Goodbye, Mr. Jennings
At the tail end of last night, I saw that Peter Jennings had passed away, and it made me sad. Back in Mornings with Dan Rather I mentioned I was always a Peter Jennings guy, but I've always been fascinated as to why, and all day the back of my mind has been gnawing on that question because that's what my mind does, and I've always been fascinated by the idea of 'comfortable strangers'.
A comfortable stranger is someone that's a familiar part of our landscape, yet we don't actually know. It may be someone you see every other day at the bus stop or subway or intersection, because your schedules match, or just someone you see working at a store you visit often. You don't know them, and have probably never said a word to them, but over time your brain develops its own familiarity. You notice the comfortable stranger by their absence one day, and wonder if they're just sick or ever coming back.
Whenever something was going on, after I turned on the TV, something about Jennings, over time, caused me to switch to ABC to hear it from him. If there were pictures going on, I might watch a bit, but the minute the commentary overlays started, I was switching to ABC. Whatever that something was, those close to him should be proud of it.
Posted by drunkenbatmanAugust 08, 2005, at 04:42 PM
Comments (7)
Posted by: Patrick Weber at August 8, 2005 05:29 PM
@Ben: hehe, yeah, I guess I've never really thought about it like that.. I mean, I've had 'moments' with DB (if you want to call them that).. like the occational chat on AIM and the occational email, but when it comes down to it, I don't really KNOW DB.. I mean, I know his writing and such, but.. yeah. I guess that goes for nearly everyone on my blogroll..
Posted by: Adam Johnson at August 8, 2005 09:39 PM
Just when I think you've lost your mind, you write the sanest thing I've read in ages. Nice one.
Posted by: Nabil at August 9, 2005 02:12 PM
The concept of "comfortable strangers" is a good one, and something I've come to really value over the years. In the past few months, real life has undergone some major upheaval, and these "comfortable strangers" have provided a level of sanity I dearly needed.
Lately, I've begun talking to them. I can't even begin to tell you how glad I did. Something to keep in mind is that for all those days you've absorbed them into your landscape, they've been doing the same to YOU.
Posted by: Christian Kent at August 9, 2005 08:45 PM
Am I the only one who finds it bizarre that the show is still called "ABC News with Peter Jennings", even AFTER he's been off the show for months, even AFTER he's died, even IMMEDIATELY after they headline a story about him being dead?
There seems to be a uniquely American tendency to create a warm-and-fuzzy feeling in adding a person's name to a show. From the outside where I stand, though, it seems terribly idiosyncratic whenever I see a show "with" a person and they don't turn up to work (think of all the other examples). And then they announce that it's "with" the fill-in person, too!
(Don't take this post too seriously, folks).
Posted by: Christian Kent at August 9, 2005 08:48 PM
In fact -- let's tie it in to another DrunkenTopic -- isn't it all about bad UIs? I mean, the user interface should be more interactive and remove the words "with Peter Jennings" whenever he's off on holiday. Or dead.
Bad UIs. They give me the creeps.
Posted by: Cale at August 10, 2005 04:30 PM
If nothing else, it's just a sign of respect. Even while Jennings was sick, Charles Gibson would sign off the broadcast "For Peter Jennings and everyone else at ABC News, goodnight." Just seems to be a gesture of good will to me.
I think what made Peter Jennings so appealing and watchable was his calmness. Even during the most terrible breaking news he would be very matter of fact, not in your face. Very conversational. Something the anchors on the cable news channels have a very hard time doing.
How about someone whose blog entries you read all the time but don't actually have any real connection to. I've got a lot of comfortable strangers who it's hard not to think of as friends, except when you remember they don't actually know you and you're just stalking their writing online.