without further ado, i would like to open the discussion between doctor slusher and ted koppel. you very much. [applause] >> let me take you back to 1972 for a minute. that, of course, was the year that richard nixon went to china. and i found myself one morning. i was on that trip is one of the correspondents covering it and i found myself one morning in a minivan in beijing sitting next to james michener and in the course of our conversation he told me about an event one evening and he received a phone call from someone who said congratulations, sir, our group has selected you to be this year's recipient of the greatest living american author and we would like you to come and accept this award and he excused himself and consulted his calendar is that i am terribly sorry, but i already have a pre-existing commitment. and there was a long cause on the other end of the phone and he said, well, can you think of another greatest living american author? [laughter] and he said, well, sure, what about mailer or blog or not and we already tried them and they could make it either. [laug