This is just great.  As in – just great
 
It doesn’t require any background, but putting it in context helps the enjoyment, I think.
 
This comes from a wonderful program I accidentally came across on C-SPAN 2 when scrolling through my television’s on-screen guide.  It was a three-hour event on CSPAN-2, and only had about 45 minutes left, but the subject looked interesting, so I thought I’d check it out.  And it was spectacular – I watched the last 45 minutes and set the DVR for one of its repeats.  The event was originally broadcast last April – a three-hour celebration of the 100th anniversary of Simon & Schuster.  All it is, is authors coming on stage and telling anecdotes and stories about writing, each story about 3-4 minutes, and then leaving the stage, and another author comes on.  It was so good, very thoughtful, insightful, and mostly, often really funny.  (One author said, “If I’d know how much I’d be laughing backstage, I’d have prepared something funny, but unfortunately I didn’t.”

I didn’t know most of the authors, but they were all wonderful.  (Okay, almost all.  Awo writer friends “interviewed” each other, and they were a bit much.  But even they were okay.)  I did see a few well-known people – Judith Viorst, Hilary Clinton, Walter Isaacson and Bob Woodward.  And the description of the show mentions Stephen King, Jerry Seinfeld, Judy Blume, John Irving, and Charlamagne tha God.
 
After recording the full event, I’ve watched it all now, and it holds up to how terrific those final 45 minutes are.
 
I don’t expect most people to watch the whole thing, but this one speech was just a total gem.  I was going to just type out some of the author’s best lines, but his delivery is too bone dry to not see him deliver it, since that makes it all the better.  I dearly hoped that there would be a singled-out video of his four-minute presentation, so I did a search on YouTube…and happily there was.
 
In fairness, they aren’t all this good – but in equal fairness, most are in this range of at least being fun and entertaining.
 
And yes, I know I’m raving about this so much that it’s hard to live up to – but I feel confident it will.  The video has 7,400 “Likes” – and zero “Not likes.”  The User Comments are just glowing.
 
I was originally going to write that I don’t know the author, Fredrik Backman (who’s Swedish).  But then I decided to check out his work – and it turns out that I do know of him!!!  He wrote the novel that the wonderful Swedish movie A Man Called Ove is based on, that was nominated for a Foreign-Language Oscar.  It’s funny, sardonic, dramatic, and wistful.  So, that explains his speech!!  The movie got remade in the U.S. with Tom Hanks, as A Man Called Otto, which I’m sure more people here saw.  They did a very good job with the remake (though the original is my preference).  I’ll now have to check out some of his other books.  In fact, I’ve already bought his second novel -- with a glorious title, My Grandmother Says to Tell You She's Sorry.  I'm about two-thirds through, and it's excellent.  Unexpected, thoughtful, inventive and often very funny.
 
If you do decide you want to see the full event – or just scroll through it, it’s available on the C-SPAN website.  I highly recommend it.  And the good thing is, being made up for basically 4-minute speeches, a person can watch it in segments, and just pick up where you left off.  You can find it here.
  
Anyway, here is Fredrik Backman’s speech.  Full of laughs, insightful comments and some extremely clever observations…and a perfect ending line.  It’s only four minutes.  Really, do yourself a favor and watch it -- 

A week or so ago, I posted a video of Hugh Grant making a speech to help honor screenwriter and director Richard Curtis at the Motion Picture ceremony presenting him with an honorary Oscar.  In his speech, Grant noted that Curtis was one of he founders of Comic Relief and its off-shoot Red Nose Day – which makes this video all the more pointed, since it comes from the 2010 Comic Relief.
 
This is a 12-minute film that’s a parody of the movie Mamma Mia, starring Jennifer Saunders playing Meryl Streep.  And it features a  wonderful cast, including Sienna Miller as ‘Amanda Seyfried,’ Dawn French as “Julie Walter,” British comedian Alan Carr as ‘Colin Firth’ and Joanna Lumley recreating her role of ‘Patsy’ from Absolutely Fabulous (for no apparent reason).  The whole thing is utterly loony and a lot of fun.

If you missed Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of The Daily Show last night, here's his Main Story.  It was on January 6 this year, as well as how the New Orleans and Las Vegas bombings were handled by the media and right-wing officials.  As you might imagine, his perspective was blunt -- and he was able to make it all very funny, as well.

As a bonus, this is his thoughtful and often amusing interview with Rep. Jamie Raskin.

This is just pure funny and doesn’t need anything more than that.  Though of course, that’s what I’m here for.  It’s Hugh Grant honoring screenwriter and occasional director Richard Curtis who – among his lengthy resume -- wrote such movies as Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary; Four Weddings and a Funeral; Love, Actually (which he also directed), War Horse,  and Yesterday; as well as co-created with Rowan Atkinson the series Mr. Bean and created the series Blackadder – and a lot more.  “A lot more” isn’t just movies and TV, but also includes co-founding Comic Relief which led, in turn, to Red Nose Day.  The occasion was Curtis receiving an honorary Oscar at the Motion Picture Academy’s annual Governor’s Award. 
 
When I first saw this a couple of weeks ago, I was wondering how I could have possibly never have seen this or been aware of it.  When I went back to track down the video in order to post it here, I looked closer to see if it could help fill in some information about it.  It not only did, but it also explained how I could “never” have been aware of it.  It turns out that the even had been held…November 27, 2024.  Two weeks earlier!  So…hot off the presses, here it is.

​A few years back, I was trying to think of a New Year song for the year ahead -- as opposed to one for New Year's Eve, like "Auld Lang Syne" and many others -- and while I was sure there was one out there or several, none quickly came to mind.  The best I could come up with on the spur of the moment for a new year (others popped in later) was this song from British songwriter/entertainers Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, who I've often noted here I dearly love, in their stage revue (or as they called it, an after-dinner farrago...) At the Drop of a Hat.  This is "A Song of the Weather."

That's the bearded Michael Flanders who's the lyricist and lead singer, with composer Donald Swann at the piano and singing backup.

To continue our festivities on the seventh night of Hanukkah, here is Adam Sandler in 1994 singing his Hanukkah song on SNL for the first time -- which was...the seventh night of Hanukkah!
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