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This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, editor of the website TV Worth Watching, sitting in for Terry Gross.
BIANCULLI: That's the theme from "The Carol Burnett Show," which ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978. Last month, Burnett won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The award ceremony, including tributes from Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Martin Short and Vicki Lawrence, will be broadcast on PBS Sunday, Nov. 24th.
CAROL BURNETT: Burnett was among the first women to host a TV variety show. "The Carol Burnett Show," which won 22 Emmys, was famous for its movie parodies, the soap opera spoof "As the Stomach Churns," and its sketches about a bickering family. For most of the show's run, Burnett shared the stage with Vicki Lawrence, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway.
Early in Burnett's career, she starred in the original production of the musical comedy "Once Upon a Mattress." Her movies include "A Wedding," "The Four Seasons" and "Annie." Terry recorded this interview in 2003, after the publication of a new edition of Burnett's 1986 memoir, "One More Time."
When you were young - you know how some people see life as a tragedy, and some people see life as a comedy? You're largely a comedic actress. When you were growing up, did you see the comedy in life?
BURNETT: Yes, I think I did. I had a lot of laughs with my grandmother and my mother. They had great senses of humor. And people who read the memoir and have read it, they think, oh, my gosh, that was a real tough upbringing. But I never felt that. We were poor, and both my parents died, eventually, of alcoholism, but I was kind of in the same boat with a lot of the kids in the neighborhood.
Everybody was poor, and a lot of their folks had drinking problems. But we found a way to survive and to play and to laugh and thrive in a funny way.
GROSS: Now, you were raised primarily by your grandmother, even when your mother was alive, right?
BURNETT: Yes. Actually, my folks, my parents came to Hollywood from Texas, and left me there with my grandmother. They were hoping that they were going to strike it big out here in Hollywood. And then they divorced. And so my grandmother and I followed my mother out to Hollywood in 1940, and mama lived in an apartment building one block north of Hollywood Boulevard, but really a million miles away from Hollywood. You know, it was just the neighborhood.
And she got us a single room, which faced the lobby of the building, and mama was down the hall. And so Nanny - that was my grandmother - and I lived in this one room. But the doors were always open, and mama was in our place, as much as we were down the hall with her. So - but I did live and stay and sleep in the same room as my grandmother.
We had a Murphy pull-down bed from the wall, and I slept on the couch.
GROSS: Now, two things I read about your grandmother that seemed totally contradictory to me - or at least difficult to live with as a package - is that: one, she was a hypochondriac, and two, she was a Christian Scientist. Was she both?
BURNETT: Go figure. Go figure. She was a hypochondriacal Christian Scientist. She would have Mary Baker Eddy's scientific - "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and she would hold that book, and she would read it and what we call - she would know the truth. In other words, there is no illness. There is no evil. There is no this or that. But then she was constantly feeling her pulse.
BURNETT: And say, oh, my God. I'm dying. Get me a Phenobarbital. So, you know, she had all the bases covered. If God didn't come through for her and she didn't know the truth well enough, I would have to run in and, you know, get the pills and give it to her.
GROSS: Was she a dramatic hypochondriac? Did she have a theatrical flair about it?
BURNETT: Yes, yes, yes. And she could kind of look like she was going to faint, you know, and lie down and fan herself, you know, with her hand and put a washrag on her forehead. But then if somebody came in or said, hey, let's go to the movies, she'd be up and out.
BURNETT: Ready to go.
GROSS: Now, your parents were both drinkers. They were alcoholics. Did they become different people when they drank?
BURNETT: Yes and no. Actually, my dad drank before my mother did. He - in fact, at one time, I remember seeing mama break a bottle of his that she'd found and pour it down the sink. But daddy, when he drank, just became sweeter. He was - there wasn't a mean thought in his body. He was - I've always said he was like a drunk Jimmy Stewart.
BURNETT: You know, that he just couldn't - he just got sweeter. But he was ineffectual. He couldn't hold a job. You know, he was just a hopeless - he had that disease. Mama didn't start drinking until later. And she wasn't living with daddy then, but she started heavily in her 30s. And she was a mean drunk. She could really get mean and vicious and angry. Again, that frustration, you know, just came out, you know, it was just totally 100-fold, I guess you would want to say, when she drank. She was very witty, and she was very beautiful, at first.
GROSS: Was she mean to you when she got drunk?
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. She could be mean to me, too. Yeah. And then she and Nanny would go at it, you know, and sometimes I would just sit in the corner and draw. I, at one point, entertained the idea of being a cartoonist and having my own comic strip. And I could almost just ignore them while they were arguing, because it was like background music.
You know, and - yeah. She would be unreasonable. You know, she would accuse me of something, and I was a good kid. I was a goody-two-shoes, actually. And she would accuse me of ridiculous stuff when she drank.
GROSS: Now, you grew up in Los Angeles. You went to Hollywood High. Do you think your encounters with the world of show business were any different growing up in Los Angeles and going to Hollywood High than they would have been had you, say, stayed in San Antonio? Were you connected by geography to the world of Hollywood?
BURNETT: No, not at all. It could've been a different name. The difference was we had all these movie theaters on Hollywood Boulevard, and my grandmother would save up enough money - because way back then, before I turned 12, my - it was 11 cents for me to go to the movies, and it was a quarter for my grandmother.
You know, and we would see, on the average, in the '40s, we would see eight movies a week. Because we would go to two movies during the week, and then two on the weekend, but they were all double features - second-runs is what we called them, you know. So I'd see eight movies a week. So that was my connection to Hollywood, but that could've been in San Antonio, also.
And Hollywood High, the three years I went there, they didn't have a drama class, of all things. So that whole - my high school years were - mama said, you know, you ought to take up journalism. And I did, at Hollywood High. And I got very interested in that and took the journalism course and became editor of the Hollywood High School News and wrote a column.
And I even interviewed a movie star, Joel McCrea, who had gone to Hollywood High. It was my idea to say, gee, let me go interview these movie stars who had attended the school, you know. And that was fun. So that's what I really kind of thought I was going to be. So - and mama kept pushing it, because that's what she wanted to do.
GROSS: Right. Was there a point when you realized that's what she wanted to do, and not necessarily what you wanted to do?
BURNETT: After the fact. So when I got into UCLA, I thought I was going to major in journalism, but they did not have a major in journalism. So I took a course in my freshman year, a journalism course, and joined the Daily Bruin. But then I majored in theater arts, English, because then I could get the playwriting courses. And no matter what, when you major in theater arts, whether you want to write or be a director or design scenery or whatever, when you're a freshman at UCLA then - I guess it's still the same way - you had to take an acting class, Acting 1A, they called it.
And so I was kind of terrified about it, and had to get up in front of some people, and I did a scene with a guy who was in the class that was a comedy scene, and they laughed. And I thought, oh, that's really nice.
BURNETT: You know, I like that. And I just felt validated, you know. And it was a high. And all through high school and junior high, I guess you could describe me as being one of the nerds. You know, there was - we had a little group of us. You know, I was quiet. I was not particularly attractive. I had friends. I had a lot of buddies, but I was not what one would call very popular.
But after I did a few scenes, you know, in this acting class, and then I got cast in a couple of one-acts at UCLA, people on campus would come up, even seniors and graduate students, and say, God, we really liked you in that, and so forth. And why don't you come over on the lawn here and have lunch with us today?
And all of a sudden, I started to get popular, and I said this on a couple of interviews, you know, it was a great way to meet guys. And I thought this is really kind of what I want to do. But I wouldn't tell my grandmother, and I wouldn't tell mama.
GROSS: Were you afraid they'd shoot it down and tell you you weren't pretty enough, you're not pretty enough, you're not whatever?
BURNETT: You got it, yeah.
GROSS: And did they ever get around to telling you that?
BURNETT: Well, like, mama, you know - and I don't want to lay this on her, because she didn't really know what she was saying at the time. She was saying, listen, be a writer, because no matter what you look like you can always write, you know. And so that kind of imprints a little message.
GROSS: That's very nice.
BURNETT: She didn't - she really, she was just saying you know, no matter what, you can always write. You know, and she was being very supportive, because I actually was a pretty good writer. But then I got into musical comedy workshop at UCLA, doing background in the - "South Pacific." They were doing a scene from "South Pacific."
And the student director said can you carry a tune, and I said, yeah. Because mama and Nanny and I would always sit around the kitchen table. Mama played the ukulele, and we would sing and harmonize. And I said, yeah, I can carry a tune. And he said, well, would you be in the chorus, the "Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" scene? And I said sure.
So I got in, and I got so brave, I started to belt real - sing very loudly. And he said you're pretty loud. And I said, oh, I'm sorry. I'll tone it down. Then he said no, no. He said I'm going to do a scene from "Guys and Dolls," and would you be in the scene with me, and would you play Adelaide and sing "Adelaide's Lament"? Which was a comedy - wonderful comedy song from "Guys and Dolls."
And I thought oh, my Lord, you know, sing alone? Sing solo? And he said, well, she's supposed to have a cold. And I said, oh, well then I'll do it, because she wouldn't have to sound good.
BURNETT: You know, I could always cough or sneeze or, you know, something like - so that was the first time I ever sang in public, was that scene. And then I got involved in an opera workshop, and I thought: This is what I want, is musical comedy. So, the following semester, we were going to do a scene - I think it was from "Call Me Madam," that Ethel Merman had starred in on Broadway.
