On Friday, I will be featured on Live at Midday, a news program on NECN, channel 10. I will be interviewed by an NECN anchor; not sure who again, though early indicators suggest it will be Mike Nikita, their morning anchor. I just did a little web-crawling and he seems fine, not too cheesy. Too bad though, I was hoping for RD Saul to see if I could make him do a spit take, or Jim Braude because I admire him so much. The segment will be LIVE at 12:40, and then will be repeated at 1:40 and 2:40. It will also stream on www.necn.com and www.boston.com.

I’ve been writing about my Middle East adventures for a couple of weeks now, so I imagine my talking points will fall together well enough. It’s been said I have a face for radio so I’m not nervous about WBUR. I have sufficient stage experience and microphone technique that I anticipate my froggy baritone with come through just fine. The TV thing though, I’m not so sure.

Those who know me know I am rather beset with acne scars and active acne, not an ideal TV spokesperson look. I say if it’s good for Tommie Lee Jones though, it’s good for me, so screw ‘em. I am also equipped with an enormous cranium and vast tracks of pate extending up into increasingly thinner, graying hair. My nose has been broken in fistfights as a crazy young man, and in general, as my friends from Maine might say, I’ve been ridden hard and put away wet. Still, I’d rather be handsome and weathered than butt-ugly from the get-go, so I’ll work with what I have left.

Speaking of Baghdad, please read this week’s “From the Hip” essay. It’s an important Baghdad story, one that reflects the flaccid nature of the Miliki government, and the money pit that his mismanagement is creating.

I just heard about the horrendous job American contractors have been doing over there last night. And I thought I had problems with the contractors here. I suddenly feel lucky.

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