George R.R. Martin has made it onto the 2014 edition of Barbara Walters’ “10 Most Fascinating People.”
Martin earned his place on Walters’ list due to the great popularity of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series and the Game of Thrones TV adaptation; both projects have made a serious mark in pop culture history.
The nine other people alongside Martin include Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, Chelsea Handler, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Taylor Swift, Michael Strahan, David Koch, and Amal Clooney. (via The Huffington Post)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Michael Strahan will h
Q: As the host of Kids’ Choice Sports 2014, what exactly will your duties be?
Michael: I am the master of ceremonies, the ringmaster, the magic maker, and the slime decider. I am the hype man. My job is to host the show, to go in and make sure that the show is fun and energetic. Maybe I get slimed, and maybe I don’t, but a lot of other people will. It’s a big responsibility because any time you deal with kids, they expect the best of you. They expect it to be fun, and that’s what my job is, to make sure they get everything they want.
Q: When you were a kid, what did sports teach you?
Michael: Sports taught me discipline and teamwork more than anything else. It taught me about working with a team, how everyone winning is better than just your own individual success, and how to work together with other people. It’s hard work. You gotta push yourself farther than you ever thought you could go in order to be successful.
Q: Because of the safety concerns over head injuries, do you think tackle football is still safe for kids to play?
Michael: Definitely. The NFL has its Heads Up tackling program where they encourage coaches to learn the proper tackling techniques. They’ve been signing up schools and teams so they can teach kids from a very early age the proper tackling techniques. I think that’s extremely important for the future of football. As a parent, I’d be comfortable as long as my kid understood the technique of it. There are many concussions caused by playing soccer, which is big now with the World Cup. But I wouldn’t worry about the whole concussion thing as long as kids have a qualified coach who has the qualified training to make sure they are taught the proper way.
[Here is a fact from the United States Center for Disease Control: "High school football accounts for 47 percent of all reported sports concussions, with 33 percent of concussions occurring during practice. After football, ice hockey and soccer pose the most significant head health risk."]Q: Do your kids play sports?
Q: What about now? Who do you consider like the complete athlete?
I’m a fan of sports, period. Like Shaun White, I mean, you see what he does? The consistency. I’m a big fan of not only being successful, but being consistent at it. The great thing that has been shown by a lot of these athletes is that, “Ok, I’ve been great one year. I can be great another and another and another.” That’s the hardest thing to do is to be consistent, to stay injury-free and to fight through the challenges. I respect first of all anybody who’s able to play and make it to an elite level, and secondly, the ones who are able to stay at that elite level.