And I got up the nerve to tell Nanny and to tell mama that I was going to be performing. And they said really? And I said, and I'd like you to be there. And they came. And afterwards, mama - actually, mama got sober. I mean, she - I hadn't seen her looking that good in a long time, but she kind of dressed up for it, and put on her old red coat and came in.
And Nanny was there. And afterwards backstage, they were very complimentary. Mama hugged me, and she said you were really good, kid, you know, and I just - I started to cry. You know, it was - and they were very supportive, until I said this is what I want to do with my life. And then it was like, hey, you know, they wanted to hit me with a reality stick.
BIANCULLI: Carol Burnett, speaking to Terry Gross in 2003. More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to Terry's 2003 interview with Carol Burnett, the recipient of this year's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The TV special in which she receives that award will be shown November 24th on PBS.
GROSS: You knew you wanted to get to New York. After you fell in love with acting, you knew you wanted to get to New York. You knew you didn't have the money to get there. And you ended up getting $1,000 from someone who saw you do a sketch at a party and thought you were really talented, and became like your benefactor. And they were anonymous, I believe. Or was it just that you're keeping them anonymous from the rest of us?
BURNETT: I'm keeping them - this...
GROSS: Got it. So you knew who they were, but we don't know.
BURNETT: Right, right.
GROSS: So, with that $1,000, you got to New York, and you started performing there. And you ended up being in television in the pretty early days of TV, in the formative years. In 1955, for instance, you were on the "Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show."
BURNETT: Right.
GROSS: And this is, you know, a show of ventriloquists and dummies that all the kids watched.
BURNETT: Yeah.
GROSS: All the kids watched it. And, you know, what did you do on the show?
BURNETT: I was the girlfriend of the dummies.
BURNETT: And I was just kind of a, like, a sidekick. I didn't do too much comedy, because that was all the dummies - you know, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smith were their names. And so, actually, I kind of sang a lot on the show with Paul Winchell and with the dummies. You know, we'd do little duets and stuff.
And I was only on a short while, and then I started - then I was off the show, and in '56, I got a part as Buddy Hackett's girlfriend on a short-lived show called "Stanley," which I think was the only live sitcom ever on television.
GROSS: Wow.
BURNETT: And then I met Garry Moore, who was - had a daytime show. And he put me on that show, and that started our friendship and relationship so that when he got his nighttime show, which was a wonderful variety show, he had me as a guest a couple of times. And then once Martha Raye was going to be on - she was a hysterical comedian - and she got sick. And Garry's office called me on Sunday, and he went live on Tuesday. And he said, can you come over and learn the show?
Man, I was out of there so fast. Boy, I ran over there. And Garry explained to the audience that I, you know, had just come in and learned it. And they were very receptive. So then he asked me to be a regular weekly, and that was a big, big break.
GROSS: Did you have a sense that, you know, TV was in its infancy then, and that the rules could be made up as you went along, that things weren't fixed in stone yet?
BURNETT: No, I did not. To me, it was a stepping stone to Broadway. I still - you know, and at the time, I was in a show called "Once Upon a Mattress" Off-Broadway, and so I was doubling. I was doing Garry's show and "Mattress." But "Mattress" was my big love.
I didn't think I was television material at all.
GROSS: Why not? Why not?
BURNETT: Well, once I auditioned for something called - oh, I forget. Oh, gosh. It was like "Star Search" only not - you know, it was "Reach for the Stars," or some kind of a show like that. And the emcee came out, and he said you're very good, dear, but you're too loud for TV.
BURNETT: So that was, you know, again, somebody said that, so I accepted it. And when Garry hired me, I was kind of surprised, you know. So I just kind of thought no, I'm a belter and I'm a comic, and I belong on the stage. And - but in doing Garry's show, that's when the bug bit about doing different things every week.
GROSS: Oh, and not doing the same show every night on Broadway.
BURNETT: Correct. And so I could do these different characters and be dressed differently and become different people, sometimes three or four different people in one show, and I liked that. And I liked having the rep company feeling and a family, you know, and...
GROSS: You're describing "The Carol Burnett Show." That's "The Carol Burnett Show."
BURNETT: That's exactly right. I patterned our show after Garry, and, of course, after Sid Caesar, you know, who was a past master at it and had the great rep company, and did all these different characters. And I thought: This is what I need, because you could do musical comedy. You could - you could have guests, you could have interesting people to work with, but you still had your little family, core to work with also that you could rely on.
And that was the most fun.
BIANCULLI: Carol Burnett, speaking with Terry Gross in 2003. We'll hear more of their interview in the second half of the show. Let's hear Burnett singing "Adelaide's Lament" from "Guys and Dolls." It's from the CD reissue "Let Me Entertain You: Carol Burnett Sings." I'm David Bianculli, and this is FRESH AIR.
BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, in for Terry Gross, back with more of Terry's 2003 interview with actress and comedian Carol Burnett. Later this month, she'll be seen on PBS accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. When we left off, they were talking about "The Carol Burnett Show," the popular variety show which ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978 and won 22 Emmys.
GROSS: Well, one of the things your show "The Carol Burnett Show," is famous for, was your movie parodies.
BURNETT: Yes.
GROSS: And you said earlier that when you were a kid you'd go to maybe eight movies a week with your grandmother.
BURNETT: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: Are there movies from your childhood that you ended up doing parodies of on "The Carol Burnett Show"?
BURNETT: Oh, yes. "Mildred Pierce..."
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
BURNETT: ...Joan Crawford. "The Postman Always Rings Twice," Lana Turner. "Gilda," Rita Hayworth. "Gone With the Wind," Vivian Leigh. Even something as remote as a movie called "Born to Be Bad," with Joan Fontaine, and we called it "Raised to Be Rotten."
BURNETT: And so, I mean, I would just go to the writers and I'd say, can we do "Mildred Pierce?" And they would get the film and run it and, sure enough, I mean it was just great. And about three or four weeks we would have the sketch.
GROSS: Is it fun to do the kind of glamour roles that you figure you're probably not going to get because you're a comedic actress and you don't think of yourself as the glamorous type?
BURNETT: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: So is it fun to do those glamour roles but do like the comic version of them?
BURNETT: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I remember Bob Mackie putting me in all white, and I had a white wig, practically. Lana Turner in "Postman Always Rings Twice..."
BURNETT: ...always wore white.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
BURNETT: And oh, and I had the eyelashes on and the, you know, the white shoes and the white slim skirt and blouse and the thing, you know, and white earrings and coming down the stairs because her first entrance in "Postman" is just showing her legs walk down the stairs and the sexy music and John Garfield just gaping at her. And Steve Lawrence played the Garfield role and Harvey was the husband we murdered, you know.
BURNETT: It was, yeah. And I remember when we did "Gilda," I got a telegram from Rita Hayworth. And she said this is just great and can I come and play with you. And so we, she came on our show.
GROSS: Oh, wow.
BURNETT: Rita Hayworth was a guest, Betty Grable was a guest and Lana Turner was a guest on our show - and Gloria Swanson. Oh, oh no, it was just such a thrill, you know, and I thought, oh my god, if Nanny were alive and saw Betty Grable on our show and me doing a number with Betty Grable, it would kill her.
BURNETT: She would just faint dead away. Never in a million years did we ever dream that we'd ever know these people - let alone work...
GROSS: She would've needed one of those phenobarbitals.
BURNETT: Oh my dear. Oh my dear.
GROSS: Now, you mentioned Bob Mackie, who did the costumes for your show.
BURNETT: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: And he's - god - he's a designed so many like really extravagant gowns over the years. I mean, you know, he did Cher's clothes too.
BURNETT: Yeah. Well, what...
GROSS: So, can - go ahead.
BURNETT: What he did on our show, which people don't know, don't realize, he designed everything you saw our show - including the wigs, including the makeup, so that whatever not just what I wore, but what the guests wore, what the cast wore, whatever, you know, and he created all of those hysterical looks. He created Eunice's look. He created Mrs. Wiggins. All the - he designed literally, 50 costumes a week - 5-0 - costumes a week.
GROSS: Did he design for Harvey Korman in drag?
BURNETT: Yes. Yes. Yes. That's all Bob.
BURNETT: And, of course, the greatest sight gag ever, I think - one of the greatest - was his idea for the "Gone with the Wind" sketch with the curtain rod dress.
GROSS: Oh, describe it.
BURNETT: Well, when we did "Gone with the Wind," the takeoff, there's a scene when Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler's coming to call on her and she doesn't want Rhett to know that they're poor. So she rips the curtains down - the green velvet draperies down - and says, and she's going to make a dress. Well, the writers had written that I come down the stairs with the draperies just kind of hanging on me - which would have been funny enough. But I went into costume fitting that Wednesday and Bob said I have an idea. And he had the dress draped over a curtain rod, which fit over my shoulders and ran straight out, tied with the fringe around the waist and a - I mean it was the silliest looking thing you've ever seen in your life and I fell on the floor. And then when we did it, you know, on the taping, the audience, the laugh just wouldn't stop when I made my entrance. And then I came down the stairs and it was very hard on me because I was biting the inside of my cheek not to laugh myself because the reaction of the audience was just phenomenal.
