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I was just looking at the Fiction forum and saw a thread about Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear, which instantly transported me to a spring night in 1981 in Madison, Wisconsin, where I was a student for a semester. I was listening to Studs Terkel's show out of Chicago (of course) on the local PBS station, and he was having one of his great, elevating conversations with Auel about her books. I probably listened to his show regularly, but for some reason that one stands out, because it made me run out and buy the book. I was a bit disappointed--it was a tad trashier than expected. But that didn't sour me on the conversation I'd listened to between a gentle, curious, honest interviewer and his very interesting guest about prehistoric human beings in Europe. I can just remember the sound of that soft, comforting, genuinely and unerringly interested voice probing for interesting answers. I can also remember listening to several shows about books on the history of the 1930s, when Terkel's voice developed a sharpness and edge to reveal his core enthusiasms for Old Left and New Deal politics. He was the voice of the Left for me--or at least the way I thought the Left should sound: Not apologetic or defeated but a little angry, muscular, unafraid.
I propose a toast to Studs, wherever you are! :toast:
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