​Remarkably, we have a new episode to the site, not one out of the archives.  This week’s contestants are Tara Rozanski and Kobi Davidson from Collingswood, New Jersey.  I got the hidden song pretty quickly, and thought most would, as long as they knew the song which – while not hugely popular is a standard with a famous pedigree – because it’s not much hidden.  But maybe not, because neither the contestants nor host Fred Child couldn’t guess it, even when Bruce Adolphe played it almost completely unadorned.  As for the composer style, I couldn’t tell and foolishly should have been able to, since it’s one of my favorites.

​Hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild’s  conversation with Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda continues in Part 2, and as they write, “ice cream is served. Jane shares some of her important environmental concerns. Then the Naked Lunch talk turns to everything from ‘nepo babies’ to the intersection of movies and politics and some of Jane's experiences with directors. Jane also shares some amazing stories about her beloved friend and 9 to 5 co-star Dolly Parton. And Jane's fellow Oscar-winning friend and The Morning After co-star Jeff Bridges sends her a memorable special message.
 

I embedded Part One last week, but if you missed it, you can check it out here.

On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guests are Bob Odenkirk along with his daughter Erin, with whom (as well as with his son) he wrote a book of poems for children, that she also illustrated.  As you might imagine, their interview with host Peter Sagal is a rambunctious joy, mostly covering family matters, though it branches out.  Both are present in the theater, which one might think is because the show is done in Chicago, which is where Odenkirk is from – except this week, everyone is in Los Angeles. 

​This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 18:30 mark.

For this week’s Al Franken podcast, he returns to his SNL comedy roots.  The guest is Saturday Night Live producer Jim Downey.  The two talk about, as Al puts it, "how they tried to reward the audience for knowing stuff but not punish them for not. 

From all his many years on the series Law & Order (and also movies, like Dirty Dancing and Crimes & Misdemeanors) I suspect that there is a generation of viewers (or two generations) who have no idea that Jerry Orbach was not only a huge Broadway musical star, but I believe was honored as starring in more performances on Broadway than any other actor or actress.  He was in such shows as Chicago, Carnival, Promises Promises (for which he won the Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical – and which I saw on Broadway), the revivals of 42nd Street and Guys and Dolls, and a couple of hugely long-running off-Broadway musicals, The Threepenny Opera, and perhaps most-famously The Fantasticks, for which he originated the role of ‘El Gallo’.  Notably, in that show he introduced the song “Try to Remember.” 
 
There are a few videos of him singing “Try to Remember” years later on TV shows, but I decided to select this one.  That’s because the pianist accompanying him is Harvey Schmidt – who wrote the music to it.  (The lyrics are by Tom Jones.  No, not the Welsh singer.)  And then afterwards, the two sit down with host Robert Klein and have an interesting conversation about the show.  (One note: when they refer to the “Rape Song,” it’s meant as the old usage of the word, and in the show references seduction.)
 
By the way, many people who only know him for his acting likely don’t realize that he was the voice of ‘Lumiere’ the candlestick in the animated film Beauty and the Beast, and sang “Be Our Guest.”  As it happens, I’m also biased because the good fellow went to the beloved Northwestern University – though he left senior year to go to New York.  He did well there.
​

Over on Newsmax, they are discussing a “civil war” between the U.S. government and southern states over border security.
 
It is my belief (and of course I could be wrong about this) that the participants on Newsmax don't actually have the slightest clue what would be involved in a "civil war" taking place for any reason, but most especially for an issue that only directly impacts Texas. After all, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Virginia do not actually touch the border of another country.  I would have thought over at Newsmax they might have, well, y’know, looked at a map first before trying to sound smart and be divisively racist, but I guess I was wrong about that.
 
At best, and this is stretching things a lot, a border issue with Mexico would impact only Arizona, New Mexico and California -- none of which are "southern states."  However, stringing deadly razor wire across a border river is not an issue that impacts either of those three states.  And California is certainly not going to join a civil war because of Mexico anyone.  Nor is New Mexico.  Both of whom have significant Mexican-American populations and get along with Mexico.  Arizona largely does, too, now that Sheriff Joe Arpaio isn’t in office anymore, although you never know what they’ll do with Katie Lake as the state’s faux-governor in her delusional mind.
 
On the other hand, perhaps the Newsmax participants are also thinking about Montana, Idaho, Washington, North Dakota, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Maine. (And just to be nice, we’ll throw in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania -- by the tippy tip – even though they have the massive Great Lakes for protection which would also require tons of razor wire.)  The Newsmax guys did refer only to “southern states,” which makes one think they’re only concerned with Mexicans coming into the U.S. and are okay with Canadians.  But not only is Canada another country, even though they speak English (well…most of them, there are still all those French-speaking Quebecois), but for all we know, people in Minnesota and Vermont – but especially Idaho – might be on-board with openly fighting the U.S. government in “civil war” over Mexicans.
 
Of course, as I noted, there are a whole lot of problems with any of these states – although, really, just Texas – fighting the U.S. government.  For starters, they don’t have armies.  Or a navy or air force.  They do have the National Guard, but being “national,” the bulk of funding for that comes from the federal government.  And I have to believe the feds would cut financing on that should any states (well, probably just Texas) declare war on the entire country.
 
And we haven’t even got to the problem of seceding from the Union before declaring a “civil war” on the United States.  Sure, they don’t have to – they can just try an Insurrection like they did on January 6, 2021, which gave them some practice, but let’s be honest, if you’re going to have a “civil war,” how wimpy do you look if you don’t secede first.  But then, as I wrote the other day, secession brings a whole separate set of horrible problems.
 
But sure, yammering on Newsmax (or wherever it pops up) about “civil war” sounds pretty darn macho and comes across as very cool swaggering and posturing to your delusional viewer.  The problem is that swaggering and posturing tend to be just a rhythmic dance, and yammering in an election year about racist civil war is generally considered a really bad platform for a party which is pushing it to rile its racist base.  And it’s made all the worse when it turns out that that party, which has been braying mournfully at the moon about how There is a Major Crisis (!!), has pulled away from its agreement to deal with immigration and the border because they don’t want the other side to be seen as actually working to solve the problem, so instead – in the midst of There is a Major Crisis (!!) - they instead choose to be the side that’s seen as not working to solve the problem.
 
And in the end, the bottom line is that anyone upset that Texas can’t put up deadly razor wire are really upset at the very conservative Supreme Court that said Texas can’t do it.  Which is a real hindrance when very conservative racists can’t even count on their own side for legal support to justify their racism.