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American Morning
Juggling Act; Interview with Author Nora Ephron; "Making Their Mark"
Aired August 04, 2006 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Also hot in Washington, D.C. Maybe that's why President Bush is getting out of there. He's getting ready to start his summer vacation in Crawford, Texas. It's going to be a working holiday of course. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice coming to the ranch for the weekend to update the president on the worsening situation in the Middle East, and that's not the only foreign policy matter on the administration's mind.
Let's get right to CNN's Elaine Quijano live at the White House this morning.
Hey, Elaine, good morning.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.
Well, it is a juggling act for the Bush administration as it deals with multiple foreign policy challenges, but some argue that it's certainly not unheard of for an administration to handle this many issues at once.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bloodshed between Israel and Hezbollah is the most urgent in the list of world crises to preoccupy the Bush administration. Consider that the Iraq war has lasted more than three years, Afghanistan is still simmering with Taliban attacks on U.S. and NATO troops nearly five years after the September 11 attacks triggered that war. Concerns about nuclear proliferation in Iran and missile tests by nuclear threat North Korea has the Bush administration engaged in high stakes diplomacy and now Fidel Castro's illness sends yet another foreign policy ball in to the air for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who told CNN's Larry King --
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, you do have to be a bit of a juggler. Because there's an awful lot going on in the world. But I really think we have a very strong focus on a set of principles that's guiding our policies.
QUIJANO: That set of principles is steeped in President Bush's second term agenda, to spread freedom and democracy around the world. But is it too much to handle?
MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: I would caution against thinking that this is unprecedented. For one thing, the overall state of the world in structural terms is probably better than it was in the Cold War. We don't have a big hostile block of major powers aligned against us. That's a huge improvement over what we saw for the 50 years after World War II.
QUIJANO: But hanging over it all says analyst Michael O'Hanlon is Iraq.
O'HANLON: I do think that Americans are in a bad mood about the world and the Bush presidency and, you know, America's overseas role because of Iraq first and foremost and that just sets the climate, the atmosphere, for every other decision.
QUIJANO: Even the president's supporters acknowledge Iraq is weighing down public opinion, at least domestically.
CHARLIE BLACK, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think the Iraq War, if anything, might have taken a toll on the president's political capital at home but it has not in any way diminished the stature of the U.S. or of his presidency around the world.
QUIJANO: Critics like former Clinton state department official Wendy Sherman disagree. They say Iraq has forced the president to take a more multilateral approach to foreign policy.
WENDY SHERMAN, FMR. STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The president has had to change strategy on many other issues since Iraq because the war in Iraq has undermined American credibility around the world.
QUIJANO (on camera): For the most, much of the administration's focus is on trying to find a solution to the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting. Secretary Rice has been working to get an U.N. resolution that could lead to a cease-fire, one could come within days. And if it does, that would be one less crisis this White House faces. Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUIJANO: And for the moment much of the administration's focus is on trying to find a solution to the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting. Secretary Rice is working to get that the U.N. resolution that would lead to a cease-fire. That could come within days. And of course, Soledad, if that happens, it would be one less crisis, immediate crisis anyway, that this White House would have to deal with -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano is at the White House.
I think I saw a bulldozer behind you. Is that the start of the end of the briefing room?
QUIJANO: You know they actually are moving out a whole lot of gear from the briefing room. We can't show you. They've got a big truck pulled up right to the briefing room doors. But what you're hearing behind me, two driveways down basically from where I am, they've got a big earth-mover and jackhammers. Of course they're being quiet now, which is really nice. But just a moment ago we heard the jackhammers, and we'll probably hear them again here once we leave you, but that's what is going on.
O'BRIEN: Yes, we can see it over the shoulder actually. It's going up and...
QUIJANO: Yes, they've got it, and you know, they don't stop for anything. They've got deadlines, which I guess is good for us. Hopefully we'll be back in here on time them. They're saying nine months. We'll see.
O'BRIEN: You know what, though, I think any contractor will tell you, it's very flexible.
QUIJANO: Well, that was a joke. One of our colleagues, Ken Herman (ph) of Cox Newspapers, when the president went in, you remember, in the briefing room and he was saying how long is this going to take? Ken Herman piped up. He said, "No timetables, Mr. President."
O'BRIEN: We don't believe in timetables. Depends what happens in the briefing room with construction. Elaine Quijano for us at the White House this morning.
Still to come, we're going to meet the heroes of this week's heat wave; men and women who had to work in the baking heat to keep us cool and keep us safe.
And we think that Nora Ephron is just lovely. But Nora Ephron says she feels bad about her neck. It's the title of her new very funny book that focuses on women and aging. We'll talk to her live up next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: To those who say that age is just a number, Nora Ephron suggests a check-up from the neck up. The neck is at the heart of her new book. The woman behind "Sleepless in Seattle" and "When Harry Met Sally" has written a series of amusing essays on getting older. It's called "I Feel Bad About my Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman." It is so funny.
