It’s our last day here at “Talkshow,” and there’s a palpable Last Day of School vibe around here. I feel confident in saying that the 47-second opera, “Bigfoot and the Unicorn,” is one of the finest pieces of video ever produced. I’ll try to get you a sneak peak at it soon.
Meanwhile, though, set your Tivos, DVRs, VCRs, and Super-8’s-pointed-at-the-televisions for midnight tomorrow. The Fred Willard episode, which airs tomorrow, represents the moment when we really start to hit our stride. Not that we weren’t entertaining before this… but you’ll see what I mean.
Also, the episode features a special treat for NPR fans (and Felber fans). I’ll say no more, lest I spoil it. Now if you’ll excuse me, we’re due on a soon-to-be-empty set.
Fanny Roborat
42 comments
Harold
November 17, 2006 at 1:23 pm
1Only temporarily empty, I hope!
I tip my Irish tweed cap to whoever decided to have a breakdancing George Washington kick Abe Lincoln in the nuts. And I’m glad your prop people found something more like a stovepipe hat than Electric Lincoln’s Pilgrim hat.
Say, isn’t somebody supposed to be appearing as a grizzled prospector sometime?
gillian
November 17, 2006 at 1:24 pm
2Jeez, Adam, what’s the surprise? I mean, we’ve seen you twice in your underwear. Is there more?
Ann
November 17, 2006 at 2:36 pm
3Maybe he’s part of that sex tape the zoos are developing to show pandas how to breed? (Sorry, it’s Friday afternoon.)
GW
November 17, 2006 at 2:46 pm
4Well, I finally made it to Vietnam - 35 years after the non-connected boys my age. Better late than never. Heh, heh.
Steve
November 17, 2006 at 2:58 pm
5Sneak a peak? Will I get a Rocky Mountain High?
It's Pat!
November 17, 2006 at 3:02 pm
6GW, I heard you saw the lake John McCain was pulled out of. Did you try any fishin’ in that lake? Heh heh.
David
November 17, 2006 at 3:18 pm
7GW,
Hope you stayed at the Hanoi Hilton. I hear the room service is terrific. Did you remember to check on possible investments in rubber plantations? Could be some hellacious deals.
Murray
November 17, 2006 at 4:05 pm
8So the lesson that W learned form Viet Nam was to never give up. (If he had been anointed king back then we would still be fighting there, with more dead than in the civil war).
OOOOH KAAAY! Nothing about getting into a non-winnable immoral war that sucks lives, money, prestige, and influence.
Well what did you expect? He’s at least consistent. Still at 100% wrong.
Go Wolverines!
dee
November 17, 2006 at 4:14 pm
9The real lesson GW learned from Vietnam is that Daddy can get you out of anything. Hence the Baker Commission.
And as if The Game tomorrow needed any MORE drama, Bo kicks the bucket today. Never a big fan of his (we was a real jerk about women’s sports when he was AD at Michigan, was part of the cabal that drove the Tigers into the ground when he was President of the team, and supported Republicans) but I guess I could consider this the ultimate “taking one for the team.”
Go Blue!
dee
November 17, 2006 at 4:15 pm
10Oh an Murray, as I was cleaning off my back window this morning and saw my Grouseland sticker, I realized I was wearing my blue suede shoes. Made my smile.
GW
November 17, 2006 at 5:08 pm
11Mr. Cheney, once again “other priorities” kept you out of Vietnam. It’s a shame you needed to clean out your bunker this week and had to send me on this trip instead. Let me just tell you, in Vietnam it’s the heat and the humidity. Maybe next time - oh, BTW, I saw some drilling platforms out in Tonkin Gulf on the flight over and I thought of you. Be sure to feed Barney @ 8:15 exactly and drop 2 bromo seltzers in his water dish or you’ll regret it, believe me. You think you have a mess in your undisclosed location now…
Katie
November 17, 2006 at 9:14 pm
12Murray -
I don’t know… I think he’s being remarkably consistant…. He managed to ignore the reality of the Vietnam war, and is doing the same for Iraq. You have to, reluctantly, admire someone who can keep his fingers in his ears for 30-some years singing, “LA LA LA!!!!! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!!! LA LA LA!!!!!!!!!”
sigh.
