When you were younger, did you enjoy getting dirty? Making mud pies, throwing dirt, playing with paint; it was a natural stress reliever. Something that would make you smile, well, until you got yelled at by your parents. Well, what if it was the dirtiness and freedom that caused you to appreciate the little things? Discovery channels “ Dirty Jobs” may be that little “something something” that’s missing from your life, what New Orleans natives would call Lagniappe. During our tough economy, we begin to realize how every job counts. Mike Rowe’s Dirty Jobs does just that. “Dirty Jobs” has made stars-for-a-day of dung beetle farmers, camel herders, chewing-gum scrapers and other working folk as they take Rowe under their wing for a day. "It never set out to be preachy or be a morality play -- it's just a simple, fun show," said Rowe, whose own eclectic resume includes stints as a musician, shopping-network pitchman and television news reporter. "In some ways, I think the headlines in the papers today have caught up with the themes of 'Dirty Jobs.' " Mike Rowe takes on jobs that are even scary to other tradesmen featured on the show. Rowe is unabashed in showing the hard, dirty work others do to make the viewers' daily lives run smoothly. But, he said, he works to avoid stereotyping his subjects -- positively or negatively. Last year, with the U.S. economy in a tailspin, Rowe said he couldn't help but apply the things he'd seen and learned on the show to the nation's financial situation. In a nine-minute video posted to his Web site on Labor Day, Rowe urged his fans to rethink what it means to have a "good job." "Rosie the Riveter is retired to some convalescent home with all the other icons of work that used to embody what work was," Rowe said on the video. "We don't have American icons any more -- we have American idols. We're worshiping the wrong stuff and it's hurting us." The show was on a bit of a hiatus, but thankfully 11 new episodes of new dirty work are soon to emerge.
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