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Happy pre-Thanksgiving. Whenever I can luxuriate in my nightly regimen of watching the PBS Newshour, while eating supper, I do. Tonight, Tuesday, November 20th, the final piece on the program consisted of a preview of a program that will air tonight on PBS, entitled "Poor Kids". While downing a meal that would last a week for many poor kids in all the hemispheres, I stopped and watched, in horror, the unrehearsed partial segment about "Nutrition Clubs", this one featured at a selected grade school here in the U.S.

The school was attended by kids who had been identified and vetted as legitimately at or below poverty-level, and even featured an older teenager who was not a student at that school. Those identified as truly poor were given bags of nutritious food every Friday, that was to last them througth the weekend. The older kid's comments echoed what hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of our fellow citizens face each day: Having money, then losing a job, then not having money to meet bill obligations, then facing homelessness. He was speaking from the heart, to say the least, also describing the daily despair and depression that unemployment can bring. This is one roller-coaster ride no one wants to take. I've been on that ride more than once in my seven-and-a-half-decades, and it's no fun. However, I'd like to offer some illustrations that even if all is not always rosy for everyone, keeping mentally afloat, and "keeping the faith" will, more times than not, see one eventually emerge through the gates of living Hell into the sunlight. Here are those illustrations, focusing on some successful people I was blessed to know both socially and professionally, and who not many people knew were on the brink of homelessness and starvation. These revelations were made to me, sometimes on-camera, sometimes not, but if you think all well-known or successful people were born with silver spoons in their mouths, not so. Here are some of my favorite stories of encouragement that reflect, once again, as Norm Coleman's St. Paul mayoral office sign stated, "All Crises Pass":

WILLIAM SHATNER - Mr. Shatner told me, during one of several interviews for my former 1990s syndicated program, HOLLYWOOD UPDATE, about his fledgling days in show business. One of his early experiences was to play Shakespearean roles at Ontario's famous Stratford Theater, a cousin to the "Mother Ship" (no pun intended) in Stratford-Upon-Avon in England. He said he was so poor he couldn't afford to rent an apartment, so he often snuck into a nearby laundromat after the performances and slept in the utilities room, hoping no one would discover him there during the overnight hours. He told me he was never discovered, and breathed a sigh of relief every eatly monring when he had to "exit" the place.

GREGORY PECK - I was privileged and honored to have a long-term friendship with Mr. Peck, beginning in 1969. In one of the pictures in which he and I were together (taken in the desert just west of Las Vegas), he autographed it to me as his "Podner". For all the success he eventually had, and being born into an upper middle class family (his father was a pharmacist), when my "Podner" began acting on stage in New York, he, too, couldn't afford rent much of the time, thus was relegated to sleeping on benches in Central Park for at least two years prior to returning to his native Southern California to begin his rise to iconic-status film stardom. Perhaps those lean days in New York helped make him even more humble than his natural bent, as he was the most gentlemanly and quality person I've ever known. Greg could have taught us all how to "behave". "Class act" doesn't even begin to describe how exemplary and kind he was.

TONY RANDALL - Tony was like a father and mentor to me for over 50 years, from our acting-together days on MISTER PEEPERS (NBC-TV, circa 1952-53) until his passing in 2004. Difficult to comprehend it's already been over eight years since he left us. Among the many stories Tony told me were these two: He and Eli Wallach were in the U.S. Artmy together during WWII. They both ended their respective service obligations in 1945, when the war also ended. Tony, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was almost flat broke, so decided to try his luck at being a dramatic radio actor on a local station in Hartford, Connecticut. He was paid $25 a week, and he told me he was happy to get it. The other story is following Tony's success on PEEPERS and THE ODD COUPLE (the latter show which he co-owned with Jack Klugman and Abner "Abby" Greshler, Tony and Jack's agent. Mine, too  in later years, thanks to Tony), he was asked to visit some theater-type folk in his hometown, Tulsa. He told me not only was nobody there to greet him, but everywhere he went. no one acknowledged knowing who he was. Either they were all living in caves or never saw a television set. Tony did NOT have an ego, but he told me to be slighted in his hometown was not pleasant.

