3-Year-Old's Birthday Party Theme: 'NewsHour'

When a young St. Paul boy got to pick the theme for his third birthday party, he didn't pick Nemo or the Wiggles or Dora the Explorer. He didn't even pick his favorite sports team.

Henry Schally picked "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer".

His mother, Jennifer Schally, designed party hats complete with pictures of the PBS news program's regular contributors.

"I think most kids get their favorite show for their birthday party theme," Jennifer Schally said.

Henry's father, Troy Schally, explained he and his wife have watched the show during dinner since their son was an infant. He believes the show's distinctive theme caught his son's attention.

"I don't know if it's a fluke this year and he'll be into something next year or if it's a sign of things to come and he wants to go into broadcast journalism, who knows?" Troy Schally said.

The party was over Memorial Day weekend, and the Schallys made all their guests wear the hats Jennifer Schally designed. They got a cake with the photo of the show's correspondents and Jennifer Schally arranged for Jim Lehrer to send an autographed photo for a birthday present.

It read, "To my youngest fan" and was signed, "Jimmy Jimmy BoBo", which is the nickname Henry gave Lehrer.

The unusual party got nationwide attention in Thursday's Washington Post, with the headline, "'Jimmy Jimmy BoBo' Lehrer Makes Birthday Party Newsworthy".

Henry clearly enjoys watching the program. When the anchor came on screen, he burst into a huge smile and yelled out, "Jim!"

Henry later noticed a change in the theme orchestration saying, "It's new music!"

When correspondent Kwame Holman started delivering his report, Henry yelled out "Kwame Holman!"

"He's really a normal kid," Jennifer Schally said. "I think beyond this, he's pretty fun-loving."

"Outside of 6 to 7 o'clock every weekday night, he's pretty normal," Troy Schally clarified.

Bizarre.

And for Halloween he's gonna dress up as Rush Limbaugh.

I'd hate to see what kind of music the parents are forcefeeding this kid. Somebody call DCFS.

While nothing is wrong per se, I'd think the parents would want to curtail this before they have an Alex P. Keaton on their hands. Kids pick up on all types of stuff, and obviously doesn't realize this isn't normal, but his parents do. The fact that the show holds his attention has got to be to some admiration of the producers. Perhaps a cross-marketing plan to attract kids?

Parents should never let their kids watch T.V. during dinner.


It's family time!

Nope, this is the best Birthday Party ever:

The number of wedgies this kid will endure in his lifetime contains more digits than will fit on a scientific calculator.

Au contraire. If Chris Berman can pull as much tail as he (apparently) does, then anything is possible....

nice name change, leather. chris berman gets mad pussy.