Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS (1919-2011)

Subject: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 07:30 AM

Just got an email alert from NPR. A quirky curmudgeon. Sometimes mudane. But nevertheless...

Saul

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: gnu
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 07:40 AM

Great man. RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: Elmore
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 08:15 AM

He did not like music. I'll never understand that. I will miss his 60 Minutes segments.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: Arkie
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 09:37 AM

Certainly one of the most memorable characters of this era and a master of words. I will also miss those 60 Minutes segments. He did not get to enjoy his retirement for very long.

Subject: Obit: Andy Rooney
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 11:28 AM

After 92 years, most spent as America's fav. grump and weeks after retiring, Andy Rooney has passed on.

CLICK HERE.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 12:01 PM

Andy Rooney could never have survived "retirement" any more than a turtle could survive without a shell. He was his work.......and his work gave voice to both the serious and "mundane" and everything in between for as long as most of us can remember. If there is an afterlife he's probably already telling the "boss" there what he has already found that he doesn't like.........................


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 12:05 PM

" If there is an afterlife he's probably already telling the "boss" there what he has already found that he doesn't like"

Oh yeah... "too much harp music!".... or if the 'other' place, "too much banjo music"


Bye Andy... you were something else...

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: kendall
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 12:32 PM

He was the main reason I watched 60 Minutes. It makes me very sad.
We are losing so many great ones, who can replace him, Walter Cronkite, Lowell Thomas,Huntley/Brinkley, Eric Severad (sic),Harry Reasoner?

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 12:35 PM

I didn't always like what he said but I always watched him. RIP, Andy Rooney.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: Cool Beans
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 01:06 PM

RIP, Andy Rooney. In the late 1970s he did a "60 Minutes" piece on journalism awards, noting that he'd never won one. Having just received fourth prize for feature writing from the American Bowling Congress, I mailed him a copy of the certificate with my name blanked out, suggesting that he could write his in. He wrote me back a chatty, full-page, single-spaced typewritten letter saying that certificate was the funniest thing he'd received in response to his commentary.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: kendall
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 02:01 PM

He reminded me of me.
I gave him hell a couple of time, once when he said noise shouldn't be banned in a public library!

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: topical tom
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 02:08 PM

A biting, humorous commentator. RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: SINSULL
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 02:25 PM

I loved the old crank.
RIP although I somehow doubt it will happen.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: GUEST,AR
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 02:28 PM

Here in heaven everybody's always happy and I can't help but find that annoying. I mean, who wants to be happy ALL the time? Happiness should be a goal not a constant state of being. Happiness should be something you work for--that's why we enjoy it in the first place. When you look at people like Lindsay Lohan or Howard Hughes, you see what happens to people who expect happiness to be constant state of existence--you end up miserable and rightly so. Happiness should only belong to those motivated enough get off their duffs and make it happen instead of thinking money or fame is going to buy it for them. And you enjoy all the more knowing it's only a temporary state because you know it's going to be gone before you had a chance to really start enjoying it.

To be honest, heaven a bit like one of those of communist posters where some guy running a fruit stand is waving and smiling at some government soldier wearing a uniform and clutching an assault rifle who waves and smiles back. You only have to look at such a ludicrous image to know it sure as hell isn't really like that over there. So you can imagine what it's like walking around in a place where everybody's playing harps and wishing you a good day. Sometimes I want to yell back at them, "What the hell other kind of day can I have in heaven, you ninny?"

It's always a good day here--always sunny, always warm, always an old-fashioned baseball game in the park and always polite, laughing children playing crack-the-whip. Sometimes, I'd like to crack a whip at them and send them off scurrying. Just once, I'd like to watch the ball game get rained out with a severe electrical storm. Everybody up here reminds me of the lily-livered cowards I knew on earth who were always trying to escape to Florida because they're so tired of winter. It's a long, cold winter that makes a nice, warm summer so precious and enjoyable and besides--who wants to celebrate Christmas in 77-degree weather, for crying out loud?

Mark Twain once said, "Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company." I'll agree with him about the company part but I'll take a New England nor'easter any day over all this miserable happiness.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 05:06 PM

I preferred Point Counterpoint with Shana Alexander and James Kirkpatrick, but Andy was okay. They brought him in because he wasn't controversial. Which is why I liked Alexander and Kirkpatrick. Anyone else remember the Saturday Night Live skit and the line "Shana you slut!" ?

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS.
From: gnu
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 06:25 PM

GUEST,AR.... that was spot on! Bravo! Bravo!!! Uhhhh... are you the ghost of Rooney?

As I read that post, I could hear Andy's voice.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS (1919-2011)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:19 PM

He often was Mencken-like. He was a mild Lewis Black. Sometimes funny.
Liked his take on gadgets and on unwanted mail.

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS (1919-2011)
From: Genie
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 09:49 PM

Spaw, I think you're right that Andy " could never have survived "retirement" any more than a turtle could survive without a shell. He was his work -- and his work gave voice to both the serious and "mundane" and everything in between for as long as most of us can remember. If there is an afterlife he's probably already telling the "boss" there what he has already found that he doesn't like."

Right on all counts.

It seems quite a few well-known people have died in recent months just shortly after "retiring." Sometimes, as in the case of Steve Jobs, I think they retired because they were dying. But sometimes, as I suspect may have been the case of Andy, I suspect having to "retire" precipitated their demise. Andy died of "complications following minor surgery" (according to a news broadcast I heard today).   Can't help wondering if losing your drive to live makes you susceptible to "complications following minor surgery" and the like.

I know the old curmudgeon was, well, pretty old. But I can't help seeing his death as premature and not really fair.

I'll miss Andy on 60 Minutes -- and had already started to do that.

Genie

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS (1919-2011)
From: olddude
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 09:56 PM

i miss him , i really looked forward to hearing him on sundays

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS (1919-2011)
From: kendall
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 08:15 AM

sigh

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS (1919-2011)
From: Bettynh
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 08:08 AM

Remembering Andy Rooney (from his daughter's show)

Subject: RE: Obit: Andy Rooney of CBS (1919-2011)
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 10:46 AM

This was a neat one, imo: One Last Minute for Andy Rooney