My wife Nicole is the smartest person I know.
She would be high on the list just because of the fact she is fluent in two languages, although our daughter Pauline outranks both of us in that area. She speaks three, maybe four languages and at one time or another has been pretty good at two others.
English, French, Spanish, Arabic … and formerly Mandarin and Indonesian.
That’s pretty impressive, and it’s one of the reasons she is nearly 20 years into a career as a Foreign Service Officer.
But where Nicole leaves us — and much of the world — in the dust is in math and science. I’ve written before about how she has two doctorates and understands things about planetary rings that only one or two other people in the world understand.
That’s not what this piece is about, though.
With the death of Jerry Springer this week, I’m reminded of how 29 or 30 years ago, back in the early days of our marriage when the world was young, Nicole used to enjoy watching Springer’s late night show.
I was still covering sports in those days, and most nights I didn’t get home till 11:30 p.m. or even later. I would go to bed and my wife would have the television on, generally watching a syndicated episode of “Cheers” or “Seinfeld.” But when they were done, it was time for the other Jerry.
Jerry Springer.
I never really watched Springer or any of the other trash TV shows, but I was happy that my brilliant wife, who had a very high-pressure job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was able to get enjoyment and relaxation from the show.
I could ever hear her chanting along with the audience at times.
“Jerry, Jerry, Jerry …”
Some people blame Springer for the decline in television over the last 30 years, with all the so-called “reality shows” that have followed. If that’s true, we would have to blame Springer for Donald Trump’s presidency. There is no way in the world Trump would ever have been able to run for president if “The Apprentice” hadn’t cleaned up his image.
It’s silly to blame Springer for Donald, though. Shows like “Survivor” and others were the ones that led to “The Apprentice” and created an image of Trump as competent and not as someone who couldn’t even be successful running casinos.
Don’t blame Springer. His show was relatively harmless, the TV equivalent of mud wrestling and demolition derbies.
And he gave my lovely wife a lot of laughs.
Rest in peace, Mr. Springer.