Goodbye to Norman Lear.

"Norman Lear, Whose Comedies Changed the Face of TV, Is Dead at 101/As the producer of 'All in the Family' and many other shows, Mr. Lear showed that it was possible to be topical, funny and immensely popular" (NYT).

 
“You looked around television in those years,” Mr. Lear said in a 2012 New York Times interview, referring to the middle and late 1960s, “and the biggest problem any family faced was ‘Mother dented the car, and how do you keep Dad from finding out’; ‘the boss is coming to dinner, and the roast’s ruined.’ The message that was sending out was that we didn’t have any problems.”

ADDED: I've written about Norman Lear on this blog a few times:

July 27, 2022: I blogged Norman Lear's NYT piece — "On My 100th Birthday, Reflections on Archie Bunker and Donald Trump" — and said: "Lear says Archie, if he were around today, would probably watch Fox News and vote for Trump. Probably?! He also imagines that Archie would have disapproved of the January 6th incursion on the Capitol. But why? Seems to me he'd approve, but Lear doesn't want him to, so okay. "

The NYT shines a spotlight on daytime drinking: "Free Drinks and Viewing Parties for ‘Must-See TV.'"

This is on the front-page of the NYT website right now:



Here's the article: "Must-See TV’: Free Drinks and Canceled Meetings for Comey’s Testimony."

I think the most important thing right now for Trump antagonists is to see if they can bring along the mass of ordinary Americans — people who are going to work and tending to their own affairs — to get them outraged and activated over "that thing" Trump and Comey might have had.

Toward that cause, I think sober attention and deep, patriotic concern should be the demeanor they would want to display to the public. . But here's the NYT:

The schedule has been cleared and the popcorn readied at Evergreen Partners, a strategic communications firm in central New Jersey, where the rule for employees on Thursday morning is simple: No client talk while James B. Comey is speaking.

“We canceled meetings when we saw what time it was on,” said the firm’s president, Karen J. Kessler, who is planning a cheese-and-crackers spread by her office’s 60-inch screen. “It’s must-see TV.”

Americans do not agree on much these days. But millions are expected to pause on Thursday to take in a spectacle already being compared to other political-cultural touchstones, like the Army-McCarthy hearings and Anita Hill’s testimony about Clarence Thomas. 

Incredible! Not just the hype and the too-early drooling for blood, but the disregard for the demands of working life for active, engaged American adults. Everything will be available on the internet this evening. Who are these people going public with their plan to take off from work and drink and watch a congressional hearing? This strikes me as utterly deranged (as well as creepily privileged). How is looking deranged and economically privileged going to draw in the ordinary Americans you're going to need if you're going to get this Destroy Trump bandwagon rolling?

“They really should declare a national holiday,” said Sally Quinn, the journalist and the doyenne of Washington’s social circuit, “since no work is going to get done.”

Enterprising establishments have been quick to capitalize on the Super Bowl-like atmosphere. At Union Pub in Washington, a sports bar steps from the Hart Senate Office Building, bartenders plan to dole out a free round of Budweisers or bourbon shots every time Mr. Trump blasts out a tweet.

For those wondering: No, there will not be a limit. “We’ll give out 20 rounds” if the president tweets 20 times, Ashley Saunders, the bar’s general manager, said in an interview.

As she spoke, Ms. Saunders was testing a way to create a huge display of Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed that would run alongside the live coverage on the bar’s 18 television screens — the better for her Capitol Hill clientele to follow any presidential play-by-play.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if people took half-days or take the day off,” Ms. Saunders said. “If I had a normal job, I don’t know what I’d be doing.”

Well, I'm not surprised a bar is encouraging daytime drinking. Saunders's idea sounds like something cooked up by a team on an "Apprentice" challenge (if "The Apprentice" ever had anything alcohol-related).

In the lower paragraphs of the article, NYT tries to reach into Trump's America:

A dive bar 1,400 miles away from the nation’s capital, Jimmy’s is popular with military veterans like Doug Samuels, a retired Navy officer who voted for Mr. Trump. Nursing a Bud Light on Wednesday, Mr. Samuels said he was unlikely to watch the Comey broadcast live.

“I’d rather just listen to the pundits discuss it afterward,” he said, a display of pro-Trump bumper stickers on a nearby table’s legs.

He sounds so sober. By the way, what weird writing: "he said, a display of pro-Trump bumper stickers on a nearby table’s legs." When Sally Quinn says something, the "said" clause is followed by "the journalist and the doyenne of Washington’s social circuit." When the guy 1,400 miles out of Washington says something, the "said" clause is followed by something about what's on the leg of nearby table.

There may be real pro-Trump stickers on the table legs at Jimmy's, but there are metaphorical anti-Trump stickers all over The New York Times.

"The Gores have handled their decision to separate with dignity and grace. In doing so, they have given us all a great gift..."

Sally Quinn smarms it up revoltingly.

Separation and divorce are supposed to be bad. Marriage is a sacrament to many, a promise and a moral commitment to God and each other....

This is published in the WaPo's wretched "On Faith" section.

Not only should we respect their decision, but in some ways we should rejoice in it.....

They were together for 40 years, raised four kids, shared a lot of pain and a lot of joy, they have had an extraordinarily exciting life together and they should be proud of that. But people change, even those who are deeply committed to each other.....

People change and grow in different directions. That's seems to be what happened to the Gores....

That's seems to be it all right. I rejoice in your careful writing on this matter of deep and possibly sacred import.

There are those who will argue that marriage is a commitment that should be honored no matter what. That separating or divorcing because you are not totally fulfilled is egotistical or selfish. But what are you committing to when you get married? An institution? A spoken obligation?

Or are you committing yourself to a full partnership where each person is equal, mutually respectful and in love?

If that is the case, then Al and Tipper Gore made the right decision 40 years ago. And they made the right decision now.

But look, Sally, here's something new to massage into the squishy goo of your analysis:

The eldest daughter of Al and Tipper Gore, Karenna, has been separated from her husband, Andrew Schiff, for a couple months....

Karenna is 36. Andrew is 44. They married in 1997 and have three young children.

Rejoice? Great gift? Dignity and grace? Pride in the past shared life?