8/14/09: Barnicle remembers Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Listen here: http://barnicle.969fmtalk.mobi/2009/08/14/81409-eunice-kennedy-shriver.aspx
“Barnicle’s View”, with Mike Barnicle, Imus in the Morning, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6:55a & 8:55a.
BARNICLE’S VIEW ON WTKK: Remembering Eunice Kennedy Shriver
August 14th, 2009
Tags: Boston · Family · Health · Politics · Radio · Remembrances
MIKE BARNICLE FOR THE DAILY BEAST
August 4th, 2009
Yarmouth Police Lt. Steven Xiarhos pauses at the casket of his son Nicholas Xiarhos. (Photo by Steve Heaslip / Cape Cod Times)
On a soft summer morning last week, when much of the nation’s media exploded with coverage of the prior night’s White House gathering of a president, a professor, and a policeman, hundreds of ordinary strangers stood like silent sentries along a busy Cape Cod road to salute a funeral hearse carrying a noble young Marine killed in Afghanistan. His name was Nicholas Xiarhos, Corporal Nicholas Xiarhos, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 21 when a war fought by so few claimed him as one of the latest of 768 victims wearing the uniform of the United States of America in Operation Enduring Freedom, the violent effort to tame the Taliban in a land largely unchanged across the centuries.
A Cadillac hearse slowly carried the flag-draped coffin along Route 28, from St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Centerville to Bourne and the National Cemetery where Xiarhos was buried. The procession stretched for miles beneath a warm drizzle and a gunmetal gray sky.
Along the way, there were people, hundreds of them; people who were, for the moment, not consumed with health-care debates, deficits, bailouts for big banks, birthers, or house arrests in Cambridge.
It passed ice cream shops and supermarkets, malls and movie theaters, pharmacies and golf clubs, and all along the way, there were people, hundreds of them; people who were, for the moment, not consumed with health-care debates, deficits, bailouts for big banks, birthers, or house arrests in Cambridge.
They stood by their cars, stopped by the side of the road to let the long parade of grief pass. They held children on their shoulders, American flags and homemade posters in their grasp. They had hands over hearts and tears in their eyes for a boy most never met and a crushed family: the father, Lieutenant Steven Xiarhos, wearing the full dress uniform of the Cape Cod police department he has served for 30 years, the mother, Lisa Xiarhos, the dead Marine’s twin sisters, and younger brother.
The roadside mourners were of all ages and from several states, joined now in a unique American moment, a tribute to a casualty of a long war that has affected so few families in this country of such short memory. Witnesses to brutal reality.
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Steven Xiarhos snapped this photo of his wife, Lisa, and their son, Nick, at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Sept. 1.At the cemetery, the mist became rain and thunder announced itself in the distance. A color guard responded to nature’s noise with a 21-gun salute. A bagpipe brigade played “God Bless America.” His mother was presented with the gift of a grateful nation, the folded flag that protected the coffin carrying a son who died protecting others.
Three summers ago, Nick Xiarhos graduated from high school. In the 36 months since his senior prom, he fought in Iraq, returned to Cape Cod, redeployed to Afghanistan, and had now come home forever to a country and a culture that simply does not place enough value on the loss of those who go to a war that sometimes seems as forgotten as those who fight it.
Mike Barnicle has been a newspaper—remember them?—columnist for 35 years. He is a contributing commentator on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program.
Tags: Boston · Family · Military · Politics · Radio · Remembrances · War
BARNICLE’S VIEW ON WTKK: Boston murder kills a dream
August 3rd, 2009
8/3/09: Barnicle juxtaposes killings in Dorchester and Lawrence over the weekend, focusing on the the sad, personal story of a hard working immigrant who was murdered while delivering Chinese food and living the American dream.
Listen here: http://barnicle.969fmtalk.mobi/2009/08/03/8309-murders-in-dorchester-and-lawrence-this-past-weekweekend.aspx
“Barnicle’s View”, with Mike Barnicle, Imus in the Morning, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6:55a & 8:55a.
Tags: Boston · Family · Immigration · Military · Race · Remembrances · Violence
BARNICLE’S VIEW ON WTKK: Media coverage of those who sacrifice for our country
July 27th, 2009
7/27/09: Barnicle tells the story of Marine Cpl. Nicholas Xiarhos, a local 21-year-old man who died recently in Afghanistan, and the minimal newspaper coverage of his and other soldiers’ deaths.
Listen here: http://barnicle.969fmtalk.mobi/2009/07/27/72709-marine-cpl-nicholas-xiarhos.aspx?ref=rss
“Barnicle’s View”, with Mike Barnicle, Imus in the Morning, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6:55a & 8:55a.
Tags: Boston · Family · International · Military · Newspapers · Politics · Race · Radio · Remembrances · War · Youth
BARNICLE’S VIEW ON WTKK: Tom Watson still a winner
July 20th, 2009
7/20/09: Barnicle pays homage to 59-year-old Tom Watson’s recent run at the British Open.
Listen here: http://barnicle.969fmtalk.mobi/2009/07/20/72009-tom-watsonbritish-open.aspx
“Barnicle’s View”, with Mike Barnicle, Imus in the Morning, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6:55a & 8:55a.
Tags: Radio · Remembrances · Sports
BARNICLE’S VIEW ON WTKK: Michael Jackson funeral coverage over the top
July 8th, 2009
7/8/09: Mike laments the over-the-top coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral service the day prior, citing the foolish and the fringes dominates the news.
