From the news wires this shock horror story:
Tom and Ray Magliozzi, hosts of National Public Radio's popular "Car Talk" program, will retire in September after decades of dispensing automotive repair and driving advice laced with a side of wicked humor.
The pair, in their guise as the self-deprecating Click and Clack, the Tappett Brothers, have been taping the weekly show for WBUR, Boston's public radio affiliate, for 35 years, but say it is time to "stop and smell the cappuccino."
Elder statesman Tom Magliozzi turns 75 this year.
"My brother has always been 'work-averse,'" Ray Magliozzi, 63, said in a statement. "Now, apparently, even the one hour a week is killing him."
NPR will continue to broadcast the show with material curated from the best of the more than 1,200 episodes recorded by the Magliozzis over the years, with occasional updates from the brothers.
Gary Hunter, who helps manage events for the magazines Classic Motorsports and Grassroots Motorsports, said he would miss the program, and that his girlfriend Sally would miss it even more.
"My girlfriend doesn't work on her car; I do," he said. "But she listens to 'Car Talk' on the way to work on Saturday. I'm always amazed that she is totally not into cars but she enjoys their bantering and people calling in and the scenarios."
The brothers urged their fans not to grieve: "Thanks to all for the nice comments, but this isn't a wake! We won't be taping new shows, but we will still be polluting the airwaves!" they said via Twitter.
"Car Talk" was first broadcast in Boston in 1977 and picked up nationally by NPR 10 years later. It is heard weekly by an audience estimated at more than four million listeners on almost 600 stations.
"The early days of Car Talk was a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and people actually worked on their own cars," the pair quip on their website.
Among the celebrities who have called into the show are broadcaster Morley Safer; actors Ashley Judd and Geena Davis; and astronaut John Grunsfeld, phoning from the Space Shuttle.
At the end of each show, Ray typically warns the audience, "Don't drive like my brother," to which Tom replies, "And don't drive like my brother."
The brothers won a Peabody Award in 1992 for "distinguished achievement and meritorious public service."
Both brothers, veteran car mechanics who operate a garage in Cambridge, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They gave the commencement address to the university in 1999.
The Car Talk offices loom over Harvard Square in Cambridge and is dubbed "Dewey, Cheetham & Howe" after the imaginary law firm featured on the show.
The much-loved broadcast has made its mark on popular culture in the Magliozzi's native Cambridge - referred to on air as "our fair city" - and beyond. The brothers provided the voices for animated cars in the blockbuster 2006 Disney Pixar film "Cars".
Tom and Ray Magliozzi, hosts of National Public Radio's popular "Car Talk" program, will retire in September after decades of dispensing automotive repair and driving advice laced with a side of wicked humor.
The pair, in their guise as the self-deprecating Click and Clack, the Tappett Brothers, have been taping the weekly show for WBUR, Boston's public radio affiliate, for 35 years, but say it is time to "stop and smell the cappuccino."
Elder statesman Tom Magliozzi turns 75 this year.
"My brother has always been 'work-averse,'" Ray Magliozzi, 63, said in a statement. "Now, apparently, even the one hour a week is killing him."
NPR will continue to broadcast the show with material curated from the best of the more than 1,200 episodes recorded by the Magliozzis over the years, with occasional updates from the brothers.
Gary Hunter, who helps manage events for the magazines Classic Motorsports and Grassroots Motorsports, said he would miss the program, and that his girlfriend Sally would miss it even more.
"My girlfriend doesn't work on her car; I do," he said. "But she listens to 'Car Talk' on the way to work on Saturday. I'm always amazed that she is totally not into cars but she enjoys their bantering and people calling in and the scenarios."
The brothers urged their fans not to grieve: "Thanks to all for the nice comments, but this isn't a wake! We won't be taping new shows, but we will still be polluting the airwaves!" they said via Twitter.
"Car Talk" was first broadcast in Boston in 1977 and picked up nationally by NPR 10 years later. It is heard weekly by an audience estimated at more than four million listeners on almost 600 stations.
"The early days of Car Talk was a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and people actually worked on their own cars," the pair quip on their website.
Among the celebrities who have called into the show are broadcaster Morley Safer; actors Ashley Judd and Geena Davis; and astronaut John Grunsfeld, phoning from the Space Shuttle.
At the end of each show, Ray typically warns the audience, "Don't drive like my brother," to which Tom replies, "And don't drive like my brother."