The preceding anecdotes won't put food on anyone's table, but hopefully they'll serve to illustrate, in even a miniscule way, there are very few in this world...even those who have "made it"...who have escaped the angst of poverty, hunger and rejection, but still 'keep the faith" and eventually emerge as very strong individuals. People living with all the comforts, and taking those blessings for granted, without caring how many these days are struggling to just survive another day. should especially reflect on being thankful for everything they have on this annual special day, day-after-tomorrow, and every day. Again, Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanks for reading and sharing in my thoughts here, and if you're so inclined, please watch my SENIOR MOMENT webcasts at www.startribune.com/videos. The subject changes every Monday, as does my choice of cranberry sauce. :)

Following President Obama’s election to a second term, of most importance to everyone in this country is the aptly-named “Fiscal Cliff” over which this nation will fall beginning January 1st if congress (especially the House of Representatives) doesn’t reach the highly-touted “grand bargain” between both parties that will prevent this nation from financial disaster far more dire than the most recent recession. Congratulations to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner for immediately stepping up to the plate the day after the election to proclaim, in essence, “enough is enough” regarding not doing the job they were elected to do, i.e., serving the people, not themselves.  Could the “grand bargain” between both parties have been achieved a few months, or even two years, ago? Of course it could, and in my opinion, that’s one of the reasons President Obama was re-elected. My reasoning, shared, I think, by more people than not, is as follows: First, most of the “99 Percenters” aren’t as stupid as many in political office think. In my opinion, the general voting population this past Tuesday saw right through the recalcitrance and petulance of the most vocal national leaders of the losing party, with one of their senators still proclaiming he would continue to stonewall the President’s efforts to bring economic stability back from the brink of the pending January 1st financial Armageddon. The voters weren’t stupid, and had enough of the schoolyard spitefulness from those in the House who crowed, “The public be damned “ with emphasis on the middle-class. It was interesting to see those who crowed, eat crow this past Tuesday, which is historically mostly the case. “Pride goeth before a fall” might also be an apt observance here. Second, the presumed “stupidity” of this country’s first voters was the reason The Electoral College was created, i.e., not trusting those voting to really be educated enough to know what they were doing. In the first Presidential election, the farmers were thought to need a vetting by the then aristocracy at the head of this country’s fledgling helm, thus placing the electoral “stamp of approval” on those the “stupid” farmers had chosen to be elected with their votes. Even Thomas Jefferson stated The Electoral College was an insult (paraphrasing here) to the voting citizens of this country. Talk of abolishing this antiquated process has been rampant in every election since I was able to walk, i.e., from 1940 onward. But it never gets past the talking stage.  Third, and again in my opinion, and the opinions of many, this election was a wake-up call to begin to change attitudes.  One of Minnesota’s elected national-office-holding politicians smugly proclaimed, for almost four years, President Obama would be a “one-term President”. Well, apparently not.  The voters have spoken, and President Obama will again take the oath of office January 20th.  Fourth, and most important for those who still want to stonewall the President with no compromise, and that stonewalling results in a fiscal tailspin rivaling The Great Depression, voters in 2014 and 2016 will remember who wouldn’t budge because their egos stood in the way, and “the bums will b e thrown out”, to paraphrase an oft-employed political admonition. Time to grow up, for some of them. Only some, because the majority of them are not all bad apples, and actually do care about their constituents, but in this case of the light at the end of the tunnel being an oncoming train (and train wreck), I’m certain most of us hope the bad apples will realize it’s almost past time to put the breaks on that train, and their compromise actions have to be immediate.  Thanks for taking the time to read and share in my “geezer” opinions, and I hope, as always,  you’ll also see fit to join me in A SENIOR MOMENT at www.startribune.com/video when you can.

I’ve never “piggybacked” a topic from my Star Tribune webcasts, but I feel this week’s “a senior moment” webcast subject matter is pertinent enough to current events to warrant addressing the same subject here. To not usurp my friend, Star Tribune film critic, Colin Covert, my own take on the new Ben Affleck film “Argo”, is it’s one of the most powerful and best films ever produced.

Having actually lived close to those times in Iran as part of my life and work, I noticed one surprising error in an otherwise meticulously-crafted film, to wit: in the opening narration, the narrator states the Shah was given asylum in the United States. Respectfully stated, that’s not accurate. He was allowed to go to New York only for treatment of the cancer he had contracted in Iran, but left the U.S. six weeks later for Mexico and Egypt, the latter where he died and is buried, never to return to the U.S.

The events chronicled in “Argo” that took place in Iran a year after i was there for my second visit were unknown to most of us publicly until “Argo’s” release. Hearing former President Jimmy Carter’s voice over the film’s end credits, describing the fact the “Argo” story was a secret kept until former President Clinton declassified it, was, and is, a fascinating narrative.

