Venerable WRC-TV correspondent Tom Sherwood, the dean of the D.C. local politics reportocracy, is working on a piece about fire hydrants, and how they don’t work. So he’s skulking around in the John A. Wilson Building and has managed to collar a couple of residents who live near dysfunctional fire hydrants. Next step is to head out into the field to check out the scene. One wonders what kind of NBC4 footage such outings will yield. After all, it’s not as if Sherwood is going to, like, test a hydrant with one of his very own wrenches.

On Washington City Paper‘s theme for Feb. 19: “TV doesn’t have an average day.”

Of course, we’re burying the lede a bit here: Sherwood has nailed down the story that Ward 8 Councilmember Marion S. Barry Jr. will undergo kidney-replacement surgery tomorrow.