Interesting Story

Which is what people always say before they tell you an (1) uninteresting story (2) about themselves.

So last Friday, the 27th, I get an e-mail from someone at MSNBC inquiring about a "possible appearance" on the channel that afternoon at 4:45 p.m. The first thing I think is that the booker must have already gone through the A- through Y-list blowhards and was getting very desperate for a warm body on the Memorial Day weekend. The second thing I think is that I'm reading the e-mail after 4:45 p.m. Eastern, so I don't have to give this much thought.

The topics on which I was possibly invited to opine were (1) the Bolton nomination and Frist's leadership; (2) the Tom DeLay comment on Law and Order; and (3) stem cell research and Bush's threatened veto. Now the gentleman who sought my participation may have failed to notice that I hadn't blogged on any of these subjects and/or that I hadn't blogged anything at all in the last week and wasn't returning until June. I'm not sure, however, how he overlooked that he knows nothing of my speaking abilities or my telegenic qualities. I realize it's MSNBC, but they must have some standards.

Not journalistic standards, I know, but at least production values.

Although I do speak publicly and extemporaneously on infrequent occasions, this isn't the kind of thing I'm good at. I don't like to pretend to know everything and I don't like to speak unprepared. And I'm not as funny in person as I am in writing. I'm happy to toil in e-print, in obscurity and anonymity. (Although, if a better offer comes along....)

Apparently they were going to pair me with a conservative blogger "to be determined." I'm not even sure what show it was, since I never watch MSNBC and it wasn't mentioned in the e-mail. If anyone was watching MSNBC last Friday at 4:45 p.m. EST, let me know who I was replaced with.