Reply #80: Well, the Yanks were playing KC at home last night. So it's a possibility. [View All]

[Berry Cool]

But. Again. I am hoping it was just hooky. I haven't quite put on the tinfoil hat, yet, I'm just sort of folding it into shape in case I should need it. That, and the worry beads.

I mean, consider this. At the end of last night's show, no reassurance that "Keith returns Monday." That tells me something: most likely, Keith ain't returning Monday. Not that I won't watch anyway just to make sure, but I have serious doubts he will be there.

And gk, the cigars thing scared me too. FOUR A DAY??? That's like smoking 32 cigarettes a day. People kid themselves about cigars, they tell themselves that smoking cigars is more sophisticated than smoking ciggies and that they are not hooked because what they are appreciating is the fine quality of the cigar, not just desperately sucking in a fix of nicotine...but the truth is that cigars are worse than cigarettes when it comes to the amount of bad stuff you take into your body.

I guess the reason it scares me is because it's not like having something removed from you and discovering it's not cancer automatically gives you a free pass from having any other kind of cancer or any other problems.

Funny--I mean, neither of us could actually see their faces so it's hard to tell--but I thought Keith was actually a little sensitive about the jokes Dan was making about him not finishing a contract. It was like, he was going to pretend not to take it seriously, but in some way, it hit home. If it didn't bother him, why go to all the trouble of pointing out that there was a man in the studio whose contract he had fulfilled? Somehow, he must have felt the *need* to point that out.

I don't think he's looking for a fight with Kaplan, either, but at the same time I don't think he's one to back down from a fight. I do think he's learned an incredible lot in the past ten years (whether or not every single story told about him is 100% true; I'm sure they're not), and one of the things he's learned is to let bygones be bygones. But if what was said about Kaplan is true (and I'm still not sure how much of it to believe; I'm sure it's quite a Rashomon story in which each person who supposedly witnessed it would tell you a different story about what "really" happened), I can't see Keith just backing down, either, for the sake of finishing out a contract. I can see him making the decision that he's not going to take any rash action while in a state of high emotion, but I can't see him, at leisure, making the decision that if someone at MSNBC wants him to do something he doesn't want to do, he's just going to shut up, grin and do it. I mean, he's not doing that now; every time he's covering a story he doesn't really want to have to cover, he TELLS us he doesn't want to cover it.

I don't think he's changed so much that there's not a rebellious bone left in him. And I don't think he will EVER change to the point that if someone wants him to do something that he thinks is just plain *wrong*, he will shut up and do it. At least I hope not. Because, as we all know, there's a difference between being "a good employee who keeps his promises and finishes out his contracts" and betraying your principles in order to keep your job, or make people think you are a good little employee. I have a feeling that if it ever comes down to making a decision between being perceived as a good little employee or a man who stood by his principles, Keith will go with his principles. The difference is, he will do it 100% for principle and 0% for spite or personal reasons. It won't get mixed up with other issues that aren't worth burning your bridges over.

I just wish I was convinced he's coming back next week. I know it could just be a simple summer vacation, and Lord knows after how he spent the last one, he deserves one he can enjoy. But it bothers me that we're not even being told he's "on vacation." Just "away." That bothers me a lot.