The book is great news!  Now we need to get you fellows interviewed about it on all of the National Public Radio culture-related programs over here in the U.S.  Then, after that, we need to have someone do a documentary about Rosie for our Public Television system, citing your book as a core resource and perhaps as a pledge premium for people who make large donations their local stations!

Rosie's own two autobiographical books include passages that show her warm regard and long friendship with Bing, through good and also challenging times in each of their lives.  I wish that they could have performed more on screen together and recorded a two or three more albums together.  Just saw her son, Miguel Ferrer on TV last night.  I always think of her introducing him as drummer on one of her numbers on the Palladium album.

Okay, I pitched my program "story suggestion" to Scott Simon's "Weekend Edition Saturday.  Below is what I wrote.  Of course, it might not matter much if mine is the only suggestion about this topic.....

"With Scott's knowledge and regard for the history of American music, particularly in the radio age, Rosemary Clooney's amazing rebirth as a serious and acclaimed jazz singer in her latter years must have made a striking impression on him, as it did on so many others of her old fans and others new to appreciating her artistry.  Finally, a new book is coming out that puts that part of her career into clearer context with the rest of her life and career.  A serious examination of Rosemary Clooney's contributions as an artist is far, far overdue. While I can't read a copy of this book yet -- Amazon is taking pre-release orders:  http://www.amazon.com/Late-Life-Jazz-Rosemary-Clooney/dp/0199798575  -- I am hoping Scott can get a review copy and make contact with Crossland and MacFarlane.  I don't believe there is another NPR program host better suited to interviewing these authors about the content and merits of their book and about the cultural relevance of Rosemary Clooney to today's listening audience than is Scott Simon. I may be biased, as a long-time fan of Scott, but I think there may even be something intangibly important about Scott, a lad from Chicago, appreciating the work of a singer who started out in the Ohio River Valley, a Midwestern breadth of perspective, or should I say, regarding a radio host or a singer, a certain breath perspective."

Thanks for the suggestions, Steve. I'll act on them.