Boston’s NPR news station, WBUR, posted a statement from “Car Talk” executive producer Doug Berman:
“Tom’s been such a dominant, positive personality amongst us for so long that all of us in the public radio family — and I include our millions of listeners — will find this news very difficult to receive,” Berman wrote in part.
5 Hilarious Audio Clips From 'Car Talk's' Tom...
22 comments:
Very sad. A great show and a great personality.
I'm surprised by the Alzheimers. Didn't the show stop just a year or so ago? Doesn't Alzheimers take a long time to progress?
I thought so too.
"[W]ill find this news very difficult to receive, . . ."
Not at all. That's just corporate blather-speak.
That guy had the time of his life. As happy as happy can get.
There's no way a human being can be so buoyant without being perfectly well aware of what lies ahead.
A life well lived!
:(
Ot: I just heard Scott Pelly refer to Maine's snow in NOVEMBER as "seasonal climate change".
Carry on. Sorry for the interruption.
Just what are "complications from Alzeimers"? Walking into traffic? Drinking the liquid plumber instead of the Maalox?
I never heard that expression.
This was the only tolerable NPR show other than This American Life (interesting shows but also interesting re: just how deeply up their own asses they're willing to travel). I probably shouldn't say this but CT was going downhill and I thought they were just out of inspiration but now I realize that one of them was failing mentally. So sad.
wut? NOES!!! God rest his soul. Loved that guy. He had that exuberant happy schtick that annoyed the shit out of me, but kept me listening to his stories. Sort of like reading Good Fellas, not watching the movie.
Most NPR shows suffer from that insufferable dully righteous blather they go on about in a voice that is tightly clipped and over annunciated. They use background noises as a type of sound walls to give their bits some kind of hipster street cred. And they all have that same hipster douche bag drone and in interviews they all sound like they are asking all the perfectly worded questions and giving the perfectly worded answers to those perfectly worded questions. As if there was any questions asked, they take the tact that there is a perfectly worded answer and they are the only people who can formulate it. so douchy annoying.
You know it's an NPR story about farms/farming/farmers/not being in NYC or Chicago because they deploy that same "MOOOooo" sound.
Debate in Florida? MOOOooo
Gambling in Elko? MOOOooo
Drag racing in LA? MOOOooo
Legal case in Iowa? MOOOooo
Pendleton roundup? MOOOooo
PBS is going full-tilt get out the vote tonight, for the good of the party (the dems) and the USA, of course. Even Charlie Rose, who generally puts on a somewhat intellectually interesting show, filled his table up with ABC, CBS, NYT reporters going on about how midterms are always when "white conservatives" go to vote, presumably because traffic is not so dangerous for old folks; that, even so, there have been many young black and Hispanic early votes, meaning it might not be the bloodbath predicted (signaling that party faithful have been ballot stuffing?); that conservatives have never won the popular vote when it counted (how can he say that?), and midterms don't count. And so on.
Not even subtle about it anymore, but in their defense, PBS thinks it needs to step up their defense of the American Way from the brutish and racist hordes.
Among a handful who gave Cambridge Mass a good rep. Mainly because they stayed out of politics and did what they knew well. RIP
Which one of the brothers was he? There was the brother who had the answer to the caller's question and the other brother who was like a second banana with a great laugh. So which was he? Anyone know?
ricpic, having listened to the show for a while, I think both brothers were both of those. They were each other's second bananas.
I usually manage to solve my own car problems but I always wanted to call in to the show just so I could talk to Tom and Ray. They could make even the dullest of us sound like interesting people.
For me, it was the laughter that made the show, and also that the two brothers enjoyed each other's company so much. Doesn't always happen in families.
I tried calling them a long time ago with this question: Why is it OK to run your oil level a quart low before you need to add some, but it is never OK to put even half a quart extra oil in because your engine will probably blow up?
Never got through. Question was probably too hard.
Don't drive like my brother.
There's a thing called radio?
Oh yeah!
Have one of those in the truck. Never listen to it. Never. It may as well be a panini press. You see, I need the street sounds to help me drive. Crack open a window just to hear it even when it's freezing outside. Whenever I did turn on the radio I'd get 5 seconds of crap music and 25 minutes of exceedingly annoying commercials.
I heard of these guys, but I never heard one single broadcast.
I'm sorry he's dead. He seemed like a nice guy, but their program was so irritating.
Of course, "Car talk" was better than 99% of PBS. But still.
John, it's not a hard question. If the oil level is too high the crank dips into it whipping the oil into a froth. Froth can't be pumped into the oil galleries to lubricate the engine, thus your engine blows up.
The amount of overfilling required to do that depends on the engine.
And RIP, Tom. I hope your 1963 Dodge Dart in heaven's carburetor never needs adjusting.
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