Butterfly in the Sky

I often say that The Colbert Report is the best show ever. Well, I was reminded last week that there are also other best shows ever.

Thursday's show brought a very refined Stephen out onto a lovely, redecorated set. I am going to love this new set of his. It was about time for a fresh look. Stephen shared with us the book "The Great Gatsby" for his Colbert Book Club. The book, which Stephen definitely did read, is a classic and there is a movie out now that is decent. In the first of many people who showed up on the show, we got to meet Carey Mulligan who is actually in the movie version of "The Great Gatsby" and, like Stephen, did read the book. Go take a look at her Wikipedia page. It is quite interesting. She is married to Marcus Mumford and that name sounds so familiar to me for some reason. I wish I could remember why. Also, she has a lot of Nominations and Wins for all sorts of films and TV shows. I would think Stephen would be somewhat uncomfortable sharing the stage with such talent, but he was enthralled with her.

You would think the excitement ends there, but no. Yet another famous person was on the show. LeVar Burton, another one of my favorite people. He had the ultimate book club of all time, "Reading Rainbow." But you don't have to take my word for it. Anyway, LeVar was able to help Stephen and Carey understand how important the book "The Great Gatsby" was. (Special thanks to James Franco for his help with Carey's lines.)

So, I am not sure what I should do or say now. Is The Colbert Report the best show ever? Or is it Reading Rainbow? Just when I thought I could decide, I was reminded of yet another best show ever, Star Trek. It's more than I can deal with to try to decide which is best.

Next up as a guest was Jennifer Egan, yet another person with links to literature and awards. So she and Stephen had a lot in common.  As most book club fans, she had a "glass" of Chardonnay. They had a lovely discussion of the book and of Gatsby. Everything worked out well for all the characters for the most part. Maybe not everything, but well, a few things. Sort of. Maybe not so good.

And then the regular guest Baz Luhrmann who directed the current film version of The Great Gatsby was interviewed by Stephen. I guess what first got Baz Luhrmann interested in Gatsby was when he read the Australian translation of the book when he was younger. Well, maybe books on tape would be more accurate. Anyway, the book was a favorite of his even though he slept through it. The film, it turns out, is a favorite of Stephen's even though he slept through the movie. But all's well that ends well, and everyone should either read the book or go to the movie or both.

The Trouble With Tribbles

I will get those posts up from the latest episodes soon, but in the meantime, you just have to go over to Google to see today's page. It is the 46th Anniversary of Star Trek and it's a lot of fun. A nice diversion for all of you on a sunny (or rainy, or cloudy) day when you have nothing to do (or are working hard).

So, head on over to Google quickly before it goes back to the plain old Google page.

If you miss it, you can catch it here on YouTube. Unfortunately, no one clicked the overhead compartment in the Transporter Room to see what comes tumbling out, so best head over to Google now!

One Man Show

For all the drama leading up to the primaries in Michigan and Arizona, there was nothing all that remarkable that happened. Mitt Romney won both, including winning his home state of Michigan by 3.2%. Or, as Romney said, "We won by enough."

So where that seems to be heading is that eventually, everyone will get behind Mitt Romney for the nominee at the GOP Convention. Or, as Stephen put it, "One week from now we will most likely come together and support the guy we're hoping is not the guy."

So that you don't think Stephen is leaving Rick Santorum behind, he did show Santorum talking, again, about birth control. "What I was talking about is the increasing number of children being born out of wedlock in American." Stephen agreed and offered this comment, "Contraception leads to more babies born out of wedlock." It would have been interesting to have heard all the comments from Santorum about that subject, but there were more important things to get to .

For example, the economy, and tonight's Word. Change We Can Believe In. Stephen had an excellent economic discussion in this segment. If I read him right, we need for the rich to become even richer, because they will then give tips to the poor. There's even a law being considered in Florida that would allow employers to pay tipped workers .... a lower minimum wage, changing it from $4.65 per hour down to $2.13 per hour. Stephen showed a photo of a typical Floridian couple and reminded us of the wonderful reputation that the people like those in the photo have of being big tippers. It's even a good idea to tip plumbers and Stephen had a photo of a plumber. I see his point! All in all, Stephen's economic plan made a lot of cents.

I'm kind of tired tonight, so I'm going to try to make this short, or at least shorter. Instead of telling you that Stephen had the segment "Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger" on, I'm just going to call it Tip/Wag in order to save time. One of the things he talked about in this segment is Babyccinos. That's a new "trend" of letting tots drink decaf coffee. We were reminded by Stephen of just how hard it is to get babies up in the morning. Parents out there, you know what he's talking about!

But on the to main event.

William Shatner was the guest tonight. After a brief session of Stephen and William praising each other, they got right down to business. Stephen read quite a lengthy list of accomplishments for William Shatner. You can get an idea of these accomplishment at IMDb. Really, go look, he has had quite a career!

Quite a lot of the interview was just simple conversation, talking back and forth between two talented men.

"Can I call you Bill?"

"No."

"Bill, when people go to see this..." Stephen was talking about William Shatner's One Man Show on Broadway. Shatner's World.

"When people go to see this ..."

"They will learn about love, life, horses, my career, interview shows that work and some that don't." Stephen talked about Star Trek and Captain Kirk, but not much more than mentioning them.

Tonight's arm wrestling segment only lasted about one second, alas. That's how long it took William Shatner to beat and humiliate Stephen.

All in all, it was a very delightful interview.

"Bill, it's been such a pleasure to meet you."

"I wish I could say the same."