it was the first tom sawyer had ever seen mark twain looking glum. 's lawyer study the journalist, disjointed body, i repaired, long black lethal looking cigar and soup strainer mustache. a lanky man, twain didn't really walk but ambled and slashed his way through the muddy streets and back alleys of san francisco. is normal dress was careless and disheveled. is close were i brushed and freckled with tobacco, though at this moment he was new, his chest of matted hair, drank his eyes landed like an eagle. on this rainy afternoon in jun june 1863, twain was nursing a bad hangover inside a steam rooms, halfway through it was intended to be -- that stretched three years. sleepwalking and melancholic journalists regularly went to the turkish baths this without any suicidal temptations which were not uncommon. after baffie play petty ante with a provider, and sawyer, the recently appointed customer -- customs inspector, volunteer fireman and bona fide local hero. in the clouds avoiding steam, sawyer was many his own words, now his were from a nearly fatal o

well, mark twain said history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. and i think history disease rhyme. i think jefferson looked back to greece and rome to understand partisanship in his own era. we look back to the founding to try to understand it. what you learn is that there are some perennial principles. to quote jefferson, sometimes it's better to give as well as to take in a system like ours. we should not ever try more than the nation can bear. whatever is practical should always control what is pure theory. and the degree of what is practical can be determined by the habits of governed.

but he was meeting with one of mark twain's distant relatives. and he insisted that he was a dainty and king arthur's court. he stands up and says you guys need a new deal. and that was from that time. and the other one was i'm working on another book by writers. if you remember the old laugh and shout, there is always a picture of mark twain. they were the first ones to use the word phrase sock it to me. the other day i just found a book that said if you read all of paradise lost carefully, you'll find all hell breaking loose, which i thought was a nice modern term that we use. yes, sir? >> comment and question. first is relative to the words. i don't think english is the number one language anymore. we don't speak english, we speak united states. >> yes, there was a guy earlier in 1920, a dictionary came out with historical principles. and there were 50,000 words which were american in origin. many of them having to do with names and descriptions and things like that. but they were american innovators. one of the things that webster said in 180

if you remember the old laugh and show they would sever the picture mark twain and a connecticut yankee he is also the first one to use socket to me. there are about two -- there are going to execute the hero and he said come on, socket to me so that became the fiber. i have to tell you something from a book that is neither britain but if you read paradise lost carefully you will find john dellums talks about all hell breaking loose which is a modern-ism. yes, sir? >> either common and also a question. first to comment. a comment. with your introduction of all these new words i don't think english is her number one language any more. we don't speak english. we speak united states. >> that is what h.l. mencken did with his monstrous 3-volume on the american language which he was with criticized for. there was a guy earlier than that when matthews came out with the dictionary of americanisms based on historical principles and he found 50,000 words which were american origin. it was lost in time many of them having to do with names of apples. things like that but were american in their bas

of course mark twain once e said there are three kinds of lies, lies, damn lies and statistics and today the writers say all of the statistics were lies. barrybonds killed the home run record but received nowhere near the 75% o' of the votes needed to enter the home. you see barry, samemy sosa -- sammy sosa and roger clemens. mine teem we got a little football to talk about. that is saturday's a-match up which you'll see here starting at 4:00 with kauch at 5:00. howabout michael crab tree. he'sturned into to p target no. one for kaeperneck. he says he's more than ready to start atoning for his poor playoff performance from last year. >> last year we came up a little short and i feel like i have a chip on my shoulder and i can't wait to go back out there. we go out there with with our great defense that we have and our offense, i can't wait to go out there and show what we been practicing on. >> meantime, basketballs will be flying all over the bay area tonight, we have kyle, stanford all in action. we'll have full highlights tonight at 11:00 from that. >> mark, thank you. jobs arebeing c

