The Lionel Show Blog

What a show. What a show.

Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste, and Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking is the Bible of 'cue. My good pal, Adam Perry Lang knows his stuff. He's the proprietor of Daisy May's BBQ in Hell's Kitchen, NYC. He's an idea or two anent grilling and smoking. Rachael Ray digs him also.

Stonewall. Was it the watershed of gay rights? Eric Marcus says maybe not. Our producer manque, Chandy, has a thing or two to say. As does our guest.

Kenneth C. Davis is amazing and one of my favorite guests. What do you know about history? Not much, I bet. KCD will wow you with what he knows, highlighting what you don't know. Exhibit A.

And Bruce Kraig wrote Hot Dog: A Global History (Edible) anent the almighty dog. A meat filled casing. You have no idea as to the complexity and subtlety of the weiner, the red hot, the sausage, the dog. He's of the Culinary Historians of Chicago.

Minnesota mom Christine Anderson tells Lionel that she'll be contacting new Senator Al Franken to help her get the Department of Homeland Security to remove her soon-to-be eight-year-old son's name off of the FBI "Do Not Fly" list. The Anderson family found out that little John Anderson was on the terror watch list during a trip to Disney World in 2004 when they were stopped by security at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport.

We spoke with legendary R&B producer Kenny Gamble yesterday, who spoke fondly of his time working with the Jackson 5. In this classic photo from 1976 we see, standing from left to right: Tito, Randy, Michael, Marlon, Jackie. Seated, from ledt to right are: Joe Jackson, Leon Huff, Kenneth Gamble.

Here's our interview with Kenny Gamble, recorded July 1st, 2009.

Goodnight, Karl Malden. Ninety-seven. You never left home without it. And you put rhynophyma on the map.

Christine Anderson's son is on a terrorist watch list.  She writes as follows.

Help my seven year old son get off the terror watch list They say no kids are on it yet DHS sends email saying otherwise. Write to DHS and local branches of government asking them to help John get off this list and get a letter of apology for the mistake that has him afraid of his government. He feared they will take him away because they think he is a bad guy when he is not. Nothing I say takes this fear away because he knows he is on this list from his experience. He does not even want to try and fly nor do I want to try until I have a guarantee it will not start this fear again. John has been quoted " I am not a terrorist. I do not fly planes in to buildings or mountains" Not sure where the mountains came from but he is seven. John has appeared in USA Today, New York Times, Fox news, KSTP, KARE 11, KSMP, WCCO, Star and Tribune and many other publications. All has help bring awareness but none has gotten him off this list. We are currently working with Senator Klobuchar. DHS said they would send a letter in 8/08 yet no letter has been received and John is still checking the mail box.

Why? Dunno.

Candy Finnegan joins us. I love Candy. She's one of the interventionists (intervenors?) on A&E's Intervention. She authored When Enough is Enough: A Comprehensive Guide to Successful Intervention.

At long last, Senator Al Franken. It's official. Norm Coleman, Mr. Bad Caps, is replaced by and with an equally-interesting mouth. Ahmadinejad can't figure what took them so long. Just declare the race over. At the end of a bayonet.

University of Michigan Law School Professor Richard Primus (what a résumé) first joins us with a final word on Ricci, the now-famous New Haven case that conservatives hope and pray will shutter Sotomayor's chances for SCOTUS. Not a chance.

Sreenath Sreenivasan joins us for a look at neo-journalism. Sreenivasan is Dean of Students at Columbia University's School of Journalsim and runs the school's new media department. He specializes in helping journalists use technology better and faster. His technology reports appear once a week on WNBC-TV (he was WABC-TV's Tech Guru for six years) and he writes a weekly Web Tips column for Poynter.org. His work explaining technology for lay readers has appeared in The New York Times, Popular Science, Time Digital and BusinessWeek. As I've stated and should be readily apparent, conventional, paleo-jouranlism is moribund.

Dr. Martin A. Regalia is senior vice president for economic and tax policy and chief economist at the United States Chamber of Commerce. In conjunction with Chamber members, he is responsible for developing Chamber policy on tax and economic issues. The good doctor will provide a mid-year review and economic forecast for 2009 and will explore the possibility of a double dip recession. He'll also address inflation concerns, the stimulus and government spending.

News shows have flat-lined.

Wow! Yesterday I saw recently out-of-work Ashley Banfield on CNN with Jeff "Pops" Toobin. Jeez, guess who's looking for a job after TruTV or whatever was shuttered. Ol' "Sleepy" Toobin better watch out. His deliberate, slow delivery might be OK for a Cambridge 1L, but God, is he dull. Watch your back, JT. And speaking of boring, can someone please tell me what pictures Dr. Nancy Snyderman has of MSNBC officials with a barnyard animal to garner a spot in mornings? You've got to be kidding me. What's happening to television and entertainment and news? Where's Joan Embery? I hear she's available. No wonder Twitter's huge. Where's the "pop"?

And speaking of MSNBC, where's Joe as in "Morning Joe"? Have you ever heard of a show where the namesake is AWOL? Look, kids, this is the era of Beck, O'Reilly and that other guy. You've got to be and act alive. Sapience and reflection won't cut it. MSNBC's got Ed Schultz. He's loud, good and is the only guy in the lineup with a pulse. Watch CNN's Rick Sanchez also. Very good. A man with no self-respect. He was Tased on the tube. That's more like it. With the two morning cadavers, Geist and Barnicle, and the HD-phobic schoolmarm, how does MSNBC plan to compete? Oh, I forget. Jack Welch and Peggy Noonan. As to the former, keep the defibrillator handy.

Move over Morpehus, here's Wolf Blitzer. And finally, you know things are tough when you bring in Jack Cafferty (sans The Beaver Brown Band) for cleanup. And would someone check Anderson Cooper's jugular. You know things are bad when Candy Crowley is more exciting that Campbell Brown. Just go down the list, folks. Where's the farm team?