Andy Rooney signed off his long-running "60 Minutes" gig as America's crank last night by admitting, "I can't complain about my life."
But he's made a living and a reputation by complaining, and "60 Minutes" correspondent Morley Safer confirmed that point by playing a "greatest hits" collection of Rooney rants.
Rooney himself, during his exit interview with Safer, cheerfully revisited other things he doesn't like.
Those include people who ask for his autograph or write him letters.
"What kind of idiot would want my name on a piece of paper?" he asked, and then explained that anyone who would write him a letter isn't his kind of person.
To which Safer replied, "That's exactly your kind of person."
Rooney devoted much of his final regularly scheduled commentary to that relationship with his audience, and he tried hard to confirm what Safer said - that he's the same prickly character off camera that he is when it's rolling.
"I spent my first 50 years trying to become well known as a writer and the next 30 trying to avoid being famous," Rooney said. "I walk down the street or go to a football game and people shout, 'Hey, Andy!' I hate that."
As if to underscore the point, he even seemed to suggest he's keeping a slightly wary distance from his own two great-grandchildren.
His kids are good, he said, but let's not go overboard. The great-grandchildren "are a little too young for me to know how great they are."
Safer also avoided getting too warm and fuzzy about a man who has been one of the signature voices of "60 Minutes" for more than 30 years.
While Safer used the "beloved" and "curmudgeon" words, he drew out sentimentality only when Rooney talked about the deceased Challenger crew or old colleagues like Walter Cronkite - whom he met during World War II, when Rooney wrote for Stars and Stripes.
"I hate to say it," said Rooney, "but I had a great time in World War II."
Great. The one thing he's not cranky about is a world war.
Safer best captured the public Rooney by describing him as "a man who seemed to be fed up with everything," and showing a montage of Rooney complaining about subjects from prescription medicine packaging to the phrase "Shock and Awe" to chocolate chip cookies.
If he has often sounded like Groucho Marx on the air, though, he went out like Lou Gehrig.
"All this time I've been paid to say what is on my mind on television," he said. "You don't get any luckier in life than that."