On the Right

A FEW years ago, checking in with the office, I was told I had a telephone call from Norman Lear. I immediately returned it, and probably my voice quavered. The very thought of being in personal touch with the producer of All in the Family! My all-time favorite television program. “What,” I asked unctuously, “can I do for you?”

“Well,” he said, “I would like you to be the keynote speaker at the annual banquet of People for the American Way.”