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Arianna Huffington and Harry Shearer

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We are all saved

By Harry Shearer
Posted Friday, May 22, 1998, at 11:56 AM ET

So, contrary to yesterday's indications, nobody will get to see "I Married a Horse," unless ABC turns it into a mid-season sitcom (not the most unlikely of scenarios). The Jerry Springer show themed to bestiality has been yanked from all stations, replaced by something safer. The Springer producers sprang to explain that, though the man in question married a horse, there was "no infidelity" involved in the show. The pressure was apparently applied by the company that distributes the program, Studios USA Network, a firm whose name sounds as if it had been mis-translated from the Japanese, and is owned by Barry Dilller. He happens to be the guy who started the Fox Network and who, until recently, ran the QVC home shopping channel. Looking for moral leadership near the millennium? Here's your man.

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Just having left NYC, I pay more than the usual amount of attention to Mayor Giuliani's posturing versus the taxi drivers. He's threatening to suspend their licenses for three minor traffic violations, or for acts of incivility (big on civility, the Mayor) like playing the radio too loudly or smoking in the cab. I'm all for civility, although when I'm in search of it, Manhattan still doesn't make the top of my list, but if you want to confront cab drivers, anger a lot of people trying to get rides to the airport, and court a reputation as anti-immigrant, wouldn't you think a better issue might be--insuring that cab drivers know where they're going? You know how long cabbies in London have to study their city. This is an issue that could resonate nationwide, since no city's cabbies know where they're going any more. How could they? They've just arrived.