On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest is TV host and former NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan. He tells a wonderfully unexpected and funny story about how he got involved in football – beginning with that he grew up in Germany. Host Peter Sagal describes the interview as “joyful” – and it is.
This the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 18:15 mark.
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As the site for Jon Stewart's podcast notes, “One Jon is nice—but have you ever heard a podcast with three of them? (Plus, a Tommy for good measure.)” Jon Stewart welcomes Jon Lovett and Jon Favreau, as well as non-Jon Tommy Vietor, the Pod Save America guys. Together they discuss “midterm elections, the problem with polling, and whether we should look to journalism to save us. They also take a stroll down memory lane to the Obama White House, reminiscing about the good old days of government website crashes and that time a gaping hole opened in the bottom of the ocean.”
I can’t embed the audio, but if you click on the link here, it will take you to the website, where you just click on the “Play” arrow underneath the photo. From the archives. We have a recent repeat this week, with contestant is Claire Nalven from Waltham, Massachusetts. This is a very florid piece, and the song is extremely well-hidden – and to my shock, I got it. And while I came close on the composer style, it was two people I find similar, and I guessed the wrong one.
On this week’s episode of 3rd and Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guest is Amy Schumer, who talks about her Hulu series Life and Beth. Schumer comes across much more low-key than she does when on TV interviews, very thoughtful and personable. Some of that, I suspect, is that she recognizes early on (and I’m very sorry to put it this way) how truly awful the interviewer is and needs her help. The only reason I say that upfront is so that no one turning in to listen doesn’t get caught off-guard and put off. To be fair, she acknowledges it up front, that she’s a TV writer, not a journalist. But still, that’s pretty clear right away. That aside, not every celebrity being interviewed under such conditions would be as gracious and helpful as Schumer is here.
Following up on yesterday’s post of Ethel Merman recreating her 1934 Broadway role for a 1954 TV adaptation of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, here’s another video from that production. This time, it’s a duet of another of the show’s great songs, “You’re the Top,” and notable for being with one of the productions co-stars, Frank Sinatra. There’s a bit of lead-in dialogue, and their performance is enthusiastic and fun, even with Sinatra mugging his way through it. And knowing it would get a good reaction, they built in a reprise. One thing that should be clear from Liz Truss's resignation as British Prime Minister after only 44 days (though won't be) is that inflation is not only a worldwide problem, but that it's worse in much (or even most) of the world than in the U.S.
That doesn't make inflation "OK" here at all -- it's an important problem -- but puts it in proper perspective as to the cause, with Republicans blaming it on President Biden despite there being inflation across the globe. And puts in perspective, as well, what other countries are doing to address it. After all, however much Republicans still want to say, well, but his policies made it worse, the reality is that, as noted, the U.S. has been addressing it better than most countries in the world, to the effect that inflation here is lower. In Prime Minister Truss's case, the problem was that her conservative policies were making inflation much worse in the U.K. -- but when she adjusted her policies to help fix things by being less conservative, she lost her conservative support. And so, had to resign. After just four Scaramucci's. Further, the conservatives are not calling a general election, because they know how hugely unpopular they are. So instead, they're just going to shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic and try to pick another conservative leader who'll face the same conservative hurdles that conservative Truss did. On a separate, but related note, I came across a comment on social media yesterday from a fellow in England who described himself as a "Scientist, Botany, Biochemistry, Cancer Research" and a "Hardline Centerist." He wrote -- "A formerly sane & 'conservative' political party sacrificed on the alter of one ideology. Business & financial competence became irrelevant." All I could think of to reply was: Welcome to the club... |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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