Rooney was truly one of a kind, a true American original in the mold of Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, and other commentators/humorists who hold up the foibles of life, make us look at them, and either laugh at them or give us pause as to why we hadn't noticed them before. In an environment where all we seem to have are teleprompter-reading talking heads, commercially-driven sound and/or vidoe bites of "information", or web-based vanity execises, the passing of one more of the last remaining human beings in the media is a sad occasion, indeed. Agree or disagree with him, love him or hate him, it can not be denied he was always true to himself and we are less for his passing. I can almost see him asking St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, "Did you ever notice how the haloes don't seem to sit quite right? And what's the deal with the wings?..."
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