On Friday the 13th, 2008 we lost Tim Russert, the journalistic equivalent of
BB King. Stay with me, I know it's a stretch.

The comparison didn't strike me till late yesterday evening, and again this
morning. As I switched between cable and evening news shows--it was as plain
as the nose on my face, as plain as the talent Tim Russert brought to
anything he tackled, whether it was to the set of NBC's weekly Sunday
morning long running MEET THE PRESS, or his best selling novels such as BIG
RUSS AND ME. Big Russ, his father, raised Tim and three siblings while
working two jobs. His main job was as a sanitation engineer. Tim's book
explored and exalted the values that his father, the garbage man, instilled
in him--that served him so well through out his life. It has been a
revolving best seller, or near the top of that list, every father's day
since it came out.

Hour after hour the accolades poured in yesterday, all through the evening
and into the night. They still are this morning, the pace has not slowed. It
wasn't that alone, or that everyone had nothing but...