"What I Should Have Said Was..."

Earlier this week I saw Ruddigore performed by the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (review on Back Stage here) with my friend Lydia. At the curtain call, I told her I had to go to the can and would meet her in the lobby. She thought I said I would meet her outside the theatre. Anyway, we missed each other for a few minutes and she came into the lobby where I was waiting. She told told me while she was waiting outside for me that David Letterman came out with his wife. Lydia didn't say anything to him, their eyes did meet and he realized she recognized him which probably happens all the time. We joked how the wife was forcing him to go to a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta because he humiliated her on national TV by admitting his numerous affairs with staffers.

Anyway I probably wouldn't have said anyting to Dave either or asked for an autograph, but I would have liked to have had the presence of mind to say "Crush Leno when he returns to 11:30." I hope Dave does destory Leno. I can't understand why NBC thinks Leno will get all his viewers back and beat Dave when Leno's 10:00 show has been such an utter and dismal failure. Maybe because fewer people watch late night than prime time and they don't need as many viewers? I never thought Leno was funnier than Dave. Jay just lucked out because Hugh Grant happened to have sex with a prostitute (whatever happened to her, by the way?) and he was booked on Leno's show immediately afterwards. Why did those people stay with Jay? And why did they desert him when he went to prime time? I never watched him and don't think he was ever funny, so it's all a mystery to me. I just hope Leno is crushed when he returns. Maybe he made a pact with the devil like Haiti and is now reaping God's vengeance. (I will have to do a separate blog on the hatefulness of Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh.)

Just missing Letterman reminded me of the times I encountered a celebrity and later thought of the perfect witty thing to say. Like the time Jerry and I were visiting friends in Park Slope and Senator Chuck Schumer was walking towards us. I said "Good evening, Senator." And he said "Hi, fellows." That was pretty good. But I should have said, "When you see the President, please tell him he can have my $300 back if that will help." The then-Republican controlled Congress had just passed a law at W.'s insistence giving everyone a tax refund of said amount which was supposed to stimulate the economy.

Another time even longer ago, I saw MacBeth at the Public Theatre with Alec Baldwin and Angela Bassett. Afterwards I saw Johnny Cochran, OJ Simpson's defense lawyer, leaving the theatre. On the subway ride home, I suddenly realized I could have said "So, do you think you could have gotten Macbeth off?"

Mad Tea Party

(Sung to the tune of "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music"):

Right-wing goons

Looney tunes

Every tea party you show up

Flat earth

Obama's birth

You make me want to throw up

That little ditty occured to me last week as the coverage of the Sept. 12 Tea Party march on Washington unfolded and the inflated numbers were rolled out. I got especially enraged when I saw that Fox was promoting the event as if it were the Second Coming and then had the nerve to take out a full-page ad in the Washington Post asking the rhetorical question: "How could ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC miss this story?" Forget the fact that all five of those networks coverd the event to one degree or another, what really made my blood boil was remembering when I marched on Washington--TWICE--as part of a gay rights protest and we got almost NO coverage from anyone--zip, nada, snoozeville. Our numbers were given short shrift by almost every news outlet--the ones that did cover us--and I will bet you any amount of money that if there were some objective, reliable way to count the marchers, we drew just as many people, if not more, as these loony birds. How come no one said "How could you miss that story?" And when gay people march again later this month, there will almost no coverage--AGAIN. You know why? Because we're not backed by big political interests like the Tea Pot Domers are (I just coined that one, like it?)

And now it's revealed a Fox producer was directing the crowd in one of her shots to cheer and yell. OK, maybe they would have been excited anyway, but Foxy lady, you're not supposed to manipulate the story you're covering--in any way. That's called titling the story towards the outcome you want--not being fair and balanced, you know, your network's motto.

It's late at night and I may ramble a bit here: I don't think Carter was right saying an overwhelming motive behind the anti-Obama vitriol is rooted in racism. Some of it is for sure. But a lot is based on fear that the repubs are ginning up. Fear that this big bad boogie man Obama will take away their insurance and cars and guns and country music and grits and NASCAR races and fatty foods and trips to Disneyland. They'd do that if Obama was white, but his being black adds to the fear for some people.

I heard Glenn Beck say he thought John McCaine would have been worse for the country than Obama. What? He said Mccain was a crazy progressive like Teddy Roosevelt. What a whacked out sense of history. Teddy broke the trusts and helped the average working man--the people Beck supposedly loves and wants to elevate. Now we see his real agenda--keep the proles in line, let the corporations control their lives, as long as it's not big government. Also these tea baggers may form their own third party. Oh please, oh please, do it! Do it! Split the conservatives right down the middle and give the Dems the White House and Congress for sure. This was based on an iterview with some former Rep strategist who believes this whole nutbag movement is based on frustration and dissatisifcation with government in general.

Obama explained it really well on Letterman tonight: this whole economic and health care mess is the result of too little government regulation in the first place (under repub adminsitrations) and now these dimwits think as little government as possible is the answer. Just let private enterprise and capitalism run wild and do whatever the market will bear. You know where that will lead? back to the 18th century before unions, anti-trust laws, Medicare, Social Security, etc. etc. right where Fox, Beck and O'Reilly want us.