Live from the University of Indiana, on this week's 'Not My Job' segment of the NPR quiz show "Wait, Wait…Don't Tell Me!", the guest contestant is six-time Olympic Gold Medal-swimmer Lilly King, who still lives there in Bloomington.  It's a fun, lively conversation with host Peter Sagal about how she got into swimming, getting proposed to at Olympic Trials, the expectation of winning and trash talking at races.

This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the "Not My Job" segment, it starts at the 20:30 mark.

As readers of these pages may recall, I was a huge fan of Strike Force Five and linked to several of the podcasts.  For those who don't recall -- or weren't wandering around these hall as the time -- this was a series of podcasts made by the talk show hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver.  It was done during the most-recent Writers Guild Strike, as a support of the strikers (when their talk shows were off the air, and raised some money for the staffs.)  It was wonderful, often wildly, and its classic episode remains the week the rotating host was Jimmy Fallon who decided to do a sort of Newlywed Game (first contacting all the hosts' wives to get their answers) and pretty much screwed up everything. Repeatedly.  The other four were merciless to him -- not only during that episode, but bringing it up again in the weeks ahead.

I'm not exaggerating.  The way they described the episode on the Strike Force Five website was:  “Episode five is about our wives. Jimmy Fallon hosts the WORST GAME SHOW EVER in our favorite episode so far."

(Here's the article and link to it here.  They even did a sequel several weeks later, when Fallon was again the host and said that he hadn't used all the questions in the first episode.  It wasn't as lunatic as the original, but still very funny.  This is the link to it.)

The other day, as Colbert's show nears its final broadcast on Thursday, he invited the full Strike Force Five hosts to be guests.  I didn't see it when the episode aired last week when I was out of town, but that's just as well since the full, wonderful conversation didn't make it on the air -- and lasted 36 minutes!  This is the whole thing, and it's a joy.  And it's also absolutely fascinating if you take a step back and realize that this is all five competing talk show hosts together on a network broadcast, just having a great time with one other, who they clearly, greatly like and admire.

Also, the five hosts later got together again and did a final Strike Force Five video podcast, which I'll post later.  But for now --

On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, co-hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild welcome Ringo Starr.  As the show writes, “It Don't Come Easy, but Phil & David are full of Peace & Love to bring you our most Fab ‘Naked Lunch/ yet. First Ringo Starr & T Bone Burnett discuss Ringo's fabulous new Country album, ‘Long Long Road’ for a relatively short but sweet conversation that still takes long & winding roads with stories about taking a punch from Muhammad Ali when he was Cassius Clay-- The Greatest vs. The Greatest ! -- the enduring joy of playing with the Fab frontline in Ringo's former band -- John. Paul and George & their Liverpool wits. And don't miss Phil knvelling when Ringo drums ‘Get Back’ and ‘Come Together’ on this week's ‘Naked Lunch’ table.” Plus Elvis Costello offers some words on Ringo.

The other day, I was trading a bunch of emails with my Northwestern roommate, Jim Backstrom, Esq.  (H wasn't "Esq" then, though close, but he's gone up in the world since then.) At one point, he sent me a link to a video that also-fellow alum Stephen Colbert posted six years, telling a story that he referenced (though not in as much detail as here) when he received an honorary doctorate from the school in 2011.

​I had to laugh, too, because I also almost didn't graduate.  And even had a similar story – and “similar” in more ways that one might think.
 
In my tale, one day very late in my senior year, something occurred to me out of the blue (to this day, I don’t know why it popped into my head) that I might possibly be one required class short.  I thought I had taken one of the qualifying classes that were on the “required” list.  But in thinking about this, I felt the one I’d taken might not have qualified.  And I realized that after registration for the final quarter had closed.  I went to talk to the assistant dean of the School of Speech (today it’s called the School of Communication) – and she confirmed to me that, no, the class I’d previously taken was not qualifying.  And she confirmed to me, too, that registration had closed, but happily she was able to get a graduate school class (which would satisfy the requirement) to let me register for it.  I got it all resolved by talking with that assistant dean -- Cathy Martin!!  Yes, the very same woman who – several years later – was then dean, and who wrote the “See me” note to Colbert about him being a credit short!  I remember asking her, after everything was settled, "If I hadn't realized this, would I have graduated?"  She answered, "No."
 
