Mo Rocca 2
IE: Is there anyone who’s smart in a really weird way, they happen to know a lot about one thing?
MR: Well, me. I know everything about Presdential animals. I wrote a book on them [All The Presidents Pets: The Story Of One Reporter Who Refused To Roll Over].
IE: Guess what! That’s been completely outed so it’s no longer weird.
MR: OK. That’s true. I also know all of our state flowers.
IE: Is there a forthcoming book on that?
MR: No. Maybe a coffee-table book. I’m imagining something like that dream sequence in American Beauty. Instead of me being covered in rose petals, imagine me lying prone covered in Illinois-native purple violets, which is your state flower.
IE: Right.
MR: Don’t imagine that. You don’t have to.
IE: I would prefer not if I didn’t have to.
MR: We could have Roxanne Roberts.
IE: If there was a fight between Ira Glass and Roy Blount, who would win?
MR: I think, well Roy’s from the South, so I think he’d win. Also Ira’s a perfectionist, so he would probably – when you fight, and I can tell you this because I might as well have been one of the “Dead End Kids” – you can’t be a perfectionist. You gotta be scrappy, you just gotta go for it. I’m a total dirty fighter. If Jeff Gillooly hadn’t smacked Nancy Kerrigan’s kneecaps, it would have been me. Sorry, that’s a horrible thing to say. But I’ve always been a Tonya Harding fan.
IE: Does Roy Blount insist upon being called Roy Bount Jr.?
MR: Yes, so that he’s not confused with the congressman from Missouri.
IE: What else is in store from besides the Super Bowl and college speeches?
MR: Well, I’ve been judging Iron Chef. What else do I do? I’m on CBS Sunday, which is a wonderful show. And I love being on it. I’m one of the contributors on it. And the interesting things is the commentaries on it are witty, clever, riotous, quick, beguiling, lusty . . . And I spoke about Barack Obama on one, and I do want to get the word out, that in July if 2004 I coned the term “Obamarama” to describe the Democratic National Convention. Since that time, a lot of columnists, journalists – whatever they are – have used that term without crediting me. And the implication seems they place the word in such a way, they’re acting as if they’ve coined the term. That is mine. The term “Obamarama” is how I described the Democratic National Convention. I challenge anyone to go on the Web, do a Google search, and find a citation of “Obamarama” from earlier than July 2004.
IE: It’s common knowledge any phrase uttered by “Daily Show” alums is public domain.
MR: [Stephen Colbert] is credited with “truthiness.”
IE: He wasn’t for awhile. He had to go on his show and underline it.
MR: Well, they won’t let me do that on CBS. They’re too staid for that. But you can help me. Illinois is a land where a lot is stolen, and I mean that in a good way. I’m thinking of the 1960 election. But this I must reclaim. Will you be my repo man?
IE: Because we’re more a music magazine than anything else I have to ask, do you have an album coming out?
MR: I love lush, orchestral heavy metal, but what I would prefer to do is my own cover of the songs of The King And I. It’s my favorite musical, I love it. I’m all about the “Court Of Siam,” I refuse to call that country Thailand. It’s Siam as far as I’m concerned. And I love that, “Getting to know you/Getting to know all about you . . . ” Let me tell you what I would do. It is my ambition, and I’m in the process of doing it, to learn a song about every state in the Union. These don’t include songs like “My kind of town, Chicago is.” Those are city songs. I want songs that name states, like the song “Back home again in Indiana, and it seems that I can see the gleaming candlelight still shining bright through the sycamores for me.” They sing that at the Indianapolis 500. I love that song, and it mentions the Wabash River, which of course is the border between Indiana and Illinois. I’ve learned “Rhode Island Is Famous For You,” “I’m Alabamee Bound,” “California Here I Come.” So I’m working my way through all the states. And that is my ultimate project, to put out an album with me singing 50 songs, one for each state.
IE: What is this fascination with the 50 states?
MR: Because I love difference. The worst thing is homogeneity. Sameness is awful. What’s worse than a group of people that all agree with each other on everything? It’s so boring, so awful. Try having dinner on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and everybody agrees on everything. No! It’s no fun! Difference is great. I love our states to have differences. Illinois has a different state tree than Arkansas. It has its own state animal – the white-tail deer, by the way – that to me’s very interesting. I don’t want everything to be the same. Life shouldn’t be one stripmall with a Barnes & Noble and a Starbucks.
IE: It would make things a lot easier.
MR: I want to get beyond Bed, Bath & Beyond. I’ve always wanted to write something titled “Bed, Bath & Beyoncé” because Beyoncé is so annoying omnipresent; she’s everywhere.
IE: I asked you earlier what else is on tap, and all you said were your committments. You have so much more to offer.
MR: I know. In fact I’ve got to get back to the iTunes store to start running my search again for state songs. “Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning.” Anyway, great, I’m glad the word was put out that I’m in town.
IE: We’ll make sure people know and we’ll clear you in the “Obamarama” thing.
MR: I appreciate it. It’s in my Wikipedia entry.
Mo Rocca is a featured guest weekly on “Wait . . . Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!” on National Public Radio (WBEZ-FM 91.5) Saturdays and Sundays at 10 and 9 a.m. respectively. He is also the author of the term “Obamarama.”
