Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

So I jump into this cab at the corner of 54th and Fifth. I’m schlepping maybe four bags….my purse, my gym bag, leftover sandwich from lunch, a giant CVS bag….you get the picture.

Anyway, I’ve barely settled in when the driver turns around and yells, “ I know you! I watch you all the time on Channel 11! You guys are great!’ (I’m not making this up. Those were his exact words.) He is so happy I have to remind him not to TURN COMPLETELY AROUND to talk to me WHILE DRIVING! But, small matter. I mean, come on! He is a real fan, and sweet as anything.

Chris Glorioso PIX News At Ten

You'll never hear a politician say this, but sometimes getting soft on crime works. The best policy makers know when to hit the accelerator on zero tolerance strategies and when to tap the breaks on policies that just aren't working.

It appears New York State is poised to tear down its controversial Rockefeller Drug laws. They are the harsh rules demanding 8 to 20 year sentences for the mere possession of narcotics. Adopted in 1973, the penalties were a predictable response to a budding urban crack addiction. Today drugs remain a problem, but not in the same way.

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

Okay. I said in my last blog that I would regale you with more stories about the way my name has been butchered over the years. Before I do that, let me tell you where my name comes from and what it means.

In Chinese my name would be pronounced “Doong Kai-TEE.” I was given this name by my maternal grandfather who was a learned man. A scholar. It is from the Confucian Analects and describes a prince. In other words, it means ‘princely” or “with princely qualities.” To the Chinese ear, it sounds masculine. Because it is.

When my parents came to the States, they decided to get Western names. My mother picked Anita. The only problem was, almost all her Chinese girlfriends picked the name Anita, for some reason, so there were an awful lot of Aunt Anitas around the mahjjong table!

Chris Glorioso PIX News At Ten

Not a long blog tonight, but I just had to pass along this ridiculous, yet fascinating study out of Harvard. Much has been made about how people caught in the economic crisis turn to lower cost, lower brow entertainment. Instead of Broadway, we rent movies. Instead of a foreign vacation, we go to an amusement park 3 hours away. Well it seems an inventive professor out of the Harvard Business School set his mind to figuring out who is spending their scarce recession scratch on porn! If you believe the results of Professor Benjamin Edelman's study, you might fall off your chair.

The report seems to show some of the most politically, religiously, and socially conservative states have the highest rates of porn subscription! Guess what state tops the list . .... Brigham Young is rolling over in his grave.. . .Utah!! Other porn addicted states include Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota, West Virginia. . .and don't forget Alaska. Somebody please tell Gov. Sarah Palin to set up a taskforce to deal with this family values crisis!!

Neither New York, nor New Jersey, nor Connecticut show up in the top or bottom ten in porn subscriptions. If you'd like to read the study for yourself . . . here it is!

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

There’s a methadone clinic right next door to my apartment building, which used to be a department store. I see the guys waiting for treatment when they’re on the sidewalk, smoking. Know a few of them by name, and they know me. One gave me a couple of bobblehead dolls the other day, just because.

Across the avenue is a former nightclub whose heyday has come and gone. When I moved into the neighborhood about 14 years ago, the club was still going strong, though the profile of the clubbers had changed. In the 80’s, what we can remember of it, this place was happening. The kinds of celebs who frequented Studio 54 also loved to come here. Everyone from Calvin Klein to Boy George.

Loved my pal Watkins blog on Bono! And that picture of Jim with the bolo tie! Let's not even TALK about his hair. (Lauren, you look as beautiful as ever.)

Made me think of how much we’ve all changed over the years. This is a picture of me when I was in graduate school.

At the time, I was trying to get my Ph.D in Chinese and Japanese studies at Stanford University. My hair was so long, I'm actually sitting on it, in this photo.

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

Anyway, back to my hair. Miller was curious as to whether I chopped the whole thing off when I finally got around to cutting it, or whether I did it in increments. The answer: I chopped it all off at once.

