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MORT SAHL HITS 80
PAUL KRASSNER - Mort Sahl is now 80 years old. He was a pioneer in
stand-up comedy. He broke through the tradition of jokes about airplane
food, Asian drivers and frigid wives, instead sharing his wit and
insights about political hypocrisy, racism and monogamy.
I first met Sahl in 1953 when he was a guest speaker in a course I was
taking at the New School for Social Research. I was inspired by his
satirical approach to serious issues. "Every word I do is improvised,"
he once told me. "I don't rehearse anything. I start it on stage." In
the beginning, though, he would write key words on a rolled-up
newspaper, which became his trademark prop. In 1960 he wrote jokes for
presidential candidate John Kennedy, and Sahl's picture graced the cover
of Time magazine in August during the conventions.
When Kennedy was killed in 1963, Sahl endangered his career and was
blacklisted as a result of becoming an associate of New Orleans D.A. Jim
Garrison in his investigation of the JFK assassination. In 1967, I was a
guest on Sahl's TV show, which had been dealing outspokenly with
contemporary controversies, so when his option wasn't renewed ostensibly
because of a low rating, there was much suspicion. But Sahl also had a
nightly radio show and asked his listeners to write in to KTTV. By the
time 31,000 letters arrived, the channel's executives had conveniently
discovered another rating service and the option was renewed.
On the program, Sahl had a blackboard on which he wrote things in chalk
like "We Demand Faith in the Future," and the audience applauded
faithfully. He wanted to have a mock trial on the show as a preview of
the Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal, and he asked me to return and act as
defense attorney. He wanted me to actually defend war criminals such as
Lyndon Johnson, Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara. I agreed to do it, but
the mock trial never took place. My plan had been to plead insanity.
This September, Sahl will teach a semi-weekly course in critical
thinking at Claremont McKenna College. He continues to perform
occasionally. At McCabes, he observed that, during the Republican
debates, when the candidates were asked who didn't believe in evolution
and a few raised their hands, and Sahl pointed out that, "If you watched
the debate, you wouldn't believe in evolution either."
http://www.paulkrassner.com/
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CLICHE CHALLENGE
CIVIL SOCIETY and NO PROBLEM made it into the list of the top twenty
phrase cliches, based on the number of Google hits over the last three
months. TEAMWORK, TEAM PLAYER etc and POINT IN TIME dropped out of the
top list
TOP TWENTY PHRASE CLICHES
Real time - 359 million
Prior to - 341 million
In terms of - 333 million
Next generation - 224 million
Best practices - 191 million
State of the art - 168 million
In accordance with - 159 million
World class - 92 million
Sustainable development 90 million
Support services - 84 million
Cutting edge - 78 million
Mission statement - 72 million
All new - 68 million
Check it out - 60 million
No problem - 51 million
Civil society - 51 million
On the ground - 50 million
Bottom line - 49 million
Period of time - 42 million
Strategic planning [plan] 40 million
http://prorev.com/cliche.htm
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MORT SAHL HITS 80
PAUL KRASSNER - Mort Sahl is now 80 years old. He was a pioneer in
stand-up comedy. He broke through the tradition of jokes about airplane
food, Asian drivers and frigid wives, instead sharing his wit and
insights about political hypocrisy, racism and monogamy.
I first met Sahl in 1953 when he was a guest speaker in a course I was
taking at the New School for Social Research. I was inspired by his
satirical approach to serious issues. "Every word I do is improvised,"
he once told me. "I don't rehearse anything. I start it on stage." In
the beginning, though, he would write key words on a rolled-up
newspaper, which became his trademark prop. In 1960 he wrote jokes for
presidential candidate John Kennedy, and Sahl's picture graced the cover
of Time magazine in August during the conventions.
When Kennedy was killed in 1963, Sahl endangered his career and was
blacklisted as a result of becoming an associate of New Orleans D.A. Jim
Garrison in his investigation of the JFK assassination. In 1967, I was a
guest on Sahl's TV show, which had been dealing outspokenly with
contemporary controversies, so when his option wasn't renewed ostensibly
because of a low rating, there was much suspicion. But Sahl also had a
nightly radio show and asked his listeners to write in to KTTV. By the
time 31,000 letters arrived, the channel's executives had conveniently
discovered another rating service and the option was renewed.
On the program, Sahl had a blackboard on which he wrote things in chalk
like "We Demand Faith in the Future," and the audience applauded
faithfully. He wanted to have a mock trial on the show as a preview of
the Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal, and he asked me to return and act as
defense attorney. He wanted me to actually defend war criminals such as
Lyndon Johnson, Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara. I agreed to do it, but
the mock trial never took place. My plan had been to plead insanity.
This September, Sahl will teach a semi-weekly course in critical
thinking at Claremont McKenna College. He continues to perform
occasionally. At McCabes, he observed that, during the Republican
debates, when the candidates were asked who didn't believe in evolution
and a few raised their hands, and Sahl pointed out that, "If you watched
the debate, you wouldn't believe in evolution either."
http://www.paulkrassner.com/
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CLICHE CHALLENGE
CIVIL SOCIETY and NO PROBLEM made it into the list of the top twenty
phrase cliches, based on the number of Google hits over the last three
months. TEAMWORK, TEAM PLAYER etc and POINT IN TIME dropped out of the
top list
TOP TWENTY PHRASE CLICHES
Real time - 359 million
Prior to - 341 million
In terms of - 333 million
Next generation - 224 million
Best practices - 191 million
State of the art - 168 million
In accordance with - 159 million
World class - 92 million
Sustainable development 90 million
Support services - 84 million
Cutting edge - 78 million
Mission statement - 72 million
All new - 68 million
Check it out - 60 million
No problem - 51 million
Civil society - 51 million
On the ground - 50 million
Bottom line - 49 million
Period of time - 42 million
Strategic planning [plan] 40 million
http://prorev.com/cliche.htm
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