Radio Sweethearts

Um, so.

Earlier tonight, I uttered the words, “In the spirit of this audio clip, here is another clip ready for discussion.”

Those words were so soulless as to make Kerry throw up in her mouth (just a little bit, there), and would have made me die a little inside, if they hadn’t revealed to me exactly how dead I already was inside.

Those words are also exactly why I’m not responding to a story about people reading the House Democrats’ proposed health care legislation out loud by doing tonight’s recap as an audio post.

Which is a shame, because I did find a cool song to work as a bed under the introduction. Too bad you won’t hear it unless you go to the Free Music Archive and dig around for what you think might be it. And as much as I love Joe Pernice, it’s not his tracks on the site; they’re just too sad.

Brooke says in this piece that though Americans let Congress quickly pass the Patriot Act and stimulus act, the (seemingly quite manufactured, but that’s for another discussion) protests against the new health care legislation, “you get the sense that suddenly, reading is – you know – really fundamental.”

It’s true. I’d love to have Congress read every word they pass, but there’s just no time. Kerry and I can’t even vet each other’s posts for this site. What’s more is that Brooke points out how obscure and obtuse most of the language in legislation is – to the point where I can only assume that this is by design. They hide the junk in plain sight.

Also, Reading really is fundamental. And Reading is Fundamental really got me hooked on reading, by giving me free books. And so did Reading Rainbow. But you don’t have to take my word for it:

I’m not sure why the Titanic gets to be “One of the Greatest Tragedies of All Time” and things like, oh, say, Wounded Knee don’t. Just saying.

Bob interviewed Evan Ratliff from Wired, who is about $3000 poorer after an adept reader tracked him down.

Which sounds even more interesting out of context. Ratliff and Wired offered up $5000 ($3000 of his own) if anyone could find him within a month. As a Wired experiment, he tried to disappear and start his life over.

The ultimate lesson from this story, at least as far as I understand it, is that if you need to make a run from your life, and you need to eat a gluten-free diet, and crave pizza, do not give in. That’s what screwed Evan. That’s what’ll screw us all. And it’ll all go down at a book reading.

Because that makes sense.

Because this episode came out on September 11th, the stories after this point are all what you’d expect. September 11th stories. But from “On the Media.” So they’re smart, and attack the subject from a different angle than you’ve heard. There’s an interview, for example, with a woman who, while reporting on the attacks, made a statement that’s since gone viral among the ‘inside job’ crowd.

But, ultimately, I’m weary of hearing about September 11th. I’m weary of people spelling it 9/11 or saying “Nine-Eleven” or “nine-one-one” like they can’t be bothered to spend the time saying the three extra syllables to say the name of the month. Like they’re too busy saying that they’re taking the time to remember to actually come up with a better name, one more respectful for those killed, for what happened eight years ago.

I hate that I even abbreviate “eleventh,” but somebody, none too clever herself, told me once that she thought it was clever that the “11″ looks like the World Trade Center did when it was standing. And then she started crying, and then she fell into my arms, and then I hugged her because I didn’t know what else to do, and then I got a date out of that.

It was awkward.

Brooke, Bob, here’s an idea for next year’s September 11th episode: When and why did the media decide that they were going to settle on a name for the events so prosaic as the date, usually spelled numerically?

Are the numbers a reflection on the stereotype of Americans as moneygrubbers? Or have we just become that boring?