We had just stepped into our local pet store, and our questioner was the clerk behind the counter – the kind of guy we could picture befriending a few of our local cedars, like the iconic host of “The Joy of Painting.” Anyway, before we could respond, he gestured at a TV mounted on the wall, level with the highest shelves groaning with organic kibble and handmade toys, and sang out, “Because there he is!”
We looked up, taking in Ross in all his Afro-permed glory, manifesting a leafy forest out of what had been a mountain’s dense shadow. My husband and I burst out laughing – not at that scene, or the clerk’s impromptu theatrics, but at this injection of delight into an otherwise mundane errand. We never had to give him an answer because he already knew. Just about everyone likes Bob Ross. Or is it the case that we like the idea of him?
