Charlie Rose Memories

There was a period when I was working on a novel, not working a steady job, and I figured, “I should make sure I at least hear an hour of human conversation a day.”  That was the time in my life when I watched the most Charlie Rose.

The Charlie Rose Show website used to be elegantly organized.  It’s still good, but there was a neat way it used to be indexed, there was section called like “writers on writing” I appreciated.

Charlie Rose has now been banished for his crimes which sound bad enough.  Sometimes in the wake of what’s (perhaps unfortunately) called “the MeToo movement” I hear like “well what about due process?!” or arguments along those lines.  But shouldn’t our public media gatekeeper/narrative shapers be not just merely not sex pests, but in fact above reproach?  Couldn’t we have higher standards for our public broadcasters?

This got me riled about about Brett Kavanaugh as well — like, can’t we find someone for the Supreme Court who can’t be credibly accused of anything?  I believe it is possible!

Anyway.  Here are some memories of moments on Charlie Rose that stuck in my craw:

• The Franzen/DFW/Mark Leyner “Future of Fiction” episode
• When John Grisham was on, and Charlie asked him “what advice would you give to an aspiring writer?”  Grisham said, “figure out where you’re going to get your paycheck from.”
• Charlie needling David McCullough about selling the rights to John Adams to Tom Hanks.  McCullough was going on about how Hanks came to him with the book all marked up and noted, and how THAT was what convinced him.  Charlie: “But surely some money changed hands, David.”
• Charlie would often say to a guest, who was just back from Iraq or whatever, “take me there.”  (In fact, I think Charlie himself even called attention to this technique.
• Charlie referencing his “girlfriend”
• In a Remembering John Updike episode, David Remnick (or maybe Updike’s editor, or both) noting that Updike wanted to “get it all down.”  Like, all of life, his every thought.  Is this a good instinct?
• Charlie saying “c’mon, Toby” to Tobias Scheeman’s bullshit justification about why he had sex with a Papua New Guinean tribesman in Keep The River On Your Right