RIP: Clive James, Writer, TV Host And Cultural Critic, Dies At 80.

His friend and fellow satirist P.J. O’Rourke marvels at James’ way with a phrase, no matter what he was writing.

“He was that rare person who could do any kind of writing,” O’Rourke said. “His memoirs … are wonderful and very un-self-indulgent, unlike the modern version of that genre. He was a good novelist. Brrm! Brrm! is lots of fun. He’s an excellent poet, one of the best living poets in the English language. And of course, he was a critic.”

O’Rourke — who is not a regular TV viewer — even delighted in James’ reviews of that medium.

“His television criticism was so good that I have read all of it, even though I haven’t the likeliest idea what he’s talking about, because I’ve never seen any of the shows,” jokes O’Rourke.

Among the flood of tributes to James, Veep creator and movie director Armando Iannucci tweeted: “I used to practically hug The Observer in spasms of laughter reading Clive James’ TV reviews; ‘The Crystal Bucket’ is one of the funniest books around. And ‘Cultural Amnesia’ is an amazing book for reminding you that thinking can be joyful. His influence is incalculable.”

James didn’t just observe from the sidelines. He spent plenty of time in front of the camera, hosting variety shows and interviewing fellow writers and other artists on Talking In The Library.

Related: Excerpts from Clive James in his own words:

“Among artists without talent Marxism will always be popular, since it enables them to blame society for the fact that nobody wants to hear what they have to say.” The Crystal Bucket, 1982

On Brezhnev – A Short Biography: “Here is a book so dull that a whirling dervish could read himself to sleep with it. If you were to recite even a single page in the open air, birds would fall out of the sky and dogs drop dead.” From the Land of Shadows, 1982

“In The Bob Hope Golf Classic (LWT) the participation of President Gerald Ford was more than enough to remind you that the nuclear button was at one stage at the disposal of a man who might have either pressed it by mistake or else pressed it deliberately in order to obtain room service.” Glued to the Box

“I still haven’t forgiven CS Lewis for going on all those long walks with JRR Tolkien and failing to strangle him, thus to save us from hundreds of pages dripping with the wizardly wisdom of Gandalf and from the kind of movie in which Orlando Bloom defiantly flexes his delicate jaw at thousands of computer-generated orcs. In fact it would have been ever better if CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien could have strangled each other, so that we could also have been saved from the Chronicles of Narnia.” BBC Radio 4: A Point of View

On a South Bank Show interview with Harold Pinter: “It was exactly like getting blood from a stone, except that stones do not smoke. Pinter smoked all the time. You could tell that the interview was edited down from hours of film because in every shot Pinter had a fresh Balkan Sobranie in his hand. In the tight head-shots there was so much smoke pouring up from the bottom of the screen that you began wondering if his trousers were on fire.” The Crystal Bucket

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™

BRR: San Francisco ties record-breaking cold temps set in 1896. Remember, this is weather, not climate.

I THINK PEOPLE SHOULD PUNCH NAZIS: Social justice program says teachers should ‘reject and resist’ parents who disagree with it.

KEN CUCCINELLI EXPLAINS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WHEN FORMER GOV. O’MALLEY ACCOSTED HIM IN A DC BAR, FORCING HIM TO LEAVE: “Cuccinelli noted that some of O’Malley’s comments about Trump’s immigration policy were ‘odd’ due to the fact that ‘they applied to President Obama’s policies, a fact he clearly did not appreciate me pointing out (without screaming it, btw).’”

TAKING A STAND AGAINST HATE: With BDS on the rise, College Republicans decide it’s time to take a stand.

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BANGALORE TORPEDO PRACTICE: Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, detonate obstacle-breaching Bangalore torpedoes during a live-fire and maneuver exercise at the company assault course, Twentynine Palms, Calif.,

TO BE FAIR, HE GOT A LOT OF COOPERATION: Afghanistan Thanksgiving: Trump makes the press look like boobs.

CHINA READS THE NY TIMES EDITORIAL PAGE:

During the Cold War the easiest job in the Soviet Union was the person at Pravda assigned to produce anti-American editorial propaganda, because all you needed to do was reprint New York Times editorials. This was often literally true, as Pravda loved to quote the Times, the Post, and other American publications, along the lines of “Even the esteemed New York Times thinks President Reagan is an extremist,” etc.

Well now it is China’s turn. Stung by President Trump signing the bill stating our solidarity with the cause of freedom and democracy in Hong Kong, someone who appears to be a factotum of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken to Twitter to recite all of the usual leftist talking points about how terrible America is.

