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The Boston Globe ran a long piece today about radio indecency, a topic on which I am considered expert, but they didn't call me.

That may be why Charlie Pierce managed to get through the whole thing without ONCE mentioning the names Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. This is like writing an article about the election without mentioning the names George W. Bush and John Kerry.

Of course, Pierce is very, very liberal, as anyone who reads his entertaining letters to Romanesko's page knows. And Copps and Adelstein, the most vehemently anti-indecency, anti-Stern FCC Commissioners, are liberal Democrats. Any reason Charlie wouldn't want anyone to know that?

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It's been freakishly hot here, hotter than it usually gets this close to the ocean. And without air conditioning, it's a bear, so much so that it's been sucking all creativity right out of my mind, and I didn't have much to spare to begin with.

That is to say, I got nuthin'.

Again.

(If I got paid for this, maybe I'd find the muse. All I got right now are the tree rats scurrying along the fence outside my office window, and all they're inspiring are fantasies of D-Con and Mouse-Prufe. In an air-conditioned world.)

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We stopped by Largo last night to see the inimitable Greg Behrendt's monthly "Bring the Rock" show, featuring the Sklar Brothers admitting to being Huey Lewis and the News fans as kids, random observations from President of Beers candidate Bob Odenkirk, Nina Gordon covering NWA, Grant Lee Phillips doing some comedy along with his music... and then there was Chris Hardwick, my old morning guy when we were both struggling to wake up early enough to do the early shift at Y-107, with a rare live performance of "Rodeohead."

See, he and his friend Greg Phirman ("Hard 'n' Phirm"- yes) were goofing around and came up with the joke name, then, instead of immediately forgetting it like the rest of us would, went out and worked up a full-bore bluegrassy medley of Radiohead songs. You can download it here. If you like Radiohead, or even just know the songs, you will laugh. Amazing. Chris, you done good.

Oh, and a HUGE celebrity sighting just beforehand, at Canter's deli across the street: Shatner. Yes, Shatner. Bill, lay off the cheesecake, dude, you got a gut like mine right now.

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The real crime, we were told over and over again in 1972, wasn't the actual act, it was the coverup. If only Nixon hadn't tried to cover it up, they said, this wouldn't have been so terrible.

Okay, fine. But what if the crime and the coverup are one and the same?

Sandy Berger stuffed classified papers down his pants and into his socks, papers that ended up conveniently "missing," for a reason. He, or someone who sent him in there, did not want anyone to see what was on those papers. And we know that the papers in question involved critical evaluations of the Clinton administration's handling of the terrorist threat.

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but the conclusions are jumping to me.

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From CNN:

Law enforcement sources said archive staff members told FBI agents they saw Berger placing items in his jacket and pants, and one archive staffer told agents that Berger also placed something in his socks.

That latter allegation drew a sharp response from Berger associate and former White House lawyer Lanny Davis, who challenged any unnamed official who makes such an accusation to come forward publicly.

"I suggest that person is lying," he said. "And if that person has the guts, let's see who it is who made the comment that Sandy Berger stuffed something into his socks."

But stuffing something into his jacket and into his pants- that's not a problem, is it, Lanny?

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Hello, Cleveland! Are you ready to RAWWWWWKKKK?

(Mild laughter, then confused looks, coughing, murmuring)

If you're a performer and you want to get an audience to love you, you can always resort to pandering to their prejudices, but, at least in America, you'll probably have people rolling their eyes and thinking "shut up and sing," unless you're a) surrounded by like-minded people, like the crowd at a Steve Earle concert, or b) at a Skrewdriver or Toby Keith concert, something like that. It's a cheap way to get a fist pump and a "yeahhhh!", but in most cases, people react like the Aladdin crowd when Linda Ronstadt turned into Roger Ebert (figuratively and physically, apparently) and started touting "Fahrenheit 9/11" on stage- it'll range from head shaking to boos to outright anarchy, but it won't get you the love.

Which brings us to Bonnie Raitt. It's been long established that she's a leftie, which is her right, and she's anti-war, which is fine, too, although people like her never really have an answer when you ask them exactly how they'd fight back against terrorism (they tend to murmur something about "understanding why they're upset at us" and then excuse themselves). But if you're an American performing overseas, it takes zero courage to do this in Sweden:

"We're gonna sing this for George Bush because he's out of here, people!" Raitt crowed Tuesday night before she launched into the opening licks of "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)," a cover that was featured on her 1979 album, "The Glow."

