Who shot who

There weren't too many times in his adult life when my grandfather missed the six o'clock news. If he did miss it, then he caught the McNeil/Lehrer report at 7 on PBS.

I, being a youngster, suffered through the Cronkite years and then the Rather years and then watched MacNeil go his own way.

Rather's in deep trouble this week but Lehrer's still in pretty good shape. Lehrer's smarter and surrounds himself with smart people. I'm not sure Rather ever did that.

My grandfather would sit in his favorite chair with his feet up on his favorite Ottoman. After a long day at work the sourness of the news both angered him and made him laugh.

The weatherman was considered an idiot and the news, particularly if it was bad, would bring a scowl. He owned some Kodak stock so when he saw that price go up he'd look at me and say he made some money today.

Then he'd laugh.

My grandmother always cooked supper and had it done about three minutes too early most of the time. The house was set up so that she'd have to yell across both the kitchen and the dining room to call him to supper.

When he didn't answer she'd yell some more.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said. "I had to see who shot who."

All of the news came out of the bigger cities and there was a fair amount of shootings. Most were drug dealers killing each other off. My grandfather had an opinion on that, too. I can't print it here in this newspaper. Well, I could, but I'd get an awful lot of letters and the boss would probably can me.

My grandfather liked to tell it straight and that, of course, is never the way people want to hear it.

Like I said, he had his favorite chair and next to it was an ash tray. He used to smoke a pipe, and the room would fill with the smoke of apple tobacco. It smelled good. Especially from a distance, if you just got a whiff of it. He also kept a can of peanuts there.

The favorite chair was very comfortable and I'd sit in it if he wasn't around. If he did show up and you were in his chair he'd stand over top of you and say, "you're in my chair."

There was no argument.

You got up, moved to the couch.

Then, if you happened to be watching something that wasn't on PBS he'd look at the TV with a critical eye and say, "What are you looking at, here?"

Then he'd change the channel to what he wanted. He made no bones that it was his chair and his TV and ultimately his news, unless All in the Family was on. All in the Family was his kind of comedy. I didn't even get the jokes until I was in college and saw the reruns.

My grandfather has since died. But the torch is carried on. I've got my own favorite chair and my own jar of peanuts and Jim Lehrer still comes on at 7 and now I change the channel on my own kids.

They cry and whine but I'm merciless about it anyway.

"Give me that remote," I say. There's no argument.

My grandfather would have approved.

I'd like to think I'm setting an example. The kids don't get it now but I didn't get it then either.

And that, as Cronkite said, is the way it is.