tune in tomorrow

Mac is joining his fellow Tiger Cub Scouts for a tour of a local tv studio tomorrow. It's run by one of those big, humongo churches here and hasn't been picked up by many of the local cable companies. I had a small "in" with a news producer there because they did a piece on the corn maze last fall. I have so few "ins" that I felt empowered making the connection for this visit.

Today I bought my "in" an assortment of Ghirardelli chocolate bars as a thank you. But I am now eating one of them. I decided I needed it more that he would miss something that he didn't even know he was getting. I'll just have to put more tissue paper in the gift bag.

This chance to appear on live tv makes me hope that Mac won't be given the opportunity to speak. It's sort of like the feeling I have when we go to my mom's church and I know Mac will go to the children's sermon at the front of the church. I've learned to make him promise that he'll keep his mouth shut because he has been known to talk on and on and there is potential to say something that will embarrass all of us.

It also reminds me of the time that my sister got to go on the long-defunct local children's show, Happy Rain, as part of a birthday party. Happy Rain was a non-native American woman who dressed up in very stereotypical native American clothing and had a children's variety-type show. She would not be very PC by today's standards, I'm afraid, but she was a not-to-be-missed event when we were kids. The show must have been live because I distinctly remember watching it while my sister was away at the taping. When it was her turn to talk, Happy Rain asked her about herself, and she said she lived on a farm. Happy Rain asked her if she had horses and she said she did.

We sat at home, speechless.

We never had horses, even though I begged for a horse.

Happy Rain asked her the name of the horse, and I can't remember what she answered, but she told Happy Rain the name of the horse that allegedly lived on our farm. It was something like Star or Black Beauty or some other children's novel sort of horse name.

We sat at home, speechless.

Not only did we not have a horse, but we certainly didn't have a name picked out for an imaginary horse.

I'm sure she just froze at the moment. She knew the truth, but she also knew what Happy Rain thought the answer was supposed to be. Happy Rain wanted her to have a horse on her farm because for crying out loud, if Happy Rain had had a farm, wearing her headdress and leather beaded dress and braided hair, she would have surely had a horse named Star or Black Beauty.

And what a conversation killer if my sister had answered truthfully.

HR: "So, do you have horses on your farm?"
Sister: "No."
HR: "Alright, let's move on to the next little girl."

I mean, really. Where do you go from there?

And this is my fear with Mac. He does love to talk and he finds himself extraordinarily interesting. If given the chance, he could go on and on for hours with this host. So that's why I hope they tiger cubs are seen and not heard so much!

If you're bored silly beyond all belief or you just want to see the cutest 7 year-old in the whole entire world (or at least my whole entire world), you can see Mac LIVE on the 6pm show tomorrow night on WLCN (either on cable network Knology or at http://www.wlcntv.com/ and then click on the Watch Live button.)