TVXOHOF CHRISTMAS HONORS LIST, 2025

For my annual Christmas Honors List for the Television Crossover H, I found inspiration in a Christmas song:

"Have a holly jolly Christmas,
and when you walk down the street.
Say hello to friends you know
and everyone you meet."

And that's why this year I'm inducting two old school friends of mine from the talking heads....

No, not the band!  I mean those friends of mine who were pundits, brought on screen to expound on their personal realms of expertise.  Usually pundits wouldn't be considered, but this is the Christmas Honors List!  The Rules are loosened like my pants after a holiday meal, and again, these two guys are old friends of mine.

And as this year is a milestone for the three of us, I figured it was as good a time as any to have them join me in the Hall.

First up....

ADMIRAL DAVID PEKOSKE

From Wikipedia:
David Peter Pekoske (born May 5, 1955) is an American government official and retired U.S. Coast Guard vice admiral who served as the seventh administrator of the Transportation Security Administration in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2017 to 2025. He served as the acting deputy secretary of homeland security from April to November 2019 and again from January to June 2021. From January 20, 2021 to February 2, 2021 he served as acting secretary of homeland security, during the Senate confirmation of Alejandro Mayorkas. Pekoske retired with 33 years of active military service in 2010 as the 26th vice commandant of the Coast Guard.

Pekoske was born in Meriden, Connecticut. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in ocean engineering from the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. He is a 1989 graduate of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University with a Master of Public Administration degree. Pekoske graduated from the MIT Sloan School of Management with an MBA in 1997.

From Alison Sider
[The Wall Street Journal]
01/21/2025

The head of the Transportation Security Administration said he was pushed out of President Trump’s new administration.

TSA Administrator David Pekoske told staff late Monday morning that he had been advised by Trump’s transition team that “my time as your Administrator will end at noon ET today,” the time of Trump’s swearing in, according to a farewell message viewed by The Wall Street Journal. CNN earlier reported on the staff message and Pekoske’s departure.

Trump named Pekoske, a former vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, as TSA administrator in 2017. President Biden re-upped him to a second five-year term in 2022. Pekoske said last year that he hoped to stay in the job. It was not immediately clear who would replace him. The Trump transition team didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

From Justin Doubleday
[The Federal News Network]

Pekoske’s ouster comes midway through his second five-year term as TSA administrator. DHS and the White House did not respond to questions about the reason behind Pekoske’s dismissal and plans for TSA leadership moving forward.

Trump first nominated Pekoske to serve as TSA administrator in 2017. After being re-nominated by President Joe Biden, the Senate confirmed Pekoske for a second five-year term in 2022.

During his tenure, TSA worked with Congress to grant the agency’s screening workforce a historic pay increase. TSA also negotiated an expanded collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees.

Just my O'Bservation, but I think being jettisoned from a position in the second term of His Flatulence Drumpf was the best thing to happen to David.  He won't be tarred and pilloried with the incompetents who would have been surrounding him.

Just my two quatloos....

Here are just a few of the programs on which he appeared.  Usually he made the rounds during travel periods of high volume; I think there were a few guest spots in times of crisis for the TSA.

This is hardly a complete list....

GOOD MORNING AMERICA
TSA Administrator
4 episodes
2022–2024

TODAY

TSA Administrator
5 episodes
2021–2024

CBS MORNINGS

TSA Administrator
2 episodes
2021–2024

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS with LESTER HOLT
TSA Administrator
1 episode
2024

FOX NEWS LIVE
(as TSA Administrator David Pekoske)
1 episode
2018

I know he also appeared at least once on MORNING JOE where he was interviewed by Joe Scarborough regarding the holiday travel rush.

“True terror is to wake up one morning
and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
Kurt Vonnegut

Actually, in this case, I thought it was kind of cool.

And for my next school friend to join me (Birthday Honors 2005) in the TVXOHOF, a space case if I ever knew one...