And Harvey, you know, looking so like Clark Gable, and he was brilliant in it. And then his line was: Scarlett, you're magnificent.
BURNETT: That dress, that dress is, that dress is just gorgeous. And then I say: thank you, I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist it. You can't...
BURNETT: You can't beat those lines with the look of that, you know. But what fun.
GROSS: My guest is Carol Burnett. Here's an excerpt of the "Gone with the Wind" parody from "The Carol Burnett Show".
BURNETT: (as Starlett) What am I going to do? Cat Butler is coming over and he's got money and I got to get it. And look at me. I look like the inside of a goat's stomach. What to wear?
VICKI LAWRENCE: (as Sissy) Well, Miss Starlett, the Yankees done stole all your clothes.
BURNETT: (as Starlett) I know that, stupid.
LAWRENCE: (as Sissy) Look, Miss Starlett, isn't that Capt. Butler's carriage now?
BURNETT: (as Starlett) Oh, Lord, what am I going to do?
LAWRENCE: (as Sissy) Well, I've got an idea. When he comes in, why don't you hide behind the drapes?
BURNETT: (as Starlett) Sissy, help me take these down.
LAWRENCE: (as Sissy) Well, what you doing that for?
BURNETT: (as Starlett) Never you mind. Now listen, when he gets here you just keep them busy, you understand?
LAWRENCE: (as Sissy) Yessum.
BURNETT: (as Starlett) 'Cause I got me a dress to make.
LAWRENCE: (as Sissy) Yessum.
GROSS: Did Bob Mackie also designed the falsies that the men and women on the show had to wear?
BURNETT: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
GROSS: What's the most creative falsie that he designed?
BURNETT: Well, the ones that kind of hang and move, you know?
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
BURNETT: And I - 'cause many designers will put cotton in, you know, and build it up that way. But Bob puts rice in them so that they move.
GROSS: And...
BURNETT: Do you get the picture? Yeah. So that...
GROSS: How do you use that as an actress?
BURNETT: Well, as an - well, I did Charles' mother at one point...
BURNETT: ...and he made me a bodysuit where I had this big belly that was a midriff, and he put the bellybutton in there and it was skin colored, the whole thing. And then he made these boobs that kind of hung down over the belly in this red sequin top. So all I had to do was just move my shoulders back-and-forth and, of course the boobs would whip back and forth across my belly button.
BURNETT: And so it didn't matter what you said, it was how you looked. So Bob saved many, many a sketch for us because not all of our sketches were gems.
GROSS: Did your grandmother live to see any of your performing success?
BURNETT: Nanny lived - Mama died before I did anything, really. She did see me do "The Jack Parr Show" and "Ed Sullivan." And then Nanny lived to see me do "The Garry Moore Show" and she lived to see me on Broadway. And...
BURNETT: ...she - one time we came out to Hollywood to do two or three weeks of "The Garry Moore Show," and Nanny came and was sitting in the audience. Now she loved to get dressed up and she had great legs, so she'd wear her skirts a little bit short and she liked to put rouge on. I mean she, she was OK, you know, but she would kind of guild the lily a bit.
BURNETT: And she would wear bright colors and all, You know, she really liked to doll up. Anyway, she sitting in the audience and Garry Moore comes out and he says, now I understand Carol's grandmother is in the audience. She's the little lady who raised our Carol. Nanny? Nanny? Where are you? Stand up. Well, Nanny stood up and clasped her hands over her head and did like the, you know, the winners flick. She just clapped her hands over and bowed - took all these bows and like she was the star, you know, of the show. And she was hysterical. And I wanted to die. I was so embarrassed in the wings. And Garry got the biggest kick out of her. And, yes, yes, she did get to see me do a few things.
GROSS: Now let me ask you. I know - and this is public...
BURNETT: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: ...so I don't feel like I'm kind of saying anything that you wouldn't want me to say. But let me know if I'm wrong - that I think it was in the '80s that you decided to have some cosmetic surgery. And you...
BURNETT: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: You had your chin changed.
BURNETT: Yeah. Yes.
GROSS: Tell me why you wanted to do that. Now, you know, you mentioned that like your mother said to you when you were a kid that...
GROSS: ...you should go into journalism...
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah.
GROSS: ...because no matter you look like you could still keep working.
BURNETT: Yeah. Well, I always had a weak chin because we couldn't afford to correct my bite, you know, and - which could have been corrected with braces. And so the chin was always, always weak and I always was kind of hated my profile. And I thought wouldn't it be nice one day to feel the rain on your chin without having to look up, you know.
BURNETT: And my daughter Jody had the opposite problem, she had an underbite. And so we went to this oral surgeon and he said he could fix her. And then he looked at me and he said, you know, I could fix your bite too. I said, really? So he showed me on some imaging how he could extend my bite like three millimeters out and I would just have kind of a normal chin. I said well, let's go for it. So he did and so I got a chin.
But the story I tell about that was I had just finished doing "Annie," playing Miss Hannigan in "Annie."
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
BURNETT: And I got the operation on my chin. So I'm recuperating and Ray Stark, who produced "Annie," called me in Honolulu and he said, we're going to reshoot the "Easy Street" number with you and Bernadette and Tim Curry. I said...
GROSS: Oh, I see the problem.
BURNETT: ...oh, really? You know, Ray, and I explained to him, you know. He said oh, with all that Miss Hannigan drag that you're wearing nobody's going to notice anything. Besides, it's going to be separate from other scenes, so it'll just be it's own thing and nobody's going to notice that. It's, you know, it's you and Tim, and were singing and dancing and running around. I said oh, of course, I'm coming back. So I flew back and John Huston directed "Annie," and he was there. And we were going to start the number. And he said, well, now wait a minute, I think what I'd like to do here is why do we pick it up from when Carol had run into the closet to get, to find Annie's locket. And let's pick it up when she comes running out of the closet with the locket. And I said, oh, dear. And I went up to him and I said, Mr. Huston? He said, yes dear, yes. I said two months ago, when I ran into the closet, I didn't have a chin. And now when I run out of the closet, I'm going to have a chin. You know, it's like boom-boom. And he thought for a minute and he said, well, dear, just come out looking determined.
GROSS: Did anybody ever point out to you that you looked different?
BURNETT: Oh, no. No. It's so - and there are some other scenes that we reshot where I've got a chin in the beginning, then I don't and then I, but nobody's ever - nobody said it.
GROSS: I have to go back and re-watch it now.
BURNETT: You should. Yeah. I just think that's the funniest piece of direction anybody could ever get.
BIANCULLI: Carol Burnett speaking to Terry Gross in 2003. Later this month, PBS presents a special in which she receives this year's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Coming up, Ken Tucker reviews some new Christmas CDs that already have hit the marketplace. This is FRESH AIR.
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text:
Surgical Pathology
What is surgical pathology?
Surgical pathology is the study of tissues removed from living patients during surgery to help diagnose a disease and determine a treatment plan. Often, the surgical pathologist provides consultation services in a wide variety of organ systems and medical subspecialties. Surgical pathologists provide diagnostic information and/or second opinions. For example, when performing breast cancer surgery, a surgical pathologist's exam of tissues removed during surgery can help the surgeon to determine whether to remove lymph nodes under the arm as well.
Surgical pathology includes both the physical exam of the tissue with the naked eye, as well as examining processed tissue under a microscope. New techniques of exam of tissue and cell specimens involve molecular diagnostics (DNA/RNA analysis). This involves analyzing DNA and proteins in the blood. Examples of the uses of the technology include the ability to:
Distinguish between benign (noncancerous) and malignant (cancerous) white blood cells
Detect early genetic changes that may result in cancer
Identify infectious agents in body tissues


text:
sat - 1.12.08 - Okay Mountain - Austin, TX.
Featuring: Michelle Blade, Kelsey Brookes, Alika Cooper, Jeremy Fish, Tara Foley, Matt Furie, Jay Howell, Josh Keyes, Anthony Lister, Hilary Pecis, Kyle Ranson, Andrew Schoultz, and Aiyana Udesen
28 - San Francisco - www.mattfurie.com
watching sports, gambling, driving my sports car around san francisco, and banging Aiyana
because i love to party
You used to be able to legally drive drunk in Texas in the late eighties.
Solo show at the Jack Fisher Gallery-Feb 15 2008 in San Fran, 111 Artists at 111 Minna in January (S.F.), thinkspace gallery in LA: "Fight For Flight" A special benefit for the API in honor of National Bird Day, Opening reception: Fri, Jan. 4th 7-11PM
After party @Scoot Inn with bands Steak Fingaz and Total Abuse. 10-4am
< Prev | Next > |


text:
Phoenix Report Confirms Dishonest Scheduling Procedures 'Systemic'
The American Legion National Commander Daniel M. Dellinger has called for criminal investigations of all Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees responsible for "secret" waiting lists at VA hospitals linked to the preventable patient deaths, after a May 28 interim report by VA's Office of Inspector General found the practice to be "systemic."
"Now that VA's Office of Inspector General has confirmed what The American Legion claims," Dellinger said, "we are calling not only for the resignations of Secretary Shinseki and Under Secretary Hickey, but also the chief administrators of every hospital found guilty of falsifying their waiting lists for patients.
"We want every VA employee who participated in these cover-ups to be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law if found guilty."
