RIP

John Lewis —  a noble (and effective) opponent.


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

RIP

Eddie Haskell ... and Fred Willard

Orson Bean, RIP

Orson Bean was killed by a car today in Los Angeles at the age of 91. He was a comedian, actor and a fixture on American television game shows and Johnny Carson for decades. Above is a typical appearance. Interestingly, he also was a conservative voice and the father-in-law of the late Andrew Breitbart. 

RIP.

R.I.P.

When a man with such business talents, love of life and living, devotion to his friends, family and college ... chooses to stop living, one must pause to catch one's breath. I have had many interactions with Joseph Asch over the years ... mostly over his Dartblog postings and his running for Dartmouth trustee. He was an intense person with sharp elbows ... and plenty of detractors. But I never found his observations too far off the mark. He brought a needed balance to the insanity of today's educational myopia. Dartmouth (and I) will miss his critical mind.

To possibly understand why Joe  is no longer with us, see what might have been his farewell missive: 10/10/18 Dartblog Entry.

R.I.P.

R.I.P.

Charles Krauthammer

The only psychiatrist whom I have ever respected.

WOW

Tom became a friend of mine when he married my wife's best friend, Kathy. He had just retired from the New York Police Department as a Lieutenant after serving many years as the head of the WOW unit ... standing for the "worst of the worst". And this meant that this special unit's job was to track down and capture violent felons who had jumped bail. This was not a job with a long life expectancy, but Tom was a street-smart New Yorker and, not only did he survive, but he never lost one man in his unit.

One of the things that drew me to this person, besides his dauntless courage, was his story-telling ability. He could spin out an endless series of his on-the-job experiences ... keeping his audience on the edge of their seats. He always had a fresh and fascinating daring-do to relate and he made you feel like you were with him on this bust. Why am I relating all this? Because Tom tragically died yesterday of an unheroic illness, sepsis ... well before he should have ... well before he had done all the things he wanted to do with his retirement.

And so to honor him, I think I would like to try to remember and relate one of his neat stories about a WOW adventure:

They were given an old grainy photo of a violent felon, his name, and the name and address of one of his previous girlfriends. So off they went to her apartment and were greeted with a torrent of hostility. This woman denied knowing him with a m..f.. this and m..f.. that ... she directing a unbroken series of other invectives at Tom and his men in blue.

Reliazing that they were getting nowhere, they then left this harpy to go back to their patrol cars. Halfway there, they saw a man walking their way who looked vaguely familiar and, calling out his name, he turned and bolted (to his regret) ... and was quickly nabbed. Cuffed and walking him back to their cars, they encountered the previously-mentioned potty-mouth hanging out of her third story window. Tom, to extract a tad of revenge for her former hostility, shouted up to her, "Thanks, we got him! Thanks for your help!"

Once in the squad car, the perp turned to Tom and said (in argot), "She didn't rat me out! I know she wouldn't do that!" To which Tom showed him the old photo and said, "Do you think we could recognize you just with this photo?" The wanted felon then fell silent ... and Tom quietly relished imagining what this couples next meeting would be like.

There were dozens more stories like this one. I wish I could remember them all.

R.I.P. Tom

RIP Click Tappet

aka Tom Magliozzi, popular host of NPR's "Car Talk,"died yesterday at age 77 from Alzheimer's ...

Maya Angelou

Mark Steyn somehow has an encyclopedic knowledge of almost anything.  Yesterday he regurgitated his all in tribute to Maya Angelou on the occasion of her demise. Although he proffers a few zingers, in general he treats her reasonably kindly … with lots of gritty life details (it’s worth a read) … see: Steyn Online.

Swimming in all this interesting flotsam about Ms. Angelou’s life however, somehow Mr. Steyn missed what I remember most about this lady. That was the doggerel part of the poem she read at Bill Clinton’s first inaugural … see: Professor Althouse's Blog.

William F, Buckley Jr., also now deceased, when commenting on this poetry performance by Ms, Angelou famously said, “We were both at a loss for words.”

RIP, Maya