Cathy Martin was an extremely nice person, and a well-deserving dean.  And it was great to hear Steve Colbert reference her in his story.  As it happens, when I relayed this to Jim, it turned out that even he had a wonderful story about Cathy Martin.  (It’s hard to type “Dean Martin,” since that might make people think these stories are all about the popular singer and Sinatra pal from years back.)  Jim’s story wasn’t a “You won’t graduate” one – indeed Jim graduated a year early, so graduating was never an issue with him.  In fact, he got straight A’s in every one of his classes, except for one B.  And I’d read his term paper in that class, I believe political science – I think it had to do with the use of shibboleths in Nixon's inaugural trip to China.  (Really, I’m not making that up.)  And it was superb.  And the professor, for reasons unknown to Man, gave Jim his only B.  (My theory is that it’s like when Indians wove a rug, they always put a flaw in, so that they couldn’t be accused of think they were perfect and like God.  The professor, knowing Jim and his many great skills, thought he should be held to the very same standard.  At least that’s my theory.)  And lest you think that I'm exaggerating the high-quality of his paper -- later that year it won the John Kirk Oratory Award from the School of Speech! Anyway, his story with Cathy Martin revolved around career choice, and it was very nurturing.  As was her way.  He ended up an eminent attorney, which he remains today.  After an admirable career in government service as a U.S. Attorney heading the Anti-Trust division in Dallas.

But I digress.  Sort of.  Because ultimately this is about Stephen Colbert and the Commencement Address that he gave at Northwestern in 2011.  I thought I'd posted it previously -- I've posted the ones by Steve Carell, Seth Meyers and Gov. JB Pritzker, all of them terrific.  And Colbert's is, as well -- but when I did a search, I couldn't find it.  It might be there, but buried somewhere.  So, I knew I had to post it here.  And just under the wire before this part of his TV work is over in less than two weeks, for "unforced reasons," as the polite expression might goes, thanks to Trump's infantile insecurity and never mind that the First Amendment exists.  But also because it's really extremely good.  

It includes one passage I dearly love that deals with notable award winners who have come from Northwestern.  But then, it's full of great passages.

With an assist from Dean Cathy Martin.  Or, make that, many assists.

Although for years the celebration moved around the calendar a bit more than in the past and was therefore somewhat difficult to track down (no pun intended), today -- we are full of joy to announce -- once again is that most grand fest, National Train Day.  At least it is here at Elisberg Industries, and that's good enough as a starting point.  You won't find it on any calendars for any number of reasons, but the most important is that since Amtrak funding got cut back they stopped promoting it after 2016.

(And the reason for it moving around the calendar is that it was never a set day, but the Saturday closest to May 10.  Why May 10, I hear you cry?  Because that's the anniversary of the Golden Spike being driven in at Promontory Point, Utah, to complete the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.)

But whether or not it remains an officially promoted holiday by the government -- and isn't being celebrated here on a proper Saturday due to prior commitments, think of it as the train running behind schedule -- National Train Day (or as it used to be known around these parts once upon a time as "Let's Make Chris Dunn's Head Explode Day," but no more since he now, at long last, acknowledges Bridge on the River Kwai as a train movie) is nonetheless still one of the most joyous holidays of the year. 

On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest contestant is John Cusack.  His interview with host Peter Sagal is low-key but very enjoyable, as he talks about still living in Chicago, where he grew up in Evanston, and tells stories about his many films, mostly in regards to the public’s reaction to them, including one very funny tale concerned “Say Anything.”
 
This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 19:00 mark. 
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