I remember the day clearly. I was suddenly just tired of all that hair, even though my boyfriend at the time loved it. But hey, it was MY hair, okay? So, against his wishes, I went to a stylist just off the Stanford campus.

In the face of adversity, even the most beautiful of us must soldier on. Despite the mini-riot that hit the America's Next Top Model auditions in New York City on Saturday, host and exec producer Tyra Banks has issued a statement renewing her commitment to cycle 13 and has vowed to make sure every aspiring model that was turned away by police gets a fair shake at a proper casting session.

Says Tyra:

To all the Top Model hopefuls who were affected by the New York casting, we are doing everything we can to make sure that ALL the girls who weren't seen, get an opportunity to audition – we'll update you on our plans very soon. It is so important to me to redefine beauty, and make sure that everyone gets a fair chance to pursue their dream. I am beyond excited for Cycle 13; for the first time ever, young women 5'7" and under have a shot at becoming America's Next Top Model! I encourage each girl to come out ready to rock the runway and show off their fiercest pose. I'm rooting for all of you!

No word yet on how the show producers plan on handling the logistics of managing the large crowd a second time around. In the meantime, see the photos from the casting before the chaos took hold.

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

It’s 1983. I had been working in New York for only a year and a half when I got a call from a casting director who asked if I would be interested in appearing as myself in Paul Mazursky’s new movie, Moscow on the Hudson. I told him, no I wasn’t interested. I was way too busy anchoring the news with Roger Grimsby. WHAT????!!! Are you kidding me? OF COURSE I was interested!

First of all, Mazursky is huge! A Brooklyn kid who started out as an actor (played a juvenile delinquent in The Blackboard Jungle, for one), became a screenplay writer, and prolific director. Among his long list of directing credits, Next Stop, Greenwich Village, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, An Unmarried Woman, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, to name a few.

And then, when I was told the star of this movie was ROBIN WILLIAMS! I am SUCH a fan. He is an insanely talented guy! I could not believe my luck.

You gotta love Bob Dylan, and if you think he's lost his protest edge, well you're wrong. His latest protest is ingenious & honestly, kinda full of shit.

By now, you may know about how Dylan's been stinking out his neighbors in Malibu - Bob Pool from the LA Times & David Mecham at our sister station KTLA (video clip is on full post) have done a great job covering the story. In a nutshell, the odors from a Porta-Potty, which is used by his security guards & other service employees on Bob's Malibu estate, are wafting through the neighborhood.

Seems neighbors have been complaining to city officials since last September & nothing has been done, and the The Minneapolis Star Tribune quotes Malibu Mayor Andy Stern, "This is what my life comes down to, dealing with Bob Dylan's toilet." Nice, but that's only part of Bob's plan, Andy.

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

You know that McDonald’s commercial that’s on the air right now?

Yes you do! The one everyone is talking about...

A mounted fish on the wall (the plaque under him says Frankie the Fish) starts singing, while some burly, bearded guy munches away placidly on a filet-o-fish burger, watching it.

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

Vanessa Tyler has a story on the newscast tonight about New Jersey possibly banning the Brazilian. I'm talking about the wax, not the model.

Now I normally would not share something this intimate, but, oh, what the hell!

It's the summer of 2004. I'm sitting in a salon that no longer exists on 3rd Avenue and 50th Street, getting a manicure. A group of us gals getting our nails done, shootin' the breeze. And then someone asks me, have you ever had a Brazilian? No, I reply innocently, I haven't. Then everybody gets very enthusiastic about the wonders of the Brazilian as opposed to just the usual bikini wax, and before I know it, I am lying on a table in a private room, and Georgette, my strong Roumanian aesthetician is barking orders. "Keep your legs up! This isn't going to hurt a bit!"

Oh, no she didn't... Well, actually, yes, she did. Conservative talk-radio personality Tammy Bruce did indeed call our President & his wife "trash" today on the radio while guest-hosting The Laura Ingraham Show.

