Failed Music Acts #58923

My Name is Michael Caine

New year, same question.

The End of a Publishing Era - so goes SONNY MEHTA so goes books

"Born at the right time," Sonny Mehta rose to prominence when BOOKS were respected and revered, authors could be both best-selling AND literary, and thanks to him, when they could get paid a living wage. And more.

Under his leadership, various book companies became influential, trend-setting, and successful, and his list of authors he signed and nurtured is most impressive. At the top of the list, in my opinion? My sister.

In her case, I do have to credit her agent, "Six Figure Molly" as she used to be known, for bring her to Sonny's attention. But it was Sonny, at Knopf, who outbid Harper, and landed that first book for not too far from a six figure advance.

There are few literary agents who are out there hunting for talent, or who recognize it when a manuscript crosses their desk. Fewer will read that manuscript with enthusiasm AND an eye for making it not only an easier sell, but a better book. Maxwell Perkins was legendary for doing that. A few others did over the years, but not many.

Now? If you look at the best seller list, it's dominated by the same idiot names, who write the same idiot book over and over again, and a year later, that book is in all the thrift shops for a dollar a copy. Where are the new writers? And, more importantly for all the writers...where is the money? The best-seller list used to mean hundreds of thousands of copies sold. Now the number is far less. More and more people want a cheap download, and even more know how to get a pirated one for a buck or two (just go to eBay, type in an author's name and EBOOK or PDF) or, FREE.

Sonny was aware of how the publishing world was crumbling just like the music world did, when CDs gave way to mp3 and Spotify. At a time when PDF, ePub and Kindle means more to most people than having a shelf of wonderful books, and even beautiful large format art books were no longer selling, Sonny shrugged: "We're part of something that is very large but we concentrate on our way of doing things. It may be illusory to insulate oneself from it all, but we try."

Build it and they will come? Publish it and they will buy? I'm sure Sonny would've wanted to have stuck around for another ten years, even if it meant that trying wasn't the same as succeeding, and that more and more of his authors were getting less and less money, and budget cuts had to be made at the office.

Mehta, son of an Indian diplomat, traveled the world before settling down in England, where he received a scholarship to St. Catherine's College. His career took off when, at only 24, he was hired by Granada Publishing and put in charge of a new imprint, Paladin. Germaine Greer and Hunter S. Thompson were some of his imports, and Douglas Adams became a top star. Sonny's next launch was Picador, which was home to Salmon Rushdie, Graham White, Ian McEwan and many more.

In a bold move, Mehta crossed the pond in 1987 to take over Alfred E. Knopf, one of the most prestigious literary publishers in America. Under his direction, Knopf enhanced its reputation by netting even more Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, and more important for the bottom line, stars on the Best Seller list. The most famous names in the world wanted the Knopf imprint on their books: Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, George H. Bush, Ken Burns, Steig Larssson, Michael Crichton, and even Pope John Paul II. And yes, there was "North of Montana" by April Smith, the first of the Ana Grey thrillers.

Like the San Andreas Fault, which rumbles now and then and threatens to toss some of California into the ocean, there were rumbles in the publishing world. The "pocket book," the small paperback that became so popular in the 40's and 50's, sputtered in the 70's and 80's and went extinct. The "trade paperback" emerged instead, slightly smaller than the original hardcover. Was this a good thing? Maybe. Maybe not. A new generation of morons who couldn't leave their comic books under the bed, or just toss them in the trash, refused to read a book if it didn't have pictures on every page. Thus, the "graphic novel" was hatched. Sonny Mehta tried to deal with this, and remain literary, and "Maus" was one of the more prestigious titles in this infantile genre.

And then came Jeff Bezos and his killer KINDLE. Why spend $19.95 or $24.95 on a beautiful hardcover you can keep proudly on your shelf, and even get signed, when for $9.95 you can download a blip? Hey hey, with video games, comic books and NETFLIX, isn't the whole concept of a "book" pretty old-fashioned? Especially if it's not another thriller, romance book or geeky sci-fi or fantasy item? Isn't meta-entertainment something you get on your laptop or your cellphone, and better than what Mehta was providing to bookstores? Bookstores. There are few of those. And there is no Publisher/Editor like Sonny Mehta.

