I must confess I have wasted too many hours sitting in front of the TV and many hundreds of those hours might have been spent watching Larry King Live.
Well, the critics will all be dissecting Larry's career and show and what not. I think I mostly enjoyed watching people who are at the top of their game in various professions. How else would I have managed to meet people as diverse as Michelle Obama to Seth Shostak.
So, my thanks to Larry for bringing all these achievers to my drawing room at various points of my life. Watching successful people has an effect that is mostly beneficial. It somehow makes you want to achieve something in your own life. So, a positive influence after all.
Of course, one can criticize the sense of priority of our society where people who have a "public" sort of career tend to get the lion's share of publicity. So, you have movie stars and music stars holding forth on every topic under the sun. Perhaps, that reflects the escapist tendency of most humans who want entertainment on TV rather than something really hard ... like science.
How many people after all would be interested in a TV show that had on its show scientists and engineers and doctors every day and every week and for months and years on end. People would quickly tire of discussions about various approaches being tried to battle cancer, or discussion about the next steps in space exploration, or a discussion about how to fight climate change, etc.
I remember Larry King once saying that Angelina Jolie was one of the most intelligent people he had ever met ... and I remember thinking that then perhaps Larry has not met that many intelligent people ...
Well, the critics will all be dissecting Larry's career and show and what not. I think I mostly enjoyed watching people who are at the top of their game in various professions. How else would I have managed to meet people as diverse as Michelle Obama to Seth Shostak.
So, my thanks to Larry for bringing all these achievers to my drawing room at various points of my life. Watching successful people has an effect that is mostly beneficial. It somehow makes you want to achieve something in your own life. So, a positive influence after all.
Of course, one can criticize the sense of priority of our society where people who have a "public" sort of career tend to get the lion's share of publicity. So, you have movie stars and music stars holding forth on every topic under the sun. Perhaps, that reflects the escapist tendency of most humans who want entertainment on TV rather than something really hard ... like science.
How many people after all would be interested in a TV show that had on its show scientists and engineers and doctors every day and every week and for months and years on end. People would quickly tire of discussions about various approaches being tried to battle cancer, or discussion about the next steps in space exploration, or a discussion about how to fight climate change, etc.
I remember Larry King once saying that Angelina Jolie was one of the most intelligent people he had ever met ... and I remember thinking that then perhaps Larry has not met that many intelligent people ...
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