Okay, I owe Tony Bourdain a good bit of karmatic equity. The banter in those Treme kitchen scenes didn’t exactly write itself, after all. So I am pretty much trying to say yes to my boy when he calls me and says he’s subbing for Mr. Morgan on CNN and he wants me to guest on a segment with David Carr of the NYT. I don’t do the talking-head cable shtick often, especially not on complicated issue-talk because the format is too cramped to progress a real discussion. I’m up for a little nonsense if I have a show that I’m trying to pitch, or if it’s some wordy, hour-long PBS thing where the asides can have asides, but otherwise, no. And this is quick and dirty. And I’ve got nothing on air to plug at the moment, and nothing recently published. But still, it’s Bourdain. I owe the guy. And, at the end of the email, noting that the other half of his show is all-foodie talk, he writes: “And cronuts!”Talk about burying the lede...
The Koch brothers and The Baltimore Sun
Some nice folk hoping to help craft a better future for my alma mater, The Baltimore Sun, stopped by the office a few weeks ago and asked me some questions about what I thought about the Koch brothers, those politically passioned gentlemen, purchasing the half-empty husks of what remains of the Chicago Tribune newspapers. I replied in detail, but of course, they needed a shorter sound bite: Okay as far as it goes, but I’d like to be a little more clear about why the Koch family isn’t really cut out to be a publisher of American newspapers. It isn’t that they are rightist libertarians and I am not, honestly. As I said in my remarks, but which do not convey fully in the edited clip, I’d be as distressed if Ariana Huffington or George Soros wanted to purchase and operate The Sun. Why? Because 1) they are engaged in ideological advocacy and 2) they aren’t from Baltimore and their ties to my community are insufficient to guarantee a responsive and locally...
Doubling down
Among many, many others of similar passion: pat stevens ?@stevepatg39m david simon, I hope a black guy punches you right in the fucking face just for being white.. Michael Bailey ?@mikelbtko1h David Simon A Jewish man… “One less Jew to answer, One less Jew (cont) Willy Scanlon ?@shanlone1h @7sMRD313 Then David Simon should leave for Israel with the rest of the Fucking Jews who think that they own this country. Robert Aguilar Jr. ?@robertaguilarjr3h David Simon can take the first Asiana flight the fuck out of here too!! My actual words: “Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American.” * * * Some random moments in my lifetime when I have been intensely proud of my country: 1. “Ich bin ein Berliner” and “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” 2. The arrival of U.S. carriers off the shores of Indonesia after a devastating tsunami. 3. Standing...