"Jew smart?" "What an insult!" Celebrating DIVERSITY and Differences? OY OY OY!

So what IS the deal, Abe? Abraham Lincoln: "All men are created equal." Really?

Shouldn't there be an ASTERISK on that? Do we NOT believe our eyes? How about statistics? Let's take HEIGHT for example:

You'd think we might be ALLOWED to go to Holland and remark, "Say, you sure have a lot of TALL people here." We SHOULD also be allowed to point out that "the average Dutchman is way taller than the average Peruvian!" Here's the list of the countries with the SHORTEST people:

Isn't the big deal today "celebrating diversity?" We're supposed to be SO happy there are people of EVERY color, and EVERY religion, and EVERY height. Only we're really not allowed to say so. Sometimes.

STEREOTYPES, some Darwinian scholar might say, are often based in truth. The Jewish comedians of the 20th Century, the Mel Brooks and Milton Berle types, explained why so many comedians were Jewish: Jews had to be FUNNY to survive. They had to be useful in some way. If they weren't doctors, lawyers or accountants, they might be exterminated. If they didn't amuse the concentration camp guards by playing a violin like Heifitz or Menuhin, they'd be dead. If they didn't charm with jokes...including Myron Cohen starting his career as a funny salesman...they lived in poverty.

Is it possible that Asians are really good in math? Is that a BAD thing to say?

Is it racist to point out that a huge percentage of basketball players are BLACK? Gosh, why no Peruvians?

The New York Post gleefully noted that The New York Times revised an article for having the blasphemous NERVE to suggest that Jews are smart. In particular, Ashkenazi Jews.

You know what? Maybe the N.Y. Post should expose the RACIST INTERNET where every medical website points out that Jews, particularly Ashkenazi Jews, are more prone to Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease than others are. (And let's also point out those fucking racists who insist that only BLACKS get sickle cell anemia!)

Here's the Post:

You can't win. Every day there's some new PC rule, somebody thrown out of show business, somebody fired, and some idiot or other getting OFFENDED over what might be the truth. Is it racism or Darwin to suggest that only the most clever and talented Jews were able to survive all the pogroms and persecution? That only the fittest Africans, tall and muscular, were able to avoid being eaten by lions over these many centuries? That the French cookbook is a LOT more diverse than the English cookbook, or that recipes in Northern India or Northern Italy differ from ones in the Southern parts of those countries? Etc. etc. etc.

The big whine about the "Jews are smart" line, is that it's so RACIST because it suggests, gasps, that certain people are DIFFERENT from other people. You mean the pygmies and the Dinkas are the same height? Not different? We're not supposed to believe our own eyes?

The problem with stereotype is only when the word ALL is attached to it. Not ALL Asians are small. Sumo wrestlers aren't small. Not all Jews are accountants or comedians. Indeed, there are a lot of dumb and mediocre Jews, and you only have to visit Brooklyn to know that. There are generous Scotsmen. There are brave Frenchmen. There are Yorkshiremen who speak English properly. A Jewish woman can look like Joan Rivers or Lauren Bacall.

It's gotten to the point now that people can't open their mouths, write a few lines, or do ANYTHING without some naggy idiot pointing a finger and clucking a tongue and, worse, trying to censor and silence somebody else or make good on the threat "you'll NEVER work again."

The irony is that we are getting more and more sensitive in SOME ways, and more and more obtuse in others. For every woeful Debie Downer niggling over who can say the N word or its variant, "Nigga," or whether "fat shaming" is terrible or whether we should have an entire runway of models who look like garbage trucks, we still have boneheads who deny climate change, continue to smoke cigarettes, and delight in shouting "snowflake" at somebody who doesn't eat meat or thinks foie gras is a cruel and stupid product. There are people who mewl about abortion and cheer the death penalty. There are dumb arrogant people who think humans have the right to kill animals for fur and throw the carcass away...on the same pile as plastic bottles, paper towels, rubber tires and thousands of pounds of rotted food.

Yes, it could be offensive if, at a party, somebody says, "Oh, you Jews are all SO smart," or "you're black...you played basketball in school?" It might be better if people weren't condescending or so quick to judge someone on the basis of a stereotype. But it's also useful to acknowledge DIVERSITY, which is supposed to be a big deal now. Or are we supposed to have basketball teams that include Peruvians because size shouldn't matter, and dumbasses who failed their exams hired anyway to be doctors? Is it racist that when people go out to an Italian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, an Indian restaurant, a Fish and Chips restaurant, they expect their server to be as ethnic as the food? It's not racism, it's ambience.

