As I mentioned before, last night I played hookey from work and drove down to Washington, D.C. to hear Studs Terkel at the Politics and Prose Bookstore, in conversation with Bob Edwards. (Photos below; click thumbnail for larger version.)

To say the man is a firebrand is a considerable understatement…I think Bob knew he was in trouble when Studs introduced him instead of the other way around…it was pretty clear Studs was holding court. He noted that both he and Bob were born the same day of the year (May 16th), although the years are a bit different; Studs was born in 1912, and Bob…wasn’t. Studs commented that he believed the country was suffering from “National Alzheimer’s Disease” in that students aren’t taught enough history to avoid making the same mistakes over again, and he had some…sprightly things to say about the current administration. He had an interesting list of the three greatest men of the 20th Century - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Henry Wallace (Vice President during FDR’s final term and former Secretary of Agriculture). After discoursing on Mr. Wallace for a bit, he suddenly turned and said, “Bob … whaddya think?” To which Edwards replied, “You’re just workin’ me so hard…”
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