American Way
For twenty-five years, Charles Osgood has been a steadying voice, wry and funny. His sage observations and offbeat stories are a sort of national storehouse of common sense. He is a miniaturist, specializing in the sometime absurdities of the law, examples of bureaucracy run amok. At times the quirky and absurd even inspire him to flights of doggerel poetry. Surely he is the only writer to ever find, or even search for, a rhyme for sysnyntenoctadecanoamide (a sleeping-inducing chemical). No sysnyntenoctadecanoamide here.
Kirkus Reviews
A collection of the radio and television pundit's best work, from the past eight years. Charles Osgood, like Art Buchwald or Erma Bombeck, possesses the sort of wry wit that seems quintessentially American, the ability to gently mock this country and its citizens with plain old common sense. Most of the pieces in the book, which are taken from Osgood's CBS radio broadcasts, concern people and the very strange things they do or say, and the book is divided into suitable sections, such as "HPF (The Human Perversity Factor)," which includes an essay on a convention held by and for lightning strike victims, or "Money Draws Flies," in which Osgood discourses on, among other topics, the hazards of winning the lottery. The author runs the gamut of topics from political correctness to patriotism, and while reading too many in one sitting is somewhat cloying, there's something to chuckle at in almost every piece. Osgood is particularly good at pointing up the foibles of both people and institutions, and finds particular pleasure in taking inflated government agencies or their minions to task, as, for instance, in a piece on the modernization of the IRS. "Yesterday the IRS brass appeared before a House appropriations subcommittee. This is the subcommittee that oversees the people who are overseeing the people who are modernizing the modernization program." Several of the essays are accompanied by doggerel that ranges from groaningly bad to delightful (such as when he includes the name of the drug sysnyntenoctadecanoamide in verse). This is the sort of collection that Osgood's fans will adore—and it may even win him some new ones.
From the Publisher
Charles Osgood’s gentle, bemused style of brief human interest stories and doggerel poetry remains a favorite, not only of the public, but of his colleagues, who never tire of interviewing or spotlighting him on their own news shows. Those who haven’t heard Osgood’s show should pick this up to discover what they’ve been missing.
—AudioFile
FEB/MAR 00 - AudioFile
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This 1999 recording was reviewed in a slightly abridged version as shown]-- Those who enjoy "The Osgood Files" on CBS radio will find familiar stuff in this brief collection from that popular feature. Charles Osgood's gentle, bemused style of brief human interest stories and doggerel poetry remains a favorite, not only of the public, but of his colleagues, who never tire of interviewing or spotlighting him on their own news shows. Those who haven't heard Osgood's show should pick this up to discover what they've been missing. Y.R. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
