One of the less delightful things about aging is seeing the population of your friends and acquaintances dwindle. I hereby mourn the loss of Dick Clark, one of those whom we feared might be immortal, but turned out to be mortal after all.

I made my acquaintance with Dick on the set of the “$10,000 Pyramid” game show at a decrepit old ABC studio on, I believe it was 57th street, in NYC back in the 1980’s. I was an engineer at ABC at the time. The cameras and studio equipment were on their last legs. The studio was dusty and dirty, as was the set. The set had cobwebs and scuff marks all over it. The set was drenched in light so bright you had to struggle to avoid squinting. The effect of all that light was to wash away the scuff marks, cobwebs, dust, and flaws in the images produced by the dottering cameras. Unfortunately, it also washed away the color and features of the caucasian faces that populated the stage, so Dick and the contestants wore a fair amount of makeup so they would look normal under all that light.

Dick was relaxed, and looking some 20 or more years younger than he was. Close up, and not viewed through the camera, TV pancake makeup doesn’t hide much, rather it tends to accentuate imperfections. Dick had a perfect smile, real hair, and looked 30 even though he was in his 50’s at that time. No wrinkles were evident. It was truly amazing. I thought “the rumors are true; he’s immortal”. I wondered how old he really was… hundreds, thousands, millions of years?

The folks in the control room weren’t so relaxed. They didn’t like being stuck in such an old, out-of-date studio, and they wanted to get out of there. A technical problem that was beyond their responsibility needed fixing. As I took care of it, Dick chatted with the contestants, technicians, and me in the same, casual and engaging way he did on-camera. Neither his surroundings, not the technical problems seemed to have any effect on his sunny disposition. I wrapped up my work there, and approached him to say goodbye. “It was so nice to meet you” I said. He looked me dead in the eye like it was a TV camera, smiled, and said “nice to meet you too, and thanks for coming down to take care of us!”. His response was totally genuine. I made it a point to occasionally drop by and say hello or exchange a wave and a smile.

People like Dick Clark was are a minority in the TV business. Far too many, who I will not name here, are temperamental, obnoxious, rude, impatient, and/or spoiled.

Goodbye, Dick. I’m glad I met you briefly while you were in this world.

President Obama’s Jobs Speech sounded hopeful. The delivery was excellent. I did not see it, but rather heard it on the radio. It’s easy to misinterpret the sound of applause, politicians being the actors they are. On the other hand, when listening only, one gets more of the intended content and the writing than when confronted with all the visual distractions.

Putting people back to work in public works projects is something some have been begging the administration to do for some time. It worked in the past, but in today’s divisive and corruption laden environment, it remains to be seen if the pork can be kept out of the beans, as Obama promised in his speech.

Extending unemployment for another year is at odds with putting people back to work. Some have been on unemployment for many years now, and I believe that is just wrong. It’s not just my personal experience; I’m one of those who has steadily paid into the system, and yet have never qualified for Unemployment Insurance even when I needed it most. It’s not sour grapes, but I am here to report that I made it through just fine, and although at times I had to search hard for work, and sometimes settle for what some would see as menial jobs, I perservered. So, in my view, many who are on the dole appear to be either lazy or gaming the system.

Despite the media reports, which are based on official numbers, which are based on a lot of bull, it can be observed that there are plenty of jobs available. Illegal Mexican immigrants continue to stream across the border to take them, because hardly any Americans will “lower themselves” to take the jobs the Mexicans will. There are service jobs everywhere, and that has increased steadily in the last year. Reports indicate that $99,000/yr jobs are going begging in the latest oil boomtowns in North Dakota, where Walmart sells out every day and McDonald’s pays workers $15/hr and still needs more.

In the face of the empirical evidence, it seems wrong to extend Unimployment Insurance. I fear the manifestation of a “lost generation” of workers who have no job skills, no understanding of how to look for, perform on, and keep a job. This is a crowd lacking in determination, with a sense of entitlement to an income, or worse, a job that requires no work. Such a generation would be a drag on the economy for as long as they live. True, ending the extensions to UI would cause some pain, but clearly, there are some who need to feel some pain. And the pain of our current economic situation is something that should be shared: for unless that happens, there will be insufficient motivation to the populace to drag our sorry butts out of the pit we’re in.

Back to the Obama proposals, I wish them well. His bill goes beyond anything the pain-averse lamer politicians in the Congress and Senate could come up with. That bunch needs to be sent out into the fields to pick fruit and nudge out some of the illegal workers. It would be a hit on their income and a rude awakening, but something they desperately need.

That’s my two cents. What’s yours?

I decided to catch up on politics a little before my vacation ended. I don’t watch TV, so I used my Internet device that’s designed to allow the cable company and websites more completely monitor my every move. I pulled in “State of the Union” with Candy Crowly (“the bear”). She was Interviewing some Republican would-be contender.

I had just seen some clips of Sarah Palin squeaking and barking like an obese prairie dog begging for chocolate by the side of the road. I’d also seen President Obama pontificating in New Jersey, flanked by the local limelight-seeking politicians, before an illegal migrant whose home had been wiped out by the flooding. The illegal was sobbing, and it seemed as if Obama, in a flash of cognition, grasped that the woman was not impressed by his pontificating. He stopped his spiel, bent over her, and put his arm around her shoulder in a choreographed display of political correctness. He said to the woman in an unconvincing attempt to be empathetic: “it’s hard, I understand.” The woman sobbed even harder, and the program cut back to the anchor.

And so, when a Republican functionary exposed bits of his underbelly to “the bear” in return for a shot at nearly an hour of TV time, I couldn’t help but feel that the whole thing was, like, so last week. Where are the aliens when we need them? Not the illegals, but the ones from outer-space. We desperately need something new in the way of leadership, but Democrats and Republicans just don’t seem to be up to it.

So, my vacation is over, and I’ll have to return to Earth. I’ll watch as the Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging, in the form of over a dozen Republican candidates, marches by. I’ll wish that the media didn’t have a blackout on Ron Paul’s candidacy. I’ll pray for a visitation by aliens with greater intelligence. I’ll hope that when they come, we don’t treat them like we did in District 9. I figure alien’s inhumanity to man can’t be much worse than man’s inhumanity to man, and may well be better. I’ll wish that Americans on Unemployment Insurance realized there are good paying jobs in North Dakota, and that they should get off their 90% (or whatever the percentage is) obese butts and go take those jobs, most of which pay way more than I make. Even if they’d rather watch their big screen TV’s and stay stuck where they are with their ex’s and weekend visitation. I’ll wish that President Obama would change that, but he’ll embrace and subsidize it further instead.

That’s my welcome back.