(no subject)

I have become a person who watches television. It's so easy to be seduced by the flickering light of the televisions glow, and man, I have absolutely no filters against it. It's all bright and glowy, and I fully understand moth compulsion to porch lights. I'm just saying.

This is not the point, however. The point is: Studs Terkel.

Oh my GOD, Studs Terkel.

I picked up his book Working when I was like, eleven, in the local library. And true, I totally picked it up because his name was Studs Terkel and oh man, why isn't MY name Studs Terkel? Why do my parents fail so horribly at the kick-ass name game? However, this was also not the point. I was trying to say: I managed to open Working to the page where he interviews a prostitute about her day. She said the work was hard, but boring. Having to pretend to pay attention and care about the client was dull, but whatever, the money was good.

I was not a sheltered child, but it honestly hadn't occurred to me to consider how prostitutes felt about what they did. Or, for that matter, how bank managers felt, or how bricklayers or doormen, or how any of the myriad of possibilities of employment actually worked for the people who did them.

I think it took me about two days to read everything else he'd written, books about radio, and WWII, and political activism, and life, and the universe and everything. (The last was hyperbole, because really he only writes about the American experience, although isn't a put down, because this concept is huge and vast and no one but no one writes it as well as he does.)

So the point was: I've had a crush on Mr. Studs Terkel, both for his name and his work, for the last ten years. And tonight, he was on the Daily Show. (I know you'd totally forgotten how I started this, but that's ok. Tangents are all part of the service here on lj.) He doesn't speak often these days so I've never gotten a chance to see him "in the flesh" as it were, and he looks old and frail and makes jokes about being deaf as a post, which breaks my heart a little, because his work is all about listening, but really the point is: I'd forgotten just how much I love this guy. All glibness aside, he's my hero. Really truly.

So I'm supposed to be reading about allergy shots, and what, on a genetic level they're supposed to do, but all I want to do is go to the library and check out everything he's ever written (Including a new book! About being a DJ!) and read them all again.

I have issues with America, about being part of it, and not, but the first time I fell in love with this country, it was though his words, and I could really use a reminder of that now.

In sum: Studs Terkel: totally worthy of the name.