Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Oh, Dave...

Dave is my guy.  He embodies one of my favorite personality trait combos: an exterior facade of gruffness with a twinkle in the eye that exposes an inner softie.  Crazy smart.  A relentless flirt but still a gentleman.  Curious.  Generous in a quiet way.  Oh, yeah, and funny. 

His was one of the rare shows I made a point of not missing, and his opinion on matters both silly and significant always rang true.  He was a voice of reason when appropriate and necessary, questioning and passionate about issues that bugged him, tender and sweet with the people he admired, and a big goofball the rest of the time. 

All of these things observed from a distance, of course, through many years of watching and laughing and sometimes even crying.  I've never met him and can't claim to know him, but I'm crazy about him anyway.

In light of other things that have happened recently, it seems frivolous to mourn the loss of a TV show.  Surely there are more important things.  But, no doubt, there will be a void after this evening and it's gonna be weird.  His wife and son, the ones who truly love him, have been kind enough to share him all these years and I guess it's only fair that they should get to claim him for awhile. 

But I'll miss ya something awful, Dave.  Honest to God.