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From the archives. This week's contestant is Brandon Baxter from Hastings, Nebraska. To my surprise, I got the composer style first and pretty quickly -- surprising particularly because it's one of the genres I'm not especially adept at and also there are several composers who overlap for me. I could hear the hidden song, but just couldn't get it...but then about a minute it, I did. What surprised me most of all, though, is not so much that the contestant couldn't get the hidden song, but host Fred Child -- who's usually so good at helping out with that -- not only didn't guess it on the first go-round, but didn't either when Bruce Adolphe played it a second time. Only until Adolphe played it straight through without any composer style getting in the way did Child finally hear it. And the song is a pretty famous standard from The Great American Songbook. There's also a whimsical clue in the hidden song which helped make me sure I was right in my guess.
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On this week's Naked Lunch podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild offer Part 2 of their Greatest 2024 "Lunch" Hits. It includes conversations with Bonnie Hunt, Cameron Crowe (with Kate Hudson), Daryl Hall, Curt Smith and Phil's brother, Richard Rosenthal.
On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is former SNL cast member Jay Pharoah, who will soon be starting as host of a new game show. His conversation with host Peter Sagal is very funny, thanks to them focusing on his impressions, in particular Will Smith and Chris Rock. Also, when they get into the quiz portion of the segment, the voices come back in to “help” him provide answers.
This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 18:15 mark. Once again, as a result of the Holiday Fest, this episode of the Al Franken podcast (which was recorded weeks ago) got pushed back. So, some of it is out of date. But all the discussion is thoughtful. The guest is Aaron Blake, senior political reporter and author/host of The Campaign Moment newsletter and podcast for the Washington Post. As Al writes, “As we move closer to the second Trump administration, we are learning more about his incoming Cabinet. Aaron Blake joins us to discuss some of Trump’s Cabinet picks and their struggles to be confirmed. Also, the American people seem to overwhelmingly want a check on Trump’s power. What will that look like with an administration that believes it has a mandate? Plus, we break down Hunter Biden’s pardon and how that might impact Joe Biden’s legacy.”
Back in 2010, they made a reunion special of sorts, The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited. It’s available on YouTube, but broken into five segments. The show is quite well done, especially considering that almost half a century (!) -- 44 years -- had passed between the final episode and this. For the most part it’s a new “episode,” but they also mix in wonderful archival footage. If you want to watch the whole thing, you can just click on this link for the first part, and then follow the subsequent links for the other sections. But it’s the final part that I think is especially worth posting here. It mixes the storyline (Alan has tracked down Rob, now living in New York with Laura who has a small dance studio in their apartment, to write his eulogy for whenever it’s needed) with great footage from the original series. And there are some wonderful, “inside” jokes about the show that should be clear enough to most people. We're going to turn today's pages over to President Biden. In his eulogy of former President Jimmy Carter yesterday, he made a long, eloquent statement on behalf of character and decency, and how they are both protections against hate and deterrents against abuse of power. And all of this said with Trump sitting almost directly in front of him. Notable, too, is how the cameras cut to a seemingly uncomfortable Trump at appropriate moments. Given how indicative President Biden's words were about Jimmy Carter, it's difficult to know for certain how much they were intended to accurate describe him, and how much to make pointed observations about Trump, perhaps in hope of the message getting through (improbable that they would) or just to draw the contrast. It's not unreasonable to think there was some of both. I won't post the entire eulogy, but it's this 2-1/2 minute passage that is especially so wonderful, even if it was all meant just to focus on who Jimmy Carter was, as a shining example for all. That there could be an additional meaning is just frosting on the cake. |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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