By Mandy Molloy.

Hello NTM blog fans!

It’s Mandy the summer intern! At the beginning of the summer I wrote a blog post to introduce myself and share some of my embarrassing intern moments but now I am writing to say goodbye!

Yes, it’s true my internship has come to an end, and I am so sad to see it go. Soon I will be moving back to the great city of Athens, Georgia to start my junior year and to watch the soon-to-be SEC CHAMPS, THE GEORGIA BULLDOGS, travel to victory! No haters please!

The summer has gone by extremely fast and I have enjoyed every second of my internship. I think fans should have a meet-and-greet with the "News To Me" team because they are amazing! There have been a lot of great stories on NTM this summer and a few of my favorites have been: vbs.tv’s Shane Smith’s trip to North Korea, Jonathan Harris’s rare experience as seen on thewhalehunt.org, and of course Kyle Macdonald’s hard-to-believe story of the one red paper clip. If you happen to miss a show… well lets face it you won’t… but if you do check out the hotlinks section of the blog or our archive to get caught up on the stories!

Well people my infamous interning path has come to an end and as I turn in my now expired badge I leave CNN with hope that one day (fingers crossed) I will return once again!

Coordinating Producer Mike's message to Mandy and our "awwwww-worthy" group picture on the next page »

Here's the script we were TRYING to get on tape:

WHEN I WAS TEN I BROKE THE LAND SPEED RECORD WITH MY ROLLER SKATES ON "KILL HILL." I ALSO BROKE MY PATELLA. SINCE THEN I LEAVE THE EXTREME SPORTS UP TO THE REST OF YOU GUYS.

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Do you know the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for... it might come true?"

I was reminded of those sage words of advice while we were shooting this weekend's edition of "News To Me" in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood of Atlanta.

Earlier in the week I had complained mentioned that we were always shooting out in a park or in the forest or by a river... we hadn't shot in the CITY in a long time. Sure, nature centers are nice, but there is something to be said for the urban landscape as well. We live and work in a thriving metropolis. The tallest building in the United States outside of Chicago and NYC is in our skyline! It's true! That's impressive! "Let's take advantage of that," I whined said.

On the day I got my cityscape demand wish, it was about 4 million degrees in the shade, we were under a code red smog alert and I got sunblock in my eye. Then we got caught in some kind of time loop where we re-shot one scene about 30 times, because of Eric's inflection of one word. I think the word was "is." We all had suggestions for Eric on how to say, "is." "Funnier," "punchier," "faster," "with a sly grin," "edgier," "in Lithuanian!" Not since Bill Clinton's Lewinsky deposition did "is" carry so much weight.

Needless to say, 30 "is's," two locations and five hours later we got it all done... and I'm still complaining really looking forward to seeing it on air.

Take a look at a couple more shots from the shoot on the next page »

Just a head's up for the blog readers... "News To Me" has a really cool interview coming up this weekend. Oh SURE, Brian Williams got the exclusive with Amindinijad. Nice, but could he get Gregg and Evan? Eric did.

"Poop in space." "Peeping Tom E.T." "North Pole ice bath." Yes, you could plug those terms into your favorite search engine to find the things you saw on "News To Me" this weekend, but why risk being hyperlinked to something that isn't what you were looking for... or worse... to something that no amount of virtual antiseptic soap will clean from your brain?

Don't risk it! We've got the links to everything you saw on the show right here!

keep reading »

Earlier this week, I got a chance to meet iReport.com Superstar William Bernstein! That's William (on the right) and me in the pic above. He happened to be in Atlanta and while he was here he paid us a visit at CNN Center. I was in the building and lucky enough to be invited down to the CNN.com newsroom to hang out with him.

The people we feature on "News To Me" are from all over the world. That's one of the beautiful things about this show, as long as someone has a webcam or video camera and a phone we can put them and their story on TV. One of the drawbacks to that setup is that aside from email, that long distance interaction is all we get to have with our guests. No lunches, no handshakes... not even a fist-bump usually.

Don't get me wrong, we'd love to meet more of you. Eric has sat down with "The Amtrekker," "Purple 53" and "The Worst Person in the World" to name a few. But those are the exceptions. So it was a rare treat for me to actually hang out with William for a while.

If you aren't familiar with William's work head over to iReport.com and check out his growing list of updates from Virginia Beach, VA. From politics to financial news to community news and most importantly to William, weather. His iReports have been featured on "News To Me" a few times... but his most memorable appearance was during his coverage of a tornado that touched down near his hometown. We dubbed him "Mister Twister!" There was an excitement in that report, you could tell he was really thrilled to be there as the news was beginning to happen (watch »). In the days following he continued to report on the damage and how the community was dealing with the aftermath.

Bill and I took a whirlwind tour of CNN Center and compared notes on how we do things at CNN compared to how he does things in his home studio... surprisingly, I think we both came away with some good ideas on how to improve both of our products! I'm looking forward to seeing some of William's next uploads to see if the techniques and tips we traded make it into his upcoming iReports!

