The Best Of The Osgood Files
CBS Radio's The Osgood Files are reports and reflections on humankind at its best and its worst.
And in his fifth book See You on the Radio, Charles Osgood compiles the best of his files from the last eight years. CBS News Correspondent Russ Mitchell reports.
See You on the Radio reflects Osgood's thoughts about radio. "It is visual because there are pictures in your head.Â…And the pictures are bigger and better and more colorful," he says.
Some of the pieces are humorous, some serious, but all have to do with the things people are up to.
"Eight years ago when Wilt Chamberlain's book came out, I looked at it, and it said he claimed to have sex with 20,000 women. And there was a lot of discussion whether it was possible," Osgood recalls.
So he made a segment pointing out that there was no reference to any moral dimension or sense of right and wrong at all in the book.
"The next morning I came down to do a followup on this [story]. And when I finished doing it,...there was a man standing in the corner on the way out," he says.
"He said, 'I heard what you said. I could not agree with you more. I am glad that really got said.' He said, 'I am Bill Clinton,'" Osgood remembers.
In other stories Osgood highlights examples of the human propensity to engage in the most bizarre or illogical behavior.
For example, people consume huge amounts of gas and oil in the wintertime trying to bring the indoor temperature up to levels, which, in the summertime, we would regard as too hot, he notes.
"My view of the world is: We think we're controlling things. In fact, there are banana peels that we're tripping over all the time," he says.
Osgood also has a collection of essays titled Hazards of Modern Living: The Great Suburban Oil Spill.
"This is another banana peel and a slipping story," says Osgood. "You think of oil spills in association with someone who burns oil or maybe you're an oil tanker."
One family in Rhode Island converted from oil to natural gas but the outside spigot that led to the old oil tank was never removed.
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"One hundred twenty-five thousand gallons or whatever it was [poured] right into their basement, and so it created quite an oil slick, an oil spill right there where one idn't belong," Osgood says.
Osgood serves as the anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning and the writer and anchor of the four-times daily The Osgood Files over the CBS Radio Network.
And there is more to this poet. Review the story "See You on the Radio."
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