March 28, 2021
So a thing happened last week. I tagged David Pogue and Tracy Smith on Twitter and Pogue responded with a quite flattering comment regarding this here blog. Not to be outdone, Tracy responded by calling me the "F Scott Fitzgerald of blogging except way better than him." My thoughts on the matter:
I'm obviously a fan of CBS Sunday Morning and fandom is mostly a one way relationship so I'd be lying if I said that these brief cyber interactions meant nothing. They made my day, in fact. In days of yore, I'd have to put pen to paper, look up an address and direct send fan mail to some PO Box to reach out to those that put together Sunday Morning. Now I can (sort of) talk to people I see on TV and they can (sort of) talk to me. As Jasper has taught us all:
Also the CBS Sunday Morning twitter feed is generally pretty dope. However, if you are reading this, this is probably not news to you. Like all great technological breakthroughs, the internet is both the best of things and worst of things to happen to humanity. (Go and reread the opening to A Tale of Two Cities, is it ever not relevant to the modern age?)
I have no grand illusion that this recap blog is going to draw more than a few dozen readers at a time. The blog remains primarily of a means for me to shout meaninglessness into the digital void for my own amusement. The real question is, is the committee here at the CBS Sunday Morning Power Rankings susceptible to flattery or is there some sort of underlying semi-objectivity? Is this some sort of serious dissection of the broadcast or am I just a fan? Stay tuned to find out.
For those you awaiting Part 3 of The Ballad of Weaves #53, tentatively titled "The Ballad of Weaves #53: The Conclusion(?)", I'm holding it until next week. The shout-outs from Pogue and Smith could not go unaddressed. Trying to cram that and the conclusion to my meandering musings on music would have been unwieldy and time consuming. While those two words do effectively encapsulate the blog, I was just busy too busy this weekend to give both the proper treatment.
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING POWER RANKINGS
1) Nancy Giles
Some weeks one segment will stand out head shoulders above all others to grab the top spot. And some weeks, the committee struggles to come a decision. This week was of the latter variety but after much debate, the top spot goes to Nancy Giles. While this week's episode did not feature snowy vista's of the Italian Alps or thought provoking visual arts, it did have this:
As a member of the corrective lenses club, this split screen is glorious. I have previously mentioned my fondness for Nancy's frames, but Joan Nathan's green frames with matching sweater kicks things up to 11. Green is my favorite color and that shade of green in particular. And Nancy's red frames more than hold their own. Question: Are they light red? Dark pink? Translucent red? They are certainly not Sally Jesse Raphael red:
which is fine. For a time, SJR frames were probably considered passé. However, SJR had the last laugh because what goes around comes around:
Pictured above: Russell Westbrook. Point deduction: No lenses. Is the shirt not loud enough?
Occasionally, when I need new frames, I get a wild hair to try some bold frame style, but in the end I always chicken out and get something middle of the road for I'm no Klopp:
Nor am I a Tucci:
I am just me and I am pretty bad a picking out frames that I think both look good and fit my face. It probably goes back to when I was a kid and we shopped for glasses at the shop of a moderately racist optician who may not have updated his stock since the late 70s. Anyway, the ingrained frugality means that I generally balk at shelling over hundreds of dollars for fashionable or "high performance" frames. I have a pretty heavy prescription, so the lenses alone will cause whatever glasses I buy to be expensive. Standard plastic lenses are of the coke bottle variety. Give me all the high index lenses. If lenses made out of diamond were feasible, I'd consider it. I wear contacts most of the time anyway. If I want to wear something loud, it is usually one of my pairs of Puma Suedes:
If you see someone wearing these shoes, it could be me.
If you have any suggestions on how to go about buying some glasses that are a bit more of conversation piece than standard fare without breaking the bank. I'm all ears... and eyes.
Anyway, the actual segment was not actually about glasses. (Debatable.) It was about chicken soup. I like making soups. I need a good, simple recipe for chicken soup. I looked at Joan's and it might be a bit advanced for me. I don't think I've had matzo ball soup and that's my loss. Nothing looks more appetizing than a big, doughy dumpling soaking up broth and other sundry liquid goodness.
2) Tracy Smith
Tracy may have flattered her way to #2 with the F. Scott Fitzgerald quip - a quality bit of comedy, old sport. Just as plausible: Tracy may have deserved #1, but the committee intentionally held her back from the top spot to prevent the appearance of any impropriety or loss of objectivity lest the rankings into a free for all.
The celebrity profile is not my main Sunday Morning jam. It is, however, the corner Tracy holds down. It's just a misalignment of interest. The success of a profile segment often depends on the charm and charisma of the subject. Semi-recent profiles by Tracy that would have taken the top spot had the rankings existed a few months ago include Lizzo and Clooney (the Flowbee!).
