While we definitely move in different circles, but I thought of some similarities between us after the interview:

• We’re both about the same age.
• We were both laid off at about the same time. Carolla about a year ago from a high paying radio job that he’s turned into the top iTunes podcast, and me from a newspaper job two years ago that I’ve morphed into a freelance writer and editor.
• Stay-at-home dads. He does it with the help of a nanny, but still takes care of his young son and daughter. I’ve enjoyed the past two years watching my daughter, now 5, grow up.
• Working from home. He’s surrounded by expensive cars and owns two homes. I have a 1991 Acura and work in a home office.
• My house needs renovation.

I’m a big fan of Carolla’s, following his work much more in the past few years. One of my first part-time jobs after getting laid off involved driving around to pick up police logs, and I’d listen to his morning radio show while driving. It was a Sacramento station, so the reception wasn’t great, but I’d always hurry back to the car to hear more between stops. I then started listening to his podcast, but stopped after awhile because he seemed to continue ranting about the same topics again and again. He’s still entertaining, and a comic I’ll continue to follow.

It’s great that his career path has done so well, from construction worker to podcast king. He found a niche and is taking it as far as he can. Good advice for anyone changing careers.

I wrote a story for WalletPop today about an Internet hoax that Russell Crowe (no relation) was dead. He’s not. He’s fine.

And so am I, although I used the same website that someone used to create the Russell Crowe hoax to come up with the same headlines if I were an actor:

• Luxury yacht sinks off coast of St. Tropez France, Actor Aaron Crowe reported missing
• Actor – Aaron Crowe Falls To His Death In Austria
• Actor Aaron Crowe hospitalized after traffic altercation
• Actor – Aaron Crowe Falls To His Death In New Zealand

All in good fun, and I’m safe. I haven’t even been to any of those places, although I may have driven through Fullerton, CA, where the traffic accident supposedly happened. And that’s not Emma and I in Austria in the photo above.

It’s all a hoax that the linked website lets anyone create with a template it has set up. While it’s tempting to fake your own death, don’t set up a celebrity for such headaches.

From Al Gore's website

Here’s a photo of Al Gore at work in his office. I took it from his website, and now await his lawsuit.

A story in today’s New York Times points out how Gore’s cable TV station, Current TV, grabbed a photo off another Web site to use on Current TV. The photo’s owner, an Orinda man, sent Current TV a bill. Instead of paying, Gore’s company sued him in court and won, overturning the photographer’s $588 victory in small-claims court.

Gore and his company must have thought the photo was free because it was already online.

The court and Gore have it wrong. People should be paid for their work, and taking a photo from a website and running on your own is illegal. Or should be. I gave credit to Gore’s site by using the photo above, which is what the photographer wanted in the case of Gore stealing his photo. I now wait to see if Gore will follow his own lawyer’s advice and say it’s OK for me to use his website’s photo without paying Gore.

I’ve thought this for a long time, but it really struck me today in two separate events: Every business should hire a journalist if it wants to be successful.

What would a journalist do for a company? Many things, which I’ll get to in a bit, but up high on that list is checking for errors that would upset customers.

Again, two things brought this to mind today. The first was a call I got at 8 this morning from a PR person telling me that their company had changed its mind on charging poor or low-income people double what it does other users of its product.

The second was reading a PoynterOnline column by Jill Geisler on 10 reasons to hire a journalist. I’ll get to Geisler’s column soon, and will expand on it a bit, but first to the issue of a company calling me minutes after waking up to change a program that I had questioned a week earlier in a story I did for WalletPop.

The company, Assurance Wireless, a division of Sprint and Virgin Mobile, was giving free cellphones to poor people. The phones included 200 free minutes of talk time, and users could buy more airtime in a prepaid plan at 20 cents a minute.

Boost Mobile, which Virgin Mobile owns, sells a prepaid phone plan at 10 cents a minute.  Why, I asked a marketing guy, does the service for low income people charge double? His answer was that the company is evaluating that.