Related: Is Trump’s Presidency More “Exhausting” Than Reagan’s Presidency?

WHY TV NETWORKS MAY BE AFRAID OF INVESTIGATIVE STORIES:

This has been the autumn of discontent for investigative TV journalists.

Ronan Farrow’s bestselling book “Catch and Kill” detailed his frustration with former bosses at NBC News over his failed attempt to break the story on the sexual assault and harassment allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. A month later, leaked video showed ABC’s “20/20” co-anchor Amy Robach grousing over how the network would not run a 2015 interview with a victim of billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein that implicated Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton.

In both cases the networks said the stories never reached the editorial standard they believed was necessary to put it on the air. Robach even publicly backed up ABC’s assertion, saying her private remarks on an open mike were made in “a moment of frustration.”

CTL-F Ashley Bianco, zero results. As Jim Treacher wrote a couple of weeks ago, “The Media’s Silence on CBS Firing Ashley Bianco Proves #MeToo Is a Sham.” And note that the above article appears in the L.A. Times. Keep Rockin’!

THAT SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT: Gloomy Bloomberg polls: Least electable, ‘most disliked candidate in the race.’

COP, OUT? ‘Flailing … teetering:’ New York Times and Washington Post declare Kamala Harris doomed.

Related: Embarrassing: Staffers abandon Kamala Harris campaign for Bloomberg!

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Swing-State Voters Skeptical of Impeachment. Probably due to the lack of any discernible high crimes and misdemeanors.

ANGELA MERKEL: SECOND-WORST GERMAN CHANCELLOR IN THE PAST 100 YEARS. Chancellor Angela Merkel Says We Must Take Away Free Speech Or We Can’t Be Free:

“For those who claim they can no longer express their opinion, I say this to them: If you express and pronounced opinion, you must live with the fact that you will be contradicted. Expressing an opinion does not come at zero cost,” she said, according to an English translation of her remarks.

“But freedom of expression has its limits. Those limits begin where hatred is spread. They begin where the dignity of other people is violated. This house will and must oppose extreme speech. Otherwise our society will no longer be the free society that it was,” she added.

As Mark Steyn wrote of Merkel, “You can take the girl out of East Germany, but you can’t take the East Germany out of the girl.”

EUROPE IS HAVING QUITE A WEEK: French prosecutors drop murder charges against Jewish kindergarten teacher Sarah Halimi’s killer. Psychiatric experts say Kobili Traoré had smoked cannabis and may have been unaware of his actions. “Witnesses said the 65-year-old was beaten and called a ‘demon’ by her attacker, who recited Koranic verses as he threw her off her balcony. In an appeals court hearing on Wednesday Traoré admitted killing Ms Halimi, saying he was not aware of his actions on the night of the murder and did not recognise when he broke in.”

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO. . . ‘Teacher of the Year’ Randi Chaverria allegedly gave student oral sex in classroom. Why are our public schools such cesspits of sexual exploitation and abuse?

AND AGAIN: Stabbing Attack in The Netherlands Follows London Attack.

ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, STILL A TOTAL MYSTERY: London Bridge knife attacker known to cops, wore electronic tag, had links to jihad terror groups. “The attacker was a convicted terrorist who had recently been released from prison and was wearing an electronic tag, according to The Times. The report added that he was a guest at a Cambridge University conference on prisoner rehabilitation at Fishmongers’ Hall – where the attack began – and later threatened to blow up the venue.”

ACTUALLY, IT HAS FOR A WHILE: Suddenly, the Chinese threat to Australia seems very real.

SOUNDS PLAUSIBLE:  Recently Pardoned Turkey Found Dead After Claiming To Have Dirt On Hillary Clinton.

SO, WE’VE HAD TWO RANGING SHOTS AND THE NEXT ONE IS FOR REAL?  An alien comet from another star is streaking through our solar system.

TOWERS? MUST BE TRUMP’S FAULT:  Global Storms on Mars Launch Dust Towers Into the Sky.

A MUCH NEEDED CORRECTIVE:  A Response to Thanksgiving History as Told by the NYT.

I DON’T THINK IT’S JUST MILLENNIALS. UNFORTUNATELY THEY TAKE THEIR STUPID POLITICS WITH THEM, WHICH EXPLAINS WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY BELOVED COLORADO:  Millennials Are Fleeing Cities For Refuge From Democrats’ Disasters.