See You on the Radio [Abridged] [Audio Cassette]

Charles Osgood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 1999

Witty, wise, rueful commentaries from one of broadcasting's funniest, most stylish writers and newsmen.

"Charles Osgood is one of the best writers in America today, any form or medium," says Dan Rather, and Jim Lehrer concurs, "He is a special mind and voice in a business where his kind is rare--and cherished." At least twelve million people listen to Osgood every day on CBS radio, and millions more watch him on CBS News Sunday Morning. All of them would agree that no one writes quite the way he does--the offbeat stories that make listeners stop and pay attention; the commentaries in which he shares his sense of wonder, dismay, or amusement; the well-spun tales of irony that often burst forth into wordplay or even poetry.

See You on the Radio gathers together the best of Osgood's work from the last eight years, over one hundred essays on everything from potholes, perfumes, felons and "freeloaders" ("Credit card customers paying on time!! Taking bread from the tables of the moneylenders!"); to psychopaths and politicians (more alike than you think); to earthquakes, animal heirs, and the advancement of science ("Osgood's First Law: Just because something is obvious doesn't necessarily mean that science isn't going to discover it tomorrow") Here you'll also find out about what happened to the salesman in New Hampshire who went to jail for not having cancer, and the prisoner who attempted a jailbreak...with a yellow felt-tip pen.

In all, it is a book of pure delight, further evidence of why, in the words of Walter Cronkite, Charles Osgood "is one of the greatest talents in broadcasting today." --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Osgood is known as a winning, whimsical humorist of the airwaves, and if these 100-odd commentaries (often culminating in verse) recorded for CBS Radio over the past eight years are any indication, that reputation is well deserved. The mini-essays touch on such topics as the "Lightning Strike Convention," attended by people struck by lightning whose lives have been changed in ways undetectable by science, the Wash Your Hands effort by Massachusetts doctors to get people to save lives and stop the spread of diseases by lathering up on a regular basis, and a 7-Eleven manager who was fired for catching a thief in his store, a violation of company policy. Osgood generally works from a small wire storyAusually one that exhibits what he calls HPF, or Human Perversity FactorAor a scientific/medical study that proves the glaringly obvious. Sometimes, though, he weighs in lightly but sensitively on current events, such as when he meditates on the difficulties involved in deciding what should be put into the history books, or when he laments the ways political correctness can distort the English language. Written as they are for the ear rather than the eye, some of these pieces are slight on the page, without Osgood's delivery to add flavor. But those that contain verse remain Osgood's best and most memorable work. Discussing angry drivers, for example, he posits: "There's a name unscientific for those who act this way./ I will not tell you what it is, but it starts with an A." You can almost see it on the radio. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

These 60 short nuggets from eight years of Osgood's radio broadcasts include true stories, like the man cornered by alligators and a beauty contest that became a slugfest. Amusing oddities crop up, like a snoring lawsuit, the Lightening Strike Victims' Convention, and several bungled robberies and prison escapes. Osgood explains out-of-favor words like Indian-giver, welsh, and niggardly. He even dispenses health advice on aging and warns against licking golf balls, which may have picked up weed killer. Some facts are sad statistics: U.S. prison costs exceed those of public schooling; the leading cause of death among our children age ten to 19 is auto accidents--the second is gunfire. A fine reader, Osgood (The Osgood Files) projects expressively, without monotony, even during occasional descents into doggerel. This set is fine audio, which can merit the author's praise of radio as "theater of the mind." It is a worthy addition to popular collections of humor and human interest.
-Gordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Soundelux Audio Pub; Abridged edition (September 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559353198
• ISBN-13: 978-1559353199
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,758,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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