So I wrote the story and less than a week later, ta-da, Assurance Wireless drops the cost to 10 cents a minute.  I wrote an updated story today.

This isn’t world-changing journalism, although I’m glad it does help the people who were to pay the higher cost as the program is rolled out across the country.  What might have saved Assurance Wireless, and thus Virgin Mobile and Sprint, all of the headache of this was to first have a journalist check their press release for holes. If they did, they could have gone to the lower rate much earlier and saved themselves some embarassment.

As it is, I pointed out in today’s story that the company’s move still leaves its text message fees at 15 cents a minute, which puts it in the odd place of having text messages, instant messages and e-mails costing more than making a domestic phone call. Most phone plans charge less for text messages; mine charges a nickel. Maybe they’ll change that in a week and give me another early morning call.

I’m sure the cellphone company’s public relations staff proofread the press release, but logic somehow didn’t make it all the way to the final review. A journalist would have caught the price difference. It was the first thing that stood out to me and one of my most significant questions to the marketing person when we talked on the phone.

And I only looked at that press release for two minutes or less. It’s these types of critical thinking, fast-thinking skills that journalists have that all businesses need.

Geisler points out a lot of these in her column. They include clear writing, working well on deadline, multitasking, being quick studies who process information fast and with clarity, can do research fast, know how to use the Web, a great work ethic and loyalty.

They all are excellent qualities that every business could find if it hired a journalist.

Just what America needs, another excuse to dress like a slob and wear pajamas outside of the house.

As someone who works out of his home as a freelance writer/editor and works most of the day in sweatpants, I realize I don’t have much room to talk here. But come on, pajamas disguised as jeans? Why?

I’m writing about this for WalletPop. It’s a rant worth reading.

Emma and I have made the jump to Spongebob Squarepants in yet another sign that my 5-year-old is growing up and expanding her sense of humor to “bum” jokes.

It’s the type of transition that every parent sees sooner or later — from sweet, innocent child to the kind of kid who laughs when a cartoon sponge passes gas under water.

I’m not proud of it, but the transition has been made. After years of watching Dora, the Backyardigans, Special Agent Oso and other cartoons that I had no interest in, we can now watch cartoons together as a daughter and father were meant to — laughing hysterically.

Yet another reason to enjoy being underemployed with a 5-year-old.

Bizarro World, where everything runs backwards, has taken over the NBA, and I somehow missed the boat.

John Tesh, who you wouldn’t mistake for hip if he smacked you upside the head with his new-age guitar, is sponsoring a contest that gives away $20,000 in cash to people videotaping themselves rapping, dancing or showing their best basketball moves to his song “Roundball Rock.”

As a white guy who can’t jump, dance, rap or play basketball for squat, I am amazed that Tesh — a white guy who can’t dance or rap, and who knows about his basketball skills — is sponsoring such a lame contest with music that grates on your ears after a few plays.

Actually, I don’t know if it qualifies as a song since it doesn’t have words. It’s more of a jingle. It’s the theme song for NBC’s NBA coverage, so if you’ve seen a basketball game on TV, you’ve probably heard Tesh’s music. And if you’ve listened to his new-age music or didn’t throw up at his Pat Boone-like tunes, then you must have a strong stomach.

Here’s Tesh’s video about the contest. See for yourself how embarrassing it is:

While I give him some credit for the catchy NBA tune, turning what should be a 30-second commercial introduction during a timeout while Kobe Bryant gets a breather into the background music for a minute or more of rapping, dancing or lame basketball moves, should be criminal.

Some of the sample videos on YouTube or Tesh’s Web site are laughable enough that you’d think they were a farce, and that Will Ferrell is promoting a sequel to his basketball movie “Semi-Pro.” Some guy trying to dance to this dreck looks like a spoof of hip-hop dancing.

Eminem must be pleased to know he doesn’t have any rapping competition, as seen in a rap video entry to Tesh’s contest.

The deadline to submit your entry to Tesh’s Facebook page is June 30. Please don’t do it.

Aaron Crowe is an unemployed journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read about his job hunt at www.AaronCrowe.net