if you'd remember the old laugh-in show, they'd always start with a picture of mark twain. and that's because in connecticut yankee he is also the first one to use sock it to me. they're about to hang -- they're going to execute the hero, and he said, come on, sock it to me. so that became the biword for -- the other one, i have to tell you for a book that isn't even written, but i just found the other day that if you read all of paradise lost carefully, you'll find that john milton in paradise lost talks about all hell breaking loose, which i thought was a nice, you know, modern itch. modernism. yes, sir. >> i have a comment and also a question. first, the comment. with your introduction of all these new words, i don't think english is our number one language anymore. i think it's more like united states. we don't speak english, we speak united states -- >> that's what h.l. men kin did with his -- mencken did with his monstrous three volume on the american language which he was roundly criticized for, but in 1910 there was a dictionary of americanisms based on historical p

styled gestures and comments but as for the man who wrote nineteenth century classics not even mark twain as protected from present day p.c. two of tweens books are being republished with the word sleeve replacing the n. word it's about laziness it's not about liberal guilt to not want to do a friend or conservatives want to want to sanitize or plain vanilla history and art it's really about laziness we don't we don't want to trust people to look and examine to look at something. and then go beyond that said what does it mean what were those times like what is the author trying to say when film critic roger ebert took to twitter to criticize the censorship he was criticized for simply writing the n word a federal jury will soon decide if white people can use the n. word at work this as a white t.v. reporter is suing a fox news affiliate in philadelphia after being fired for using the n. word during a staff meeting white house chief of staff rahm emanuel has apologized he's apologized and of course the r word can also make you a glorified villain as was the case when former chief of staff

. >> reporter: and from tina fey, a simple hope, first delivered when she won the prestigious mark twain apparently i'm only the third woman to receive this award. and i'm so honored to be with lily tom lin and whoopi goldberg, but i do hope women are achieving at a rate these days that we can stop counting what number they are at things. [ applause ] >> reporter: and when that counting no longer counts, there will be two women among those two thank. >> okay! >> way to go, tina fey and amy poehler, our persons of the week. we thank you for watching. we're always working for you at abcnews.com. "nightline" at its new time, 12:35 a.m. tonight. david muir will be here all this weekend as we remind you, i'll see you at the inauguration on sunday and monday. and we remember aretha franklin and her hat at the first inaugural four years ago for the obama presidency and family. ♪ my country tis of thee ♪ sweet land of liberty ♪ of thee i sing ♪ land where my father died ♪ land of the pilgrims' pride ♪ from every every mountain top ♪ ♪ ♪ let freedom, freedom, freedom ring ♪ ♪ let it ring ♪ let it

. >> so cold it's a relative term for those of us used to mark twain customers -- summers, yes, it'sd. >> is this cold? >> no. >> what is cold? >> 20 below. >> in san francisco, you keep hands and fingers in your pockets. cold is all of the excuse we need to hug ourselves. >> i have warmer pockets.109 >> only 50s. >> i know, but i'm freezing. i've got five players. >> on this day cold was a state of mind. a gentle reminder we do call it winter for a reason. >> does it make you wish for summer? >> no. no. not yet. >> interesting we spent time at dolphin club. they explain out there in the swim in the bay, now in december, they say water is, they say 50 degrees. that is right on the border line between cold and not so cold. if you get out of the water skpuk not talk, then it's coaxed they were talking today. wayne freedman that, is what they say. abc 7 news. >> next time you'll have to jump in and join. >> a couple road condition updates. interstate 5 is back in business tonight after a 16 hour shut down. hundreds of truckers and drivers pulled over and had to spent their night in the

funny responses, and mark twain you think would be in favor said absolutely not. president is a high class tenet at the white house and has no right to express his personal feelings by inviting a black man to dine there. the reaction fell into predictable sections the north was supportive and the south was not. but even the french had an opinion and it was actually we are not amazed it is the first time but that it ever -- never happened before but you can find a reaction all over the world. >> host: what was the gist of said dinner conversation? >> guest: very innocent. roosevelt had taken a hunting trip, their kids, to roosevelt children wrap the table, a just a wednesday night at home with the roosevelts. nothing special. after dinner they retired to talk about race but the dinner itself was a family evening taking place at tables, all over america. but at this table there was a hot seat. >> host: final question. what was on the menu? >> guest: it was not recorded by roosevelt loved hot food and plenty of it to. probably convert food as we know it today. >> hos

