Something to Live For

Try as I might, it's getting harder and harder to be funny. About a dozen years ago, back when I wrote a weekly humor column for a Salt Lake City daily, the jokes came fast and easy; all I had to do was look around my house. With an adolescent son and several unruly pets under my roof, everyday life for a Jewish family in Mormon territory provided easy access to humor.

These days my son is grown, my dog is dead, and there's nary a missionary in sight. Mainers pretty much keep to themselves and the post-9/11 world is hardly amusing. Terrorism, global warming and world-wide economic woes reinforce a shared downward spiral of the spirit. This past weekend's horrific mass shooting, in peaceful little Norway of all places, spotlights the fact that things are bad all over and getting worse.

So I was greatly relieved to read in today's Wall Street Journal that plans are afoot for a new daytime TV talk show that will surely be side-splitting. I can hardly wait for September 12, when "Anderson" debuts on CNN. Its producers promise it will "persuade America that Mr. Cooper has a softer side" and prove that he can "dig deep into the emotional side of stories and do more than simply cover breaking news," and isn't that really what we want from our journalists? I'm marking my calendar, how about you?