Category Archives: Radio

Wait wait! Don’t Tell Me: The Obama Years

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This is my revamped desk setup: the keyboard is a flatter Dell one that fits in the slideout tray under the top. The Microsoft Natural one is too high to fit unless bad things happen to the underhang with a power tool. Note “Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me!” pledge swag mug to the right.

Oh boy! the WWDTM folks are in Boston, and their guest is Barney Franks. He got a huge welcome from his socialist-partisan fans. Aw, he’s telling a cute story about his boyfriend, Jimmy. And how it somehow relates to Bush, Palin, and Franks’ Secret Service nickname, “Sabretooth.” Which is totally cool, because one of MY names for myself is “SABRE2th Tigress!” Go me!!

Last week’s show (recorded before the election)was with John Hodgman, fresh from his guest blogger gig at Boing Boing. The Obama Years begin favorably.

Ginny
I can has iPhone


Via: Title: By:
Originally uploaded: 8 Nov ’08, 10.20am CST PST

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me has Leonard Nimoy!

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Now listening to the beginning of WWDTM, and later on the celebrity guest is Leonard Nimoy. Can I get a W00t?!?!?!

Apparently, Mr Nimoy did our favorite news quiz the honor of showing up in person, causing the staff much joy and making the dreams of at least one total dork come true (that would be host Peter Sagal).

There’s an entire set of photos at Flickr, but this is the one that makes me go “AWWWWWWwwww!”

As Peter noted just seconds ago, if you don’t know who Nimoy is or why Sagal is so absurdly pleased about his appearance on WWDTM, “then you are dead to me.” The tenor of the show seems to follow the lead of the title of the Flickr set, otherwise known as LEONARD NIMOY OMG OMG.

Nimoy also just noted that one of the current candidates for President encountered him at a political event some time ago and flashed the Vulcan salute with a smile. He noted dryly, “It was not John McCain.”

NPR : Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

Radio Ephemera: Cue the Sun

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Yesterday on my way in, there were few signs in my area of the weekend’s floods, although I never made it to church and we had trouble finding a way through flooded Des Plaines intersections after leaving Steve’s house.

WXRT was playing “Here Comes The Sun.” Obvious choice.

Then there was a short clip from The Truman Show. The godlike Director said,

“Cue the Sun.”

And then they played Radiohead; I think it was “climbing the walls House Of Cards.” An unsettling, crashing, creepily apocalyptic choice, just as I crossed the bridge over Salt Creek, which flooded farther to the south. Because the song said, “your infrastructure will collapse.”

I think I’ll have to get more Radiohead in iTunes. Creepy good stuff.

NPR Moments: Happy Friday

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Remembering ‘The Heart Of NPR,’ Gary Smith : NPR

Longtime NPR Greeter and Client Services Coordinator Gary Smith passed away this week. For years, he sat at the reception desk at NPR’s Washington headquarters. Smith was a force field of good cheer; he was a big man who became the heart of NPR.

As I drove home, listening to Michele Norris talk about Gary Smith, I was moved by her description of a man who made greeting the often jetlagged or on-deadline visitors to the NPR building his number-one job. It seems that every week, Mr Smith always began his end-of-week greetings with “Happy Friday.”

Of course, at the end of the piece, Michele wished all of us, the listeners who’d never heard of Gary before, a very. happy. Friday. Her voice got husky, as clearly she had liked the man and wanted to pay tribute to his dedication to the art of making people feel welcome.

I’ll try to wish everyone a happy Friday every week, from now on. It seems like a good tradition to start.

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Fr.Paul sings Plastic Jesus

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Father Paul pulled out a very beautiful old Pete Seeger Custom banjo and sang a few lines of “Plastic Jesus” today in church; he’d have had a sing-along going if he’d thought to print out the lyrics, and as it was a lot of people at the early service knew the song and helped him remember the middle section.

I told him about a terrific interview my husband David and I heard on Bob Edwards Weekend, which airs on Sundays on WBEZ. I’m tracking down all the related links I can for it to send to Fr. Paul by email. Apparently, there was an amazing special on PBS that we missed, but maybe we can find it via TiVo. The associated blog post for the broadcast is here,

I could not find a simple link on BobEdwardsRadio.com to the interview, I had to subscribe to the podcast after tracking down the date, which was the weekend of February 23-24.

