Are You Saying I Don't Know When To Shut Up?

Is anyone else of the opinion that Stephen seems to be fascinated by apes, monkeys, chimpanzees, etc? Surely those are not the most important stories and yet I find myself often reporting on Stephen reporting on our simian cousins. The most recent stories have been about apes in space and apes with a bit of an anger problem. Anyone wonder which part of the zoo Stephen heads to first when he wants to talk to the animals?

Strangely enough, Stephen was able to go from apes to gun control with a short clip of Charlton Heston displaying his hands that obviously were in need of gloves because his fingers were cold. You may remember Charlton Heston was in the 1968 film, "Planet of the Apes." He also was in the NRA and so the seamless transition from apes to guns. And forget what Stephen said about "When Harry Met Sally..." I don't for a minute think Charlton Heston ever auditioned for the part of Sally.

You know how sometimes there are glitches. (Yes we are all too aware of glitches.) Anyway, Stephen had a technical glitch on his show when we were supposed to see a map of states but instead saw a building. Most people would have been horrified to the point of running off the stage, but Stephen just smiled. He is such a professional!

Stephen mentioned the state of Mississippi. And Stephen was in such a joyful mood tonight. Anyway, he highlighted some legislation being proposed in Mississippi and no it is not about moustaches, but I did include this particular link so that you can see what Stephen was talking about. It is about following or not following federal laws.

Here to clarify pertinent laws is/was Cliff Sloan, one of the authors of "The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court." It got pretty tricky, lots of legal terms, including the word nullification. Bottom line, any time a state tries to say the law doesn't apply to us, the Constitution comes in and says that the Constitution is correct. Stephen kept bringing up valid points, but Cliff Sloan proved to Stephen why Stephen is wrong. Stephen said there is nothing in the Constitution that says the Constitution is constitutional. Ding dong he's wrong. Interesting stuff. Do you have your copy of the Constitution? See how to make your own here. Stephen's final answer is for a state to ratify a new amendment that says, "Be it known, you're not the boss of me." Check and checkmate.

George Saunders was the guest last night. His recent book, "Tenth of December", is a collection of short stories.  Stephen and George spent a lot of time discussing the pros and cons of short stories versus long novels. Stephen obviously wants a very long novel. He wants to know everything. We also got to see that Stephen is not very good at Knock Knock Jokes. Every fourth grader is an expert at that comedic talent and yet Stephen failed to deliver a good punch line.

Clap For Me, My Monkeys

Remember when Stephen told us that Herman Cain would be on Thursday's episode of The Colbert Report? That's right, this coming Thursday, July 28, pizza maker and presidential hopeful Herman Cain ..... actually won't be on because he has canceled.

Ouch. Not exactly a good plan if you are tyring to get The Colbert Bump. There's a "scheduling conflict." I hope that isn't a case of finding a better prom date or something like that. Take it from me, that always backfires.

Politico has the story here about Herman Cain backing out. But it wasn't very long ago at all that it was going to be a big deal. Read the hype over at Comedy Central's Indecision (unless of course they change it since it's no longer true).

And so, you heard it here first. Well not first, since Stephen said it tonight on The Colbert Report, so then, okay, you heard it here second. From Stephen Colbert's mouth to our ears, "Herman Cain might not be the next president of the United States."

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Moving on. I never quite know what to call the people who come on the show and sit at the desk with Stephen before the actual guest is interviewed over at the table. Would it be a mini-guest or a pre-guest? Whatever you call those people, another one was on tonight.

Peter Edelman helped Stephen sort through the struggles that people in poverty face. Did you know that lots of poor people have refrigerators? It was an interesting discussion, perhaps you should watch that episode when it is rerun or else catch it over at Colbert Nation.

Interesting reading at that Wikipedia entry about Peter Edelman. The link is right there at the beginning of the previous paragraph. I'll wait while you read that. Okay, you're back. Peter Edelman is married to Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.

I've always thought it was strange that CDF says "Leave No Child Behind" while George W. Bush used "No Child Left Behind" to give school children the opportunity to take lots more standardized tests. Apparently it is no a coincidence. From Wikipedia article on CDF:

"The principal public policy initiative is summarized by CDF's advocacy of the "Dodd-Miller Act to Leave no child Behind (S. 448 / H.R. 936) " bill, introduced in Congress in 2001. This differs only slightly from the No Child Left Behind Act. (George W. Bush used this phrase, trademarked by the CDF, in his Presidential campaign despite objections from CDF.)"

Anyway, interesting how a guest talking about poverty can lead to reading about other topics and people.

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Moving on yet again.

Stephen's real guest tonight was Brooke Gladstone from npr. They discussed Gladstone's book, "The Influencing Machine" which is sort of like a comic book or a graphic novel, except that I don't think it's a novel. You can see a little bit of it here.

While some might think that the media influences us, she says that it's a mirror. Wow. Wait a minute. Stephen claimed that he is of the media and that he has control. To prove it, he turned and said, "Clap for me, my Monkeys."

And the audience applauded wildly.