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What Was Andy Thinking…In 1998?

By Brian Montopoli

June 7, 2006 / 11:47 AM EDT / CBS News

(CBS)

Here's the latest installment in our continuing series, "What Was Andy Thinking?," in which we bring you a year's worth of Andy Rooney commentary topics. This time around, the year is 1998, the year of the House impeachment of Bill Clinton, FDA approval of Viagra, the U.S. embassy bombings, the founding of Google, and the murder of Matthew Shepard. Andy, per usual, took on some topics that made headlines and some that didn't. In the latter category are commentaries on how to handle sales calls, the mannerisms of television news correspondents, and having Jr. attached to a man's name. The full list of commentary topics is below. (OAD means original air date.)

01/04/98: "Reference Books" - statistics on various states

01/11/98: "TV in the News" - the age of the "60 Minutes" audience; David Brinkley is doing commercials

01/18/98: "Differences" - individual preferences

02/01/98: "Clinton" - the current White House sex scandal

02/08/98: "My Opinion" - what Andy thinks about events in the news

02/15/98: "Valentine's Day" - greeting card messages

02/22/98: "Big Vans" - Andy drives a van

03/01/98: "Olympics" - Andy critiques the Olympics

03/08/98: "Fred W. Friendly" - death of Fred W. Friendly

03/22/98: "Kathleen Willey" - Andy talks about last week's interview with Kathleen Willey

03/29/98: "My Saturday Morning" - labels you find in the supermarket

04/05/98: "The Mail" - response to the Kathleen Willey interview

04/12/98: "Names" - what people choose to be called

04/19/98: "Andy Reviews The Times" - what Andy thinks of The New York Times

04/26/98: "Andy On Tobacco" - tobacco should be illegal

05/03/98: "Kenneth Starr" - Andy's critique

05/10/98: "Medical News" - medical breakthroughs

05/24/98: "Farmer Andy" - Andy talks about gardening (OAD: 04/20/97)

05/31/98: "Spring Cleaning" - thing people have sent Andy

06/07/98: "Visitors" - Andy looks at tourists

06/14/98: "Junior" - having Jr. attached to a man's name

06/21/98: "The Bronx Zoo" - Andy visits the zoo (OAD: 04/27/97)

06/28/98: "What's Your Number?" - Andy doesn't like having to remember so many numbers...credit cards, phone numbers, etc.

07/05/98: "Nuts" - what you find in a can labelled mixed nuts (OAD: 12/28/97)

07/12/98: "Car Ads" - unrealistic scenes in commercials (OAD: 10/26/97)

07/19/98: "Magazines" - things about magazines that annoy Andy (OAD: 11/16/97)

07/26/98: "Sports Clothing" - what athletes wear (OAD: 12/14/97)

08/09/98: "Would You Wear It?" - Saks catalogue (OAD: 12/15/96)

08/23/98: "Please and Thank You" - insincerity

08/30/98: "Dog Food" - labels on dog food (OAD: 10/05/97)

09/06/98: "Cords and Converters" - electrical cords, converters and adapters that people keep in their homes (04/04/93)

09/13/98: "Bill Clinton" - President Clinton's childhood and upbringing

09/20/98: "Baseball" - bats and balls

09/27/98: "In the Newspapers" - newspaper articles

10/04/98: "Pay Me, I'm Advertising" - products bearing names of companies

10/11/98: "Should They Or Shouldn't They" - the question of whether President Clinton should be impeached

10/18/98: "Your Local Newspapers" - local news stories

10/25/98: "Sports" - players and team owners alienating fans

11/01/98: "Moments In Time" - unforgettable pictures

11/08/98: "Let's Change the Rules" - Andy would like to change the way elections are run

11/15/98: "Mannerisms" - mannerisms of television news correspondents

11/22/98: "We're The Good Guys" - U.S. foreign policy

11/29/98: "Andy's Unanswered Mail" - letters Andy receives

12/06/98: "Kevorkian" - Andy's opinion of Dr. Kevorkian

12/13/98: "Annoying Phone Calls" - Andy has an idea on how to handle sales calls

12/20/98: "Andy's Christmas Story" - unwrapping packages

12/27/98: "After Christmas" - Andy receives a Christmas card from President Clinton