The Seventh Sense

RIP MS

Enterprise In NYC

The retired space shuttle Enterprise did a buzz of NYC on its way to its final resting place.  This made for some good photos today.  Two of my faves:

That said, I think this photo is a fake.  How can you get the Statue of Liberty AND the Empire State building in one shot?

RIP Dick Clark

Never thought I would live to see the day when Dick Clark died, but here it is.

RIP Andrew Breitbart: Death Of A Douchebag, Indeed

So yesterday we learn of the sudden passing of Andrew Breitbart at the age of 43, from "natural causes".

There is a convention in polite society that you do not speak ill of the dead.  Or at the very least, that you allow some time for the body to cool before you reflect -- politely -- on one's past.  And I admire that convention.  There is, after all, his wife and two children who are mourning today.

But Breitbart's wife and children are not likely to read this post.  And what's more, Andrew Breitbart himself didn't adhere to that convention. From Michael Calderone at Politico, we see how Brietbart himself talked about Ted Kennedy:

Andrew Breitbart, a Washington Times columnist who oversees Breitbart.com and BigHollywood.com, tapped into the anti-Kennedy vein in the hours after the senator’s death was announced, posting a series of Twitter messages in which he called Kennedy a “villain,” a “duplicitous bastard” and a “prick.”

"I'm more than willing to go off decorum to ensure THIS MAN is not beatified,” Breitbart wrote. “Sorry, he destroyed lives. And he knew it."

He also tweeted, famously, "Why do you grant a BULLY special status upon his death?" 

So in light of that, it seems fitting to give the late Breitbart the very same Brietbart treatment that he bestowed on Ted Kennedy, Michael Jackson and others.  

Let me be clear: I'm not reveling in his death.  Right now, there are lots of conservative bloggers saying that liberals are absolutely giddy about Breitbart's death.  I'm not, and I don't know anyone who is.  We're not saddened either though.  Most of us justd shake our head at the news and think "Karma's a bitch".  And if there is any regret, it's that the man didn't live long enough to have an epiphany and come to regret the destruction he did.

He was a tremendous prick.  Not so much for his far right politics, which many people hold,  but because of his methods.  Like McCarthy from decades ago, Breitbart engaged in the politics of personal destruction.  And he did it with a zeal that -- frightingly -- many on the right celebrate.  He was wrong (Shirley Sherrod) as often as he was right (Anthony Weiner).  But he didn't seem to care either way.  As long as somebody (on the left) was destroyed....

For me, the Shirley Sherrod matter sealed Breitbart's reputation as the ugly underbelly of conservative politics.  Sherrod was forced to resign from her post as Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture, after Breitbart posted a selectively edited video to his blog that made her look like a racist. Sherrod resigned in July 2010.  Breitbart admitted that the video he presented showed Sherrod making statements out of context, but he never apologized and showed any sign of regret.  (Ironically, the Sherrod video was debuted on Breitbart's main website, Big Journalism, a website that purports to lecture the mainstream media on journalistic ethics).

That's serious rat-fucking.

[Sidenote: Sherrod shows herself to be classier than Brietbart ever could be]

There is much speculation on the right about Brietbart's death.  Already the whisper campaign has begun -- Obama did it.  And that's the kind of people that Breitbart both inspired and exploited -- the mouth-breathers who believe any piece of crap that he (and those like him) handed out.  On the whole, it degraded respectable debate in this country.  It lowered the level of political discourse.  Why prove the strenghths of your ideas and policies when you can just destroy the lives of your enemies?

Which is why I can't disagree with the words of Matt Tiabbi, writing for Rolling Stone:

[H]e also had enough of a sense of humor to appreciate why someone like me shouldn’t bother to pretend I’m sad he’s dead. He wouldn’t, in my place. So to use one of his favorite words: Good riddance, cocksucker.* Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

The Obligatory Whitney Houston Post

I wasn't a fan.  I didn't have anything against her unquestionable talent or personality; I just wasn't a big fan.

But her passing is sad, especially given the struggles she had throughout life.  One would have hoped for a better ending.  One would have hoped for her to age gracefully and become the Grande Dame of Something.  Sadly, it was not to be, and we all feel diminished by her passing. 

Well, not all of us.

There’s a real sickness running rampant in the right wing; the Fox News comment thread on Whitney Houston’s death is yet another disgusting deluge of outright racism: Singer Whitney Houston Dies at 48 | Fox News.

There are almost 5000 comments posted in the thread — these are from the first few pages. Notice that the racist bastards deliberately misspell their slurs or insert random spaces, so they aren’t caught by word filters. And many of the worst comments have numerous “likes” from other commenters.

Click here to read these comments. 

2012 Dead Pool

I like this time of year because all the lists come out.  The Best of... The Worst of...  It goes on and on and on.  I tend not to get reflective, myself.  Not anymore.  I've seen too many years now to think that any given year, either the past or the upcoming one, is going to be dramatically different.  Which isn't to say that I wouldn't like 2012 to be a superlative year, but if it isn't, I'm sure it won't suck.

So I have no Best of or Worst of thoughts of my own.  I just have my dead pool.  My little morbid year end summary.

Last year, I provided a list of several people I thought would die in 2011.  Let's see how I did.

