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You ever listen to those Budweiser “Real American Heroes” commercials?

Me and a buddy of mine – we’ll call him Ballbery – used to listen to them all the time at work. These were the stories of the unsung heroes of our great country … Mr. Bass Plaque Maker, Mr. Giant Foam Finger Maker, Mr. Losing Locker Room Reporter, Mr. Really Bad Toupee Wearer. You get the drift.

Well I’ve got another one to add to the list:

Mr. Web News Producer Guy.

You know who he (or she) is.

He’s (she’s) the guy (gal) you mistakenly call the “webmaster” only to get a stifling glare that Nick Burns, your company’s computer guy would be proud of.

He’s (she’s) the person who can take a TV script which is watchable and turn it into a print script which is readable even though technically the TV script already is readable since reporters read them out loud all the time.

He’s (she’s) the guy who fields e-mails about missing recipes (See recent entry regarding Bong Bong Chicken) and spelling and grammar mistakes (And yes, to confirm, we do have journalism degrees and did take classes in English during our edjumacations).

He’s (she’s) the guy (gal) fielding phone calls throughout the day about everything from UN Black Helicopters over Omak to Chemtrails over Spokane.

And they answer those e-mails and phone calls without anger or sarcasm. OK. Maybe a little sarcasm.

He’s (she’s) posting stories to the website over the screams of the reporter yelling “You’re giving my story away to the competition!”

He’s (she’s) posting videos to YouTube so the masses can point out the proper use of flash bangs during SWAT Team tactical entries even though the majority of those very same masses have only experienced mechanically breaching a doorway playing Counterstrike.

And he’s (she’s) the guy (gal) who has some obscure degree in print journalism, radio broadcasting or cosmetology and yet gets more air time than every TV reporter in the room if you count seeing the back of his (her) cranium back in the newsroom cheap seats (See below) throughout an entire newscast.

So here’s to you Mr. Web News Producer Guy, you unsung hero of the newsroom. You may not be a master of the art of the eye-of-the-hurricane liveshot, but deep down inside you know you’re the master of the Interwebs.

With Hurricane Ike on the horizon, the Washington State Cougs will be facing the Baylor Bears Friday afternoon and you can catch the action on KXLY.com.

Before kickoff you can watch the latest episode of Cougar Football Saturday or in Friday’s case Cougar Football Friday. The half-hour show hosted by KXLY4 Sports Director Dennis Patchin along with KXLY4’s Rick Lukens will be streamed at 4 p.m. on KXLY.com.

You can also catch the show live on KXLY ABC 4 at 4 p.m. or over on KXMN at 4:30.

Kickoff for the Cougs and the Baylor Bears is scheduled for 5:30 and will be televised nationally live on Fox Sports Net and will be streamed live on both WSU’s and Baylor’s websites free of charge at wsucougars.comand baylorbears.com.

Fox Sports Northwest will air the game on delay Friday night at 11.

I’m a horrible golfer. While I make strides in my game every year, overall, golfing and I still have a long way to go. Lucky for me, I play golf with people who allow multiple mulligans (do-overs, for you non-golfers). As I was watching the hurricane coverage this weekend, I couldn’t help but think: Hurricane Gustav is America’s mulligan.

It’s strange enough to see this major hurricane hit exactly three years after Hurricane Katrina. I can’t imagine anyone in the Gulf Coast region actually looks forward to Labor Day. Still, you could see it as early as Saturday morning: the people in that region learned their lesson from Katrina. The fact that an estimated 95% of people evacuated the city of New Orleans is an amazing feat, especially considering how many people stayed behind last time. But, the people of New Orleans aren’t the only people who needed to learn the tough lessons from Katrina. The people who really had a lesson to learn are the local, state and federal politicians, who helped create the debacle that was Katrina. This is their chance to get it right and, so far, it looks like they’ve put what they learned from that storm into action.

The only problem with a mulligan is that, while it may change the number on your score card, it doesn’t actually change the way you played. So, even if things with Gustav go in a positive direction, you can’t erase the 1,800 deaths from Katrina.

As was the case with Katrina three years ago - almost to the day - we know that there are people in the community who have friends and family down on the Gulf Coast who may be affected by Gustav.

Here’s a list of a number of different resources available both on KXLY.com and around the ‘net where you can see the latest information on what’s going on down on the Gulf Coast.

