Norman Lear Loves Trains!
When it comes to break-through television comedy, Norman Lear is without peer. His credits are many, but without doubt his biggest hit, the show that became an instant success and gave dozens of CBS executives heartburn, was All In The Family.
Lear, who will be 95 next month, is the subject of a wonderful article in the May 24 edition of the GQ Newsletter. Toward the end of the piece, the writer, Michael Paterniti, asked Norman Lear to what he owed his longevity:
“I don’t know. I think living in the moment, you know, appreciating the dump. Showers are great. I’ll give you a perfect example: I’m coming in from San Diego the other day on the train—I love trains!—and they had a café car and it was lunchtime. I went in there, and I had a Hebrew National hot dog—you know, a hot dog on a train. I said I’ve never had anything better than this. I remember an evening in Paris, when they took me to a five-star restaurant, meeting the chef, whatever the fuck, and I was supposedly eating the greatest. What did that get me? I’m telling you, nothing is better than that hot dog on the train!”
Take a few minutes and read the GQ piece on this giant in the entertainment industry.
Jim with all due respect I really enjoy Amtrak and trains and love your articles, but could you try and not interject this lop-sided liberal tone?
You mean if someone is known to be a liberal makes a pro-rail statement, it doesn’t matter how interesting or how relevant or how funny the comment may be, I shouldn’t quote him or her? Seriously?? I quoted Norman Lear saying he loved trains because he could get his favorite brand of hot dog. It was a funny remark by a 95-year-old man, nothing more.
Hey, Jim, do you have any heroes you want to write about that are NOT liberals?
Seems to me everyone you write kindly about is either a Democratic politician, or a liberal proponent, or in Lear’s case both an outspoken Hollywood liberal and generous financial donor to liberal causes.
By the way, I’m not sure I see any virtue in repeating four-letter dirty words. They may no longer be considered obscene or indecent, but they sure are crude. (As is a lot of popular culture today – and not a little of it dispensed by Hollywood.)
Well, Charles, I do tend to write about people who are interesting and funny and intelligent and who are or have been positive influences on a changing, modern society. It’s not my fault that almost all of them happen to be progressives!