Peter Jennings

There are only two people that I ever wanted to meet, Peter Jennings & Alex Trebek. I thought that those two were the most intelligent and interesting men I had ever seen on TV. But yesterday Peter Jennings lost his short battle with lung cancer. We lost a great Canadian yesterday. I take that back, we lost a great man of the world yesterday. He always said that about himself, he felt like a citizen of the world.

He began his career at CFJR Radio in my hometown Brockville, Ontario. Not Brockton, USA Today. Jeez, the only time my small town will ever be in a national paper and they spell it wrong! But I just checked and they fixed it, thanks to my e-mail. But I digress.

I feel like a old neighbour has died. He was always there, every night, giving me the news in his urbane, smooth way. I liked hearing his Canadian accent as well. I was less homesick.

Everyone says that he was a very intelligent man and had a wicked sense of humour. He never finished high school, the world was his school. I heard him described as a sponge, he absorbed everything around him. That's why I wanted to meet him.

I saw him on TV once giving a speech in front of his peers in Washington. He was witty and didn't hold back any punches. He told a funny story about the difference between Canadians and Americans once. He said that Canadians had a great respect for institutions. And he told a wonderful story to prove his point. And I'm not doing justice to his rendition, but here's what he said: He and his son were coming out of the Skydome, the Blue Jays had just won the World Series. All these people, many who had been drinking, came streaming out onto the street. Suddenly a lone cop held up his hand and blew his whistle to stop the crowd and hundreds of people stood there until the cop said they could go. I love that story!

It's sad that he had to die a needless death. He had quit smoking for 20 years and then started up after 9/11. I guess the terrorists got another one.