I am the loneliest monk
I can’t tell you how sad I am to learn that the following story is untrue. I hate the internet for debunking all the cool stories I thought were true. Then again the FBI told a lot of untrue stories about the Black Panthers and Jean Seberg and that didn’t turn out so well. The other story I wish were true is the one about Rickey Henderson and John Olerud (google it). Life would suck without plainly untrue comical anecdotes.
MS. SOREN knows that a lot of her more experienced colleagues who work for more established news organizations do not take her terribly seriously. It is this condescending attitude that she blamed for what she said was an entirely erroneous quote attributed to her by Liz Smith, the gossip columnist.
Shortly after the inauguration, Ms. Smith wrote that Ms. Soren was confused by Mr. Clinton’s naming Thelonious Monk as one of his favorite jazz musicians. Ms. Smith wrote that Ms. Soren publicly lamented, “So far we have not been able to find the person he wants to play with — the Loneliest Monk.”
Ms. Soren said she had never said any such thing. “Because of my association with MTV and because I’m a young woman, people are always waiting for some ditzy comment,” she added. “They didn’t get it through the whole campaign, so they made one up.”
(The day after the original item ran, Ms. Smith acknowledged that it had been based on a rumor.)
