From Pat

I recently finished up a great time in Hawaii with my pal, Joe Moore, doing the Bernard Sabath play, “The Boys in Autumn.” We did just five performances over four days, but we managed to raise a record amount for the historic Hawaii Theater. My thanks to the great crew at the theater, our director, Glenn Cannon and, of course, Joe, who was a terrific 60-ish Huckleberry Finn to my similarly-aged Tom Sawyer. It’s a terrific play, both touching and funny, and we had wonderfully receptive audiences and very nice reviews. And, heck, I was in Hawaii, so how bad could it have been?

*****

From time to time, I write political commentary for various Internet sites. I’ve always been interested in politics and I enjoy writing about them, but the most fun part for me is reading the comments that appear after a piece is published. Of course, the people who agree with what you have to say generally compliment your wisdom and intelligence, but it’s those who disagree who are the most entertaining. They get angry—I mean really angry. They call names, they swear, and they WRITE IN BIG CAPITAL LETTERS WITH PLENTY OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!! There’s also often some version of, “Why do I care what a stupid TV game show host thinks?” Well, I find it hard to argue with that question, but it leads me to this question: Why do those people bother reading what a stupid game show host thinks before they decide he’s too stupid to care what he thinks? I also enjoy seeing how the comments deteriorate into name-calling among the commenters. Yes sir, if you want to stir up some emotions, write about politics.

By the way, I do think it’s important that we quasi-celebrities of the world do our best to separate our political views from our media jobs. I’m sure I let my feelings creep into “Wheel” occasionally, but I try not to engage in any overt proselytizing. People who tune into “Wheel” expect to be entertained rather than preached to. I think those of us in the media—even stupid TV game show hosts—have a right to speak up, but it should be done in appropriate venues where people know what to expect.

*****

So far you’ve asked some interesting questions and made a few pointed comments on our “Interact with Pat” page (you can find it under “From Pat”.) That’s where you can see the questions and the answers, and where you can ask your own question if you’d like.