Ervolino

White misery month

 I woke up thinking spring was in the air -- I keep telling myself this every morning, hoping someone up there is listening to me - and then I hear we are getting 6-10 inches of white stuff.

 GIVE ME A BREAK!

 I am so sick of this winter. It just goes on and on and on. 

 Sure, February is early for spring, but it's been winter since before Thanksgiving.

 When this happens we're supposed to get extra spring days! And stimulus checks!

The biz

I was glad to hear Bill Maher speak out on his HBO show last night about the plight of newspapers which is becoming more dire by the minute. At one point he said -- as I've been saying in my own speaking engagements during the last year -- do we want to live in a country without newspapers? His panelists issued the usual claptrap about how we are all going to have to "adapt" to the Internet, but it's been a long time now and no matter how much we have adapted we are circling the drain. Big newspapers are failing every week, the San Francisco Chronicle (according to the mayor of SF) is losing $1 million A WEEK. The Rocky Mountain News is folding. The NY Times has mortgaged its building. When are people going to realize what is happening here? Do they think that all of that news they read on the Internet or hear on television is still going to be there when the newspapers go under?

 Some papers like The Record are doing their best to adapt and still turning a profit, but most are going down fast and, obviously, this economy is not going to help matters. I sometimes wish that ALL newspapers could stop printing for a week just so people could see what it would be like. As was noted last night, only three newspapers covered (full-time) the war in Iraq. 

 I can't think of many things that are so necessary and yet so affordable to most people. Even if you don't get the newspaper, what's in it filters to you eventually. Do you want to know what your TV news would consist of without newspapers? NOT MUCH.

 I will now get off my soapbox, but I feel this needs to be said over and over and over again. If the business you're in was facing extinction, I would expect you to do likewise.

Ed McMahon in serious condition

 Sad to report that Ed McMahon is "seriously" ill according to the folks at TMZ who say that the former "Tonight" show sidekick has been in the hospital for a week and is battling pneumonia. McMahon has had serious financial problems in the last couple of years, although news of his situation helped him to pick up some commercial work. Sources say he has additional health problems that are not helping the situation. Like Johnny Carson, his former boss, McMahon almost feels like part of the family. We wish him well.

Taxing the rich

Nice simple explanation in THIS NY Times story about how Obama is rewriting the tax code and, essentially undoing every economic policy of the Reagan Era. What it doesn't explain is whether or not it's going to work.

LIFTING THE BAN

The ban on showing military coffins has been reversed by Pres. Obama, providing that families of the fallen agree. I'm not sure what the problem was in the first place, but I'm happy to say the ban has ended. I think these folks deserve a salute from the American people upon their return. In fact, I'm saluting right now.

Is it or isn't it...?

I can't seem to persuade anyone to follow my lead when it comes to watching the 1950s reruns of "What's My Line?" and "To Tell the Truth." (They air at 3 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., respectively, on Game Show Network. In the last few weeks I've enjoyed seeing the likes of Jack Lemmon, Tony Randall and Dick Clark, circa 1958 and guests that ranged from Paul Newman and Eartha Kitt to the Andrews Sisters, Duncan Hines, A.C. Nielsen, and Dr. Seuss who had just written "The Cat in the Hat." (Over the weekend, Gypsy Rose Lee appeared, mere days after the musical "Gypsy" had opened on Broadway.)

On an episode I taped last week but just watched Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows appeared as guest panelists. About a year earlier, Allen was on the panel and had coined a phrase which became a regular question on the show before slipping into the vernacular. After asking a contestant if there was a product associated with their job, he said, "Is it bigger than a bread  box?"

Countless references were made to that phrase on the show when Allen wasn't on. And it was amusing to see that, for his return to the show, the producers found a woman who designed bread boxes. Unfortunately, although the question had been asked earlier in the show, it was never asked of this contestant and she wound up walking off with the grand prize of -- are you sitting down? -- $50.

On the mooooove

 I began packing up my things at the Record's Hackensack office yesterday in preparation for the move to Woodland Park. Our editors in the features department checked in there yesterday. The rest of us are leaving in little groups, over the next few days.

