Put all of the winners in a single room and you wouldn't have a down
payment on Twain's wit and sheer satircal power. To paraphrase the master,
"It's the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." I'm solidly
with Harold on this one. It's a crime that it never went to Vonnegut. It
could still go to Garrison Keillor, but it won't. And so it goes.

On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 8:12 PM, Harold Bush <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Ellen DeGeneres.  really? ? ? ?
>
> Wow.  All due respect, but I'm wondering what some older folks like Carol
> Burnett must be feeling right about now.  Surprising choice, given folks
> like Letterman and Leno, or even Jon Stewart, have not gotten it yet....
>
> Political correctness aside, I'm a bit confused about all this....  who, if
> anyone in the "Twain scholarly community," are they consulting??  I DVR-ed
> the event, and it is funny; but Wow!
>
>  I recognize they are going for the ratings.  But I thought -- originally,
> with the awarding of the likes of Jonathan Winters and Carl Reiner, Bob
> Newhart and Lily Tomlin --  that it was meant to be some sort of lifetime
> achievement award.  And the picture of the white-suit Twain on the website
> seems to confirm this, along with the description of the award.
>
> But I feel bad for the likes of Carol Burnett, or even David Letterman, who
> reinvented the talk-show format.
>
> Every year we hash this out a bit -- and maybe I'll get slammed for this
> jeremiad -- but I just thought I would bring it up again and see if others
> had any response.
>
> -hb
>
> --
> Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
> Professor of English
> Saint Louis University
> St. Louis, MO  63108
> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>
>



-- 


Terry Ballard
Author and Leisure Studies Manager
http://www.terryballard.org
Author of the book "Google this" http://googlethisforlibraries.com

"My memory has a mind of its own."