We're playing a little catch-up today with Hotline's media profiles.

After the jump, learn more abot CNN's Elaine Quijano, Des Moines Register's Tom Beaumont, and the Ralston Report's Jon Ralston.

Samples from Hotline's interviews with...

...Elaine Quijano:

Elaine Quijano is a WH corr. for CNN. She also travelled with Pres. Bush in the '04 election. She joined CNN in Dec. '02 as a D.C.-based correspondent. She's also worked for TV stations in Tampa and Champaign, IL. But today she's our Friday Feature:

What was your first job?

Answering phones in a real estate on Chicago's North Shore. You can learn a lot about a person by the way they treat the receptionist.

What's your most embarrassing on-the-job moment? (Or as embarrassing as you'd like to reveal?)

Doing a live shot about a cat stuck in a tree. I'm not kidding. It was for a TV station in a local market. Suffice to say, it was not a high point in American journalism.

What is your favorite book and why?

I really enjoy "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy." It's interesting to think about the world beyond what we think we know.

What would be your last meal -- ever?

Easy one -- Chicago deep dish pizza (Lou Malnati's or Gino's East, for you Chicago natives), a Filipino dish called pancit palabok, and a beer.

...Tom Beaumont:

Tom Beaumont is the chief political reporter for the Des Moines Register. He got his start at the Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale, IL, before joining the Register in '99. He started off on the metro desk, and made the switch to politics in '02. But today he's our Friday Feature:

What was your first job?

Baling hay and cleaning calf pens on my grandfather's farm, but that's probably not what you meant. I worked for The Southern Illinoisan newspaper in Carbondale, Ill.

If you could interview any deceased person, who would it be and why?

My great great-great grandfather Esau Beaumont, who survived three years behind a Union cannon in the Civil War.

It's 2026 -- where are you and what are you doing?

Opening my restaurant overlooking Lake Superior's Apostle Islands in Bayfield, Wisconsin. The place is only open during tourist season, because I teach somewhere and travel with my wife the rest of the year.

Richard Ben Cramer's "What It Takes," because it shows in beautiful but simple detail how profound pain can fuel equally remarkable ambition.

...Jon Ralston:

Jon Ralston began the Ralston Report in 1/93. In 12/99, it became part of the Greenspun Media Group and Ralston now heads up "The Flash." He also writes columns for the Las Vegas Sun and In Business Las Vegas. He hosts a daily public affairs show, "Face to Face with Jon Ralston." He came to Las Vegas in '84, as a police reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He started covering politics two years later and has written a book on NV politics called "The Anointed One." But today he's our Friday Feature:

What's your most embarrassing on-the-job moment? (Or as embarrassing as you'd like to reveal?)

Despite the occasional red-faced moment all journalists have, in two decades-plus, nothing has yet matched what happened in Sacramento. As an eager cub reporter glued to the police scanner I heard about a dead body. I rushed to the scene and was thrilled to see I was the only media person there. I came upon a couple of cops who were smiling and shaking their heads. They asked me what I was doing there. I told them I was there to cover the big dead body story. Their laughter only increased. "It's a dead squirrel," one of them told me. I slinked back to the newsroom and hoped no one would ever find out.

It's 2026 -- where are you and what are you doing?

I am in Washington, DC, having taken over for fellow Buffalonian Tim Russert as host of "Meet the Press."

Name your favorite vacation spot.

Coronado, CA. The Hotel Del Coronado is one of the most spectacular places in the world and it is the site of my annual father-daughter trip over July 4 weekend.

What is your favorite book and why?

"Sophie's Choice." Styron's brilliant writing and his heartbreaking story of the Holocaust are indelible.