February 23-24, 2008

HOUR ONE

* Pete Seeger was banned from American commercial television for more than 17 years, after topping the pop charts and being blacklisted. Seeger wrote or co-wrote many of our most iconic folk songs. Now almost 90, Seeger is still performing and still writing. He’s publishing a new songbook this year and the PBS program American Masters pays tribute on February 27th with Pete Seeger: The Power of Song.

HOUR TWO

* Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan previews the 2008 Academy Awards. He tells Bob which actors, actresses, directors and movies should expect to bring home Oscars this year.

* Bob talks with composer James Newton Howard about his career and about his Oscar-nominated score for “Michael Clayton.”

Ginny
I can has iPhone?

Via: Flickr Title: Fr.Paul sings Plastic Jesus By: GinnyRED57
Originally uploaded: 27 Apr ’08, 9.29am CDT PST

Ginny
I can has iPhone?

Dana Perino’s Hard Week

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I’m listening to Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me!, and their celebrity guest is Dana Perino, the White House press secretary. They’ve made her laugh and feel more comfortable, as they know she’s had a tough week.

First, her boss was unwavering in his position, even when it was eroding out from under him like the sands of time at high tide. Someone told him last summer they had “news for him” regarding Iran, and he accepted the news that there was news with gravity, but didn’t actually inquire as to what the new news was. Because he’s not that kind of “need to know” kind of guy, if the news is not actually something he wants to know, right?

So the morning of his big national press conference, the NIE about Iran came out, with the not-very-new-news at all that Iran halted their nuclear weapons program way back in 2003. Our mountain-biking President backpedaled resolutely. His press secretary battled her way through the rest of the week with her arch-nemesis, Helen Thomas.

Even FOX News says the debacle has damaged the credibility (such as it is) of the Administration, although they managed to dig up some grumbling about some rabid anti-Bushites who’ve managed to survive this long in the State Department. Translation: there are still a few people with a sense of right and wrong there.

Oh, and the phone number Bush gave out for the mortgage-relief help line was wrong, and led to the personal phone number of a husband-and-wife ministry team. So not only is the program set up so that only a very small minority of people can benefit from it, but it starts out as a talk-show joke. This announcement was the original reason for the press announcement, I think – it was designed to show how Bush was acting decisively to head off the looming subprime mortgage rate crisis. But oops. Another mess to clean up on Aisle 1600, Dana!

Ms. Perino laughed off her week from Hell with the WWDTM crew, and survived her stint. As the show is taped on Thursdays, she was still in the midst of her battles with the (gleeful, gaffe-maddened) press corps, but managed to sound like a very nice, friendly person for her radio appearance. She declined to use her “White House voice” after noting that her husband asked her not to use it around their own home, though.

Bold New Pledge Drive Ploy

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Peter Sagal, host of news quiz show NPR : Wait Wait… Dont Tell Me has written a new book that’s being offered as a premium on pledges of $120.00 per month. Sagal is hosting this morning’s pledge drive, and with his quick wit, it actually is fun listening to WBEZ begging for fundage. Actually, as stations go, BEZ does a pretty good job of making pledge drives endurable; they shorten them by a day or so by running a promotional drive at the beginning with crazy big goals – if they reach the goals, they cut the length of the drive.

This morning’s drive will probably be pretty successful; Sagal’s book is called The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them) and in an extended interview he taped with Scott Simon, he described some activities he researched, such as private establishments where people swap partners… and also how he checked out strip clubs in the company of a posse of female sociologists.

As one of the other pledge drive announcers noted drily, they’ve already had over 50 calls during this morning’s campaign. I’m thinking they’ll do even better during Car Talk and WWDTM…

David and I had a lively discussion as to whether Peter is likely to suffer any backlash from that segment of the populace that has an over-developed righteousness bone, yet lacks a funny bone. I mentioned a post I’d seen lately about how impossible it is for people to talk across a religious divide, because they have completely different frames of reference that often don’t overlap.

Actually, we’re thinking The Book of Vice might make a great gift for someone…

NPR : Real Funny Stories from My Crazy City (Part 2)

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NPR’s man in Basra sometimes emails the Washington-based news bureau funny details about life in his crazy city along with his stories about bombs, insurgents, and tragedy. His English is wobbly but energetic, and as commentator Corey Flintof notes, the multiple exclamation points are the Iraqi equivalent to “Ba-dum-pum! Laff nao plzzzz!”

