The School of Procrastination

I think how your family approaches life in your childhood can set the tone for your adulthood later on. While some parents demand excellence in all endeavors, others may let things slide. My mother and father came from humble backgrounds and even though they never ventured too far from being average people, they always tried to nurture my creativity and instill strong moral values. One weak spot that I've been thinking about this past year has been my parents' tendency to procrastinate.

Sometime in the spring, my mother thought about transcribing all of her illegible hand-written recipes so my brother and I would have them. Since she's not tech savvy, she wanted me to get the old electric typewriter out of storage. The machine hadn't been used in a couple of decades so by now the ribbons were bone dry. Did anyone sell replacements in this day and age? I made a trip to a nearby office supply store only to discover that yes, they still sold ribbons but they were out of stock. Now my mother obsessed about getting her typewriter working again. Every few days, she'd nag me to check out different stores and when I did, they either didn't sell them or they were out of stock. We finally had to order them online.

After installing the replacement ribbons, I got some paper and tried to test the typewriter out. Nothing happened when I pressed the keys so then I had to search the internet to identify the problem. Thankfully, there were some typewriter enthusiasts out there on Youtube who suspected a broken drive belt. I opened up the bottom to find the dried rubber drive belt crumbled into small pieces. These Youtube experts recommended using o-rings as a substitute so after doing my best to take some measurements, I headed to the local hardware store. They had a nice stock of Culligan o-rings for water filters that were packaged in plastic bags which made it difficult to tell if it would be an exact fit. Thankfully, the o-ring I purchased fit nicely on the typewriter and it started working once again after a long slumber.

So after being badgered for months to get the typewriter working again, what happens? It continues to sit on the kitchen table unused as of this writing. I think my mother's chronic pain partly explains her inability to type out those recipes but looking back at our family history, I think it's more than that. What about on her “good days” when the pain isn't as bad?

Procrastination always seemed to be part of our family and I wonder if some people have a genetic predisposition toward it. I recall her buying a Juice Man blender years ago in an attempt to embrace a healthier lifestyle. The machine was only used once and then it sat in the cabinet collecting dust along with a whole host of other pristine kitchen gadgets that were going to change our lives. 

My dad, having grown up during The Great Depression, would never throw anything away and a result, he'd hold onto broken or useless items that he pledged to fix later...but it was a “later” that never came. Even worse is when he'd see something in someone else's trash and take it home with him. He passed away over ten years ago and I still haven't cleaned out all his junk from the attic and basement yet.

I see a vein of procrastination running through my life too and try to do my best to overcome it with mixed results. During my school years, I was envious of the kids who always started projects and homework right away but I could never muster up enough ambition to follow their lead. In high school, I once joked to a friend, “I could do that assignment now but I get such a rush finishing it at the last minute.” Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if I had one of those “Tiger Moms” for a parent.

When I was unemployed several years ago, I actually made great strides in cleaning and organizing the house but having a 3rd shift job has all but killed my free time. I sleep away most of the daylight hours and when I wake up, I'm exhausted. In the few hours before work, I don't have the energy to do much of anything. Then on my days off, I might tackle one of the many projects around the house but more often than not, I can't transition back to being a day person and wind up tossing and turning all night. For many years, my father worked the night shift and I have a new-found respect for him.

Thankfully, there are some things I refuse to let fall by the wayside. All of my financial documents are organized with hanging files which is a far cry from my mother's system of throwing her bills and statements into a brown grocery bag. The thousands of photos I've taken over the years are neatly organized by subject and I've been making some progress trying to get rid of the unwanted clutter in my room. Unfortunately, doing nothing is always easier and fighting that urge to put something off for later is so very difficult.

Putting in that extra effort at the beginning of a process saves a lot of time and energy in the long run but what's most important is that you follow through and see things to the end. It's a lesson I wish my parents embraced a long time ago. Meanwhile, an unused typewriter continues to sit on the kitchen table...

Her Bad Day Is Mine Too

One long and drawn out caregiver folly that comes to mind was when my mother lost her handmade needlepoint eyeglass case that featured a butterfly design against a blue background.  It was something she made a long time ago and it held a lot of sentimental value.

