It's probably one of the greatest episodes of a sitcom in history. I worry about anyone who does not laugh at some point while watching it.

"It" is the Mary Tyler Moore episode "Chuckles the Clown Bites the Dust." It won an Emmy for writing and has even beat the "conveyor belt in the candy factory" episode of I Love Lucy for funniest sitcom episode of all-time.

The show's writer, David Lloyd, died November 10th of prostate cancer at his home in California.

In addition to that masterful episode, Lloyd created the 1980s Showtime sitcom Brothers, the first show on television anywhere to feature openly homosexual characters. That series also won awards (the now-defunct "Cable ACE Award"). He wrote for Frasier (with former Brothers star Philip Charles MacKenzie directing several episodes) and Cheers as well.

His writing was brilliant and he will be missed.

David Lloyd was 75.

Well, hi!

I have good news: my proposal for a presentation on Homer & Jethro at the International Country Music Conference has been accepted, so next May I get to stand in front of a room full of scholars and act like I know what I'm doing.

Here's the article about the presentation. You can say you knew me when.

See y'all next month or after I finish moving, whichever comes first!

Good ol' TV.com.

Anyway, things are progressing as I near the 10-month mark in the research. I may have found the date Homer and Jethro met. No one in the family knows the date, so if this article in the Knoxville paper for a talent show proves to be the magic date it'll be quite a coup.

The National Felons League...er...National FOOTBALL League opened up today, and I don't care. It's still baseball season to me. I think the Bungles...er...BENGALS will go 11-5 this year: eleven arrests, five convictions. That might be the rationale behind Chad Johnson's name change: Ocho arrests, Cinco probation violations.

So what does A have to do with B? Well, as I've been going through these old newspapers I've made a discovery. The "good old days" weren't all that good. Parents killed their children and children killed their parents, there was widespread murder and mayhem, and crime was rampant. I suppose the main difference was we didn't have three 24-hour news channels picking and choosing which suspicious disappearance of a woman they would bring national attention to.

Amid all the newspaper reading I do still keep Monday evenings open to play Putt-Putt. Last Monday night I scored my first bogey-free tournament of the year. I've won two tourneys this year, shot a ten on the front nine (that means I made holes in one on eight of the nine holes), and shot some of my best rounds ever (I had a 23 AND a 24 in two rounds during a state tourney). All this while skipping practicing as much as I did last year because of library work.

Maybe that's where I went wrong!

See y'all in a month or so!