I woke up yesterday to the news of the passing of Art Linkletter and suddenly the world felt a little less good.
It’s hard to think of someone who gave so much to so many just by being himself, a bit reserved in the background, while spotlighting the world’s funniest entertainers—young children.
Those of my generation grew up watching House Party but we didn’t entirely get what was so funny until we were grown. What a treat it was to watch Art Linkletter with my son when in 1998 CBS introduced Kids Say the Darndest Things, hosted by Bill Cosby, on which Linkletter made occasional appearances.
Art Linkletter lived to be 97, was married 74 years and outlived three out of five of his children.
There is plenty to read about his interesting life, much of which was news to me. So pick up yesterday’s paper or go online and you’ll surely be as warmed—yet sad—as I.
What I especially loved was something he wrote in a reprint of one of his books: “Children under ten and women over seventy give the best interviews for the identical reason: they speak the plain unvarnished truth.”
Now if Bill Cosby lives to 97, I’ll feel better.
Word Nymph 
Amen.
One of my earliest and most bittersweet memories was of listening to Art Linkletter on the radio every day with Mama. That program and listening to QuizKids with Daddy were red letter memories.
(QuizKids’ Joel Kupperman was my first crush and I loved seeing him parodized so many years later in Woody Allen’s “Radio Days.”)