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Air Quote by Tom Shales

“Tom Snyder was born to broadcast. He loved television and it loved him back. In that, he was a member of a vanishing breed, especially as narrowcasting displaces broadcasting, 'online' replaces 'on the air,' and any Tom, Dick or Mary can be monarch of a desktop domain, uplinking themselves to…” quote by Tom Shales — Download Open image

“Tom Snyder was born to broadcast. He loved television and it loved him back. In that, he was a member of a vanishing breed, especially as narrowcasting displaces broadcasting, 'online' replaces 'on the air,' and any Tom, Dick or Mary can be monarch of a desktop domain, uplinking themselves to satellites in space.”

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More by Tom Shales

Maybe it's the hair. Maybe it's the teeth. Maybe it's the intellect. No, it's the hair.

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Jimmy Kimmel still comes across like a guy who crashed a party and got caught at it, yet adamantly refuses to leave.

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In city after city, newspaper after newspaper has diminished its staff of critics, sometimes to zero. Film and T.V. critics have been dropped and…

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'Kukla, Fran and Ollie' occurred in real time and was a benign and bewitching example of pure television.

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Maybe Larry Kings cannot thrive or even survive in a world where the norms for discourse are rage, vehemence and character assassination. King wanted…

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Obviously neither 'American Idol' nor 'Dancing With the Stars' is a variety show in the classic sense, but the way they incorporate elements of…

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Robert Osborne either has the best job in the world, or comes very close. As millions of viewers know, Osborne is the resident host…

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Making music on TV used to be as common as commercials. In the '60s and '70s, prime time was stuffed with variety shows headlined…

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For those who don't like Dave Letterman, there's Jay Leno; and for those who like neither, there's Craig Ferguson; and if you're still feeling…

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The once inviolate frame within which programs or commercials were displayed on television - always separately - has been violated to a pulp. Program…

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'Leave It to Beaver,' which ran from 1957 until 1963, was one of the strangest, sweetest, most distinctive domestic sitcoms of television's celebrated Golden Age.

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The original and very basic 'Law & Order' series has always seemed to me to be 100-percent exposition, with no filler, no pesky nuances…

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I will be a tireless advocate for our District's defense priorities including Sheppard Air Force Base, Pantex, Bell Helicopter, universities conducting important research, and…

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I have lifted my plane . . . for perhaps a thousand flights and I have never felt her wheels glide from the Earth…

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If U.S. air, naval, missile, and ground forces were not in and around Korea, and if we were not treaty-bound to fight alongside South…

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The cooler days have brought a wistful mood upon him. The smell of coalsmoke in the air at night. Old times, dead years. For…

Cormac McCarthy

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It's easy to say, let's go in and get the bad guys. But you have a divided country of Sunnis and Shias. The United States goes and takes action there on behalf of the Iraqi government. You've got Iran coming in and saying we're going to stand with (Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki, so now we're aligning ourselves with Iran,…

I'm a candle flame that sways in currents of air you can't see. You need to be the one who steadies me to burn.

Nadine Gordimer

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It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so…

Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less Developed Countries]?... I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that... I’ve always though that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted,…

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After a few mouthfuls of moon-flavored air, even the stubbornly drowsy can find themselves wide-eyed.. All the normal noises of life were gone, leaving…

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There was a little nook on Air Force Two that contained the vice presidential seal, and I would sort of wedge myself in there…

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Words are substance strange. Speak one and the air ripples into another's ears. Write one and the eye laps it up. But the sense…

Dan Beachy-Quick

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[A]s you partake of the world's bill of fare, that's darned good advice to follow. Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.…

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