I discovered The Spectator in the fall of 1980 in the British Council in Warsaw, Poland. I was teaching English in those momentous days, and the The Speccie had the best correspondent in the country, Timothy Garton Ash. It also had a staff of gifted columnists, including one who wrote on High Life and another – surprisingly if appropriately – who wrote on Low Life.
Set out for a drive yesterday morning at 11 so we could listen to Symphony Hall’s Millennium of Music, the program of music predating Baroque. The radio was set to Bluegrass Junction, which was playing a beautiful gospel song. It took me a while to switch to Symphony Hall.
A beautiful morning – one of the last before Mr. Humidity arrives – so Hania and I had breakfast out on the balcony until the sounds of workmen drove us inside.
“Let’s watch the news,” Hania said as we settled in the living room. I turned on CBS This Morning and we heard Gayle King’s story of the day, which was that her daughter was having a baby.
My favorite part of the Oscars, the In Memoriam segment, was so fast at times it was hard to read both the name and the profession, and the music was far from elegiac. Though I was pleased to see that it included Larry McMurtry, the only one of the group I ever received a letter from. In the '90s I wrote to him that I was planning to come to Archer City to write about his bookstore, and he replied, in a handwritten note, that he was usually there though "sometimes Hollywood beckoned."
Speaking of sports, I’ve enjoyed watching Aaron Rodgers guest host Jeopardy!, but I don’t see him as a successor to Alex Trebek (a job he has said he’s interested in) because, oddly, he’s as uninspiring with the contestant interviews as Trebek was.
Small talk is a small part of the job, taking up only a few minutes of every show, but it’s the one moment when the contestants’, and the host’s, personalities are allowed to shine through. Trebek, despite decades at the helm, never mastered the art of host-contestant conversation, closing countless exchanges with a hapless “good for you.”
Rodgers’ problem is that he’s a famous athlete, which creates an insurmountable imbalance in the nature of his exchanges. He oozes charm but, because of our celebrity culture, he lacks the common touch. Talking with contestants he seems to be going through the motions; his closing of “fantastic” is simply a younger man’s alternative to “good for you.”
Rodgers has said that he studied old shows to learn how to host, but a talent for connection, and a genuine curiosity, are things that cannot be taught. Ken Jennings has both, being neither a pampered celebrity nor a slick professional. His exchanges with contestants were lively conversations rich in humor and – something new to Jeopardy!, and rare to television – repartee. Thank you, Ken.