The report said that reviews at several VA medical facilities have confirmed that dishonest scheduling practices are systemic throughout VHA (Veterans Health Administration).
As of last month, VA's Office of Inspector General identified about 1,400 veterans waiting to receive primary-care appointments and another 1,700 veterans waiting for such appointments whose names were not in the hospital's Electronic Waiting List, or any list at all. The Office of Inspector General further noted its investigation has now spread to 42 other locations throughout the VA health care system.
"These findings confirm what we've warned of from the very beginning," said Dellinger. "VA has been hiding the fact it is struggling to meet its own goal of setting appointments for veterans within 14 days. Instead, they lie to veterans by forcing them to wait for months on unofficial lists and some of them may be dying while they wait."
Dellinger said VA must find a way to immediately get veterans the care they need and clean up the waiting-list scandal. "If VA needs to purchase additional private care to get veterans more timely treatment, then so be it. VA already has a budget for fee-based care, but are they spending the whole budget? If not, that's where they need to start. Spend every dime of funding set aside for fee-based care, then move ahead from there."
The Phoenix facility has also been accused by whistleblowers of "cooking the books" and making false reports of wait-times to VA's Central Office in Washington in order to qualify for big bonuses. The report noted that, while the Central Office listed average patient wait- times in Phoenix at 24 days, VA's Office of Inspector General's investigation showed the average to be 115 days.
The report said that veterans "were and continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost in Phoenix HCS's (Health Care System's) convoluted scheduling process. As a result, these veterans may never obtain a requested or required clinical appointment."
One consequence of not placing veterans on Electronic Waiting Lists, the report said, "is that the Phoenix HCS leadership significantly understated the time new patients waited for their primary care appointment in their FY 2013 performance appraisal accomplishments, which is one of the factors considered for awards and salary increases."
"Now that the Office of Inspector General has confirmed that VA employees in Phoenix were lying to veterans and hiding wait lists," Dellinger said, "we need to see swift, decisive action to ensure that VA is, indeed, capable of meeting its obligations to America's veterans."
Dellinger called on VA to immediately implement all recommendations of the Office of Inspector General's report and to act swiftly to care for the veterans who have already waited far too long for treatment they have earned.
"The American Legion will not allow these veterans to be forgotten while they wait," Dellinger said. "Neither should the Department of Veterans Affairs."


text:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. If you watched the last season of the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire," you probably remember the intimidating and twisted gangster Gyp Rosetti, played by my guest Bobby Cannavale. He won't be returning to the series - for reasons made clear in last year's final episode, but he leaves with an Emmy nomination for his performance. The last season of "Boardwalk Empire" comes out next week on DVD.
You can also see Cannavale in the latest Woody Allen film "Blue Jasmine" and in "Lovelace," the new film about porn star Linda Lovelace. In the 2003 film "The Station Agent," Cannavale played the chatty guy running a coffee stand. You've likely seen him in some other television roles too. He played to tough hospital administrator in the Showtime series "Nurse Jackie," a role which earned him another Emmy nomination this year. And he won an Emmy as Will's boyfriend on the NBC series "Will and Grace." Cannavale has done plenty of theater too - recently appearing opposite Al Pacino in the Broadway revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross." I spoke with him in January.
Bobby Cannavale, welcome to FRESH AIR. It's great to have you.
BOBBY CANNAVALE: Thanks, Dave.
DAVIES: Well, wanted to talk about the recent season of "Boardwalk Empire," where you played a New York gangster named Gyp Rosetti, right, short for Giuseppe.
CANNAVALE: Mm-hmm.
DAVIES: Quite a character. I mean, he had a very prominent role in the season. It will just be this season, those who've watched it will know. And I thought we would hear a clip.
This is a moment where you're meeting with the series' central character, Nucky Thompson, the Atlantic City boss. He's played by Steve Buscemi. And he is - well, your character Gyp Rosetti, is angry because Nucky Thompson has decided to sell his booze strictly to Arnold Rothstein, the New York gangster, as opposed to directly to your guy. So you, as Gyp Rosetti, responded by interrupting his shipments by taking over this little town in New Jersey, Taber Heights, so that Nucky can't get his booze through to New York. He's pretty annoyed and has come to Taber Heights, and you're sitting down at a restaurant to try and straighten things out. Let's listen.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Nucky, welcome to Tabor Heights. Police escort and everything.
STEVE BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) What do you want, Gyp?
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) I was thinking maybe the pot roast. How about you?
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) I didn't come up here for your vaudeville routine.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Well, Bible campaign ain't till summer. So why did you come?
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) Obviously, I offended you in some way. But since you're a man who can find an insult in a bouquet of roses, I'm not sure quite how.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Maybe it's got something to do with you jeopardizing my livelihood.
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) It's a free market. I sell to whom I choose.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) To whom? Listen to you.
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) I wish you'd start.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) I got customers, 20 blocks stretch of the lower West Side. They can't buy from me, they buy some place else.
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) I'm not selling to Yale or Remus, either. And you don't see them acting like petulant children, right.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Right. You only sell to the Jew.
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) I told you, I need to keep things simple.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Like this place, simple. Only one road in, one road out, Atlantic City to New York.
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) I'll use the back roads through the Pine Barrens, Gyp.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) I don't know where the (bleep) that is, but I bet it's one hell of a slog. And if I was you, every inch of that road would stick in my craw.
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) But I'm not you, Gyp. I learned a long time ago not to take things personally.
(as Gyp Rosetti) Everyone's a person, though, right? So how else could they take it?
(as Nucky Thompson) In the interest of honoring what was once a fruitful business relationship, let's set the table over again. You'll be my guest in Atlantic City tonight. I'll send you home tomorrow with a full month's supply. You'll keep your head above water in New York and leave these nice people alone.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Stay a lot healthier that way. What happens after a month?
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) I don't consider that my problem.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Square enough deal.
BUSCEMI: (as Nucky Thompson) Then this is where you shake my hand.
DAVIES: And that's our guest Bobby Cannavale with actor Steve Buscemi in the recent season of "Boardwalk Empire" on HBO. This is such a great character you have, here.
CANNAVALE: Thanks. A very logical thinker Gyp, right? There's some logic in there. It made sense. He's right.
DAVIES: Right.
CANNAVALE: What else is it going to be, if it's not personal?
DAVIES: Right. Up to a point. But he is also, like, kind of - well, I don't know if I would say psychotic. But he opens the series - I mean, and I think the first time we see him; he beats a man to death with a tire iron because of some casual insult.
CANNAVALE: Right. Right.
DAVIES: And you also make this guy funny and likable. How did you approach building this character?
CANNAVALE: Thanks. Well, you know, first of all, I appreciated and understood where it's set, what the milieu is. We're set in the underworld, here. And this guy works for the mob, the mafia at a time when it was a very powerful thing in New York. He's got to do what he's got to do to stay on top. He wants to be remembered and he wants to be feared.
And that's a pretty good business to go into if what you want out of life is to be respected and feared. You know, I thought of him as somebody who attacks that part of it with relish. Where it comes from psychologically he's really well-built in the portrayal of him as a person who's far away from home, as a person who always had ambition, as a person who is not respected in his own home and has always felt like he doesn't get the credit he deserves.
And so, you know, the killing aside, that kind of a character I - is attractive to me because it's somebody who, again, desperately wants something. Then you add the physicality that they've written of him committing murder as much as he does. You know, given the milieu, again, of what the series is about and where it's set, it's very exciting to play a role like that. I've never gotten a chance to play a part like that.
DAVIES: Right. And as the series develops, we learned that your guy has some very kinky sexual preferences.
CANNAVALE: Right.
DAVIES: How does that - was there a backstory in your head for this guy, I mean, that accounts for something like that?
CANNAVALE: You know, yeah, you know, I mean, I'm always hesitant to talk about exactly what it is, because it's not anything that you can really - you know, all we have really is the words and the end product, the film itself. And I will just tell you that, you know, I did a lot of research about what that particular sexual peccadillo is and what psychologists think it's about, and then I sort of go from there and make up my own thing.
DAVIES: Right. Well, just so we're not coy about it for the audience, I mean, what we're talking about is the fact that he likes to be choked when he's in an intimate relationship with a woman.
CANNAVALE: Right.
DAVIES: And did that inform your performance in scenes which had nothing to do with sex in, you know, in his confrontations with other people and his expressions of violence?
CANNAVALE: Oh, sure. Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, look. I think Gyp's the kind of guy who needs to feel physically stimulated all the time, and so he does that by making a joke that scares somebody that doesn't know it's a joke. He does it by exerting, being the loudest person in the room when he wants to be. He does it by cracking jokes in the brothel. He does it by talking seductively to Gillian and - in one breath, and then putting - laying the hammer down on her in the next.
I think for him, it's a power issue and a control issue, and I think he gets physical sensation out of that. So that would - it's sort of an indirect lead-in to why he enjoys sex that way. I think he gets physical stimulation from murdering people. He does it himself, you know. He's usually the guy doing it. And so, you know, whatever the psychosis behind that is is, you know, what I think it is.
DAVIES: Well, whatever it is, it's convincing. I wouldn't want to run into your guy. This is a real period piece. You know, we broadcast out of Philadelphia, which is not far from Atlantic City, so I've been there. And one of the things I like about the show is the careful reconstruction of Atlantic City in the 1920s and...
