hi i'm barbara gaines this is mary
barkley and of course this is dave
letterman hi thank you very much uh
barbara mary nice to see you
hi you know i was talking to uh thank
you for having me on the show and i'll
be brief because i know you have other
guests but i was talking to a staffer
before i came out here and they said and
i had no idea that i have been on your
show more than any other guest
i think that's
great thank you very much and i just got
back from california
i was there two weekends in a row
and uh
the weekend before i was out there for
the big uh
comedy festival uh netflix comedy
festival and uh
what a lot of fun a lot of laughs comedy
and so forth and um but this thing about
the comedians uh i'm not funny enough to
be attacked on stage is what i learned
you have to be really good
to get somebody to come up on stage
because i tried it and it didn't work
and i would discourage and i don't think
it's the way to go
and um
do we have time for this we have time
for everything uh this weekend i was at
a wedding at a friend's wedding
and uh they asked me to sing
which i have done periodically for
weddings yes it did and uh
lady in red is still
give us a little now no no anyway but
here i am
back from california
now here's a story do you have time for
a story i do uh when i was a child when
i was 16 against all advice to the
contrary
i looked at a solar eclipse
and because when you're 16 and there's a
solar eclipse it doesn't make any
difference what anybody tells you
you're going to take a look
and i thought i'll just look for a
second or two and anyway
i damaged my retinas i scarred
both of my retinas and to this day i
have little jagged lines on any any
straight line i perceive because of the
looking at the solar eclipse okay
so a lesson learned what's the matter
true
yeah it's true oh okay
so um
now i have a family of my own and a few
years ago there was another solar
eclipse that everybody was going to be
able to see and the the special solar
eclipse
glasses business went through the roof
through the sky
everybody couldn't get enough protective
eyewear well now all i can remember is
when i was a child looking at the solar
eclipse and and then for like six weeks
my eyes were just blinking and i thought
i'm going blind i'm going blind and it
was like i say a valuable lesson learned
and i and and by the way uh ps
parenthetically as an aside i do
everything the hard way and this is an
example of that i think that's
definitely true yes thank you and um
so anyway so now the big solar eclipse
and everybody's in on it
and it's going to happen in the summer
so there's no right in the middle of the
day and you can go out in your yard you
can look right at the solar eclipse
so uh i get scared and i feel like i
have to protect my family so i get
everybody inside and and i pull the
blinds and close the curtains and i
won't let anybody go outside to look at
the solar eclipse
in spite of the fact that we had the
protective glasses right so i made
everybody in the come into the bedroom
and watch the solar eclipse on tv
like from a bunker exactly bunker-esque
yeah
and and my family resented me for that
and for many other things
so
last night there was a lunar eclipse
which you could uh look at all day long
right you can sit and stare at it as
much as you want so in order to make it
up to my
family i said
let's go up to the roof of the building
and we'll look at the lunar eclipse
and you know there was a great deal of
protest well
thanks but not not a solar eclipse and i
said yes i know but it wouldn't hammer
your eyes so the only one who signed up
was my son harry
so he and i went up to the roof of the
building last night for the uh uh lunar
eclipse and uh i said there you go son
an eclipse enjoy so i had to be late
yeah yeah it was uh like 11 o'clock all
right yeah yeah so now here it now is
the picture that my son harry took of
the uh
yeah harry took that picture yeah thank
you very much it's a lovely photo thank
you well i heard that
were you nominated for a daytime emmy no
we
we're not eligible for an emmy that's
too bad an internet emmy
yeah maybe didn't we win a webby or
something didn't didn't we once win a
webby and someone stole it
oh um
no i think we still have the webby
somewhere you have a website you know
you use the microphone
[Laughter]
first time first time i see why you're
not nominated for that daytime emmy sure
yeah but did you show them the photo yes
of course you have any stories
uh oh also
you know the term red state blue state
you're welcome
that's what my son simon said that
dave invented it
coined it coined it part part of the
culture
thank you you're welcome america
america thanks you yeah thank you
anything from uh
it seems like if i weren't here this
show would be more than dull
oh yeah that's right
i don't i don't get a chance to see it
much
it takes two of you for this yeah well
you know what i'm gonna say goodbye okay
all right thank you thank you mary thank
you barbara happy to be here it wasn't
until the 2000 election that the
political concept or term red state
versus blue state took hold on that
election night the network anchors and
pundits relied heavily on the colored
maps to explain how close the race was
between george w bush and al gore very
soon those red states and blue states
that the country saw over and over again
on tv became rooted in american culture
david letterman was one of the earliest
cultural figures to pick up on this just
a few days after the 2000 election
candidates work out a compromise and
thank god not a minute too soon here's
how it's going to go george w bush will
be president for the red states
al w gore will be president for the blue
states
[Applause]
those same television maps would also
help make red state and blue state a
popular term among political pundits and
newspaper headline writers