Mr. Russert, Rest in Peace

I enjoyed the journalistic work of Tim Russert very much. Mr. Russert died today of a heart attack at the age of 58.

Russert was an old-school kind of guy with and old-school approach to his craft. He would have fit in well with the likes of Cronkite or Brinkley. He moderated the oldest of hourly news shows, Meet the Press, for 17 years. Which is not to say that he was in the least stodgy, he was not. He brought a vitality to the shows with his honest curiosity and love of the subject, which was usually politics.

You have to love a guy who can write a book like Big Russ and Me, his autobiography and tribute to his father. A graduate of old-fashioned Catholic schools, the product of Irish roots, normal middle income parents, and a nun-teacher named Sister Lucille. Russert was an American boy from Buffalo who made it big -- the right way: hard work, faithfulness to family and friends, love of the true and the good. It sounds old-fashioned -- and it is, but he made it very present and attractive. I loved this guy and the way he lived.

In the last few years you could see him on Hardball or one of the other MSNBC shows and you could see who was the most respected and liked, it was Russert. Colleague, Chris Matthews said it best, " I think we lost the quarterback tonight."

May he eternally rest in peace.

Cast-away.

Afternoon / by Nancy Merkle


The other day a friend used the word cast when I and most others would have used the word, throw; throw is similar, but cast has the nuance of being done with more abandon or more deliberation. It got me wondering why it is so little used. Maybe it makes us sound English, as if we were on stage. Like Shakespeare's Caesar saying, “The die is cast.” Meaning, in Caesar's case, that it’s time to cross the river Rubicon and to let come what may.

If Caesar had lived a few years later, he could have followed Saint Peter’s admonition to “cast all of your cares upon Him," before crossing. You can cast your bread upon the waters, which is an act of benevolence, I think. You can cast lots, if you want to make a decision by chance, or cast your lot with others in an uncertain venture; more usages from the King James Version of the Bible. The common, modern usages of the word are sea related, like casting off from the dock or casting a line into the river. Then again we do cast shadows, I'm not sure how that fits.

But my favorite use is in our Lord’s admonition to the self-righteous, "he who is without sin may cast the first stone."

Something, by the way, I’ll never get to do.

Heat: Texas Style . . .

Texas heat in June has a quality to it that heat in northern climes does not have. In Texas, as summer approaches, the sun seems to say, "I am hot, I am here, and I am not going away for a while."

Before air conditioning it must have been worse, it was were I lived. The heat of summer without freon-cooled air has an effect on the mind. A hot day before ubiquitous air conditioners was insufferably long, proving again that time is relative. Put together enough of those days and the mind resigns in defeat. By August 1 Texans, even today with artificially cooled air, can be like Alaskans in winter, thinking when will it end?

No one should be allowed to criticize the state of the world while sitting in air conditioned comfort. Prophets should be made to live without it. Air conditioning, like modern dentistry, separates us from life's discomforts and tricks us into thinking that we are masters of our mood and fortune. It is no wonder that sun and sea were the gods most powerful.

I have come to respect and even enjoy the Texas summer -- but for air conditioning I am truly grateful.