CANNAVALE: Yeah.
DAVIES: ...everything from the clothes to the boardwalk. Is that something that you connect with...
CANNAVALE: Man, with this show in particular, the production values in this show are unbelievable, and every day felt like I was coming to work in a theme park because everything around you, every stitch of clothing I wore was handmade with vintage fabric from the time and all - you know, every prop is from its time, the lighters that are very difficult to work and the cars. And, you know, they spare no expense, so it's not like you see the same car driving back and forth in the background. There's 30 cars, Packards and Model-Ts, and everybody's dressed in the period. And so it definitely makes it a very immersive experience, easier to work when you're surrounded by it all like that. And I think that pops really, really nicely in the final product.
DAVIES: Bobby Cannavale played gangster Gyp Rosetti in the last season of "Boardwalk Empire," which comes out next week on DVD.
Let's hear a clip. In this scene, he's assembled residents of the small New Jersey town his crew toke over to run a bootlegging operation.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. First things out the way, thank you for coming, those of you who were curious and those who were maybe escorted here. My name is Mr. Rosetti. My associates and me have taken an interest in your town and are going to be here for a while. So we thought it only neighborly to introduce ourselves.
(as Gyp Rosetti) In return for your hospitality and any inconvenience this may cause, we're offering a monthly giveback. Tell them how much we're offering.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as character) A double-C a piece.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) In English.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as character) Two hundred dollars a month.
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Which is a pretty square deal for keeping your mouth shut, wouldn't you say, Sheriff Ramsey? He's a good man, your sheriff, and he's going to keep on sheriff-ing, same as you all are going to keep doing whatever it is you do. Barbers cut hair, cooks cook, librarians keep checking out books, because it's very important to read.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) What happens when Bible camp opens?
CANNAVALE: (as Gyp Rosetti) Bible camp's cancelled. And I'm not really doing questions and answers right now, dear.
DAVIES: That's a clip from last season's "Boardwalk Empire." We'll hear more of my conversation with Bobby Cannavale after this break. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to our interview with actor Bobby Cannavale. He's co-starring in the new Woody Allen film "Blue Jasmine" and he played the gangster Gyp Rosetti in the last season of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." When I spoke with him last year, he was also appearing in the Broadway revival of "Glengarry Glen Ross," which also starred Al Pacino.
"Glengarry Glen Ross," of course, is the David Mamet play about real estate salesmen in Chicago, you know, desperately competing for sales. Tell us a little about building the Ricky Roma character that you played.
CANNAVALE: Well, you know, it's one of those plays that actors talk about and say it's a perfect play. And it's a perfect play because it's about, you know, seven guys who desperately want something and need something in a time when people desperately want and need things.
It was written, you know, in 1982. I think it's a prescient play to do today. But let's face it, I mean, it's - I think great plays are about people wanting things and desperate for things. I think it's what makes great drama, and I think that's one of those things that's just always resonant. It's just what we are as a culture, and in America in particular.
So he sets it in a very specific place, as you said, this small real estate office, a little shabby real estate office in Chicago, in the world of sales and in the world before the Internet, by the way, where something like cold-calling - which Al's character Shelley describes as, you know, walking up to the door, I don't even know their name. I'm selling them something they don't even want.
So it was a skill to sell something and put on a front and acting, in a sense. And so it makes the play very active. For Ricky, you know, he's on top, and desperate to stay on top.
DAVIES: And there are a lot of really intense exchanges here, some profane, you know, angry arguments that occur. And I wondered, since you do this, you know, night after night with the same crew, if the energy is sometimes different. You get something different from an actor, and it feels different, and you respond differently.
CANNAVALE: Sure. Oh, sure. You know, I think that is what makes it the living, breathing thing it is. And, you know, we joke about it sometimes, you know, like we'll get together at the curtain call. We all come out, the curtain's down, and there's the quick, four-word review from everybody, you know: not bad.
Last night, Johnny said - Johnny C. actually said: Solid B. Solid B, guys. And, you know, it happens. Maybe somebody's not as desperate, let's say. It throws off the - it throws it off. It throws it off, but not necessarily in negative ways.
You know, it just means that maybe one guy gets eaten a little easier than he did the night before. But we're definitely there to devour each other. It's just - sure, it's different levels. I guess, you know, people bring different things in with them. I know yesterday, I was late because the train took forever, and so I was rushing the whole time and went out not quite prepared, and something else happened.
But it's ethereal. I can't really describe it. We talk about it, you know, actors talk about in theater in terms of degrees, you know, when you have a bad show. Really, if you're been working the show and you've rehearsed the show, we're talking about degrees that the audience won't notice, but you sure feel it. Those are the nights, you know, you opt to walk home rather than get in the car...
DAVIES: Right.
CANNAVALE: ...to think about it for a couple hours.
DAVIES: You have an interesting background. You grew up North Jersey, right?
CANNAVALE: I grew up right across the river here in Union City, New Jersey, which is next to Hoboken, as a reference - so right across the Lincoln Tunnel.
DAVIES: And your dad was Italian-American, your mom Cuban-American, right? And they split when you were pretty young, and...
CANNAVALE: My mom's Cuban, born in Cuba. Yeah.
DAVIES: And then you lived in Puerto Rico for a time, and then Florida. Is that right?
CANNAVALE: Yeah. I grew up in New Jersey, and then lived for two years in Puerto Rico when my mom remarried. And we lived in Puerto Rico for two years when I was about seven - six, seven. And then came back to New Jersey, and then moved for Florida my freshman year of high school. And then I came back to New Jersey my senior year of high school and moved into the city a couple years later.
DAVIES: Were you always a performer as a kid, a cutup?
CANNAVALE: A hundred percent. Yeah, I was that kid that everybody, like, always said he's so creative, because I was always playacting and I had a very vivid imagination. And I started reading at a very young age. I was obsessed with reading. And I started reading plays at a really young age. I just was drawn to them.
There was a great library in my neighborhood on 15th Street in Union City. That's how I remember reading "A Streetcar Named Desire" and reading all those plays, "Death of a Salesman," and not really understanding them, but reading them. And I was just drawn to them, because in my head, I heard the voices. I would do - I would act out the parts in my head.
DAVIES: You said you read a lot of plays at the library as a kid. Did you see theater?
CANNAVALE: Oh, sure, yeah. And I was in plays. You know, I went to Catholic school, and so I was - I wasn't allowed to do much outside of school and church. Luckily, they intertwined all the things that I kind of enjoyed. There was a theater company. There was a chorus, and I was an altar boy in an incredible monastery.
The theater of the church is the most incredible theater, and in this church, it was beyond. It was this huge monastery. It's landmarked. It's a beautiful building. And I kind of had the run of it. And they did, like, three shows a year, and I was in all of them.
My first one, I was, like, 10 or 11. It didn't matter if there weren't any kids in the show, I was in them. Like, I was in "Guys and Dolls," playing a gangster when I was, like, 12. Then, you know, I was in "The Music Man" and "Flowers for Algernon" and "Man of La Mancha."
DAVIES: Looking back at those early days, I mean, you must have thought you were pretty good at this, or you wouldn't have sought it. Looking back on it, do you think you were?
CANNAVALE: I don't know. I guess, like, you know, when you're young, you know, there's a certain amount of naïveté you have, which, you know, I don't knock naïveté, to be honest, because I'm 42 years old and I still have - I mean, I've really had some great experiences. But I think I've always been optimistic about making a living in this business.
You know, I worked in nightclubs for years, and I would go and do plays for nothing. You know, I'd go on a call for a showcase off-off-Broadway and get it. So I was getting a lot of parts. So, sure, I had confidence that I could do this, but, you know, I wasn't starving.
Because I was - I'd do the play, and I'd go to work at 11:30 and work till 5 a.m. at a nightclub, and then sleep all day in grandma's house, and then come back in and do the play, you know. So I would do whatever I had to do, and it just seemed natural and normal. I never thought I have to think about doing something else.
DAVIES: And you got a TV role, and that led to a role on a TV show called "Third Watch." I confess, I'm not familiar with this. But I know you played a paramedic. You were being paid well. I mean, you were now a successful, working actor in New York.
CANNAVALE: Yep. Yep.
DAVIES: And I don't know if this is true, but I read that...
CANNAVALE: With a baby.
DAVIES: Oh, yeah.
CANNAVALE: With a baby. So it was important.
DAVIES: By then you'd had your son, right.
CANNAVALE: Yeah. Yeah.
DAVIES: Right. Jake, right?
CANNAVALE: Yeah.
DAVIES: And I'd read that you felt confined, and you asked them to write you out of the role, to have your character killed off. Is this true?
CANNAVALE: Yeah. Well, it's kind of true. I mean, yes it's true, but what I went in for was to ask them if my character was going to have anything interesting to do. It is true that I literally went from, you know, having a great night behind the bar, $200, to making television money, and I had never even been on television.
I was so happy to get that job that I really wanted to keep the job. And then I just realized that I'd kind of acted myself into a corner. You know, it's a big ensemble. There was, like, nine of us. And so everybody has to be a certain thing, you know, on a show like that.
And so I really couldn't really grow much, and, you know, a lot of that was my fault. And so when it seemed like it wasn't doing much but smiling a lot and hitting on the same girl for two years in a row, I asked them if there would be anything changing. And John Wells was great and kind and he said I don't think so. Do you want to be written out?
