USING THE BACKCUT SHOT TO PAY TRIBUTE TO TED TURNER

In billiards the backcut shot ain't easy. Nor is it always easy to find something wonderful to say about the arrogant Ted Turner. But in addition to marrying Jane Fonda, he also made another sweet choice -- preserving the classic old movies for his TMC channel. He's made it easy for everyone born, say after Richard Nixon, to actually discover for themselves there was another America. An America different than the one they know today...!

This isn't to say that America was aways better than this. But it is to say there was once upon a time when neighbors talked with neighbors...you knew your milk/mail/delivery guys by name...kids rode the CTA safely down to the Loop....people slept comfortably in parks on summer nights... Enrons and Benie Madoffs were what you read about not invested in...and many of us actually did work for the same company until we retired with that gold watch and circle of lifelong friends.

I submit this assessment is more than a misty Norman Rockwell fantasy. The evidence is in the memory banks of all those elders in your family who you don't take the time to ask. Perfect lives...? Hell, no! But safer, sounder and simpler...? Hell, yes! Which is where Mr Turner comes in. If you watch some of those TCM movies at night -- you know, the ones going back to the 30s, 40s, and 50's -- forget the plot, just study the premise. It's largely built upon the assumptions above.

Yes, the plots had thugs and cheaters; yes, there were liers and deceivers. But catch sight of the back-stories. The way the people in the scenes dressed and drove and interacted. You'll catch the cadence of social mores and ethical values that were a given then, whereas they are often a gag today. I was there so I can at least postulate that most of what strikes folks today as dated and corny were the M.O. of the times.

Now if you calculate I'm sentimentally exaggerating a little, you may be right. My fear, though, is you'll never see those times again to find out if I'm right!