"THIS IS HARDBALL. I"M KATHLEEN MATTHEWS, SITTING IN FOR CHRIS MATTHEWS"

Today was the last for Mrs. Matthews as lead anchor on the District's ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV. She will become an executive at Marriott. The station's studios are in the ground floor office of my Rosslyn office building, and while I didn't stick around long enough to see if I could finagle a free glass of wine (or two) I did snap a couple dark and blurry shots of the farewell party's media build-up just out front:


But it was early. And as I looked back up toward the building, there she was on the Jumbotron:


And that's how I'll always remember her. Unless maybe Chris comes down with malaria again.

°     °     °     °     °
Bonus pointless anecdote! — I even have my own Kathleen Matthews story to share: One day a few months ago, I was walking down the street for lunch, probably to Cosi. At the crosswalk I noticed a woman in a gray pinstripe suit walking in the same direction, just ahead of me. I thought to myself, "Is that Kathleen Matthews?" I walked behind her for about half a block, but even when she turned in to the Starbucks, I couldn't see past her blond tresses to determine if, in fact, it was. Then some time after lunch when I was back in my office, I looked up from the computer screen to the TV monitor in the corner, which happened to be on WJLA. There was Kathleen Matthews at the anchor desk, wearing the same gray pinstripe suit, confirming my earlier suspicion. If I thought to myself, "That was Kathleen Matthews," my memory does not recover the fact.

P.S. Actually, the very next afternoon I was in the ground floor coffee shop for my routine post-lunch recharging when... who came in to say goodbye to the coffee shop ladies but one Kathleen Matthews? Now, I suppose I'll remember that instead. And for the foreseeable future, there will be Mrs. Matthews' oversized mug looming over the building's two-story foyer:


P.P.S. There — took me a week, but I got the picture up. And now I'm slightly regretting the malaria crack; as it turns out, Chris Matthews didn't show up for his own wife's retirement party because he was in the hospital with diabetes complications — and hasn't been on television since. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery. "Hardball" isn't worth getting shouting-at-the-television worked up about without him.

---

posted by WWB at 7:06 PM |