Not many people can say they have been praised by both the staid Dan Rather and the raunchy Howard Stern. But Westchester radio titan William O'Shaugnessy has made such diverse friends over his 40-plus year in the radio business. Most recently, as president of Whitney Radio and editorial director of WVOX and WRTN in Westchester, New York, O'Shaughnessy has managed to rub elbows with the elite of East Coast politics, publishing and society, all the while appearing on the New York Post's famous "Page 6." All of O'Shaughnessy's influential friends and sharp opinions are on display in his fat new book "More Riffs, Rants and Raves," a collection of editorials, interviews, speeches, remembrances and more. To leaf through "More Riffs, Rants and Raves" is to stroll through New York and America through the last 40 years. There are references to Toots Shor and the 21 Club and great old Irish machine politicians of the past. There are profiles of and elegies to memorable figures from New York's past, from Hugh Doyle to Francis Cardinal Spellman. There are also great interviews with Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, Mary Higgins Clark and many more. O'Shaughnessy has come a long way from Elmira, New York, where he was born, and many of his uncles did hard railroad work in central New York state. O'Shaughnessy is a member of a dying breed, an articulate liberal Republican, and an Irish American one at that. ($35/ 781 pages / Fordham University Press)
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