Too often "PC" is an excuse to be stupid, gain control, or be Machiavellian. Aha, Senator Jellybrain thought, "Al Franken hugged a few women a little closer than he should've when they asked for a selfie -- I can become the LEADING LIBERAL SENATOR if I demand his resignation! Because...I am SHOCKED! SHOCKED! This is behavior worth a man LOSING HIS JOB!!"

Let's go back to the FACT that Ashkenazi Jews have a much higher rate of IBD and other issues. Do we DENY this because somebody might not hire an Ashkenazi Jew, figuring that person is going to have a lot of sick leave because it's POSSIBLE the odds are higher for IBD than somebody else? That's when things get nuts. Don't deny it. Accept it. And in every day life, explain your truth if somebody's pandering. It seems that less and less people do the stupid things that Lenny Bruce satirized in "How to Relax Your Colored Friends at Parties." Somebody is not as likely to go up to a black person and pander, "Joe Louis was a heckuva fighter." Or Mike Tyson. Or "Some of my best friends..." It's disappointing when it still happens, but it can be dealt with. As for this hoo-hah over the intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews in particular, or Jews in general, who knows? IQ tests are being debunked these days because they're "unfair." How does one measure intelligence? The same way one measures size?

But, go ahead, New York Times, be very careful the next time you dare mention that Peruvians are among the shortest people on earth. Put in an asterisk to denote there CAN be some very tall Peruvians. SOMEBODY might be offended if you don't.

So WHO'S killing the JEWS?

Here's the asshole who attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue:

And here's the asshole who attacked Orthodox Jews on the final night of Chanukah this year:

What do they have in common? Color? No, stupidity. Bias. The warped idea that scapegoating one race solves all their petty and paranoid problems. As if any one person can wipe out a race of people. Even Hitler couldn't do it. But we're talking about mental cases, who don't even seem to care that they will spend the rest of their lives penned up in a cage like the animals they are.

Today's news, in the wake of the Monsey incident, is to blame...oh, let's see...LIBERALS. Yes, the New York Post had a columnist insist that the problem is that Liberals (like DeBlasio, aka De Lousio) are too soft on anti-Semitism.

Others blamed it on anti-Zionism and pro-Palestinian rhetoric, the kind of thing that comes from Roger Waters, Patti Smith, Desmond "Dizzy Desi the Toot" Tutu and Peter Gabriel.

Still others took this incident as a welcome sign that White KKK-neo Nazi idiots shouldn't be scapegoated because, hey hey hey, let's look at angry "people of color," and the latest group of nuts to fall from the tree, the Black Hebrew Israelites.

So, WHO'S killing the JEWS?

Listen to Tom Lehrer's song about National Brotherhood Week:

Oh the protestants hate the catholics
and the catholics hate the protestants
and the hindus hate the muslims
and everybody hates the jews

So, WHO'S killing the JEWS?

EVERYBODY.

Tom's line got a big laugh some 50 years ago, and we still laugh because it's the truth, but, you know, it ain't THAT funny.

But why the JEWS?

You could read thousands upon thousands of articles on anti-Semitism and find theories. Mine is pretty simple:

You pick on somebody who is not going to be able to do much about it.

The jerk who shot up the synagogue picked on unarmed Jews. So did the jerk who knifed five people in Monsey. So did the crazed duo who blasted a New Jersey deli with their automatic weapons.

Pick on people who have a stereotypical reputation for being weak. In the case of the Orthodox Jews, who make for the most obvious target, it's frankly a lot of very pale and emaciated-looking people. "Let's be honest," as Jackie Mason still says, if you saw three blacks walking down the street, or three Orthodox Jews, who would you be more afraid of?

There's no longer a JDL, is there? The guy who founded that group got shot.