On a random weekend a few years ago, she couldn't find the eyeglass case so she asked me to look around her bedroom for her.  She usually put the case at the foot of the bed so perhaps it fell off and landed on the floor.  I got out the flashlight, got on my hands and knees and searched in vain.  After we spent some more time looking around the house and in the car, she wondered if the case had accidentally fallen into the small trash barrel that was by her bed.  Now her anxiety turned into frustration because I had just taken out the trash the day before and if her theory was correct, the case was now long gone.  However, I didn't recall seeing it among the trash when I emptied the barrel.  Surely even in my zoned-out state of mind, the eyeglass case would have caught my attention.  But where was it?

She was convinced it had been thrown out in the trash and now she was having a bad day.  As a caregiver, when the person you care for has a bad day, you have a bad day.  This is partly due to the sympathy you have for their awful predicament but sometimes it's because they are in such a foul mood, it rubs off on you.

Soon, I found myself searching online for what happens if something of value is thrown out in the trash.  Turns out, the trash company can look for an item at the transfer station if you call them and narrow the search by giving them the truck's route and time of pickup BUT such a search needs to be done within 24 hours.  Unfortunately, it was too late for my mother's eyeglass case if it had indeed been lost in the trash.  Still, part of me felt it hadn't.  

        
I tried to calm my mother down by saying there really wasn't anything that could be done right now.  If the eyeglass case had been accidentally thrown out, it was gone for good and no amount of complaining could bring it back.  If it was lost somewhere inside the house, it would eventually turn up somehow.  Well, that wasn't good enough and she continued to be miserable.  She got on my nerves and I found myself repeating the words she used to tell me as a child: "If you have something nice, you have to take better care of it."  I thought it was foolish of her to place the eyeglass case so close to a trash barrel.

 
After a few days, she resigned herself to the notion that it was gone forever and visited the needlepoint store to look for a new canvas.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any good patters in stock for making another eyeglass case so she left empty-handed and feeling dejected. 

A couple of weeks passed and then one night I heard her give out a yell from downstairs.  While in the bathroom, she had grabbed a towel from the linen closet and out fell the needlepoint eyeglass case.  Apparently, she had been folding the laundry on her bed at the beginning of the month and unbeknownst to her, the case was accidentally folded into one of the bathroom towels.  My overjoyed mother said,  "My prayers to St. Anthony were answered.  He has never let me down.  He may take his time, but he has always come through for me."  Now every time I take out the trash, I make sure to check her barrel a little more carefully to make sure only trash is being thrown away.

I'm glad things worked out for my mother this time around but the story of her eyeglass case shows how quickly a caregiver can go from having a nice day to dealing with sudden catastrophes.  I find myself always on guard for the latest crisis and that's a mindset that doesn't offer much peace of mind.

Caregiver Follies

I posted this subject to the Catholic Match forums last year and it was very well-received. While caring for my elderly mother, I noticed in the sea of typical struggles, certain difficulties that most people probably wouldn't even think of unless they walked a mile in my shoes. The following is a list of some of those funny and not so funny observations: 

* One pleasure in my down time that's become rare is listening to music with headphones on because if I'm upstairs in my room, I need to be able to hear my mother's cries for help if she needs something. I swear the record companies add the sound of her voice or the noise of a ringing telephone to the background of their songs because there have been many times when I think I hear those things but it turns out to be a false alarm.

* I have become a bathroom guard for those single occupancy ladies rooms since my mother doesn't want to lock door behind her just in case she falls and needs help. If that doesn't make me look like a creeper sometimes...

* My mother needs glasses to read but she will often forget to bring them along when we go out to eat and I have to read the full menu to her...loudly at times because of her hearing trouble.

* Lately, I have been finding plates or silverware that my mother washed still with bits of dried food attached because she somehow "missed a spot." 

* I will check to see what she is wearing for the day so I don't pick out an outfit with the same color palette hoping to avoid looking like those couples who dress alike.

* Sometimes she hides her medical issues because she doesn't want to worry me but I get really worried when after three days of suffering, she blurts out, “Take me to the ER. I can't it anymore.” 

* She talks to the TV during Family Feud and when I'm upstairs I will sometimes hear her yell things like, “That's an ugly suit!” or “No, you idiot!” She will sometimes answer the survey questions but I can't hear the questions: “Cows!” “Beach ball!” “Your oven!” “Mexico!”

* When I come home from my third shift job, I walk by her bedroom and listen to hear if she is still breathing.

* She no longer drives but she is an expert backseat driver.

