When Time Runs Out
Ed Bradley passed away this morning. The popular journalist, most recently of 60 Minutes fame, always seemed like the hippest guy on a show I don't pay a lot of attention to. Sure, it's in the top of the ratings every week; perhaps my resistance to it was from childhood. 60 Minutes always seemed like a show 'old people' watched. I drew this conclusion from visiting my great aunt's house. Ever present on a marble coffee table was a TV Guide. It was my great aunt's practice to underline all the shows she would watch for the week. There was no spontaneous viewing going on in her home. I'm not sure if that was a product of having to get up to change the channel or just some sort of regimine she needed to feel in control. Granted, back then, she only had about 4 or 5 channels to choose from. Perhaps planning her week's viewing at the start of the week helped ensure she wasn't going to miss a single show. Regardless, any time I'd thumb through her TV Guide, 60 Minutes was underlined.
So while Ed Bradley was being eulogized in the press, I got to hear about what a wonderful person he was and how everyone he met had a positive impression. This struck me a bit. I mean, certainly Ed Bradley wasn't a prince to everyone he met. What about that time he had the flu and went to the store to buy some medicine and the aisle was backed with stocking boxes and he couldn't get to the TheraFlu or whatever he happened to use and so he started moving some boxes and was getting extremely frustrated and finally, when he was able to reach his desired relief, he made his way to the register only to find the cashier was busy snapping her gum talking to her manager about when she was going to get to go on break and hardly acknowledge him and so, in return, he was completely rude and tore the cashier a new butthole? Where's that cashier today? Surely she isn't saying Ed Bradley was the nicest guy she ever met, right? Perhaps, when you die, all your misdeeds are erased? Maybe it's just for a moment, while people bask in your wonderfulness? Maybe all the crappy stuff you do gets a brief reprieve? That sounds nice, but I think that somewhere, there is a service worker that thinks Ed Bradley was a dick.
Maybe I ought to mind my Ps & Qs?
So while Ed Bradley was being eulogized in the press, I got to hear about what a wonderful person he was and how everyone he met had a positive impression. This struck me a bit. I mean, certainly Ed Bradley wasn't a prince to everyone he met. What about that time he had the flu and went to the store to buy some medicine and the aisle was backed with stocking boxes and he couldn't get to the TheraFlu or whatever he happened to use and so he started moving some boxes and was getting extremely frustrated and finally, when he was able to reach his desired relief, he made his way to the register only to find the cashier was busy snapping her gum talking to her manager about when she was going to get to go on break and hardly acknowledge him and so, in return, he was completely rude and tore the cashier a new butthole? Where's that cashier today? Surely she isn't saying Ed Bradley was the nicest guy she ever met, right? Perhaps, when you die, all your misdeeds are erased? Maybe it's just for a moment, while people bask in your wonderfulness? Maybe all the crappy stuff you do gets a brief reprieve? That sounds nice, but I think that somewhere, there is a service worker that thinks Ed Bradley was a dick.
Maybe I ought to mind my Ps & Qs?
posted by Pino at 8:36 PM
2 Comments:
That's so funny that you say that about Aunt Rose, because those are my first memories of 60 Minutes, too. We must have spent a lot of Sunday evenings there, because I remember watching it and not getting it, but still being hugely intrigued by it. And yeah, she used to underline stuff in the TV Guide. What would she do now with 200 channels?
You are funny man. Nice blog!
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