Fox 8

When I was at Fox 8, I worked with a photographer, Ali Ghanbari, who was born and raised in Iran, which has a long coastline on the Persian Gulf.

"You can't swim in the Persian Gulf," he said. "When you got out of the water, you'd be coated in oil."

The Persian Gulf is no vacation paradise. Oil leaks continuously from the bottom of the Persian Gulf and rises to the surface. It can't be stopped and it can't be contained because there is such an abundance.

Big news at Fox 8. News anchor Stacey Bell is engaged. The lucky guy is Anthony Lynn, 41, the running backs coach of the New York Jets.

She's a cool one. She played this low key. Hardly anybody at Fox 8 knew about the courtship. Naturally, I've been following these developments like TMZ. She'll break the story Thursday on the five o'clock show.

They've been seeing each other for over a year. They met when he was the running backs coach of the Browns under former head coach Romeo Crennel.

Here's the latest medical report on my old friend, Dick Zunt, 77, who covered the high school sports beat at The Plain Dealer for over 40 years until retiring a few years ago. They tell him he has an advanced case of malignant melanoma, a pretty bad cancer. They'll try radiation. He's been told chemo is not the answer.

Bill Hickey, 82, another old Plain Dealer writer, got a good report on his cancer. His recent series of chemo treatments showed positive results.

I'm feeling OK. I just got a flu shot. I can't imagine anyone out there gives a darn. Nevertheless, I'll let you know if there are any changes.

John Telich of Fox 8 sports is really feeling good. He'll get the Chuck Heaton Award at the Press Club Hall of Fame dinner later this month. It rwards a lifetime of class, dignity, compassion and saintly lifestyle. Here's what they say about Telich: He never said a bad word about anyone.

Now, to some high school football. Here's what they really mean by pay to play. Hawken visiting Independence. They're both 6-0. Tuition at Hawken is over $20,000 per year.

A sweet win for Cleveland Heights High football coach Jeff Rotsky, beating his old school, Maple Heights, which totally stunned me. Great upset.

Somebody tell The Plain Dealer they've got the wrong day and location for the St. Ed vs. Erie Cathedral Prep game. It's Friday night at Bay High School. Lakewood Stadium was busy and the Bay people agreed to rent their field to St. Ed's. Bay's artificial turf field is as nice as any I've seen.

Here's your new Cleveland area top 25 through six games.

I'll be back in the saddle this Friday night when the high school football season opens. In fact, today I started putting the schedule together.

That's been my job at Channel 8 for several years -- plotting our course to maximize our game coverage. Nothing is done haphazardly. There isn't time for a "seat of the pants" operation, not when we cover up to 20 games that start at either 7 p.m. or 7:30 and we get them on the air by quarter to eleven. This is as close to a miracle as television can get. It's the most intense four hours of the week. It's like election night every Friday and we don't give you projections. We have finals. All the precincts are in and we've got the winners for you.

Here's our plan.