My long list:

• Zsa-Zsa Gabor - still alive
• Bob Barker - still alive
• Mike Wallace - still alive
• Jack LaLanne - died 1/24/11
• Harry Morgan - died 12/7/11
• Olivia de Havilland - still alive
• Michael Dukakis - still alive
• Billy Graham - still alive, barely
• Betty Garrett - died 2/12/11
• Eli Wallach - still alive
• Stan Musial - still alive
• Abe Vagoda - still alive
• Nancy Reagan - still alive
• Both Kirk and Michael Douglas - both still alive
• Aretha Franklin - still alilve
• Al Jarreau - still alive
• Margaret Thatcher - still alive
• Norman Lear - still alive
• Jean Stapleton - still alive
• Yogi Berra - still alive
• James Garner - still alive
• Lauren Becall - still alive
• Jack Klugman - still alive
• Both Mickey and Andy Rooney - Mickey's alive; Andy, not so much (died 11/4/11)
• Jeff Conaway - died 5/27/11
• Both Garry and Penny Marshall - both still alive
• Dick Clark - still alive
• Gene Wilder - still alive
• Fidel Castro - still alive

On the whole, my predictions were not too good.

Then, last year, I did a "competition" list for the "Dead Pool" game.  There IS an actual "Dead Pool" game.  What you do is pick ten famous people to die in a given year.  If they die, then you take 100 minus their age when they died.  So if someone 75 years old dies, you get 25 points. Someone 98 years old dies? Oh! That's a two pointer.  Person with the highest number on January 1, 2012, wins.

Obviously, the goal is to pick someone younger who is likely to die.  Although realistically, the younger they are, the more UNlikely they are to die.  That's the trick of the game.

Here was last year's entries:

1. Zsa Zsa Gabor (born 2/06/1917)
2. Billy Graham (born 11/7/1918)
3. Dick Clark (born 11/30/1929)
4. Al Jarreau (born 3/12/1940)
5. Dick Cheney (born 1/30/1941)
6. Aretha Franklin (born 3/25/1942)
7. Penny Marshall (born 10/15/1942)
8. Michael Douglas (born 9/25/1944)
9. Jeff Conaway (born 10/5/1950)
10. Amy Winehouse (born 9/14/1983)

I get zero points for Gabor, Graham, Clark, Jarreau, Cheney, Franklin, Marshall, and Douglas, since they all lived.  I scored bigtime with the two youngest on my list -- Jeff Conaway and Amy Winehouse.

With Jeff, I got 40 points (he died at the age of 60).

With Amy, I got 73 points (she died at the age of 27).

Final score: 113 points.  Which is really good.

And now it's time for my new lists.  First the long one -- ones that I simply think will die.  I naturally carry over many from last year, but some are now off the list, and others are on:

• Zsa-Zsa Gabor
• Olivia de Havilland
• Billy Graham
• Eli Wallach
• Stan Musial
• Al Jarreau
• Norman Lear
• Jean Stapleton
• Yogi Berra
• Lauren Becall
• Jack Klugman 
• Mickey Rooney
• Fidel Castro
• Ernest Borgnine
• Pete Seeger
• Nanette Fabray
• Monty Hall
• Sid Caesar
• Rose Marie
• Jerry Lewis

And now for my competitive Dead Pool list (I reserve the right to change this up to 12/31/11):

1. Eli Wallach (born 12/07/1915)
2. Zsa Zsa Gabor (born 2/06/1917)
3. Billy Graham (born 11/7/1918)
4. Margaret Thatcher (born 10/13/1925)
5. James Garner (born 4/7/1928)
6. Dick Cheney (born 1/30/1941)
7. Penny Marshall (born 10/15/1942)
8. Robin Gibb (born 12/22/1949)
9. George Michael (born 6/25/1963)
10. Charlie Sheen (born 9/3/1965)

And Lindsay Lohan, consider yourself lucky cuz you're a shoe-in for these things.

Out Of Touch

Hard to keep a blog going when you are about 24-48 hours behind.

Kim Jong Il, is dead.  That's huge news.  Except I don't know what it means.  I mean, it's good, unless North Korea gets more crazy.

RIP Chris Hitchens

I didn't agree with him on many things, particularly his perplexing defense of the Iraqi War, but I liked his style.

This, by the way, is one of his finest moments... on the death of Jerry Falwell:

 

RIP Harry Morgan

Best known for being Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H*.  Also for playing opposite Jack Webb on TV's Dragnet.  Also, he was in my dead pool.

He was 96. Full obit here.

RIP, Jerry Leiber

He only wrote the music for "Stand By Me," "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Young Blood," "On Broadway,"  "Yakety-Yak", "Spanish Harlem" and one of my faves: "Stuck In the Middle With You".  I would consider it my life's achievement if I wrote only one of those.

Yes, I Know Amy Winehouse Was In My Dead Pool

From my post dated December 9, 2010:

There IS an actual "Dead Pool" game though.  What you do is pick ten famous people to die in 2011.  If they die, then you take 100 minus their age when they died.  So if someone 75 years old dies, you get 25 points. Someone 98 years old dies? Oh! That's a two pointer.  Person with the highest number on January 1, 2012, wins.

Strategically, I like to pick "younger" people (60-70 year olds) who have been sick lately, mix them in with a few octogenarians (or older) who really should be dead this coming year barring a miracle, and then throw in an Amy Winehouse or a Charlie Sheen (for obvious reasons).