I knew Iran as a television producer, making a promotional television ski documentary for the Shah’s regime, with two visits to that country within the space of a Year. My documentary aired on HBO for a year until the Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution Occurred. Seeing the film “Argo” reminded me of the major differences between the Iran I knew and the Iran of today. There was at least one flourishing synagogue in Tehran, a Kentucky fried chicken restaurant (which is seen in “Argo”), Wimpy’s hamburgers, four major ski areas, people happily shopping in the Tehran branches of some of the world’s most popular and elegant department stores and plenty of nightlife.

That all changed, of course, when the Shah’s desire to westernize the country was toppled by the theocratic revolution in the late 1970s.

To any of us who either worked or lived in Iran during the Shah’s reign, it’s difficult to see what’s happened there, even since the Ayatollah Khomeini Died.

There are many Iranians living in the twin cities, and most departed when the Shah and Empress Farah left Iran, too. Since the Shah died, his widow, Empress Farah Diba, for all her Wealth, has also seen a great deal of personal tragedy. Two of her three children, Princess Leila and Prince Ali Reza, committed suicide. I was told by another family member they did so because they had lost their country and were too overwhelmed with grief to see what else would happen to it.

I met them both when they were young children, at that time ages 4 and 11, respectively, while having lunch with the Empress during a filming break. It was in a small mountain cabin, owned by the royal family, halfway down the slopes of Mount Dizin, one of the four major ski areas the Shah had built, as previously referenced, just northwest of Tehran. The only others at that lunch were my friends Billy Kidd and Suzy Chaffee, the “stars” of my film, along with the Empress, of course, as well as Dick Barrymore, the late great ski photographer and longtime friend to me since our sun Valley, Idaho, days in the 1960s and a lady named Lili Dashti, a friend of Empress Farah. Dick was shooting his own film for theater audiences.

In the days i was there, Iran was our closest ally in that part of the world, and the glue that held the Middle East together for The West. Today we can only hope that country doesn’t become un-glued, to the detriment Of the entire world. Thanks for reading, thinking and allowing me to share some vivid memories, once again.

I’ve never “piggybacked” a topic from my Star Tribune webcasts, but I feel this week’s “a senior moment” webcast subject matter is pertinent enough to current events to warrant addressing the same subject here. To not usurp my friend, Star Tribune film critic, Colin Covert, my own take on the new Ben Affleck film “Argo”, is it’s one of the most powerful and best films ever produced.

Having actually lived close to those times in Iran as part of my life and work, I noticed one surprising error in an otherwise meticulously-crafted film, to wit: in the opening narration, the narrator states the Shah was given asylum in the United States. Respectfully stated, that’s not accurate. He was allowed to go to New York only for treatment of the cancer he had contracted in Iran, but left the U.S. six weeks later for Mexico and Egypt, the latter where he died and is buried, never to return to the U.S.

The events chronicled in “Argo” that took place in Iran a year after i was there for my second visit were unknown to most of us publicly until “Argo’s” release. Hearing former President Jimmy Carter’s voice over the film’s end credits, describing the fact the “Argo” story was a secret kept until former President Clinton declassified it, was, and is, a fascinating narrative.

I knew Iran as a television producer, making a promotional television ski documentary for the Shah’s regime, with two visits to that country within the space of a Year. My documentary aired on HBO for a year until the Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution Occurred. Seeing the film “Argo” reminded me of the major differences between the Iran I knew and the Iran of today. There was at least one flourishing synagogue in Tehran, a Kentucky fried chicken restaurant (which is seen in “Argo”), Wimpy’s hamburgers, four major ski areas, people happily shopping in the Tehran branches of some of the world’s most popular and elegant department stores and plenty of nightlife.

That all changed, of course, when the Shah’s desire to westernize the country was toppled by the theocratic revolution in the late 1970s.

To any of us who either worked or lived in Iran during the Shah’s reign, it’s difficult to see what’s happened there, even since the Ayatollah Khomeini Died.

There are many Iranians living in the twin cities, and most departed when the Shah and Empress Farah left Iran, too. Since the Shah died, his widow, Empress Farah Diba, for all her Wealth, has also seen a great deal of personal tragedy. Two of her three children, Princess Leila and Prince Ali Reza, committed suicide. I was told by another family member they did so because they had lost their country and were too overwhelmed with grief to see what else would happen to it.

