Hey, the guy's 98 years old today…and I hope I'm in as good a shape when I'm 88, let alone a decade later. I don't remember who my first "favorite entertainer" was but I'm pretty sure when The Dick Van Dyke Show came on, the guy with his name in the title knocked all others out of the competition. And he was great in lots of other things…which you can name just as well as I can.
I have met a lot of my heroes and a few of them — shall we say? — disappointed me as human beings. Dick did not. If anything, he turned out to be nicer, funnier and more worthy of admiration than I'd imagined. I hope he lives along enough for this to be considered "middle-age."