* When I hear my mother yell, "Something's wrong with the television" I always have to fix the problem which is something usually minor like she accidentally pressed the aspect ratio button or the closed captioning button which is right next to the on/off switch.  Technology baffles her.  

* When I'm sleeping after a hard night at work, she'll often ask me from downstairs “Are you asleep?” so loudly that it wakes me up. “Not anymore!” is my typical response.

* When I am sick and just want to sleep, she keeps asking me questions about every twenty minutes: "Is your throat still sore?"  "Do you want to go to the Minute Clinic?"

* To prevent hypoglycemia, she always puts Lifesavers mints in her pockets but it's amazing how these things tend to show up around all around the house: in drawers, in cabinets, under furniture.

* Before doing the laundry, I always have to check the pockets of my mother's clothes for the previously mentioned Lifesavers mints and the large amount of tissues she likes to carry with her. 

* She craves attention so whenever a repairman comes to the house, she likes to talk his ear off. What's worse is when she touches on a hot topic like Trump or immigration.

* She asks the doctor who emigrated from Russia, "What do you think of Mr. Putin?"

* My mother will get frustrated with other old people and she's at that stage in life where she will tell them off. Before one Palm Sunday Mass, an elderly woman was talking her time to pick through the palms and my mother actually said, “Are you going to be there all day?!”

* Despite the fact that my mother is almost 86 years old, she doesn't want to use a walker because according to her, those are for old people.

* In fact, she doesn't want to associate with people her own age because in her words "they are a bunch of old farts who complain about pain all the time."

* When I do get into an argument with her, my mother has no trouble pulling out the old age card and simply says, “Why don't I just drop dead?”

* My mother always uses the speaker phone function so the sound of dialing brings me a feeling of dread because she calls so many doctors due to her failing health. Also, one of the doctors' offices plays bad smooth jazz music when they put her on hold...often for a very long time.

* While dining out, she sometimes comments on the poor fashion choices of the other patrons: “Is she for real?!” “They're not leaving anything to the imagination, are they?”

* My mother has the uncanny ability to yell a question to me from downstairs during the most dramatic part of a TV show or movie.

* Even though I am half a century old, she still worries when I leave the house. I will hear her say, “Drive carefully” and she will sometimes insist that I call her when I am ready to head back home.

* During one trip to the bank, I decided to make a long side trip down a country road just to clear my mind for a while. I came back home to see her in tears because she thought my unexpected delay might have been caused by a car accident.

* My mother doesn't understand that when I yell out of frustration at other drivers or at other people or about my life in general, I am not yelling at her.

* Hearing the sound of her pain pills rattling around in the plastic bottle brings anxiety because that means she's in pain and needs to take another dose.

* When my mother yells for help from downstairs and it sounds like a huge medical emergency...only to find out it's something not as serious like when she dropped a box of toothpicks and they landed all over the floor.

* Having to raise my voice because she has trouble hearing but then she thinks I am yelling at her in anger.

* Giving me cheap career advice that is so out of left field when I tell her how unhappy I am with my current employer. “Why don't you call channel 5 and ask for a job working in TV?”

* My mother telling me that if I ever got serious with a girl, she'd be happy to sell the house and move into a small apartment by herself. Once I start dating, however, she somehow forgets that statement and begins to worry that I will abandon her.

My post generated many responses from other caregivers on CatholicMatch who shared their own interesting observations about their elderly parents. Feel free to share any of your own caregiver follies in the comments section below.

9-11's Other Memorial

NBC's Ann Curry before the attacks

So traumatic were the events of 9-11 that 17 years passed before I could bring myself to search Youtube and rewatch the footage of the attacks unfolding live on morning television shows.  What struck me about these videos was how calm and normal that terrible day began.

It was a perfectly sunny late summer morning and some newscasters commented on this fact.  CBS's Mark McEwen noted the “miles and miles” of sunshine on the weather map and said it was as nice as it could be across the northeast.  However, in a bit of eerie foreshadowing, he closed the segment by remarking, “It's kind of quiet around the country.  We like quiet.  Unless it's quiet.  It's too quiet.”  Standing with the adoring crowd of people outside Rockefeller Center, NBC's Katie Couric said, “It is such a pretty morning isn't it?”  Al Roker replied, “It is a perfect fall morning...although it's not fall yet so it's still a perfect summer morning.”

