Andy Rooney's Daily Pleasure

(CBS)  This story was first published on March 15, 2009.

The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.

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I've been working in the same office for 30 years now, if you can call this work. We get eight newspapers every day and I keep them where they're easy to get at. We get The New York Times, the Daily News, the New York Post, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsday and The New York Observer. I don't read all of them, I just get them.

We figured it would take anyone a couple of days to read just one edition of The New York Times, so if you read all of it, you'd get behind every day when another paper came before you'd finished the one that came the day before.

Reading the paper every morning is one of the high points of my day and I'm worried. I don't like to say so, but some papers have gone out of business and more papers are going to go out of business. I don't think saying so is going to make them go any faster.

You may know me from television, but I write a newspaper column for the Tribune Media Syndicate and my relationship to newspapers goes back to before there was television when I was 12 years old. I loved newspapers then and I love them now.

I used to deliver 27 newspapers near our house in Albany, N.Y. Each paper cost the customer a nickel a day and I got a nickel a week for each of them from the distributor, so I was making $1.35 a week. Not bad. I don't want CBS to hear this because they'd probably think that was about right.

Three of us, Alfie Gordon, Bobbie Reidy and I saved what we made delivering newspapers and shoveling snow or raking leaves and went to the movies every Saturday. We always sat in the same seats. Every theater had an organist who played before the movie began. I wish they'd bring back the organ, Buck Rogers, Lorna Doone and double features. I'd start going to the movies again, after I read the newspaper.


Written by Andy Rooney

[anonymous16320]

With all respect for your opinion, I work for the USPS and hope to be able to retire someday. I also love to receive personal cards and letters via 'snail mail' but the sad fact is the majority of correspondence and eCards are delivered via the internet (ask eHallmark); in fact, I pay my bills on line through my bank to save on the cost of postage and checks. The volume of mail I am receiving through my mail carrier in my own mailbox is dramatically reduced compared to 12 months ago; sadly, most goes into the recycle bin without even making it inside the house. While you were accurate in stating that we do not get tax dollars, you did not go far enough to state that we are controlled by a board of governors that sets our financial obligations including postage rates; USPS employees are not shareholders or principles of the company. We literally visit every mailbox in the country 6 days a week whether or not that box has generated any revenue or will in the foreseeable future. That cost includes the salaries of the people who transported that mail from the processing center to the delivery unit, the clerks that sorted that mail, the letter carrier including their vehicle and the fuel needed, not to mention the machines used to move the items through the mail stream. And so, Mr. Rooney, compare the number of homes with automobiles today with the number in 1900 and while you are at it, please compare the volume of mail delivered by the USPS in FY2009 with that of FY2000, or even FY2005. I assure you that you will be shocked. The 600,00 of us that work for the USPS are hoping we will have a place to report for work for the next 5 years (or more), even if that means the closure of 3700 post offices.

[anonymous16320]

With all respect, I work for the USPS and hope to be able to retire someday. I also love to receive personal 'snail mail' but the sad fact is I get more corresponcence

[JESM2]

Mr. Rooney~~

Your segment reflects on a variety of national topics so I was surprised when you listed the papers you read regularly. They are all New York, NY newspapers! I would have expected a broader selection -- maybe the Economist or the S.F. Chronicle or the Chicago Tribune. Gee! Not even the Buffalo News or Syracuse Post-Standard? For all the papers you read, it makes you seem issolated and parochial. Does this make you a member of the 'Eastern Establishment' the nut cases rant and rave about?

[Bryan-2083]

Mr Rooney
Never for a second feel you do not have close friends. ALL of the US and World is covered by people who wait to be educated by a wise close friend every Sunday on 60 Min.s. We may not allways agree, but we never lose you in our Lifes as a close friend.
"And Thats The Way It Is"
Bryan Hinton
A Close Friend in Texas

[ampsanne]

I hear you Andy, the pictures today I wouldn't give a dime for. Give me the old movies any day. I watch Turner Classic Movies and at least they didn't have all the sex, violence and fantasy they have nowadays .

[Henri_Rochard]

I like to start my day by reading my local newspaper. We're a fairly small town and the news is usually about some local political snit, something going on at the local schools, or some local person who's gone on to some repute. Generally feel-good stuff.

Then I logon to the Internet and get my daily dose of depressing news from a large variety of sources and viewpoints.

All of the depressing news of a day ago is in today's local paper, but by now it's old news so it doesn't sting as much.

[rodgert-2009]

Who the Hell is Andy Rooney?

[williamdh]

Dear Mr. Rooney - I really enjoy your comments and opinions even when I might not agree with them. I would like to hear your opinion or comments on the automatic pay increase that members of Congress will receive in the appropriations legislation. A motion to pull the increase in pay out of the bill to allow for debate was defeated in the Senate. Given our economic circumstances, what do you think of the raises? Thank you.

[botterud]

Dear Mr. Rooney, I am an eager follower of your 5 min. of 60 for years. For a long time I have been trying to figure out the layout of your desk. Also being a Norwegian watching 60 Minutes either on Norwegian or Swedish television we have subtitles covering the front of your desktop it is hard for me to tell if it is made out of one piece of raw plank or several glued together. Could you do a presentation of your desktop as well as what you have in your drawers? And I do read newspapers, just not the tabloids.

[ckhanna]

Mr Rooney,
Please do a story on Asians-the Orientals from Vietnam, Korea, Phillipines calling themselves ASIANS. Since when did Asia shrink to just South East Asian countries. The Americans are so ignorant when it comes to History and geography that they are not questioning this new wave.
From an Indian .in ASIA