KEITH COWING

From Wikipedia:
Keith Cowing is an American astrobiologist, former NASA employee, and the editor of the American space program blog NASA Watch. He is a credentialed NASA journalist and is known to be a critic of NASA activities and policies.

NASA Watch is a website blog which provides insider information and commentary about the United States space program and the U.S. government agency, NASA. The first posting was in March, 1996. Cowing is a strong supporter of human spaceflight. Cowing started the website when Daniel Goldin was administrator of NASA and at that time expressed harsh criticism of Goldin's policies. The inciting event for Keith was the mass layoffs in the transition from Space Station Freedom to the International Space Station. For several years, NASA refused to accredit Cowing as a journalist and denied him access to NASA media events. Cowing was eventually granted full press accreditation.

Cowing was a firm supporter of Goldin's successor as administrator, Sean O'Keefe, appointed by George W. Bush. Cowing also obtained exclusive first-hand information about the genesis of the Vision for Space Exploration, detailed in the book "New Moon Rising" which Cowing wrote with Frank Sietzen.

From MuckRack
Keith Cowing is trained as a biologist (M.A. and B.A. degrees) and has a multidisciplinary background with experience and expertise that ranges from spacecraft payload integration and biomedical peer review to journalism and website authoring. He once worked as a professional Sign Language interpreter. Keith has participated in 3 month-long expeditions to a remote island near the North Pole and spent a month living at Everest Base Camp covering the first ascent of that mountain by an astronaut. Keith also likes to restore old spacecraft and retrieve their data - especially when the experts tell him that such things are impossible.

From cowing.com
Keith has appeared hundreds of times on television and radio including ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox, NPR, CSPAN, VOA, CNN, PBS, CBC, CTV, CGTN, Discovery Channel, NHK, BBC, Deutsche Welle, and the Travel Channel and has been quoted in a number of newspapers and magazines ranging from The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times to The Economist, Wired, and Pravda, among others. Keith appears regularly as a guest on BBC TV and radio and on CGTN.

I'm afraid I don't have all those hundreds of times he appeared on TV, but I have enough to satisfy the requirements.  (Even though the Rules are often cast aside when it comes to Honors List inductees.)

NOVA
[special thanks]
1  episode
2008

WORLD TODAY

SABC-TV [South Africa]

TAGESSCHAU
Self
1 episode
2024

CNN THIS MORNING

Self
1 episode
2021

ALL IN with CHRIS HAYES
[MSNBC]

BBC

MORNING EXPRESS with ROBIN MEADE
Self (archive footage)
1 episode
2021

DEUTSCHE WELLE (Germany)

CBTN (China)

He even showed he was a real trouper by appearing on CNN on his birthday!

It's nice to have a couple of Meridenites with me in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  They will probably be the only ones, but at least one of my friends from the UConn Theater Department joined me - Shirley Jordan as a Conflated Nurse.  And trumpeter Rebecca Steinberg, daughter of another UConn Drama Gumby (Beth Brooks Steinberg), is in as well as a member of the League of Themselves.

Merry Christmas, Team Toobworld!

IF THE TWELFTH INCARNATION HAD HIS OWN JUKEBOX....

 

That was part of the advice provided by the Twelfth Incarnation of the Doctor to the successor who would arrive after regeneration.  It reminds me of a very moving song by a husband/wife duo who call themselves Sirsy….

I saw them open for the Adam Ezra Group in Hartford on New Year's Eve's Eve....

P.L. TRAVERS' TIME LORD

I've got no argument with that. 

Had I known about this argument back in the mid-1970s, maybe I would have asked P.L. Travers about this when she spoke to my Children's Literature class at UConn....

 

A LITTLE ABOUT MYSELF....

It occurs to me that I should have begun this blog-A-thon with a little about me, WHO I am....

 

2023 BIRTHDAY HONORS LIST - REBECCA STEINBERG, HAVE HORN WILL TRAVEL

I’ve been enjoying my birthday month way too much.  Not only have I left the June showcase for the Television Crossover Hall of Fame empty for two weeks, but I’ve also neglected to induct a special Hall member as my Birthday Honors list on my birthday.  