 I've spent the last 18 years in that place, so it's kind of strange to be leaving. Every day, more people seem to disappear. It's kind of like being in a LOST episode. LOST, incidentally, was very interesting last night. And Hosea won Top Chef...wasn't that a surprise?

 I have to admit that between the move, my Long Island commute and this being LOST season, I am kind of running around in circles right now.

 And although I'm not depressed there is something kinda weird about going through all of your desk and cabinet drawers and packing up years of stuff -- including things you haven't seen since the early '90s.

Do you find it hard to part with junk like this? Or are you one of those folks who can just toss it out?

 I often find myself unable to part with the stupidest things, but maybe that's just me.

FLAWLESS

A day of reckoning

 In his first state of the union address -- not be confused with a "real" State of the Union address -- Pres. Barack Obama rarely strayed from the mighty center he has created for himself. Even when he sidestepped into energy, health care and education, the president seemed effectively on-message. And, while he couldn't assure us that disaster isn't around the corner, he did assure us that we would eventually punch our way out of it.

 I'm not a fan of every Obama speech. Sometimes, he simply puts me to sleep. But the Obama we saw on Tuesday night seemed energized, focused and mad in all the right places. (The audience meter on MSNBC, tracking both Democratic and Republican viewers, rarely strayed from the high-plus region, except on those occasions when it seemed to go higher.)

 I generally dislike presidential speeches. Bill Clinton was known for his "empathy," but that often came across to me as cloying and insincere. George W. Bush took a more postured approach, reciting scripted-up bombast which some people mistook for strength. Sadly, it took Mr. Bush eight years to drop his defenses, speak off the cuff to journalists, and level -- at least somewhat -- with the American people. 

 If you stuck around on Tuesday night for the response from Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, you also had to be reminded of Mr. Bush, who not only hobbled his party but pulverized it. Likable and promising, Gov. Jindal is one of the people who, along with Sarah Palin and a handful of other rising stars, will lead their party to a new future that better reflects this ever-changing nation. 

 Still, as I watched Gov. Jindal speak, I had a hard time understanding what he was even talking about. I'm not going to hold this against him, though. He had to follow up one of the timeliest and best-crafted speeches I've ever heard a president deliver.

 What makes Mr. Obama such an effective speaker -- at least to these ears -- is that he is smart and self-aware. He not only tells you what he wants you to hear, he also addresses the questions you're thinking to yourself while he is speaking.

 In order for this speech to work, he HAD to address the concerns raised by his opponents on tax cuts and other matters that will be raked over the coals on talk radio. But he also had to bring the Republicans to their feet as often as possible -- and he most certainly did that.

 For me the only distraction was his hair. Is he turning gray, already? What on earth is this guy going to look like in four years?

 Otherwise, I did my best to pay attention, and surrender to my desire to be uplifted, because like so many of you, I need to be. 

 I suspect as things get worse, we will be hearing more of the same from this president and I hope he will still be able to galvanize us as we struggle to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 Do I think he's making all the right decisions right now? No, but I don't have any better ideas, and from the looks of things, neither does anyone else.

 I hope he can continue to deliver at this level. I hope his political opponents will rise to the occasion and rebuild the party of Reagan, without needing to invoke his name every 20 minutes. With every new election cycle the Reagan legacy becomes more distant. And, in the last eight years, it almost achieved a level of pointlessness with a rag-tag foreign policy and unmatched runaway spending. (How often can you invoke Reagan's memory while undoing everything he stood for?)

 At the moment, Mr. Obama has no more than a 50-50 chance of being re-elected. The problems he is facing are so huge that it's difficult to believe anyone could resolve them in a single term. And as the situation deteriorates, so will America's patience.

 But by coming on forcefully and confidently he can at least temporarily bolster us and his party. In the process, he gives his political opponents their own challenge -- namely, rising to the occasion.

 Whether Republicans like it or not, they have a new role model -- one who speaks clearly and intelligently, forcefully and optimistically, and -- as of Tuesday night -- exhibits a sparkling ability to speak to members of Congress, the man on the street, and everyone in between.

 That's a mighty big "center" and at the moment, he owns it.

 Because of this, I think this president can strengthen both parties by raising the bar on what we expect our leaders to do and how we expect them to do it. In the end we will all benefit. 