Monday morning updated list of resources:

If you have any other sites or blogs you’re using to track Gustav please feel free to add them in the Comments section below and I’ll add them to our list.

One thing’s for sure … this time around emergency responders are doing more of “a heck of a job” than last time.

It is a BEAUTIFUL Labor Day weekend in the Inland Northwest.  I’m sitting here in the sun, on my back deck.  As I track Hurricane Gustav (and check football scores) from my laptop in a lawnchair, I am very happy to be 2-thousand miles from the Gulf Coast.  The predictions are grim for folks in the western and central Gulf Coast region, as hurricane Gustav is now a major hurricane, and its projected path still takes it right over New Orleans.  If you’re interested in hurricane tracking too,  I’ve found the very best source of information on hurricanes is the National Hurricane Center.  Here, you can find the very latest advisories, forecasts, and lots of information about hurricanes.   Let’s all hope for the best as Gustav makes landfall later this holiday weekend.

Everyone has something to be afraid of.

Some people are afraid of the dark or ghosts (or both). Some are afraid of UFOs or confined spaces (or being in a confined space in a UFO). Some don’t like flying while some hate being outside. If you’re like Howard Hughes, then you’re afraid of everything except letting your fingernails and facial hair grow to absurd lengths and using Mason Jars to … nevermind.

Lets face it, if it exists there’s somebody out there that might be afraid of it.

My wife has a few fears. She comes from the land of Bear Bryant, where tornadoes and hurricanes and lightning storms are about as common as, say, Dukes of Hazzard marathons on local public access. But the thing is she’s not scared of any of them. In fact I had to call her in from the yard during our last lightning storm where we had dime-sized hail pummeling our house.

Nope, my wife is afraid of spiders.

Big, hairy, fanged, vicious, man-eating eight-legged spiders.

So the other night we’re cleaning the kitchen after dinner and she notices one of these ferocious beasts hanging on one of the window shades above the sink. Kerry’s rules of engagement for dealing with spiders is pretty black and white.

“THERE’S A SPIDER!! QUICK!! KILL IT!!!”

I told her it was just a spider, it wasn’t a big deal as I reached for a paper towel. Wrong answer.

“HURRY!! KILL IT!!”

So I grabbed Charlotte with the paper towel and dropped her unceremoniously in the sink, turning on the faucet to send her to the sewers which wouldn’t be so bad because, you know, spiders like their water low on phosphates.

It wasn’t until I saw Kerry reach for the switch on the backsplash that I thought maybe I should have put the spider in the left-side sink, the one with the drain, and not the right-side sink, the one with the Pulverize-o-Matic 2000 Garbage Disposal.

After a few seconds of making sure the spider was well and truly pulverized I asked her what the deal was. I mean it was only a harmless little spider. It wasn’t like it was something really scary like ManBearPig or a Tori Spelling reality show marathon on Lifetime.

Being my wife and / or a woman she just did what came naturally. She played upon my own fears.

“I bet you would’ve killed it a lot faster if it was a ZOMBIE SPIDER.”

Damn. I freaking hate zombies.

I’ll remember to move a little bit faster the next time she identifies another eight-legged freak that needs dispatching.

Do you suppose it was because Cedar Rapids, Iowa is in the Midwest? Perhaps it’s because it is a more rural setting, but last week as over a hundred square blocks of that community were submerged by flooding, did you notice something very different about this water disaster as compared to the one that devastated the city of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina?

There were no news reports of looting or violence. Cedar Rapids residents didn’t ignore evacuation orders, and they obviously weren’t willing to wait on their rooftops for government to do something. They used every available option to help each other. Mayor Kay Halloran didn’t gripe about a lack of effective state or federal response like New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Nobody blamed President Bush, and there was no talk of a government conspiracy to blow up the levees.

There were no reports of the police going around confiscating personal firearms, and no reports of people shooting at the rescue workers, and all the area school busses were driven to higher ground. Nobody in Congress tried to blame bad behavior of flood victims on American society, because, there was no bad behavior by flood victims. The federal government has no plans to move house trailers into the area. Folks will fend for themselves, and there are no plans to pass out $2,000 gift cards to victims.

The comparison between the two water disasters suggests that there is a right and a wrong way to behave when nature strikes a blow to your way of life. There seems to be no need for excuses in Iowa.

With commentary on 920 - KXLY, I’m Mike Fitzsimmons.