After fifteen years of international exposure as an anchor for CNN's Headline News, Lynne Russell has become one of the most recognized and beloved women working in broadcast journalism. Renowned for her on-air combination of professionalism and irrepressible energy, Russell is every bit as remarkable off camera as she is on. Not only does she know her way around a newsroom, but as a private investigator, bodyguard, and black belt, she is a force to be reckoned with.
Russell writes, for the first time, about her amazing life, from her memories of childhood as a self-described nomad following her army father around the globe, to a frank look at her ill-advised early marriage, to her steady rise through the ranks of radio and television. Then she turns her attention to what her remarkable achievements have taught her about work, love, body language, and the best little shoe store on the Champs Elysée, and gives us her gutsy advice for life today.
After fifteen years of international exposure as an anchor for CNN's Headline News, Lynne Russell has become one of the most recognized and beloved women working in broadcast journalism. Renowned for her on-air combination of professionalism and irrepressible energy, Russell is every bit as remarkable off camera as she is on. Not only does she know her way around a newsroom, but as a private investigator, bodyguard, and black belt, she is a force to be reckoned with.
Russell writes, for the first time, about her amazing life, from her memories of childhood as a self-described nomad following her army father around the globe, to a frank look at her ill-advised early marriage, to her steady rise through the ranks of radio and television. Then she turns her attention to what her remarkable achievements have taught her about work, love, body language, and the best little shoe store on the Champs Elysée, and gives us her gutsy advice for life today.
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Overview
After fifteen years of international exposure as an anchor for CNN's Headline News, Lynne Russell has become one of the most recognized and beloved women working in broadcast journalism. Renowned for her on-air combination of professionalism and irrepressible energy, Russell is every bit as remarkable off camera as she is on. Not only does she know her way around a newsroom, but as a private investigator, bodyguard, and black belt, she is a force to be reckoned with.
Russell writes, for the first time, about her amazing life, from her memories of childhood as a self-described nomad following her army father around the globe, to a frank look at her ill-advised early marriage, to her steady rise through the ranks of radio and television. Then she turns her attention to what her remarkable achievements have taught her about work, love, body language, and the best little shoe store on the Champs Elysée, and gives us her gutsy advice for life today.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781250095640 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | St. Martin's Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 08/25/2015 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Sales rank: | 685,554 |
| File size: | 355 KB |
About the Author
Lynne Russell is the author of How to Win Friends, Kick Ass and Influence People.
Read an Excerpt
How to Win Friends, Kick Ass & Influence People
By Lynn Russell
St. Martin's Press
Copyright © 1999 Lynne RussellAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-250-09564-0
CHAPTER 1
Who the Hell Is Lynne Russell, and Why Is She Writing This Book?
Glad you asked. I never bought into the traditional roles assigned to women. It just never happened. I remember when I was ten years old someone gave me a big picture book titled, You Could Be; and it was for girls. I learned I could be a nurse or a secretary, a mother or a flight attendant, a dental assistant or a teacher. When I was asked which one I would choose, I chose none of the above. Every one of those careers is a respected undertaking, but even at ten I knew that none of them was me; and I did not feel compelled to oblige adults by limiting myself to the choices I was handed. Eventually I went to nursing school because I like the concept of solving mysteries and I think the human body is the most fascinating mystery of all, and because I genuinely wanted to help other people; but I wasn't emotionally cut out for it. As for motherhood, I loved it when it happened, but I never was a little girl who wanted only to live in a house with a picket fence and be a wife and a mother when I grew up. It just seemed to me that that was something you also did while you did something else. So you can imagine what it was like for little boys who played "house" or "doctor" with me. We always were fighting over the stethoscope and who got to say, "Honey, I'm home."
I firmly believe that lots of girls felt as I did. Now, as adults, we still harbor a desire to go deeper into being our own person. For me, this has meant taking on other challenges when I'm not on the CNN Headline News set.
