Even if you've already heard the news that the host of "Wall Street Week" died yesterday, take a look at the obituary in the New York Times. Written by a one-time panelist on the show, it offers more than the usual summary of his career as a financial journalist and professional prognosticator of the bull market.

The PBS show was the foreunner of the cable financial pundits on Bloomberg and CNBC, and of networks still in the planning like Fox News' coming finanncial news channel. But Rukeyser was unique in inisisting on plain English explanations without technical jargon. Of course, his basic promise that in the long-term, the stock market is always a bull market, is always the promise of mutual funds, 401(k)s and pension funds.

And Rukeyser was a regular at the Money Show in Las Vegas and similar events for retail investors. The lunch, where his speech was more like a comedy lounge act of one-liners deriding those of little faith in the market and other soft targets like the French military, were always sold out. He was making $1 million in such speaking fees in recent years.
And another little known detail: Rukeyser liked to play blackjack and it was inevitable that a spectator somewhere would ask him if the odds were really better than Wall Street.