Dick Clark, the teen music pied piper, died of a heart attack today.

His death prompted a short discussion in our newsroom pod about his continued appearance on the New Year's Eve show, even after his stroke in 2004. It was a bad stroke, rendering his speech slow and sometimes hard to understand.

I said he shouldn't have done those appearances, because they seemed sort of a desperate attempt at staying in the limelight, despite his limitations. Lorie said his appearances made her uncomfortable, too, but she was glad he did it because he showed what it looks like when you've survived a stroke. And why should people hide?

Once I asked a friend who works with homeless people whether we should ever give money to panhandlers. He said he didn't have one answer. He said, "Instead, examine how the panhandler makes you feel."

How people reacted to Dick Clark's persona after his stroke tells us a lot about ourselves, too.

(AP wire photo of Clark post-stroke)

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