Right. You go where you know the locals hate America (sure, they like American performers and like American money, but the idea of America, where you have to actually work and perform to be paid... no, that won't do at all) and you tell them that, hey, I may be American, but I'm with you, I hate that evil monkey, too, and we're gonna get RID of him and get a nice, passive guy in there who won't fight back when attacked! And you get this:

Raitt's comments resulted in a round of applause and even whistles from among the estimated 3,000 concertgoers at the Swedish capital's annual jazz event held on the banks of the downtown Skeppsholmen island. Swedes are skeptical of Bush, and the Scandinavian country refused to support his efforts in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But wait a minute. Don't Europeans whistle when they want to DISapprove of something? Aren't whistles in Europe like boos in Philadelphia?

Yes, they are.

So, was this a mixed reaction?

"Even whistles."

I may be way off, but that sounds mixed to me. Interesting.

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Mr. Larry Wachs of Atlanta, GA writes:

Curb Your Enthusiasm-2nd Season is out, but I bought the first season and have decided that whole seasons of TV shows released on DVD are not my thing for a night's viewing. Part of the joy of TV series viewing is the anticipation of that one precious half-hour a week. Watching them as a marathon is like eating ice cream every meal for a couple of days.

Oh, but you are wrong, sir, or, more precisely, it depends on the show and the use thereof. As an experienced TV-on-DVD guy, allow me to make some suggestions on what to get and how to watch:

1. Family Guy. A must-have. Every once in a while, you'll think, geez, I need a laugh, and, guaranteed, you'll laugh.

2. South Park. Ditto. Comedy Central plays them a lot, but it's not the same as on-demand. Plus, you never know when you'll suddenly think, you know, I'd like to see the one with Cartman in the Hitler outfit.

3. The Office. I never, ever get tired of this show. It's funny each time. And it gives you the option of going directly to some of the best moments, like The Dance or when they leave the girl in the wheelchair in the stairwell during the fire drill or Tim's "Hat FM." Priceless AND reasonably priced at the same time.

4. The Honeymooners. Remember when you were growing up, lonely and miserable late in the evening, looking for something to cheer you up? Okay, YOU didn't, but I did, and that's when Channel 11 in New York and Channels 17 or 29 or 48 (the original, good Channel 48) in Philadelphia would come through with things like "The Odd Couple" or "The Best of Groucho" or, if you were lucky, Ralph and Norton and "Chef of the Future" ("Can it core a apple?") and the $99,000. Answer ("Ed Norton?") and "Do the Hucklebuck" and "Hello, ball." They have the original 39- the only really great ones- all on one set, with better picture quality, a bonus with the original unseen-in-48-years opening and closing sequences, and, once again, you don't sit there watching 6 in a row, you put it in when you really need a Channel 11 night.

5. Green Acres- the First Season. Trust me on this one.

I'd also keep "Curb Your Enthusiasm" around- you'll want to go back and review someday- and "The Simpsons" and "The Flintstones" (first season only, with the Rock Roll and Hot Lips Hannigan and Flintstone Flyer and backyard pool episodes) and maybe "King of the Hill" and "Coupling" (UK version- the US version will never be on DVD, a good thing) and, you know, that should take care of things.

And, actually, having ice cream every meal for a couple of days isn't necessarily a bad thing. Depends on the ice cream.

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I'm supremely unmotivated at the moment- waiting for the plumber (again! And it's preventing me from heading to the Dodger game), bored, idly watching the Phillies game, or, more precisely, the between-innings not-for-air stuff where the commercials normally go (they just showed random shots of Ashburn Alley, punctuated by some trial runs of graphics and a shot of a pretty woman in the field boxes), munching on jerky and trying to stay awake. In short, a typical Friday afternoon for everyone, which is why you gotta hand it to the Bush administration, waiting until Friday afternoon before suddenly announcing that, somehow, by magic, they've found those previously "destroyed" Bush military payroll records. And they say it doesn't show anything new, and doesn't prove or disprove anything about whether he was serving or not during the period in question. Doesn't matter- by releasing it now, too late for the Friday papers, too early for the Sunday papers, just right for the Saturday papers and news shows, which nobody reads or watches. That's S.O.P. for people with something to hide- tell the world about it on Friday afternoon.

See? You stopped reading back at "pretty woman in the field boxes." It's Friday. Nobody cares. Right now, the news is a blur of hostages, Linda Ronstadt, and Sandy Berger's pants. It makes me wonder what's really in those military records, but we'll never find out, because whatever damning evidence there'll be will end up buried on some Friday afternoon.

I'd come up with an ending for this, but it's Friday, and nobody will read it anyway. So I'll save it. Now, where did I put that jerky?

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From the May 30-June 5, 1964 New England edition of TV Guide:

Doesn't this ad seem more like a threat than a promotion?

Of course, you didn't have a huge choice that night- it was the evening of the California primary, so you weren't likely to find a lot of entertainment anyway. But get a load of Bob's scowl. You know there's going to be Comedy Tonight with that face.

Two days after the convention, same channel, this:

Wonder whatever happened to that guy...

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