obit Archives - Page 12 of 24 - Ramblin' with Roger

Bernie Wrightson; Chuck Berry

“Bernie was such a nice guy that he made me feel totally relaxed, even as he stood holding a butcher’s knife.”

When I was working at FantaCo, owner Tom Skulan had Bernie Wrightson do the covers for the FantaCon comic conventions in 1980 and 1981. (The artist was going as Berni at the time to distinguish himself from another person.) He was a guest at three shows, at least.

FantaCo also published a comic called Deja Vu in 1982, featuring a front cover by Bernie Wrightson and two 1971 stories, The Last Hunters and King of the Mountain, Man, plus works by others in the artistic pantheon, Michael Wm. Kaluta and Jeff Jones. That was edited by Mitch Cohn, so my dealing with Bernie was usually a hello before passing the phone on to Mitch, who felt as though he were in heaven.

But I’ve been even current comic professionals have expressed the same sensation. As my friend, illustrator Fred Hembeck put it:

“I found myself invited to the already annual Wrightson Halloween party in a nearby town. I’ll admit to being a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of rubbing elbows with Bernie and a passel of his highly accomplished peers–after all, I was just a guy who drew squiggles on character’s knees, and he was, well, he was Bernie Wrightson. But my nerves were soon soothed, as Bernie was such a nice guy that he made me feel totally relaxed, even as he stood holding a butcher’s knife while wearing a blood-spattered apron as we pleasantly chatted (it was a Halloween party, remember).

“Over the next decade or so, there were plenty more Wrightson shindigs, holiday-centric or not, as well as a weekly volleyball game attended by Bernie and a host of other local cartooning notables. After awhile, I almost got used to Bernie just being that nice guy I was trying to set up at the front of the net in hopes of scoring on a Wrightson spike. Almost. But I never quite shook the awe I had–and continue to have–for the work he did that so inspired me during key years when I was ramping up my own attempts to get published.”

EVERYONE I read online, including Elaine Lee and Wendy Pini, spoke about how nice Bernie Wrightson was. Some DID complain about his limited danceable music collection: “A little Blues Brothers can go a long way,” someone wrote, and made him mixed tapes.But even in my limited contact, I always knew him to be a sweet guy.

And generous, famous for encouraging younger talent, both artists and writers. Steve Bissette revealed that when “DC in its benevolence sent Bernie a bonus check out of the blue, Bernie would split that bonus check up and mail checks to Alan Moore, John Totleben, Rick Veitch, and me, and when asked what for, he laughed, saying ‘I didn’t earn this, I know this bonus was because of what you guys did on the character, but don’t tell anyone about this because you don’t want DC to have a reason not to send another check!'”

Unfortunately, the enormously talented artist Bernie Wrightson died March 19 of a brain tumor at the age of 68. Ugh, I had a friend die from that; not pleasant. Here’s the notification.

His artistry on Swamp Thing and the stuff at Warren Publications was legendary. Tom Skulan referred to him as “the greatest horror comic artist ever.” A fellow artist said, “That might be Wrightson’s greatest gift to us: no matter how terrible the image he portrayed, it was always captivatingly beautiful.” That’s why I was happy to do my part to keep Creepshow selling when its publisher had given up on it.
***

Chuck Berry was 90 when he died, and I was filled with all sorts of contradictory feelings. On one hand, he is, to my mind, THE single person who had the greatest impact on creating rock and roll. He took the blues that wasn’t, in his words, blue enough, added some country chops, and voila. He was a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The legendary duck walk, developed when he fell on stage and was getting up, was amazing. His music is literally in space.

He was an obvious influence on scores of artists, such as the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones, with the former two as subjects of lawsuits by Berry. Here are
20 of his essential songs, and it doesn’t include his only #1 pop hit, 1972’s My Ding-a-Ling.

But he had his demons, which are touched upon in this article. There was the stuff with a 14-year-old girl back in the 1950s, though the use of the Mann Act to prosecute him, usually applied to high profile cases from boxer Jack Johnson to former governor Eliot Spitzer, was troubling. Much later, there were the bathroom cameras.

The article mentions, among other things, the 1987 concert movie about him, Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll, which I saw in the cinema at the time, and I found the musician, to my surprise, rather unlikable. He seemed glib in giving honorifics to almost everyone, he botched Robert Cray’s name, he made Julian Lennon look bad, he practically drooled over Linda Ronstadt.