Go Big Blue.
Katie
Katie
November 17, 2006 at 9:16 pm
13Hey, Adam! Who slicked up the WWDTM site?!! I don’t like it.
But that’s just me.
Katie
SeattleDan
November 17, 2006 at 9:56 pm
14I noticed that, Katie. No more discussion board. I think NPR/PRI is getting afraid of discussion boards. Keillor got rid of the one for the Prairie Home Companion site as well.
David
November 18, 2006 at 4:31 am
15Lots of tributes about what a great guy BS was. I always had the impression he was as much of a jerk as WH and GW. But it’s the Maize and Blue v. the Red, Black, and Gray (or whatever their colors are). And I do have one good friend from teaching days who went to Ann Arbor - the third city in the great trio of Boston, Ann Arbor, and San Francisco - and who will be pretty passionate about today’s game.
Here’s the deal, Murray, Katie, and dee: I send as much Green Swamp Mojo as possible to your Wolverines, and you pull for my Gators to run the table, including convincing wins over FSU and in the SEC championship game, propelling us to a BCS #2. I still want Michigan v. Florida, though we’d understandably be serious underdogs.
GW
November 18, 2006 at 6:09 am
16Last night six or eight little yapping dogs kept me awake for the longest time. Anyway, the Secret Service let me sleep most of the day and I wound up missing all the APEC meetings. Good! They go on forever and most of the speakers don’t have the common coutesy to speak English!
So, now I have to get dressed in my tux and attend some sort of traditional Vietnamese banquet. I can’t get out of it; this is some sort of “Big Deal” and I’ll have to eat everything or I’ll insult the hosts.
That’s strange. The dogs seem to be gone. I don’t know how they would have gotten out of this walled compound. Yep, there’s their pen and they’re all gone. One of them looked like a scraggily version of Barney after he rolled in those fresh cow pies to keep the biting flies off him. The thing is he was surrounded by blow flies after that until I made Laura give him a bath.
Well I can’t put it off any longer - time for the “feast”. That is strange about the dogs, though. I wonder where they could have gone.
siobhan
November 18, 2006 at 6:40 am
17re: Bo. I sent condolences to my brother, a die-hard Wolverine. He wrote back: I already have heard several conspiracy theories regarding the demise of Bo. I would keep a close eye on who got his tickets to the game…
David
November 18, 2006 at 4:06 pm
18Bon appetit, GW. Le chien au vin, c’est magnifique (to butcher the language of the plantation masters of Indochine). I hear it tastes like coq au vin.
GW
November 18, 2006 at 4:24 pm
19Well, I’m back from the banquet and, I must say, I’m glad Laura had the foresight to stuff some bread and peanut butter into one of the diplomatic pouches before we left. Up until the 6th course I was doing okay, pretending to be eating each item, while using my patented spoon-and-fork-misdirection charade to scoop most of it onto the floor and then drag it under the table with my foot. I perfected that move during the first months of our marriage, when Laura was learning how to “cook” heh, heh.
The sixth course was a dish I can’t even hope to pronounce. Apparently this course was a favorite of the delegation from Papua New Guinea because when it was served, they became very excited, started laughing outrageously, and for some unknown reason, barking like a pack of dogs. That reminded me again of the mysteriously missing dogs. I was on my second mouthful and thinking this one wasn’t so bad and maybe I’ll eat all of it, when a most inopportune and unappetizing explaination for the missing canines crossed my mind. These things happen so quickly, and later, after I had a moment think it through, I was once again in shock and awe of the speed and graceful reaction from my guardians, the agents of the United States Secret Service. Agent Throckmorton sensed what was about to transpire, dove between me and the Sultan of Brunei, who was seated to my right, and took one for the team - a powerboot to the mid-section, equal in volume & velocity only to Flounder’s famous barf in “Animal House”. The rest of the team swept in, cleaned up the evidence and no one else seemed to notice what had happened. Oh well, like father, like son. Heh, heh.
