Month: July 2010

Daniel Schorr, R.I.P.

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 3 Comments

Dan Schorr clocked out today, typing “-30-” to 70-plus years in journalism and 93 on the planet.

Schorr spent his last two decades as a commentator at NPR, but he got his start at age 12, when The Bronx Home News paid him $5 for a scoop. He worked for CBS, landing a first-ever sitdown interview with Nikita Khruschchev; snagged a copy of a suppressed House report on off-the-hook CIA activities and leaked it to The Village Voice when CBS balked; wound up on Dick Nixon’s enemies list; and got in on the ground floor with CNN, way back when it still had dreams of being a news organization.

Schorr won three Emmys, but never learned how to use a computer — he wrote on electric typewriters into his 90s.

He will be missed.

Honky the Clown

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 9 Comments
Tom Tancredo throws his wig into the ring.
Tom Tancredo throws his wig into the ring.

Tom Tancredo, Colorado’s perennial entrant in the national Our Crazy Guy Is Crazier Than Your Crazy Guy competition, has told Scott McIsn’t and Dan “Who the Hell Am I, Anyway? Maes to drop out of the GOP gubernatorial race or he’ll jump in as a third-party candidate.

“Mexicans! Communists! Terrorists! Abortionists!” said Tancredo. Well, not yet. But it’s coming.

Tancredo says he’ll run under the banner of the Constitution Party, which could (and probably should) hold its convention in a short bus, with free rubber helmets for all attendees.

The party already has a candidate — Benjamin Goss, another household name — but he doesn’t sound all that committed. On Wednesday, he told The Denver Post that he remained in the race “at this point.” Uh huh. And Bert Grabsch remains in the Tour, too. He’s just not gonna win it.

The stage GOP is shitting itself, naturally. Dick Wadhams, chairman of the Colorado GOP, told The Post that if Tancredo carries through on his threat, he “will be responsible for the election of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper as governor” and jeopardize other state races.

Well, then. As another great leader once said, “Bring it on.”

Twin sons of different mothers?

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 5 Comments

This is weird. Kevin Drum just wrote a post that in spirit mimics a draft column I decided not to send to Bicycle Retailer & Industry News.

Mine had more bicycle crap in it, of course. And hardly any political snark, barring a quick left hook to Caribou Barbie’s spastically winking phiz. So they were practically identical, except for content ’n’ stuff. Plus Kevin says “fuck” less often than I do.

But we both are clearly in need of a vacation. Any ideas? I’m contemplating a hot-springs cycling tour of south-central Colorado on my kinda-sorta “touring bike,” the Soma Double Cross, but I’m absurdly vulnerable to peer pressure. Leave your suggestions in comments.

Incidentally for all you wisenheimers, Thomas McGuane already penned the definitive Hell-as-a-vacation-destination gag in “Nothing But Blue Skies.”