So here's my "competition" dead pool list for 2011:

1. Zsa Zsa Gabor (born 2/06/1917)
2. Billy Graham (born 11/7/1918)
3. Dick Clark (born 11/30/1929)
4. Al Jarreau (born 3/12/1940)
5. Dick Cheney (born 1/30/1941)
6. Aretha Franklin (born 3/25/1942)
7. Penny Marshall (born 10/15/1942)
8. Michael Douglas (born 9/25/1944)
9. Jeff Conaway (born 10/5/1950)
10. Amy Winehouse (born 9/14/1983)

9 and 10 are dead, and they are relatively young.  In fact, they were the youngest on my list.  Conaway was 50, so I get 50 points for him.  Winehouse was 27, so I get a whopping 73 points for her.

Total: 123.

How Am I Doing?

With 2011 half over, it's time to look at my "dead pool" predictions for this year, that I made in December of last year.

Once again, the list:

• Zsa-Zsa Gabor
• Bob Barker
• Mike Wallace
• Jack LaLanne (1/24/11)
• Harry Morgan
• Olivia de Havilland
• Michael Dukakis
• Billy Graham
• Betty Garrett (2/12/11)
• Eli Wallach
• Stan Musial
• Abe Vagoda 
• Nancy Reagan 
• Both Kirk and Michael Douglas
• Aretha Franklin
• Al Jarreau
• Margaret Thatcher
• Norman Lear
• Jean Stapleton
• Yogi Berra
• James Garner
• Lauren Bacall
• Jack Klugman
• Both Mickey and Andy Rooney
• Jeff Conaway (5/27/2011)
• Both Garry and Penny Marshall
• Dick Clark
• Gene Wilder
• Fidel Castro

As you can see, I'm not doing too well.

C'mon, people.  Let's get dying!!!

Dick Van Dyke And Celebrity Bios

Blogger Lance Mannion is underwhelmed by Dick Van Dyke's memoir "My Lucky Life", in part because Dick Van Dyke is too decent a guy to engage in gossip.  And not just mean gossip, but "inside baseball" stuff.

Well, it's Dick Van Dyke.  He's a decent enough guy.  I wouldn't expect him to give dirt or a deep inside look.  This is what the Washington Post had to say:

His breezy tone also reflects the star’s value system. “If you are looking for dirt,” he warns on page 2, “stop reading now.” And it’s true: The closest Van Dyke comes to dishing is to confirm that Maureen Stapleton and Dean Martin liked to drink. He is also no fan of the director, or final cut, of the 1968 children’s classic “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

Of Moore, the most stinging criticism offered is that she initially seemed “stiff and proper.” Swiftly, however, Van Dyke reports they developed a “special timing and chemistry . . . such that people actually thought we were husband and wife in real life.” Indeed, like everyone else in America, Van Dyke developed a “crush” on MTM — but never acted on it. “If we had been different people,” he writes, “maybe something would have happened. But neither of us was that type of person.”

Yet Van Dyke became that type of person: In 1976, amid a long-running battle with alcohol, he left his wife of 28 years, the mother of his four children, for a younger woman, his agent’s secretary. It took him 14 years to sober up, but he and Michelle Triola remained devoted partners until her death in 2009. Comprehensive and spare, “My Lucky Life” deals forthrightly with Van Dyke’s ups and downs, demons and misdeeds, yet still conveys the decency — and deft humor — of the legendary performer.

So it basically sounds like a vanilla memoir, from a vanilla guy.  Too bad.

But getting back to Lance Mannion, he makes a comparison between Van Dyke and another icon of Van Dyke's era: Charles Nelson Reilly.  Reilly not only turned out a great memoir, but he did it in the form of a one-man show... which was awesome.  Here, for example is Reilly talking about his friend Burt Reynolds:

 

I think every celebrity -- including and ESPECIALLY the B-listers -- should have a one-person show when they are old and on death's door.  I'm totally serious.  They should make it a requirement of being in the Actor's Guild or something.

RIP, Leonard Stern, The [Adjective] Creator of Mad-Libs

And everyone -- myself included -- makes the obvious gag:

Leonard B. Stern, an Emmy-winning writer, producer and director for television whose frantic search for an adjective one day led him and a colleague to create Mad Libs, the game that asks players to fill in blanks with designated parts of speech to yield comically ________[adj.] stories, died on Tuesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 88.

His death, of heart failure, was announced by his publicist, Dale Olson.

As a writer, Mr. Stern received two Emmy Awards, in 1957 for “The Phil Silvers Show” (a k a “Sergeant Bilko”) and in 1967 for “Get Smart,” on which he also served as executive producer.

Like Mr. Stern, Mad Libs — bound tablets of stories with blanks in strategic places — has a show-business pedigree. First marketed in 1958, it was born by way of “The Honeymooners” and introduced on “The Steve Allen Show.”

 

 

Kevorkian Dead

Peacefully, in a hospital bed. Yes, he was an odd man with many issues, but not when it came to the notion that people should be able to die with dignity.  Can't fault his views on that.

RIP Geraldine Ferraro

Really?  She was 75?

RIP, First Hand Memories of WWI

The last U.S veteran of WWI has died at the age of 110.

RIP Dick Winters

He's the guy portrayed in "Band of Brothers".