I miss my Barney.
Just Jay
November 18, 2006 at 4:52 pm
20Quote of the week, apologies to Maureen Dowd if I haven’t got it quite right:
“Poppy gave Junior the presidency to play with and he broke it. So now Poppy has called in James Baker again to fix things.”
Jay
Katie
November 18, 2006 at 6:38 pm
21Yeah!!!!
Gophers are going to a Bowl Game. Not a great bowl, but a bowl!
AND we got Floyd Back!!!!
Katie
p.s. Murray - sorry about Michigan.
Fran
November 18, 2006 at 8:10 pm
22Ah, c’mon, GW. You can tell us truthfully how much you liked the kegogi! I’ll bet you did, too…
Rebecca
November 18, 2006 at 9:40 pm
23I’m with Katie on the happiness of the Minnesota Gophers going to a bowl game AND getting Floyd of Rosedale back. And, indeed, boo about Michigan - I was rooting for Michigan because I’ve been to Ohio, and no offense to Ohio-ans, but I don’t like it there.
Adam, is there any way you could please actually create Morning Zoo and have it played on NPR? I would totally listen to it on my way to work. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?
dee
November 19, 2006 at 4:53 am
24I did it! I managed to stay awake for a Talkshow! And I second Rebecca’s comment. I would shell out for two day sponsorships if I could hear “Morning Zoo” every day.
Kofe Ananananananan!
David
November 19, 2006 at 5:32 am
25Murray,
Gator though I be, I have to agree that the title game should be a Michigan-Ohio State rematch. I suspect that game would go to Michigan. Looks like Ohio State would put it on anyone else.
another Matt
November 19, 2006 at 12:24 pm
26It was a good game, tho I mourn for the beloved Wolverines.
Bo was, I believe, a good man, but not exactly a feminist. He banned one of my residency colleagues from the locker room while she was on the sports medicine rotation, because of the two X chromosomes. She took a sports fellowship and eventually became team doc for the Detroit Red Wings. So it goes.
Lauren
November 19, 2006 at 2:56 pm
27I didn’t manage to stay away, are there clips??? Please? I’m a WWDTM nut, I want to know what the surprise was. . .
David
November 19, 2006 at 4:00 pm
28Urban Meyer says Bo did set standards for his players as college students. If so, that is a definite plus. Shame he suffered from male chauvinism.
Lauren
November 19, 2006 at 5:10 pm
29Oh, nevermind, here we are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAbaNkYHkeg
Morning Zoo for we sad fools who missed it!
Another Fool for Felbergags
November 20, 2006 at 5:56 am
30Lauren,
Thanks for the link.
I assume Adam is the primal Trashman.
siobhan
November 20, 2006 at 6:01 am
31Well, I’m not sad that I don’t have a TV, but I do appreciate your posting the link, Lauren. At this point, I think I’d much prefer the NPR Morning Zoo to the extended commercial(s) for video game consoles trying to pass for business news on Morning Edition. But that’s just me.
dee
November 20, 2006 at 6:59 am
32Uh oh. From Hollywood Reporter.where I get all my important news
Fox News Channel might air two episodes of a “Daily Show”-like program with a decidedly nonliberal bent on Saturday nights in late January, with the possibility that it could become a weekly show for the channel.
The half-hour show is executive produced by “24’s” Joel Surnow and Manny Cota and creator Ned Rice, who previously wrote for “Politically Incorrect” and “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” through This Just In Prods. It would take aim at what Surnow calls “the sacred cows of the left” that don’t get made as much fun of by other comedy shows.
“It’s a satirical news format that would play more to the Fox News audience than the Michael Moore channel,” Surnow said. “It would tip more right as ‘The Daily Show’ tips left.”
Of course, given the general level of humor on the right (”Boy, that Michael Moore sure is fat”), Talkshow may have nothing to worry about.
