Mike likes to share his life, his book, and how to tell your own story.

In his 20-plus years with Today, Leonard has created wryly observant video feature stories on the often-overlooked aspects of everyday life. So instead of just judging the Jarlsberg at the cheese competition, Leonard also seized the opportunity to poke fun at the media for shunning a perfectly good event they dismissed as too ordinary to cover.

Leonard’s talent for sniffing out the smaller, more obscure stories is what makes his work so much fun. “I’ll usually tend to do something nobody’s ever done or will do,” he says. For instance, sitting around his office one day, Leonard commented to a colleague, “Any Joe Blow could do that.” “So I thought, there’s got to be somebody out there named Joe Blow,” he explains. “I searched and found this man in Texas, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow, and the four Blow boys. I called him up and said, ‘Hey, Mr. Blow, this is Mike Leonard. I'd like to do a story on you.’ And he said ‘Why? I’m just an ordinary guy.’ Well, I know! He’s a Joe Blow!” Mike will share a Today show story aired during the waning days of August 2006. It’s somewhat similar to a recent post about our waffle ball stadium with a “goodbye summer/time is speeding by” twist. Isn’t that the motivation for all bizarre behavior? Time is speeding by. Our days are numbered.

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