What do the average non-Jew SCHMUCKS know about Jews, as opposed to Muslims? They know that the Orthodox Jew's outfit and the Burqa are both outlandish, but one group will blow your fucking house up if you mess with them. They know that if you laugh at Moses, it's ok, but if you cartoon Mohamed, you're fucking house will blow up. They know that all Jews will do is bury their dead and be solemn, but the Muslims might very well start knifing anyone they see and declare a Fatwa or something. (I'm talking about how SCHMUCKS think. And they don't THINK too clearly, do they? But this is their LOGIC. Jews are the easy target).

Racism is fueled by what people see and hear. If people heard nothing but GOOD things about a group of people, instead of scapegoating, maybe the hates would be less prone to hate. Instead, with anti-Semitism, there's the tough-looking nasty neo-Nazi bunch that knuckleheads admire. There's the perverse glee of seeing Holocaust footage — and the fact that when it comes to watching brutal "Ilsa" movies or the real thing and photos of naked people heaped in piles — the racists suddenly aren't denying the Holocaust but hoping to get in on a revival of it.

It doesn't help matters when an idiot like Tyson Fury starts repeating ancient lies about Jews owning everything, or Rep. Ilhan Omar shouting "it's about the BENJAMINS" and being the first elected Muslim to openly scapegoat Jews. News reports that treat swastika graffiti and sucker-punching as somehow cool, are also a problem. It's a tough line when it comes to reporting something correctly, but in such a way that it isn't glorified. Some idiots see an anonymous act of vandalism and want to copy it so they can enjoy being feared and made famous while safely concealing their identity -- the same twisted logic that fuels graffiti artists who spray their mindless "tags" even if nobody actually knows what these tags mean or who sprayed them.

The only Jews who are considered tough, as a group, are the Israelis, and Israel as far, far away from the kind of bullies who overturn tombstones, terrorize shopkeepers in Paris, torment doctors in Sweden, punch little children in Germany, or try to murder prayerful people in Pittsburgh and Monsey.

Perhaps the NRA would suggest that all Jews carry guns — and take after the mythical Ben Cartwright and Joe Cartwright (Lorne Greene and Michael Landon) who were Jewish, but played Western tough guys on "Bonanza."

Perhaps an answer is to remind everyone that you are not going to obliterate or intimidate ANY race of people, whatever their color or religion.

I remember, when I was only 8 years old, reading about this thing called "prejudice." There were pictures of what they called "Negroes," hanging from trees. If they weren't being killed, they were being shunned; not allowed to eat at a "whites only" restaurant, or use a bathroom. Even famous blacks who were playing baseball, were being subjected to obnoxious curses from the stands. Famous and respected black entertainers were denied the chance to be on TV or in movies.

And I thought, what is WRONG with these prejudiced people? They'd want to lynch The Coasters? The Marcels?

Although I didn't know it at the time, Lenny Bruce was asking a question in nightclub: would you want to sleep with a BLACK BLACK woman or a WHITE WHITE woman...if the black woman is Lena Horne, and the white woman is KATE SMITH?

An irony was that back then, violence against blacks was much more in the news than violence against Jews. Violence against Jews, the kind we read about NOW, was fairly rare. Mostly, we were told about The Holocaust, and "Never Again," and were led to believe that it really WAS "Never Again."

Now, as the Weisenthal Center newsletters would tell you, and the news will tell you, anti-Semitism is very much a factor ALL over the world. Jews, ever since the Pharoah, ever since the pogroms, have been the most targeted group of all time. Let's put it this way, half of America didn't fight a Civil War to make sure Jews could live in peace.

You'd think, since sex is the most powerful impulse, and males are usually the ones spouting anti-Semtism, that one might reason with them by saying...you'd kill THESE babes??

Do you suppose the nutjob who shot people at the Pittsburgh synagogue would've NOT done this if he was told: CAPTAIN KIRK is JEWISH. MR. SPOCK is JEWISH.

Didn't he ever watch Shatner and Nimoy on "Star Trek??"

How about Jonas Salk. How about Einstein. How about Bob Dylan. How about Leiber & Stoller. How about THE THREE STOOGES? You want to exterminate the Jews, and kill Kirk Douglas and Scarlett Johansson and I guess, cut in half Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe? Need I mention a few hundred names of Jews who have made the world a better, more amusing, funnier, safer place? This includes Jews who wrote a hell of a lot of favorite Christmas songs?

Sadly, the answer is the guy who shot up the Pittsburgh synagogue didn't even give a crap that HIS life was saved by a Jewish doctor who tended to his bullet wounds.

