Scott Raab on Andy Samberg, The Freedom Tower, "cart-offs," the Browns and Tribe - WFNY Podcast - 2013-08-19

Published: Aug. 19, 2013, 1:30 p.m.

b'This week, I\'m going to save you the bullet points. Instead I\'m going to share my pre-show email to Scott Raab (@ScottRaab64) with my ideas to discuss on the show. Doing this enabled me to stay in the podcast a bit more without typing notes as I went along. So here (with very few edits) is what I sent to Scott the night before we were ready to talk.\\n\\nI enjoyed the Q&A with Andy Samberg. I just wanted to talk a little bit about how big he would have been in a different era with all his different talents around comedy. Just like we can\'t have another Beatles because of the change in the music business, it\'s increasingly difficult - even with the same TV show as a launching pad - for there to be another Bill Murray or even Sandler or Will Ferrell.\\n\\nI enjoyed your Freedom Tower piece too. I wanted to discuss how anything 9/11-related is such a difficult "sell." World Trade Center movies haven\'t done particularly well. Kathryn Bigelow wins awards, but largely doesn\'t blow anyone away with box office receipts. And here you are telling an important story about the political dynamics of what should be the most important part of the re-development at the WTC site, and I still get the feeling that nobody wants to talk about it. What is it? Is it a defense mechanism? Fatigue? Something else? Do the blustery politicians from your piece prefer it that way?\\n\\nThe importance of our developing language has never been more apparent than seeing the real legacy of the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal. Not new safety rules for the game, but the media\'s incessant use of the term "cart-off" this pre-season. I don\'t remember "cart-off" being used so much prior to the Saints scandal, but now I see it on NFL Network and ESPN TV scrolls for injured player news. Why would they adopt something that they spent an entire year painting as completely dastardly?\\n\\nIndians have a stronger record this season, but it\'s still a fade. Is a drastic record improvement over last year good enough, or is a year without playoffs a total waste? Are there shades of gray in this conversation?\\n\\nBrowns looked good, but Weeden still stares down his receivers. I\'m heading to Indianapolis next week for the third pre-season game with my father-in-law, so let\'s talk about domes. Are you an outdoor football traditionalist? I\'m not, and like the tailgating conversation, when I talk about domes I get into trouble with a percentage of the hardcore Browns fanbase.\\n\\n\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'