Ramblin' with Roger

Diane Sawyer is 70

After a couple years, I found the show totally unwatchable.

When Diane Sawyer was up for a job at CBS News in the late 1970s, I was wary. She had worked for years in the press office at the Nixon White House and then helping the resigned-before-he-was-impeached former president with his memoirs in San Clemente, California. She was even suspected of being Deep Throat, the source of leaks of classified information during the Watergate scandal. A character playing Sawyer shows up in the movie Frost/Nixon, but that was a cinematic contrivance.

Diane Sawyer turned out to be not bad, first as a reporter, then fairly quickly as the first female correspondent on 60 Minutes, the long-running investigative newsmagazine.

After five years with 60 Minutes (1984-1989), she moved to ABC News to co-anchor various news magazines (Primetime Live, 20/20). “In 1999, Sawyer returned to the morning news as the co-anchor of Good Morning America with Charles Gibson. The assignment was putatively temporary, but her success in the position, measured by a close in the gap with front-runner Today, NBC News’s morning program, sustained her in the position for far longer than anticipated.”

I had been watching ABC World News, going back to the days of Peter Jennings, who I thought was a consummate newsman, until he was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2005, and died a few months later. I stayed with the network through the brief Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas period, and the version with Charles Gibson.

“Sawyer was announced as the successor to Gibson, who retired as the anchor of ABC World News, on Friday, December 18, 2009. Sawyer left GMA on December 11, 2009, and [moved] to ABC World News on December 21, 2009, three days after Gibson’s departure.”

But the show evolved into having more “news you can use” features, the type of programming appropriate for GMA but what probably would have Jennings rolling over in his grave. ABC News had a glitzy “what’s trending” on social media segment and the periodic, mildly jingoistic “Made in America” pieces; I helped find a couple of the entrepreneurs.

After a couple of years, I found the show totally unwatchable, especially after the first commercial, and started watching other programs, almost anything. Sawyer left in the anchor desk in 2014 and concentrated on specials. Her piece on Julie Andrews I found irritating, seemingly more about how strenuous the hills in The Sound of Music were for the interviewer than new information about the subject.

Still, I think that Barbara Walters-like celebrity journalism does have its place. Who else had the soft news cred to have interviewed Bruce Jenner just before the transition to Caitlyn? And I appreciated how she gave her GMA colleagues the scoop the death of her husband, Mike Nichols, in November 2014.

I recognize that media will make more of the competition between two women, no matter the field, such as Sawyer’s rivalry with Barbara Walters or Katie Couric.

So I can appreciate her accomplishments, even her style is not always my cuppa.

X is for hoaX and Xmas Story

What is the biggest media hoax in history? Several contributors to Quora, a crowdsourcing site for questions and answers, took on this challenge. Many mentioned Orson Welles and War of the Worlds broadcast, the impact of which may be mythic, as well.

My favorite tale, however, featured late-night radio/TV personality and writer Jean Shepherd. Back in April of 1955, Shep, as he was known, became annoyed when a bookstore clerk told him that a book that he sought could not have existed because it wasn’t on any publisher’s list.

On his [radio] show, he railed about the Day People who believed in their silly lists. Bestseller lists, he said, got made by bored reporters who would call book dealers to find out what was selling. All it would take for a book to make the list would be for lots of inquiries for the same title at different dealers.

Then came his brilliant idea for the hoax.

“What do you say tomorrow morning each one of us walk into a bookstore, and ask for a book that we know does not exist?” …

The next morning, hundreds of Shep’s listeners invaded bookstores in New York asking if they had I, Libertine [by Frederick Ewing] in stock. When told “no” by mystified clerks, they would ask if they could have it ordered…

Sure enough, by early 1956, I, Libertine made the New York Times bestseller list.

The kicker is that, eventually, there was an I, Libertine book, written by Shep, Ted Sturgeon, and Betty Ballantine, the wife of book publisher Ian Ballantine. And it made the best-seller list AGAIN.

Fast forward a few decades.

A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, based on his book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, with some elements derived from Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark.

The film has since become a holiday classic and is shown numerous times on television during the Christmas season, usually on the networks owned by Turner Broadcasting… In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Yes, the same hoaxer from the 1950s was the primary source of one of America’s most beloved movies of the 1980s, a story that generated so much interest that people now visit the house where it was filmed.

Yet the cynical genius behind A Christmas Story is largely forgotten, in part, because those seasonal marathon showings only started a few years before Jean Shepherd died, in 1999.

