It almost feels like it was yesterday when I was enamored with the news coverage of Desert Storm and hearing the eerie loss of communication with Bob Simon of CBS News and their New York headquarters. I’ve searched for the segment on YouTube with no luck, but it’s forever ingrained in my memory. I tried to imagine what it must be like for a reporter to be held as a prisoner in Iraq, and then when he was released and back in New York, I thought it was so cool of CBS to treat him to one of those old-fashioned straight razor shaves to get rid of his war beard. From that moment I’ve followed Simon’s career. He was up there in years, though he seemed to have plenty left in the tank, and had a very full and blessed life, but the news of him dying in a car crash stopped me down.
Tidbit about Bob Simon when he was a prisoner in Iraq: When he was captured by the Iraqi military during the first gulf war, CBS put together an obituary for Simon, and gave it to him when he returned.
CBS broke into regular programing to announce Simon’s death. Scott Pelley seemed like he had a hard time keeping it together. I bet all the crew is like family over there, especially when you consider Simon’s daughter is a producer for ’60 Minutes’.
Unlike Brian Williams, Bob Simon’s war ordeal wasn’t embellished. Speaking of Williams, they pulled his name yesterday. So instead of “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” it was just “NBC Nightly News”. The end is nigh.
The third season of ‘House of Cards’ isn’t supposed to be released on Netflix until Friday, February 27, but due to a “glitch” ten episodes were available yesterday. I’ve become so suspicious of things now I really don’t know if that “glitch” was done on purpose to hype things up. But I do like Netflix’s tweet about the incident, “This is Washington. There’s always a leak. All 13 episodes will launch February 27.”
I’m finishing the plane crash section of my cadaver book and it references a Delta crash at DFW, but it doesn’t mentioned if it’s the one in Aug 1985 or Aug 1988. Kinda sad you have to reference which Delta crash in August. The book does state that the crash should have been very survivable – a lot of people were killed by fire, clamoring towards the emergency exits and eventually blocking them. I’ll always remember the 1985 crash. It was my my father’s birthday and my first flight, on Delta actually. We landed in Hawaii and turned on the television in our hotel only to find out there was a crash at our home airport.
I’m amazed at how much Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle has lightening up over the years. He’s attended a Mavs fan’s funeral, does commercials wishing the Cowboys best of luck in the playoffs, and after being teased about his table tennis skills, challenged TICKET employee Mike Sirois to a match and then turned it into a fund raising event which will benefit a charity of Siriois’ choice. When he first got here, there’s no way he’d take time out of his schedule during the season to play table tennis.
Bill Belichick certainly wasn’t a curmudgeon on Letterman last night. I don’t think the guy has smiled so much in one setting, he really seemed to relish it, even making sure to greet Paul when he walked out.
After retirement, Belichick should be the White House Press Secretary with the way he answers questions.
The SNL ranking list is a good read, but geez. That guy gives a lot of credit to players from the last 5 years. He's pretty hard on some late-90s, early-00s people – Norm McDonald and Victoria Jackson are bottom 5? Below 2 people that were part of the cast but never appeared in an episode, a handful of the horrible 1980 cast, and this season's new cast members? He was also pretty hard on Chris Kataan and Cher Oteri. They always played similar characters, but they both had pretty long runs on the show and they at least played characters you can remember. The top 30 of the list is pretty good. I was surprised Tina Fey was as high as she was, but he makes a good case that she did a lot to bring relevance back to the show when it looked to be ready to struggle.
I think the hardest I ever laughed at an SNL one-liner was when Norm was doing Weekend Update. In reference to Michael Jordan's return to basketball from baseball, he said, "It's not clear whether he'll resume using his basketball nickname of 'Air Jordan' or if he'll stick with his baseball nickname, 'Senor Crappy.'"
That's a good line, but when it was paired with that deadpan delivery, it just killed.
I also liked Simon's reporting, and I was glued to the TV to see as much as possible about the Gulf War. But from what I remember, Simon was in a place he had been told not to be, and a lot of soldiers had to take extra risks to go look for him and they weren't real happy abotu it.
Granted the SNL list is just one person's opinion, but it is so cockeyed that if I were to re-do it I could draw names from a hat and get a more sensible result.
Seems like being dead really moves you up in the SNL ratings.
The SNL ranking list is a good read, but geez. That guy gives a lot of credit to players from the last 5 years. He's pretty hard on some late-90s, early-00s people – Norm McDonald and Victoria Jackson are bottom 5? Below 2 people that were part of the cast but never appeared in an episode, a handful of the horrible 1980 cast, and this season's new cast members? He was also pretty hard on Chris Kataan and Cher Oteri. They always played similar characters, but they both had pretty long runs on the show and they at least played characters you can remember. The top 30 of the list is pretty good. I was surprised Tina Fey was as high as she was, but he makes a good case that she did a lot to bring relevance back to the show when it looked to be ready to struggle.
Gotta agree about Norm McDonald being way too low. In my opinion, he was the best Weekend Update host.
I think the hardest I ever laughed at an SNL one-liner was when Norm was doing Weekend Update. In reference to Michael Jordan's return to basketball from baseball, he said, "It's not clear whether he'll resume using his basketball nickname of 'Air Jordan' or if he'll stick with his baseball nickname, 'Senor Crappy.'"
That's a good line, but when it was paired with that deadpan delivery, it just killed.
I also liked Simon's reporting, and I was glued to the TV to see as much as possible about the Gulf War. But from what I remember, Simon was in a place he had been told not to be, and a lot of soldiers had to take extra risks to go look for him and they weren't real happy abotu it.
Granted the SNL list is just one person's opinion, but it is so cockeyed that if I were to re-do it I could draw names from a hat and get a more sensible result.