Let’s take care of that one now.

This one is very special for me because the honoree is part of my Litchfield family; she’s almost like an honorary niece….

REBECCA STEINBERG

Rebecca is an accomplished trumpet player, currently playing onstage in the Broadway show “New York, New York”.

A lot of musicians have played in a lot of different TV productions over the years and will probably never find entry into the TVXOHOF except as paying visitors.  But Rebecca has been racking up credits which are unique and noteworthy.

Plus, as I said, she’s my friend.

Here is a list of those credits:

ADELE LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY
November 17, 2015 on CBS

Rebecca appeared on the Radio City Music Hall stage as part of Adele’s orchestra.

LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT
1st Season Episode
May(?), 2016

On April 15, 2016, what was formerly known as Tax Day, Stephen Colbert sent “Astronaut Ice Cream” into space so that it was no longer living a lie.

Rebecca was part of the marching band accompanying this (ahern!) historic event.  And she also had to clamber up on the shoulders of another band member to retrieve the ice cream from the tree where it landed upon re-entry.

O’Bservation – Most sites which shared this video, or wrote about it, did so on May 06, nearly a month after it occurred.

MOZART IN THE JUNGLE
DANCE
February, 2018

Even if I was not her friend, this is why Rebecca belongs in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  She didn’t just appear as a member of the League of Themselves; she was a true “Televersion”.  She was a fictional version of herself in the TV Universe.  

All those people around her in those other orchestras, they were appearing as themselves, sometimes as themselves appearing as other characters in a different meta-fictional universe.

But here….  Maybe most of the musicians around her were playing themselves, but like Rebecca, they were doing so in a fictional orchestra.  In her other qualifications, Rebecca was appearing as part of Adele’s orchestra, as part of the “New York, New York” orchestra, as part of Colbert’s marching band.  

But in the episodes she did for ‘Mozart In The Jungle’, we can assume she’s appearing as her televersion, but the orchestra also has at least two fictional characters, Warren and Union Bob. 

And for that one night only, Debra Monk’s Betty… with Rebecca sitting almost directly behind her.

So even if Rebecca is appearing as herself, it has to be a fictional version of herself.

GOOD MORNING, AMERICA
Episode dated April 14, 2023

The morning talk show featured a performance by the cast of the new Broadway show “New York, New York”.  The orchestra, including Rebecca, was integrated into the performance.

THE 76TH ANNUAL TONY AWARDS
June 11, 2023

A number from multi-nominee “New York, New York” kicked off the night’s showcases, and Rebecca got some good exposure onscreen.

Welcome to the Hall, Rebecca!

If you need anything, just ask.  I’ve been a member since my birthday in 2005!

REMEMBERING TIM

REMEMBERING TIM

There are about 5,000 tigers left in the wild on this planet and last week we lost another one….

As the oldest of the O’Brien Siblings I have always felt that I should have been the first to shuffle off.  But since when did Timmy ever listen to me?  (Besides, I think the Celestial Repo Men are planning to take me away on the “un-installment plan” one piece at a time; that “mortal coil” will be the last part to be towed away…..)

There are people who engage in extreme sports.  For Timmy, it was Extreme Life.  For good or ill, he tested the limits of what he could do and what he could get away with.  Eventually, and unfortunately, some of that led to the rest of us losing him altogether too soon.  It weakened his heart, which was already working overtime with the love he shared with just about everyone.

And as much Love as he showed towards his very extended family and his even larger network of friends in a variety of special interest groups – fellow postal warriors, snowmobile adventurers, VW Bug aficionados, water skiers, SJS 73 classmates, ELP lovers, and Broncos fanatics – he had an inexhaustible wellspring of affection for the four-footed furries of the world.  (Sorry, fishies.  You got the hook.)

