The show is live.  News.  The times are somber, the day was dark, matters stormy and uncertain.  The national mood is dreary, everyone is in the doldrums.

The news is bad, the newsroom feels tense.  The stories are of everyday people having lost their jobs, their savings.  Unemployment is up.  The market is down, and then down more the next day.  Crime is rising.  No one trusts anyone else. Homelessness is increasing.  The news hasn’t been good for what seems like years.

One cameraman calls the stage manager over.  The rest of the crew looks up.  He is known never to be far from a bag of sunflower seeds, and that day was no different.  He eats them like some people chain-smoke. His face is absolutely covered with wet, chewed sunflower hulls.

“Hey, listen,” he asks the stage manager.  “Do I have anything on my face?”