The last night

This was an interesting night. I attended the Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Awards. Well, to be truthful, I worked at it.

I arrived at 5:30 in a nice, rented tux to serve as an escort and photographer for Snoopy, that is, an actor going about as the lovable creation of Charles M. Schulz. (E.W. Scripps owns the company that owns "Peanuts").

I was to carry a polaroid camera about and take pictures of Snoopy with dinner guests. My buddy Joe carried extra film an picture-holders for them, and would hold their drinks during the picture session because Snoopy was not to be photographed with alcohol, or anything that looked like it.

When I got there, Snoopy was still in her pink evening dress. That's right, Snoopy, while male, is played by a female. I'm serious. Hey, Lassie the dog was a female character, but was played by males. Go figure.

Anyways, we were told to wait while Snoopy suited up. And we waited. And waited.

After and amount of time that was way too long for me to endure, I decided to go check on Snoopy. I walked up to the door, knocked to give Snoopy some privacy, and Snoopy's main escort appeared, and told me they were still getting ready.

And then the actress who plays the doghouse-roof-dwelling dog appeared in the right side of my field of vision, without the dog suit. Or her pink dress. It was at that moment I learned something: Snoopy wears lingerie.

I'll never look at the Sunday Morning Comics the same.

I courteously left quickly, laughing a bit, and told my friend Joe about it.

We waited a while longer, and Snoopy finally appeared. I winked at them, then started taking pictures, meeting people, and generally enjoying myself.

A month or so ago, we interns were each assigned 3 award winners to write about. The stories would be published in the booklets that were set at every person's seat in the ballroom during the dinner so people would know what each award-winner had done.

So tonight I was able to meet the men and women I'd interviewed, and they were all very appreciative of my work, and making them look good. A few implied I should look them up when I graduate and wanta job. I already have some great clips I know they'll like, and they all were impressed with my interviewing skills.

Networking: it's a good thing.

And so are The Capitol Steps, they were the entertainment for the dinner. Damn they were funny. It's hard to beat seeing the 4 liberal Supreme court justices singing "keep us alive, keep us alive" to the tune of "Stayin Alive."

Finally, the best thing about these awards is the open bar, thanks to which I can now tell you that Budweiser tastes much better than Heineken.

Hey, you try seeing a cartoon character, one you'd admired since you were a little boy, in their skivvies. You wouldn't want to be sober either.