With 1,096 essays for “60 Minutes” under his belt, Andy Rooney will deliver his 1,097th on Sunday’s broadcast. And it will be his last as a regular contributor.

The 92-year-old Rooney will announce his departure at the end of the program, where he has been featured since 1978, CBS News announced on Tuesday. It will be preceded by a segment in which Rooney looks back on his career with “60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer.

“There’s nobody like Andy and there never will be,” said Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and “60 Minutes” executive producer.

Indeed there is nobody like Andy.

And on a daily basis, I thank God for that.

My hatred for Rooney goes way back to 1994 when Kurt Cobain committed suicide. At that point, teen suicide moved very high into the forefront of the American consciousness. Teens in general tend to feel like their world is ending at all times, but with the death of Kurt Cobain, teens were even more touchy than usual. An icon had taken his own life, and many teens identified with him.

At the time of their suffering and a moment where an adult could’ve showed some consideration, what did Rooney say? Well, after asking what those same teens would do if they had to deal with “real problems” like (as usual) the Great Depression and Vietnam, he said…

“A lot of people would like to have the years left that he threw away,” Mr. Rooney said of Kurt Cobain. He went on to ridicule the young, many of whom found enlightenment of a kind through Nirvana’s music. “What’s all this nonsense about how terrible life is?” he asked, and he added, speaking rhetorically to a young woman who had wept at the suicide, “I’d love to relieve the pain you’re going through by switching my age for yours.”

Ever since then, I’ve taken great pleasure in watching this clueless doddering senile prick deteriorate before our eyes. In a few years, the world will be rid of him and one thing’s for sure, Mr. Rooney: You can bet your ass that none of those people you so mercilessly attacked at a time when they were feeling most vulnerable and afraid will shed one single tear as your carcass is put into a pine box.

At a time when the youth of America could’ve used a reassuring adult voice, you provided the opposite and I hate you for it and I’ve hated you for it every single day of your worthless cranky curmudgeonly life.

Good riddance.

Source

Jamawn Woods tells TMZ, Chipotle — an investor in the NBC reality show — was supposed to provide a management team to run his three Soul Daddy restaurants for one year … but they really screwed the pooch.

According to Jamawn, Chipotle hired a bum management team with NO experience cooking soul food OR running a soul food restaurant — and his restaurants tanked as a result … closing soon after.

J hasn’t filed any legal papers yet — but he’s telling friends … the show owes him $46,000 for a year’s worth of salary … and still hasn’t paid a dime.

A rep for Chipotle tells TMZ, “The Soul Daddy restaurants were generating significant negative cash flows and, after a careful review of the business, the investor group made the decision to close the restaurants.”

Not bad. They picked one hell of a loser.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that one of them has precisely one restaurant and it’s in an airport.

Source

Not too bad! At age 52, she’s still pretty good lookin’.

Click here to see the other 3.

Second place?

Mainly for his second song.

And by far the worst:

That was easy

Your turn!

The surprise was somewhat tempered by the fact that this was the second time he got voted off, but Casey is now done. I didn’t like this week’s performance from him at all and the only person I liked less was Jacob. I have to say, it’s hard for me to look at Idol the same way after seeing the premiere of The Voice. I just don’t think these guys are as talented as I used to.

Shame.

Honorable mention…

Yep… This boy’s got skills. I loved seeing him do something that wasn’t country so well.

The worst…

Obviously.

Thoughts?

One of the easiest choices of the season. Next week, however, it gets a buttload tougher.

I was only gonna pick one but damn Casey was great.

The worst? Duh…

This is a painfully obvious choice. Time’s up, Stefano.

Your turn!!

Shouldn’t have been there as long as he was; plain and simple. He’s terrible and everyone with half an ear and half a brain knows it.

Stefano, you’re next, bro!

Lauren

Great.

Scotty

Great again. He’s gonna do great when it comes to making an album.

Screw it. No third. I’m not gonna pick 3 out of tonight’s mess.

And the worst?

Pia’s gone and he isn’t. There’s no justice in this world.

Nothing to say here. This is the biggest injustice since Tamyra Gray.

Complete travesty.

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands sung by one of my favorite contestants. Absolutely brilliant!

Phenomenal. I had no idea he had this much of a voice. Amazing song choice and one of the best performances he’s had all season. Perfect.

The “Can she sing an uptempo song” is now answered. Interestingly that version of “River Deep Mountain High” sounded more like Celine Dion’s than Tina Turner’s, but is that such a bad thing either? I think not.

And the worst?

Not buying the falsetto and I think he missed an opportunity to nail the ending. Not great and considering how good everyone else was really good, I’d say this was a throwaway and it might get him sent home.

Now, as always, it’s your turn!

Obviously, Thia is the one I didn’t really want to see go. Sure she hasn’t been as good in recent weeks, but the girl is still seriously talented. Her voice got tiring, though, and she actually started sounding dead and uninteresting and I think America really picked up on it. I have a feeling she’ll be back, though. The girl is too talented to not see more of in the future.

Now Naima, on the other hand, I’ll miss about as much as when I get rid of the flu every year. I have been utterly unimpressed with her since the beginning, and I have a feeling America was waiting until they knew she couldn’t be saved to vote her ass off. She didn’t do herself any favors last night with the mangling of Still Standing with a Jamaican twist and her put-on Jamaican accent. Sorry, girlie, but when you’re trying to prove how genuine you are, faking an accent and mangling a classic rock song won’t win you any friends. Good riddance.