Not that it wasn't challenging enough just getting to CNN. First came several years in radio back in the 70s, beginning with four years of spinning out the hits when the hits were still on vinyl; our ultra-small-size radio market — the college town of Fort Collins, Colorado — was the last to get them from the record companies. Also the FCC required my radio station to reduce transmitter power to only 500 watts at sunset, so we were lucky if they could hear us across the street; but the newness of the experience, the freedom to create, and the cast of characters (employees right out of the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati) made it all worthwhile. Then came seven years of hosting morning drive-time talk radio in Miami, which translated to rising well before the crack of dawn to referee political free-for-alls and convincing celebrities to drag their sleepy butts into the studio at 6:00 A.M. with the rest of us; otherwise they weren't going to get to promote their new books/diets/fragrances. This left afternoons for lying on the beach and continuing the quest for the perfect piña colada. Unless, as often happened, we were in a panic for a last-minute guest for the next morning's broadcast; in such a case, I was back wandering the hippie haven of Coconut Grove with my little Sony tape recorder, looking for the Hare Krishnas. We knew they always were good for an hour of colorful interviews, with unintelligible chanting in the background. Talking with them in their natural habitat beat inviting them to the station; after they'd been there for a morning, the men's john smelled like strawberries for a week. We never could figure out if it was incense or aftershave.
And I did a brief DJ stint at an FM rock station in Jacksonville, Florida. My then husband (the second), the brilliant and notoriously mild-mannered rock'n'roll radio programmer Jim Dunlap, was my boss. And that went rather well until the day I found I had to drop a piece of music from my show to make the timing come out right, and I opted to eliminate a Bee Gee's song. Jim heard it in his office, and I could hear him coming down the hall. Next thing I knew, he had put his fist through the control room door and had broken his hand. And I knew two things: He was not so mild-mannered, and the TV news offer I'd just received was going to save our marriage. As it turned out, Jim and I were together for eighteen years until we agreed to go our separate ways; in all that time he never attacked another door. He did provide me with wonderful years of laughter and spontaneity, shared confidences, exposure to great rock music, limo rides with stars, and his endless DJ one-liners, which never failed to crack me up because of the way he delivered them.
My radio days were followed by that television news anchor job in Jacksonville and others in Honolulu, Hawaii, and San Antonio, Texas. By the time I got to CNN, I couldn't even remember all the call letters of all the stations where I'd worked — never mind the network affiliations — which to this day always are changing.
Once I settled in at CNN, I found that although I loved my job, my devotion to journalism wasn't enough to make me feel fulfilled as an individual who was inquisitive about so many things. I needed to augment it with other interests. The ensuing few years have brought two black belts in the Korean-American street-fighting martial art of Choi Kwang Do, certification in open-water SCUBA diving, acting as bodyguard to folks who don't want to get their Armanis all wrinkled as they fend off friend and foe, deputy sheriff and certified Jail Officer, licensed private investigator, foreign-language student, and enthusiastic if clumsy ice hockey skater. The unconventional odyssey is continuing, despite the people who think I'm nuts for giving in to this restless nature; but I think they've got their feet in wet cement and they'd better get the hell moving before the stuff freezes them in place. Aren't they even curious?
I wanted to write this book to share these thoughts with you, because I believe that every woman has it in her to lead a more fulfilling life, with the gifts and opportunities she is given — whatever they are. I am the first to admit that many of the new areas I've explored just sort of happened to me, rather than the other way around. And that, in itself, is a lesson on being open to opportunity. There are months — years — when you are not open to new opportunities at all. Then suddenly you have more time, or are bored, or are just feeling rebellious and fed up with the way things are going ... fired up to break away and do something on your own. And you jump right in and try something new. The trick, for all of us, is to remember that the opportunities are there whether we're in the mood or not. Think of it as a twelve-months-a-year clearance sale; you may not be in the mood to shop, but you really ought to just stop by and see what's there, in case you might be interested.
I hope that as you read this book you will be inspired to make as much of your days as you can, taking on any extra elements that give you a special thrill. I hope you will see that you must be true to yourself, asking yourself at every stage what you want to do with your life. Forget what you think you ought to do. What are you good at? What makes you happy? I hope you will gain the confidence to trust yourself and your intuition: the confidence to believe what you feel, even if there is no substantial, material evidence to support it. And I hope you will take to heart what Eleanor Roosevelt said about self-image. When I was twelve, my mother didn't go a day without quoting Eleanor. It drove me nuts; but this one is worth remembering: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." That one has stayed with me over the years. And as this geeky, scrawny twelve-year-old girl became a full-grown woman, I cared less and less what other people thought of me. Gradually, I embraced the delicious concept of not waiting another moment to partake, each day, of what life has to offer. And I developed.
