Road to the Final Four

Coach Self reflects on tradition at Kansas

2007-03-24T08:36:36Z

As I was listening to Friday's press conference, leading up to Saturday's game against UCLA, Kansas' starting five along with coach Self started talking about the tradition at Kansas. Despite my efforts to be as objective as possible while covering KU during their tourney run, I bleed crimson and blue. Listening to coach Self talk about how much this school means to former players cued the first time on the trip I actually got goose-bumps.

Ben Howland: the next Bob Knight?

2007-03-24T05:20:38Z

A huge part of following the tournament is getting to know the personalities of players and coaches. All of the KU players are very down to Earth. They don't come off as having big heads. Bill Self is always polite to the media. He'll give us a smile and a "what's up guys?" while he's walking down the hall. I haven't followed UCLA at all this season, and don't know much about their coach, Ben Howland. But at media day on Friday, the impression I got wasn't necessarily a very good one. He stopped the press conference about four times to referee the media.

After just one minute in to his press conference, he interrupted UCLA guard Arron Afflalo to tell the media in the back to be quiet because they were "having a press conference, here." (Check out Afllalo's face in the video). Let me remind you that the panel is at the front of a large room with chairs for the media to ask questions from. There's only a black curtain separating it from the TV work area. After five questions in a row that were directed to him, he had another outburst informing the media (the people who do this for a living) about the "right way" to do conduct a press conference; by asking players questions first, and then the coach so players can go back to the locker room. That was despite after this specific panel conference, the players were going to separate areas for another half hour of individual interviewing. Also, there is a moderator at each presser. It's his job to keep time and choose who will get to ask the next question. It seemed like a suggestion like that would be his job, but I could be wrong. I had the pleasure of sitting in on a Bob Knight press conference in Oklahoma City during the Big 12 Tournament. When he's on the stand, the mood in the room just changes. Reporters are more hesitant. A reporter asked him it helped his team to get an extra day of rest. Coach Knight balked at the question and asked the reporter if he'd rather run four miles today and do it again tomorrow, or if he'd rather wait a day. He then informed the reporter he needed to get more exercise. Coach Howland reminded me of Knight. He was open and spoke his mind. Coach Knight won't be around much longer, so could Howland fill the opening?

Media day in San Jose

2007-03-24T03:24:37Z

Team press conference
Photo: Nick Nelson

Friday was media day at the HP Pavilion. UCLA had five players and their coach at their 1:30 presser (Pacific Time). After the 20 minute press conference, each player had a separate curtained off areas where we could interview them until 2:30. The coach stayed in the presser room to be interviewed while the players were in their separate areas. Kansas did the same from 2:45-3:45.

UCLA's Lorenzo Mata
Photo: Nick Nelson

The only interview environment I'd been in until now was either the locker room or the press conference panel, so this was a fun experience. I was flying solo, so at first I tried to shoulder the camera and put the mic on the table that the player was sitting at. After a while, I decided there wasn't a good chance I'd actually use most of this footage. I had already listened to and recorded the press conference and had heard some good things there, plus the lighting was awful in the rooms. I carried around the J-School's Nokia N73 cell phone to take some pictures of the players, and for the most part just listened while the other reporters did the talking. I didn't need much UCLA coverage, so during their media time I hung out in Luc Ricard Mbah a Moute's area because it was the least crowded. There were a couple of occasions where he and I were the only ones in the little room. I didn't have much to ask him, so for the most part it was just awkward.

Sasha Kaun
Photo: Nick Nelson

There was also a point when Sasha Kaun and I were the only ones in his area, so I just asked him what he was doing to pass the time and relax in-between games since I heard that Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush liked to play cards. Sasha said he did homework.

Brandon Rush
Photo: Nick Nelson

Rush consistently had the most press around him, but Julian Wright's area was surprisingly slow so I spent a lot of time in there chatting him up. He said he passes the time listening the music and getting on facebook. He's got family in the area so he went to see the movie "Premonition." According to him, "It was garbage."

Julian Wright
Photo: Nick Nelson

Since I had brought up free time, and hanging out with the other guys, one reporter asked him what Rush was like off of the court. Julian said he was always joking and goofing. Reporter: "How do you mean?" Wright: "Like right now" Wright pointed behind us to the back of the room, where Rush was poking his head through the curtain, sticking his tongue out at Wright. Priceless. Too bad I wasn't taking video on the phone, but it won't be the last time I'll catch Rush goofing off on this trip.

