I need to stop listening if I am to continue to admire Dick Cavett as a talk show host. I was expecting mostly reflections of the characters he's met throughout his career, but after getting through the first disc, almost all of his musings are on his dislike of the Bush administration and misuse of the English language. We jive politically, but boy howdy is he just coming off like a crotchety, condescending old man. ( )

A walk down memory lane, revisiting people who mesmerized in the past, so many of whom are gone.
I do love articulate people and some of these columns touched on things I have been curious about myself and others were takes on things I have never cared about at all like fireworks and magic. ( )

This is a fine collection of columns that Dick Cavett wrote for the New York Times from 2007 to 2010. As erudite, witty, and urbane as ever, his writing focuses largely on his nostalgic and humorous reminiscences of his Nebraska boyhood, college days at Yale, working as a copy boy at Time magazine, his early years in show business as a comedy writer for Johnny Carson, and, of course, his years as a talk show host. The classic stories of his talk show guests - Paul Newman, Groucho Marx, John Lennon, Richard Burton, Bette Davis, William F. Buckley, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Katharine Hepburn, and on and on - are particularly entertaining. Of decidedly less interest are the occasional columns on political events, mostly concerning the 2008 presidential campaign and the aftermath of the ill-fated Iraq War, stories whose time has now passed. But all the rest are indeed timeless stories - some of great good humor, and some of touching poignancy - that will never lose their appeal. ( )

Dick Cavett hosted some of the most intelligent talk shows ever aired on TV and from 2007 through 2013 he ruminated about his experiences in a weekly on-line column in the New York Times. Thia book is a collection of his columns that ran from February, 2007 to April, 2010.

The columns on show business are wonderful, especially his infamous show in 1971 that pitted Gore Vidal against Norman Mailer with poor erudite Janet Flanner trying to referee. I'm happy that I saw that show live & Cavett's writing brings it all back (with links to the video for those who missed it). Additionally there are wonderful stories about Paul Newman Groucho Marx, John Wayne and many, many more.

If this book had stuck to show business I would have given it five stars. Unfortunately, however, a large portion deals with politics and those essays are no fun at all (although his apocryphal quote from George W Bush that" the French have no word for entreptreneur" and his comparison of Rod Blagolevich to a bowling ball cozy made me laugh out loud). Perhaps it's because, even when you would have agreed with his views six years ago, today with the passage of time, his political essays come across mostly as angry screeds. I ended up quickly skimming these to get back to the good stuff. ( )

This book is a collection of articles that Cavett work for the NY Times. They are on various subjects – political (George W Bush, Sarah Palin, John McCain, film stars (John Wayne, Richard Burton, Groucho Marx), famous authors, as well as the demise of the English language. I found the political articles right on and especially enjoyed the ones on John Wayne and Richard Burton. However, at times Cavett uses words that are not part of an average person’s vocabulary and I hate to have a dictionary with me when I read a book. Is he just trying to show off? He makes a point of saying both of his parents were English teachers but some of the words are just not in daily vocabulary use. ( )