, but global warming caused Rudolph to fall through the ice and drown. No Christmas for you."

Well done, everyone.

I have such mixed feelings about this, because my friend Terri Gruca is leaving WCCO-TV.  Today's her last weekday (in a cruel twist of scheduling/maximizing vacation time fate, she's anchoring Saturday night at ten).  She's leaving for a job opportunity that she's always wanted.

Terri's one of the best reporters I've worked with.  She's tackled her consumer beat with an eye on finding great stories and telling them in an interesting way.  She's also a killer investigator: exposing the danger of lead in children's jewlery before any other journalist started looking at that issue.

But she's also the kindest person I've ever met in a TV Newsroom.  You get a lot of jerks in TV.  Terri's an incredible exception.  Internally she's loved for always baking for the newsroom (her cookies are fantastic), but she's beloved for being at Bob Rainey's bedside during the year he fought against cancer. 

She wrote a farewell blog entry here.  She's moving to KVUE-TV in Austin, Texas to be their main weeknight anchor.  They're very lucky.  Terri and I started right around the same time, back in 2003.  I'm going to miss her incredibly!

Tonight's Good Question is about the "5-second rule."  Admit it, you've dropped something on the floor, picked it up, and enjoyed it.  I often drop my food on the floor, because I love the delicious flavor of dirt.

At any rate,  Julie Michels from Bloomington sent in this question, and so we're going to answer it.  Because I care.  And I want to know.

So what's your policy on the 5-second rule?  Is the real "rule" shorter or longer?  For me, if I drop a cookie on the floor, it can sit for 5 minutes, and I'll still pick it up and eat it.  Any good stories about dropping stuff and eating it?

Yesterday, one of my Twitter Friends, @newcoventry, retweeted a link about an experiment in Boston, where a newspaper was going to use the live blogging power of Twitter to help cover the lines on Black Friday.

As a believer in the power of stealing good ideas, I immediately notified our Director of New Media, and said we should try this for our morning show.

So we will.  Although we're going to make it easy.  You don't have to follow our breaking news feed (@wccobreaking) or even follow me (@DeRushaJ).  All you have to do is post your twitter updates from in line or inside a story between 5am and 7am, and the WCCO morning team will use it on the show.

So we can track the ones meant for us, use the hash tag #wccodeals somewhere in your tweet, and we'll be able to find it as it happens.  What do we want you to tell us?  Where are you?  What's the line like?  Is it cold?  Did people rush the door?  What are the great deals you're finding?  Just the flavor of whatever location you're at.

If you haven't used twitter before-- it's simple if you're used to sending a text message on your cell phone.  Go to twitter.com and sign up (it's free).  Then set up your cell phone in your account settings.  From the road, you send your text to 40404.  It automatically posts to your twitter feed.

So make sure you use #wccodeals in your post, and you get to be a citizen journalist, reporting on Black Friday for WCCO This Morning!

"how do they put the cheese in the can?" -Sydney, Andover

"Why are "bangs" called bangs?" -Teresa, Maple Grove

"WHY DON'T THEY MAKE COLORED TOLIET PAPER ANYMORE?" -COLETTE, AVON

Anyone?

Do you text?  I've joined in with the rest of the world.  But the cost of texts when you go over is shocking.  It's 10 cents a text on many plans, and 20 cents will be the new price if you're not already paying that.  Tonight's Good Question is: Why.  Why do texts cost so much?

We're going to talk with a data transmission expert about the real cost of processing a text message.  Does it cost the phone companies anything?

And how much are they making off of us texting "OMG!" and "LOL!" 

This morning, I was on KDWB and people called in and texted sharing their stories of going nuts with overages.  So let me know yours in the comments.  What's the most expensive cell bill you've ever had?  What do you think about the cost of text messages?

With the Good Question photographer, Joe Berglove:

And with the very handsy morning meteorologist, Mike Augustyniak:

The questions are so awesome tonight, I had to share one of them with you.  The segment is called "Good Question," but there's no way they can all be good. 

"Your Good Question... : What's the deal with so many strange or "quirky" TV & movie characters with the name Steve. As someone with that name, who is looking for a job, I feel somewhat at a disadvatage at times."

A.  Name "quirky" Steve characters from TV shows and movies?
B.  Do you discriminate against Steves?
C.  Anyone looking to hire a non-quirky Steve? 
D.  Any advice to help Steve prove that he's not strange and/or quirky during job interviews?

Tonight's Good Question is all about mucus.  Boogers.  Snot.  Oh yeah.  Gross, but so good.

Many of us in the WCCO newsroom are fighting colds.  Runny noses.  And our 10pm producer, Matt Liddy, has been blowing his nose for two weeks straight.  He wanted to know where all that snot comes from?  Why does the body keep making it, when the body knows it's going to flow right out?  What's the point of it?  And why don't we run out?

Do you have any snotty questions?  I'm here to help.

Being "Jason DeRusha" the reporter gives me access to people that "Jason DeRusha" the average guy wouldn't be able to reach.  One of the best things about this job is that I'm able to use that to help some of the people who e-mail me.

We get about 75 Good Question e-mails a day.  I read them all.  Yesterday, I got an e-mail from Maggie:

"My father-in-law just passed away. He lost his mind & in doing so, he ordered Anderson windows.$9000.00 worth. My mother in-law never wanted them. She never signed anything,& would love to get some money back. She is now alone and has stage 4 cancer herself. Can anything be done,or can anyone help? Grandpa had lung cancer & diskitis. L3 & L4. He was very much in pain,and really not with the program. They also had him on Morphine. Thank you for any help."

At 2:30 yesterday afternoon, I e-mailed Susan with Anderson Windows, in the PR department.  She called me about two hours later to tell me the company was looking into it.  This morning I got an e-mail from Maggie reading:

"I spoke with Kim from Renewal by Anderson this am. She agreed to refund 1/2 her deposit.  Kim was very accommodating & it was a reasonable agreement. We were very happy.  Two thumbs up for Renewal !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would recommend them highly, to any one. I want to THANK-YOU for your involvement with this.  I don't think we could have done it without your help. YOU DO ROCK !!! "

It's impossible to help everyone who e-mails, but it's cool to be able to send an e-mail, and have things work out.