Russell Robinson
Photo: Nick Nelson

Mario Chalmers
Photo: Nick Nelson

Road to the Final Four: San Jose, Days 1 & 2

2007-03-23T07:25:42Z

Sunny San Jose! I've never been to California, but it's great so far. Can't wait to see more of it than the hotel, the HP Pavilion and downtown San Jose. Days one and two are a wrap. Here's a little documentation of both. California LOOOOVE.

A smattering of coverage by Nick Nelson, master of technical difficulties.
Video: Nick Nelson, Dylan Schoonover, on a Nokia N73

Road to the Final Four: Captain's Log, Day 5

2007-03-22T20:07:27Z

We did little on the drive home besides sleep and play 20 questions (but we only used sports figures). It was a lot less exciting than the trip down. 05:12- We were gonna stop half way in Des Moines to stay at Justin's parents, but upon arrival Justin decided he wanted to go the distance. He drove the WHOLE way. Big ups to him. 05:30- We needed a little boost because all Drew and I did so far on the trip home as sleep. By now everybody's heard about mixing Diet Coke and Mentos, which results in a 2-Liter rocket. We decided we needed to try this in a vacant high school parking lot before leaving Des Moines. (Video to come later!) 08:35- We made it home. I had slept three hours on the way home, so I was looking forward to a few hours of my own bed before I started lining out my trip to San Jose. Cap'n Nelson, over and out.

Road to the Final Four: Captain's Log, Day 4

2007-03-22T20:03:34Z

02:23- Drew Davison calls a few times. He's still hanging with his peeps downtown (our motel is about a half hour away from the city), and he says a cab ride would be $60. Here began Operation: Find Drew Davison. 02:51- Drew calls about every seven minutes to see if we're on our way, and where we're at. Just a reminder, Drew started celebrating St. Patrick's day about 10 hours ago. Needless to say, he's in no shape to be directing us to his location. He does well enough to tell us that his buddys are staying at the Wyndham, along with the intersection that it's at. 03:10- We've still not located Drew Davison. We can't find either street he mentions in his directions, so we pull over and get directions from some cops. They help us out. We get a few more calls from Drew, one informing us that his personal cell phone has died and the J-School's Nokia he's got with him is about to go down as well. Awesome. 03:14- Drew's phone dies just as we arrive at what we believe to be the Wyndham. He said he was outside the main entrance just as the phone shut down. I asked a couple of guys smoking outside if it was, in fact, the Wyndham (the building had a huge "W" on the side of it). One of them says "Yeah it's the 'W'." Still no sign of Drew Davison. Then a cabbie tells me that the Wyndham is like 6 blocks away.

What a trooper
Photo: Justin O'Neal

03:26- Operation: Find Drew Davison is a success! Boy, was he glad to see us. He said that hotel security was about to kick him out after he asked to place a long-distance call to get ahold of us again. He insists he "isn't that bad." Sure, Drew. Why don't we just have you drive? 03:35- We've taken a series of roads a couple of times now that reminded us of the video game Grand Turismo. It's mostly through a series of tunnels, and it's got those huge yellow and black arrows on the walls. The speed limit's 30, but you've gotta go about 50 to keep up with traffic (techno music helps too).

This totaled SUV jammed traffic
Video: Justin O'Neal

03:50- It takes FOREVER to get back to the motel because traffic is really backed up on the Eisenhower expressway (I-290). Cars keep flying past us honest citizens on the right shoulder of the road. This pisses off a truck driver so he blocks the shoulder. It turns out that there's a pretty bad wreck, and we drive by an SUV that got owned. We get out of the bottleneck and make it the rest of the way 04:01- Four in the morning. We're beat. Nighty night. 09:58- We planned on being up by 09:30, but that didn't happen. Checkout's at 11:00, and we're all still in bed unpacked and unshowered. Somehow, by taking turns in the bathroom while the others load the car, we made the checkout time. Off once again to the United Center. 11:45- Smu and I hit up the media meal. It was two kinds of pizza, salad and cheese sticks. We've still got four hours before the KU game to set up. I tried to use the tape deck again, but it was officially unusable. I called up Cade, KUJH's tech guy, and he says we need a certain cable so our camera can act as the tape deck. I let Justin know, and he went and bought the cable and got it to me about 10 minutes before tip-off. In the meantime, I watched the Wisconsin/UNLV game off and on while I worked on my blog in the media work room. 16:00- I popped a tape in the camera so it could record the KU game feed and sat court-side for the whole first half. I went back to the work room at half time, switched the tapes, and watched the second half from my amazing seat. 18:35- After KU won, I taped the press conference from the CBS feed. The Kansas locker room was still open to the media for 15 minutes after the presser was over. Drew and I did a few interviews with me shouldering the camera and him doing the mic work. 19:15- I did a standup on the court. Too bad we wouldn't end up being able to use it because robots hate me, and I couldn't get Final Cut to capture correctly. Drew did a write-up and I posted it with a picture instead of video. Lame. 20:30- Justin picks us up and we head the Harey Carey's Restaurant for dinner. I got Hazelnut Catfish in a butter glaze with little red potatos, a caesar salad and clam chowder soup. I ate way too much. 22:15- On the road home to Kansas.