Leslie Odom Jr. has no shortage of style and charm himself. I watched the movie version of Hamilton, and sadly I did not fall in love with it the way the rest of world did. The viewing experience was less than ideal, so maybe I need to rewatch it gain a better appreciation. I can recognize it is a masterpiece, I just didn't get emotionally invested in it. I'm sure the everything it is heightened when experienced live. But we still aren't going to any live theater for a bit still. So for now, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the opening song from Hamilton is musical parody.
I covered One Night in Miami a few weeks ago when Regina King was interviewed. The Oscar nomination for Odom is well deserved. Can we just give him EGOT now? And what's the over/under on people associated with Hamilton will EGOTing? Anyway, Odom steals One Night in Miami movie. I forget which talk show Regina King mentioned it on (maybe all of them), but I wonder about the veracity of the story of Odom being offered the part based on the Nationwide ads.
My one quibble with the segment is that shows the part of the best scene in the movie - the concert scene - arguably the film's emotional climax. It's a special enough scene that I wouldn't want to have experienced it outside of the context of the movie prior to seeing the movie. It's not exactly the same as giving away that Bruce Willis was dead in The Sixth Sense (spoiler alert?) but I have enough film snob in me to have snooty opinions on how cinema should be experienced. And also enough to call it cinema.
3) Nancy Cordes
Nancy is CBS's chief White House correspondent. I don't recall her doing any previous segments for Sunday Morning. Was this a Sunday Morning debut? Also, 2 Nancy's in the top 3! I honestly wonder if this segment would have run if Trump was still president. I don't have much doubt that the thin skinned former president would have tried to ban Nancy Cordes from white house briefing room for interviewing Senator Duckworth because of the "Cadet Bone Spurs" dig (HA!). Her story basically hits every touchstone of a quintessential American comeback story twice over. Grows up poor. Goes to college. Then the military. Loses her legs in combat. Rebounds and overcomes her disability to become a senator. There's a lot of ups and downs and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and whatnot. The fact that she is female and Thai-American is either irrelevant or very relevant. Irrelevant because race and gender should not make difference as far as what is considered an American story. Very relevant because certain people do rank American-ness based on appearance with white male being "most" American as demonstrated by a cringe-worthy moment when a Republican opponent in a senate race tries to score points during a debate only to have dunked on himself.
You must have a heart of stone not to smile during a Hartman segment. Even when the segment involves a terminal cancer diagnosis, it's still invariably uplifting. If all I knew about Dustin Vitale is that he is a middle school teacher, I would have said stop right there, the man is a saint.
Dustin wants to take his dying Mom to Egypt so he makes cheesesteaks in his kitchen. Sounds crazy, no? But it's Hartman segment, so I'm not spoiling anything to say Dustin pulls it off. You should still watch it to make yourself feel better about life in general.
On Cheesesteaks: In my neck of the woods, we have Penn Station which is decent enough way to clog your arteries. If you are looking to indulge in a hot sandwich with, I approve. My understanding is that Penn Station's cheesesteak is bastardized version of the Philly version at best. This if fine with me. Philly cheesesteaks look gross. It's the cheese whiz. You gotta problem with me saying that? Come at me bro! Still, if I had the opportunity to eat one cooked up by Dustin, it would be an honor.
5) Murmurations / Sunday Passage (tie)
I thought the starlings were bats at first. Like most of the nature segments, I could have watched starling murmurations (I learned a new thing) for hours. Was the choice of starlings for the nature segment some kind of backdoor cross promotion for Clarice? Deviously subliminal CBS.
Sunday Passage is not Sunday Almanac and at this point they could do a Sunday Passage for Sunday Almanac. This week Sunday Passage noted the passing of some true greats: Elgin Baylor, Beverly Cleary (passing away at an astounding 104), George Segal, whom I remember best from the underrated sitcom Just Shoot Me!, and the great Jessica Walter, who was brilliant as matriarch Lucile Bluth in the best TV show of my lifetime, Arrested Development. Segal and Walter had such long careers that it likely shortchanges their cultural contribution to only remember them for the one thing from late in their careers. I hope they don't mind because I love them both. I don't want to overlook Larry McMurtry either. I did get around to watching The Last Picture Show a few weeks ago. It is the 3rd time this year The Last Picture Show and Sunday Morning crossed paths. Nancy Giles profiled Ellen Burstyn 5 weeks ago and a Cloris Leachman's passing was noted 3 weeks before that.
Can you separate the artist from the art?
From about age 12-18, I was pretty into Woody Allen. I was a weird kid. At the time, I was vaguely aware of Allen's publicly strange personal life. Soon-Yi jokes would have been a thing by then. I really don't have to rehash all the reasons that Woody Allen is problematic, but I can't go back in time and not laugh at Love and Death, Sleeper, Bananas, Manhattan Murder Mystery, and others - those are just my favorites off the top of my head. I may have been too young to "get" Annie Hall when I watched it; it is less overtly slapsticky than the other Woody Allen classics I enjoy. I'd like to be able to laugh at this scene without having to think about Allen allegedly being a predator:
Kind of feel like Lee Cowan's interview with Allen on Paramount+ gets tossed under the bus here, but how dare Lee do a segment for something besides Sunday Morning.
