Thursday, April 24, 2003

Switch: Joe Queenan, on the publicity stunt whereby Jay Leno and Katie Couric will switch jobs for a day, in the WSJ. Since it's subscriber-only, I'll give you the best paragraph, with Queenan suggesting other entertaining switches:
Public television's Jim Lehrer hasn't been able to get a straight answer out of anyone in the State Department in years, so my vote for a one-night replacement is Tom Arnold from Fox Sports Network's "The Best Damn Sports Show, Period." Always ready to say the first thing that comes into his head, and not afraid to approach the limits of good taste, Tom's in-your-face approach might finally intimidate Doris Kearns Goodwin, Joe Biden or Tom Ridge into telling us something we don't already know. How Mr. Lehrer fares with the likes of Charles Barkley and David Wells on Mr. Arnold's show is anybody's guess; these guys both claim to have been misquoted in their own autobiographies. On the other hand, Mr. Lehrer did spend eight years talking to people in the Clinton administration, so it's not like he's a complete stranger to mind-boggling deceit.
As always, Queenan can zing more people in one paragraph than most writers can in a book.

No comments: