Learning From Humor, History, Television and Song Lyrics

By: Kent and Marilyn Granat

1.  We learned, once again, there are glimpses of truth in most humor.  Dan Naturman, a comedian on Letterman, recently joked, “I was talking with a Canadian girl who mentioned a person named Steven Harper who seemed to her to be a pretty important guy.  I said to her, ‘who is that’?  She said to me, ‘you got to be kidding me, you don’t know who the prime minister of Canada is’?  And I said, ‘I’ll do you one better, I didn’t know Canada had a prime minister’.

2.  On August 28th the country commemorated the 50^th anniversary of Dr. King’s March on Washington.  Marilyn and Kent taped six hours of C-Span (hard to believe), to capture a fast forward version of what happened on this seminal anniversary at the Lincoln Memorial.  Due to the length of the ceremony, the number of speakers seemed, and was, endless.  The highlights for us were:  John Lewis (current Congressman from Georgia) who had a fireball speech at the March on Washington 50 years ago;  three living Presidents (Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama), reminding us how each got elected in the first place;  two daughters of departed Presidents (Caroline Kennedy and Lynda Bird Johnson Robb);  and some cool celebrities (Jamie Foxx, Oprah).

However, with all of these prominent folks, the speaker who touched our hearts the most, was NBA Hall of Fame player, Bill Russell (Boston Celtics).  He explained in his short speech that he was at the March on Washington 50 years ago.  In fact, the night before the event he met Dr. King, and was asked to be with Dr. King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, but he declined saying, “he had not done anything to warrant such an honor”.  In closing his remarks, he advised the large mixed audience to follow the adage he grew up with in the projects, “keep on, keeping on.”

3.  We smiled when attending the October 4^th Utah State - BYU football game, and reading, in large block letters, along the northwest cement base of the Romney Stadium (not that Romney) and Merlin Olson field, ‘BE CAREFUL OUT THERE’.  

Everyone in the Granat home, and most everyone in America over the age of 40, knows that this phrase comes from the iconic Hill Street Blues TV show, when, Sergeant Esterhaus would say in the squad room, at the start of every episode, in at least forty different ways, “let’s be careful out there.”  You can revisit the memory, or learn something new, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2QApwtE8zQ 

4.  We observed, once again, you can learn from song lyrics.  Ray Wylie Hubbard, a Texas legendary country blues singer-song writer, has a marvelous tune called Mother Blues, that captures his life story in one song.  It ends with him saying, “and the days that I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations well I have really good days.”  It is worth watching at www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7x-80GA1jk