I’m disappointed that we’re losing the best thing on 60 Minutes: Andy Rooney’s fun commentary at the end. I’ve always loved his little editorials, and I was hoping he’d just live forever and keep presenting them at the end of every show ad infinitum. We all know the government has that anti-aging stuff that makes people live forever, so why not give it to Andy Rooney? (Of course government officials can’t use it: we’d all know about it then! Or do they use it and simply dye their hair with more and more gray over time? Maybe they’re doing that! Murderers, hogging it all for themselves! Let’s vote them all out for denying us all the fountain of youth we all deserve! Where was I again? Oh, right: Andy Rooney!) After all, he never really criticizes the government much, so he’s not really a threat except to shoe designers, or whatever thing he’s ridiculing at the time. And even then, he's too old and nerdy to actually skew the market in any measurable way.
I think he was the TV version of Art Buchwald, basically, only less political. But he was always really funny. I think Jeannie Moos is trying to keep the spirit of his work going on with her fun reports on CNN. She’s the best thing on CNN, just like Andy Rooney was the best thing on CBS News. He had a quality of delivery and a way of looking at things that made me think of the comic strip The Far Side: always a zany new take on the everyday. I’ll miss him more than most anything I’ve ever lost. But there were years where I didn’t even get to see his stuff, so maybe I can go back and see his old reports and it will give me my wacky/geeky fix, so it will be easier to take.
Thanks for all the laughs and the levity, Andy! You really did something with your life! In a world of bad news, you always gave us something to smile about. And sometimes, that’s the greatest gift of all!
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