Edited by author 10-24-2002 06:07 PM
I watched Mr. Rogers a lot as a kid. Knew all the songs and such. Didn't realize until recently that one of his songs was about, well, genitalia:

"Some are fancy on the inside. Some are fancy on the outside."

I distinctly remember thinking as a kid that it had something to do with inner and outer beauty.

This would be funnier if Fred Rogers weren't, by just about every report I've ever read, utterly genuine. As it is, this is just nasty.

He actually is an honestly nice and sincere guy and it does bother me when people rank on him. But dang it, sometimes you just gotta . . .

"This American Life" did a great segment on Mr. Rogers. A guy who had met him as a kid (Mr. Rogers _invited the kid's entire family to his vacation house_) re-interviewed him and asked him how he might deal with some difficult neighbors.

Yes, that was a great show! (RealPlayer)

Mr. Rogers was a neighborhood fixture when I lived in Pittsburgh, and he's always been regarded as having a strong ethical and moral backbone.

I found these out-of-context statements amusing, but I don't mind taking lightly what other people take seriously. The words my wife uses to describe this behavior are "insensitive clod".

> Mr. Rogers was a neighborhood fixture when I lived
> in Pittsburgh,

His show was available in Canada, but it wasn't the big presence. (That would be the Friendly Giant or Mr Dressup.)

> and he's always been regarded as having
> a strong ethical and moral backbone.

More powerful it seems, because of a strong "do what I do, not what I say" approach - not preachy. Too many people trying on the inverse of that today, IMHO.

Funny, these guys stole it from The Howard Stern show, though, he was riffing on this one day, the "soapy" part I remember.