Broadcasting heavyweight Bill Moyers' wallet wasn't packing much punch when he lost it, but he was still glad for its return.
'I went [to the University Club of St. Paul] to try to keep up my cardiac program; I had heart surgery three years ago. So when I come to see my grandkids in St. Paul, I continue the cardiac program at the University Club on a pay-as-you-go basis,' said Moyers from NY. 'I had been doing my workout and became engaged in a conversation with the only other person in the center. I walked out, leaving my wallet on the base of the treadmill. I didn't discover it [was missing] until I got to Shutterbug on Grand Avenue, where I went to pick up 3,000 rolls of grandkids' pictures.' Grandsons Henry, 4, and Thomas, 2 1/2, are the current objects of Granddad's photography. A third child, their sister, is due in a couple of weeks, via their mom, Allison, and with an assist from Dad, William Cope Moyers. Moyers returned to the club just as his wallet was being put in safekeeping. 'A very nice gentleman who works there, who does the maintenance - Jack - found it and had taken it upstairs. He was handing it to the woman on duty at the time I went back,' said Moyers. 'Jack is a principled man, and I was grateful for that. I gave him a modest reward. It wasn't that it had a lot of cash in it. It had my credit cards and my driver's license and all of those other necessities of life we are required to carry,' he said. 'Not much of a story except a human act of principle that impresses me every time it occurs.' An ordained Southern Baptist minister and journalistic conscience, Moyers surely must appreciate the Commandment that Jack Hakala lived up to with this act.
Jack's on the job
Word has it that Sen. Paul Wellstone enlisted Bill Moyers' aid in saving Jack Hakala's job. No salvation was necessary, UC GM Peggy Faricy maintained to me Monday. There was a mixup, Faricy has concluded, first caused when another employee teased Hakala about finding Moyers' wallet, saying, Did you check for money? Hakala said he wouldn't do that because that would cost him his job. The speculation is that in retelling the wallet story to Wellstone, an incorrect impression was given. 'In the pleasantries that Senator Wellstone and I exchanged, he had heard this from Jack. He said, Jack's about to lose his job,' recalled Moyers. 'I said I was sorry about that because not only had he done a good job while I've been there, but it's so rare to find a person of that integrity working at a public place. I was saddened to hear that. I know nothing about the internal workings of the University Club, but I have seen a lot of folks in my life and always take heart when I meet somebody like that who does his job honestly. I would miss him.' Not to worry, said Faricy: 'Why would Jack ever lose his job? We take good care of Jack.'
Adoption for Prince?
Star magazine reports that Prince and Mayte are trying to adopt a baby in Europe. Once a child is adopted there, the birth parents can't seek to regain custody, Star reports. The mag claims that Prince and Mayte have been told to give a rest to making another baby of their own. They want a healthy baby boy.
Miss America . . . to Mrs.
They have so much matrimony around Zion Lutheran Church in Anoka that a church secretary said they have 'wedding coordinators.'
A semisnide joke around the church is that if former Miss America Gretchen Carlson can't get the wedding date she wants, some other bride will probably get bumped. Carlson, a Cleveland TV news anchor, had the question popped over the holidays by her sports management exec love, Casey Close. 'No date has been set yet, but Carlson said her grandfather, the Rev. William Hyllengren, would tie the knot,' reported the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Nobody knows for sure whether Carlson will be wed at Zion (or whether it will happen this year), although family friends predict that's a logical spot since her granddad retired from that church. One family friend doubted that Carlson's family would condone bumping another bride, but if that happened, church members would be disgruntled.
A dissatisfied customer
'C.J. I'm calling you to say I used to enjoy your column, but I won't be reading it anymore. You seem to have a problem with successful white women in the media business. I refer to your Rosie O'Donnell comment, Katie Couric, Eleanor Mondale when she was here. I think you need to get over your own personal inadequacies. So from this day forward, I will definitely skip your column but I won't skip the letter I will write to the Tribune.' Dear Lady: You're about to make yourself look as silly in a letter to the editor as you did on 332-TIPS. By the way, it's Star Tribune. We dropped the 'The' because it required too much ink. And I still don't like Rosie.