Some may be incensed, some may yawn, and yet some lucky folks won't ever hear about this. Nevertheless, it's probably gonna get some big play nationally, so might as well give a listen now so you can yap with all your equally informed co-workers & friends later tonight and tomorrow.

Transcript & ACTUAL AUDIO in the full post...

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

Went to the eye doctor this afternoon. Now I’m sitting at my desk, trying to do some work, and I CAN’T SEE!” Because of those drops that dilate your pupils!

I really should be used to not seeing. My mom eventually needed reading glasses, but otherwise she has good vision. My dad had perfect vision practically his entire life. He was a military man, and took great pride in his eyesight. I think he was actually a bit disappointed that his kids didn’t inherit that trait.

I started needing eyeglasses by the age of 9. But I had a crush on this boy named Doug, and even though I was nothing to look at, with or without glasses, I tried not to wear them. I KNEW that ‘men don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses.” That was what I believed at the time.

All right, so Doug was hardly a man. He was older than me, though. Nine and THREE-QUARTERS years old. At that age, the fractions are important. (BTW, Doug didn’t know I existed.)

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

Now, let me make it clear right from the get-go, that Mr. G gave me permission to write this blog. In fact, he encouraged it. He said he wanted to talk about it tomorrow morning on the radio show he does with Dan Taylor. G and I have been friends for more than 20 years, so I think I know him a little bit.

We decide to go to a nice little Italian place for dinner, very casual and inexpensive, about a block from the station. It begins right away. With the bread. I have had many a meal with the G-man, and every time, I tell him… gently and sweetly like you might to a four-year-old... don’t shove your hands into the breadbasket, rummage through the bread like you’re looking for loose change, then tear up a roll, and stuff half of it into your mouth and the other half back into the basket!

So that’s exactly what he does. Regaling me with some story or other, G soon has PILES of bread pieces and bread crumbs all over our table. These he politely pushes onto the floor. We are soon sitting in an ever-growing ring of breadcrumbs that crunch softly beneath the feet of the waitress as she approaches us.

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

Enough of you have asked me how TALL I am, that I thought I better address it.

Instead of just coming right out and TELLING you, I’m going to ask you to guess. I’ll give you some hints.

Every night when I anchor the news with Jim, I sit on not ONE, but TWO cushions. My chair is cranked all the way up, then those two pillows. This is so there won’t be a distracting difference in height when I sit next to my partner. (Who, just between you and me, is kind of TOO tall. Great-looking guy. But I think the problem here is HIS height, not mine.)

Personally, I think instead of making me balance on those pillows, Jim could just sit on the floor. It would almost work out to the same thing.

You cannot imagine what a pain it is to have to sit on pillows. My feet dangle. That’s right. My feet don’t touch the floor. Anthony, one of our crack stagehands, God bless him, has placed what we call an “apple box” under the desk so I can rest my feet on it. That does help tremendously.

Chris Glorioso PIX News At Ten

Last night I spent some time with confessed call girl booker Kristin Davis. Wait, that didn't sound right. I should be more specific. I interviewed her at New York City's Cain nightclub. She was pimping a tell-all book about her life as Manhattan's most famous madam. Davis is more than a little bitter. .. and she might have reason to be.

This week she watched as Eliot Spitzer got some seriously positive press. He had a well received appearance on CNN, a much quoted op-ed in Slate Magazine, and a radio interview on WNYC. Of course, Spitzer is a confessed "john." His infamous black-socked romps with Ashley Dupre are now tabloid legend. Davis says the former Gov was a weekly client of hers back when he was Attorney General.. .that he was aggressive with his prostitutes and tried to weasel his way out of using condoms! That's why the self described Manhattan Madam can't believe the public is so quick to take Spitzer seriously as he re-shines his Wall Street Sheriff badge.

