Matt--
	
	It's not politics, it's TELEVISION. The whole thing was dreamed up to attract
a younger, hipper audience to the rather musty KENNEDY CENTER HONORS, which
was also created as a TV event to honor those George Stevens Jr. believed were
worthy of them—and initially to let younger viewers know the contributions
these older artists had made.
	This is emphatically in the same vein, hence it honors comics and perhaps not
writers at all. And Pryor is certainly deserving of it; it's just too bad it
didn't come before he became so incapacitated. But that, of course, would have
meant the mainstream recognized his gifts in his own time, and it never works
that way with those who are truly provocative.

Kathy O'Connell
Hartford Advocate

P.S. Writing isn't so unique. Them of us what can try to make a living at it,
those who can't—all those idiot celebrities with the exception of Jimmy
Buffett (another worthy, and deeply plausible, recipient of a future Twain
award) who manage to wend their way onto best seller lists and fatuous talk
shows—make hideously huge pots of money churning out books.