Lynne's Rules
Rule 1: No Limits. Do not permit other, less-enthusiastic, less-imaginative, less-adventurous (and perhaps resentful) people to place limits on the effort you are willing to put forth to accomplish the things you believe you are able to achieve. I'm not necessarily talking about bungee jumping. Maybe you just always have had a yearning for volunteering at a hospital, or learning to build things, or nightclub singing, or breeding Chihuahuas. Go for it. What's the worst that can happen? They can't shoot you. (Well, that depends on your singing. There's a little-known statute in Chicago ...)
Rule 2: Taste Lots of Things in Life. If you are blessed with the time, the ability, and the resources to learn to do even one more thing with the gifts God gave you, you are out of your mind if you don't get out there and see what's waiting for you. Taste this and taste that. It doesn't have to be a lifetime commitment. You can try it today and abandon it tomorrow. If you hang on to it, good for you. Amass as many experiences — even as many responsibilities — as make you feel good. Even if you let any of them go, you still will have learned something and will have expanded your universe. You owe it to yourself to try. Just remember: Whatever you do, it's supposed to be fun.
Rule 3: There Is Nothing Wrong with This World That Twenty Minutes in Victoria's Secret Won't Fix.Politics. If Hillary Clinton had had a hotline to Vicky's Secret, one wonders whether Monica Lewinsky ever would have gotten those private skin flute lessons in the Oval Office that prompted international debate over marital fidelity, presidential morality, and what constitutes a really stupid waste of television air time.
War. If Saddam Hussein had gotten the Victoria's Secret end-of-season sale preview catalog, and had ordered a few little nothings for the ladies in his life (or maybe for himself, who can say; I can see him in a little black chiffon thing with thick maribou trim to match his mustache), maybe our troops wouldn't still be shaking sand out of their shorts. Comedian George Carlin characterizes war, in his stand-up routine, as nothing more than a "dick waving contest."
World Hunger. Let's get some after-hours private-shopping privileges and personal tea-room modeling invitations out to the world's wealthiest power brokers. Sure, they have so much money they can have anything they want any day of the week, but this is something different. It's the girl-next-door in lingerie they dream about. And a grateful boy will do just about anything to say "thank you," even slip some cereal to Sudan.
A bad day at the Office or the Altar. For the average woman, a good lingerie shop is a better fix than a box of warm, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and a plate of Death by Chocolate, if she'll just let herself get into it. It used to be that the first thing a woman did when she split from her man was to get a new hairdo. Why? You liked it before, so leave it alone. Go try on something that makes you feel fabulous. Try on lots of things. Try on so many things that the salesgirl who stands outside the fitting room has to count them all over again. You don't have to buy everything. Just see how great you can look — and go home with the one that says "fuck you" the best.
These are a few of the delicate, little feminine thoughts I've shared with women coast to coast, during my speeches and appearances, and in phone conversations and letters. We all seem to want basically the same things out of life; it's just a matter of figuring out how to get them by making the most of what we've got. And that just naturally is going to require shaking up a few people and their ideas. It's going to require change.
39 Signs You Need Change
The only thing that's sure is change. And that's great, because it keeps things that already are good from going stale, and it gets rid of the things that are causing your mental spool to unwind. We all need change, but we don't always know it, which causes us to waste our time resisting it. So here's a handy little guide to start you thinking. You know you need change in your life if:
1. As you walk down the street, strangers remind you of movie actors and actresses you haven't thought of in years.
2. You look at your coworkers and marvel at their resemblance to Walter Slezak and George Carlin, and those are just the women.
3. The urge to jump up and down on a pew during church service, making screeching monkeylike sounds, is becoming too attractive to resist.
