January 31, 2021
So last week, I had a big preamble about sitting down to have a cup of hot chocolate before I actually got to the power rankings. This was what we like to call "writer's block". I didn't have a hook to get into the rankings last week. It is probable I would benefit from an editor, but you get to see how this sausage is made stream of consciousness style as I sometimes struggle to write my way into some coherent thoughts. This week, I'll take the direct approach. All I'll say before starting is this is a tough week to sort out. There were a lot of well done segments, making it hard to say if one really stood out above the rest. Jane Pauley was out this week, meaning...
1) Mo Rocca
The first time I saw Mo Rocca on CBS Sunday Morning, I couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Wasn't he a comedian?
My college years coincided with the heyday of the Jon Stewart era The Daily Show. The first time I saw Mo on CBS Sunday Morning, I think he was still wearing the bow tie, his hair was a bit more salt than pepper and I was confused because there was was no comedy. I take that back, there may have been comedy - I honestly don't remember what the piece would have been about years later. Rather, I should say there was no irony. CBS Sunday Morning is about the most unironic show on television. A CBS Sunday Morning broadcast involves no tongues in cheeks, no winks or nods at the camera, obvious or subtle. I would venture to say that most of CBS Sunday Morning's viewership still consumes the show as they would have when it first aired 42 years ago this past week (happy birthday, by the way!) - that is, as an actually broadcast - an electromagnetic signal emitted by a powerful antenna, received miles away and decoded into picture and sound. As someone who can nominally claim to be a physicist, it genuinely astounds me that we figured out how to do this. But I digress.
Daily Show correspondents are stand-up comedians or sketch actors. Jon Stewart was very fond of pointing out that the Daily Show was not "real news" even though it often presented real facts, just in a satirical or farcical way. So when I saw Mo for the first time CBS Sunday Morning, something did not compute for me in that he was not "doing comedy". Granted, Sunday Morning is more cultural magazine than news, but it is at least news adjacent and it generally dominated by journalists. It may have taken a few stories, but I came to accept that Mo fit in the Sunday Morning-verse despite not having a journalism background. Thinking back on how would have come to join the show, I wonder if his faux-journalism factored into his Sunday Morning trajectory at all?
Anyway, despite being categorized by Wikipedia as an American comedian, it all made sense to me once he started his excellent Mobituaries podcast. (Will there be another season?) He's a history buff (as is fellow American comedian Conan O'Brien). Having a writing and acting background, he is a storyteller and his forte on Sunday Morning is telling stories about presidential and/or TV history. If you have a chance, go and find his podcast episode on the rural purge. It is pretty amazing and fits right along anything else covered by CBS Sunday Morning. (Quick aside - there's definitely a connection to be made between the rural purge and the politics of resentment infesting our current age.) You're probably not going to see Mo do a current events story because you wouldn't really call him a journalist, critic, or commentator. Then again, so many people that do those things just fell into them. English majors become sports writers. Economics majors become journalists covering the arts among other things. Journalism as an academic pursuit is a relatively recent phenomenon. And it's always dangerous to classify and label people too narrowly.
Mo hosted today. He seemed a little stiff, nervous maybe, during the show intro. But he was fine the rest of the way. Guest hosts usually also contribute a story and Mo's was about Mike Nichols.
Mo seems much more interested in The Golden Age than he is with the present day. The Golden Age of what? Movies, TV, presidents, anything, everything. Mike Nichols was definitely part of A Golden Age - maybe more than one. I have seen a several of Mike Nichols films, but it seems there are number of classic or near classics that I have not seen. Do I go back and watch them? It is the 21st century problem of content overload. It is probably best to handle it like thoughts during meditation - acknowledge they exist and let them float away down the river. But I am terrible at meditating, so they are now on a list of unwatched movies that I may never get to. Perhaps I'll die slightly less fulfilled for having never watched Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?.
Epilogue: ESPN's Rachel Nichols is married to Mike's son, Max. Rachel Nichols is great. Maybe she doesn't want to anchor ESPN's NBA studio show (and probably with good cause), but The Jump is so much better. I'm guessing that's because she gets to do what she wants with it so it is not produced by a marketing algorithm desperately regurgitating a poor imitation of the NBA on TNT. Also, as a Tony Kornheiser Show little, she is an all time guest. The Andre Agassi story never gets old and if Jeanne and Rachel are on together, they will team up and rip on a helpless Tony for 5 solid minutes. It's the best.
The power rankings have existed only 3 weeks, but it feel a heresy that Martha is not atop the rankings in an episode in which she appears. I was not raised to be a pet person, but life has borne out that I am a cat person and not a dog person. However, her piece (also a promotion for her new book) about her dearly departed pups Harry and Winnie left me with a quivering upper lip.
Even though I know next to nothing about it, this feels story feels like a rebuke to the Fran Lebowitz's kvetching in Pretend It's a City. I once bought a mattress at a Sears from a woman named Smiley. Smiley was from New York. While I was buying said mattress, she was also helping another customer and the conversation turned in such that that she mentioned that while you may come across some freaky people in New York, she found it along friendlier than the Midwest. I can't really agree or disagree, but there is a certain appeal to living in a neighborhood where you regularly meet your neighbors walking in the street and get to know and connect with them. Martha's story was story about kind New York. I'm sure living in New York is not all farmers markets for most people though.
3) Faith Salie
This. This story is CBS Sunday Morning. Did I know I needed 6 minutes on the history and gender politics of pockets? Of course I didn't! And that's why I need it.
