What an Honor

The Kennedy Center Awards have been announced for this year. The list includes some of the icons of my generation, and it's a blend of cool, hot, courageous, and just plain wonderful.

Diana Ross and Brian Wilson are at the top of the charts again, but this time it's the list of Kennedy Center Honorees.

Apparently, when this year's awards were decided, someone at the center was channeling the '60s, when Ross's Supremes and Wilson's Beach Boys were blasting on the radio.

Director Martin Scorsese, pianist Leon Fleisher and actor-writer Steve Martin (who also won the center's 2005 Mark Twain Prize for humor) completed the list.

Martin, who is filming "Pink Panther Deux" in Boston, said in a statement: "I am grateful to the Kennedy Center for finally alleviating in me years of covetousness and trophy envy."

Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman said the five 2007 honorees had "transformed the way we, as Americans, see, hear and feel the performing arts."

It's great to see these five people honored for their work and for their contribution to the fabric of our culture.

(Not to mention that Surfin' USA is one of the great top-down driving songs of all time.)