Just one more thing, ma'am...

Ok, I know it is odd. Shoes being thrown at President Bush, Rahm Emanuel's eyes looking more beady than usual, the economy in the tank, Caroline Kennedy being considered to take the NY senate throne (I mean seat) of Hillary Clinton - and what am I writing about - Peter Falk.

Why Peter Falk you may wonder? Well, I saw that the 81 year old actor has recently been diagnosed with dementia - they say Alzheimer's Disease - and it made me feel sad. I loved watching Columbo - as a kid and as an adult. I could watch the same Columbo shows over and over again and never tire of them. Peter Falk portrayed detective Lt. Columbo. The series began on a Sunday presentation of the NBC Mystery Movie rotation, which included McCloud, McMillan & Wife, and other police/mystery series. Columbo aired regularly on NBC from 1971 to 1978, and then sporadically on ABC from 1989 to 2003. The classic 1970s episodes were my favorites. Here is a little snippet of a scene from the series (see video below):

Peter Falk's portrayal of Columbo was charming, subtle, and in my perspective - brilliant. It was not like the police shows of today, with their rarely being any gore. In fact, Columbo only fired a gun once that I can remember; that was simply for an experiment when testing to see if the spouse of a "bad guy" could hear a gunshot from her upstairs bedroom. I would say that the one crime show that comes close to Columbo currently, is the USA network series, Monk. Tony Shalhoub's portrayal of OCD-stricken detective, Adrian Monk is excellent, but it is missing some of the humanity that Falk's portrayal of Columbo had.

Lt. Columbo usually got to know the "villain" in each episode. Of course, the shtick was that Columbo would hound the villain with a plethora of questions. With each question the "bad guy" would come to understand that Lt. Columbo was more of a keen detective, and less of a bumbling, forgetful, fool. To me, the mingling of detective/villain was deeper than that. Columbo not only got to know the person he was pursuing, but often got to respect and perhaps even like him or her. Of course the villain would be arrested at the end, but it made the process less "black and white" than is seen in most crime series.

My career has involved working with the public for years now. I sometimes think of Columbo when I am conducting an interview with a patient. My goal is not the same as Columbo's, but I have found that really listening to someone, relating to him or her, and trying to see the humanity in everyone - can all be helpful things. I know that some may see this style as deceptively manipulative, but I tend not to. For me, it is the artful blending of two well known expressions - "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" and "There but for the grace of god go I." Simply, be nice to others when you can, and we are generally more similar than we are different. Heck, Columbo once even had a glass of wine with a man, before taking him in to charge him with the murder of the wine connoisseur's brother.