Nora Ephron joins us this morning.
What's wrong with your neck? It looks fine.
NORA EPHRON, AUTHOR, "I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK": No, no, you see this is all a -- this is the compensatory thing. With bangs down here, the collar up here, there's almost nothing left.
O'BRIEN: I don't believe it. It looks like a perfect neck. I thought that -- aging is supposed to be fantastic. You know, once you get to 40, it's great because you have power, you're strong. You get to 60 -- you feel good about yourself.
EPHRON: Right, that's what they say.
O'BRIEN: Yes. EPHRON: And are they nuts? Are they crazy? Who are they trying to kid? You know the stuff you read where you go, oh, you're so much smarter.
O'BRIEN: Yes. I'm looking forward to 60 for that very reason.
EPHRON: You know, I was not that stupid when I was 40. And I would happily trade a few I.Q. points for those years. Thank you, no one is offering, but you know. I have been fascinated for quite a while at the amount of boosterism around getting older.
O'BRIEN: You think it is fake?
EPHRON: I think it's fake. I don't think it's true. I don't think it's helpful. I think that life is way more complicated. It's funnier, yes. Although the joke is on you. We're all happy to be here. That's not the point. But it's so much more complicated and interesting. And, you know, I read this stuff and I think, do those people not have necks who are saying this? Do they not have elbows? By the way, elbows.
O'BRIEN: I've never thought about my elbows.
EPHRON: Yes, you never thought about them. So just...
O'BRIEN: Not even for a minute.
EPHRON: Well, you don't have to, probably yet.
O'BRIEN: Soon, apparently, yes.
EPHRON: Well, I'm just warning you about a number of things. I'm just warning you, go home tonight, appreciate your neck. And it's not going to be there forever as it currently is. I told you this. Also put on a bikini.
O'BRIEN: Yes, you write about that.
EPHRON: Put on a bikini and don't take it off.
O'BRIEN: I've had many children now, so my thoughts are like, bikini is way done. I'm done.
EPHRON: Yes, you think it's way done, but just wait.
O'BRIEN: Until I turn 60?
SANCHEZ: Just wait until you are older and you think, when why didn't I wear a bikini when I thought I was too old to wear one?
O'BRIEN: Oh, because I was young enough to wear it.
EPHRON: That's right.
O'BRIEN: I just didn't know it then.
EPHRON: That's right.
O'BRIEN: So who is the audience for your book? Is it women in their 40s like me? Twenties?
EPHRON: Well, the truth is, I think, that people are taking so many preemptive strikes against getting older, that not only is 60 the new 50, but 40 is the new 60 because people are so busy injecting themselves with various things. And of course maintenance.
O'BRIEN: Well that's a whole chapter in your...
EPHRON: Maintenance, which is practically a full-time career.
O'BRIEN: How many hours? Yes, what -- what do you say -- how many hours a week do you spend on maintaining?
EPHRON: Well, I said eight, but...
O'BRIEN: Much more?
EPHRON: But this week it's not true. No, it's less.
O'BRIEN: Really?
EPHRON: Yes. Because I'm here.
O'BRIEN: Oh, and someone else is doing it.
EPHRON: I'm taking time out of my maintenance schedule to be with you.
O'BRIEN: I see. I see.
EPHRON: I could be having my nails fixed right now.
O'BRIEN: What point do you find yourself sort of falling apart where you need to start focusing on the maintenance?
EPHRON: Well, I think one of the shocking things is that way before you find yourself falling apart, some kind person tells you that you are falling apart. Or something comes along that you didn't know you were supposed to do, like there's this new form of facial that's somewhere on --- sort of between a facial and a electroshock that people -- Thermage. Have you heard of that?
O'BRIEN: No.
EPHRON: Oh, well.
O'BRIEN: Does it hurt?
EPHRON: Probably.
O'BRIEN: Yes, it sounds like it.
EPHRON: Yes, I know. Well, a lot of it hurts, too. That's the other thing. A lot of it hurts.
O'BRIEN: The book is very funny, but you talk about some things that are very sad, too. The death of a friend.
EPHRON: Well, the death of a friend. And basically, yes, but we now -- I'm now at the age when someone dies at the age of 86, I go, young! That's nothing, right? But the truth is that that's a whole other thing about aging, is that people do get sick and people die. Your loved ones die. Your close friends die. You get sick. All these things can happen. And it's the most amazing juggling act between the reality of that and the unbelievable superficial thoughts that go through your head like what is this spot on my face that just popped up? You know. So it's a complicated...
O'BRIEN: So what's the take-away, then?
EPHRON: ... time.
O'BRIEN: What's the take-away, then? Go ahead, do whatever you want, because there's no time like the present?
EPHRON: Yes, there is. There is a certain amount of that, don't you think? Don't you think life is too short not to have the extra piece of chocolate?