 And, yes, I am really looking forward to that.

Better days ahead...?

It's been called the great high wire act of the 21st century, and tonight we'll get to see it, LIVE, as the President of the United States struggles to predict the future. And change it.

 You don't need me to tell you that we're in a mess, that it's getting worse, and that no one seems to agree on the best way to deal with it and avert disaster, or at least lessen the blow. Republicans oppose the stimulus package, and many Americans who have done everything they were supposed to are starting to get PO'ed about the prospect of bailing out everyone else.

Dems -- and more than a few economists -- say that as irritating as all of this is, not doing it will be worse. 

 Deep down we all want someone to blame, because we're angry and we've read about the many warnings about where we were heading. In the last 15 years we've seen the rich get SO rich that it boggles our minds. (Was "billionaire" even a word when we were growing up?)

 But tonight will be a make-or-break moment for Pres. Obama. At this point, it doesn't even matter if his plan is right or wrong, because there is no other plan except to let everything collapse and wait to see just how bad things get.

 At the moment, wealth on this planet is vanishing at an almost unbelievable rate. Yes, we can let the defaulters go down in flames, but then what will we be left with? Those who oppose the stimulus say things will be bad, but the recovery period will be shorter. Or, on the far end of things, they say the current proposals aren't bold enough, they're too flimsy, and that much, much more is needed to do this right.

 I can't imagine that any of us envies the president's situation. But, again, at this moment, I don't think it matters much which way we go, as long as we can have some confidence that the man in charge can make it work. 

 Right now he has to give us some idea of how bad it is going to be, and help us believe that there is some light at the end of the tunnel. And, while I can't imagine that history will blame him for this mess, he HAS to fix it, and he has to have to support of the American people.

 At the moment, a majority think the GOP is playing politics with all of this. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But, right now, they aren't impressing me much with their arguments. I'm not sold on the stimulus either, but I'd like to be, because I think it's any-port-in-a-storm time. 

 The banks are insolvent, the market's in chaos, people are losing their jobs, their homes and any optimism about the future. We have to do something and the president is going to have to make his case and move us forward.

 We know he's capable of making great speeches. This one is going to have to be even better.

The Oscars 2009

 I can't recall an Oscar telecast that was classier, more thoughtful or LONGER than last night's show. The evening's "innovations" included a change in the way the acting awards was presented. It was inspired. I can't recall any Oscar show in which the nominees were crying before the winner was announced.

 Very nice.

 The way the clips was presented was thoughtful and effective. And yet, good grief...how long is this thing going to drag on?

 I didn't have a whole lot invested in this year's show. I think this may be the first time EVER that I hadn't seen a single nominated film.

 Still, the Oscars are always a mess, so if we're going to have to sit there for three and half hours, I guess it helps to have some memorable moments.

 

Sean Penn was a favorite for Best Actor, even though all the publicity went Mickey Rourke's way. On some level we all love to root for the underdog, and Rourke had the sentiments of many people who knew his story and hoped he would somehow be rewarded for throwing his promising career down the toilet and then crawled back to Comeback Country.

 Kate Winslet has given so many thank you speeches this year, I'm guessing it was hard for her to appear even remotely surprised when her name was announced. I met and interviewed her when she co-starred in the brilliant "Heavenly Creatures" made by Peter Jackson and I've been in love with her ever since.

 I'm also a Hugh Jackman fan -- thanks mostly to his turns as Wolverine -- and I suppose he did a good enough job helming the evening. It's a thankless job. Billy Crystal was wonderful twice, so-so the other times. Comedians of every style and stripe have tried to make this plodding trophy-fest entertaining. Some did better than others, but, let's face it, its a loooooonnnnnnnggggggg night.

 It was nice to see Sophia Loren, and a handful of other aging stars. Jerry Lewis gave a brief, heartfelt thank you for his Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. What took them so long to recognize his work with the Muscular Dystrophy Association?

 Beyonce looked good. I felt for Heath Ledger's family, even though he ruined The Dark Knight for me. I'm in the minority, there, though. The movie grossed over $1 billion. How often does that happen?

 What else do I remember? I'm not sure, but did I say it was a looooooonnnnnnggggggg night?

 Yeah. So I'll cut this short.