A few weeks ago, I was discussing the recently "canceled" Joss Whedon (Ugh... can we please cancel the word "canceled".) with a friend and lo and behold I made the same point as Dr. Ross makes towards the end of the piece - I can be smart sometimes. Maybe it can be handled differently in solo artistic endeavor like an author or painter, but in a collaborative medium like film (Honestly, writing a book is pretty collaborative when you consider the editing process.), it's problematic to dismiss the work of jerks, asses, and predators. Despite what they may feel in their own minds, Joss Whedon is not solely responsible for The Avengers, or Buffy the Vampire Hunter, or Firefly, nor is Woody Allen solely responsible for his films, nor Bill Cosby for his TV shows. There are a myriad of other writers, actors, cinematographers, costume designers, makeup artists, etc. whose work should still be lauded despite the attachment of problematic artists to their work. In addition to simply being awful for those victimized, it sucks that hard work of talented people will be less recognized and appreciated because the actions of others. It also just sucks of the actions of these people makes can take something they should be proud of and turn it into something painful.
Stepping of my soapbox, the three most important TV shows of my childhood were The Cosby Show, The Simpsons, and Seinfeld. It makes me a little sad that I'll probably never randomly come across a random episode and catch up my old friends Claire, Sandra, Elvin, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, Rudy, Cockroach, Kenny, and even cousin Pam. (I forget the name of Denise's husband - the naval officer.) I don't need the internet to look up the main cast and recurring characters.
7) Seth Doane
We originally Seth's segment originally ranked much higher, but it kept sliding down and down because it's just not fun to write about. Seth is openly gay, so his main beats are Italy and the LGBT corner. Although, Braver did profile Sarah McBride for a segment in February. Anyway, full disclosure, I'm Catholic. And not just "raised Catholic." I still practice. The Church has been important to me, although I'm not going to claim that said Church does not have myriad problems or that I agree with everything the Church teaches. Let's not go into all of its shortcomings right now.
I've known a good number of priests in my time and looking back, I would suspect that a few of them were gay. Shrug. I don't really care. The 40% statistic is not that surprising. If you hold that something is a reprehensible sin and then create an institution where it is socially acceptable to remain unmarried when it is generally perceived to be unacceptable, what do you think is going to happen?
Also, I appreciate the explicit statement in the story that there no link between homosexuality and pedophilia. It infuriates me to no end when people try to make this connection. The Jesuits come out looking alright though, as they usually do. I like them almost as much as Malcolm Gladwell. My general take on all this is that the Church does not live up to John 3:19-20. (You thought that was going to be 3:16, right?) It keeps too many secrets (Setec Astronomy?), keeping things in the dark instead of the light.
8) Mo Rocca
Brenda Vaccarro is a gas and a perfect interview subject for Mo. I'm generally pro-Mo and the committee has never placed Mo so far down before. Given the repoire between Mo and Brenda, this really should have been higher. However, to spread the love around to the whole Sunday Morning crew, you can't be near the top every week. Let's check in on Mo's tie game:
It's a decent tie. Pretty sure the segment was filmed last fall, so that probably explains the more muted color than the very springtime tie worn for the Ladybird Johnson segment. As we were discussing eyewear earlier, I might be able to pull of Mo's spectacles. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I'm shopping for new frames. While the rankings are not a fashion contest (ok, maybe they are in way), the department where Mo excels regardless of circumstance is hair. *Chef's kiss* Take him back in time and put him in a John Hughes movie.
9) Jim Gaffigan
Who invented the joke construction "Big (BLANK)"? As Gaffigan self-deprecatingly took on "Big Hike," I kept thinking to myself, that's Drew Magary's bit! But who knows. The cynical view is that nothing on the internet is new or original; it is just repackaged and repurposed. But as T.S. Elliott pointed out, "Good writers borrow, great writers steal." So if Gaffigan stole it from Magary or Magary stole it from someone else, bully for them. If you're going to do the joke, make sure it's funny and Gaffigan is funny enough here.
10) Martha Teichner
Teichner over John Blackstone? You know the drill by now. I'm not a big fan of the Eagles or Jackson Browne, but speaking of A+ Tracy Smith segments, give me all the Linda Ronstadt. Granted, all this is from well before my time, but the premise that L.A. was pretty cool in 1974 seems like a pretty flimsy premise for a book much less a Sunday Morning segment. Sorry. That was snarky. It's just that the idea that everything peaked at some nebulous moment in the past was already definitively covered by LCD Soundsystem's "Losing My Edge".
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