R.I.P. Peter Jennings

A very sincere Rest in Peace for Peter Jennings. I, like much of America, grew up with the big 3 (Jennings, Rather, Brokaw) delivering the news every night. Personally, I always preferred Jennings. He seemed the most thoughtful, the logical heir to Cronkite, more than the other two. The odd thing now, is that after more than 20 years of having these three on forever, almost not being able to imagine life without either of them, they are now all gone- Brokaw last December, Rather earlier this year, and now Jennings. It will take time to get used to these new faces.

The other odd thing about Jennings is, frankly, how close he was to losing his job in the early 80's. There was a TNT movie a few years ago that showed Roone Arledge, the man who created Monday Night Football, was put in charge of ABC news. At one point, the movie makes clear, he seriously thought about replacing Jennings with Jim McKay and Howard Cosell, which would have been one of the biggest gambles ever. The funny thing, is the that Jennings made his bones at ABC working the Olympics in 1972 in Munich, when the hostages were taken. The lasting image of those games has to be McKay suddenly having to deliver the worst possible news to the home audience, that the Israeli athletes were dead, "They're gone, they're all gone."

I must say this, in looking at the coverage on cable of Jenning's death tonight, puts into perspective why Bill O'Reilly sucks. While Keith Olbermann began his show with a 15-minute long tribute which summarized Jenning's career, O'Reilly began with his usual self-aggrandizing spiel, not about Jennings, in fact he didn't mention Jennings death until the bottom of the hour. As usual, Fox, and O'Reilly, served as the Pravda of the Republican Party, not as any sort of journalisticly credible institution.

Today was media day at Michigan. Being me, I check fairly often for Michigan news in the national media, and I check in the Free Press, the Ann Arbor News, the Detroit News and WTKA. There is, not surprisingly, a large contingent of Michigan fans that feel Michigan was overrated at #4, and who seem to be quick to fear the worst about the defense. One person I saw even speculated that if the the defense didn't get markedly better, they would be headed to San Antonio rather than New Years Day (or this year, January 2). Personally, I think that they forget that Michigan is going to be far more talented than most of the Big Ten teams they play, and that the mobile quarterbacks Michigan has so much trouble with include only Drew Stanton and Troy Smith (along with the scrambling Drew Tate). They get OSU at home, and beat Iowa handily last year. MSU could well be a problem, but they also have time to get the defense together before they play.

One thing I have to say, that I prefer about New Hampshire to the other paces I've lived, is that it's a lot more fun to drive here. Back home, its flatter and straighter. In Chicago, it was more about survival, about making it wherever you were going without getting hit or in another accident, or confused. In Maryland and Virginia, again, it was more about getting places without getting in an accident. Even on the long trips I've taken, its mostly straight. Here, there's lots of very nice hills and curves, and while you have to go slower, it is more fun to take those curves than going 75 on 94.

The last thing I wanted to mention is this, as something that can only happen in theatre. Rosie O'Donnell, an openly lesbian woman, will be taking over for Andrea Martin, later this year in the role of Golde, the wife of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye will be played by Harvey Firestein, perhaps the most famous openly gay actor working in theatre. So you have Rosie and Harvey playing husband and wife in a play about the painful changes experienced in society as it evolves. Huh.

One quick message, to the hard working young lady in Madison: Tutti noi avere fede.