What the Family Learned this Week

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Goodbye, Mr. Letterman!

I've been watching David Letterman since I was 11 years old. I had a Top Ten list in my high school paper. I gave a Top Ten speech at my high school graduation. My family had "Late Night" Christmas pajamas. The first phone conversation I ever had with Tim was about David Letterman. When I moved to Boston the first thing I did was send away for Late Show tickets. I sat in the theater catatonic, stunned with the amazingness of it all. I've spent the last few months showing my kids YouTube highlights and trying to get them to understand the genius that is David Letterman. I'm staying up tonight for the first time since the invention of the VCR and DVR to watch the show live. So if I'm tired and sad tomorrow you will know why! 
Here are just some of the gems that will stay with me forever!

Dave at Taco Bell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f36Q6jh58zQ

Dave and Rupert Annoy People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY428yDJBfs

Dave Letterman & Zsa Zsa's Fast Food Car Trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F6ihYOgruY

Outdoor Adventures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJjTl9KKp5E

Fun with a Car Phone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4K7Av0SKjQ&list=PLCJLiJ8uSJrBGts3qhcVt042PpqoHwQ7U&index=7

How Many Guys In Bunny Suits Can Get Into H&R Block?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQXDs0AOpGc&list=PLCJLiJ8uSJrBGts3qhcVt042PpqoHwQ7U&index=32

Seriously - just Yout
ube it and lose yourself in his comedic genius. 

And some interesting articles that provide context and retrospective.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/matt-zoller-seitz-on-david-lettermans-lasting-impact.html?wpsrc=nymag

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2015/05/david_letterman_raised_me_growing_up_with_the_late_show_host.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/05/20/conan_o_brien_tina_fey_and_more_share_their_favorite_letterman_memories.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/david-letterman-legacy-saying-goodbye-796996

Remember it's only an exhibition, not a competition. Please, no wagering.

What about that guy indeed!


And here are some additional Family Top Ten Lists that how our allegiance to Mr. Letterman.
Dad's contribution to his high school reunion....

Top Ten Things I’ve Learned in the Journey Since Orem High
 

10 – If you leave the state of Utah and BYU, and go to graduate school at Cornell in New York, during the turbulent 1960’s, you do not, ever, have a chance of becoming a Tea Party member (or a Republican for that matter).

9 – There is a combination of luck, good fortune and divine destiny when one gets assigned out of Naval Officer Candidate School to an Army Base in Albuquerque, rather than the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam, and there you meet your vivacious spouse of 41 years (Marilyn).

8 – With 6 remarkable, enjoyable married kids, and 14 grandkids, one realizes that the credit goes largely to their mom, and ‘who they were’ before arrival.

7 – When one works as an HR professional for 20 years for ‘The Man’ in corporate America, 10 years for elected politicians; and 15 years as a consultant assisting persons in their claims against ‘The Man’, the latter is by far the most gratifying.

6 – When one continues to drive the same car for 32 years (a yellow, 1973 VW, The Thing), one can safely deduce the owner is a cheapskate, stuck in his ways, nostalgic and believes convertibles make you feel 25 years younger.

5 – Regardless of your level of faith, family size and/or church responsibilities, Mark Twain best captures Sundays in his Diary of Adam and Eve, when he writes again and again for every Sunday, the same two words, ‘Pulled Through’.

4.  If your visible home furnishings include antiques, memorabilia, an old gasoline pump, framed rock’n’roll albums, and an original Muhammed Ali - Joe Frazier fight poster, you know the decorator is not from Deseret Book.

3.  You seem to want to get better acquainted with people who are fond of Sondheim, the Gershwins, American History, Aaron Sorkin, Ken Burns documentaries, baseball, and the driver who put this message on the back of his semi-truck, ‘It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses’.

2.  If you and your wife leave idyllic southern Oregon after 25 years, and move to Idaho Falls, even to be nearer the kids and grandkids, expect people familiar with the climate to look at you and think to themselves, ‘decision making is not their strong suit’.

1 – When you get to a certain age you notice yourself adhering more and more to the Charles Barkley adage, ‘I may be wrong, but I doubt it’.

A Mother’s Day Card Hand Made by Kirse in 1990 that has been on the refrigerator now for the past twenty-five (25) years.

TOP TEN FAVORITE MOM SAYINGS 

10 – I do and I do and I do for you kids and this is the thanks I get!
9 – I’ll take you out for ice cream if you let me buy you that new outfit.
8 – You’ll shoot your eye out!
7 – It is better to look good than to feel good.
6 – It’s December 26th.  Don’t you think this will make a good present for next year?
5 – I have my Sunday headache.
4 – Kevin Costner at the door.  It would take me about two seconds.
3 – I could write this stuff!
2 – Who do they think they’re dealing with?
On the Inside of the Card it Reads
1 – Hey, Don’t I deserve a Mother’s Day card?!?

4 comments:

  1. Yay a new post! Good work Kirse :) And yes we will be watching tonight!

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  2. It all makes me cry! An end of an era for sure!

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  3. This is such a great post. So funny and poignant. A great tribute. Love love love everything about this!

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  4. We didn't even mention the top ten list from our wedding...I think my favorite might have been: "With and Art and History as their respective majors, Tim and Kirse look to qualify as America's LEAST employable couple."

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