RIP, "We Can Do It" Lady

From WaPo:

Geraldine Doyle, 86, who as a 17-year-old factory worker became the inspiration for a popular World War II recruitment poster that evoked female power and independence under the slogan "We Can Do It!," died Dec. 26 at a hospice in Lansing, Mich.

Her daughter, Stephanie Gregg, said the cause of death was complications from severe arthritis.

For millions of Americans throughout the decades since World War II, the stunning brunette in the red and white polka-dot bandanna was Rosie the Riveter.

Rosie's rolled-up sleeves and flexed right arm came to represent the newfound strength of the 18 million women who worked during the war and later made her a figure of the feminist movement.

But the woman in the patriotic poster was never named Rosie, nor was she a riveter. All along it was Mrs. Doyle, who after graduating from high school in Ann Arbor, Mich., took a job at a metal factory, her family said.

One day, a photographer representing United Press International came to her factory and captured Mrs. Doyle leaning over a piece of machinery and wearing a red and white polka-dot bandanna over her hair.

In early 1942, the Westinghouse Corp. commissioned artist J. Howard Miller to produce several morale-boosting posters to be displayed inside its buildings. The project was funded by the government as a way to motivate workers and perhaps recruit new ones for the war effort.

Smitten with the UPI photo, Miller reportedly was said to have decided to base one of his posters on the anonymous, slender metal worker - Mrs. Doyle.

For four decades, this fact escaped Mrs. Doyle, who shortly after the photo was taken left her job at the factory. She barely lasted two weeks.

A cellist, Mrs. Doyle was horrified to learn that a previous worker at the factory had badly injured her hands working at the machines. She found safer employment at a soda fountain and bookshop in Ann Arbor, where she wooed a young dental school student and later became his wife.

No, I Don't Think So

CNN:

(CNN) - Members of the Westboro Baptist Church announced Thursday plans to picket Saturday's funeral for Elizabeth Edwards in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Kansas-based Church - monitored by anti-hate groups such as the Anti-Defamation league and the Southern Poverty Law Center - is known for its extremist opposition to homosexuals, Jews and other groups.

The church members also oppose the War in Iraq.

According to the church's website, members will hold a protest from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Edwards, the estranged wife of presidential candidate John Edwards, died Tuesday after a six-year battle with breast cancer.

 

RIP Ted Sorenson

I didn't realize he died yesterday, but he did.  He was the last of the Kennedy circle.  He was Kennedy's speechwriter, so we can give him credit for "Ask not what your country can do for you...." (although, as classy speechwriters do, Sorenson never took credit for the line).  He probably also ghost-wrote "Profiles in Courage", which won Kennedy the Pulitzer.

RIP George Steinbrenner

A massive heart attack this morning.

UPDATE:  Onion, that's not nice.

The Byrd Has Flown

It's really hard to mourn the passing of Senator Robert Byrd at age 92 (D-WV).  He's nobody's favorite senator, certainly not among Democrats.  He was the last vestige of conservative southern Democrats opposed to desegregation, and one of the few who didn't migrate to the Republican party after efforts to block desegregation failed.  Born in North Carolina, Byrd was once a member of the KKK, a move he later claimed to regret.

The interesting question is what happens now.  As Nate Silver told us "if the vacancy occurs less than two years and six months before the end of the term, the Governor [of West Virginia] appoints someone to fill the unexpired term and there is no election".

West Virginia's governor is a Democrat, so the appointment would likely be a Democrat.  Unfortunately, for an appointment to happen, Byrd would have had to survive until July 3.  He did not.  Therefore, his replacement is thrown in to a West Virginia election.

I Guess I Should Say Something About Michael Jackson Dying One year Ago Today

.

.

.

.

.

Nope. I got nothing.

RIP, Nurse In Famous V-J Day Photo

Edith Shain, the nurse captured in this famous iconic photo, died Sunday at the age of 91.

 

For the curious, the identity of the sailor in this photo is in dispute and unresolved.  Swain talks about that day, that photo, and that kiss here.

RIP Dennis Hopper

He was 74.

RIP, Gary Coleman

Wow, didn't see that coming.  Age 42.  Brain hemorrhage.  Appareantly, from a fall.

RIP Lena Horne

A class act:

Lena Horne, the elegant and statuesque singer who broke down color barriers by becoming one of Hollywood's first African-American female stars, and who later made a triumphant return to Broadway, died on May 9 at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan.

Ms. Horne first came to prominence in the 1940s, as a highly noticeable singing supporting player in MGM musicals such as "Panama Hattie" (1942), "Thousands Cheer" (1943), "Cabin in the Sky" (1943), "Broadway Rhythm" (1944), "Two Girls and a Sailor" (1944), "Ziegfeld Follies" (1946) and "Words and Music" (1948). She rarely did more than sing a song or two, but her vocal performances were often among the highlights of the movies. Tall, beautiful and regal-looking, she easily took on the role of movie star, and would have been a bigger one if not for the limitations placed on black entertainers in Hollywood.

Her most famous film appearance was probably in "Stormy Weather" (1943), an all-black musical in which she did little more than sing the title tune. But she sang it so well that the sequence has become well known to movie enthusiasts as an iconic moment of the movie musical era. "Stormy Weather" also became Ms. Horne's signature tune.