Rebecca
November 20, 2006 at 10:18 am
33Dee,
I heard about that today from a friend, and here’s the part that should be paid attention to:
The show was pitched as “This Just In” when it first got life as a 20-minute pilot presentation for Fox Broadcasting Co.’s late-night division. But when that network passed, Surnow said it attracted the attention of Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes.
Doesn’t that mean that Talkshow already beat them out, at least according to Fox Broadcasting? I think Talkshow is safe and sound.
Ann
November 20, 2006 at 11:08 am
34All this sports talk confuses me, but NPR Morning Zoo is priceless!
Harold
November 20, 2006 at 12:09 pm
35Sadly, whenever I hear science stories on Morning Edition and NPR in general lately, they seem to be being presented Morning Zoo style. I wonder how it would go over if a story on AIDS or Darfur or any of a thousand other topics were presented with the quick edits, snappy soundbites, and “don’t take this seriously, folks” tone that has become the norm for stories on cloning, astronomy, and other “hard” science topics.
Saturday’s “What’s A Mammal?” report on All Things Considered was a sad joke, trying to recast the taxonomical clasification of “mammalia” as a calculated and sustained assault on feminism. Even a report on climate change in Kenya on Sunday’s All Things Considered made a comment about how precipitation patterns had become “more complicated than a Starbucks order.” Ha-ha, very funny. Nice way to play into the stereotype of NPR listeners as a bunch of latte-sippers, too. If the presenter of that particular piece were to try to wrap her brain around how massively complicated even “normal” weather patterns are, how sensitive they are on initial conditions, and how termendously complicated they can get when new variables are introduced, I think her head would explode.
siobhan
November 20, 2006 at 1:04 pm
36Harold, I’ve been noticing that trend on science stories, too, and also find it irritating as hell. Like maybe they think that the listeners will find science stories boring and won’t listen without the cute stuff? It’s like the “math is hard” Barbie mindset.
Peh. or however you spell it.
Harold
November 20, 2006 at 1:22 pm
37Siobhan, the phrase “…and other ‘hard’ science topics” started out its life as “…and other ‘math is hard’ topics.” But I thought I might confuse the issue by using that, just in case anyone missed the Barbie reference! I may not know much about Ospreys, but I do know a little about toy designs gone wrong!
Stupid malfunctioning keyboard. That should be “tremendously complicated”, not “termendously complicated.”
dee
November 20, 2006 at 3:15 pm
38I trace the whole “dumbing down” of NPR to when they kicked Bob Edwards to the curb. Every morning during the program intro when he would announce a birthday, he wouldn’t provide any more information than the name. He assumed his listeners either knew who he was talking about or, if interested, would take the time to find out. Now we get a biography because apparently we’re too stupid to figure it out ourselves, even with Google.
It’s a little thing, I know, but it’s bothered the hell out of me since he left.
I don’t want to jump on the “Dump on NPR” bandwagon, because I know it’s still the best alternative. I guess it’s like voting for a candidate. But geez Louise, other than Diane Rehm (and a certain News Quiz Show) I wish my local station would just go back to the classical music they used to play all day.
Ann
November 20, 2006 at 3:32 pm
39Dee, I’m appalled to say that I disagree with you! I always thought it was rude not to provide some context for the less obvious names on the birthday list! I doubt very much that a listener is going to say “I wonder who Ferd Berfle is, I’d better google him.” And younger listeners surely feel left out, which is never good.
But speaking of levity on NPR, the evening show from Canada, As It Happens, is always using puns in their intros. Ick.
dee
November 20, 2006 at 4:06 pm
40Oh Ann, we’ll always have…Illya.
Ann
November 20, 2006 at 4:28 pm
41So true, so true.
On yet another completely unrelated topic, I see that OJ’s book and TV special have been pulled. I trust that Spike and Adam’s influence at Fox led to this about-face.
hedera
November 23, 2006 at 4:03 pm
42Yes, I was amused to see Rupert Murdoch acting like an upstanding, responsible, moral citizen, who doesn’t publish disgusting things just for money.