NPR : Real Funny Stories from My Crazy City (Part 2)

Eating chickens against Islamic Sharia (instruction)After 2003, the Islamic instructions (Sharia) spread in bad methods and one of the Fatwas (decrees) was, “it is forbidden to eat imported chickens,” and most of radical extreme muslims believe on this Fatwa..but, the funny in this, they eat the eggs belong to this chickens.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How NPR Improves Political Discourse

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The back-and-forth between people of different political views in this country could stand some improvement, as currently it’s on the level of ad hominem “yer a wingnut/yer a moonbat” attacks. NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me!” news quiz consistently brings the funny LOLs when discussing political figures – sometimes with those actual politcal figures’ participation! Today’s show included a short segment to follow up on an important fact that came up in the wake of Karl Rove’s departure this week – Barney, the White House Scottish terrier, is not terribly well liked by staffers, who characterized him recently as “aloof and entitled.” Karl Rove dismissed the pooch as “a lump” in one of his many farewell interviews (which were thinly disguised attempts to get a few last lumps of his own in on Hilary Clinton).

Well, WWDTM decided to get to the heart of the matter and contacted a White House press secretary to set the record state regarding Barney:

The Swamp: White House defends ‘lil Barney in Rove-attack

WAIT, WAIT, DONT TELL ME! HOST PETER SAGAL: According to the New York Times, senior White House aides feel that the Scottish terror is “aloof and entitled.” Now, we did not think this slam at the presidential pet could go unanswered. So it is our pleasure to welcome Dana Perino, Deputy White House Secretary, to our show. Dana, welcome to Wait Wait.

DANA PERINO: Hi. Remind me why I agreed to do this.

MR. SAGAL: You know, I was hoping someone would have pushed the mute button while we had you on hold, but perhaps not.

MS. PERINO: No, I heard everything.

MR. SAGAL: Alright, well. Dana, so – and we know that you, unlike Mr. Rove, are still employed at the White House – and we ask you this: Is Barney, in fact a lump.

MS. PERINO: I wouldn’t call him a lump. Of course, you’re right, Karl is on his way out the door. Look, Barney’s kind of standoffish, but he’s got personality. He’s got a little bit of sass. You know, I don’t think – he doesn’t let people get too close to him.

MR. SAGAL: What does Barney think about Rove?

MS. PERINO: Well, I did see one thing last week when we were down in Texas. In fact it was actually more Ms. Beazley. They alternated from wanting to be petted by him to growling at him. So it was maybe a love/hate relationship.

KYRIE O’CONNOR: So Karl didn’t have to, like, carry the pooper-scooper or anything?

MS. PERINO: No, that job is reserved for other people. Like me.

MR. SAGAL: Really?

MS. PERINO: Well, I do deal with – I deal with the press a lot.

MR. SAGAL: I see. Well done! Well done, Ms. Perino. Dana Perino is, at least until her bosses hear this broadcast, the Deputy Press Secretary at the White House. Dana, thank you so much for joining us today.

MS. PERINO: Thank you, I love your show.

UPDATE: I just noticed that the transcript describes Barney as “the Scottish terror.” Wait! is that like Macbeth? AUGH! “Hot potato, off his drawers, pluck to make amends! AAURGH!”

This I Believe: George Bowering

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I heard this on my way to church, and it really… resonated much like the “sounding brass” (bronze vessels that amplified actors’ voices in the ancient theater of Corinth) mentioned in the reference link near the bottom.

NPR : The Holy Life of the Intellect

I believe that the human intellect is the closest thing we have to the divine. It is the way we can join one another in spirit.

…

If we can experience another’s mind in our own, we know that love is possible. We understand why the great poet Shelley wrote a poem to what he called “Intellectual Beauty,” and called it an invisible power that moves among the things and people of this Earth.

It descended on him when he was a youth looking for wisdom from the words of the dead. Intelligence literally means “choosing among.” Shelley called it the spirit of delight. It is the gift of wit, which literally means the kind of seeing that makes you smile and clap your hands together. I believe that this provokes what the Greeks called agape, the Romans called caritas, and what we settled for as love. It’s greater than hope and faith, according to St. Paul of Tarsus in an otherwise questionable letter to the Corinthians.

If you want to hear it happen rather than suffer any more of my apostolic prose, listen to the improvisation by John Coltrane in his immortal album called “A Love Supreme.” There we are: A fine intellect, a tenor saxophone and a reach for perfect prayer.

[tags]NPR, This I Believe, intellect, prayer[/tags]