Road to the Final Four: Captain's Log Day 3

2007-03-22T20:01:09Z

00:45- Time to have a little fun in the city. We went uptown, drove around and looked for a place to park. After Justin knocked out the parallel parking job we found a cool little pizza place called Renaldis Pizza. Of course, we went with a deep dish. It's frickin' Chicago. It was a real laid back atmosphere; nice place to chill.

Mama mia!
Photo: Justin O'Neal

I was still in my suit, so I felt like I was in the mafia. There were only a couple of other people in the place. We hung out for a couple of hours (the pizza took a while, but it was worth the wait), and bounced back to the hotel. We hit the hay around 03:45. 11:00- We slept in, but had to be back at the arena by 15:10 for KU's press conference after their practice. 13:48- Justin dropped me and Drew off at the United Center for the post game interviews. We got there in plenty of time to set up. After the interviews, Drew shot my standup so we could put a little package together later. 17:04- Justin picked us up and we headed to Wrigleyville to meet up with some of Drew's friends at a bar called The Cubby Bear, right across the street from Wrigley Field.

We are SERIOUS fans of Wrigley.
Photo: Drew Davison

It was packed for St. Patty's day, and we watched some of the basketball games there. I had an Italian Beef sandwich with sweet peppers. Mmm boy. It was the first chance I had really gotten to actually sit down and watch games other than ones being played Chicago. Kinda weird because I had been covering KU with all this other media around me and really had no idea what was going on in the sporting world outside of the United Center. After we ate, Drew met some other friends in Wrigleyville while Justin and I headed back to the motel to post some stuff. 19:00- O'Neal and I got to work. He worked on some graphics for that day's package while I posted video and pictures on this blog. When we first started, I put the tape we recorded my standup on into the deck, and it decided to get stuck. I tried taking of the case, but there was no way to take the tape out without busting up the insides. About a half hour went by, and I decided I'd try to feed it a blank tape. Maybe that would make it release the other one. I plugged the thing in and spit out my tape! I grabbed the tape and threw the deck out the window (only kidding, J-School!)

Covering sports: not ALL fun and games...just mostly

2007-03-19T19:29:39Z

Last weekend I was in Oklahoma City, watching KU basketball. This weekend I was in Chicago, watching KU basketball. Oh, did I mention those trips were free? I mean, I tell people they were free because I didn't pay any money to go, but that doesn't mean I didn't pay anything. I paid my dues with plenty of stress-out time.

Believe it or not, covering sports can be tough. Sure, we get great seats and amazing food. But that's only about 10% of what we sports reporters do while we're at big events like the Big 12 or NCAA tournaments. In Chicago, I'd get to the United Center about 4 hours before the KU game, and for the most part I needed every extra minute I got. I ran in to a bunch of technical issues, and by the time I got everything figured out and set up, it was game time. For the Kansas/Niagara game, I didn't even watch a lot of the first half. I was working on posting video for my blog. I'd go back to the media workroom about 4 times during each game (sorry, people in my row) to change tapes in the deck that was recording it, and it make sure it didn't stop recording all together (it was a piece of crap). Once the games ended and press conferences were over, the media are back at work. Which quotes were good? Which bytes work for the focus of your story? Athletes and coaches aren't like other sources for normal news stories. You can't just call them back a half hour later and ask "Hey, what was that you said about your team's rebounding tonight?". You get them for about 20 minutes, then they're gone until after the next game. Wanna talk stress? Try doing a standup. I don't know if everybody's as bad as I am, but I can't ad-lib to save my life. Then you've got people whispering to one another "that idiot messed up again"...or at least that's what I'm assuming they're whispering. As far as posting stuff on the Web goes, that's the medium that should be putting out content faster than any other. Newspapers have until they print. TV stations have until the next hour of news. The Web? There's no reason people should have to wait for the stats and results. Not only does stuff need to be posted now, it probably needed to be posted 10 minutes ago. So when your equipment messes up, it makes you wanna slam your face against the desk that much more. Don't get me wrong, I love covering sports and I intend to make it my profession. Getting paid to watch sports. It's something the average Joe only gets to do when he's not at his job. But it's not just watching. It's a lot more, and I hope others see that.