I met them both when they were young children, at that time ages 4 and 11, respectively, while having lunch with the Empress during a filming break. It was in a small mountain cabin, owned by the royal family, halfway down the slopes of Mount Dizin, one of the four major ski areas the Shah had built, as previously referenced, just northwest of Tehran. The only others at that lunch were my friends Billy Kidd and Suzy Chaffee, the “stars” of my film, along with the Empress, of course, as well as Dick Barrymore, the late great ski photographer and longtime friend to me since our sun Valley, Idaho, days in the 1960s and a lady named Lili Dashti, a friend of Empress Farah. Dick was shooting his own film for theater audiences.

In the days i was there, Iran was our closest ally in that part of the world, and the glue that held the Middle East together for The West. Today we can only hope that country doesn’t become un-glued, to the detriment Of the entire world. Thanks for reading, thinking and allowing me to share some vivid memories, once again.

JENNIFER LIVINGSTON AND MIKE THOMPSON: Watching La Crosse, Wisconsin, morning television news anchor, Jennifer Livingston, and her husband, evening television news anchor Mike Thompson, on GMA this morning was, in my opinion, a refreshing demonstration of good people expressing themselves openly about some of the pitfalls of being public figures. Being a public figure also sometimes entails being a recipient of thoughts from people less tuned-in to the fact anyone in public life is a human being with all the pluses and minuses that come with that existence. In essence, from the time one "signs on" to make being a media "talent" their livelihood and profession, they also "sign-on" to being perpetual targets for brickbats as well as praise. It's not lovely, but it's unfortunately part of "the game".  I'm blessed to say I've received only three "hateful" missives in my electronic and print media career, and only one via the Internet. As Ms. Livingston stated about her bully/detractor this morning, paraphrasing here, the person didn't know her at all, or anything about what makes up her character. She divulged she has a thyroid problem which exacerbates her ability to lose weight. She also is a runner.

It was also learned her husband was the one who took umbrage at the insulting cyber message and encouraged Jennifer to speak out. Bravo to him, as well. I'm certain there are legions of those in the media who applaud Ms. Livingston's remarks delivered on her local station, as well as station management which allowed her to address her thoughts during a newscast. For those who might decry it was a personal message delivered on public airwaves, those are known as "editorials", very valid and "legal". In my opinion, and I'm certain in the opinion of many, a person's weight, looks or anything external has absolutely nothing to do with character or intelligence. Ms. Livingston proved herself to be unflinchingly articulate on her GMA appearance this morning. In THAT regard, she IS a heavyweight, but only in the most complimentary sense of that word. Congratulations to Ms. Livingston and her station's management for their wise decision to let her speak publicly.

THE MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA'S LOCK-OUT/STRIKE: A few months ago, while on a European tour, one of London, England's newspaper music critics labeled our Minnesota Orchestra, "the best in the world". Anyone who's ever had the joy to attend ANY Minnesota Orchestra performance would agree. Doc Severinsen has long extolled the virtues of our great orchestra's musicians. He once told me he would have praised them even if not employed by the orchestra as a guest conductor. I had the privilege to be exposed to symphonic music from age one, when my grandfather was first violinist for The Pittsburgh Symphony in 1938 under the baton of conductor Fritz Rainer. I also had the privilege, as a teenager "growing up" in NYC,  to attend those sorts of concerts with The New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, as well as enjoy the "tightest" orchestra (aside from ours) with friend Peter Nero's Philly Pops in subsequent years. Regardless, none of those quite match the energy, precision and mastery of ALL works, symphonic or otherwise, than our Minnesota Orchestra. Perhaps a simplistic solution to erase the three-million dollar deficit which caused the orchestra's management to suggest major slashes to the musicians salaries, thus causing the musicians to not accept management's offer: At least one orchestra board member's husband is a BILLIONAIRE, and several others in our fair cities have hundreds of millions of personal dollars. Why don't they just dip into their collective piggy banks and donate the deficit sum to the orchestra? Three million dollars, even to ONE of them, would never be missed by them, but our orchestra would certainly be if it no longer existed, or if underpaid musicians decided to go elsewhere to make the dollars they certainly deserve to earn. We're blessed to have their outstanding quality. Hopefully someone in the millionaire or billionaire strata will step up to the plate to preserve our superb musical treasure: Those who make it happen.

Thanks for taking the time to read these opinions and to hopefully view A SENIOR MOMENT on the Star Tribune's  webcast site.