Andy Rooney

I love Andy Rooney. Reading several obituaries in the last 24 hours what is noted over and over is that the art of being a curmudgeon is one that has left American entertainment. Through the fifties and sixties they were everywhere on television, in the newspaper but now it is a failing art.

They have been replaced, one could say, with the did you ever notice type of comedian such as Jerry Seinfeld, or the many blue comedians such as Lewis Black.

However we all know a curmudgeon. We all have an uncle who complains about young people. Heck in our house I guess I could easily be called a curmudgeon. One who regrets the loss of the America of his youth or least the America of his imaginative youth.

Rooney was a patriot. This young man flew with pilots in World War Two while reporting for Stars and Stripes. He went to work as a writer on television in the early days and had a long standing working relationship with the late Harry Reasoner. For all that however, Rooney, will always be known and remembered for his work on Sixty Minutes.

He could talk about the most trivial of things and have you agreeing with him. I remember his talk about a car being the one place where an individual could control everything in his atmosphere. The seat, the temperature, the speed of travel, the air flow, the entertainment or lack thereof. Rooney got in trouble sometimes, talking about Kurt Cobain or homosexuality. Still we need not embrace all of a mans ideas to respect the man.

Rooney was a man due much respect. He believed in his country. He believed in his generation and like all of us was a little fearful for our future based on the comparison of what he had known and what he was seeing. Do we not all feel that way a bit now and then.

I think what we need our less angry comedians and more thoughtful curmudgeons. We all will miss Uncle Andy. I know I will.