Transcript: An Ode to Bob Newhart

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That is Rob Lengthy with Martini Shot for The Ankler.

I’ve a good friend who has been in politics for the reason that nineties, and he tells the story of certainly one of his bosses, early in his profession, who refused to listen to something for the primary time. In fact, there have been instances that one thing can be information to him — some piece of political gossip, some nugget of insider information — however he didn’t need anybody ever to assume he was a step behind something, so each time he heard one thing that was in actual fact information to him, as an alternative of claiming the conventional factor, like, “Oh, wow, that’s wild,” he’d nod, with a mildly expression on his face, and say, “Oh, is that out?”

That means: I knew this all alongside, method earlier than you knew it, as a result of I do know issues method earlier than you do, and I’m merely shocked that this previous piece of reports — to me — is now public information.

His staffers — amongst whom was my previous good friend — picked up on this behavior ultimately, after which started concocting, out of nothing, increasingly outlandish items of gossip and inside dope which they might ship to their boss, simply to make him indicate that he knew all of it alongside.  

They acquired him to say, “Oh, is that out?” to some fairly outlandish issues, because it turned out.

And I considered this story final week, after I heard that the good American comic, Bob Newhart, had died at 94.