As somebody who could not watch a second of Jay Leno, ever, I was charmed by Jimmy Fallon’s first show Monday night.
I’m a total Letterman fan, attuned to his twitchy moods, his dark history, his world view, his infatuations – Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett. But Fallon can be an outlet during reruns, commercials, stupid pet tricks. I love that Fallon is young (39), agile and musical. I love the brothers in the shades in his band (The Roots) and hope they get more of a chance to play whole riffs than Letterman allows Paul’s talented band to do, on air. My one question about the Fallon show is the presence of his announcer pal Steve Higgins. As an old guy, I kept saying, “Why is Steve Allen standing there? Is he a ghost who materializes from the walls of the ancient studio?” I also love the Spike Lee intro for Fallon – need to catch more of the references – and love the ‘30’s set, so New York, so Rockefeller Plaza. Two shows from The Greatest City in the World, as Letterman’s announcer used to call it. Welcome to Big Town. It may be time to learn how to download TV shows.
John McDermott
2/18/2014 05:53:16 pm
I am incredibly pleased to find out there is at least one other person who could not bear to watch Jay Leno. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's you, George. Now, may I tell that I have even less tolerance for
George Vecsey
2/19/2014 03:16:28 am
exactly
John McDermott
2/19/2014 01:08:52 pm
From what I've seen of Jimmy Fallon(you've got to see his Van Morrison imitation), he seems genuinely funny, and a good guy to boot.
Thor A. Larsen
2/19/2014 05:58:00 am
George Vecsey
2/19/2014 07:06:09 am
Thor, funny, I was happy that he was born in Bay Ridge. He did seem like a very normal person on Monday -- emotional about there he was, sweet about his parents, who were in the audience. Granted, he is a performer, and knows how to do humble. But your vision of him is the real thing. You can't fool your homies. 2/20/2014 02:30:25 am
Thor
Ed Martin
2/19/2014 02:53:03 pm
I know how boring old guys are when they talk about how things were better in the past, and it is only true 90 percent of the time and the other 50 percent its not. Meanwhile, Steve Allen and his cast, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme, Andy Williams--was there ever a program with more talented musicians? The Answer Man, "The Answer is 9-W, (hint before interstates Hwy 9 ran from NY to Canada, (9-E on the east side of the Hudson, and you can figure out where 9-W was.) Steve, the Answer Man, gave you the question that elicited this answer after a brief pause. "Do you spell your name with a V, Herr Wagner?" 2/20/2014 03:17:04 am
Ed
George Vecsey
2/20/2014 06:30:47 am
Alan, great, what about the false teeth chattering in the glass?
Ed Martin
2/21/2014 05:02:36 am
Guido Panzini, the Italian golf pro, introduces his lesson on how to play golf:
George Vecsey
3/2/2014 05:58:08 am
forgot that one, too 2/20/2014 08:34:31 am
George--Stories about Steve and Ernie's shows would take up too much space on the internet.
Brian Savin
2/20/2014 11:37:31 am
Three memories:
George Vecsey
2/21/2014 12:20:38 am
Brian, regards. Those old bits do stay in the mind.
Altenir Silva
2/20/2014 03:32:43 pm
Dear George,
Altenir Silva
2/20/2014 03:45:12 pm
Errata: I meant "evenings of America are saved!"
George Vecsey
2/21/2014 12:17:34 am
Altenir, thanks. Do you get NBC on Rio televison, or via the Internet? My best to you three.
George Vecsey
2/21/2014 01:25:43 am
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/opinion/nocera-joyce-does-it-her-way.html
Altenir Silva
2/21/2014 02:39:37 am
Dear George,
George Vecsey
2/21/2014 02:42:41 am
see, I knew you would know her. 7/8/2014 12:28:42 pm
I agree with your information and I hope everything will be better, good luck 7/10/2014 12:29:10 pm
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Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online. The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal…. After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness. The progress stems mostly from three factors: First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot. Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.) Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year. “Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.” That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.” That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data. One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines. Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks. Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths. The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions. Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately Republican and white. Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.) *** From the great Maureen Dowd: As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop. But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels." --- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing. *** "Putting out the paper," we called it. Much more than nostalgia. ---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html Categories
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