All types of media at the NCAA tourney

2007-03-18T22:14:27Z

Let me first say that I've never seen media coverage like I've seen this weekend. So much media. So many politics involved. So many stomach aches because of the free pop and chips. All of the outlets are trying to accomplish their goals without getting in the way of everybody else. At events I normally cover, there are only two teams: Kansas, and whoever it's playing. With eight teams here, it gets hectic.

Media meal gets Davison's approval
Photo: Nick Nelson

I did some eavesdropping in the media room during the Wisconsin/UNLV game while I was waiting for some other blog video to render. I listened in on an interesting conversation between two photographers. I couldn't tell if they were from different media outlets, but they were both there to cover Kentucky. As a journalist, I found this conversation especially interesting because one of the photogs was in his late 20's, the other in his late 50's. They mostly discussed the cameras they used, and places they'd been, but I noticed the younger guy, who we'll call "New School" had quite a few pointers for the older photog, who we'll call "Old School." New School helped him out with some settings on his fancy digital camera as well as suggested some things he could do for the outlet's website (like creative slide shows). Then they started comparing new-age photography to how they used to do it. New School said he was talking to someone who used to use film as opposed to digital. New School: "You don't want to run out of film. I couldn't even imagine switching film that fast. I guess you just had to be good at it?" Old School: "We used to switch between plays. We always kept an eye on the end of the game, make sure you had a fresh roll" New School tweaked Old School's camera: NS: "That make a difference?" OS: "Oh, big difference. Some things I don't like about these cameras" NS: "Like what?" OS: "Well, the shutter speed moves on you" NS: "You use the shutter focus as well?" OS: "Huh?" NS: "The shutter focus." OS: "Oh, yeah yeah." Assuming I stay in the field, I got to thinking about what I'm going to be asking some young gun how to do in 30 years. I'm blogging, I'm e-mailing and I'm editing in Final Cut pretty much all at the same time, and these guys are talking about film cameras. We talk about strides in journalism every day in J694, and it's cool to see the transition to the "new school" way live and in person.

Road to the Final Four: Captain's Log, Day 2

2007-03-18T06:38:14Z

We're still going strong on the road to the Final Four. Actually, it's still just the road to Chicago (but we hope to be in Atlanta in a couple of weeks). Anyway, we're cruising along, just outside the Illinois border, listening to XM Satellite Radio. You'll see that I note what we're listening quite a bit, but at this point, XM was definitely our friend and a big part of the last four hours of the trip. It kept us awake and entertained us as the night (or, morning) wore on. Justin O'Neal is in the driver's seat, I'm riding shotgun and Smu Daddy's in the back. Friday, March 16 00:44- We pass the "World's Largest Truck Stop." It wasn't that big.

Our best buddy: XM Satellite Radio
Photo: Nick Nelson

00:50- Sometime in the past hour or so we switched XM Radio from sports talk to techno. Drew watched Borat on his laptop in the back seat with headphones. Justinian and I got sick of him laughing to himself, so we changed it to stand-up comedy so we could laugh too. 01:01- We cross the Mighty Mississippi. Justin made us touch the window and raise our feet off the floor until we get across the bridge for good luck. Smu Davison is in the back seat working on his blog and has no idea what's going on until it's too late. Great, he's doomed and we're riding with him. Also, we're back on techno. 01:02- ILLINOIS BORDER BABY! 01:24-

If we pull over, I've gotta piss again

Damn, dogg

We pulled over to go to the bathroom in Atkinson, Ill. As far as we can tell, there are NO actual bathrooms in Atkinson, Ill. That must be a major inconvenience for the residents, but we settle for a heavily wooded area. Justinian's contacts started to bother him so Drew took the wheel.

Buckle up

01:36- Good thing O'Neal quit driving when he did.

