The Gift That Was Nelson Mandela.

I know.
I said I'd be writing about more charlatans exploiting the "talents" of the kid in my neighborhood in 1959.  And I will.
But in the interim, Nelson Mandela died.
He was truly one of the great men.
And he lived a full 95 years.
All right.
So half of them were taken away from him by locking him up in prison.
But how many of us get 95 years and all that acclaim when you're still alive?
And he deserved all of the tributes he got on all of the Sunday "talking heads" shows.
As a result, he posthumously provided me a gift that I'll be eternally grateful for.
See, when this occurred, I was in severe Tivo overload.
Both HBO and Showtime had two boxing events that occupied over eight hours of Tivo space.
This was on Friday and Saturday night. 
Each night took up eight hours..
And on Sunday, there was going to be seven hours of NFL Red Zone Football.
Plus the NFL Sunday Night Game, for which I had to set another five hours.
Plus all the Sunday" talking heads" shows: "This Week with George Stephanopoulis",  "Meet The Press", and "Face The Nation".
Well, not all.  I don't  make any effort to watch or record "Fox News Sunday".
And my Tivo was pretty much clogged before all of this programming took place.
Now, I don't know about you, but I watch the "talking heads" shows for one reason, and one reason only: 
For the arguments.
I want to see Democrats and Republicans going at each others' throats.
But because of Mandela dying when he did, it turned all those "talking heads" shows into tributes and love fests for Mandela for more than half their collective allotted time.
Some even more.
By all sides.
Yes, I know that Bill O'Reilly took this opportunity to stick to his guns and call Mandela a Communist.
But that wasn't on Sunday, and I don't watch him anyway.
Even Ted Cruz had kind words for Mandela.
And it's come back to bite him in the nuts with his base.
And now, the partisan rifts have opened up all over the place.
The point is that I don't watch the Sunday "talking heads" shows to see tributes, and everybody agreeing with each other.
So I was able to zip through at least half of the content of all those Sunday talk shows.
This gave me the security to know that I was not going to even approach my Tivo limit.
I actually reached Tivo solvency.
With Nelson Mandela's help.
I wish he could have been around to see it.
In any case, he has made me eternally grateful.

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My books, "Show Runner" and it's sequel, "Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Along with the newer ones, "The Man Is Dead", and "Report Cards".
You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
Check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperbacks, "Mark Rothman's Essays", and my new novel, "I'm Not Garbo" are available for people without Kindle.
I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
If you'd like one, contact me at macchus999@aol.com.
And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne & Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.

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