In 2012, the Weather Channel made the announcement that it is was going to assign names to storms, much in the same way hurricanes are assigned names. Despite the bemoaning of local and national meteorologists, the cable outlet went ahead with the practice.

Low and behold, this past weekend, the East Coast – and us in Wisconsin – got hit by Nemo. Yep, the name of the cute clownfish from the Pixar film was adopted by the channel to be able to assign a persona to the snow, ice and cold that caused messes on sidewalks and accidents on freeways, along with a number of deaths and physical ailments.

BBC touted the headline, "Snowstorm Nemo: North-eastern US and Canada dig out" and USA Today, "Flights slowly resume at Nemo-battered airports."

In my humble opinion as someone who consumes way too much media, I thought the naming of storms  was a brilliant idea. Personally, I hate it, I think it is stupid. But, this practice was a clever business move for the station for a couple of reasons.

First, if other news outlets adopts the practice and copies the same name for the storm, it’s a win. The Weather Channel, who comes up with the name, is automatically the expert and the other news media boost the credibility of where the name came from. It is as if it’s getting the stamp of approval from the places that people put their trust in to give them news and information. This practice puts the Weather Channel ahead of the rest.

Second, giving something a name, allows it to have a persona. This allows the audience to hate something. If you needed to travel by air and Nemo kept you grounded, then you are allowed to pile as much hate as you want on Nemo. Then, in that common hate, you can join thousands of others staying tuned to the channel to watch countless hours of coverage – and advertisements – during the storm.

IN DEVELOPMENT: In full geekdom, producer and director J.J. Abrams  has been attached to two pillars in the sci-fi universe with his direct involvement in rebooting the "Star Trek" world and being on board to work with Disney in taking over the next round of "Star Wars" films.

Just last week, Abrams made another move in attempt to go after a trifecta of sorts, this time in the video game world. He will be working with Valve software on movie adaptions of game favorites Half-Life and Portal. Now, I have to admit that the video game to movie move has never ever created a gem for the big screen. But having the team behind Bad Robot on the production team, I believe that these films may have a shot.

FIRST NEW GIG: Usually pinks and reds are the colors that make us think of Valentine’s Day. However, one daytime talker is hoping the hearts are filled with green and gold.

As he transitions from his former football career with the Green Bay Packers, one of Donald Driver’s first duties will be to help cover love stories for Katie Couric on ABC’s "Katie."

The dapper Donald, will make his appearance Thursday at 2 p.m. on WISN-TV Ch. 12.