That's right, after a short hiatus, Toni Senecal is BACK! This time she's taking on New York in "Toni On: New York," which can be seen Saturday nights at 7:30pm. From neighborhood to neighborhood, Toni's going to bring her own brand of excitement to a multitude of attractions right here in NYC.

And to give her a hand as her musical contributor, it's Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band-mate "Little" Steven Van Zandt. Each week Steven will give folks the music news they need to know & feature a band. And don't forget, he'll also pick the coolest song in the world each week.

For more info on "Little" Steven check out his Sirius Radio show website at www.undergroundgarage.com or his record label at www.wickedcoolrecords.com

See you this Saturday at 7:30pm!

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

Okay, some really good guesses so far. (I refer you to previous blog, Kaity Reveals an Off-Camera Secret!) But I think I can squeeze another blog out of this before answering the momentous question: how tall is Kaity, exactly? Not, I know, as pressing as how am I going to pay for next month’s mortgage or will I lose my job, but you know what? I appreciate that so many of you are on the same page as I.

We KNOW there are many worrisome things in our lives, we deal the best we can with the things that make us anxious, even sad. But in the meantime, we can all help each other by sharing a laugh or two.

Now back to my height. So many of you made guesses that came very close but NOT QUITE on the money. Let me give you one more hint and in the process share a little story with you about my early days.

NEW YORK, March 30, 2009--WPIX, Tribune Broadcasting's New York CW affiliate, was awarded 6 Emmy® Awards at the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' 52nd Annual Award presentation Sunday night in Manhattan at the Marriott Marquis Times Square.

WPIX celebrated a total of 6 wins, receiving an Emmy Award for Best Hard News, Best Sports Coverage, Best News Special, Best Journalistic Enterprise, Best Politics/Government, and Best Promotion. WPIX has won nearly 180 Emmy® Awards to date.

The New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' 52nd Annual New York Emmy® Awards honor outstanding achievement in the television industry during the eligibility period of September 1, 2007 through August 31, 2008.

The following are the 6 Emmy® Awards presented to WPIX:

HARD NEWS SINGLE STORY
• Chris Glorioso, Reporter; Kenton Young, Photographer. Predator Loophole, November 9th 2007 (WPIX-TV)

NEWS SPECIAL
• The Legacy of Martin Luther King: Forty Years after Memphis. April 4, 2008. (WPIX-TV). Tiffany McElroy, Host; Jeremy Copas, Producer; Carlos Austin, Executive Producer.

JOURNALISTIC ENTERPRISE
• Peter Thorne. October 2, 2007. (WPIX-TV). WPIX-TV Fact Finders.

POLITICS/GOVERNMENT: News
• Long Branch Re-Visited. August 20, 2008. (WPIX-TV). Mary Murphy, Reporter/Writer/Producer; Noreen Lark, Producer; Kenton Young, Photographer.

SPORTS COVERAGE: Single Story
• One of a Kind Drive. May 18, 2008. (WPIX-TV). Lolita Lopez, Reporter; Caroline Kovach, Producer; Richard Marino, AVID Editor; William Muller, Photographer/Producer.

PROMOTION: Program Promo
• Family Guy: Classic. June 10, 2008. (WPIX-TV). Ari Pitchenik, Writer/Producer/Editor; Yip Wong, Designer; John Zeigler, Creative Director.

Kaity Tong PIX News At Ten

Walked out of my apartment building early this afternoon. Waved hello to the guys smoking on the sidewalk, waiting to get their methadone treatments at the clinic right there. One of them dressed in full clown regalia, makeup and all. Didn’t have time to stop and ask what THAT was all about. Got distracted because they were shooting a movie on my street.

All the telltale signs. Huge trucks lining the street, crews in jeans and t-shirts running around, thick cables all over the place. Turns out it’s not a movie, but a new drama for NBC. No one I asked seemed to know the name of it. But they were shooting scenes inside the gym on the corner. Tried to peek in, but couldn’t see anything.