O'BRIEN: Oh, well, yes, absolutely. In that case, certainly.
EPHRON: Yes, I do think that. But I think reality is a good thing. I think a certain amount of reality can only help you in this time. That's my theory.
O'BRIEN: The book is called "I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman." It is laugh out loud funny, even though you talk about some really sad things that have happened in your life, too.
Nora Ephron, thanks for talking with us. So nice to see you.
EPHRON: It's great to see you.
O'BRIEN: Pleasure to have you.
Let's get back to Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right. "CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. Daryn Kagan working on the next couple of hours. I love saying your name. Good morning, Daryn, how are you?
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Ricky.
SANCHEZ: Daryn, how are you?
KAGAN: Good morning. Good to see you.
SANCHEZ: Good.
KAGAN: We've got a lot of news ahead in the next couple of hours,
Mideast crisis. Israeli soldiers ready for a major push across the border.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tanks, troops and armor are streaming toward and across the border, a visible ramp up in just the past 24 hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Our John Roberts at the front on Israeli's ground strategy.
Gas prices taking a big tumble in one North Carolina town.
A congressional candidate turns back the clock. He's making a point to the incumbent and scoring points with the voters.
And, oh, boy, is it hot? How hot is it, you ask? Well, we sent our Jeanne Moos in search after few good adjectives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's blistering hot, it's steaming. Punishing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Punishing, cruel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Manageable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Intolerable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbreathable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE) hot!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: "LIVE TODAY" keeps you up to the minute all morning long. We'll get started at the top of the hour.
For now, Rick, back to you.
SANCHEZ: Oh, my God. She said a bad word. Thanks, Daryn, appreciate that.
Let's go over to Andy now, who is "Minding Your Business." And what is in our business?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Rick, the headline from Wall Street this morning is the big July jobs report. Plus, what every man wants? Derek Jeter cologne. Can't wait for that. Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BUSINESS HEADLINES)
O'BRIEN: As you well know, every Friday we choose a newsmaker who's had the biggest impact on the week's news in a positive way.
Carol Costello joins us with a look at who's making their mark this week.
Good morning again.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: This week it's positive. Next week, now knows? But it's very positive this week. We're profiling a group of people, those who kept working and kept trying to help while millions of us sweltered at record-high temperatures.
To those men and women, nurses, firefighters, construction workers and of course the power guys working on the cranes and underground, we can only say thank you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): No matter how it was said...
UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANCHOR: The oppressive heat...
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Blistering heat.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANCHOR: Punishing heat.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANCHOR: Scorching heat.
COSTELLO: It all meant the same thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hot, it's really hot.
COSTELLO: While many of us baked and broiled in triple-digit temperatures this week, some worked overtime trying to lessen and pain, and they did it under the worst imaginable conditions. In New York City nurses trudged door to door to check on the elderly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You should drink more water than juice.
COSTELLO: The same was true in Chicago, where health services workers braved sweltering afternoons to make sure residents there were getting by.
Across the country, from California and the West, then to the Midwest and on to the Northeast, power crews fought an uphill battle to keep the electricity on and the air-conditioners working. New York's already exhausted ConEd workers toiled into the night and into the day underground where they said it was 30 degrees hotter outdoors.
CHARLES LANGONE, CON EDISION: You have to do what you can do. Everybody's giving 110 percent here, in long hours and really hard conditions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My truck just broke down.
COSTELLO (on camera): Your truck broke down?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, from the heat.
COSTELLO (voice-over): In Boston, paramedics gave oxygen to heat-sick commuters and monitored their blood pressure. And firefighters found that coming out of a burning building offered little relief.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're here with cold beverages and water, and we'd love to just pour it over them in fact, but they're drinking it up.
COSTELLO: It was like trading one for another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of the temperature, the guys are beat right away.
QUESTION: You got to keep rotating them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ice cold water, $1.00; get your water here.
COSTELLO: For some, the extraordinary heatwave represented a business opportunity. For many others, it had to remain business as usual. Buildings still had to go up, asphalt still had to go down, and life, however difficult, had to go on.
JOE LARGUYNHA, TODESKA EQUIPMENT: It's hot. It's unbearable. But it's got to be done.
JOE RINO, CONSTRUCTION WORKER: There's no shade. There's nowhere to hide from it. We're down the hole. We lose the wind.
JOHN PALAZZOLA CONSTRUCTION WORKER: I've been doing this 24 years. It's time to go. It's too hot.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: I love that guy.
O'BRIEN: John Palazzola.
COSTELLO: And his accent. I love that guy. Got to go.
Thankfully, though, Chad says the worst of it is over, at least for some of us. For those of us in the Northeast, I guess it will be over, what, in a day or two. Maybe tomorrow, but it's Friday, so it can't be that bad.
O'BRIEN: Exactly. Thanks, Carol. That guy is very funny. We've got to take a short break. We're back in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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