Remember the old 'Mary Tyler Moore' show, in which we saw the perky, happy-to-be-alive Mary Richards character bouncing all over Minneapolis while the theme music told her, 'you're gonna make it after all'?

Sure you do. If you weren't around to see it in the '70s, it's been making the rounds of cable reruns ever since.

At the end of the opening credits, the incredibly optimistic Mary flings her beret into the air, so filled with life is she.

A few years ago, 'Entertainment Weekly' came out with what it called 'the definitive, indisputable ranking of the 100 Greatest Moments in TV History.'

Mary tossing her tam-o'-shanter came in second, just behind John F. Kennedy's assassination and funeral, and just ahead of the 'Dallas' episode in which J.R. Ewing is shot.

I am not making this up.

(In case you're curious, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon finished eighth, right behind Sammy Davis Jr.'s visit to Archie Bunker on 'All in the Family.')

If you were to visit Minneapolis — don't ask me why you might want to visit Minneapolis, I have no idea — you could see a bronze statue of Mary's hat-hurling at the intersection where she was filmed in 1970.

But lately, that image from those opening credits isn't what comes to mind when I think of a Mary Tyler Moore moment.

Rather, it's several seconds earlier, when Mary is in a supermarket and looking at a small package of meat and being disgusted at the price. She makes a face, rolls her eyes ... but resignedly flips the package into her cart.

That's how we've been feeling lately.

I noticed it last week when I was at the gas station. Everyone at the adjoining self-serve pumps seemed to have the same, 'I can't believe I'm paying this much for gas but what can I do about it' face.

Those who might be tempted to do something about it by driving off without paying were thwarted by signs on each of the pumps stating that if we weren't using a credit card, we'd have to go inside and pay in advance.

It was difficult not to suspect a lack of trust in our integrity by the blood-sucking oil companies that are gouging us and taking food out of our children's mouths.

We can't get our hands on ExxonMobil retiring Chief Executive Officer Lee Raymond and rough him up a bit for his nearly $400 million personal retirement package, so some of us have been taking out our anger on the wrong people.

As I paid her my weekly share of Raymond's retirement fund, I asked a young woman behind the counter in the convenience store how the customers were treating her.

'Some of them have been horrible,' she said. 'They ask me how we could be charging them so much for gas, and I tell them that we have nothing to do with it. But they still act like it's my fault.'

That, of course, is a shame. Instead of these minimum-wage-or-close-to-it folks having to face an outraged citizenry, Raymond should get his big, jowly face out here and tell decent working stiffs why he needs to buy another yacht out of petty cash.

Most of our elected officials in Washington can afford expensive gas, but when it's only several months before an election and voters are mad about something, politicians all of a sudden become outraged, too.

Even President Bush came out this week with some well-intentioned — if impotent — moves to rein in runaway prices. But it's important to remember what a gallon of gas cost on the day Bush took office.

It was $1.299. Now, it's more than $3, and there's talk of it going to $4 soon.

How could it have gotten so expensive on Bush's watch? Why hasn't the government done something about it? Well, for starters, Mr. Bush used to be a senior executive of the Harken oil company, and his family has had a decades-long association with the Saudi oil-producing monarchy.

Vice President Dick Cheney was the chief executive of the Halliburton oil company. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was a senior executive with the Chevron oil company, which was so delighted with her work that it named an oil tanker after her.

Those are the people 'monitoring' the rise in gasoline prices.

Even the 'Mary Tyler Moore' show's bumbling anchorman, Ted Baxter, could see that something isn't kosher about gas from different companies' outlets on the same block somehow costing the same price to the penny.

Ted would also wonder why the price always goes up far faster than it ever comes down despite there appearing to be plenty of gas to go around.

But, like Mary flipping that package of meat into her cart, we grimace and pay, tossing in the towel ... with little reason to toss any hats in the air any time soon.

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Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar or at 607-432-1000, ext. 208.