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On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is Caro Claire Burke, author of the Summer hit novel Yesteryear. Her conversation with host Peter Sagal about the book’s long journey to publication is interesting, self-effacing and fun. This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 20:30 mark.
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If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of "The Daily Show," he dealt with Trump's battle with the Reflecting Pool, but his Main Story was a point-by-point breakdown of the "Memorandum of Understanding" with Iran. It's withering and extremely funny. And as a bonus, this is Stewart's interview with Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about their new book, Regime Change, on the Trump administration. They've done a a great many interviews promoting the book, but I'm including this for two reasons. Stewart asks a lot of insightful questions that go into areas others haven't asked, and also it's extremely entertaining. In fact, several times Stewart gets the normally, deeply taciturn Haberman to crack up, as she struggles to hide her laughter. It's been a while since I posted the last one, so let's rectify that. Here’s another of the wonderful TV documentaries that George Plimpton made with David Wolper for ABC in the early 1970s. Though the editor of the erudite Paris Review, Plimpton was most famous for his participatory journalism, where he wrote books about his experiences training in a wide range of challenging fields, mostly sports, but he branched out on occasion, generally for these TV documentaries. As I mentioned before, my favorite of those TV films was one where Plimpton sort of re-created his Paper Lion experience. It wasn’t with Detroit again, but this time with then-Baltimore Colts. (The later team later moved to Indianapolis, and years after that Baltimore got another ballclub, the Ravens.) And that’s what me have today. Plimpton! The Great Quarterback Sneak. Although there was a movie about his Paper Lion experience, that wasn’t with Plimpton himself, but an actor (Alan Alda) playing him. For the TV documentary, however, it’s all Plimpton – going through training, interacting with the players and then getting another chance at redemption, to run four plays at quarterback in an exhibition game. But this game was ratcheted up – it wasn’t an intersquad contest, but playing against another NFL team. And making it more dramatic, that other team was his old team, the Detroit Lions. Furthermore, it was held in a stadium where…106,000 people were in attendance! At the time (and maybe still, I don’t know), the biggest crowd to ever see an NFL game, albeit an exhibition. I find it a joy, most especially if you like football, but even if you don’t. Because like all of Plimpton’s work, while detailed about the sport (mostly in the first segment, to establish the world we’re now in), it soon turns and becomes about the people involved, not the event itself, as Plimpton talks with the players on the sidelines and throughout the training camp, and in the dorm, getting them to open up, more than a typical athlete interview after a game. Plimpton’s narration is thoughtfully described, not by a professional athlete but an outsider trying to make sense of it all. And ultimately, hoping he can put together all he learned, as it leads up to his four plays… Here then, running 50-minutes (not 64 like the video shows) is the wonderfully titled, Plimpton! The Great Quarterback Sneak. On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is librarian Mychal Threets. He talks about host Peter Sagal about his love of libraries ever since he was a little kid and being selected as the host to bring back the TV show Reading Rainbow that is on YouTube. His enthusiasm for books comes through in his enthusiastic conversation with host Peter Sagal – which includes telling about how, later getting his Masters degree, he eventually became the supervising librarian at the same library he grew up on. He also talks about “shushing” people, odd things he’s found that people have left in their books as bookmarks and how he can figure out what books to recommend to kids. This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts a bit after the 21:45 mark. Every year around this time, there are articles about which recorded version of A Christmas Carol is "the best." Usually it comes down to the films that starred either Alistair Sim or Reginald Owen. But for me, it's this one. It's not a movie, though, or a TV production. It's, of all things, an audio version that was done in 1960 for, I believe, the BBC. It's quite wonderful and as good an adaptation of the story as I've come across. It stars Sir Ralph Richardson as Scrooge, and Oscar-winner Paul Scofield as Dickens, the narrator. Casts don't get much better than that. And it's about as fine a way to head into Christmas Eve for the Holiday Music Fest. I first heard this on radio station WFMT in Chicago which played this every Christmas Eve for many decades. Eventually, I found it on audio tape. I've listened to it annually since I was a kidling. Some years I think I won't listen to it this year, but put it on for a few minutes for tradition's sake -- but after the first sentence it sucks me in. There are four reasons why, for me, this is far and away the best version. But one reason leaps out. First, the acting is as good as it gets. Scofield is crisp and emphatic as the narrator, and almost every creak of his voice draws you in to the world, and Richardson as Scrooge is a Christmas pudding joy. Second, being radio, you aren't limited by budgets to create the Dickensian world. Your imagination fills in every lush and poverty-stricken, nook and cranny -- and ghostly spirit, aided by moody sound effects and violins. Third, the adaptation sticks closely to the Dickens tale, and Scrooge comes across more a realistic, rounded-person than as a Mythic Icon. And fourth, and most of all by far, unlike any of the other versions, this includes (and substantively includes)...Dickens. While the story of A Christmas Carol is beloved, it's Dickens' writing that makes it even more vibrant than the story alone is. And that's all lost in the movie versions, even down even to the legendary opening line, "Marley was dead, to begin with." Or any of the other classic narrative lines. (Like my favorite, when Scrooge first comes in contact with a ghost and was "as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.") Or the richness of Dickens setting the mood and tone and description of the gritty and ephemeral and emotional world. All that's gone in movies, good as the productions may be. But all of that is here in this radio adaptation, and Scofield's reading of it is joyously wonderful and memorable. There may be other adaptations that have some lines of Dickens' narration -- but in this, it's the forefront, in its full breadth. For many, this will be A Christmas Carol unlike any other you're aware of, giving it a meaning and richness you didn't realize was there. The ending of the tale is so much more moving and joyful here, as we listen to Dickens' own words, that begin with "Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more," and it soars from there, to perhaps my favorite extended passage about the new Scrooge and how good he is in the "good old world. Or any other good old world." If you have the time or inclination, do give it a listen. If only for five minutes to at least get the flavor. You might find yourself sticking around. Let it play in the background, if you have other things to do. It runs about 55 minutes. (Side note: speaking of Dickens, if you know the original cast album of Oliver!, the actor here who plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, Willoughby Goddard, was Mr. Bumble on Broadway and also in the original London production.) Normally I would post this later in the evening -- but given the various time zones across the country, I thought that I'd get it embedded earlier to give as many listeners as possible the chance to hear it on Christmas Eve. This might not play immediately, since it's a large file and may have to buffer first. But be patient, it's worth it.   Ralph Richardson, left. Paul Scofield, right.  “A Christmas Carol” cast The Author and Narrator: Paul Scofield Ebenezer Scrooge: Sir Ralph Richardson Fred: Frederick Treves First Gentleman: David Dodimead Second Gentleman: Willoughby Goddard Third Gentleman: Norman Mitchell Marley: Douglas Wilmer Spirit of Christmas Past: David Dodimead Fezziwig: Norman Mitchell Belle: Colette Wilde Belle's Husband: Edgar Wreford Spirit of Christmas Present: Willoughby Goddard Bob Cratchet: James Culliford Mrs. Cratchet: Pauline Jameson Young Cratchet: John Mitchell Tiny Tim: Michael Lewis Martha: Colette Wilde Boy: John Mitchell  P.S. It turns out that the line comes from a song ("A Little Party Never Killed Nobody") written for the 2013 movie adaptation, sung by Fergie and others. Obviously, somebody in Trump Land knew that song from the movie, must of have thought that it's a really cool line to use for a party -- especially during a government shutdown and inflation -- and everyone in the Trump party-planning circle agreed. Never realizing that it was meant ironically, given How the Novel Ends!!!! And how the movie ended... |
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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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