On the streets of New York City

This is fall break week at Kenan-Flagler. A ton of first year students are in town for the finance, marketing, and real estate career treks. Last night I was at a Kenan-Flagler reception at the Westin New York at Times Square. The alumni reception was very well attended. I saw a lot of students who graduated this past May as well as a couple alums who make frequent recruiting trips to Kenan-Flagler. After the reception, me and a couple of first years went to a bar called Kevin St. James on Eighth Avenue.

But the most unexpected thing happened on my way to the reception. I arrived at Times Square a bit early at around 6:30 and decided to walk to the ABC News studios on Times Square to catch a glimpse of Charles Gibson doing his World News broadcast. It wasn’t until I got there that I realize that there was nothing to see for World News doesn’t come out from that building but from the main ABC building on the west side.

My disappointment quickly dissipated when I looked across the street and saw a small crowd had gathered around a TV camera. The man being taped was none other than broadcaster sensation and Fox News Channel superstar Sean Hannity. I was just listening to him in the car a bit more than an hour ago before I got into the subway system. I crossed the street to observe the spectacle. He was doing for his television show something that he does regularly on the radio program, asking random people off the streets to identify the most well known politicians today. I saw him interview a man in a Green Day shirt who looked at picture of Dennis Hastert and said he was “the guy from Seinfeld.” There was a man from Canada (I will return to this later in the week and post the picture I took with my cell phone) who correctly identified the Speaker of the House and the audience applauded when Sean pointed out that he was the first person ever to get that correctly. A producer kept asking me if wanted to be interviewed and I told her that because I am a huge fan, I don’t want to ruin his act by correctly identifying most of the pictures on the stack he had with him.

Looking back, I sort of wish I had volunteered for the Sean Hannity piece. Earlier this afternoon I heard him talk on the radio about the upcoming elections and he said “I taped something last night that I am going to air on television later this week, it goes to prove that no one knows who Nancy Pelosi is.” It would have been worth it just to see the look on his face when I correctly identify the San Francisco Congresswoman whom he so utterly despises.