On Pockets: Someone I was very close to loved pockets. Especially pockets in a dress. My feelings on pockets are as follows - pants pockets have less utility than you'd assume. I find it annoying to get stuff in and out of pants pockets. If you're sitting down, forget about it. If I need chapstick, I have to stand up to get the chapstick out of a pants pocket. When I get to work, I empty my pants pockets on my desk because if I need something in there, I don't want to have to stand up to get at it. This probably just means I'm lazy. Jacket or coat pockets on the other hand, that is where you are meant to carry things for easy access. The only problem is making sure the pocket is designed in a way where stuff doesn't just fall out. Too many pockets serve no function other than a place to stick my hands when there is nothing for them to do. Pants pockets are too small or make the pants feel to small when filled. Stuff can just fall out of jacket pockets if they open at the side instead of at the top.
Pocket Power rankings:
1) Jacket inside breast pocket
When you need something, nothing beats pulling out from the inside breast pocket of a jacket. It is just a baller move.
That is the list.
On Faith Salie: Faith often contributes commentary as well as full stories. The commentary is sometimes humorous, sometimes feminist. I'll admit I feel they are geared towards a demographic into which I do not fit. That's fine. The show casts a wide net. She once hosted a radio show called Fair Game, which gave me this:
For this, I am forever in debt to Faith Salie. That was my phone's ringtone for years. At one point I had the full audio of that interview, but alas, I have it no longer. If anyone knows where I can get it, I would forever be in your debt as well. If I ever met Faith, I would probably spend an hour asking her about interviewing Andrew WK. I'm not sure she would enjoy this interaction.
Thanks to promoting the release of Supernova. It's been Stanley Tucci week on American TV. Australian journalist Holly Williams became the 121st person to air an interview with Tucci this week. The 11 AM Sunday conversation is usually handled by Tracy Smith, but her movie promo segment was the 2nd Hollywood segment to air today. So Australian journalist Holly Williams gets the higher spot in the rankings. I'm sure Australian journalist Holly Williams would prefer that I simply refer to her as Holly Williams, but I just can't seem to do. It's like an honorific. It feels wrong to say it any other way. Holly (see what I mean?) is not a frequent contributor, but like most of the Sunday Morning crew, she can handle a Hollywood segment with equal aplomb as a hard news segment at which she is also adept.
As for Tucci, I like him. I honestly haven't seen too many of his movies. Never saw Big Night, but maybe I should... except for content overload. My favorite roll of his may have been as the dad in Easy A, a highly enjoyable and perhaps underrated movie. He also played Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's been awhile, so I can't really remember if that was a good version - it's just that I'm not aware of any other. In case you are wondering, I played Lysander in High School. Somewhere there is a picture of me holding a monkey looking angry about this.
5) Grape Nuts
According to Sunday Morning Pulse, there is a pandemic induced shortage of Grape Nuts cereal. WHEN WILL THIS MADNESS END? The #5 spot is usually reserved for nature, but I found this tidbit about cereal to be far more interesting than deer in Erie County, NY. Sorry, I can look out my back window and probably see more deer than were the all too brief nature segment. There is an overpopulation problem.
6) David Pogue
David Pogue explains the GameStop short squeeze and does it in a way that anyone can understand. Is there someone to root for in this ridiculousness? On one side you've got hedge fund ghouls. On the other you've the Barstool Sports guy and other assorted internet trolls. Someone's gonna get left holding the bag. If I knew how to short a stock, I might short GameStop. But then again, it's crap like that keeps people from investing and leaving the financial markets to be run be people that you can call amoral at best. I think one of the problems in our country is that a segment glorifies Ayn Rand's Objectivist theories without any understanding of them.
7) Tracy Smith
There's a movie about Billie Holiday coming out directed by Lee Daniels and starring Andra Day. Andra Day sings that one song you've heard. You know the one. It's been used over an inspiration montage for that one thing - or maybe it was used to sell shampoo. It's a good song and the lovely Andra Day has an amazing voice, but I'm making some comment about overuse and the law of diminishing returns as you beat something to death. Anyway, this is the 2nd segment this show where somebody mentions "Oscar Buzz" - maybe Australian journalist Holly Williams didn't actually mention it and I am just assuming it because it's more overused and beaten to death than that Andra Day song that I just assume ubiquity. This is either the third or fourth piece Tracy has done this Oscar season to mention Oscar buzz. Nothing against Tracy, this is her beat so... but it was genuinely touching to watch Andra Day not be able to keep it together when discussing the movie and Billie Holiday. You don't expect a censor bleep on Sunday Morning, so it kind of means something when it happens. In this case, it was about a good thing thankfully.
This seems too low on the list. An unwarranted backlash to having him #1 a couple weeks ago. The high five story is cool. It's not about a child who makes friends unlikely friends with an adult or an adult who form an unlikely bond with a child. It's about regular adult friends for a change. At a certain point, you'll say "No Way," and then immediately say, "Oh yeah, it's a Steve Hartman story, so of course." You'll smile and be happy that you know the story of how a high five restored a man's missing memory.
9) Jim Gaffigan
Jim Gaffigan is my second favorite stand-up comedian (Since you asked, Mulaney). I find his quarantine check-ins to be delightful for the most part. I do sometimes genuinely wonder if his kids are OK with what he shares of their lives, but maybe it is because I'm just a private person. Maybe they don't care. Maybe they'll be mortified in 10 years. Hopefully not. It just seems like sharing home movies should be something you consent to and kids don't really have that ability, but who am I kidding? Privacy doesn't exist anymore unelss you are rich. I could go into detail about why I feel some moderate connection to the Catholic, toe-headed comedian beyond just liking his specials, but it's a little late in the game at the 9 spot. Another time perhaps.
Next week is the Super Bowl. Even though I generally don't care about football, I have plans. It'll be tough squeeze in rankings on Sunday, so watch for them on Monday if I don't meet deadline.
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