Category: Blog

A Prick in Congress

Shari

As some of you know, mikeroweWORKS was launched on Labor Day back in 2008. Every so often somebody asks me how that came to be, and whether or not Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe had anything to do with it. Here’s my original reply to that question. A couple years ago I went to Congress, to see if anyone there was still up for an honest day’s work. Turns out, there is. Dave Moralez has worked in Congress his whole career, but holds no elected office. He’s a third-generation cattle rancher in Congress, Ariz., a tiny town in the Sonoran Read More

Your Headline, My Face

Shari

From:  Mike Rowe Re:  Your Headline, My Face. Hi Steve, Mike Rowe here, Dirty Jobs. Thanks to the necromancers over at Google, I’ve been alerted to your most recent Question of the Day: “Are Bad Jobs Good for the Economy and the People Who Work Them?” Immediately under your headline I noticed a photo of me, taken on the Mackinac Bridge while filming a segment on Dirty Jobs. Given the juxtaposition of my face with your headline, a reasonable person might conclude that a “Dirty Job” and “Bad Job” are one and the same. This sentiment is not only inconsistent Read More

A Talk About Ted

Shari

Back in 2008, I got an invite to speak at something called EG, or “The Entertainment Gathering.” The Entertainment Gathering is a conference that evolved from TED, another well-known speaker series that I had never heard of. Against my natural instincts, I wound up attending EG, and spoke for exactly 20 minutes, as instructed. I had no recollection of what I actually said until several months later when people started asking me about “my relationship with sheep testicles.” That’s when I realized my comments at TED had been posted on the interweb. I have no complaint about being recorded, and Read More

Why “Work Smart, Not Hard” is the Worst Advice in the World – Popular Mechanics Article

Shari

Work smarter, not harder? Don’t tell Mike Rowe, who has met some of the hardest-working people in America. In fact, he argues that mantra is the opposite of the attitude we need to beat this lousy economy. Here is what Mike has to say about the advice he received from his high school guidance counselor Mr. Dunbar: “When I was 17 my high school guidance counselor tried to talk me into going on to earn a four-year degree. I had nothing against college, but the universities that Mr. Dunbar recommended were expensive, and I had no idea what I wanted to Read More

Mike Posts on Facebook about Bill Maher Appearance

Shari

[Bob Reidel: “Mike – Saw you hangin with Bill Maher. I had no idea you were a liberal. Really blew me away. Love everything you do but now that I know who you really are, I won’t be tuning in to watch anything your involved with.”] Well, hi there, Bob. How’s it going? Since your comment is not the only one of its kind, I thought I’d take a moment to address it. Bill Maher is opinionated, polarizing and controversial. I get it. So is Bill O’Reilly, which is probably why I heard the same comments after I did his show. (“How Read More

Profoundly Disconnected

admin

Back in the late ’70s, a poster hung in my high school guidance counselor’s office. It was part of a college recruitment campaign called Work Smart Not Hard. In the long history of bad advice, you’d have to look pretty hard to find something dumber than this. And yet, the expression is still with us.

So…with a little creative license (and no respect for the original), I’m pleased to present a new platitude with a different attitude.