Despite the frustrations of Hollywood's racial codes, by 1945 Ms. Horne was a successful performer, fetching top prices for radio and nightclub performances. She admitted that the advent of World War II helped her visibility. "The whole thing that made me a star was the war," Ms. Horne said in the 1990 interview. "Of course the black guys couldn’t put Betty Grable’s picture in their footlockers. But they could put mine."

In the 1950s, her liberal views and outspokenness on issues such as segregation largely ended her movie career. She turned to the studio, recording extensively with RCA. Ms. Horne became a headliner at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles and the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, where she played a famous engagement in 1957. A live album, "Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria," became the largest-selling record by a female artist in the history of the RCA-Victor label.

Still, when she burst back onto the seen as the star of her own one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, it was as if the public was discovering her anew. Initially, the Nederlander Organization, Michael Frazier and Fred Walker had booked her for four weeks into the Nederlander Theatre on W. 41st Street. But critics hailed her talents, and the show ran for 14 months and won a Tony Award.

The production was videotaped for television broadcast and home video release. A tour began at Tanglewood (Massachusetts) during the July 4, 1982, weekend, and play 41 cities in the U.S. and Canada. It also played in London for a month in August and ended its run in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 14, 1984. Additionally, the cast album won a Grammy Award.

Ms. Horne had previously been nominated for a Tony Award for the hit 1957 Harold Arlen musical Jamaica, in which she starred, singing "Ain't It the Truth?"

Lena Calhoun Horne was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn on June 30, 1917, into middle-class surroundings. Her paternal grandparents, Edwin and Cora Horne, were early members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, according to the New York Times, and in October 1919, when she was only two years old, little Lena was put on the cover of the NAACP's monthly bulletin.

Ms. Horne was raised by Edwin and Cora Horne when her parents, Edna, an actress, and Teddy Horne, a numbers runner, split up in 1920, Edna leaving for a life in the theatre. Lena grew up in an upper-middle-class black community in the Hill District community of Pittsburgh, PA. Her mother returned after four years.

The elder Ms. Horne's stage dreams did not end there, however. She had her 16-year-old daughter audition at the the famous Harlem nightclub, the Cotton Club. She was hired, dancing alongside star Duke Ellington, and in 1934 made her Broadway debut in Dance With Your Gods. Another Broadway turn was Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1939. She credited Ellington's songwriting collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, as coaching her as a singer.

Ms. Horne was discovered by impresario Felix Young while she was singing at the Greenwich Village nightclub Café Society. He took her to L.A. to star at the Trocadero, a nightclub he was planning to open in the fall of 1941. Soon after she debuted, she was heard and hired by Arthur Freed, the producer of MGM’s musicals, and his boss, Louis B. Mayer. She became the first black performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio.

Mr. Horne married Louis Jones when she was 19, and had two children, Gail and Teddy. The marriage ended soon afterward. Ms. Horne kept Gail, but Jones insisted on keeping Teddy. In 1947, Ms. Horne married again, this time to the prominent white arranger, conductor and pianist Lennie Hayton, who was for many years both her musical director and MGM’s. The marriage took place in France and was kept secret for three years, for fear of public reaction.

Ms. Horne is survived by her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley. Her husband died in 1971; her son died of kidney failure the same year.

RIP, Lynn Redgrave

She was 67.  And just a year after the death of her niece, Natasha Richardson.

RIP, St. Vincent's Hospital (1849-2010)

A well-known place to anyone who spent any significant time in Greenwich Village.  A hospital which played important roles for both the sinking of the Titanic and the events of 9/11.  Victim to the economic crisis.  The New York Times has the obit.

RIP Meinhardt Raabe

He was the coroner for the Munchkins who sang:

As coroner, I must aver

I thoroughly examined her

And she's not only merely dead

She's really, most sincerely dead!

Died at the age of 94 last Friday.

Yeah, I know.  Dixie Carter, too, but she never said anything as memorable.

RIP Malcolm McLaren

Best known as the true creator behind the Sex Pistols, I will always think of him for his brief recording stint, particularly this catchy thing:

RIP, Jaime Escalante

He stood and delivered.

 

Catching Up On The Dead Pool

Both Peter Graves and Robert Culp died this month.

I always got them confused anyway, and wouldn't be surprised if they were actually the same person.

A Poignant Reflection

 

Ted Kennedy sought health care reform all of his political life.  A note by his grave from his son, Patrick Kennedy, reads "Dad, the unfinished business is done."

[NOTE: Not to pick nits, but it's not done.  It is, however, a good start]

All The Cool Kids Are Blogging About Alex Chilton, Who Died, But I Don't Know Who He Is

or, more accurately, was.

Corey Haim Dead From PRESCRIPTION Drugs

I've taken prescribed medication.  So has everybody else I've ever met in this world.

And yet NONE of them managed to accidentally overdose themselves.

Why is it that movie stars (and former movie stars) seem to lack the ability to take the prescribed dose?  Are the instructions on the side of the bottle too complicated?  Do they need seminars on how to take pills properly?

Anyway, Corey Haim is dead.  Which means that for the next ten years (or until he dies), Corey Feldman is going to hear nothing but, "Hey!  It's you!  I thought you were dead, man!"

Forget Someone?

Why, yes.  The Academy "forgot"....

