Given this item excerpted from Michelle Malkin's latest column, addressed to David Letterman, I simply have to share a story about Dave I was told by a reliable friend and co-worker. There's no confidentiality, or spurious allegation issues involved. And it goes back over twenty-years, related while Letterman simply sat in for Carson.
“You know, she reminds me, she looks like the flight attendant who won’t give you a second can of Pepsi. No, you’ve had enough. We’re landing. Looks like the waitress at the coffee shop who draws a little smiley face on your check. Have a nice day.”
I worked for a large corporation that supported the travel industry and the guy in the next office to me had come up through the airline industry. He was a supervisor and one of his responsibilities included overseeing the VIP lounge staff.
Letterman had one of your typical service-oriented complaints with, I believe, a part-time employee / college student who worked for an airline. I believe it was American. Letterman had not actually made it, yet. But co-hosting The Tonight Show certainly wasn't chopped liver.
He had called ahead to reserve some relatively minor accommodation, a snack or drink he wanted available in the lounge. Well, it wasn't there when he got there. And the kid who couldn't answer Letterman's actual, if rhetorical "Do you know who I am?" question was all but reduced to tears by Letterman's upbraiding. But that wasn't enough for good old Dave. Nope! He wanted a supervisor called to the lounge; hence my office mate's involvement.
Letterman demanded that the worker be fired for his affront and alleged incompetence. Eventually, my co-worker defused the situation, which was one of the qualities that allowed him to rise through the ranks to eventually become a corporate manager for the firm at which we worked.
I've never been able to watch Letterman, in part because of that story. You see, when I observe what is most typically his sarcastic and demeaning brand of humor, I know the genuine sense of arrogance and entitlement from which it flows.
One of Ed McMahon's wives was an airline employee around that time I believe. Vicki? Victoria?
A passenger at the airline I worked for said that to one of the gate agents. (Do you know who I am?) The agent picked up the microphone and said "may I have your attention, please, we have a passenger here who doesn't know who he is, can any of you help him?"
I worked with some funny people.
Posted by: lala | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 11:19 AM
your friend made the situation more diffuse, or defused it?
Posted by: anonymous coward | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Duh! lol Editors do have an important roll(sic)! Thanks - corrected.
Posted by: Dan Riehl | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 01:32 PM
Reminds me of a local news story my father (who lives in Myrtle Beach) told me about Barbra Streisand when she was in SC filming "The Prince of Tides". Apparently there was a very popular restaurant that Babs went to which had a line forming to get in when she arrived (no reservations at this place). Babs marched up to the front and demanded to be let in. The doorman told her she'd have to wait in line like everyone else. She pulled out the same "Do you know who I am?" line and the guy just looked at her and said "Yes, I do...you'll still have to wait in line like everyone else". Then she marched off huffing and puffing.
Posted by: Andrew | Friday, June 12, 2009 at 07:09 PM
Letterman is just another "limosine Liberal" phoney. He hasn't been any good in years, Leno regularly beat him. Now with Conan coming to NBC, maybe CBS will see the slippage and send Dave off to retirement.
Of course, this is the network that employs Katie Couric in their premier news spot.
You can see how well that's working.
Posted by: kevin barry | Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 12:45 AM
A friend said he met David Letterman on an elevator some time back and Letterman got all huffy and put out and said "I suppose you want an autograph or something"?
My friend said "I don't even know who you are."
classic.
Haven't watched his show in years.
Posted by: Kevin | Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 12:16 PM
"Letterman demanded that the worker be fired for his affront and alleged incompetence."
So, he's allowed to demand people be fired if they don't cater to his every need, but we're not allowed to demand that he be fired if he doesn't suit us. Hmmmm....
Posted by: adagioforstrings | Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 03:15 PM
You're allowed to call for whatever you want. But I don't base my decisions on what Letterman does, or did.
Posted by: Dan Riehl | Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 05:51 PM
I remember reading some years ago his bandleader Paul Scheaffer (?) or whomever telling how Letterman had absolutely NO social contact with him. Seems he shows up and does the show and heads back home, trusting his fellow employees will act like his friends on-air.
Posted by: Dohtimes | Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 05:55 PM
I do not personally know David Letterman but I attended Ball State at the same time he did and heard him on the radio there and later in Indianapolis. He has or at least had a wicked sense of humor but it is often very sarcastic and mean spirited, always has been. I do not think this hubbub bothers him one whit as it's free publicity for him and his show. He is no longer a midwesterner but a full fledged New Yorker with all the baggage that entails.
Posted by: John Golden | Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 07:34 PM
He has always been sarcastic and MEAN. Alot of people who dig his kind of "humor" are perpetual wanna-be-popular-teenagers.
Posted by: Suzi | Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 08:12 PM