Tuesday Morning

I want to thank all those who sent or posted or otherwise conveyed birthday greetings yesterday. I tend not to pay much attention to any of my birthdays except when they get me to an age divisible by five but I am not unappreciative. I'd write to thank each of you individually but that would take me until my next birthday.

I'm watching the whole Bill O'Reilly scandal under the assumption that it will all blow over before long with O'Reilly suffering no damage except maybe lower sales on the "historical" books that bear his name. As many have noted, his audience does not watch him for truth. He's had pretty good luck for years deflecting criticism by merely charging that the critic is a left-wing smear merchant so whatever they say can and should be presumed false and/or ignored. That's about all the rebuttal he's ever needed and it seems to be working here.

I caught — well actually, my TiVo caught Jon Stewart last night on that WWE Wrestling show. It's so odd to see wit in that setting.

I seem to be the only person on the entire Internet with the slightest interest in The Late Late Show on CBS as it features guest hosts in the run-up to James Corden's debut on March 23. This week, Drew Carey is back as host in programs taped several weeks ago, then there will be two weeks of reruns…and neither TiVo nor the CBS website seems to know what they are. That's how little anyone cares about this. Some very good people have appeared on the program during this stopgap period both as hosts and guests, and no one has done anything interesting. Most did not seem to even be trying, like the premise was to make Corden look good by preceding him with the most generic, bland talk show possible. The best host was probably Thomas Lennon and even he seemed to have a leash holding him back.

Stuff to do today. Back later.