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Thoughts from Under the Hat

by Scott Bremner

150 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1043; ISBN 1-4120-0673-2; US$17.00, C$19.00, EUR14.00, £10.00

For 20 years, Scott Bremner has been covering news in the Northwestern PA area. Now it's time to find out what he really thinks.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book Scott Bremner's 20-year television reporting career is known throughout parts of Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio for two things. One is a black fedora hat he wears on assignments to keep off the winter chill. The other is winning awards. In 1998 he took the rare step of a television reporter writing freelance op-ed columns directly to a newspaper's webpage, that being GoErie.com, the website for the Erie Times-News. In short order, those columns, too, began winning awards, first a silver medal from the International Association of Business Communicators, and in 2000 the work became the first ever National Award Winner for on-line writing from the prestigious National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Thoughts from Under the Hat is a collection of that work, edited and arranged by the author in no particular order or time line. The columns represent small pictures of our lives, from the impact of September 11th and the second Gulf War to the tribulations of fatherhood and the frustrations of an ongoing inability to grasp the game of golf. In giving Scott his national award, the judge wrote, "I'm giving the top award to Scott because of the quality of the writing, the pieces are finely written, they are personal." We're sure you'll agree.

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About the Author Scott Bremner has worked most of the jobs available in a television newsroom during his 20-year career. As a news videographer, his images were used in the nightly national newscasts for both ABC and CBS, most notably, his video of a killer tornado at work that took two lives and destroyed a number of homes. At WSEE-TV, the CBS affiliate in Erie, Pennsylvania, he has, at various times, anchored every broadcast from weekends to early morning, noon, 5:30, six and eleven. But it is work as a reporter and writer where he has received the most acclaim, winning statewide Pennsylvania Associated Press awards on topics ranging from the local impact of the first Gulf War to the impact of tattoos on teenagers. In 1998, he expanded his writing to weekly op-ed pieces found on GoErie.com, the website for the Erie Times-News. His first book, Thoughts from Under the Hat, reflects a wide variety of those pieces from 1998 through the present. Scott is married to Diane, an English teacher. They have two daughters, Caroline and Helen, and live in the suburban Erie area.

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Sample Excerpt

Listen Up 1-29-03

"You know, nobody listens to me any more," I remarked to my wife the other day.

"What?" she replied absently.

Exactly.

In what might be the ultimate impact of the TV generation, we have become one massive gaggle of babbling talking heads. It's an incessant, droning shouting match where victory is measured more in words sent than in messages received, a place where it's better to speak than to be heard.

Like electricity shooting down a wire, the speed of our lives is creating its own collective hum, a constant white noise of cell phones and headphones that forces all of us to scream just to fi nd voice above the din.

At work it goes like this:

"Hey, Boss, I've got a great idea!"

"Did you make those phone calls I wanted?"

"We need to do a story about chickens."

"Those phone calls are very important to me."

"The history of Rhode Island Reds. We could call it 'From Hens to Eternity.'"

"Let me know when you get those calls finished."

"Uh, sure, and thanks for hearing me out."

"Anytime."

At Home it goes like this:

"Okay, kids, time to get dressed."

"AAAAHHHAAHAHHHH!"

"Hey, calm down, listen, it's time to get dressed."

"AAAAHHHAAHAHHHH!"

"I mean it. TIME TO GET DRESSED!"

"AAAAHHHAAHAHHHH!"

"Who cares, go in your underwear. Oh, and thanks for hearing me out."

See? Nobody listens to me.

Is it any wonder that we are a nation driven by celebrity? It's not the spotlight nor the money nor even the adoration of the masses that perpetually drives us down that golden road toward Fame. Oh, no. The real allure in celebrity is that they are the only ones to whom we pay any attention.

You or I could spend weeks in acts akin to jumping up-and-down and waving in some futile attempt to be noticed, but if a celebrity burps, it's front-page news.

No wonder we're all climbing over each other for a chance to spend weeks in some jungle, some island or some penthouse with a group of strangers.

It's not that reality shows are a ticket to riches. It's the button on the microphone.

"History repeats itself because no one listens the fi rst time."

That quote comes from an anonymous source, probably because no one was listening well enough at the time to remember who said it.

Don't worry. I realize that all this ranting isn't going to do any good. It's like talking to a brick wall.

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Catalogue Information

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