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In this issue
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 6, 2009 / 12 Shevat 5769

Sick but hard at work

By Greg Crosby


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I'm sick with a cold. I sit here at this machine coughing my head off and typing my column out when I really should be in bed. Why am I telling you this? Because if you read something in today's column that doesn't make too much sense I want you to know it's not my fault, it's my sickness. The cargo has been eaten into a false redemption of a spun glass auditorium before the orders to vacate had gotten too oblique. Just kidding with that last sentence. I'm glad you're paying attention, though. Now on with the column.


Various and sundry musings: Every time I pass by the Burbank Bob Hope Airport I think that it would be great to see that little caricature of Bob Hope's face up on the sign at the entrance or on the flight tower. I'm sure it can't be done because of copyright and likeness protection, but it would just add so much to have that little sketch up there on the sign. It would soften the bleakness of that airport gate with a bit of whimsy and fun in the spirit of a man who had both and shared it with the world for so many years.


Bob Hope Airport started out in 1930 as United Airport and soon it became the primary airport of the Los Angeles area. Early aviation legends like Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and Wiley Post used the airport on a regular basis. Then in 1940, as World War II neared, Lockheed bought the airport and expanded its facilities in support of the war effort on land adjacent to the airport's runway. The name was changed to Lockheed Air Terminal and it continued to operate as a commercial airport while the company began building thousands of B-17's, Hudson bombers, and P-38 fighters.


In 1978 Lockheed sold the airport to an airport authority created by Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena with the catchy new name of Burbank - Glendale - Pasadena Airport. Thankfully in 2003 the airport was renamed in honor of Bob Hope (who made plenty of flights out of that facility throughout his life) and in conjunction with his 100th birthday. It was truly fitting since both Lockheed and Hope were instrumental to the WWII war effort. Now all the airport needs is Bob's caricature profile up there on that fight tower! That would really be something.


Hold on to your seat now because I'm about to say something positive about a new show on television that I've just discovered. Regular readers of his column know how I really can't watch very much regular broadcast TV because I find it so lousy in so many ways - from bad writing, to dumbed-down concepts, to ugly images, to just pure vulgarity. But there is at least one new series that actually is pretty good. It's called "Trust Me" on TNT Monday nights from 10-11 PM.


Here is a show where the writing is actually witty and intelligent, yes believe it or not. The actors are all top-notch and make you care about them. The concept is simple. Set in a Chicago advertising agency, the plots revolve around an ad team's efforts to pitch and sell new ad campaigns to their clients. Sounds easier than it is, and for anyone who has, even remotely, been around agencies and agency people the stuff that goes on here, while exaggerated, really rings true.


The stars are Eric McCormack, Tom Cavanagh, and Monica Potter, all excellent in their parts. They are spot on with the one-liners and quips, but can also pull you into the characters innermost feelings. The concept of an ad agency is nothing new, of course, it has been used for decades in movies and TV. For example, remember "Bewitched"? Darren was an adman.


"Mad Men" is another new agency series, but for me, it doesn't even come close to the quality of writing on "Trust Me." "Mad Men" is a period show, set in the 60's in New York, and is one of those strange creatures that looks old but promotes the politically correct thinking of today. "Trust Me" is contemporary both in style and in its writing. And maybe because of that it feels miles fresher than "Mad Men." It also feels miles fresher than most of the other stuff television has to offer today. Credit that with smart writing and good acting. I hope it can keep it up.


Okay, that's enough. I gotta go lay down in bed now and take a nap - I'm sick remember? I hope you people appreciate what I do for you!

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here.

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© 2008, Greg Crosby

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