And I said sure, I would. And he said I will send you out big, which he did, and it was a really great story arc to act. And then he took care of me very, very well in many other ways and was just a gentleman about it. And to this day, I appreciate what he did for me, because after that, I really did try to do as many different things as I could.
I did "Oz" right after that. I did "Ally McBeal." And then I went and did "The Station Agent." I did "Kingpin," and I got - it really opened me up to be able to do many other things.
DAVIES: My guest is actor Bobby Cannavale. We'll be back to conclude our conversation in just a minute. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. Let's return to my conversation with actor Bobby Cannavale. Well, let's talk about "The Station Agent." This was the film in 2003, directed by Tom McCarthy, got a lot of critical acclaim and a lot of critics awards. It's about a - I mean, I guess the central character is this man, a solitary train buff who is a dwarf.
He's played by Peter Dinklage. He inherits an abandoned train station in a kind of a quiet corner of New Jersey, and he decides to just move into the place. Patricia Clarkson is an artist who's depressed about the loss of her son. And then you're a guy, Joe Oramas, I think is the name, who has this little vending truck nearby.
CANNAVALE: A hot dog truck, a coffee truck, yeah.
DAVIES: Right, that your dad runs, and he's sick, so you're running it. You love people. You're dying for company. And I want to play a scene here where you're trying to make friends with Fin, played by Peter Dinklage. And he's walking by, and you try to engage him. Let's listen.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) Hey, Fin, bro, you live here?
PETER DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) Yes.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) Wow. We're neighbors. Nice. Hey, what happened to you?
DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) Nothing.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) Listen, you want to go down to the mill and grab a beer later?
DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) No, thanks.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) What, you don't drink?
DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) I do.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) Oh, you just don't want to have a drink with me?
DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) I don't like bars very much.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) Oh. Hey, well, how about I go get a six, and we can have it right here?
DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) No, thanks.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) Well, what are you going to do?
DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) I'm, uh, I'm going for a walk.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) Oh, cool. Well, you mind if I come along, man? I mean, I need the exercise. I'm turning into a fat (beep) out here.
DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) I usually go alone.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) I'm a good walker, bro.
DINKLAGE: (as Finbar McBride) I prefer to go alone.
CANNAVALE: (as Joe Oramas) OK. All right. Hey, maybe next time, all right? You know where to find me.
DAVIES: And that's our guest Bobby Cannavale with Peter Dinklage in the film "The Station Agent." You know, one critic said that your character lacked the ability to be rejected.
CANNAVALE: Wow, it was really nice to hear that. You know, that's a really special, special, special experience, that movie, because it was - you know, it was so long in the making, like four years, for this four or five years of...
DAVIES: Now, you and Tom McCarthy, the director and writer, were old friends, right?
CANNAVALE: Tom McCarthy and I met acting in a play of Lanford Wilson's, a new play of his. We met acting in it about five years before we made that movie. And then Tommy wrote a play called "The Killing Act," in which Peter Dinklage was in, and then he just started writing this thing for us. And Patty we knew, and so it was like readings, doing readings. It was always us. It was always Patty and Pete and myself.
DAVIES: Patricia Clarkson, yeah. So you would just get together, and he would say, hey, I've written this scene, let's try it?
CANNAVALE: Yeah, and I've got some pages, and, you know - you know, it wasn't like scene-by-scene. Like, he'd written a draft, and then there was another draft, and, you know, things changed along the way. And then we'd do, like, a little public reading just for a few friends that he trusted. And it just was, you know, a classic tale of a script going through many options that it could have had.
Tommy could have made that movie with other people in it, let's say, but he just didn't want to. He wanted to make it the way he wanted to make it, with us. And we made it in 17 days over the summer in New Jersey. Just to give you perspective, the last episode of "Boardwalk Empire" took 18 days to shoot.
So we shot that movie for nothing. So are there are elements of that movie that are very true - have a very true spirit about them.
DAVIES: You've kind of made your own path in the business, and I've read that you still don't have a publicist. This is true?
CANNAVALE: Yeah.
DAVIES: So how do you - you just function on your own. Or, I mean, you have an agent, of course, but...
CANNAVALE: What do you mean function, though? I mean, I function fine.
DAVIES: I don't know what I mean.
CANNAVALE: See, I walked here. I walked to the studio. I didn't need people - you know, they sent a car and I just canceled it and walked. You know, like, you can run your own life. Look, I'm not George Clooney. I'm not like - I don't have - I would think that, like, a publicist for me wouldn't be to get my name put in places. It would be to, like, stop, get people to stop, you know, bothering me.
You know, that would be a good reason to have a publicist and, you know, do the things that I want to do, like I wanted to come on FRESH AIR. I listen to FRESH AIR. I love it. I went on Joe Franklin yesterday because it's Joe Franklin, for God sakes. He's 92 years old, you know, he wants to have me on the show, I'm going to go. But I know what I want to do and what I don't want to do.
And I feel like that about the material that I choose. Now, I know I'm lucky, too. I get to choose things. Not as much as some people and maybe not as much as somebody who wants to be a movie star would think. But in my world, the theater, the little projects that I do, workshops, it makes me happy to do the things that I really want to do.
And so for me - that's just for me. For my taste. I don't know what a publicist would - where I would put them in my life.
DAVIES: And you don't want to move to Hollywood and become a movie star?
CANNAVALE: I don't want to move to Hollywood. No. I want to stay in New York.
DAVIES: Well, Bobby Cannavale, thanks so much for speaking with us.
CANNAVALE: Thanks, Dave. Thanks for having me.
DAVIES: Bobby Cannavale earned an Emmy nomination for his performance on HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" last season. Those episodes are now coming out on DVD. You can also see him in Woody Allen's new film "Blue Jasmine."
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We'll Always Have Paris
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Title :
We'll Always Have Paris
Series :
The Next Generation
Rating :
Overall Ep :
First Aired :
2 May 1988
Stardate :
Director :
Robert Becker
Year :
Writers :
Deborah Dean Davis
Hannah Louise Shearer
Season Ep :
x 23
Main Cast :
LeVar Burton
Geordi La Forge
Denise Crosby
Natasha Yar
Michael Dorn
Worf Rozhenko
Jonathan Frakes
William T. Riker
Gates McFadden
Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis
Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner
Patrick Stewart
Jean-Luc Picard
Wil Wheaton
Wesley Crusher
Guest Cast :
Kally Ashmore
Dan Kern
Lieutenant Dean
Rod Loonis
Doctor Paul Manheim
Isabel Lorca
Lorine Mendell
Diana Giddings
Michelle Phillips
Jenice Manheim
Lance Spellerberg
Transporter Chief Herbert
Guy Vardaman
Darien Wallace
Jean-Paul Vignon
Picard states that it rained all day on the day he was due to meet Jenice. Yet when he orders the computer to recreate that specific day on the holodeck, it's not raining. Wouldn't the computer have weather reports for the day?
Despite many claims about not being able to use contractions, Data famously reveals that he is the correct version of himself in the time loop sequence by claiming "It's me!"
At the end of the episode Mannheim declares that he must go back and resume his experiments, and Picard comments that the Federation will likely want to help. Um, what? It's just been demonstrated that 1) This technology has the capacity to shatter time across a region thousands of light years across, minimum, and 2) Mannheim has an imperfect understanding of it and an imperfect ability to contain it. In what universe is anybody going to let him go back and restart his experiments? The fact that he even wants to means that he should be locked up somewhere for the good of the galaxy!
Great Moment :
The holodeck recreation of Paris. I believe this is actually the first time we've ever seen Earth depicted in The Next Generation!
Body Count :
None. Manheim's laboratory workers are all killed, but it is off screen and possibly happens shortly before the episode begins.
Factoid :
Although Denise Crosby died in the previous episode, she is still listed in the credits of this one.
The title is a quote from the movie "Casablanca"
The Enterprise-D is heading for Sarona VIII to allow the crew some shore leave. Picard is off duty, fencing with Lieutenant Dean, when a moment of time appears to repeat itself. On the bridge Riker confirms that the entire ship felt the effect.
An automatic distress call is picked up, from Paul Manheim - a Federation scientist who has experimented with non-linear time. Manheim left Earth years ago with a group of scientists after his ideas failed to find acceptance from the scientific community there. Picard knew of him as he was a teacher at the University of Paris when Picard went there, but the two never met. The Captain sets off to the co-ordinates given in the message.
Troi approaches Picard, telling him that she sensed a strong emotional reaction in him when Manheim's name was mentioned. She advises him to try and work through his feelings before the ship arrives at its destination. Picard goes to the holodeck and recreates the Café des Artistes, a place he had planned to meet a woman 22 years ago. He explains to a young woman there that he had failed to show up, perhaps because he was afraid. As he talks Picard stops, chiding himself for his "self indulgence" and heading back to the bridge.
Subsequent investigation has revealed that the time loop was experienced far beyond the Enterprise; the USS Lalo and the Coltar IV both report feeling it. As the ship reaches the co-ordinates given in the distress calls, it finds nothing there; a new set of co-ordinates arrive and the ship heads for the Vandor system, a binary system consisting of a red giant star and a pulsar. On arrival they detect a small forcefield on Vandor IV, a planet in the system. Picard hails the planet and a woman answers, saying Manheim is having convulsions. She lowers the forcefield the two are beamed to sickbay.
