Where is Al Franken when you need him?  The author of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot​ would have had a field day with Bill O'Reilly, but no, he had to go off and get elected to the U.S. Senate.

I know this took place a few days ago, though running around it's gotten me a bit behind and taken me a while to get up to speed.  But I'm referring to when Bill O'Reill went on a bizarre hissy-fit rant about how difficult it's become for Trump to get not just A-list entertainers to perform at his innauguration, but almost anyone.  However, as you may have read, he has a theory --

​“The harsh truth is that there is reverse McCarthyism going on in the entertainment industry.” If you've finished shaking your head and rolling your eyes, I'll continue with his descent into emptiness.  “A number of entertainers believe their careers will be harmed should they associate with a new Trump administration.” 

How stupid is this?  Even his guest Charles Krauthammer told O’Reilly off -- yes, Charles Krauthammer -- replying “I find it hard to get exercised over the fact that we may be short a Rockette at the inaugural celebration."  

So much to say, so little time..

The main thing is that it shows a willful disingenuous on what McCarthyism actually was.  Not that what he suggests has anything to do with what's at play, but if it did it wouldn't be even close enough to see the connection with the Hubble telescope, because it's McCarthyism was something else entirely.  McCarthyism was the actual U.S. government using its authority to investigate people based on their political belief, bringing people to be questioned in Congress and asking them questions about their thoughts anad what they believe, throwing people in jail (actual jail) if they refused to comply.

That was MCarthyism.  An offshoot of it is that people were literally blacklisted for their beliefs.  Literally.  Their names were actually kept in books (the most infamous was called Red Channels).  And people were actually denied work and their livelihood as a result of it.

That's McCarthyism.  This is people chosing of their own volition not to perform at an event.

Beyond that, Mr. O'Reilly in his meltdown has forgotten or chosing to ignore or just been to foolish to recognize several things.  High among them is that, given that me live in a Democracy, people acctually have the right to entertain whoever they want for any reason they want.  And more to the point is that it was clear during the election how many A-list celebrities didn't support Trump.  So, why would one expect them to want to celebrate his Electoral College victory.  And even more, it's not just a case of not supporting, but so many of them hating Trump, hating his racist statements, hating his encouraging racism, hating his misogyny, hating his ridiculting the disabled, hating his trashing of the press, hating his disparagement of U.S. Intelligence serves, hating demagoguery, hating his calls to "lock up" Hillary Clinton, hating his congenital lying, hating his support of hacking, hating his praise of Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the expense of President Barack Obama, and so much more.

And if people hate Trump SO much, hate him that much, why on earth would anyone sane and rational even think for a moment that such people would want to help celebrate his victory and entertain on his behalf???

Did Mr. O'Reilly not even consider such a possibility???  Hey, even Charles Krauthammer did.

While it's certainly possible that some entertainers' careers could be impacted negatively if they performed at a Trump Inauguration Ball (which speaks volumes), if it did possibly occur it would be because audiences were so offended that they stopped buying recordings or chose to not attend concerts -- not because of any institutional actions.  Not that Mr. O'Reilly provided event a speck of lint as evidence of such a thing.

On the other hand, let's say that Beyonce, for one, did perform.  I have a feeling that her career would be just fine.  As would most anyone who chose to perform.  But that's not at hand.  The issue is that they simply hate the guy and hate all that he stands for and just simply have ZERO interest in entertaining on his behalf.

To me, much more shocking is that Ted Nugent hasn't volunteered or been asked to perform.  Now, there's something for Bill O'Reilly to truly get up-in-arms outraged over...

Ultimately, the only McCarthyism at play here is Charlie McCarthy.  Because Bill O'Reilly has shown himself to be a dummy.  Perhaps even mouthing someone else's words.

Here at Elisberg Industries, we like to keep our fine readers and loyal worldwide customers as informed and up to date with as much insight as possible.  That's why we have our correspondents, agents and brokers scouring the globe to stop on top of as close to everything as we can.

