With today being Charles Osgood last Sunday as Anchor of CBS “Sunday Morning” my blog post today is Revisiting Charles Osgood Funny Letters From Famous People book.

You will want to set your DVR on this Sunday Morning for CBS for their special episode “Celebrating Charlie”.   He is hosting his final show today, September 25, having been the Anchor since 1994.
When I wrote my blog post last November entitled “Funny Letters From Famous People” (Charles Osgood) I was nearing daily blog post #300.   Each of the three sections in the book begins with a poem written by Charles.   I shared in my blog post how nice it was to read about his perspective on traditional letter writing.  Here is an excerpt:

In his three plus pages of his introduction he makes the case that 200 years from now it will be hard for a biographer to go back through people’s letter exchanges given there aren’t that many of traditional letters anymore – and sure we have their emails but a lot of times with email humor one needs the emoticon to help distinguish if humor is at play or not.  To quote from his book: “But a real letter about a real situation from a real person, especially a real politician, author, or show business celebrity? Now that can be funny!”

Among the many books on letter writing that I’ve covered here and ended up adding to my personal library, this small 5″ x 8″ hardback enjoys a prime spot on my bookshelf.   How fast the last year has flown by since writing about his book and I am now nearing daily blog post #600!    I still find myself smiling when reading his dedication to the book concluding with “…Brave couriers, hats off to you, Who get those funny letters through!”

I’ve included this short video announcing his retiring from Sunday Morning.   When I watched this I had to stop and catch my breath smiling in recognizing the song Charles is practicing singing.   “So Long It’s Been Good to Know You” is a Woody Guthrie song.  The song brings tremendous sentimentality for me as I have on cassette tape my Dad singing it and included the memory of that song with Dad in my daily blog post #100.

In the midst of constant change, it has been so nice to know most Sundays one could find Charles Osgood distinctive soothing voice hosting the show.  Even on Sundays when not watching just knowing he was there was a constant.  Today I’ll be writing a fan letter Thank you to him.   I will be mailing it to the posted Charles Osgood Fan Mail Address.  It is the address that my web search results kept showing.   While I do not know if it will ever make its way to him, nonetheless I’m going to make the time to send a proper Thank You note.  Thank you so much to Mr. Osgood for sharing your Sunday Mornings these past 22 years!

Anchors Aweigh,   

Image above upper left Book Cover and excerpt “Funny Letters from Famous People” Edited and Introduced by Charles Osgood