Local TV weatherman Ed Brandon has announced his retirement next month. In the process, he gave a lengthy interview about his career to his KTRK colleague Mike McGuff. (Another colleague from KTRK, Laurence Simon, adds his memories of Brandon.) Brandon is a dying species on the air - the weatherman who isn't a meteorologist. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what difference it makes if the person reading the forecast and waving at the green screen has a degree or not - frankly, for my money, the local stations spend too much time on weather as it is, and I suspect the trend towards "professional" weathercasters is a factor in that. I'd just as soon see the whole thing de-emphasized a bit, since (let's face it) most times there's not that much to report anyway. But that's just me, and I get a little cranky about things like this. Be that as it may, the interview is a good read, and the local landscape is always a little less colorful when someone like Brandon hangs it up. Best wishes to you, Ed, in whatever you do from here.