This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on 3 August, 2007.

Andrew Ross Sorkin speaks about Mudroch’s seemingly imminent purchase of The Wall Street Journal in this video clip from the Charlie Rose Show.

“The New York Times is going to have to compete against a business [The Wall Street Journal] that will likely lose money and not care.”

The most interesting thing about a media mogul is that their control and changes over and to an asset (in this case, the Wall Street Journal) can be powerful, but simultaneously extremely subtle. This means that the source of information with which you were familiar still seems familiar, and yet can be driving toward an ulterior motive. Only a few years and some good analysis will determine how Murdoch changes the Wall Street Journal.

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Conan O’Brien’s commencement address at Harvard makes a pretty quick read and an excellent examination of fantastic comedy writing. In addition to functioning on the levels of entertainment and humor, the speech goes a step further: it actually inspires. This line between laughter and inspiration is particularly difficult to walk in public speaking, but Conan did so quite successfully here. I’d highly recommend reading the entire speech, but here’s my favorite part, in which Conan speaks about starting up [Late Night with Conan O’Brien] in 1993.

So, this was undeniably the it: the truly life-altering break I had always dreamed of. And, I went to work. I gathered all my funny friends and poured all my years of comedy experience into building that show over the summer, gathering the talent and figuring out the sensibility. We debuted on September 13, 1993 and I was happy with our effort. I felt like I had seized the moment and put my very best foot forward. And this is what the most respected and widely read television critic, Tom Shales, wrote in the Washington Post: “O’Brien is a living collage of annoying nervous habits. He giggles and titters, jiggles about and fiddles with his cuffs. He had dark, beady little eyes like a rabbit. He’s one of the whitest white men ever. O’Brien is a switch on the guest who won’t leave: he’s the host who should never have come. Let the Late show with Conan O’Brien become the late, Late Show and may the host return to Conan O’Blivion whence he came.” There’s more but it gets kind of mean.

I find it heartening to remember that choosing to pour your heart and soul into some things is extremely empowering, but the satisfaction from doing so will not immediately (and perhaps, ever) come from without. I believe that everyone, at some point during their life, decides “I want to do… this.” I think the pursuit of the this can help provide structure in our lives. Anyhow, Conan frequently mentions how much he loves doing the show; and to me he appears very very sincere — he didn’t know what exactly he was looking for during his early years as a comedy writer, but he recognized it when it came along.

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