My next article along this rocky road to reason will be about the unsustainability of AI, which isn’t just growing but metastasizing. Meanwhile, here’s a happy little cul-de-sac of kind and clever people who’ve helped me stay sane and smiling over the years.

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Doonesbury (1970 to present)

I started reading satirist Garry Trudeau’s brand-new biography—TRUDEAU & DOONESBURY (written by Joshua Kendall) the day it was published (May 26). I wasn’t surprised by the hard work and ingenuity involved in developing a comic strip that’s been defining a culture and helping to shape two or three generations.

Garry’s Doonesbury comic strip (and his big team of experts)* helped keep me sane through the stormy Seventies… 50 years and counting… 15,000 Doonesbury comic strips and counting. Amazing!

*(not just the comic strip’s flesh ‘n blood experts, but also the fictional characters who’ve taken on lives of their own over the years… so that they almost seem to beckon to Trudeau from beyond the drafting table to direct the storyline in kind and clever directions.)

He shared some of his own favorite Doonesbury strips with Rolling Stone Magazine (back in 2010).

Although he’s publicity-shy by nature and shuns interviews, Garry agreed to an intimate interview in 2018 with Jane Pauley**, correspondent and current host of CBS Sunday Morning, a TV news-and-feature magazine.

Speaking of which….

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CBS Sunday Morning (1979 to present)

CBS SUNDAY MORNING TV news-and-feature magazine (with current host Jane Pauley and a big team of correspondents and support staff) takes a close, leisurely look at the arts, culture, nature, and wide-ranging human-interest stories, with the occasional dose of gentle humor that bubbles up like a natural spring from correspondents like Mo Rocca… 2,400+ episodes and counting.

As far as picking out the best interviews or the best episodes? I wouldn’t know where to begin… so I went to YouTube. Here’s a long list of the program’s most popular interviews:

Best of CBS Sunday Morning

Regina and I have been savoring CBS Sunday Morning throughout our marriage (40 years and counting) and we hope that the warm-hearted TV show survives and flourishes through the stormy political skies that have been forming over America, and struck CBS News last year. May they weather the storm to enjoy many more years of reporting that’s inherently kind and clever… decent and truthful.

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Still Standing (2015 to present)

While browsing TV shows on Amazon Prime, Regina and I happened to see the Still Standing icon with a Canadian maple leaf and a familiar face. We both thought, Hey, we know that guy. We didn’t know his name or where we knew him from, but we definitely knew him.

So, I googled around for a few minutes to learn the fellow’s name—Jonny Harris—and he plays (of course!) Constable George Crabtree on the popular Murdoch Mysteries, a gentle crime drama and one of our go-to TV shows. We’re currently into season 17 of Murdoch Mysteries, out of 19 seasons and counting. Murdoch offers smiles and a few chuckles… but rumor has it that it’s a-laugh-a-minute for the cast and crew behind the scenes, working with Jonny Harris. But I digress… so let’s get back to Jonny’s main project at the moment, Still Standing.

Jonny Harris, with a big support team behind him, takes his stand-up comedy skills on the road from small town to small town for the Still Standing TV show. He’s interviewed hundreds of grassroots Canadians for the show, and he tailors a unique, heart-warming stand-up gig for each town (a toast, not a roast) as he leaves a trail of smiles and laughter along the back roads of Canada… delving gently into the heart and soul and quirks of a different community with each half-hour episode… 11 seasons with 121 episodes and counting.

This is a new find for Regina and me. We’re still enjoying season 1 of Still Standing, laughing all the way. It’s fun for both of us, but also a bit wistful for me, since I had a brush with Canadian kindness and decency back in the day, while attending world-changing, annual IIIHS conferences in Montréal for a few years.

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I’m posting this on both websites—macyafterlife and noblesavageworld—though the subject is better suited for the latter site. It’s presence on macyafterlife may be temporary.