Farrah Fawcett (who was phenonmenal in Extremities)
Bea Arthur
Ricardo Montelban....

Why weren't they included?  Not an oversight.  They just didn't make the cut:

The In Memoriam segment can be the most moving part of the Oscar telecast. It’s also the toughest to produce.

"It is the single most troubling element of the Oscar show every year," says Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "Because more people die each year than can possibly be included in that segment."

Davis’ office keeps a running list of academy members and others in the movie business who have passed since the previous year’s segment was compiled. Then, a few weeks before the awards, he and a small committee of academy officials whittle the list of more than 100 names down to the 30 or so folks who will be included in the show’s memorial — from the famous faces viewers at home are sure to recognize to the behind-the-scenes workers familiar only to academy members.

"It gets close to agonizing by the end," Davis says of the annual meeting. "You are dropping people who the public knows. It’s just not comfortable."

Oscar’s In Memoriam montage began in the early 1990s and other awards shows followed suit, including the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Grammys and Emmys — all of which go through the same painful process every year.

"It’s a killer because we have hundreds of members that pass each year and we can’t get them all in," says SAG Awards producer Kathy Connell.

The film academy gives its final list of in-memoriam honorees to the producer of the segment just days before the big show. Chuck Workman, who is producing the memorial montage for Sunday’s telecast, says he was working with a temporary list until last week.

Many of the names made the final cut, he says, but some did not.

"It’s a constant balance for the academy," says Workman, who has 20 years of experience making film montages for the Oscar show. "They do try their best, but there’s only so many spots."

Uh-huh.  So that's why Arthur Canton, Public Relations, was included, but Maurice Jarre (9 Oscar nominations and 3 wins), Henry Gibson (nominated for his work in Nashville), Farrah Fawcett, Bea Arthur and Ricardo Montelban were not.

RIP Kathryn Grayson

The star of popular MGM musicals of the 1940s and '50s ("Anchors Aweigh," "Show Boat" and "Kiss Me Kate") used to make my ears bleed -- especially when she sang with duets with Howard Kiel -- but she was an icon in movie musicals.  So she deserves her due credit.

She died at age 88.  (She was born, by the way, in Winston-Salem).

RIP Zelda Reubenstein

RIP Howard Zinn

Best known for his classic, A People's History of the United States, Zinn changed the way many think about America.  The book, written from an unapologetic liberal stance, decided not to glorigy America and its founders, but noted the struggles of real Americans in making change.  Zinn himself would admit that the book has a biased slant -- and it did.  But it was also accurate, and celebrated the capabilities of everyday people to make tremendous change.  A must read.

RIP Miep Gies

New York Times:

Miep Gies, the last survivor among Anne Frank’s protectors and the woman who preserved the diary that endures as a testament to the human spirit in the face of unfathomable evil, died Monday night, the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam said. She was 100.

RIP Mary Travers

Good singer.  Looked like Jabba the Hut in later years.

Probably not nice of me to say that.

RIP: Patrick Swayze

References to Ghost and "(I've Had The) Time of My Life" are not encouraged.

Succumbed after long battle with pancreatic cancer.  He was 57.

Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi (Swayze's wife), George De La Pena in One Last Dance

RIP: "Norma Rae"

Crystal Lee Sutton, formerly Crystal Lee Jordan, was fired from her job folding towels at the J.P. Stevens textile plant in her hometown of Roanoke Rapids, N.C. for trying to organize a union in the early 1970s. Her last action at the plant -- writing the word "UNION" on a piece of cardboard and standing on her work table, leading her co-workers to turn off their machines in solidarity -- was memorialized in the 1979 film by actress Sally Field. The police physically removed Sutton from the plant for her action.

She died yesterday from brain cancer.

Her death touches upon the contemporary hot topic involving health care reform.  Several years ago, Sutton was diagnosed with meningioma, a type of cancer of the nervous system. While such cancers are typically slow-growing, Sutton's was not -- and she went two months without potentially life-saving medication because her insurance wouldn't cover it initially. Sutton told the Burlington (N.C.) Times-News last year that the insurer's behavior was an example of abuse of the working poor:

"How in the world can it take so long to find out [whether they would cover the medicine or not] when it could be a matter of life or death," she said. "It is almost like, in a way, committing murder."

Though Sutton eventually received the medication, the cancer had already taken hold. She passed away on Friday, Sept. 11 in a Burlington, N.C. hospice.

RIP: The Man Who Saved More Lives Than Any Other Person In History

Oh, I could tell you his name, but it probably wouldn't mean anything to you: Norman E. Borlaug.  He died at the age of 95 last night.

What was his claim to fame?  Well, the title above says it all.  He saved more human lives than anybody in the history of.... well.... in the history of history.

How many lives?  Well, the figure most often used is one billion.

That's right.  Dude saved the lives of around one billion people.

Believe it or not, the fictional The West Wing mentioned Borlaug and his accomplishments.

A popular book in the middle of last century called The Population Bomb warned of massive starvation primarily in Africa and the Middle East, and would have come true but for Borlaug's innovations, helping to more than double world food production between 1960 and 1990. 

The father of the green revolution, his efforts averted global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.

Accusing Someone Of Politicization Is Itself Politicization

Conservatives Warn of Wellstone Effect:

Key conservative voices have begun to charge in the day after Sen. Ted Kennedy’s death that Democrats are inappropriately politicizing the senator’s death, his memorial and his legacy.

