But it IS a fact that Fred Rogers was a trained killer in the Navy Seals- He had 54 confirmed kills, the majority of which were "up close and personal" (Fred Rogers disdained guns, preferring to kill the enemy in close quarters combat- often garrotting them with laces from a pair of comfortable sneakers). He was apparently very good at what he did, and took great pleasure in his work... I contacted one of his Navy buddies, some of the things he told me were too chilling too repeat here... here are some tamer excerpts from Dirk Thorenson's reply to me:

"In response to your inquiry yes, I knew Fred "Feely" Rogers, I served with him in Nam as part of a special Op force tasked to take out Guerilla forces... Fred was an odd fellow, when not in battle he was quiet.. too quiet... He was obsessive, often spending hours tying and untying his boots. In battle He was a monster... None of our team could keep up with him... He seemed to thrive on combat, and on each of his kills he left a calling card- A red cardigan sweater. The event that stands out for me is the time we tracked down an enemy encampment, we were ordered to just observe them and relay intel. to headquarters for a possible airstrike... One night Fred snapped and snuck out of our position, we were awoken in the night by the tortured screams of the enemy in their encampment. I will never forget those screams. When we finally entered the quiet encampment we saw bodies laid out in neat rows. It was horrific, god- I had never seen so many cardigans! The horror! We asked him what had happened, all Fred would say was "It was 'special'"

So Tom, I hate to shatter your illusions, but facts are facts...

Note to Lindy: This is not real, its all made up and in off topic :)

Honestly, I was apparently a big fan of Mr. Rogers, he was a genuinely decent guy... you have to be a kid to not be bored to death by the program, but when you are a kid its fascinating... Given the crap like power rangers and pokemon that smear our airwaves, he had a great Neighborhood...

Of course, I apparently was a huge fan of 'Green Acres' as a toddler, so my taste in tv may be questionable... I also found 'Ishtar' and 'Joe versus the volcano' funny, so you can diregard my comments entirely...:)