See You in a Week

It should come as no surprise to anyone that this week is reruns on The Colbert Report. After all, it is a major holiday. That also means that the garbage pick-up comes a day later this week. I mean that garbage pick-up is delayed because it's a holiday and people get a day off. I don't mean that reruns cause garbage delays.

Yikes, I should just start all over.

Stephen, and I would hope his hard-working interns, have the week off due to the Fourth of July holiday. And so for those of us who tune in to watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report this week, there's a certain sense of Deja Vu all over again. Stephen's guest tonight (and by tonight I mean last week) was Timothy Garton Ash to talk about his book "Facts Are Subversive". I haven't read the book, but I'm pretty sure it is does not have much in common with a book like, oh maybe, "Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People!" by Amy Sedaris. I think it is about history, but very recent history.

But the thing I liked about this interview was that Stephen, who is usually the one to get his guest off guard, was constantly being caught off guard. And I don't think it was intentional. But when Stephen would ask, "What do you mean by North-South outlook?" and Timothy Garton Ash would reply, "Well I mean what I just said," it would prompt Stephen to clarify for his guest the meaning of his question. "Again, when I ask questions it generally means I don't understand the subject."

Perhaps we could say that facts are subversive and confusing.