4. You giggle as you read the hardware ads.
5. You used to tell people off in the shower, now they tell you off.
6. You see symmetry in piles of dirt.
7. You wail "Nothing good lasts forever" at weddings, and "Thank God for new beginnings" at funerals.
8. Your mate spends an extra thirty minutes on foreplay, to which you reply, "Smart-ass."
9. Objects appear closer than they are.
10. If you stare long enough at a word, it looks foreign.
11. You dream you got up to go to the bathroom during the night, but awaken in a wet bed.
12. You take the dog's medicine by mistake and feel better.
13. You imagine the ways one drop of superglue could change the world.
14. You feel an unnatural exhilaration when the garage-door opener works.
15. You chew gum because you can.
16. Birds are demanding answers.
17. You are mesmerized by the swirling waters of a flushing toilet.
18. Elevator music is too jarring.
19. When you are at home and the local directory-assistance operator asks "What city?" you don't know the answer.
20. You trace your hand at staff meetings, then sign and date it.
21. Santa tells you to clean up your act.
22. Alone in the dentist's waiting room, you notice magazines are moving.
23. Alone in the park, you think it odd that objects are not falling from the sky.
24. At least twenty minutes of each day is unaccounted for.
25. You regard the floor with new respect.
26. Your Caller ID is trying to fool you.
27. Every one-liner from Casablanca applies to you, especially, "I was misinformed."
28. Jack Kennedy calls.
29. You crack yourself up.
30. Someone catches you talking to yourself in the car, and you spend the next ten minutes continuing the conversation, or pretending you are singing, to throw him off.
31. You understand everything now.
32. Your face cream has turned on you.
33. You visit another country and marvel at how well the children speak the language.
34. You stand in front of the microwave and yell, "Faster!"
35. As you walk on a plush carpet, you smooth it behind you to cover your tracks.
36. When other people speak to you, you try to read their lips.
37. In a meeting with your boss, his voice fades in the background as you will his pants to split.
38. The froth in your cappuccino is spelling out a message.
39. You can answer your cell phone without finding it.
You can identify with some of these. Good! So can the rest of womankind. Just don't let some wise guy convince you that women are instigators of change only because our hormones play tag once a month. If you've ever wasted your precious time explaining to a man something that's bothering you, only to have him ask you if you're premenstrual, you know what I mean.
The Power of PMS
Some people like to say that women feel they need change only at "that time of the month." Well guess what, PMS does not stand for premenstrual syndrome. It stands for Pissed and Mercurial (but Sane). We just have a lower tolerance for bullshit. For instance, we've all been here:
There's nothing like sharing a close, loving relationship with a man you adore. One of the most comforting aspects is that you get to know each other so well, you can almost read each other's mind and you can tell without asking what the other person needs. A woman who learns to "read" her man finds that the signals he sends tend to be quite consistent. If he likes to retreat to a place where he can be alone for a while when he comes home from work, he'll probably feel the same way about it tomorrow or three weeks from now as he does today; that's okay because we need our space too. And if it is his habit to listen patiently to you as you air some concern, whether or not he does anything about it or even absorbs what the hell you're saying, he'll probably be exactly the same with that two weeks from now as he is today. Men tell me they handle things this evenly because they genuinely like it this way and, more important, because they consider it the safest route out of the minefield.
Not so for the female of the species. This consistent behavior we've come to expect from men makes it easier for us to deal with them. But men, those adorable, unsuspecting creatures of habit, are never quite sure which track our train is running on. They may blame this on hormones, but they need to remember that these are the same hormones that make us so damned interesting to them when they're "in the mood." As women, our natural quick wit and charm make us prone to consider each new situation as something we've never encountered before, which deserves fresh treatment. This can lead any conversation into uncharted territory and that's fine, because we know that men like a challenge and we are happy to oblige.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from How to Win Friends, Kick Ass & Influence People by Lynn Russell. Copyright © 1999 Lynne Russell. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Copyright Notice,
Dedication,
Acknowledgments,
Who the Hell Is Lynne Russell, and Why Is She Writing This Book?,
39 Signs You Need Change,
The Power of PMS,
The Lioness in You ... or How I Learned to Fire a .357, and So Can You,
It's My Party and I'll Do What I Damn Well Please,
I Feel for You, But I Can't Reach You,
Attitude: The Bubbles Aren't All in the Champagne,
The Last Straw,
Conway Twitty and Other Regrets,
A Trip to Your Romantic Side,
The Virtues of Garter Belts,
Things We Hope Men Never Figure Out and Things We'd Pay Money for Men to Figure Out,
Viewer Mail,
The Baby Boomer's Guerrilla Guide to Middle Age,
To Be Strong,
Go for It!,
Copyright,