It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood......

No, it's not. Mr. Rogers has died. He was 74. He had stomach cancer.

I'll admit to being old enough to have watched Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood as a child. I would say it had an influence on my life, because it was all about exploring and learning, and I've done plenty of both. I love to read, love to travel and love to learn. How else do you explain getting a CPA, then an MBA, and then a JD? It's either that, or masochism......

I'm sure (I hope) that there's plenty of educational, informative TV out there. I grew up watching Saturday cartoons (the Bugs Bunny & Roadrunner show!!!), but it wasn't all just cartoons. Every now and then I turn on CBS radio (usually for traffic reports), and hear Christopher Glenn doing the World News Roundup. Takes me back to when he used to do "In the News", a regular spot on Saturday mornings. Between the two (Mr. Rogers and Christopher Glenn), it would be hard to decide who had a larger impact on where my life has gone.

What's sad is that I don't think my 14 and 11 year-old-nephews can say the same thing. The big impact on their lives hasn't been a news reporter, or TV host. It's been Play Station. And there's something lost there. I'm afraid of what it will mean for them when they turn 30.