Very sad news about Tony Snow. Good news guy. Good guy. So many news guys (and gals) are a mile wide and an inch deep. Tony wasn’t. It was clear from much of his commentary that while he was politically astute, he didn’t consider politics even close to the most important part of life, as so many reporters do. He was smart, learned and sophisticated without making a show about it. He was funny and very human.

Tony and I had a little exchange on a segment of “Fox New Sunday,” though he had the only speaking part. I watched “FNS” from the creation and liked it. The only irritant in the beginning was the short little tracks of hard rock they used for seques. (They don’t it anymore, thank goodness.) It seemed inconsistent in a well-done and intellectually satisfying program on current affairs to have it punctuated with such trifling, and to many like me, downright irritating noise which had nothing I could see to do with the subjects being introduced. (I got really quick at going for the mute button.) I emailed Tony that while I liked the show, I wished he would ditch the kid noise. I pointed out, what I thought Tony would have known, that people who are keenly interested in public affairs at the level presented on “FNS” go out of their way to avoid any contact with hard rock “music.” I reminded Tony that the folks who like this kind of “music” aren’t even up yet when “FNS” is aired. As was his custom, Tony read two or three letters/emails at the end of the broadcast on the Sunday after I sent my email. Mine was the last one he read. After reading it, and with a large Tony smile on his face, he said, “I have only one thing to say to you, Larry (takes a beat) — Rock on.”

I learned only this morning, while viewing the many well-deserved tributes to Tony, that he not only liked rock music, but occasionally played in an amateur rock band. Well, nobody’s perfect. And our Tony, with all his fine qualities, surely earned a quirk or two. (As disturbing as it was to learn Tony was a rocker, it wasn’t like finding out he liked to pull legs off of grasshoppers.)

So to Tony, rather than the customary “rest in peace,” I’ll just say, “You done good, buddy — Rock on.”