This American Nerd

I’ve always had an aversion to NPR. People keep telling me how cool it is. I used to hear my co-workers go on and on about Car Talk, but it always sounded like Delicious Dish from SNL (today’s topic: Rice), but with transmission fluid instead of salt. My only previous experience with NPR was being stuck in a Berkshires B&B without TV (no CNN!) and it was the only station we could tune in on the little clock radio. It was okay, but it felt like a caveman version of modern cable. Well, I’ve been hearing so long about how good This American Life was. The new season began last Sunday on Showtime, so I DVR’d it. I figured if I liked it, maybe Public Radio wouldn’t be so bad after all. We just got around to watching it last night, and I’m already hooked. Ira Glass, the host, is my dream combination of Mark Cohen from Rent and Edward Norton – geeky cool (but a teeny bit old). And the stories were so captivating – cowboys in urban Philadelphia, a disabled man struggling to gain independence from his mother. It’s all so beautifully shot and edited. It’s getting a series recording on my DVR right now. So, maybe a little later, I might check out a little Sirius NPR in between Howard Stern’s commercial breaks. Can Garrison Keillor be too far off?