David Letterman, Road Rage and the Indy 500

In glancing at the cover of today’s Wall Street Journal, I noticed there was a tribute to talk show host David Letterman in its pages.

Letterman is retiring and as someone whose late night talk show days ended around this time 23 years ago when Johnny Carson retired, this news moves me, not at all.

Other than the fact Mr. Letterman impressed me with limited if any extra takes or mistakes the two times I attended a taping of his show, I have little good to say about him.

Not only that, but I witnessed first hand a bit of Letterman rage on the road. The episode occurred as I sat in the passenger seat of my cousin’s car.

Letterman, thinking my cousin had denied his chances of “making a red light without extra waiting time,” (it was not my cousin’s driving but that of another car/driver that forced Letterman to wait) drove to the right of the cousin’s car yelling. Next, albeit safely and without any danger, he pulled to the driver’s side, again yelling before driving off in his car.

So help me and this “sign” tipped the scales to write this, as I thought of this, the television voice transmitted information about car crashes at the Indianapolis 500 practice sessions this week.

One can mull over that those crashes took place in Letterman’s state (Indiana) and his state of mind, while driving.