A lot of people only know Andy Rooney from the "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" segments that he's done on 60 Minutes since the late 70s. That's a shame. Not that those segments aren't great (I still make a point of making sure I watch Rooney every Sunday night), it's just that there's a lot more to Rooney than what viewers see on TV. His new book will show you that.

Actually, the title 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit is inaccurate, since the book also has a few pieces from the early 1940s, when Rooney was a reporter in the Army. Rooney will be 91 in January, and he really has lived a great life. We should all be working and still lively when we're near that age.

There's a column being circulated around the globe via e-mail that was supposedly written by 60 Minutes essayist Andy Rooney. It lists a bunch of things that are pretty much anti-minority (I haven't gotten the e-mail myself, I've only read news reports about it. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I get it). The only problem? Rooney didn't write it.

This isn't the first time that this has happened. In his new book, Out of My Mind, he talks about a column about women that was being circulated via e-mail. It had his name on it but he didn't write that one either. He talks about this e-mail hoax in the book too, so this has been going on for a couple of years. The same thing happened to George Carlin (Carlin even put something on his web site telling fans he didn't write it). I guess anything can happen in this age of anonymous e-mails and web sites.

[via TV Newser]

In a scene from one of my favorite shows, Newsradio, Dave (Dave Foley) makes a comment to Bill (Phil Hartman), saying something about "you're like Andy Rooney, only without a sense of humor." And Phil retorts, "Andy Rooney is Andy Rooney without a sense of humor."

It's a lame, inaccurate joke, the only one I can think of from this great show.