Listen here: http://barnicle.969fmtalk.mobi/2009/07/08/7809-tv-coverage-of-michael-jackson-funeral-service.aspx
“Barnicle’s View”, with Mike Barnicle, Imus in the Morning, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6:55a & 8:55a.
Tags: Newspapers · Radio · Remembrances · Television · War
BARNICLE’S VIEW ON WTKK: Remembering Michael Jackson
June 29th, 2009
6/29/09: Barnicle remembers Michael Jackson and his place in history.
Listen here: http://barnicle.969fmtalk.mobi/2009/06/29/62909-michael-jackson.aspx
“Barnicle’s View”, with Mike Barnicle, Imus in the Morning, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6:55a & 8:55a.
Tags: Family · Race · Remembrances · Youth
BARNICLE’S VIEW ON WTKK: Barnicle remembers shooting stars
June 26th, 2009
6/26/09: Barnicle remembers Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson
Listen here: http://barnicle.969fmtalk.mobi/2009/06/26/62609-farrah-fawcett-and-michael-jackson.aspx
“Barnicle’s View”, with Mike Barnicle, Imus in the Morning, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6:55a & 8:55a.
Tags: Health · Race · Remembrances · Television
From WGRZ-TV Buffalo
June 13th, 2009
Tim Russert’s Best Friend Remembers Him
6/13/09
http://www.wgrz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=67604&provider=gnews
Mike Barnicle was Tim Russert’s best friend.
“I miss him everyday, I miss him everyday,” says Barnicle.
“I miss his companionship, I miss his sense of humor,” he adds.
They were two Irish Catholic guys from blue collar families, one from Buffalo, the other from Boston.
Tim was Godfather to one of Mike’s sons.
Scott Brown: “If you had three or four words to describe him, what would they be?”
Barnicle: “Generous, loyal, honorable and loving.”
The two men shared a love of family, and sports, and politics.
“He knew what it was to lead a real life, largely because of his upbringing in Buffalo and largely because he was unchanged as he progressed through his life.” said Barnicle.
“From working for Senator Moynihan and Governor Cuomo of New York, to becoming arguably the most important media figure in the country on Meet the Press, he never changed, he was always just a real guy.”
Scott Brown: “Did he talk about South Buffalo and the real people and the steelworkers and the guys he grew up with?”
Barnicle: “Nearly everything that Tim brought to the table was always about South Buffalo, always about where he grew up, always about the Catholic church, the parochial school, the nuns who taught him, his father’s friends, the VFW post, the Legion Post, his dad’s experience in World War II.
“Everything, everyday within there was South Buffalo, he could be living in Washington, D.C. he could be in Paris with the president, he could be with the Pope in Rome and he always brought South Buffalo to the table, that was part of his magic.”
Brown: “How often did his love of Buffalo and the Bills and the Sabres and everything else come up in conversation?”
Barnicle: “You could get Tim in an instant bad mood with two words: ‘wide right’. You’d be talking about Scott Norwood missing that field goal in the Super Bowl. Two words, wide right he would go into a funk, for years he would go into a funk after that event.”
Brown: “Can you tell us how Luke and his wife Maureen are doing these days?”
Barnicle: “I think they’re doing as well as can be expected. And yet lingering over the two of them obviously is the fact that Tim is gone and they can still, I’m sure as I can, as many people out there can, still hear his voice. He still has a resonance in their lives, he always will. So it’s a burden they carry, the loss of a husband and a father, but they’re doing pretty well.”
Tim’s death a year ago was the ultimate of ironies.
The man who considered himself the luckiest guy in the world died on Friday, the 13th.
The guy who wrote a best seller about his father died on the eve of Father’s Day weekend.
Brown: “What is this Father’s Day going to be like without him?”
Barnicle: “It’s going to be a very difficult day, Father’s Day. But I think every day is a difficult day for anyone who has lost a loved one, it’s particularly tough for Luke and Maureen because they suffered such a public loss, but every day has been difficult Scott.”
Brown: “What’s a great Tim Russert story that encapsulates who he was and what kind of fun he had?”
Barnicle: “Tim loved to come to Fenway Park and sit with me and by the third inning he would have mustard all over his golf shirt and people coming up to him asking for autographs. A fellow comes up to him, this is several years ago, and asks him for an autograph, Tim takes the pen and signs and thanks the fellow very much and the guy says ‘I want to thank you very much for the ketchup too’ because Tim had slobbered ketchup all over the autograph paper (laughs).”
Brown: “It seemed like he squeezed every bit of joy and fun and excitement out of those 58 years?”
Barnicle: “Yeah he did, he sure did. He had more fun in his life than most people have in two or three lifetimes. And he had fun everyday and the best part of the fun that Tim had was whether it was at work, whether it was on Nantucket, whether it was in Buffalo at a Bills game, he didn’t have to work at having fun, because having fun came naturally to Timmy.”
Tags: Family · Remembrances · Sports · Television · War
BARNICLE’S VIEW ON WTKK: A local student’s death is a reminder not to take life for granted
May 15th, 2009
5/15/09: Barnicle talks about the fragility of life after a local college student is killed in a car accident.
Listen here: http://barnicle.969fmtalk.mobi/2009/05/15/51509-life-being-taken-for-granted.aspx?ref=rss
“Barnicle’s View”, with Mike Barnicle, Imus in the Morning, Monday-Wednesday-Friday, 6:55a & 8:55a.
Tags: Boston · Education · Family · Health · Radio · Remembrances · Youth
