CCR, PM and BS

Chances are that, these days, Proud Mary wouldn’t be.

Proud, that is.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, during a high school senior year that was filled with the usual teen angst, augmented liberally with the impending possibility of being drafted to kill or be killed by Viet Cong, not to mention a mother and father whose singular skill at marriage seemed to be destroying it, I spent some much needed positively reinforcing time each weekday in a journalism class taught by a lady named Mary Kirn.

And while I’d like to say the nickname Proud Mary was the result of some witty and “precocious for our ages” satirical accomplishment, the truth is much less dazzling.

Creedence Clearwater Revival had their hit song out that year.

Come to think of it, we did think of ourselves as clever, being that the nickname was, of course, held in the strictest confidence among the rank and file of her classroom.

Wasn’t until she signed our yearbooks “PM” Kirn that we realized the lady was not only professional but playful, as well.

“PM” popped into my head this weekend as I ploughed through assorted and sundry news sites, diligent in my determination to find the latest news about something, anything, that didn’t have to do with Michael Jackson dropping dead.

Man, that was a fool’s errand, I don’t mind tellin’ ya.

Eventually, I came across a video interview with Jenny Sanford, the wife of the Governor of South Carolina who, as we have been TMI'd, not only couldn’t keep it in his pants, but couldn’t keep it in the country, either.

A little while later, I saw the written “news” about the interview.

Wouldn’t you know it, in the video, she talks about how she is taking it one day at a time, hopes she can make the marriage work, wants to raise good kids, that she has great friends, family, etc and will “survive” (insert Gloria Gaynor mp3 here). When asked about her husband’s political future, she said that her main concern was her family, children, et al.

When the interview made its way to the printed page, take a clear grasp of the obvious guess as to the headline.

“South Carolina First Lady says,”his career is not my concern…”

It really is cliché to offer up yet another bitch about how it’s ALWAYS about the bad news.

“If it bleeds, it leads” has evolved from a pointed observation to an industry standard.

But as I read the headline and replayed the whole video interview in my head, I remembered the positively reinforcing days spent in Mrs. Kirn’s class and her hip, but solid, presentation of the fundamentals of journalism.

The 5 W’s.
Who, what, when, where and why.

Read that list again with me, if you will, but I don’t see a Wow! in there anywhere.

And there’s not a Woo-Hoo! in sight.

A lot of good teachers contribute to our lives in those years.

But it’s the great ones you remember.

I remembered Mrs. Kirn this weekend.

And something I had forgotten about her.

She was hip and connected to us, but“PM” didn’t have much use for “BS.”

I have a feeling that, if Mary Kirn were teaching today, she wouldn’t be a happy camper.

And Proud Mary wouldn’t be all that proud.