I always loved the Andy Griffith Show. I still enjoy watching the re-runs. He was a good man. I will never forget a couple of years ago when Griffith made a TV commercial in support of the Affordable Healthcare Act. It was sad to see him then, after a stroke had impaired his speech and he was in failing health, but I thought it was great that it was so important to him that he did the spot endorsing decent healthcare for Americans. The Republicans were quick to call him an evil monster and demonize the good man that millions of us had always admired.May he rest in peace.

Every kid ought to be required to put away the video games and textphones for a while and watch all the original B&W episodes. Very few TV shows have promoted such good moral values in such an entertaining way.

If you haven't be sure to catch A Face In the Crowd. It's a great movie and Andy does a great job. He'll be missed. Makes me want to drive to Mt Airy and hang out downtown...

When my niece got married 11 years ago, one of their gifts was a complete VHS set of Andy Griffith Shows. Her husband Justin and her had watched them every night in college. We upgraded them to DVD a couple years ago. We've got their kids watching them now. The 3 year old is a dead ringer for Opie. Loves to fish.

First thing I did today was text Justin my condolences.

My husband never reads blogs and only quickly reads mail. I showed him the videos of Andy above and he spent hours watching through the list. He said he had never spent that much time on a computer, but enjoyed rewatching the shows he has seen many times. Thank you for the good entertainment.

Young Allyson Praytor, who has now had two of her photos published in TRAINS Magazine, has just uploaded these photos from a visit to Mount Airy in 2009.

At every turn he demonstrated his honest respect for people and he never seemed to expect theirs in return, but wanted to earn it.

Ron Howard: What I learned from Andy Griffith

I believe this is the one:

(link...)

Somebody, have I told you lately how much I appreciate the nuance in all of your posts? Really, thanks for that.

(Pardon moi and back to your regularly scheduled programming...)

BTW, did you happen to catch our Karns-area Griffith Fan Club on WBIR's Live at Five on Tuesday?

That's Bo Pierce (aka "Briscoe Darling"), my Republican-but-nevertheless-anti-school-voucher-candidate for the 89th House District, with the little brown jug.

...which I think was made for television, Andy played the head of a biker gang. Evil, evil part.

By the way, "A Face in the Crowd," also one of my favorites, is coming up on Turner Classic Movies tonight (well, early this morning) in a previously-scheduled time slot (1:45 a.m. Eastern)