Kennedy was that ultimate political creature, a “lion of the Senate,” and the last son of the archetypal American political family — his passing is inevitably political. In his final days, he focused on a narrow political goal, pleading with state leaders to change state law to posthumously fill his Senate seat with an interim appointee who would be a vote in favor of the health care legislation he championed.

So his allies on the left have made no secret of their hopes that his legacy will
serve to bolster the uncertain health reform plan, with Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) even suggesting the bill be named for Kennedy.

And that has some influential conservative voices sounding the alarm and calling foul.

Yeah.  Call me crazy, but I don't think tone or nature of Kennedy's memorial service should be fashioned to cater the sensabilities of Kennedy's political opponents.  I don't think Kennedy's opponents get to decide what is and isn't an "inappropriate" tribute to Kennedy.

Changing the name of the health care bill is a fitting way to honor a man who devoted his life to health care reform.  His family would be honored; HE would be honored.  Conservatives don't get to speak for him.

Conservative Kennedy Bashing

I don't want to draw too much attention to the vileness from some conservative quarters on the subject of Ted Kennedy's death -- it's rather ugly.

But it confounds me that many of these conservatives like to cloak themselves in the Bible and Christian goodness.  I mean, I'm not saying that Kennedy was a saint, but if Jesus had a vote in Congress, don't you think he would support these legislative acts (all of which Kennedy lead, fight for, and/or sponsored):

• The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996
• State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP)
• Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009 (Americorps)
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
• Fair Housing Act of 1968
• Handicapped Children's Protection Act of 1986 (overturning a SCOTUS decision)
• Ryan White Care Act of 1990 (AIDS care)
• Americans with Disability Act of '90
• Civil Rights Act of 1991
• Minority Health & Health Disparities Research & Education Act of 2000
• National & Community Service Trust Act of 1993 (Americorps)
• Mammography Quality Standards Act of 1990
• Military Child Care Act of 1989
• The WARN Act of 1988 (60 days notice prior to plant closings)
• Employment Opportunities for Disabled Americans Act of 1986
• Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 (vetoed by Reagan)
• Job Training Partnership Act of 1980
• Refugee Act of 1980
• Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980
• Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act - 1975
• Title IX of Education Amendments of '72 (bans sex discrimination by schools getting Fed $)
• Establishment of Women, Infants & Childrens ("WIC") Nutrition Program at USDA
• Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Act of 1970
• Older American Community Service Employment Act of 1970
• Occupational Safety & Health Administration Act of 1970
• The Voting Rights Act amendments of 1970
• The Bilingual Education Act of 1968
• The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (War on Poverty: Head Start, Job Corps)
• The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996

But to these conservatives, Jesus probably would have been in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation -- and Kennedy deserves Hell.

Teddy Hagiography

Last night was literally the first evening in months where I had no rehearsals, no performances, no auditions, no theatre-related meetings, etc.  In other words, it was the first evening in months where I could veg in front of the TV.

Man, what a bleak oasis.

With nothing to grab my interest, I gravitated to the news channels, where there was, not surprisingly, an endless parade of bobbleheads talking about Ted Kennedy.

I like Kennedy, but I don't like bobbleheads.  Some of it was a little over the top.  Keith Olbermann, for example, openly mused that Teddy might be the "greatest" Kennedy of them all.  (He wasn't; Bobby was.  Had Bobby lived, the country and the world would be a much better place today -- you wouldn't even recognize it.  I'm convinced of that.)

CNN, however, ran an HBO documentary called "Teddy: In His Own Words".  It was just a series of news clips and interviews, arranged chronologically, from and about Ted Kennedy.  No narration.  It was interesting and informative.  I didn't know, for example, that President Nixon had ordered surveillance of Kennedy in order to get the goods on him (this came from a Nixon tape).  He wanted Kennedy's secret service protection to include informatives who would tip the White House if Kennedy was doing something immoral.

Nixon was such a skank.

But PBS aired a re-run of The American Experience.  The subject matter was The Kennedys.  It made sense -- after all, Ted Kennedy didn't just die yesterday; the Kennedy dynasty died.

There they are.  Joe, Rose, and their nine kids.  With Teddy's death (coming on the heals of Eunice's death a few weeks ago), they're all gone now.

The American Experience: The Kennedys is a fascinating documentary, and if they replay it in the next few days, I highly recommend it.

The last chapter of the documentary is called "The Ninth Child", and it focuses on Teddy.  Even though I had seen the documentary before, I was struck by one particular comment from an RFK advisor.  He noted the incredible pressure that was placed on Teddy after Bobby was killed.  I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like this:

Imagine what it is like to be a person where if you don't become President of the United States, you are considered a failure.  And on top of that, you're the patriarch to 16 kids whose fathers have fallen at the hands of assassins.  I can't even begin to comprehend what that must have been like.  The personal strain and pressure and self-doubt....

That was where Teddy found himself in 1969.

It doesn't excuse the alcoholism and reckless behavior, but it certainly makes it logical.

RIP Edward Kennedy

In the 1930's, Joe Kennedy knew one of his sons would be President.  That future president, everyone assumed, was to be smart, handsome, and charismatic Joe Kennedy, Jr.  But Joe Jr. was shot down and killed in WWII.  All eyes fell to John.

