Sherry Chandler

Several of my correspondents have received e-mail letters such as this today:

Dear Ms. Chandler,

Thanks for contacting me again about the Writer’s Almanac. As you can imagine, I’ve heard from several listeners in recent days about this, and I have some good news for you. We are restoring the Writer’s Almanac to WUKY’s schedule at a new – and we hope better – time. It will air Monday through Friday at 7:01 p.m. during NPR’s “Fresh Air”, which is consistently one of our more popular programs. At the same time, the concerns we have are real about the use of language that the FCC has fined stations for recently. As a result, we have put in place an editing process that will allow us to delete such language from the broadcast without disrupting the program.
–
Tom Godell
WUKY General Manager

We have done good work here. Thanks to Mr. Godell and to all who wrote letters. But tell me, readers, do you feel as I do, that perhaps the battle is not won? A degree of censorship is still in place.

A post at Idyllopus illustrates how ridiculous it is that we cannot hear the word “breast” in any context.

Perhaps at this point it is time to write the FCC. It was an astroturfing operation from the right that got us into this mess. Perhaps it is time to speak up for stations like WUKY that are struggling between the needs of their audience and Big Brother policies. Contact information for the FCC is found here.

Some of you might also be inclined to contact Mr. McConnell, Mr. Bunning, or Mr. Chandler. You can find contact information here. I’ve given up thinking this will do much good, believing with the majority that this is the worst Congress in my lifetime.

Bosoms!

On The Writer’s Almanac today!

With sand on ‘em!

I’m shocked! Shocked! That Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Justice was just too titillating.

***

Meanwhile, thanks to Alan MacKellar for pointing out that WUKY’s cancellation of The Writer’s Almanac has hit the Lexington Herald-Leader. Articles to be found here and here.

Station manager Tom Godell has said reaction to the cancellation has been minimal. Can we change that?

Contact information here.

***

[Addendum: Hooray for O. Leonard Press, retired founding director of Kentucky Educational Television. Mr Press has said “If Garrison Keillor is less desirable on the airwaves than Desperate Housewives, we’ve gone a far piece.”

I had the pleasure of meeting Ron Houchin at the Appalachian Writers Workshop last week. I see his work often in magazines and on the web, but we’re seldom at the same place at the same time. He’s often featured on Verse Daily. In fact, he had a poem up there yesterday. Ron’s latest book, Among Wordless Things (Wind, 2004) was chosen Appalachian Writers Association 2005 Book of the Year Award in poetry.

The poem below is from an earlier collection, Death and the River. I don’t think the animal in question here is exactly a cat but then it’s not exactly not a cat either.

Animal Confessions

He watches me wordlessly from positions
he’s taken up for the purpose of pouring
out his hopeless situation. Black eyes
with diamonds in them at my feet, forgiveness
not on his mind, he soaks me up silently.
He’s trapped. I know that; he knows, of course,
but I can’t tel him … He can only allow me
to guess as he pads over the oval rug,
circles it as if trying to come to the point.
Then, the flames reflecting from his back,
he watches me from the cell of another life,
to see if I have suspected right.
I don’t bother to give him a knowing smile;
I’m not that sure he’s there.
He watches me watch the late show. That flat,
constant stare is more than I can bear.
I glance at him during the commercials.
We’re always waiting for one of us to think
of a way. When I say something, anything,
he says yes with his tail. I go back
to the show. Carrying sins I can’t imagine,
he comes this way, head low,
wanting to try one more time –
both our tongues work to bridge the gap.

– Ron Houchin, from Death and the River (SalmonPoetry, 1997)