SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

SHELLEY BERMAN DIES – FROM USA TODAY:  NEW YORK (AP) — Comedian Shelley Berman, who won gold records and appeared on top television shows in the 1950s and 1960s delivering wry monologues about the annoyances of everyday life, has died. He was 92.  Berman died Friday at his home in Bell Canyon, California, from complications from Alzheimer's disease, according to spokesman Glenn Schwartz.  Berman was a pioneer of a new brand of comedy that could evoke laughter from such matters as air travel discomforts and small children who answer the telephone. He helped pave the way for Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and other standup comedians who fashioned their routines around the follies and frustrations of modern living.  A great talent and innovator.  Sadly, he flamed out too early, and others forged ahead of him.  But he and Mort Sahl were perhaps the most important new comics of the late 1950s.

THE WANTING OF CLOONEY – FROM THE HILL:  George Clooney joked about being president during a press conference for his new film "Suburbicon" at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.   “Would I like to be the next president? Oh, that sounds like fun,” Clooney said, according to a report in Variety.  Fellow actor and Trump critic Matt Damon reportedly interjected, “Can I just say that I’d like anybody to be the next president of the United States. Right away, please.”  While Clooney, who supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, is not likely to launch a bid for the Oval Office anytime soon, he has not shied away from ripping Trump in the past.   The media would, of course, call Clooney another Reagan, but Reagan had  been a two-term governor of our largest state, and also knew where Oklahoma was.

NATIONAL EMERGENCY – FROM DAILY CALLER:    A new report on diversity among library employees at America’s four-year colleges and universities has concluded that there are entirely too many white librarians.  Ithaka S+R, an academic research firm, released the “Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity” report on Wednesday.  As a group, librarians “are over three quarters white and nearly 90 percent white in leadership roles,” the Ithaka S+R report reveals.  The lack of “library employees of color” is a “shortcoming” in the academic library industry, the report also says.  “The library community considers diversity to be a core value. But the academic library sector has struggled with addressing equity, diversity and inclusion.”  Academic libraries have struggled with an excess of white employees for decades, notes Inside Higher Ed. Maybe African Americans would prefer some other line of work.  Did anyone think of that?

September 2, 2017