The woman turns out to be Jenice, Manheim's wife and an old flame of Picard's - the woman he was to meet in Paris all those years ago. She reveals that some sort of accident in the lab killed Manheim's team. His theory was that there were infinite dimensions and that these could be accessed by changing the linearity of time. However, the experiments were very dangerous; hence the elaborate security measures Manheim instituted, including a "safe room" that Jenice stayed in whilst the experiments were being carried out, and various security systems around the laboratory. Crusher reveals that manheim is dying, though she can't work out why. As Picard heads back to the bridge with Riker and Data time loops again, and they find themselves facing duplicates of themselves. The looping effect is becoming more pronounced. Riker wants to take an Away Team down to the laboratory, but the transporter is unable to function as the beam is reflected back.
Manheim wakes and informs Picard that his experiment succeeded and he has been on the other side - but his mind is still floating between two dimensions. He gives the crew the access codes and transporter coordinates to beam down and an Away Mission is planned. Data has calculated that the closing of the dimensional window must be precisely calculated to match the looping effect. As the mission is planned Picard talks to Jenice again about the past; he tells her he was afraid of staying behind, and she wonders if he was afraid of having an ordinary life. Meanwhile Troi visits Beverly and they talk about Jenice and how Crusher feels about having to compete with "a ghost from the past".
Picard decides to send Data down alone, since he is unlikely to be as badly affected by the time distortions as everybody else. Data agrees and is able to beam down. he makes his way to the lab, avoiding the surviving security systems on the way. He finds the distortion and determines that it can be sealed with some antimatter. As he prepares to deposit some in it the loop effect occurrs again and three Datas find themselves preparing to seal the distortion. They manage to work out which is the "real" Data and he deposits the antimatter into the distortion, successfully sealing it.
With the time distortions eliminated, Manheim returns to normal. He vows to complete his experiments as a memorial to his co-workers, and Jenice agrees to remain with him while he works. Before they leave Troi brings Jenice to the holodeck where Picard waits at the recreation of the Café des Artistes, finally fulfilling their date. Afterwards he returns to the bridge and orders the ship on to its next mission.
This episode just never really sparked with me. I can see what they were trying to do, giving Picard a bit of back story and character development, moving him away from the "dedicated uber-professional" he was in the early episodes. But somehow, it just doen't work as well as it should. Perhaps because it's near-identical to the way Riker and Troi's back story works; we've been told that he stood Troi up for his career, just as Picard did. It's been said that Roddenberry wanted Picard, Riker and Wesley to basically be three stages in the life of the same character, so this could have been a deliberate choice on the part of the writers. But it just comes across as being a bit unoriginal.
The time thing also doesn't work as well as it should. Some of it is good; the idea of time being linked to gravity is not only reasonable, it's perfectly true even in modern day physics. Putting Manheim's lab near a pulsar to take advantage of the high gravity is a clever idea in this respect, and it provides a good way to introduce an unconventional solar system to the plot. Though it might have been nice to make more of that, perhaps by having the planetoid so close to the pulsar that it was difficult or dangerous for the ship to approach or something.
The time effect itself makes little sense, though. The idea seems to be that time wound back a few seconds so that a moment replayed itself. But if that happened, it would be impossible to perceive it; your memories would rewind with everything else, so the second time through the loop would be experienced just as if it were the first. This is a problem that is more pronounced in the later "Cause and Effect"; here it's more of a minor niggle than anything, but it is annoying nevertheless.
© Graham & Ian Kennedy
Page views : 48,851
Last updated : 11 Nov 2017


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AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - To play a mother torn from her husband and sons by the 2004 tsunami, Naomi Watts sure wasn't going Method.
The British actress took her partner Liev Schreiber and two sons to the Thailand set of "The Impossible," where Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona recreated the jaw-dropping destruction in a resort area.
She talked through the story with Sasha, 5, and Kai, 4, to get them used to seeing their mother coughing up blood with a heavily bruised face and deep gashes across her body.
"Yeah, it's not the best way to see mommy, is it?" Watts laughs in an interview. "They came first time on a day where I had minimal wounds _ nothing too much. ... And then by the third day they came, they were putting the chocolate powder all over me and painting some wounds on themselves and me. So they understood it.
"I know it's not completely normal. But this is the life that actors live. And we are playing dress-up some of the time."
In an already critically acclaimed performance, Watts portrays real-life Spanish doctor Maria Belon, who was swept away by the rush of water with her eldest son and treated in a Thai hospital until she was reunited with her two younger sons and husband, played by Ewan McGregor.
The Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting tsunamis on the day after Christmas killed more than 200,000 people across Southeast Asia. But "The Impossible"_ opening Friday in the U.S. after topping the box office in Spain _ is a disaster movie that narrows its focus to one family's survival.
"That makes us understand a lot more about it than we could otherwise. Because it's too mind-blowing to get your head around," McGregor said. "The death count was so high, the devastation was so huge."
Watts, 44, says the role was among her most challenging ever, physically and emotionally, with the added layer of trying to tactfully convey a horrific reality. Belon has joined Watts and the filmmakers at premieres.
"It was a great pressure and responsibility to get it right because of what she went through and how much she suffered," Watts says of Belon. "And then on top of her story, it was hundreds of thousands of others."
The Associated Press review praised Watts for her "vivid, deeply committed performance" and she has been nominated for a Golden Globe award. Website Gold Derby, which surveys multiple awards observers, lists her among the top five Oscar contenders in the best actress race. Her bedridden character barely moves her body through the majority of the film and croaks out words painfully.
Watts said Bayona often went through scenes with the dialogue in the script, then reshot the same scene without words, using the latter in the final edit. Teen dancer-turned-actor Tom Holland, who stars as the eldest son, said that was probably for the best.
In character, "she had this voice, and it was really, really genuinely terrifying," Holland said. "The first time I heard it, I was like `Wow, there's something not quite right here. What's going on?'"
McGregor, whose character is not injured as badly, says he was similarly impressed by his co-star.
"For 85 percent of the movie, she's really badly injured, fearful for her life and the safety of her husband and her other two sons, anticipating the fact that she might be dying," he said. "There's never a sense of that being on one note. I've talked to her about it. I said, it's an extraordinary achievement that you managed to weave such variety into it and take us on this huge journey."
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Very rarely do we come across recipes which sound sinful but are super healthy.Quite an oxymoron I know,but I am sure you'll agree with me after seeing the ingredients which go into this delicious,decadent and fudgy Brownies.I have a weak spot for Brownies and I keep collecting Brownie recipes like there's no tomorrow.So when I saw Sunita's post of Eggless Oaty Brownies,I was jumping in joy.Here was a Brownie recipe which was Eggless,low-fat and low-sugar too.And like Sunita's other baking recipes,this one was made with Atta/whole wheat flour and with oats.Can it get better than this??
I set about making it last Sunday while I was making dosas,oh didn't I tell you the making of these beauties were a breeze too??No excess beating of ingredients,no waiting for butter to come to room temperature because..well,there's no butter in this recipe!!Only effort for me[if there's one at all] was to melt the chocolate[since I freeze the chocolate,it was hard for me to wait for it to come down to room temperature and then melt it].
It smelled divine while it was baking and I found it so hard to wait for it to cool down so that I could cut it and EAT it!!
It had the perfect crust,oh the crust!!I couldn't tell it was made with atta and more important,I kept telling myself that they were low-fat while chomping down pieces after pieces!!


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She approached my car and told me, "I just wanted to let you know that Clay punched a girl in the face today."
She went on to explain that a girl had been bugging him by touching his arm (where he has a rug burn courtesy of big brother Austin. Don't ask.) According to his teacher, Clay did tell her to stop touching him several times, but the girl continued despite Clay's requests. When she did it again, he hauled off and smacked her.
I'm happy that the "use your words" and "if someone is bothering you, ask them to stop" lessons sunk in, but clearly I failed to follow up with the "if they won't listen to you, tell your teacher instead of slugging them" lesson. That has since been remedied. For good measure, I also added the "don't bite them, don't kick them, don't call them names, don't body slam them, don't trip them, don't grab their toy away from them, and don't spit on them" lessons for good measure. You know, because some kids (cough cough Austin and Clayton) like to exploit loopholes.


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There are some companies people would kill to work for, and you probably know already whether yours is one of them. At some companies, people love coming in every day. At others, the paycheck is the only thing stopping the staff from burning the place down. If your company sounds like the latter, here's what you can do—at any level of the organization—to make your company a better place to work.
Being a great place to work goes deeper than high pay and great benefits: the work environment and attitude of the employees are important too. The best companies appreciate their workers and offer them benefits and perks that make them feel valued. They also train managers to work efficiently, treat their employees like adults, trust them to get their work done, and judge them on their performance. It all sounds logical, but if all companies were so above-board, everyone would love their jobs. Sadly, we know better.
In this guide, we'll walk you through some things you can do, whether you're entry-level, standard staff, middle management, or a manager, to make your company—or at least your team—more friendly. First, we need to discuss what makes a company great.
What Makes a Company a Great Place to Work?
