The Interview of a Lifetime Part III

Mr. Ed’s office most of the time looks like a bomb went off in it but with a distinct smell of a certain flavored potato chip odor. And his desk is covered in magazines and newspapers from all over the world. He even reads the Wall Street Journal from time to time and I’m willing to bet right now he doesn’t even have a clue to what any of that means…He’s just a simple old balding man trying to stay afloat in this dog eat dog profession. His office walls are covered with old photos and newspaper clippings from around the world. Some are really old too, I mean really old..…One of clippings is the actual Newspaper account of how journalist Ernie Pyle died while covering the battles back during World War II…That’s just a little bit before his time and it must have been something that belonged to his Father who, by the way, also was an Editor.… Mr. Ed does have one prized procession on his desk. Well, ok, two. A jar of Jelly beans and an autographed photo of Perry White!! Or well, the actor that played Perry White that is, John Hamilton. But it’s signed ““Great Caesar’s ghost!” ..Perry. …….Seems like I remember Mr. Ed saying his wife got it for him a long time ago. And about Mr. Ed’s wife, that’s a whole ‘nother story I may or may not tell you later…But let me say this much … She is sweet, and totally devoted to her husband, kinda a “Father Knows Best” type of Lady… A real classy act…No kidding!!! She’s nothing like the women in today’s world… If she was 30 years younger and single,…Well I would ………hmmmm…Well, I probably would be chasing after her…Hey, Get your minds out of the gutter…I don’t write smut…(though I hear it pays well…..)

Back to Mr. Ed…..Here I am, standing in his office again, and… as usual, desk clutter up to the ceiling….empty bags of chips in the trash… You know, going back over it again I know, but tater chips do have that certain smell to them…Its not bad though compared to how it used to smell like in here.…Today’s flavor is sort of Bar “b” que’y..…..You see, Mr. Ed, not only wanted to be like Perry White, the Editor of the Daily Planet but he also took up cigar smoking in his younger years just like ole Perry. At one time you would have never caught him without one…He was always chewing on it…All along while its glowing fire turned everything in his office to that dirty yellow color from the smoke..…And while I’m here, you might as well hear my opinion of smoking. He too,(That’s Mr. Ed if you are getting lost) was like a lot of young impressible foolish people that took up that awful habit.…Hey I did it too at one time before you go sand bagging me..…I thought it was cool too along with everyone else of my “generation” There’s those “quote unquote” things again. (I seem to use them a lot I know, journalist expressions) …..I used to go to the high school football games and hang out with the chicks…It was nothing for me to be putting on “My game face” with a long Kool menthol hanging out the side of my mouth. I was the tough guy you see… The hero…Bogart….Bogie…or Clint Eastwood and maybe even Burt Reynolds in The Smokey and the Bandit all rolled up into one.….I thought cigarettes made the person…But fortunately for me I saw though their “coolness” and realized it was just another stupid habit…So I quit smoking way before the cigarettes dug their claws into my very being and “Set the Hook”…Mr. Ed was one of the countless unfortunate ones though that didn’t see through the whole smoking hype. Hard headed is what I call them…He kept missing the tall tale warning signs and also ignored the government warning signs printed on the packages. Come on people, the warning labels aren’t there to take up space…..Mr. Ed needed a heart attack and a couple of bypasses to convince him that living and breathing was a lot better than smoking and dying….Too bad a lot of people don’t get that second chance…They enjoy the artificially flavored cancerous smoke as it slowly and methodically chokes the very life out of them..

Ok, so I’m off my cigarette soapbox…hopefully, I didn’t lose anyone…I will however say that if you smoke,. you smoke…You shouldn’t be forced to go outside and smoke just because it supposed to be a smoke free world we live in now…Smokers have Rights too…I wonder how many have actually died from having to smoke outside in the winter and catching their death of cold? I mean they all ready can’t breathe from all that smoking and then the government runs them outside to have a “smoke” to catch pneumonia. Well, I had to get one more dig in there about smoking…and well, according to Old man Buzby, never trust the Government …Even if you have defended it…