Brian Williams, and "The 11th Hour"

I was sorry to read, on Tuesday night, that Brian Williams has decided to leave his weeknight MSNBC program, The 11th Hour--and will be leaving NBC News altogether--at the end of the year.

The 11th Hour has aired since 2016. I've been something of a latecomer to the program--having mostly watched it during the past couple of years. Mr. Williams is a very fine (and often very witty/wry) conversationalist and host.  

In addressing his end-of-December departure, on Tuesday evening's broadcast, he said: "The 11th Hour is way bigger than any one man or woman. The truth is, our secret has always been: it's always about our guests. That will never change."  

His guests (more often than not, recurring) have, indeed, been routinely superb--journalists, historians, political and social analysts, legal analysts, law enforcement, military, and intelligence experts, and, during the grim era of Covid, medical professionals. Yet despite his modesty regarding his role on the program, as expressed last night, it is Mr. Williams who establishes, each evening, the program's distinctive and pleasing tone. His stewardship of The 11th Hour will be missed.

Liz Cheney

Republican Representative Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, gave a speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

She said, in part:

"We are...confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before: A former president who's attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic, aided by political leaders, who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man." 

The CNN.com report, below, noted that Cheney--known for her conservatism--said she disagrees "strongly with nearly everything President Biden has done since he has been in office."  The report continued:

But while she [has] opposed Biden's policies, she repeatedly took aim at the former President, calling him a "liar" who "tragically misled" Americans and "provoked violence" on January 6.

 

"I love my party. I love its history. I love its principles," Cheney said. "But I love my country more. I know this nation needs a Republican Party that is based on truth."

 

"We need a Republican Party that is led by people who remember that the peaceful transfer of power is sacred," she added. "We need Republican leaders who remember that fidelity to the Constitution, fidelity to the rule of law — those are the most conservative of conservative principles."

The CNN.com story included the following:  "Her comments are sure to prompt speculation about a 2024 presidential run, which could potentially be against the former President." 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/09/politics/liz-cheney-trump-reaction/index.html

Colin Powell

Colin Powell--who during his career was chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State, four-star general--was a noble, honorable man.  

At his funeral, this past Friday, Madeleine Albright--Mr. Powell's immediate predecessor as Secretary of State--paid tribute to her longtime friend.

She said:  "As I grew to know him, I came to view Colin Powell as a figure who almost transcended time--for his virtues were Homeric:  honesty, dignity, loyalty and an unshakable commitment to his calling and word."

She said that "beneath that glossy exterior of warrior statesman was one of the gentlest and most decent people any of us will ever meet."

Election night

Essential viewing, tonight, on CNN:  John King's election-night analyses (as he presides over the network's touch-screen electoral maps).

King, as I have written previously in this space, is a terrific analyst and reporter.  He is CNN's Chief National Correspondent, and is the host of the weekday program Inside Politics.

The Tree of Life, in Pittsburgh

Today is the third anniversary of the attack at the Tree of Life synagogue, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. 

At the time of the murders, in 2018, three separate Jewish congregations had a home in the synagogue:  the Tree of Life Congregation, the New Light Congregation, and Congregation Dor Hadash (Dor Hadash means "new generation," in Hebrew). The attack occurred as Saturday morning Sabbath services were taking place.

Eleven congregants were shot and killed, during the approximately twenty-minute attack. Several other people were wounded, including four Pittsburgh police officers.

The individual arrested for the killings--virulently anti-Semitic, virulently hostile to immigrants--has not yet gone to trial.  He had frequently expressed, online, his hatred of Jews. Days before the killings, he had written of what he called (I am not reproducing, here, the entire word) the "k*** infestation" in the United States.  After he was shot by police, at the synagogue, he surrendered--and said, according to a police officer, that "all these Jews need to die." 

A book about the 2018 tragedy and its aftermath was published this month.  It is by journalist Mark Oppenheimer, and is titled Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood. 

Here is the link for the book, on amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Squirrel-Hill-Synagogue-Shooting-Neighborhood/dp/0525657193/ref

Three epigraphs

The following is an engaging epigraph; it appears in writer Peter Orner's short story collection, Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge (Little, Brown and Company, 2013).  The epigraph is from a short story by the writer Gina Berriault:

It’s over me like a ton of water, the things I don’t know.

(I read Mr. Orner's book recently, and enjoyed it very much--while admiring, even more, his 2019 short story collection, Maggie Brown & Others, also from Little, Brown.)

Another epigraph I'm fond of is from a novel I've had for years, but have not read (one of many books I have that are still to be read): Norman Mailer's The Deer Park, from 1955.  The epigraph is from Andre Gide:

Please do not understand me too quickly.  

Recently, I tried to find, in the apartment, my paperback copy, from college, of E. M. Forster's Howards End.  I came up empty; the book seems to have disappeared. The reason I wanted to find it?  Simply to see, again (after many years), its brief, beautiful, memorable epigraph:

"Only connect..."

Alan Kalter

I always enjoyed watching (and listening to) Alan Kalter, on David Letterman's Late Show, on CBS.

He was the program's talented (and funny) announcer--from the fall of 1995, until the show left the air in May of 2015.  He was also regularly featured in comedy segments on the program.

Mr. Kalter died this past Monday, at age 78.

Here is an obituary, from The New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/arts/television/alan-kalter-dead.html