ABC Wednesday – Round 17

Ask Roger Anything: the Ann Landers edition

Let me put on my Ann Landers wig.

Implicit in my requests that you Ask Roger Anything is the notion that it will help me, which undoubtedly is true.

But I was less than clear that this is ALSO an opportunity for you to get my opinion on topics that may be bothering YOU. After all, I’m on the Internet, and as such, am TOTALLY as qualified as any random stranger in solving your problems.

For those unfamiliar, Ann Landers was one of a pair of twin sisters, born on the 4th of July, 1918, who had competing advice columns, and for a long while, a bitter feud. When I was growing up in my hometown of Binghamton, NY, Ann was in the Sun-Bulletin, while Dear Abby/Abigail Van Buren was in the Evening Press, back in the day when there were thriving afternoon newspapers.

I preferred Ann because, particularly after her divorce in 1975, after 36 years of marriage, she seemed more understanding of the foibles of human existence. Dan Savage, the author of the relationship-and-sex advice column Savage Love, purchased her desk after her death.

Both the original columnists, Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer and Pauline Esther “Popo” Phillips, are deceased, though the Dear Abby column is continued by Pauline’s daughter Jeanne.

In any case, let me put on my Ann Landers wig, figuratively speaking. As always, if you ask it, I answer it. I get to obfuscate, but not to lie outright. You can ask your questions here or my email – rogerogreen(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or my Facebook (Roger Green, the one with the duck) or Twitter (ersie, the one with the duck). I’ll use your name UNLESS you indicate that I ought not.

Music Throwback Saturday: O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion

Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
(Isaiah 60: 1)

More soulful Messiah, an Advent celebration.

O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain. O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God!
(Isaiah 40: 9)

Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
(Isaiah 60: 1)

Some comments about Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration:

ANYONE who is a lover of music will love this disc.
I bet when Handel wrote the “Messiah” he had no idea what other artists would contribute to his work.
“O Thou that Tellest”, the original alto aria, adapted by Take 6 and Stevie Wonder – so how could it possibly go wrong? Well, it doesn’t! Close harmony and Stevie’s classic voice – oh, yeah.

Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion – London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion – Stevie Wonder and Take 6. produced by Take 6
***

Bonus music

Santa’s Too Fat For The Hula Hoop – The Pixies with Thurl Ravenscroft as Santa Claus (c 1958). No, not THOSE Pixies.

Coverville 1105: A Very Christmas Coverville 2015

ABC Wednesday, Round 18 of 20

Note that we’re VERY flexible with the letter X, with eXit or eXcellent legitimate choices.

As I’ve mentioned on this blog, I have been, for the past three and a half years, the administrator of the blog meme ABC Wednesday. We are beginning Round 18 the week of January 11, 2016.

It was started eight and a half years ago by Denise Nesbitt from Jolly Olde England. People, literally from around the world, post an item – pictures, poems, essays – that in some way describe each letter of the alphabet, in turn. I’ve been participating since the letter K in Round 5.

As the administrator, I assign who reads which posts, making sure somebody is writing the introductions (and writing them myself, when necessary) and inserting the link that allows everyone to participate.

All good things, blah blah. As a participant, I’ve been having a more difficult time coming up with a word for each letter. This is in contrast to two years ago, when, before Round 14 began, I had sussed out the list of musical groups that featured family members. I actually found 24 groups, for all the letters except Q and U, though I did have to stretch some definitions.

So this will end with Round 20. But you are invited to participate, every week, or as you can. I do think it’s advantageous to do so weekly, as it generates a lot of comments for me. Personally, I visit practically everyone who posts.

Note that we’re VERY flexible with the letter X, with eXit or eXcellent legitimate choices.

The Netiquette for the site is this:

1. Post something on your non-commercial blog/webpage having something to do with the letter of the week. Use your imagination. Put a link to ABC Wednesday in your post and/or put up the logo.

2. Come to the ABC Wednesday site and link the SPECIFIC link to the Linky thing. It’ll be available around 4 p.m., Greenwich Mean Time each Tuesday, which is 11 a.m. or noon in the Eastern part of the United States.

3. Try and visit at least 5 other participants, and comment on their posts. The more sites you do visit, the more comments you will probably get.

We have discovered that there are folks who participate in a round, then drop out for a bit. Others start a round, but don’t complete. We think this will be an opportunity to invite those folks to participate once again.

Or maybe you have friends who have THOUGHT about trying ABC Wednesday but have not. THIS would be a good time to start.

Bloggers, consider giving ABC Wednesday a try, if this sounds interesting. Write to me a rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com for more details.