remember that saying that mark twain popularized? well, it's pretty true true when you're looking at farm numbers and statistics. that is really the case of the u.s. department of agriculture. the real problem with this analysis on subsidies is that the statistics that are used by the usda assert that we have 2.2 million farmers. the agency is probably very embarrassed about the lousy job they have been doing. because they are kind of line with those suspects. a close look at the numbers say that the usda numbers count for one third of the 2.2 alien entities that have sales of under $1000. two thirds of those entities have sales of under $10,000. those are sales. so that is like small businesses down the road from my family's farm. i don't want it, my husband wants it. we have a winemaker down the road. and i have a friend who has a flower business during the summer. i know she makes under $1000 in the summer growing flowers for a local restaurant. she does it because she enjoys it. these are not farmers, these are not people who con

they feed on it to go overboard or complicated, something simple like not since mark twain. [laughter] i'm not here to post, but the only fault i found with the introduction is that he did mention that tepper isn't going out as the first parking novel ever written. i regret to say there hasn't been a bandwagon of people trying to write parking novel since then. i thought i taught tonight since "dogfight" is sort of a result of what we call a deadline poetry, talk about being a deadline poet. some years ago, in an author's good benefit, garrison keillor organized the program in which four or five authors reject it famous works of literature. [laughter] garrison himself rejected walden pond. he said there were a lot of a lot of good axioms then that, but the structure was weak and he suggested making it into a calendar. [laughter] i rejected the waste land by eliot. i did 18 tavener chorus and the last couple as i know this is a blow, tom. not to worry. you're still the greatest poet from missouri. [laughter] how faint that raises. the other poet from missouri is me. and somet

look this is guy -- i admired mark twain's view of american politics. there will be a new reign to laugh because it's so silly. al gore is a guy on make. he has done really well. mitt romney is probably proud of him. obama, he is upper one hundredth percent. fine. that is a guy who went around lecturing the rest of us, beating us up psychologically, being morally superior and now he is taking hundred million dollars from the country whose income is from oil. this is grandly funny. this is close to saturday night live stuff than it is to serious news and people say, i got it. al gore had a shots to make lots of money. he said here is all the stuff i've done about global warming. he a hundred million dollars. that is what happened. >> greta: i think he would go on on book tour, today show was asking questions like that. he will be asked those questions every single interview. >> i think -- this happens to all of us. i suspect it happened to me on occasions. you have this notion you can explain the inexplicable. there is a famous movie where the sheriff ki

>> i also think--i didn't great with what they did with mark twain.o tell my students, you need to understand the time period you're reading something in. don't read into history back from where you are. in other words don't use presentism. i think the way they did that with twain is ridiculous. that's it for me. the problem that rises with the quentin tarantino use of the word is the problem that everybody has with quentin tarantino being the one that is putting the n-word in everybody's mouth. that's a different way that belies this issue. i don't think the problem is the word necessarily but that quentin tarantino who is writing the screen play uses it so much. >> john: except in the "kill bill" films it has been used liberally. tricia? >> this historical accuracy in this film is hogwash and irrelevant. there is no accurate use of history around african-american women in this film, but it never comes out. we're so busy obsessively worried about the n word. keri washington's character makes no sense. you had people fighting, shooting killing and a b

i travel around, give talks on mark twain and jazz and stuff like that, various spanish universities, but the embassy was cozy with the franco government because they wanted to these bases there. i mean, this was the cold war. it was very cold at that time, and the cuban missile crisis in 62, not only 66, so -- and these bases were extremely important to the united states government, and when i first got to spain, as a matter of fact, we had b-49's on the bases outside of madrid, right next to the airport, and it was there, and another one near civil, and there was another one as well, and we had the b-49s there, but in the middle of the time that i was in spain, we brought in the b-52s that came online, and the b-49s basically retired, and the b-52s had a much longer range so we didn't have to keep them on spanish soil. these are the planes nor the bombs, and the squadrons would take off from bases in the eastern united states. when it got to the coast of spain, a kc135 tanker, three tankers would meet the planes, and each one would top off the tank, the fuel tank of the b-52, and th