The bottom line is that you can't reason with CRAZY.

All you can do is try and prevent crazy people from fixating on a particular group, keep an eye on them, and try and underline to those only HALF crazy, that the answer to their gripes and grumbles is not to take it out on blacks, gays, Jews, Asians, or any other bunch of people, but to try and better themselves. Don't blame somebody else or some other group when the problem is very likely your own, and something you can work on by positive self-motivation and education. These assholes who have killed, tried to kill, or just knocked over some tombstones or painted swastikas for kicks: how did it improve THEIR fucking lives?

Sue Lyon a "PED-ULTIMATE" star - dies at 73

No, not penultimate. Let's invent a new word: PED-ULTIMATE.

It should refer to that small group of actresses who played to pedophile lust (in SERIOUS movies, let's quickly add) and had almost NO success when they got older.

Here's Sue Lyon, striking a "Baby Doll" pose. Perhaps it's not as overt (thumb sucking) as Carroll Baker in "Baby Doll," made a few years earlier, but ultimately, the Peeker Pan element prevailed: DON'T GROW UP. If you do, we won't be interested.

Carroll Baker, an underrated dramatic actress, startled viewers in "Baby Doll," but didn't progress too far after that. She managed to play "Harlow," but in the duel with the late Carol Lynley, who also starred as Jean Harlow at the same time, neither film was a big hit. Neither film was any good, which didn't help. From there, Baker made a few "sexploitation" films that cultists drool over, but for many, she remained forever "Baby Doll."

As for Sue Lyon, she got a supporting role in "Night of the Iguana," a film dominated by Richard Burton and Ava Gardner. Sue could've been Stella Stevens, Connie Stevens, Yvette Mimieuw or, yes, Baker or Lynley, and people still wouldn't have cared that much. Sue Lyon was forever "Lolita," a role she played at 14. (Marrying age for anyone from Edgar Allan Poe to Jerry Lee Lewis).

Another example of someone who had a ped-ultimate career with a lurid child-sex symbol role? Brooke Shields in "Pretty Baby." Anyone remember her in ANYTHING else? There are pervs on eBay who are STILL buying dupe photos of her from that movie, and not from "Blue Lagoon" or whatever other forgettable stuff she did a few years later.

Fortunately for Lyon, Baker, Shields and a few others, the PC brigade exempts "serious art films" from the taint of prurient pedophile interest. Nobody as yet is planning on banning those movies from DVD sale or Netflix.

The sad fact is that there's PED-ULTIMATE interest outside of the movie theater. Larry Nassar proved that point didn't he? Much worse than Sandusky, or "Jared from Subway," Dr. Nassar "examined" female gymnasts with no professionalism at all, just pedo-lust. What's happened since? Well, young females have lobbied to prevent TV cameras from getting crotch-shots of athletes bending over and about to run a 100 yard dash. Cameras are likewise not as likely to linger on perky backsides or provocative splits on the gymn floor or the uneven parallel bars. 16 year-old tennis stars no longer come to the court in fly-away skirts and panties, but more often, sports shorts instead, or an outfit that stays in place with thigh-high garments underneath. There's a bit more awareness of preserving SOME kind of modest and innocence in young females, even if the age they lose their virginity continue to get lower and lower. The balance is that serious films examining "young lust" are still available and immune from PC witch hunts. And for now, Ringo Starr still can sing "You're 16, you're beautiful, and you're mine."

One nice thing that Sue Lyon recalled about her experiences on the set of "Lolita" was that she was treated kindly, and not lewdly. Peter Sellers was nice to her, and James Mason kept things light: "Come on, kiddo, let's go run the lines." As Lyon recalled, "He wanted to make sure I was comfortable," and I suppose, emphasize that this was JUST a movie being rehearsed, and NOT real life.

Of course, the people who drool and do "screen captures" of scenes from "Baby Doll," "Pretty Baby" or "Lolita" don't refer to character names when they sell them or pass them all over the Internet. It's "Carroll Baker, hot" and "Brooke Shields nearly naked" and "Sue Lyon, JAIL BAIT!" That's human nature for SOME film fans. They just don't take the actresses seriously -- they just love their PED-ULTIMATE movies.

