Occasionally I like to watch the local news (on my DVR so I can skip the awful local car dealer ads, of course).  Tonight I caught a 5 minute segment on Larry Haubner, a 105 year-old army vet who has outlived his savings and could be kicked out of his assisted living home.  His friends at the home setup savelarry.org to help raise money to keep him there.  

It was a typical feel-good local news story, but what made it interesting was … Larry.  When Larry was born in 1902, Teddy Roosevelt was president.  When he was my age, FDR still hadn’t been elected.  Larry is old.  Real old.  I could write “old” a hundred times and you wouldn’t understand how old he is.  But if you saw the video I saw, you would.

Then, when you saw Larry cracking jokes with the nurses and explaining one way he stays fit — by doing reps of his walker lifted over his head — you’d be inspired.  I often can’t muster the energy to go for a jog, and when Larry was 102 he was still riding a bike.  “My sister would love to see that” I thought.  Certainly I could go to the local news web site (NBC4.com), find the clip, and send it to a few friends, couldn’t I?

It would appear not.  All you can do is read about it which, frankly, is boring.  It’s also a disservice to Larry.

Why, in the age of YouTube, local news stations don’t put every segment neatly into an online clip wrapped in a user experience designed for sharing is beyond me.  Include a little ad, even.  If it’s under 7 seconds, I just might watch it (unless it’s a screaming car salesman).