Over the years he had his special furever friends – the first Jackie, later his own Jackie, his cats Tarkus and Karn Evil 9 first, and then Eddie whom he rescued when Eddie wandered into his yard and liked that tiger enough to stay.  Then Timmy took in an elderly “puppy” whose past human had passed.  He gave Zina the chance to enjoy the same planet he did for the time she had left.  As it turned out, Zina led the way for Timmy, crossing over just a week or so before he joined her and his other “puppies” Out There.

“Puppies”….  It didn’t matter what species an animal was; he always addresses them as “My Puppy.”  I’m sure if you search the videos on his Facebook page, you’ll probably find the horse who was also “My Puppy” in Timmy’s eyes.

With Grammy O'Brien

When it comes to the Legend of “Timothy Ticklepepper” (our Grammy O’Brien’s nickname for him, much to his embarrassment), here’s the one I hope will be lasting – Timmy’s love of animals manifesting in all of those puppies who lived on his mail route.  There are plenty of pictures of him on the job, making friends with so many of those dogs and putting the lie to that old story that dogs hate the mailman.  At least in Timmy’s case, making those puppies “Mailman’s Best Friends” came easily… and not just because his mail truck was full of dog biscuits.

What he considered his greatest accomplishment in his 42 years as a letter carrier was that the people on his route weren’t his customers; they became his friends.  There are some who finally moved away to other states, but whenever they returned, they made it a point to go back to their old neighborhood to see Timmy.

Dad with Tim outside the old cottage

Mom with all of us inside the new cottage

I belong to a Facebook group centered around the band known as The Adam Ezra Group.  One day, the thread of a conversation – because of its prominence in one of Adam’s songs – was “Patchouli”.  A few days later, Tim shared a picture of himself in uniform, holding and hugging the latest puppy on his route.  Her name was Patchouli.

I thought my fellow Gatherlings (technically we’re “Gatherers” as a collective noun) would find it an interesting addendum to that Patchouli thread, so I posted the picture to the group.  Not long after, I got a comment on that post: “Your brother’s name wouldn’t happen to be Tim, would it?”

Uh-oh….  “Why?” I thought.  “Does Tim owe this guy money?”

Turns out Mark and Cindy were on that mail route and had a great fondness for that Tiger.  Mark not only had Timmy as his mailman, but they saw each other at the gym.  AND he also worked for a time in connection with Tim’s oldest son, Neil!  

Since then, I count Mark and Cindy among my friends, as well as their daughter Robyn, who works for the band. I’ve met their son Ryan, who’s making a name for himself in the movie biz.  And Timmy provided a most unique beginning for all of that.

Tim and his boys,
Neil & Ian

I’ve got two stories about Timmy I’d like to share.  The first, in a way, shares something in common with the aforementioned Ryan, who produces horror movies, including the continuation of the “Halloween” franchise.

I had come home from Manhattan in the late 70s, and Timmy and I went up to the Lake cottage for the weekend.  Nobody else in the family was there yet.

It was a very warm night and we were lying on the dock, staring up at the starry sky, unbothered by mosquitoes, thanks to the bats feasting on them.  Somehow, the conversation turned to the property next door, which had become a jungle. (That was because the old man who owned it let it lapse after his wife died.)  And because it was popular in the theaters the previous autumn, we started joking around that at any minute, Michael Myers would come out of those woods, brandishing his huge knife.

I think we were somewhat… “enhanced”.  We began laughing at the absurdity of that idea….

And then a twig snapped.

We couldn’t get inside that old blue cottage fast enough (as if that could ever protect us from Michael Meyers!)  I apologize in advance for the terminology, but we were scared shitless… not the condition to be in when the only bathroom is back outside, the outhouse known as “HERE”.

The other story took place a few years earlier when I still lived at home and was still in high school.  Tim and I used to share a makeshift bedroom down in the basement.  One Friday night, I really needed my sleep because I had to start extra early Saturday morning at my job in the Meriden Square.  Tim, being fortunate enough to be four years younger than me, could look forward to sleeping late.  So he was in no hurry to fall asleep.  Instead, he lay there in the dark… whistling.