As you might recall, just the other day, I posted a couple videos of a wonderful moment at a recent Bruce Springsteen concernt in New Jersey when a couple got engaged in the audience, and he brought them up on stage.  Well, as it happens, we had a correspondent there.  The recently-mentioned Don Friedman, my fellow Glencoenian and New Trier grad, was at that very show at MetLife Stadium.  In his words, "Great moment!"  I suspect he'd have written more, but it's difficult when you're busy yelling, "Bruuuuuuuuuuce!!!!"

As I've mentioned here lately, Garrison Keillor is retiring as host of A Prairie Home Companion after 42 years.  (The show will continue in October, though with a new host, Chris Thile.)  And tonight is the last show.  It's being recorded, though, for airing on Saturday in its normal time slot at 5 PM, Central time.

Notable for our purposes here -- this last show tonight is being done in, of all place, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.  And yes, as I've mentioned, I have tickets.  It didn't even occur to me not to go.

I've told some of these stories before, but because of the occasion it's a good time to repeat them.

I first went to an A Prairie Home Companion live show before it even become a national program.  My brother John was living in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the time, and he would write me about this great local radio show, A Prairie Home Companion.  And so, when I went to visit him once, we went to see the show live, at the World Theater.  As I said, it was still just a local show, and didn’t go national for maybe another 3 years.  I still have some paraphernalia from going to that show.  One is a 20-page pamphlet called The Collected Poems of Margaret Haskins Durber. She was Lake Wobegon's poet laureate, and Keillor would often recite her wonderful, sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful work.  For whatever reason, he dropped her as a character to talk about decades ago.  The pamphlet by Ms. Durber is dedicated "For My Husband," and reads --

Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord that he will keep
To his own side, for goodness sake.
Unless, of course, he is awake.

I also even remember a passage from one of the songs he sang at that local show.  It came in a sketch about a sad sack of a fellow, and Keillor wrote a song to the tune of "My Way," sung in the first person by the man who had so many things coming on him.  It went --

Those guy,
They threw mud pies.
And threw them...
My way.

Oddly, and happily, when Garrison Keillor first retired from the show a long while back, in his intended farewall program, he did a sketch that actually used a verse from that same "My Way" parody.  I leapt out of my seat while listening, overjoyed.

While on the visit to St. Paul, I didn't only see and hear Garrison Keillor doing a local version of A Prairie Home Companion -- but he also had a local radio morning show.  And I remember every morning during my visit listening to Keillor do that show, as well.

So, how in the world could I not go to Garrison Keillor’s last A Prairie Home Companion?!
 
Yet, in addition to all that, there's another reason, as well.  I am literally – without exaggeration – the reason A Prairie Home Companion got on the air in Los Angeles.  It’s a long story, but this is very brief version:
 
Back around 1980, my brother -- still in St. Paul, told me that the still-local A Prairie Home Companion was going to do a national fundraiser on NPR from the University of Minnesota, and I really wanted to hear it.  So, I called around all the NPR outlets in Los Angeles to see if any were carrying it, and no one knew what on earth I was talking about.  Only one station, KCRW in Santa Monica, had sort of heard of it. 

The problem was, by the time I reached them, and by the time they looked into deciding what to do, the airdate had passed.  And they didn’t know if they were even allowed to air the previously-live show on tape delay after the fact.  They had to check with NPR in Washington.  I kept calling them and calling them, reminding them and noodging them to find out. 

At last, at least a month later, or maybe even two months, they got permission and aired the program.  And it was wonderful.  I called KCRW up to thank them, and the person said, “No, we want to thank you.  We’ve been getting phone calls all day from people who LOVED it, and we never would have put the show on if it hadn’t been for you following up with us.”

(To this day, I don't know if KCRW realizes that they were the first station to air A Prairie Home Companion.  It didn't become a national program for another couple years after that, and when it did, it was on KUSC.)
 
So, again, there is no way I even considered not going to the final broadcast.  Tonight.  In just a few hours.

