Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Grandblog

Here is the exciting tale of Grandpa's visit to the Glenn Beck program....

Well, several years ago I wound up on a blog, I believe thanks to James on the future of energy in the United States. Since then I have been contacted several times with "write your congressman" E-mails. Apparently there was a very last minute switch in topic for the Beck show. Yesterday, the 19th, I was called by someone from the Energy blog telling me they had a guest slot open at the Beck show on the 20th. Could I go? Once I cleared it with Mom, whom I thought I was going to have to drive to Newark for jury duty, I was free to sign up. I called the Beck people directly, left a message and was then called yet again from the Energy people. I said yes to them and this morning recieved yet another call from the Beck people asking yea or nay. I called back, answered yea and the rest is history.


It is an interesting experience. There are a number of people who have been there multiple times. You are encouraged to "shout out" or build on the comments of others. During the commercial breaks almost half the people are shouting something to Glenn which he will then accept or reject. If he likes it, if it fits, then he will indicate that when on the air you will be called on. About half way through the show, I realized that just sitting there was getting me nowhere so I broke all the Catholic school rules and instead of raising my hand and waiting there patiently until called upon, I pretty much blurted out what I said during a break. Sure enough, after the break, the conversation drifted in the direction of my comment so he called on me.


I must say that after looking at it I did pretty good. Yesterday, I was reading my Theodore Roosevelt book and I actually think that with the facial and hand gestures I was channeling Teddy a bit. Not a bad role model! Mustache fit too. Bully!


Regarding Glenn Beck, the guy is pretty sincere or a damn fine actor. For 15 minutes before the show he does his own warm up of the audience. He takes questions from the crowd. He remarked that he was reading a book, based on a true life incident where a Jewish family in Holland was celebrating the 100th anniversary of their watchmaking business. One of the two brothers missed the party but came in at the end almost carrying an Orthodox German Jew who he had found at the German border. the man had been badly beaten up by German boys and then they tried to set him on fire. He told his story to the guests , WHO DID NOT BELIEVE IT! Beck's point was to be careful when you say things like that can't happen because they do. A few years later those very same party guests were either in a Concentration camp or in hiding. In telling the story, Glenn broke up visibly several times exactly where I would have broken up had I been telling the same story. Those who know me, know I do not read my little Memorial Day tributes I write for our Scout meetings because I can barely get through writing them let alone reading them in public. So if you were to ask me if he is real, I would say a very loud yes.

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