I told him to shut up; he kept on whistling.  (He was probably whistling ELP songs.)  Despite my entreaties, he kept on whistling.

I finally couldn’t take it any longer.  I jumped out of my bed and began beating him with my pillow there in the dark.  Finally spent, I crawled back into bed.

Suddenly, I heard Timmy spit “Phffft!”  And then again – “Fffpt!” “Pfffth!”  That’s when I found myself doing the same – “Pfpht!”  “Sfffthp!”

The light got turned on and we discovered the room was filled with downy feathers from my now split pillow, floating down on us.  We spent at least the next hour cleaning up.

I thought about that night as we sat vigil by Tim’s bedside that last night because he looked like he was sleeping.  Not only sleeping, but snoring away with a fierce determination.  It still doesn’t feel possible that it was a sleep from which he didn’t emerge.  I can’t fathom that my brother, who held two key positions in the order of the siblings – first as the “baby” for nine years and then as the middle child, the fulcrum between the two sets of siblings – is gone.

Tim with four of his cultural heroes:
Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Carl Palmer, & John Elway

But he is out of pain now; all of that Life in the Extreme culminated in unbearable back problems which was making the possibility for him to enjoy such passions as hitting the trails on his snowmobile untenable.  We’re going to be sorry later this year when we’ll need the water that we had no significant snowfall this season.  But lack of snow kept Timmy sidelined from the sport so who knows?  That might have kept him with us for just a little while longer.

I may not be the most religious person around….  Okay, I’m not; I have my Faith if not the religion.  But I’ve also liked the concept of an afterlife; it just doesn’t feel right that this could be all that there is.  (I love a good story about the vision of heaven – there are some good jokes about that.  Ask me sometime, I’ll tell you a few.)  And it seems only fitting that there really could be a Rainbow Bridge where Timmy could reunite with his three dogs and three cats and all the other beasties he befriended.

But most of all, it’s a comfort to think he’s reunited with Mom and Dad, Grammy and Nana, maybe even our grandfathers.  Plus his beloved Auntie Anne and the cousins who went before to check the place out – Linda, Norman, Peter Ernest, and David, and while we didn’t have much interaction due to distance and the Internet not being invented yet, there would be Cousin Cindy as well.  All of them rebels in their own ways.

And right by Timmy’s side, as he was in Life, would be Joey Gradz, "Brothers In All But Blood"….

It’s a nice dream, and it brings me some measure of comfort.  Maybe it’s true; I can’t say for certain.  And it’s not likely Timmy will be able to come back to confirm that, not that I wouldn’t put it past him to give it a try.

But that’s what Faith is all about.  As a character in one of Timmy’s favorite TV series (perhaps his absolute favorite) once said,

"All faith must have a little doubt mixed in.

Otherwise, it's just flabby sentimentality."

So I hope I do get the chance to see Timmy again.  And I hope you all find comfort in the possibility of seeing that Tiger also.

My favorite picture of Timmy
With me and Billy

Except for the addition of Andrew & Leah,
not much really changed.
Tim still had that ebullient spirit.

Timmy always had an expression whenever we parted ways; I bet he shared it with you as well.  I’d like to change it up a bit and send it back to him “Out There, Somewhere” as another one of his favorites, Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, wrote:

“Remember, Tim….  God, Jesus, and Toby O’Brien love you.”  (In response to his version, I would also add, “And not necessarily in that order.”)

Just one last thing.  I was supposed to be the one who was to serve as the bad example for the next generations in the family, but he trumped me again.  Still, learn from his life.  As it has been said in the public service announcement, “If you smoke, stop.  If you don’t smoke, don’t start.”

Don’t do it for Timmy; do it for yourself and for those who love you.  On second thought, that does include Timmy because he loved you all.

Toby O'B

02/22/2023

BCnU, Brothermine....
Put in a good word for me.