Well, it took forty-nine years, but I finally fulfilled my lifelong dream of appearing on national television. Last weekend my family and I drove three hours to Lake Balaton and spent a few days with my mother, who owns a property there. As we were sitting on the grassy public beach, we noticed a television cameraman incessantly filming the stretch of beach we were on. My first reaction was to get out of the camera's eye, and I promptly talked my son into going for dip; however, when we returned from our swim, we noticed the cameraman had not budged. He continued standing there, filming away like some sort of cybernetic sentry. I made a point of keeping my back turned in his direction. After a while, I forgot all about him and an hour or so later, he was gone.
The whole episode quickly faded from my mind, and I hadn't thought about it again until this afternoon when my wife playfully revealed that my back had been on the six o'clock news. The news report featuring my back turned out to be a mundane overview of the atmosphere at the lake in light of all the events that had been canceled this summer, but the short clip made sure to include a few glimpses of kids doing crafts, people lounging in the water, outdoor yoga, a couple of women in revealing bikinis, two or three pointless short commentaries from beach goers, a trite interview with some guy in an ugly, palm tree-speckled shirt, and yours truly, standing on the beach in the background, back turned to camera.
Those interested in seeing a thirteen-second clip of my back are invited to click on this link. The two-minute video is about halfway down the page. My glorious back appears at the 1:30 mark.
Enjoy!