Do You Have Celebrity Exhaustion?

and..neither can he


and..neither can he...get enough of his hair!

And what the heck? when you are a billionaire why do a comb-over? Public acceptance? I wonder what his hair looks like without it? he seems to have enough hair there in most places

I watch Survivor and I talk to my friends about the show and I don't consider myself a dumdum. While many people do not like reality shows and I agree the largesse is annoying in that most of it IS 'crap', I do hate for all us TV watchers to be tarred with the same brush.

Reality Bites


Yes, that's a common social situation where people brag about how "little TV- watching I do". C'mon ... if as many people watched PBS and educational programs as claimed, there'd be 100 million people watching Discovery channel at any one time. Many people seem to want to be snobby and continue their closet-junk-tv-watching.

I admit to watching American Idol regularly and one or two Reality TV shows, periodically. It's a lot better than watching the world self-destruct by keeping CNN (or the like) on constantly.

Of course, reading a book between TV shows and DVD movies is a great and worthwhile activity.

Ragman -- When were you in Boston and what brought you to Albany?

The only network stuff I watch is Boston Legal, Letterman, Craig Ferguson's monolog (if I can stay awake), CBS Sunday Morning and, sometimes, 60 Minutes. Otherwise, I watch PBS. I do not have cable. I have to admit that, without a significant other, I do spend a great deal of time in front of the tube. Also, working as a substitute teacher for three years in a row has made me far too tired to read in the evening: during the academic year, I slept 12 - 16 hours a night.

Heeven -- Those two women were dumdums. Several employees asked the series of store managers to fire one of the speakers and the other was the then manager who, although better at dealing with the store's employees than others, was probably a functional illiterate.

They stood in marked contrast to the folks at WBUR. Very marked.

hi
POM:

I lived in Boston from 1950-until 1999. I even met a few of the Abuzz-ers back in 2000.

In 1999 moved from Boston area to Norwalk-Stamford, CT. Late in 2002, I moved to Albany (Small-bany) area where I dwell with two furry-faced felines. Currently looking for work, I had been a techie for 25 yrs. Now, I'm an irrelevant invisible over-50 worker crossing my fingers.

Originally, I moved here with my then-g/f of 5 yrs. Though we broke up, we remained friends. We both stayed here as the pace of life is far more relaxed and cost of living is far more reasonable. Culture is pretty decent and lots for me to photograph (my passion).

Wow! 12 hr to 16 hr sleep sessions. That deserves and award of some sort. Golden Slumberer will be your title.

Ditto for me what you watch for TV progs. I seem to have gravitated to Lettermen (after being a Carson loyalist). Same with Ferguson. He cracks me up (honestly self-effacing) and is fair-to-good interviewer of decent well-picked guests. The show seems to have decent production. He gets me every time with is recorded whip-snaps, etc. Of course, at 1am I'm pretty easy audience.

I envy you for having worked for WBUR. I admired and respected that FM station, having been a regular listener for decades. They introduced me to a lot of the long-running shows like PHC and Click and Clack, for which I'm eternally grateful.

Ragman -- It seems that Letterman was Carson's pick to replace him. After Carson retired, he found himself continuing to write jokes in the morning as he read the daily paper. He told someone who was part of his production team that he wished he could find an outlet for this material and his friend suggested Carson contact "David."

Anyway, following Carson's death, Letterman's monolog was composed of a series of jokes that he delivered stiffly. All I could think, as I watched, was how off Letterman seemed. I was also confused. Some of the material wasn't current and yet no two jokes went together in terms of time. Was it a repeat or was something else going on?

At the end of the monolog, Letterman revealed those jokes were written by Johnny Carson.

Ragman -- I worked at WBUR as a temp for months. It was the best job that I have had in New England. The people were intelligent, well read, educated.

Every Friday, there was a free lunch as part of the deal that the radio station has with its underwriters (sponsors -- and they really acknowledge them as sponsors), which is nice, because the pay was not sterling.

When The Connection was produced there and the staff would receive books from publishers, every two to three weeks, the books would be put into the hallway and it was like feeding time for seagulls at the zoo. People were so hungry for the books! Of course, you know what side of the political aisle they were on, which is why they cared so much for books and reading!

Click and clack are nice guys. I've known their sister for years: she manages folk singers and is the manager for a friend of mine.

I only wish that my job could have been permanent, but I was told point blank on the first day that Boston University did not fund the temp to permanent fee at that time.

click and clack
Yup, on Carson story and the jokes he sent in retirement. However, slight correctrion: Leno was Carson's choice to replace him. Carson felt Letterman wasn't "right" temperament, which caused Letterman a lot of distress. Also, the protracted network negotiations with both of them dragged on and on..eventually broke down. My guess is that Leno accepted less pay.

BTW, to this day, the reported annual salary from the shows, with Letterman show being the ratings leader for about 11 yrs in a row, is $40 M per yr for Letterman and $32M for Leno.


Nice temp job!

re click and clack: I used to bring my car to their Cambridge garage in the mid-to-late 70s as they rented repair bays and gave advice. Also, in the 80s I brought my car to them. They were the only place that had good female mechanics, as well as good male mechanics.

FYI: I love hearing them on the air telling stories and laugh (what a laugh too). Did you know the younger of the two was a Peace Corps worker from the 60s. The older of the two taught at MIT for many years. interesting about their sister. I didn't know that.

Ragman:

Must agree with Plain Old Me and disagree with you about Carson. I have read several times that Carson felt the Tonight Show, by all rights, should have gone to Letterman.

Carson made a brief, surprise appearance on Letterman's show to congratualte him. Notably, he has never appeared on Leno. Carson must have known how that brief appearance would be taken by the public that he considered Letterman his real successor.

Carson also contributed some jokes to Letterman's opening monologue.

I'm not surprised Carson favored Letterman over Leno. Although the three are very different, Leno's political humor is more lightweight, sort of a "just a friendly joke, folks" type of thing. Letterman shared Carson's ability to thrust the comic knife in deeper now and then.

Back on topic.

I am surprised nobody has mentioned the Queen of the Overrated: Britney Spears.

I was ready to just write her off as one generation of teenyboppers' manufactured pop idol, nothing to be annoyed at, until she got married and had the kid. That's when the hype machine went into overdrive, and it was impossible to turn on the TV without hearing about her, as if she was important or something.

They can send her to Elba anytime.

Spears on Elba! That is funny! She is as dumb as a door nail and I don't know if it is because she lacks education or if that state is 'natural.'

Anyone ever catch Entertainment Tonight and the Insider? Smarmy!

ET is where I get my info. It'sd soooooo bad that it's good.

Britney is trailer trash! And she calls herself a Mousketeer!

Heavens to Annette!