I lived one summer with Tim Leary ñ well, not really for a whole summer, but briefly ñ and he came and woke me up while taking a nap one time, which I thought was just terrible, and it was about 5 oíclock in the afternoon. And he said, ìThe news is on.î And I was like, ìYeah?î And he was all excited, jumping up and down like a little kid. And I could care less. And h said, ìYou don't watch the news?î And I said, ìOf course I don't watch the news.î And he said, ìWell, come watch it now.î And I said, ìNo, it would be like coming in in the middle of a movie.î And he said, ìAnything you have a question about, Barbara [his wife] and I will answer. My first question was ìWhatís South Africa?î
I mean, I was way uninformed. And therefore, it is with great pride that I take the stage on ìWait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!î Iíve redeemed myself with the news, but Iím battered by the storm, Iím hanging on to the little bit of knowledge I can glean each week. And this is borne out by the fact that I lose repeatedly on that show; in seven years, I think maybe Iíve won four times now. And I may be exaggerating for the sake of publicity; it may have been three times.
CHRONOGRAM: I just wanted to confirm something; you lived with scientist and LSD advocate Timothy Leary?
PP: The guru of the 1960s—
CHRONOGRAM: -- who is circling overhead in perpetual orbit?
PP: Yeah. Itís as it should be. Yeah, I knew him; he was a friend of a friend, and I knew him in that friend of a friend way. And one time we were at a party, and I was a bit shy of a place to live. And his wife made the sad mistake of saying, ìWell, you can stay with us.î Most of the people I knew at that time in my life were a little bit more solvent than I was. I was still in my early 20s and doing the friendís couch to the friendís rug routine. I had some friends who sere older than me, and they just didn't do that anymore. So there was a little bit of shame with which I pulled into their driveway that fated day. Tim opened his arms and said, ìConsider this one of your homes on the planet,î which was such a Tim Leary thing to say. And hen I overstayed my welcome, to be totally honest with you, and he began ñ Iím sure, he didn't say it with his words ñ to wish I had more homes on the planet.
CHRONOGRAM: But now Santa Monica is—
PP: -- my home on the planet.
CHRONOGRAM: Youíve committed yourself to a lot of causes: social issues like the Comic Relief concerts; and political matters like a column in Mother Jones and 1993 inauguration coverage on Tonight with Jay Leno. Youíre also a spokesperson for Friends of Libraries USA. As an unapologetic left-leaning liberal, do you see the election of President Obama as a signal of less comic material?
PP: I don't think so. Itís true that I might be hard-pressed to parody him. Itís the rest of us that deserve mocking at this point. I was hearing this story on NPR today, a really sad story about some penguins. Theyíre not the Emperor penguin; theyíre a different breed of penguin. They are so hardwired to do what theyíve always done, which is: they jump off their ice place, and they swim out to the good fishing ground. They do it every day; theyíve always done it. As the ice melts, the distance to their food place gets longer. They can only fish during the day. So, on their way to that place, they pass many other fish that they can eat. But thatís not their eating place, so they won't eat there. They have to go to the original eating place; theyíre that hardwired. And they are, therefore, not able to have enough hours of daylight to sustain themselves, and therefore theyíre dying out of malnutrition.