Every year, tons of magazines and blogs publish lists of the "Best places to work." Many of them work with the Great Place to Work company to poll employees and evaluate the results. For example, the 2013 Best Companies to Work For list has been published, and you'll see some familiar names at the top of the list. Not all of them have the same things in common though. Great Places to Work says the criteria for a great place is simple:
Employees believe they work for great organizations when they consistently:
the people they work for;
in what they do; and
the people they work with.
It's important to note that a long list of benefits and perks does not a great company make. You can offer employees free lunches, tons of relaxation space, flexible work hours, and more, and they'll still hate working for you if they don't have the more basic needs met. Photo by Promisa Art Studio.
Great Places to Work goes into detail about this here, but the point is that if you're looking to make your company a better place, benefits and perks only go so far. They have to be used in a way that doesn't just make people happy for the moment, but reinforces the fact that they're appreciated, their work is appreciated, and they're working with people they like and trust. Keep that in mind while we walk through some of the things you can do to improve your workplace.
What You Can Do To Make Your Company a Better Place to Work
You don't have to be an executive or an HR director with a budget to make some basic changes that'll improve your work environment (although it helps.) Let's take a look at what you can do on any level of the company to improve things for yourself and your peers, your department, and the whole company. Photo by Russell Yarwood.
Entry Level, Non-Management, or Any Employee
At this level it might seem like there's nothing you can do—or nothing you'd be allowed to do—to brighten up your workplace. That's not always the case. We discussed a few things you can do for yourself when you feel like your job sucks, but there are other things you can do with your colleagues to make things better for everyone:
Start small and talk to your manager. Before you go too far, the first thing you should do is make sure that there's something you can do without upsetting your boss, or their boss. For example, your manager may be more than happy to help you organize a potluck lunch or something, but they probably can't cordon off part of your team's work space as an impromptu lounge. They may be able to give you some flexibility to work from home, but they can't make that change for everyone in the company, or maybe even your department. Let your boss know that morale is low and you'd like to do something to bring it up. See what's possible.
Break down the walls between your colleagues. Small social activities can go a long way. It sounds corny, but when they're genuine and meaningful (and most importantly, things that everyone wants to do versus things they feel forced to do because management is asking them to do them) they can brighten up a workplace and help foster the kind of trust and collaboration that the best companies have in droves. How you do this is up to you and your office—a lot of companies have potluck lunches, but why not turn it into a chili cookoff with a prize for the best pot? Better yet, have a panel of judges—make them all regular people judging managers' recipes. At my last company, we were all gamers, so every couple of months we all brought in our rigs, set up a small LAN, and held LAN parties. It's amazing how lobbing a grenade over a wall at your CIO makes you appreciate him more.
Organize and sit down with management. We're not talking about forming a union or anything, just making sure everyone's on board with a very small set of proposals that you think your manager or department head can help you with, and then see if they're possible. Start slow with small changes that you think will make the biggest impact for everyone, whether it's a place to eat lunch in peace that isn't your desk, a potluck luncheon every month, or something else small that will help everyone warm up to each other a little more. Whatever you do though, make sure its genuine: skip the trust falls and go for the things that people actually enjoy.
Middle Management or Senior Staff (eg, When You Speak, Your Boss Listens)
If you're the type of employee that has a little pull with your boss, you've been around for a couple of years and have some friends at work, or you're just in the position to suggest something bigger than a potluck, consider some more substantive changes:
Don't forget to start small. Just because you're more senior doesn't mean that you can just jump in feet first. Again, make sure you're clear on what you can and can't do, and start with some of the smaller suggestions. They can get your feet wet, show you how much resistance you'll run into, and whether or not anyone will actually appreciate the changes you're trying to make. You may get more traction starting with something small, like asking if a supply closet can get some lights, a table, and some comfortable chairs so you can have a comfortable place to eat lunch. That'll probably fly before you get a full-on lounge. Similarly, if you can't get a sandwich counter in the office, ask if anyone would care if you asked some local food trucks to come down to the building around lunch time—if you can get your colleagues to go with you, everyone wins: your coworkers get a treat, you get delicious food, your company is suddenly more attractive ("Yeah, we have food trucks come down from time to time,"), and a local business gets valuable customers. Photo by Robert Banh.
Suggest policies that encourage happier, more productive teams. See if your department could start a telework program, or ask if everyone can try working from home one day a week. There's been a lot of controversy about working remotely lately, but for most people and most companies, it's still a great option. Plus, it shows a lot of trust when management can say "Yes, we trust you to get your work done even if we can't see you doing it." That's huge, and its impact on individual workers can't really be minimized. If the work that your team does doesn't require you to have your butt in a seat or a physical presence in your working area for eight hours a day, it can go a long way. Telework is a great example here, but it's not the only one: starting a "bring your pet to work day" can help a lot assuming your office isn't dominated by people with allergies, for example.
Lead the charge. The key to making any place a better one is to be tenacious. You won't be able to just throw a suggestion at your manager or their manager and then walk away assuming it'll happen. You have to be willing to take the reins and do the work required. Bonus: you get to be a leader and show your commitment not just to a project, but to the company, which will go far with people who may not even be involved.
An example: at my last job, when we moved into a new building, the company built on a bistro as well—a small cold counter where pre-made sandwiches and salads, delivered every morning, were sold to employees and there were plenty of tables for everyone to sit and have lunch. We even had a pair of fountain soda machines, an iced tea brewer, and an espresso machine. Pretty sweet, but none of them would have been there if people didn't ask for them and the CEO didn't agree. Ultimately it was our receptionist and a few others who led the charge in selecting the vendors who provided the sandwiches and salads: the side benefit being that whenever they came in to show off their culinary skills, everyone in the office got to benefit with a free lunch. You don't have to be an exec to help make those necessary decisions, and since the receptionist asked us all for our opinions about the food, we all had a role in making sure the food we got was food we would enjoy. Photo by Mike Beltzner.
Senior Management, Directors, Execs
If you're a real power broker in your organization, or you have the ability to influence company policy as a whole (or maybe just your own department), why not use it to make your team happier, and more attractive to new talent? After all, you will need to hire at some point, and your position will be much stronger if you can outline the ways that your team is one of the best teams in the company to work for. If they catch on, or the rest of the company takes notice, you could be responsible for something big that really does make the whole company a great place to work.
Chat with HR about the changes you'd like to make. You're not in this alone, and your HR department may be able to lend you some help when it comes to making the changes you'd like to make. Whether you want to give some people on your team the option of telecommuting, or you'd like to give your team a lunch area, you never know—instead of just turning a spare closet into a lounge, see if there are any empty spaces in the building that everyone could use, not just your department. Turn a conference room into an Xbox or Wii room for an hour or two every Friday. Also, if you're planning anything after hours, make sure you're not running afoul of any company policies or regulations around overtime or employee hours in the process. Photo by Tomas Quinones.
Don't force your team, let it happen naturally. If there's anything most employees have, it's a finely tuned BS detector. They know when you're doing something because you want to "improve morale and make the department more fun" versus you genuinely want them to be happier and have a good time. Err on the side of the latter, and don't judge your team if participation is low at the outset. If morale is low, you'll have a hard time getting people to stay late for a poker night when all they want to do is go home. Just make sure you get a few people and start building a core group that really does enjoy the activity you've planned. It'll grow organically from there as long as the doors are open and you invite people on a no-stress basis.
Shamelessly borrow policies from the best. Some of the perks and policies that make other companies a great place to work are actually surprisingly easy to implement. Granted, they'll differ based on the corporate culture you have and the type of work that you do (if you're a director in a shipping company, for example, the benefits at a tech company may not be work for you) but network with other directors at other companies. See what makes their teams successful and how they're handling the challenges of a team that's interested only in their paychecks. Make no mistake, some people will only ever be interested in their paycheck, but you all have to see each other for 40+ hours a week—the least you can all do is enjoy the time you spend together. Get in touch with other companies and managers that understand that and agree with you and see how they made it all work. Not only do you have the benefit of networking, you'll get some valuable insight you can bring back with you. Photo by AoStefan.
Build a better working environment from the inside out. Remember, Great Places to Work says that the best places don't just have a laundry list of perks, there's actually a sense of mutual trust and respect among employees, managers, and directors. It can be difficult to foster, and in many cases your HR department can help, but in the end you're the one who knows and leads your team. Treating your employees with fairness and respect, trusting them to do their jobs and evaluating them fairly on their performance, and encouraging them to help and work with one another will all go much further than speedy new computers and free lunches (although all of those things help too!)
Every Great Place to Work Has to Start Somewhere
Let's be honest: It's easier to just quit and find a company that has the perks that you like, or keep searching until you find a corporate culture where you really fit in than it is to actually make these small changes and try to improve your working conditions from the inside. It's why so many of us just give up when things start sucking and start looking for a new job.
Unfortunately, jobs are scarce these days in every industry, and everyone knows it. Sometimes it's better to put in a little effort to keep the one you have, and starting off small and slow like this is a great way to make the kinds of changes that will ultimately make your company not just better for you, but more attractive to other great talent. You need to be willing to stick to your guns, lead the charge, and go out on a limb to make the time you spend at work a little better for everyone. After all, you spend at least 40 hours a week (and many of you said you spend more than that) at the office. It should at least be an enriching experience.
Title photo made using Asa Wilson and Elnur.


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