And now for a little “shop talk”

Any time Paul Harvey reported anything in the media he would introduce the story as "shop talk'. Well the saddest "shop talk" of all has been reported as legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey left us on Saturday. No other broadcaster had or could even effectively use a full fifteen minutes a day to deliver "news and comment' and another five minutes to tell "The Rest Of The Story". Paul Harvey did, and did it better than anyone else ever could.No one could mix hard news and human interest stories the way he could. For each story about politics and the general state of the world, he would have a story about some 'regular person' and their good fortune, humorous incident or deepest sorrow and all those stories seemed equally important, because he knew they actually were and he treated them as such. There is absolutely nothing I can say that hasn't already been said by thousands of others, in various blogs and news reports, about this giant of broadcasting.He was a great part of my life as both a broadcaster and as a listener andthe only way I know to honor him is to recall my favorite Paul Harvey story. It was sometime in the early 1960's, during the height of the cold war.He made mention that, through sign language, an American fishing boat and a Russian fishing boat had arranged a trade. Russian cigarettes for American beer. Details were worked out and the day of the trade came about. The Russians handed over the cigarettes and the Americans handed over the beer. Being the early '60s, the beer was in cans that sported the brand new convenience of a "pop top". The Russians had never seen a "pop top" before and were a bit aprehensive about pulling on the mysterious ring attached to the top of the can.Finally one brave Russian took a chance and popped the top only to hear the "pop, ssssssssss" sound of the carbonation releasing upon opening it. He immediately threw it overboard and the crew of the boat hit the deck waiting for the explosion...that never came. I'm not sure where Paul got all the gems he reported, nor do I care. I'm just glad he did, for over a half century. We are all richer for it. Thank you Paul Harvey. Regardless of how bad things were in the world, every day you were with us was a "Good Day".