In a few weeks, "News To Me" will be profiling William as the first in a semi-regular series featuring Superstar iReporters, and blog readers will get a special "behind the scenes" of William's home studio.

Check out a couple more shots on the next page »

As Maury would say, "Mike, you are NOT the father!" Meet four of the folks who bring you Prime News every night at 5 Eastern on CNN Headline News. From left to right: "Rock of Love" fan: Jennifer Williams, euphonium virtuoso: Robyn Sjogren, Prime News' moral center: Mike Galanos & dog lover: Katy Rogers.

I've mentioned here before that "News To Me" shares office space at CNN Center with the team from "Prime News." Our area is known as "The Loft," because it's a low-ceilinged space, tucked away up a flight of stairs from the main studio. Lately those stairs have been bringing some extra staff to the loft thanks to not 1, not 2, but THREE pregnancies amongst our Prime News colleagues! Including a set of twins! One of the guys on the Prime News crew (not pictured above) is also expecting! Well, his wife is... funny that we have to qualify that now. Thanks, "Oprah's pregnant man!"

My concern is what effect our close proximity to all those pregnancy hormones may have on the "News To Me" staff. Except for Summer-Intern Mandy (who is already honing her maternal instincts on Gracie, her 4 month old Maltese) we're all guys on "News To Me" so any baby announcements would have to come from a significant other. That means 4 members of this team are at risk!

Due to the drastic effect the loss of 4 team members for simultaneous paternity leave would have on this show we are looking into erecting some type of "Andromeda Strain" containment field around our area of the loft for the next 9 months. I've been in touch with the CDC here in Atlanta and it turns out that the cost to construct a truly "baby-bump" free zone would equal something close to Sarah Jessica Parker's shoe budget. Since the "News To Me" shoe budget barely covers the cost of Eric's flip flops... the high-tech anti-embryo defense system plan is out.

Those 4 high-risk "News To Me'ers" will just have to rely on self-control... something none of us possess a lot of. Guess I'll go ahead and put in the order for infant sized "News To Me" baby tees, and "My First YouTube" video cameras.

Seriously though, Mazel Tov to all our preggers Prime News friends! With 5 new potential "Headline News" viewers on the way I feel a ratings spike in the Zero to one-year-old demo in about 5 months!

You know, you never know how old you are until you hang around a bunch of happy, inspired, and motivated youths like I did recently. I emceed a dinner for an organization which I believe in wholeheartedly called the 21st Century Leaders. It’s basically a group that finds the best-of-the-best and the brightest High School kids and invites them to spend some time with companies to learn what goes on behind the corporate iron curtain. It’s like a big summer camp for the smart kids.

So, there I was sitting at a table amongst 12 High School kids who’s SAT scores looked more like Coordinating Producer Mike Kane’s golf score than actual real SAT numbers. I mean, when you are getting like 1400 on the SAT, you are smart, no doubt about it… but c’mon how are your social skills? (BTW, I got a 820 on the SAT. BTW #2, the kids who were sitting with me, had GREAT social skills.) I looked around the table and thought to myself, "you know Lanford…these kids are the future…they are the 'News To Me' audience… not only do they get the value of user-generated content, they put it to use every day of their lives… and not just looking for ways to increase their Grand Theft Auto scores. They put it to use to spread the word about causes they care about, products they've invented and ideas they've hatched that will make them millionaires!"

I can’t begin to tell you with all the bad press kids today get, how refreshing it was to sit around some kids who had goals that would make even Dr. Sanjay blush: doctors, lawyers, accountants… not ONE said, basketball star, music mogul or that smug remark all kids say today… President of the United States… these kids had real dreams… and I wish them all the best.

Oh, and please keep watching "News To Me" (some of them actually do watch).

BTW, if you were one of the lucky kids who got to take a picture with me... there was a long line… (yeah right)…. please let me know… I want a copy to see what I look like. See, I told you I was getting old.

And now for a little bit of nepotism keep reading »

Last week Eric was almost ticketed for jaywalking while shooting "News To Me." This week, we actually let him behind the wheel of a moving car while we shot the show. Thankfully, we managed to make it though this shoot with no police intervention, (though we did take out extra insurance just in case).

Now that we're home from our little North Georgia road trip, we've got to unpack our duffel bags which we FILLED with links to all the places we visited in this weekend's show. Pretend like you work for the TSA, put on some rubber gloves and dig through our link filled luggage on the next page »

You saw Henri on "News To Me" and you just have to have more, right!? Well, it is with great pleasure that we present the writer, director and voice actor who brought you a look into Henri's world, Will Braden, who has written a series of haiku from a cat's point of view. It's a web-only extra from this weekend's show! To hear the artist's rendition of Will's poetry, click on the picture above.

BTW, did you know that haiku is the plural for haiku? It is. I looked it up.

If you are more of a reader than a listener... or if your philistine boss frowns on you listening to poetry at work... we have a written version of Will's work on the next page.

We'd love it if you would add your own haiku, about cats or anything else! Just click "add a comment" below.

The written versions of Will's work, and instructions on writing your own haiku (it's really easy) are on the next page.

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