So what do you think? Did America get it right or not? I tend to think they did okay, although I would’ve traded Paul for Thia.

Every single week, she’s #1 or #2 and this week she proved why she’s ahead of the pack by as far as she is. Honestly, it’s getting tough to justify putting anyone at #1. Another point: I don’t care if she does ballads all the way through the finale; she owns them heartily. I don’t want to hear her do anything up tempo or out of character because what she does she does really well.

Absolutely fantastic. For the first time, I really think she nailed it. She took Candle in the Wind and turned it into a very relevant country song. I can’t even get over how great it was and I really think she connected with the audience for the first time since Hollywood week. There’s nothing more to say about it; she belongs there and killed it tonight.

Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I know America may not be totally into him, but I think he’s a relevant country artist now. If he came out with an album tomorrow and put his performances on it, it would sell. Not many of the contestants could say the same thing.

I’m done with her. I believe it was last week or the week before when I said I don’t like her and I find her fake. She totally reinforced that this week with the horrendous reggae rendition of Still Standing and the completely put-on Jamaican accent. Sweetheart, when you’re trying to prove how genuine you are, applying a fake accent does you no favors.

Your turn! Best and worst, please!

Totally didn’t see that one coming. Two go home next week but Casey gets the reprieve. Hopefully he goes back to what made him great; being a musician.

Thoughts?

1. Pia: What can be said about Pia that hasn’t, at this point, already been said? Her voice is to die for. Jennifer gave her some great advice (as did Randy) about getting out of the “ballad” lane and doing something else. It’ll be nice to see her spread her wings a little more, but honestly, vocally, not one single person on that stage can hold her hairbrush in a lead suitcase. Far and away the best on the show, end of story.

2. Jacob: If you didn’t get goosebumps from his singing tonight, check into a hospital, you might be dead. I don’t know what it is about Jacob, but he’s infectious. You just feel joy when he sings and it shines like crazy. His expressive voice, big smile, and amazing ability to make people stand up and clap along are going to keep him right up there at the top.

3. Haley: For the first time in a long time, I dug Hailey. Forgetting the fact that she totally had one of the hottest looks I’ve seen on a contestant all season, the girl really sang her ass off. It was nice to see one of the earlier frontrunners get back in the game after a few mediocre efforts.

Of course no recap would be complete without the old “loser o’ the week.”

Naima is grating, annoying, and astonishingly mediocre. As I said on Facebook, if you cut her hair and gave her regular everyday clothes, no one would care about her at all. She was definitely worthy of the “she should go home” award tonight, even over my favorite whipping boy Paul. Oh, and the African tribal convulsion she went into at the end of her performance? Ugh. We get it, Naima. You’re African. You don’t have to prove it to us every single week, okay?

Someone please put the girl out of her misery. I’m done with her.

Your turn. Top 3 and pick to go.

Go!

Maybe America got tired of her inserting random lines of Spanish into every song? Who knows, but she’s gone and thus ends the drive for a Latina Idol. Incidentally, Beth and I both think we saw J-Lo mouth the word “Naima” when talking about whether or not to save Karen. That doesn’t surprise me. They stretched the rules to keep her in, and they’re going to use their save, if possible, to keep her. They will not let her go home. Bet on it.

And how the hell is Paul STILL around?

Holy crap!

Easy choice for best of the night. He really owned the song and the stage and impressed the hell out of me. This boy can sing.

The frontrunner slipped a bit this week but not because she was less; this week Stefano was more. I doubt that will last though and Pia is still my pick to win it all.

Yep. Country boy does it again. He could do an album today and it would sell.

Someone has to go, though…

Do I really have to explain why at this point?

Your turn!!

Major WTF moment tonight. Didn’t think she’d win but I didn’t expect her to go this early. Thoughts?

1. Is there any doubt that Pia Toscano is the best of the lot after tonight? I think not. There are lots of things you can say about her performance tonight, but I look at it very simply. If you told me that last week’s performance could be topped by this week’s performance, I would’ve laughed at you. She not only did better, but she blew the doors off the theater and, in doing so, distanced herself from Thia whose performance was, at best, mediocre. Barring a major sea change, Pia is my #1 pick and the favorite to win it as of today.

2. Jacob Lusk brought it tonight. I wasn’t feeling the vibrato on his voice, but aside from that, he did a damn good job. The boy can sing, and I just love him. End of story.

3. When he’s doing country, no one can touch him. He took The River and made it his song. If Scotty stopped competing on Idol today, he could make an album and be a relevant country artist. Not many people in this competition could say that.

Those are my top 3. My pick to go home?

Yeah. Paul McDonald. Honestly, what the hell is with this twitching herky jerky weirdo? I just am not feeling him at all. I can live with quirky. I can live with “interesting.” I can’t live with weird for weird’s sake, which is what he is. Totally not impressed, didn’t get his performance tonight, and I think some of the bottom dwellers tonight should be grateful he’s still around just to help the world forget about them.

Your turn, loyal readers. Comments here, please. I know you’re tempted to post them on Facebook, but they’ll get lost there. Post ‘em here to make ‘em count.