Category: Blog

The Only One Responsible for My Own Safety is Me

Shari

From MRW Water Cooler: Q: My husband works on the oilrigs as a well tester. We watched you folks do so without any eye protection! Are you crazy? Drilling a hole with no protective eyewear? Between him, a well tester, and me, a workers’ compensation lawyer, we’re cringing! Somebody could LOSE AN EYE! Seriously – Safety First, fellas! I would expect better from the Discovery Channel!! — suzemommy I sincerely appreciate your concern for me, and agree that stupidity plays an ongoing role in my professional and personal life. But believe me, I have no wish to be injured on Read More

Banking, Debt & Markets

Shari

Is It Any Wonder the Markets Continue to Sink? From MRW Water Cooler: Click here for article from Investor’s Business Daily Q: “A $75 billion bailout for 9 million Americans who face foreclosure, regardless of how they got into financial trouble, is the government’s answer to the housing crunch. Many Americans who have scrupulously kept up with payments are steaming at the thought of subsidizing those who’ve been profligate or irresponsible. With recent data showing that as much as 55% of those who get foreclosure aid end up defaulting anyway, a signal has been sent that America has gone from Read More

Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs and Being Green (Men’s Health)

Shari

As Originally Seen In Men’s Health Magazine We gave Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe the choice of being interviewed during his cover photo shoot, or writing in the first person about his views on the environment. He passed on both opportunities, opting instead to interview himself from his over-priced hotel room in Santa Monica. Here are some excerpts from that exclusive, one on one conversation. There’s a rumor going around that Dirty Jobs is the greenest show on television. Does that surprise you? Not really. I’m the one spreading it. Any truth to it? Plenty. More than half of the 200 jobs we’ve profiled Read More

It’s A Dirty Job, And I Love It!

Shari

As originally published on Forbes.com It’s A Dirty Job, And I Love It! by Mike Rowe, 12.09.08 Whether it’s milking venomous spiders or picking up roadkill, the secret to career fulfillment is not to follow your passions, but to chase your opportunities. I’ve been thinking about the first time I castrated a lamb with my teeth. (It’s a real job, I swear.) I was anxious, and judging by the sounds coming from the lamb, I wasn’t the only one. He was propped up on the fence rail, pinned in place by a cheerful rancher named Albert, who was holding the Read More

Mike Rowe’s Exclusive Interview with Mike Rowe

Shari

Not long ago, I called a spur-of-the-moment press conference to announce the premature launch of my latest endeavor, a well-intentioned website called mikeroweWORKS. Sadly, the spontaneous nature of the conference resulted in a conspicuous lack of reporters, leaving me no choice but to interview myself. I found a quiet corner in a local bar on the San Francisco waterfront and I spoke candidly with me for several hours about my plans to change the way America looks at skilled labor. Though I had been up for two days straight, and drank steadily through most of our conversation, I found myself Read More

Mike Rowe blames his success on Fred King

Shari

by Mike Rowe Mike Rowe was a stuttering 9th-grader when he met the most outrageous and inspirational choral teacher ever to wear fake teeth. Mike’s life changed for good the day he stole an “Oriole Four” record from the teacher’s office… When strangers would ask me how I wound up with my name in the title of a hit show, I would never tell them the whole truth. That level of disclosure would require a mention of SPEBSQSA, and I’ve learned that long and unpronounceable acronyms make people anxious. So for the purpose of expediency, I would usually limit my Read More

The Sweat Equity of mikeroweWORKS

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler Q: Evening Mike, If you’re anything like me, you sit there sometimes with beer in hand and think about past accomplishments and future endeavors. When you get praise thrown your way, you shove it off as being in the right place at the right time…whatever…your to humble, Mike. What’s your “Sweat Equity” in this place, my man? You have to want to envision something and are working behind the scenes to probably accomplish such. – FRY1975   Hey Jeremy Well, as luck would have it, I am sitting here with a beer in my hand, Read More

