David Letterman is brilliant, sharp-witted, and quite funny. And I think most people know this.
But what Dave doesn’t get credit for is how, given the right guest and the right subject matter, he can be a hell of an interviewer.
I was reminded of this Wednesday night, when I was utterly transfixed watching Dave interview Chaz Bono, the transgender son of Sonny and Cher (he used to be their daughter, Chastity Bono.)
Maybe it was the mood I was in, or maybe I was just struck by how confident and at ease Bono was; he truly was a fantastic explainer of all things transgender to Dave. Bono seemed self-assured, confident and happy.
But Letterman completely kept things on point, asked interesting questions, and the result was some really compelling television; watch for yourself, above (Part 2 can be found on YouTube, also.)
**I love newspaper corrections, as you may know. I think they’re often incredibly funny and interesting.
This recent one from the New York Times, though, absolutely takes the cake.
“An item in the Extra Bases baseball notebook last Sunday misidentified, in some editions, the origin of the name Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, which Mets pitcher R. A. Dickey gave one of his bats. Orcrist was not, as Dickey had said, the name of the sword used by Bilbo Baggins in the Misty Mountains in “The Hobbit”; Orcrist was the sword used by the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in the book. (Bilbo Baggins’s sword was called Sting.)”
I mean … wow. That is one hell of a detailed correction! Do you think, like, the Times was inundated with Lord of the Rings fans complaining about the error? Do you think Dickey was stalked at the ballpark by dress-up hobbits demanding he correct the mistake, and haranguing him?
What a great correction.
**Finally, Jon Stewart, slapping Fox News silly over their ridiculous, invented controversy about rapper Common being invited to the White House. Stewart at his best here… here’s a link to Part 2 of this piece (where Stewart raps).
