'Would you believe...'

Don Adams, the actor who played Agent 86 on TV's "Get Smart," has died at age 82.

I recall many afternoons spent watching various reruns, including "Get Smart," where I would later often mimic the characters or create new situations to play act. And what kid of a certain time period didn't hold his shoe up to his ear -- just as Maxwell Smart did with his shoe phone -- and say in a nasally voice, "Would you believe...?"

Thank goodness for his companion, the lovely Agent 99, who would bail him out and save the day.

There's a bit of Maxwell Smart in all of us -- an Everyman who was far more approachable than the dream of James Bond. A bit of that is absent from today's television with its emphasis on forensics investigations shows and so-called reality shows.

So we mourn the loss of Maxwell Smart, and the person who breathed life into that character, Don Adams. We didn't realize what we had. Sorry about that, Chief.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.