you are the will rogers/mark twain of our generation. i'm serious. you are great so thank you. [applause] >> i think of myself as shania twain, but thank you. [laughter] >> hi, greg, thank you for coming. >> my pleasure. >> we're not tall, but big in spirit. >> i think i'm taller than you. >> yeah, you are. everybody is. >> thanks for bringing it up though. [laughter] do you have a question other than insulting my height? >> i do. it's not a serious question, but i was watching the five the other night, and i wonder if you have an avalanche of e-mails? you were talking to your group, and you said you wanted to use the phrase "fiscal cliff," and you slipped and said something else that i won't say, but i wanted to know if anybody else caught it other than me? >> a lot of people did. [laughter] i, you know, okay, if you do two shows a day, that's going to happen. [laughter] and, by the way, i'm not even sure what i said, but there's two -- there are two versions of it. [laughter] there's one that's profane, and then there's one that's really bilogical. [laughter] we will just --

the guise of american studies and that was part of my education as well was why wasn't i reading mark twainhi? why was i reading or kipler and mar cue a and all these culturally marxist philosophers and i started to investigate thatd eucation and i started to resent that education because i remember when i graduated it was high ho, high ho, i'm off to nihilism i go. i had no skill set whatsoever but an inherent angst at the american experience and the concept of exploiting the have versus have not oppressor/oppressed model. >> i grew up in south dakota at a time of strong republican parents. my father was a wesleyan methodistxd minister e. and the one thing he and i have in common is that we both supported the st. louis cardinal baseball team. >> rose: because you could hear them on the radio? >> that's right. and i still support them this day. it's the first thing i look at in the paper during the baseball season. but i grew up in a strong republican family. i don't think my parents ever voted for a democrat. >> rose: even f.d.r.? >> even f.d.r. i'll tell you what they taught me. my father

i have always admired mark twain's view of politics. every time you turn around, there will be another reason to laugh because it's so silly. al gore is a guy on the make. okay? and he's done really well. i mean, mitt romney's probably proud of him -- obama should be proud of him. he is in the upper 1/100th of 1%. fine. but this is the guy who went around lecturing the rest of us, beating us up psychologically, being morally superior. now he's taking $100 mill 41 from a country whose entire come is from -- entire income is from oil. this is closer to saturday night live stuff than it is to serious news and people are laughing and say, i got it. al gore had a shot to make lots and lots of money. he says, here's the stuff i have done about global warming. here's $100 million. here's that stuff i don't quite remember anymore. here's $100 million. i think that's what happened. >> i think it's peculiar to go on a book tour. he will be asked those questions every single interview. >> i think that -- this happens to all of us, i suspect it's h

one hundred years ago mark twain city's top politician with his hands in his own pockets that does nothange. we need to put handcuffs or manacles or something of politicians, some discipline that they cannot read aloud of. cheryl: i wish that worked. we have seen so much discipline and out of our in washington across the border command at the same time i looked at the issues facing the country right now. it is all about that debt. it keeps ballooning. we will have this debt ceiling fight which will begin in a few weeks and then we will be back to square one. what we have faith in these guys? >> well, let me mention another statistic to give emphasis to this point that they cannot predict with these deficits and the spending will be like. you know, on the interest-rate issue, if we just have a 100 basis point increase in interest rate, that adds $1 trillion to the debt of the next ten years. these numbers are incredibly sensitive to changes in the economy, employment, interest rates, inflation. but when congress cannot find another. that is the problem with these budgets. it emphasizes,

mark twain, for example, who you might think would have been in favor of the meal, said, absolutely not. the president is just a high-class tenant at the white house, and he has no right to express his personal feelings by inviting a black man to dine there. the reactions show the