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| Alan Alda, My Friend |
Of course he doesn't know that, but don't we all feel that way about him? I grew up watching M*A*S*H. I just know he's a great guy. I saw him eating lunch a couple of years ago in one of my neighborhood restaurants, like a regular person, so that alone proves it. I went to a staged reading of a play he wrote about Marie Curie. The play, Radiance, had a lot going for it, most of all his passion for the subject, which he talks about here, in an essay for the Huffington Post called "In Love with Marie." The essay is worth reading not only for the subject matter but also because it is how so many of us non-fiction writers feel about the people (and subjects) we are writing about.
I am not alone in Alda love. I know this. My friend Rebecca used to drag her mother to the inferior Chinese restaurant in their neighborhood because Alan Alda ate there. His photo was in the window. Of course she did. What are so-so cold sesame noodles compared to Alan Hawkeye Alda? And I adore great cold sesame noodles.
I would like to say to Alan, as William Thacker's sister, Honey, says to movie star Anna Scott in Notting Hill, "I genuinely believe and have believed for some time now that we can be best friends. What do YOU think?"
(I also believe that I could be best friends with Julia Roberts, but maybe that's because I've watched Notting Hill 1,424 times.)
Also, as long as I'm off on a tangent, my favorite M*A*S*H episode was the heartbreaking one with Blythe Danner called "The More I See You." (I looked it up. Tried to embed video. Couldn't find any. Had to order it from Netflix. This blog post is taking many, many, many pomodoros.)
Where was I? Yes, Alan Alda. Here's the latest reason to be smitten with him. He is the cofounder of The Center for Communicating Science at Stonybrook. And he has recently issued THE FLAME CHALLENGE.
Here's Alan explaining it in SCIENCE Magazine:
By: Alice,
on 2/28/2012
Blog: OUPblog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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This Day in World History
February 28, 1983
Final Episode of TV Series M*A*S*H Airs
On February 28, 1983, at the end of its eleventh season, M*A*S*H said goodbye to television. More than 105 million Americans in about 51 million homes watched the series finale, a two-and-a-half-hour-long movie directed by star Alan Alda, that featured the show’s characteristic blend of comedy and drama.
M*A*S*H debuted in 1972, two years after the release of the Robert Altman movie of the same name and four years after the publication of the Richard Hooker novel that was the original for both. Set in a mobile army surgical hospital during the Korean War, the show featured an ensemble cast that included three regulars — Alda as doctor “Hawkeye” Pierce, Loretta Swit as chief nurse Major Margaret Houlihan, and William Christopher as chaplain Father Mulcahy — who appeared in all eleven seasons.
In its first few seasons, the show’s Korean War setting made it a commentary of sorts on the Vietnam War. Even after Vietnam ended, the series examined the tragic personal cost of war and the extent to which people will go to try to maintain sanity in war. The last episode, set around the close of the Korean War, included storylines reinforcing those themes.
The show made several innovations, including use of multiple storylines in an episode, the mixture of comedy and drama, the way the camera was used to shoot scenes, and the fact that the characters developed over time.
M*A*S*H remains one of the most highly regarded of all television series. Though the records the final episode once held for number of households tuning in and total number of viewers have been surpassed by Super Bowl broadcasts, that last show remains the single most watched episode of a television series in US history. Its Neilsen rating of 60.2, which means that more than three-quarters of all televisions were tuned to it, makes it the highest-rated television show of any kind.
“This Day in World History” is brought to you by USA Higher Education.
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So I always knew that Alan Alda was smart and funny and lovable, but the flame challenge proves that he's up there with my hero, Einstein, and the theory of everything.
I remember being told as a child that I asked to many questions, and finally along comes Alan Alda.
When I learned that Alan Alda would be speaking at Chautaqua as part of their writer's Series I was so disappointed. Alan Alda, really? While I loved him in Mash I couldn't help thinking, Why couldn't they get a real writer rather than just another actor/ celeb...
I reluctantly bought his memoir on audio to listen to on the car ride up to Chautaqua. For the next hour my husband, Joe, and I were nodding our heads, near tears, smiling, and laughing. Because guess what? Alan Alda can write! And once there we also learned that not only can he speak to a group of people there to hear writers, but he was probably one of the most entertaining and interesting speakers that Chautaqua has ever had. He's got such a quick and lively mind to go along with that great comic timing. Needless to say he got a standing ovation. And the first to stand up was me!
So yes, Deb, your blog is right on. Alan Alda, what's not to love?
Thanks for this alert, Deborah. I, like Alan Alda, have made Marie Curie my hero in a biography I wrote for DK Books. But the best thing is about your post is that I found out about the contest on "What is a Flame?" It just so happened that I addressed that very question with five hands-on experiments in a book I wrote in 1985 called Chemically Active! So I retyped the excerpt and sent it in. We shall see what happens.......