Joe Kennedy lived long enough to see JFK become President, as well as the younger brother Bobby become Attorney General.

But then, in the shadows, there was another Kennedy son, comprised it seemed of leftover parts from his older brothers.  As Kennedys go, nobody expected much from Teddy.  Sure, he got into Harvard, but, being a Kennedy, one has to try awfully hard not to get into Harvard.  But once there, he didn't excel.  He didn't seem to have the Kennedyesque quality.  He was, in essence, George Bush -- living off of the family name.

So when he decided to run for public office in 1962 -- the U.S. Senate -- his older brothers urged him against it.  There stood a real chance that the young Teddy, age 30, might lose.  Worse still, he might win and be an embarrassment.

Well, he ran and he won... and sure, he won only because of his last name.

Then something happened.  He got in a plane crash and was hospitalized for several months.  He took that time to bone up on the issues and become knowledgeable.  Being in the hospital, one of his pet issues became health care.

Granted, he was still a Kennedy, with all the Kennedy personal failings.  Womanizing, drinking, etc.  This all came to a head in 1969 when he drove off a bridge on Chappaquidick, a small island off Martha's Vineyard.  The death of his car companion, a young campaign worker named Mary Jo Kepechne, was controversial enough, but the fact that Ted waited several hours to report the incident (having hurriedly gone instead to seek counsel with political advisers first) was what alienated many voters against him.

After Chappaquiddick, many said that Teddy could never be president.  By this time (the late 60's), he was the last Kennedy of his generation -- both JFK and Bobby had been assassinated.  In 1980, Teddy proved the nay-sayers right; he challenged a very unpopular incumbent President Jimmy Carter, and failed to even get the Democratic nomination.

But then a funny thing happened.  Senator Edward Kennedy found himself in a unique position: a man could go no higher politically, but who was virtually guaranteed a lifelong post in the Senate (because the Massachusetts people were never going to vote him out).  This freed him up from lobbyists and others on whom other politicians rely for campaign donations.  And it allowed him to make a strong commitment to public service.

He relished it, and went after it with gusto.

That, of course, is Ted Kennedy's strongest legacy -- his unflinching support for social justice, be it in the form of civil rights, education or health care.  Unrestrained by the politics of getting re-elected and free from catering to special interests, he did what most of us would want our elected leaders to do:  he did good.

Anyone who grew up with 120 miles of Boston during the past 4 decades, as I did, knows that you can't swing a dead cat without knocking over a couple of Kennedys.  I don't know how many times I've seen him speak -- as a visiting lecturer, at some commencement, in a campaign for someone (it probably helped that I went to college with his daughter).  I even talked to him briefly once in a Copley Plaza restaurant (he was very gregarious).

He may not have had a stellar personal life, but when it comes to public service, he is the role model.  Like his brothers, he was born into privilege.  Like his brothers, he believed that being graced with such privilege obligates one to give back to the community, a moral tenet that seems to be lost on the Wall Street CEOs of today.

Sadly, he was never to realize his lifelong dream of universal, affordable health care, and his death yesterday from brain cancer, while expected, comes at an ironic time.  I don't think it will change the scope of the health care debate, but someday, Kennedy's dream will come true.  It may be another generation, but when it happens, I am confident that he will be recognized.  As Kennedy himself said exactly one year ago today:

“This is the cause of my life. New hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American – north, south, east, west, young, old – will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.”

I've always had a soft spot for Ted Kennedy as a person.  I cannot imagine what it must have been like all those years to be the Kennedy king, singlehandedly carrying the mantle of the family name whose members included JFK and Bobby Kennedy.  I mean, that's a pretty steep curve that he's been graded on.  As Time's Joe Klein writes:

He was scared catatonic, of course. Scared of death, obviously. There was no reason to believe, in a nation of nutballs, that he would be allowed to continue, unshot. But he was frightened of more profound things as well — overwhelmed by his own humanity in the face of his brothers' immortality, convinced that he'd never measure up, that Joe and Jack and Bobby had been the best of the Kennedys.

You can actually feel that weight being thrown on Ted's back here, as he speaks one of the best eulogies I've ever heard, on the occasion of his brother Bobby's funeral:

It was probably worse after JFK, Jr. died.  It seemed clear that Ted Kennedy was the end of the dynasty, and for the first time in my entire life, I now live in a world that lacks a Kennedy on the national political scene.  Rather strange.

The last of Joe and Rose Kennedy's nine children, Ted died 14 days after his sister Eunice.

For those who despair that Kennedy's absence might make the country an unhealthier place, remember this:

“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”  ---Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  1932-2009.

UPDATE:  The reaction from the right blogosphere is entirely predictable.  Much call for respect and all that, but the unwashed masses (the commenters) can't seem to resist the "burn in Hell, Teddy" rhetoric.

Another meme is emerging from the right -- they think it is inappropriate that Kennedy's funeral be some sort of tribute to the things that Kennedy cared about -- like social justice, civil rights, and health care.  "It's about the man", they say, harkening to the Paul Wellstone funeral many years ago.

Such concern trolling is both funny and upsetting.  Of course it is about the man, but you can't separate the man from the things that the man stood for, fought for, and believed in his entire life.

UPDATE:  Kennedy debates Nixon in 1971 about health care.  Cronkite, who also passed recently, does the introduction...