Good afternoon, all stupendously accelerated; all wanton disregard for one another; all hosts departing : all mutually exclusive. Welcome to Words From The Midwest.

What a day already, and it’s only 1:30. Already, we know that Jon Stewart is stepping down from The Daily Show. And with this news comes a rush of feeling: nostalgia in part. But also there’s fear now. In a matter of months our moral compass will be gone; will have changed its face; will have traded down for a lesser mind. Because not only did Jon Stewart make us laugh four nights a week for nearly two decades, he willed us to think for ourselves, I think. At least that’s how it was for me.

For me, Jon Stewart came around in my life when I was about 15, I would say. So, as a Sophomore in high school looking to question everything, I finally had a reference point to slowly mold my ideologies into what they have become in the twelve years since I first started watching.

As we recall how it was at The Daily Show during the days of George W. Bush, we certainly remember how on point it was; how even since, it has only grown sharper in its takedown of everything Fox News in this country. And always with morality and sanity at the core of the comedy. And that compleat writing team, that comedic genius spilling into correspondents whose careers were and are launched because of The Daily Show, it all adds up to something. And that something may very well transcend Jon Stewart. We saw it that fateful summer when John Oliver sat in.

But that was different.

He was coming back…

I guess that we should, perhaps, take comfort in the knowledge that there’s no way the man is just going to sit on his hands until he dies. Maybe he caught the directing bug. Maybe a weekly TV show? Maybe. Maybe not.

Colbert’s departure for Network television didn’t sting like this.

But, no matter. The Daily Show with … Jessica Williams? Samantha Bee? Jason Jones? I’d watch any of those.

So, what else, what else. Oh, yeah, Brian Williams. I don’t really understand that whole thing. Ironically, I’d say The Daily Show bit on that news – that news that Brian Williams is a liar, I guess – pretty much summed it up: Celebrity can be blinding.

I’ll have to remember that.

I could go on, I guess. I could go on about how we’re on the verge of a Goddamn World War; a Cold War. However you want to call it.

The Middle East continues to implode.

But I’d rather just sit here and listen to Paul Simon and talk about how good the song Papa Hobo is…

Because it really is. Actually Paul Simon’s self-titled debut just may be my favorite Paul Simon already, and I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever listened to it in full. Every song is good.

Whatever.

Have a pleasant Wednesday.

Regards,

Michael