NPR did not hire me to say this.

This morning I woke up to a quiet, articulate voice providing factual information that meant something to me.

My clock-radio got a little out of whack yesterday, so on impulse, I tuned it from the usual local fluff station I'd been using the last several months back to NPR. For whatever reason, radio reception in that room is unreliable. Some stations I like don't come in at all, or fade in & out. NPR, unfortunately, is one of them. which is why I had given up trying to listen to it some time ago. For now, however, it comes in, so I'll keep it.

I've been a regular listener for about 10 years. My favorite morning person was Bob Edwards; I'm glad he has his own Saturday interview show and didn't just vanish when they did the staff shuffle a few years back.

People who don't listen to NPR probably don't realize how much of the world they're missing. I found out the hard way about 3 years ago. Back then, the Tom Delay/Jack Abramoff scandal was being updated nearly every day on NPR. At work, there was a conference room that the manager considered sacred -- no food allowed in there at any time, to maintain a clean, professional ambience for meetings. Well, one day there was a social event and the only room available was that one. When we began setting up, I turned to one of the organizers and joked, "Did someone have to bribe Jack Abramoff to get this room?" I got that polite little smile that clearly says "I have no idea what you're talking about, so let's just find another topic, OK?" It puzzled me for a second, and then I realized, it was simply one of many news stories not covered anywhere else except perhaps the Washington Post, the NY Times, or the Wall Street Journal. I was in the midst of a strictly local/celeb news crowd.

Another reason I enjoy my church so much is, most of the people there are NPR listeners too. Our minister finds it a useful source for many sermons. Click Here to Read More..

The World Loves a Curmudgeon

Here's a link to a great interview in the Sunday NY Times Magazine with Gore Vidal

Best question & answer:
--

Are you a supporter of gay marriage? I know nothing about it. I don’t follow that.

Why doesn’t it interest you? The same reason heterosexual marriage doesn’t seem to interest me.

--

SLAM DUNK!!!

~

[Later - another funny one, this also in the Magazine, the second question in Randy Cohen's The Ethicist]

My son and daughter-in-law belong to a church with different beliefs from mine, and thus my new grandchildren, a few months old, were not going to be baptized. My 1950s Catholic background would not let me sleep, so I snuck them off to the laundry and performed private rites. Do I get eternal reward or damnation? — NAME WITHHELD

Cohen replies:
By convening in the laundry you may have taken too literally the idea of baptism as the washing away of sin. I only hope your “private rites” did not include the spin cycle.

Click Here to Read More..