The Office Space

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler Q: Over the weekend, in an effort to avoid anything election related, I was watching one of my favorite funny movies, Office Space. The first questions are how many people here have had similar situations and feelings about your job? And if so, what would you want to do? The second question: do you have my stapler? – SPOCK8113 Spock, I believe the answer is Diedrich Bader, or as I’ll always remember him, the first guest on the first (and last) game show I ever hosted, “No Relation.” I love Office Space, and often quote Read More

Real Work

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler Q: Mike (and forum readers), I think the best idea I can come up with is to follow your dreams. Do whatever it is you want to do, not what someone tells you is a better idea. Get the word out that skilled trades are as important (if not more) that white collar jobs. -Bryan Hi Bryan, and Welcome I will do all I can to tell anyone listening that a four-year degree is not the only path to enlightenment and happiness. But I wonder sometimes, if the best way to achieve a dream is Read More

Is it all good for the cause?

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler Q: Mike, It has just come to light that you are in People Magazine’s ‘Sexiest Men Alive’ issue (yeah…crazy, I know. That’s what I thought.) . Do you have any concerns that this may reflect in a negative way on what you are trying to accomplish here or is all publicity good right now? I really would hate for a brief mention in a magazine that is in essence only cotton candy for the brain, to make a negative impression on the people that you have been spending so much of your time discussing the Read More

Where’s the Pride?

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler: Q: Where’d the pride go in a job well done? What happened to the personal satisfaction one takes in them when they can look over the day and actually see something accomplished? When did we turn into this “quickest, easiest, cheapest way” society that takes virtually everything for granted? Those questions were rhetorical, here’s the real question and I think, one of the many purposes of this site, how do we fix it? Mike was on the Adam Carolla show not too long ago, and though Adam tends to be quite chauvinistic as he is Read More

Not sure if you will see this…

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler Q: How does Discovery feel about your endeavor here? Specifically that you have a message board, and many fans have come over to post. Are they supportive? Have you had to “talk” to them? Kristi Hi Kristi, DCI is a big company, and I can’t presume to speak for them. I can tell you that my contacts there have been very supportive. Beyond that, no one has discouraged me from moving forward, or asked me to curtail my efforts here. On the other hand, I can’t be in two places at once, and I’m sure Read More

How do you like your coffee, Mike?

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler Q: Hi Mike, Ok, first of all I have to clarify that I don’t work at Starbucks or any coffeeshop around. The reason I asked this question is because I have seen a few pictures of you holding a large cup of coffee. So I assumed you’re quite a coffee drinker. With all of those flavours to choose from (I can’t even name one…personally not a coffee fan) how do you decide which one to order. Do you have a particularly favourite one? -Cynthia Cynthia, My relationship with coffee is one of dependence and ambiguity. Read More

Mike, since you’re a member of Screen Actors’ Guild

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler Q: Today I read few articles about the threat of a strike. While I’m reading these articles, the only thing I could say is Are They Kidding? -Maria No Maria, they are not. Unions form for different reasons. Unions strike for different reasons. Not all union action reflects the will of many of its members. In fact, not all unions consist of members who actually wanted to join. It’s complicated. But no, SAG is not kidding. They will most certainly strike. At this time, in this country, with the amount of people losing their jobs, Read More

Mike, who’s sponsoring mikeroweWORKS?

Shari

From the MRW Water Cooler Q: Hi Mike, Nice place you have here. You’ve been doing some remodeling I see. Now that I understand where I really am and that construction has not quite finished (if ever), I was wondering how expensive it is to run a piece of real estate like mikeroweWORKS? -kelby It ain’t cheap. How does owning real estate in cyberspace work? Still figuring that out. The short answer involves giving money to smart people. The longer version includes domain names, copyrights, trademarks, insurance, content providers, technical experts, and several pages tiny print that you try to Read More