Photo: Nick Nelson

Pink bunny & I HATE Diet Dr Pepper
Photo: Nick Nelson

02:14- Smu Daddy is still driving and J-Mac's still sleeping. We're 88 miles out of Chicago. Drew and I agreed that the guy on ESPN Radio right now kinda sucks. I'm starting to wear down and could use a caffeine fix, but the only thing left was gross, warm Diet Dr Pepper. Eh, that'll do. 02:30- Smu and I caught the Barenaked Ladies' "One Week" on XM's all-90's channel. We reminisced about how awesome the song was in junior high, and how awesome we weren't in junior high. We tried to sing all of the words. We DID NOT know them. 02:49- Smu and I are in love with Stacy's Mom. She's got it going on. We're 20 miles from Chi-town. We decided to make a "greatest hits" list of songs we hear on the trip. Who knows if we'll end up adding to it, but here's what we came up with at the time:

Counting Crows

Gin Blossoms

Barenaked Ladies

Salt-n-Peppa

Fountains of Wayne

03:33- We found the Hotel! After worrying I booked us in the worst part of the city, we finally made it. I promised a tour of the hotel in the video, but we were too tired to do anything besides carry the equipment (and Justin) inside and sleep. We went down for the night at 0359. Long day ahead. 09:49- Up and at 'em, despite setting our alarms for 0900. We left for the arena at 1100. Driving here really IS as bad as they say. Upon arrival of the United Center, we had some issues getting Justin a media pass, as expected. Drew and I set up stuff in the media work center while he worked at getting a pass. He didn't end up getting one, but was able to shoot footage around town. The next few hours didn't hold anything to blog about. Just setting up. 18:10- KU game against Niagara. I spent most of the day setting up. I started out trying to set things up so I could work as efficiently as possible. Then I encountered one technical issue after another, and ended up settling for it to let me tape anything at all. I watched the whole game court-side, changing tapes on the deck at half time. After the game was over, I taped the press conference while Drew and I did some locker room interviews. We posted a couple of post-game sound bytes (which ended up being a real chore with the technical problems I was having) alongside a write-up. Justin picked us up from the arena around midnight.

Road to the Final Four: Captain's Log, Day 1

2007-03-16T17:37:57Z

On Thursday, March 15, 2007 Justin O'Neal, KUJH sports reporter, Drew Davison, KJHK sports reporter, and I set out on an adventure to Chicago, Ill. to cover the Kansas Jayhawks in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. I've decided to document the trip to keep everyone up to date on what we're up to. If you can't read military time, then feel free to suck it up and learn. Here. We. Go. Day 1: Thursday, March 15 17:20 Hours- The car is loaded up. I thought they were kidding when they said we were supposed to fit all of that stuff in my '94 Saturn sedan. I thought we might have to strap Justin to the hood, but we fit it all in: -Two XL Cameras -Light Kit -Bag w/Tripod, tape deck, cords, headphones, -2 Laptops (5 if you count our personal laptops) -My luggage, my backpack, Drew's gym bag w/clothes and his backpack, Justin's luggage and backpack -Justin's personal camera w/3 lenses and flash -Justin O'Neal - Me -Drew Davison 17:44- We're off to the windy city! Myself, Drew "Smu Daddy" Davison and "Justinian" O'Neal just left the Dole parking lot. It SHOULD be an eight hour drive, but I've got a feeling there are some distractions ahead. 17:49- We made it five whole minutes before I had to go to the bathroom. I went ahead aired up my tires at the Conoco in north Lawrence to improve gas mileage (you're welcome, J-School). We're on I-70 by 6:00, trying to stay on top of the NCAA scores with my XM Satellite Radio.

Waiting for the tire pump at Conoco
Photo: Drew Davison

The world's nicest rest area
Photo: Justin O'Neal

20:03- After two hours of solid driving, we stopped for another potty break in Lamoni, Iowa at the nicest rest stop I've ever seen. Until now, every rest stopped looked the same and just reminded me of that scene in "There's Something About Mary." Thank you, state of Iowa, for opening my eyes to bigger and better rest stops.

