Still reeling from his brush with the personification of American goodness, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak took to his Ricochet blog today to recall his earlier encounter with the personification of American loudness, Keith Olbermann. It was on Sajak's CBS talk show in 1989 that Olbermann--then a mustachioed sportscaster for the network's Los Angeles affiliate--made his first national television appearance. At the time, Sajak liked him.

"He was wry and amusing," recalls Sajak, "and he looked at the news at a kind of cockeyed angle that I enjoyed." (Note: We originally misread the first part of that sentence as "he was merry and amusing," which also sounds like something Pat Sajak would write.)

So what happened? Sajak doesn't know (it probably has something to do with payroll taxes), but he misses his old friend Keith. So, he suspects, does his old friend Keith.

"[T]o whatever extent the political well has been poisoned, Keith has dumped more than his share of venom into the water. I’d like to think he knows that and maybe even regrets it. I liked the Keith Olbermann of 1989. This tape reminded me that I miss him."

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Ray Gustini