A Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood
This mental_floss magazine post waxes eloquently on why our favorite Pittsburgher, Mister Rogers, was the best neighbor ever. It is worth reading as are Tom Junod’s wonderful profile of Fred Rogers and his obituary for him, links to which are available from the Mental Floss post. The top 15 reasons why Fred Rodgers was the best are:
1. Even Koko the Gorilla loved him...
2. He Made Thieves Think Twice
According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”
3. Mr. Rodgers didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine and maintained his weight at 143 pounds for the last 30 years of his life..."Rogers came 'to see that number as a gift… because, as he says, 'the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three.”
4. He Saved Both Public Television and the VCR...
5. He Might Have Been the Most Tolerant American Ever...
6. He Was Genuinely Curious about Others...
7. He was Color-blind...
8. He Could Make a Subway Car full of Strangers Sing...
9. He got into TV because he hated TV...
10. He was an Ivy League Dropout...[Not sure about this one.]
11. He composed all the songs on the show, and over 200 tunes.
12. He was a perfectionist, and disliked ad libbing. He felt he owed it to children to make sure every word on his show was thought out.
13. Michael Keaton got his start on the show as an assistant– helping puppeteer and operate the trolley.
14. Several characters on the show are named for his family...
15. The sweaters. Every one of the cardigans he wore on the show had been hand-knit by his mother.