The news reported a U.S. drone shot down by Iraq.  The Miss America Pageant was now going to quiz contestants on history and current events with some participants not knowing what happened on Dec. 7, 1941 during a trial run of the questions.  Ads for Nightline had Ted Kopel pitching a week-long report on the ongoing conflict in the Congo commenting that it was a story we should have brought you long ago.  

Just before the attacks, The Early Show host Bryant Gumbel was doing a cooking segment with the executive food editor of Gourmet Magazine in celebration of the publication's 60th anniversary.  Fox News was interviewing singer Babyface and asked about his new hair style.  Katie Couric had just wrapped up an interview with Harry Belafonte and Matt Lauer began speaking with Richard Hack about his new book on Howard Hughes.  The author was enjoying a brief moment in the sun when the segment had to be cut short because of a “breaking story” at the World Trade Center.  Live footage of the buildings wouldn't load so Matt Lauer broke for a commercial as did many other stations at that time.

When the major networks came back, they aired special reports with the now too familiar footage of black smoke billowing out of the North Tower.  Hindsight allows us to dismiss any naive speculation that it might have been an accident.  When Flight 175 hit the South Tower on live TV, Bryant Gumbel couldn't see the footage but a witness he was talking to over the phone was shocked and described the crash as deliberate.  The Early Show host seemed to be in denial and asked this caller and another caller why they thought so.  By contrast, Good Morning America's Charlie Gibson quickly concluded that a concerted effort to attack the World Trade Center was underway.

Confusion was caused by where the camera had been placed with some broadcasts showing the North Tower at an angle that completely obscured the South Tower and the approaching Flight 175.  The same was true for the collapse of the South Tower.  One station initially reported the loss of the structure as just falling debris.  A few news anchors were completely caught off guard because they were in the middle of interviews or trying to report the attack on the Pentagon and a possible car bomb outside the State Department.

After 22 years, seeing the 9-11 terrorist attacks unfold minute by excruciating minute still hits me like a punch to the gut.  As ABC's Diane Sawyer put it so eloquently back then, “To watch powerless, is a horror.”  There's some footage from that terrible day I still haven't seen and I'm not sure if or when I ever will but I am glad all of it exists on Youtube and other websites because it captures so well the confusion, shock, heartbreak and fear we experienced in 2001.

During a 2021 interview with 60 Minutes, New York firefighter Regina Wilson said, “So many of us sacrificed so much that this story can't get lost.  Because the world is changing fast.  And I don't want this to be something that's in a history book that a page is turned, and we're forgotten.”  She's right to have this concern because so often, still photographs, commemorative markers and stone monuments fail to capture the essence of a tragedy.  In 2016, my hometown unveiled its own 9-11 memorial complete with a large steel beam from the World Trade Center.  The archival footage of the attacks as they happened is 9-11's other memorial however, one that shows us a way of life and a sense of innocence that was lost forever on a sunny Tuesday morning so long ago.

The Good and Bad of Catholic Schools

Photo credit: James Bartlett / Lynn Daily Item

 

 

Chronicle is a local public interest television show that's been on the air at Boston's WCVB since 1982.  They recently devoted an entire broadcast to the subject of Catholic schools and it was surprisingly positive.

One interview featured Tom Nunan (pictured), the current president of Bishop Fenwick High School and he made the case that a parochial education is more relevant than ever.  He stated that in a world where many students face alienation and isolation Catholic schools can provide “an authentic community, a real sense of belonging and a place where you can feel at home.”

Also discussed during the half hour show was the pandemic's impact.  Eleven schools within the Boston Archdiocese closed for good as a result of the virus, but the program made the case that Catholic schools responded better to safety protocols that were put in place and resumed in-person learning much earlier than many pubic schools.  This created huge interest in enrollment from parents and students who were eager to get back into the classroom.  Unfortunately, with pre-pandemic numbers already dwindling, this surge did not do much to increase overall enrollment.

One interviewee stated that many parents don't just want their children to receive a good education, they want them to become better people and a Catholic school's faith-based learning can provide that.  A few now-thriving disadvantaged students were also profiled along with the Catholic Schools Foundation, an organization that helps provide financial assistance to those who can't cover tuition.  When a Catholic school education is at its best, it's a beautiful thing.  Unfortunately, there's another side to all of this that undermines the lofty goals so many spoke about on Chronicle.

