Ted Turner Merges With The Infinite

let's see how he likes it

Broadcasting pioneer Ted Turner has passed at age 87.

Is anyone more American than Ted Turner?  A Paul Bunyan of the 20th Century, launching ideas like CNN and Headline News.  TBS.  TNT.  Making us all watch the Atlanta Braves when the Cubs were right there if we had WGN.  

I don't even know if what he did was good or bad - he made the 24 hour news cycle, but he also didn't make it into the mess it is now.  All he did was give us Lynne Russell in the early evening, and maybe we can blame him for Wolf Blitzer.  

Two things I'll be grateful for forever - he gave us Turner Classic Movies, which has been a lifeline for me year in and year out.  And he also had a steakhouse in Bozeman, Montana - Ted's - where I had some excellent meals.  

He lived large and publicly - one does not just marry Jane Fonda and expect it to be a minor deal.  In an era where being a corporate figure meant you could be made fun of as a Bond Villain (see: Tomorrow Never Dies) he simply loomed larger than life, and not in the dumb-ass way of today's weirdo oligarchs.

Ted, you lived large.  Heck, you once got mad and decided to manage the Braves yourself.  Hilarious.  

Here's to a media baron who actually did change the world.