And I'll be leaving very shortly for the Hollywood Bowl to be there.  I'll have a report later.

The other day, I wrote a long addendum here  to the latest in a series of great articles that Mark Evanier has written about rejection in Hollywood -- mainly about writers, but it tends to be appropriate for anyone in Hollywood, or often for anyone trying to work, period.

He has a new one, and again it's terrific.  The short version is that this one is about how one should look at any job interview as just an interview for one job, and not make it more than it is.  The long version is...much better.  You can read the whole thing here.

I honestly have no idea who won any Golden Globe last night, other than apparently Lady Gaga because she bumped into Leonardo DiCaprio's arm and the Twitter World has gone crazy.  I haven't bothered to look and see who won because, well, I really, truly don't care.  About 30 or so people who are unidentified and possibly stringers who voted for a person just doesn't do much for me.  But godspeed to the winners.  It's nice to get any award, even it's one as meaningless as your office pool.

I did watch the opening monologue, because I like Ricky Gervais.  And I thought he was pretty amusing, even if not every joke was great.  (My favorite line, clearly appreciated by the knowing-audience, was about stars feeling obligated to show up because they knew their studio had bought the award for them.)  But I do love seeing the comments about how rude he was.  Yes, he was rude.  I have no problem at all with anyone being offended by any of his comments, just don't be surprised by them.  This isn't his first barbecue.

But I bring all this up because of my favorite comment of all, by far,  It was in an article whose headline caught my eye by Cole Delbyck, an entertainment writer for the Huffington Post.  Basically chastising the hijinks of the presenters, he wrote, "Seriously, everybody needs to turn down with the planned gags and forced humor. It's the Golden Globes, not an amateur stand-up set at the Chuckle Bucket."

"It's the Golden Globes"??? As if the evening is the equivalent in decorum to an invitation to dine with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.  Or your friends' wedding anniversary.  "It's the Golden Globes"?!  Really?  There is less etiquette required at the event than standing in line to get tickets for a Taylor Swift concert.  That's not hyperbole.  If you tried to cut in line, you'd probably get jumped on by the others.  If you dropped your trousers at the Golden Globes while presenting an award, there's a chance you could be invited to come back next year as host.

And by the by, it actually is a whole lot closer to amateur stand-up night the the Chuckle Bucket.  Really and truly.  Did the reporter not notice the glass of beer on the podium that Ricky Gervais kept sipping from?  Those in the audience might have been wearing nice clothes, but most were likely getting sloshed all night.

"It's the Golden Globes."  Hey, at least he used the word "gag".

I love Penn and Teller.  But I'm not particularly a fan of their show, Penn and Teller: Fool Us -- though it's a hit and was recently renewed for its third season.  I'm not quite sure why I don't like it much, but I think there are three reasons.  1) It's really not Penn and Teller doing much, but other magicians brought in, 2) when Penn and Teller explain how they believe the trick is done, they hide most of the details, so they're really not saying much of anything, and 3) I dislike the host Jonathan Ross, who's a smarmy guy with a chat show in England.

If you don't know Penn and Teller:  Fool Us, the premise is that magicians come on stage to do a trick, and Penn and Teller then try to figure out and explain (cryptically) how it was done.  Most of the time, they can.  But If they can't, the magician wins the opportunity to open for them in Las Vegas.

Here is a magician, Kostya Kimlat, who indeed fools them.  But that's not the fun.  The fun is how pissed off Penn is that he can't figure it out.  It's clearly not "angry" pissed off, almost more admiration that the guy is so good that he knows he won't figure it out.  And he wonderfully plays the "pissed off" to the hilt.

This is a bonus clip.  It's Penn Jillette later calling into another of Jonathan Ross's shows, this on the radio, and he talks about the as yet-unaired appearance of being fooled and you can tell clearly his admiration for the guy.  But his more-involved explanation with a background story that didn't get on the TV show makes his reaction all the more understandable.