From my own experiences at Bishop Fenwick, I found none of what Tom Nunan was talking about.  I sincerely hope things have changed for the better at that institution from where they were a few decades ago because all I found at the school was alienation and isolation.  Catholic schools can be very cliquey, hypocritical and elitist.  One student interviewed on Chronicle said the first time she was ever called the “n-word” was by a fellow student at Bishop Fenwick.  

Often, Catholic schools will place a huge emphasis on educational greatness or athletic greatness at the expense of moral greatness.  Sometimes this strategy works.  A good number of my fellow classmates in high school were only there to get an educational advantage over their public school counterparts.  Their parents really didn't care about the Church's morals and the students themselves absolutely loathed what the Church stood for but that diploma was an important key to unlock greater secular success.

It's odd that some Catholic schools seem to be more about prestige and sports than morality.  I'm reminded of how many locals simply refer to the all-boys St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, MA as “the prep” even though there are other schools in the greater Boston area with the word “preparatory” in their names.  When someone close to me attended that institution many years ago, I could see how snobby he and his fellow classmates became and how engaging in reckless and / or self-destructive behavior was par for the course.   

Maybe this approach is the future for the Catholic schools that will survive into the next century or maybe forsaking the Church's values will only quicken the pace of their demise.

Sadly, Bishop Fenwick made the news recently...for all the wrong reasons.  The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association harshly punished the high school for alleged inconsistencies regarding one student's application to play baseball.  As a result, all sports have been suspended from state playoffs for 2023-2024.  In a case that many find confusing, the MIAA alleges Fenwick engaged in a pattern of deception while the school maintains these inconsistencies were a result of confusion and ignorance regarding the complicated application process.  School leaders were in the hot seat as they fielded questions from angry and bewildered parents during a discussion about the controversy in the auditorium. (See this blog entry's photo.)

Fenwick has vowed to appeal the decision with no guarantee the MIAA will even consider what the school has to say.  In the meantime, all student athletes are paying the price for something they had no part in.  I think we need to expect better from the Catholic educational system.

When Chickens Come Home To Roost

June of 2023 was a not a good month for Catholic schools in the greater Boston area.

In February, St. Joseph Preparatory High School announced their doors would close for good at the end of the school year.  The Brighton, MA institution had occupied the former Mount Saint Joseph Academy and was the result of a 2012 merger between that school and Trinity Catholic High School of Newton, MA which was founded in 1894.

In March, the all-girls Mount Alvernia High School (also in Newton) announced plans to close and merge with Fontbonne Academy, another all-girls Catholic school in Milton, MA.  The Missionary Franciscan Sisters who ran Mount Alvernia said operations had become unsustainable because they were no longer able to continue living on the property.  According to a National Catholic Register article, one board member who later became its chair said the possibility of closing the school "was never once discussed" during her tenure and she accused the sisters of making their decision in secret.

Students of the Cambridge Matignon School were also blindsided when the 76 year old Cambridge, MA institution announced their closure just one month before graduation.  In all of these cases, the story seems to be the same.  Insurmountable financial difficulties coupled with declining enrollment led to each school's demise.

Many years ago, my niece's Catholic school enjoyed huge crowds during their annual Christmas pageant.  After just a few years, the place announced its closure as well.  Apparently enrollment hadn't dipped...it collapsed and she graduated with only six other students in her class.  The principal tried to put a positive spin on things by saying for over a hundred years the institution's mission was to educate young minds and now that mission was complete.  We were told to be proud of what the school had accomplished over the past century but such words did little to abate the feeling that something great was being lost.

Sometimes when Catholic schools close, failure is painted as an exciting opportunity.  That's how Father Mark Mahoney portrayed the 2016 closure of Saint Mary's School in Beverly, MA.  Under his leadership, that institution merged with the nearby Saint John the Evangelist School and was renamed The Saints Academy.  There was talk of closing St. Mary's School as early as 1975 but when Father Richard Johnson became pastor a year later, he set up Beano games and took other steps that helped stabilize the school's finances and enrollment.  A lot of good people worked so hard over the years to keep that place going.  Today, the building continues to sit empty.

Even though this blog has been critical of my experiences at Bishop Fenwick High School, I still feel these institutions are far too important to lose.  The parochial educational system offers the Church one of the greatest opportunities to renew itself.  Not only are young minds exposed to important character-shaping values, they can also find an oasis from the moral relativism that plagues modern society.