DON IMUS -- the legendary I-MAN

Before there was an iPod there was the I-Man. Don Imus. He left the air in 2018, and swooped the planet (to use a Lord Buckley) phrase, at the tail end of 2019.

“Imus in the Morning” was a ritual for quite a lot of people, with his first exposure coming at KXOA in Sacramento. It was there that he won notoriety for his phone gag of calling up a fast food joint and requesting "1200 hamburgers to go." He was probably happy when the FCC singled him out for complaint, and made a big stink out of his burger gag. The FCC even enacted a new rule to foil other wiseguys like him, insisting radio personalities must identify who they are when making "prank" calls. Just how often they did, and what the fines were if they didn't, I have no idea. He joined WNBC radio (or as they insisted their disc jockeys pronounce it, WNnnnnnnBC) in June of 1968, and after a long run, bounced to WFAN and then had his final stand at WABC from 2007 to 2018. Like any number of radio shows or even TV talk shows, his appeal was “now,” and had nothing to do with posterity. You had to be there.

Like chewing gum instead of sitting down to a fine meal, he was more a time-wasting habit than substantial. Is it possible to put together a memorable hour or two from his FIFTY years on the year? Maybe an hour. Maybe not. But when you consider how tenuous the memory is on David Frost, Mike Douglas, Jack Paar, or even Craig Ferguson — you realize that there were, and are, people who are amusing today, even if what they did is forgotten tomorrow. Frost, Douglas, Paar — what survives are a few highlight high-profile guest spots, but the percentage is very low, and gets lower as fewer and fewer care about Nixon, Yoko Ono’s cracked coffee cups, or “leaky Jack” sparring with an Oscar Levant, Judy Garland or Mickey Rooney.

When he was hot, late 60’s and early 70’s, he made a few record albums. Imus dusted off well-worn comedy topics like the windy preacher (Dr. Billy Sol Hargus) and the zany put-on phone calls and his fans loved it. Mostly, they just loved a guy who was grumpy, insulting, and so COOL about saying stuff you weren’t supposed to say on the air. “Shock jock” was a phrase invented about him, before his shocks were absorbed and made much more colorful by his rival Howard Stern.

Stern was gleeful about beating out the old man (not older by THAT much) in the ratings, especially, it seemed, because Imus was typically disdainful of Stern when he arrived, and curmudgeonly about sharing anything with the newcomer.

“If I’m being honest,” most of this was of little interest to me, as I wasn’t awake when Don and Howard were pranking and smirking and getting guffaws from their listeners. I met Howard only once, at a David Letterman annual party, and my encounter with the I-Man was probably very typical of anybody’s. I was headed up to Doubleday, to discuss my newest book (“The Comedy Quote Dictionary”). The office was in the 666 building. “Imus in the Morning?” There was Imus in the elevator. I got in, pressed the button for my floor, and on my second glance at Imus, I noticed he had slumped against the back of the elevator, and dropped his cowboy hat over his eyes. It was the ultimate “don’t talk to me” pose. I didn’t blame him, since I’m sure every day was loaded with cretinous fans shouting stupid greetings to him or pestering him for one inane reason or another. Oh yes...about the cowboy hat; he had an honest reason to wear it, having grown up in Arizona on a cattle farm. He took a variety of menial jobs including railroad work, before turning up in California and getting his first radio gig. In later years the cowboy hat fit in well at his "Imus Ranch" in New Mexico, where he ran a charity that gave kids with cancer a chance to enjoy the Western lifestyle.

I was usually up by the time Stern and Robin Quivers were doing the “news” segment, and I enjoyed that. Later, when you could download Stern’s shows off the Net, I’d sometimes enjoy his interviews, but not the endless squabbling between him and his nitwit call-in pals and cohorts, or the boring, if not “retarded” phone calls he’d take from his “wack pack.” As for Imus, once in a while he’d get a phone call from Mort Sahl. I remember the very sad day when Dick Cavett subbed as the guest, because Mort’s son had died. I instantly called Mort to offer my condolences. “Ya heard,” he said. Well, yes, Cavett and Imus were talking about it.