20:57- Dinner break! We just drove in to west Des Moines. We wanted to hit up Quiznos, but they closed at 9 (2100), and we didn't want to be 'those guys,' so we drove off. The three Quiznos employees applauded as we drove off...no seriously, they did. We drove about five minutes to find Subway because we had sandwiches on the brain, but it also closed at 9. 21:13 (I read my watch wrong in the video)- We ended up at Wendy's. I got a #6, Spicey Chicken Sandwich and a *new* vanilla Frostee. Drew ate a salad like a girl, but he topped it off with a #6 to redeem himself. Justin hopped in the driver's seat so I could finish my Frostee. They gave me the big one. An ice cream headache was in my future. We got back on the road at 2149. 21:53- Justin's Mom called and convinced us to stop by Justin's house since we were like five minutes away. We met Justin's family. If you're ever in the area, I'd suggest visiting them. They're probably the nicest people you'll ever meet, and they'll load you up with treats. We got: -Springtime Oreos -Sunchips -Water -Tortilla chips -Cheez Its -VeggieTales fruit snacks, M&M's and Reece's Pieces I couldn't finish my whole Frostee. I'm also wishing I would have gotten ice in my Dr Pepper. What a waste. We're back on the road by 22:09. 23:15- Running low on fuel. We gassed up at the Break Place in Brooklyn, Iowa. I was disappointed there weren't any easily accessible Brookyln signs around to take pictures with while throwing up gang signs. I was pleased with the sanitary bathroom conditions. I washed my hands next to a highway patrolman. I commented on how the automatic Super Heat Hand Dryers weren't as hot as they were making themselves out to be. He informed me that other truck stops had "high powered" hand dryers, and they'd dry your hands in like five seconds. I told him I looked forward to trying them, and wished him a good night.

On my way out of the bathroom, Drew yelled at me from this dark restaurant area that was connected to gas station. He and Justin were playing a crane-game they found. Smu had already won a Pork Chop doll (from the cartoon Doug), and he was well on his way to a stuffed frog as well. I immediately had my eye on a pink bunny that was in the middle of the machine, which wasn't jammed in there at all. I figured that if anybody would appreciate a pink bunny, it'd be Uncle Rick. At $.50 a play, I put in a buck and came away with the pink bunny right off the bat. The gas station employee gave me some pointers. I tried for a blue shark with my other credit, but to no avail. I was happy with my winnings. We chatted up the gas station employee about the samurai swords they had for sale, and departed from Brooklyn, number one in tha' hood 'G'. 23:37- I received a phone call from Rahul Sharma, sports coordinator of KUJH. He says he was at the library writing two papers, but we have no idea what he was actually doing. We tell him all is well. Day one is coming to a close. Stay tuned for the Day 2 Blog for what ensues after the clock strikes midnight.

The road to the Final Four begins here

2007-03-16T16:15:49Z

The road to Chicago began a little late for my liking. Wildman Nick Nelson and my main man, Justin O’Neal, couldn’t hit the road until about 6 p.m. thanks to midterm testing. Come on, it’s March, it’s almost spring break, it’s St. Patty’s day in Chicago and you’re sticking around Lawrence to take a test? What the hell, you’re in college, brother! I guess I just don’t see eye to eye with younger classmen. The highlight of the trip thus far has to be a pit stop we made in Brooklyn. No, not New York. We are talking Brooklyn, Iowa. It was heaven! While Wildman was taking care of business, I saw "the claw" and knew I could win a stuffed animal. I put a buck in the machine and went to work. First time, no success. The second time, glory! I won this dog that reminds me of Quaildog from the old-school Nickelodeon show "Doug". Doug and his dog, Porkchop, had episodes where they entered Superhero mode and became Quailman and Quaildog. The stuffed animal is identical. Don’t believe me, check out the proof to the right.

Nick "Wildman" Nelson and Drew
"SMUdaddy" Davison display their
"claw" winnings in Brooklyn, IA
Photo: Justin "O'Nedgie" O'Neal, Nokia N73

I took a few minutes to bask in the glory of actually winning a stupid stuffed animal. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I was blown away. I saw a Kermit the Frog stuffed animal and knew I had to make an attempt for him. He was stuck up on the corner of the machine and there was no clear way to win him. Then, a lightbulb switched on in my brain. (Cue singing) “I can do anything!” Thank you Reading Rainbow for instilling this lasting tune in my brain! I hope you are picturing the machine in Toy Story, with the aliens, Buzz Lightyear and Woody stuck in it. I threw another bill in the claw machine and went after Kermit. My first attempt: Success! I was ecstatic. Two stuffed animals for two dollars. Unbelievable! At Worlds of Fun, I spend an average of $35 to win a big stuffed animal. Here, I got two medium-sized animals for $2! I love Brooklyn, Iowa! Wildman won a pink teddy bear, but is claiming it is a bunny. He’s just trying to rub it in my face. There was a Bugs Bunny that was impossible to win, so now he won a pink bear and is trying to claim it’s a bunny. Give me a break!