While there are many reasons for these school closures, it certainly doesn't help when young people seeking to increase their faith discover their parishes offer them no place at the table.  It also doesn't help when singles who willingly embrace the Church's teachings are left to fend for themselves and never get the chance to marry and have the children who would attend Catholic schools in the first place.

The Cost of Failure / The Price of Success

Last month saw the passing of tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer at the age of 79 from pancreatic cancer. While most news stories on the subject covered (in great detail) the trashy talk show that made him a household name, only a few mentioned the program's humble beginnings.

When the Jerry Springer show debuted in the autumn of 1991, it actually featured serious topics on news, politics, and current events. That's not surprising given the host's background as a reporter and politician. In fact, the program's signature “Final Thought” ending segment allowed for thoughtful commentary on some of the most complex issues of the day. This is something I remember well from around that time.

With ratings tanking, a choice had to be made. Retool the Jerry Springer show into something that would grab audiences or face certain cancellation. The host and producers chose the former rather than the latter and the rest is history. For the next two decades the program remained on the airwaves making Jerry Springer one very rich and famous individual...but at what cost?

For a guy who loved talking politics, all meaningful discussions on his show quickly disappeared. Even the Final Thought segment became irrelevant. (Seriously, what real insight could Jerry give his viewers about that lesbian stripper threesome gone wrong?) As his program devolved into a moral garbage sideshow, Jerry Springer himself tended to stay on the sidelines during taping as not to get caught up in the fights among guests that would frequently break out. Despite Mr. Springer's tag line, “Take care of yourselves and each other” it seemed like he was profiting off of lots of people who did not take care of themselves or each other.

Mr. Springer's death had me thinking of a sermon I heard at St. Mary's in Beverly many years ago. Our priest asked what price we were willing to pay to live a moral life in keeping with the Church's values? Would we always strive to do the right thing or would we turn a blind eye to immortality in our pursuit of material wealth and status? He then used the example of a nameless Catholic man who worked as a scientist at a bioengineering lab and made a very comfortable living for himself and his family. One day he realizes that his company is using aborted fetal tissue in its experiments. Does the man take a moral stand and quit his job or does he simply do nothing? Taking the moral stand would certainly upend that comfortable life he enjoyed and it would also cause a heck of a lot of stress for both himself and his family. Our priest continued by saying there were times when standing up for your beliefs invited failure but “it's better to be a failure in this world and a success in the next one than the other way around.”

He then pointed to the crucifix and added, “In many ways, that's a symbol of failure.” The sermon was so moving, it stayed with me after all these years and I sometimes think about it during some of caregiving's most difficult moments. Living at home and working a dead-end job in order to care for my elderly mother certainly hasn't brought me wealth and fame (...or a girlfriend) but it's where I need to be right now because she has no one else in her life.

There's no shortage of Catholics who ignore this advice, however. Maybe it's the guy in the Catholic Match chat room who talks about stocks, 401Ks, and wealth management more than he does about giving to the poor. Maybe it's the woman who places moral character far below having a successful professional career in her prerequisites for a husband. Maybe it's the Catholic politician who betrays his beliefs to become well-liked. In the face of failure, we all must make decisions on how strong our moral compass really is.

Some say Jerry Springer sold out for ratings. In interviews, he didn't seem too proud of his show's legacy. Instead, he made light of it much like the Hollywood scream queen who is eternally embarrassed by her part in a cheesy slasher flick but won't say anything for fear of alienating her fanbase. Mocking his critics, he started introducing the program as “the worst television show of all time.” No doubt there were viewers who saw value in the Jerry Springer show, but speaking from personal experience, I knew a few die-hard fans who would have been much better off reading a book or going for a walk instead.

There were certainly winners from Mr. Springer's embrace of the lowest common denominator. Those producers who wanted higher ratings got what they wanted. Steve Wilkos, a security guard on the program, also gained fame and eventually became the host of his own talk show in 2007. Many others who worked behind the scenes earned a steady paycheck but at what price?

I think part of the Jerry Springer show's legacy is that it taught us to take pleasure in other people's misery like never before. Grievances guests aired weren't a big deal as long as the spectacle they provided was entertaining enough. Whether or not Jerry Springer himself becomes as well-remembered as other purveyors of schlock and shock like Joe Pyne (Who?) or Morton Downey Jr. (Who?) remains to be seen.