MICKEY ROONEY

I could wait another week, a month. or a few months, before talking about you. I'm just saying what many, many people feel about the boy, young man, old, wiser, grown up guy whom we got to know at different stages of his life.

He was so utterly present, reacting to what was happening, in every scene he was in.

We got to know him as a friend, brother, as a cousin, pal, leader, instigator, hero, villain, beau -- a man who did what he had to do.

Was he a natural -- a guy with talent for creating a real person no matter what he played?  Or was he an especially big person, who encompassed many other persons, who thought the way millions of us think, and understood what millions of us feel.

For me Mickey Rooney is a main man -- the face, the look in his eyes, the smile, frown, the concern -- a thousand images of Mickey's concern are part of me.

Hey Mickey Rooney, you are here, even though you have gone for that long, long walk.

(VIDEO) CULLUM'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH TENNIS

"Why did you pick tennis as a sport," Emily Frankel, asks, wondering why John Cullum didn't' choose baseball or basketball.

John explains that when he was just a kid, tennis was something  he could do with his dad, who played every weekend. After a game, his father would hit a few balls with him. That got young John practicing hitting balls off the steps in front of his home.

John's love of tennis got him into playing tennis as a junior, then senior, then  non-professional high level tennis in college tournaments in the United States and Europe. Today, whenever tennis is being played anywhere in the world, you can be sure -- John Cullum is watching.

MARY JO WHITE

Mary Jo White

is tough,

formidable,

unrelenting.

She's probably not even five-feet tall, but she is very tall -- powerful, important, when it comes to going after the cheaters on Wall Street. She's the chair of the Securities Exchange Commission, the only woman to hold the top position in the 200-year-plus history of that office.

I probably couldn't carry on a very good conversation with her -- her world and my world rarely collide, though show business needs investors, and what Wall Street has been doing has made it harder to get them. The investment world's machinations have been slowing down our country's progress, our recovery from the disastrous economic slump of five years ago.

I'd more than fill this page if I stated her educational background, where she's worked and all the awards she's won as a lawyer. White is renownedfor getting convictions against the terrorists responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and the bombings of our embassies in Africa.

Personally, she's a sports fan, a runner herself, happily married to the man she met in high school. Their son is currently enrolled in Colombia Law School.

Since taking over the commission last April, White, 66, has given both fans of regulation and big money investors something to complain about. She has changed SEC rules to require crooked guys to admit guilt rather than just pay fines. She has stepped up investigations of lawyers and accountants who shield companies by failing to flag fraud. The SEC recently announced the latest of nearly 700 busts.

Glance at this video -- it's not exciting, but clearly shows that Mary Jo knows all the ins-and-outs, and can out talk, (and probably out think) the brilliant minds that know the ins-and-outs of making money. Which explains Obama’s chief reason for making her the nation’s top financial cop, saying when he nominated her, “You don’t want to mess with Mary Jo.”

With several politically charged decisions coming in the next two months, Mary Jo White gives us hope that soon, sooner rather than later, we can get the country back to progressing forward, not backward, and get out from under the clutches of Wall Street guys who are making us poorer while they get richer, and richer and richer.

UNCOUPLING

Hey, we've got
a new word for --
divorce,
breaking up --
not sleeping together.


When the beautiful, always perfect-looking Gwyneth
Paltrow said "uncoupling," a lot of people cringed. It seemed to be a somewhat snobbish way to separate the breakup of Gwyneth and her husband from what regular people do.

It hit the headlines. Joan Rivers immediately hated it. People said it was weird -- the famous movie star avoiding straight talk, and being rather pretentious.

Well, she's never been a palsy-walsy, friendly star -- we've certainly applauded the 41-year-old Paltrow, enjoyed her hauteur, and things she's chosen to do that represent her taste.

Click -- read what Wikipedia refers to as her breakthrough into stardom -- the list of films that won Gwyenth Paltrow awards, rave reviews, and the reputation for being a very cultured, polished, elegant woman, who's something of an non-conformist.

Like the website Paltrow created --  GOOP.com -- where, as an author of two cookbooks, she comments about what to eat and why it's nutritious and important. It's a catchy title -- not pretentious -- a fun word she picked probably trying to be precise and truthful.

Okay, married for eleven years to Chris Martin, lead vocalist of "Coldplay," with whom she has had two children, (inventively named Apple and Moses), they've UNCOUPLED.

Yes, it was actually a graceful way of announcing to the press that they were moving out of their mansion in London, and heading back to LA, where they weren't going to be sharing a home, or a bedroom.

Hey, I admire her detaching herself from concepts, behavior patterns, and all the raised-eyebrow questions that reporters and fans will continue to ask and wonder about.

Yay Gwyneth Paltrow, for boldly doing what she's been doing for years in that not paly-waly, but wonderfully cool way of hers -- inspiring us to do what she does and just be what we really are.