The brothers won a Peabody Award in 1992 for "distinguished achievement and meritorious public service."
Both brothers, veteran car mechanics who operate a garage in Cambridge, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They gave the commencement address to the university in 1999.
The Car Talk offices loom over Harvard Square in Cambridge and is dubbed "Dewey, Cheetham & Howe" after the imaginary law firm featured on the show.
The much-loved broadcast has made its mark on popular culture in the Magliozzi's native Cambridge - referred to on air as "our fair city" - and beyond. The brothers provided the voices for animated cars in the blockbuster 2006 Disney Pixar film "Cars".
When my wife and I lived in Santa Cruz, California we expected our friends would be NPR listeners, which letters in the Reaganite 1980's were often taken to mean Nicaragua Public Radio. Public funding has shrunk since then, and corporate sponsorship has kept a more middle-of-the-road NPR flourishing, which has in turn rendered it less appealing to a listener like me who wantsNPR to be a different voice in a media broadcasting world of blandness and sameness and ownership by the powerful. Oh well!
I used to work at an NPR affiliate and I submitted a number of reports to the network during the 1980's and once the thrill of hearing my name go national wore off I was left feeling bored by the formula, by the editing, by the sense that what was of value was only understood by the newsroom in Washington, not where I lived in Fruitcake, California. I stopped trying to please my masters in the network and retreated to making a nuisance of myself in local news and then, tired of the trivialization of news, I quit what my buddy, NPR newscaster Frank Stasio used to call "show biz." I am a happier man for it. Frank Deford has been heard on NPR every week since 1980 and he's still going strong. He has the longevity that confers greatness. As Woody Allen says 80 percent of success is showing up. 
Deford's talk was centered around his new sports novel called "The Entitled," exploring the role and meaning of the "sports superstar" in our world. Jay Alcazar is a young Cuban-American baseball player overseen by a tired second rate player called Howie who now manages the Chicago White Sox. The book apparently opens with a possible date rape by Alcazar, possibly witnessed by Howie and the plot thickens from there, which was as much as Deford told us, inbetween reading excerpts from the book. He did say much of the action takes place in Cuba a country he has visited twice and is apparently where his plot ends up.
Deford also told of a day when sports players and writers were invited to the Clinton White House for a reception. Deford told his wife he was sure Clinton would recognize him, as the President was a sports fan and Deford had just written a glowing piece about an Arkansas player. As luck would have it the president remained blank when the Marine Officer announced Mr and Mrs Frank Deford, much to his chagrin, but he added with a twinkle, Mrs Clinton interrupted his introduction to gush how his voice woke her every Wednesday morning. "So how are you voting?" asked a voice in the bowels of the Tropic auditorium. "Oh," said Deford, "I always vote for my listeners," to howls of laughter. "But," he allowed,"the other guy is okay too."
Deford had some comments about free agency and how football television royalties are evenly split between teams, stuff I could barely grasp. He allowed as the Paris Open in June was among his favorite events, but he doesn't like soccer except the World Cup when seen live in a European city. he answered my question about NPR with his famous line that his most devoted fans aren't into sports at all, which brought another round of applause from the packed theater. he made a point about baseball that struck home with me. He said baseball is a great sport because unlike all other games baseball allows time for reflection, for commentary, for discussion between pitches. And I have surprised my wife a few times by seeking out the night time AM frequencies on a car trip to listen to some distant baseball game as I drive. 
In closing Deford suggested sports are important to use because they bind the country together in a way that other activities fail signally to do, he also said to loud laughter that sports allow men to argue which is important for them to do. And he made another of those interesting points that keep me listening to him on Wednesday mornings; he said sports unlike any other art form are thje place where the popular and the quality are allowed to rise to the top. He compared good teams to great movies, so rarely recognized at say, the Oscars, or where the best music isn't necessarily heard on radio playlists. In sports he said you have an art form where the best is always the most popular. Deford is a sports commentator alone in a crowded profession. How many writers do you hear use the term sui generis when speaking of a player? Deford is sui generis among sports comentators.
He was of course mobbed by the old biddy snowbirds on his way out but he kindly stopped for my flash and I caught his bemusement at his popularity in this little resort town. Key West I think cherishes its brushes with interesting people because, for such a distant little town it gets the attention of people worth listening to, but they don't stay so you have to catch them while you can. And we do.