Eventually Mort would be disgusted at the very mention of “The I-Man,” annoyed that he was not getting the air time he used to. He questioned Don’s “loyalty.” Not that this was unusual for Mort, who routinely would insult his supporters (including Steve Allen and Dick Cavett) and expect total support for being an "iconoclast." Perhaps Imus used Mort less and less because Mort's particular brand if iconoclasm didn't include blunt insults, the kind Don's high percentage of pinhead listeners loved so much.

Some listeners didn't care who Don Imus attacked, as long as he attacked. Their misfit dissatisfaction with being jealous non-entities made Imus a hero. All he had to do was call Hillary Clinton "Satan," and he'd get approving snickers. If Don attacked an actual conservative, like "war criminal" Vice-President Cheney, well, that was ok, too. Freedom of Speech was a good defense against calling somebody a "senile old dirtbag," but as with Howard Stern, the executives at the stations Don worked for were sometimes pretty nervous and sometimes had to pull the plug on him. Still, radio was his media and whether he was at WNnnnnnbc, or WFAN or WABC, his fans found him.

Attempts for Imus to cross over into stand-up, or to become the “king of all media” or author a best seller never happened. One brief moment of promise came when something called “MTV” became popular. The notion of the “vee-jay” (as opposed to the “va-jay-jay”) led to a new type of “celebrity.” When MTV started up their sister VH1 network for more mature viewers, Imus was tabbed as their star attraction. His TV commercials promised that “pork faced Yuppies” need not tune in. As it turned out, stone-faced aging Imus was not the face anyone was looking for.

While Howard Stern's face was made for radio, Don Imus, usually looking severely pissed off, was hardly a poster boy either. He also didn't have the self-effacing buffoonery of Stern, who eventually found his way to high TV visibility via "America's Got Talent." Imus remained a voice.

Like Carson to Cavett, or Graham Norton to Jonathan Ross, Stern was the superstar and Imus was only drawing enough die-hards to stay on the air. The “king of morning drive-time” was unquestionably Howard Stern. Howard famously got his deal with satellite radio, able to end his fighting and feuding with censorship and the PC brigade. Imus was not so fortunate, and in 2007, his shock remark about the Rutger’s female basketball team nearly ended his career. Egged on by his “go too far” fans, Don was always prone toward mean remarks, but this one got few laughs: “That's some nappy-headed ho's there, I'm going to tell you that.”

Was he a racist? Of course not, he was a provocateur. An “equal opportunity offender” (as they used to say about Mort) but times were changing. And this was AM radio. “Nappy headed,” some were quick to point out, was “sometimes” used as a term for blacks who wore Afros or more Buckwheat-styled or Don King-styled wilder do’s. As for “ho’s,” well, that term was on every rap record it seemed, and Jay Leno would often use the word simply as a cheerful synonym for whore or prostitute, regardless of color. I remember TV Guide once talking about Cosby’s hair style being “nappy natural.” Still, in 2007, and coming from the sour, craggy-faced shock jock, it seemed far more offensive. He was suspended.

Imus redeemed himself, for some, by his laudable charity work, and even if his show was not much of a factor anymore, he made it to his 50th anniversary, even if his somewhat choked-up farewell hardly got the media attention of Carson’s final broadcast. For those who were listening to Stern, or Mancow or Opie and Anthony, Imus was irrelevant. His shows were offered not only to radio listeners but to viewers via a Fox cable channel (he'd earlier been on the more liberal MSNBC) but how many really wanted to see his rather craggy face? Even with careful lighting? Imus seemed especially haggard in his last decade, perhaps due to prostate cancer (which he insisted he was not treating with radiology) and emphysema. It was the latter that forced him off the air for a while in 2017, and led to his decision to retire the following year.

Well, those are my thoughts on the I-Man. Unlike the NY Times, I don't write obits in advance. In fact, I usually don't write obits at all, just some words if the passing of someone moves me and my memory.

Is it likely that the “vaults” will open and any radio station will be offering “the best of Don Imus?” Is anyone going to re-issue Don’s old RCA albums as some kind of boxed set, with a few bonus CDs of “rare and outrageous moments” from his radio shows? Not likely. Still, Don Imus was a legend in his own time, and for quite a few years, especially back at WNnnnnnnBC. He’s got fans who miss him, and many who are having a post-Christmas downer because his retirement years turned out to be few. In the Radio Hall of Fame, the short name of Don Imus still means some big achievements.