He was to be kind, complicated.
***
I was living in New York City during the summer of the Son of Sam killings, so of course I was reading Jimmy Breslin, from then and for probably a decade or more. But his most famous piece was much earlier: Digging JFK grave was his honor.

Music Throwback Saturday: Neville Marriner

“Cliff Barrows has led more people in singing than any other man in the world.”

Sir Neville Marriner died in 2016. Initially, I was going to get representative tracks from ALL the musicians who died this year, but that became too onerous. The list includes:

Pierre Boulez, the famed French composer, and conductor, died Jan. 5 at 90.
Otis Clay, soul singer and Blues Music Hall of Famer best known for 1967’s “That’s How It Is (When You’re In Love),” died Jan. 8 at 73.
David Bowie died Jan. 10, two days after his 69th birthday, after an 18-month secret battle with cancer.
René Angélil, musical producer, singer. Manager (1981–2014) and husband (from 1994) of singer Celine Dion, died Jan. 14, two days shy of his 74th birthday, of throat cancer.
Glenn Frey, The Eagles guitarist, and co-founder, died at 67 on Jan. 18.
Paul Kantner, Jefferson Airplane co-founder, and guitarist, died at 74 on Jan. 28.
Signe Anderson, the original Jefferson Airplane singer who was replaced by Grace Slick, died at 74 also on Jan. 28.
Maurice White, a founding member of the disco-funk group Earth, Wind & Fire, died Feb. 3 at 74.
Dan Hicks, who led ’60s band Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, died Feb. 6 at 74.
Vanity, an ’80s singer-actress and Prince protege also known as Denise Katrina Matthews, died Feb. 15 at 57.
Sonny James, the country singer behind hits like “Young Love,” died Feb. 22 at age 87.
Lennie Baker, the voice of Sha Na Na’s doo-wop hit “Blue Moon,” died Feb. 24 at age 69.

George Martin, the “Fifth Beatle” best known as a producer for The Beatles, died March 8 at 90. 10 Hours that Changed EVERYTHING.
Keith Emerson, founder, and keyboardist of the progressive-rock band Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, died March 11 at 71. Suicide.
Frank Sinatra Jr., singer, and son of Ol’ Blue Eyes, died March 16 of cardiac arrest at 72.
Lee Andrews, ’50s doo-wop singer, and father of The Roots drummer Questlove, died March 16 at age 79.
Daryl Coley, the Grammy-nominated gospel singer, died the week of March 16 at age 60.

Gato Barbieri, Grammy-winning Latin jazz musician and “Last Tango in Paris” composer, died April 2 at 83.
Merle Haggard, the country music legend who had more than 30 No. 1 hits, died April 6 on his 79th birthday.
Les Waas, songwriter for nearly 1,000 jingles include the Mister Softee ice cream truck song, died April 19 at 94.
Prince, music legend, died April 21 at 57. Tribute at Coverville 1123
Lonnie Mack, blues guitar great, died April 21 at 74.
Billy Paul, a Grammy-winning jazz and soul singer best known for the 1972 hit “Me and Mrs. Jones,” died April 24 at 80.

Madeleine LeBeau, best known for singing “La Marseillaise” as Yvonne in the 1942 film “Casablanca,” died May 1 at 92.
Julius La Rosa, a pop singer famously fired on the Arthur Godfrey show in 1953, died May 12 at 86.
Bill Backer, the real-life Don Draper who came up with Coca-Cola’s iconic “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” ad, died May 13 at 89.
Jane Little, Atlanta Symphony bassist who held the Guinness World Record for the longest professional tenure with a single orchestra, died May 15 at 87 after collapsing on stage during a performance.
Guy Clark, Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter, died May 17 at 74.

Christina Grimmie, a former contestant on The Voice TV show, died on June 10 at 22. Shot and murdered by a “fan.”
P.M. Dawn’s Prince Be, singer-rapper born Attrel Cordes and best known for the 1991 hit “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss,” died June 17 at 46 from complications of diabetes and renal kidney disease.
Ralph Stanley, bluegrass music legend and “O Brother Where Art Thou” singer, died June 23 at 89.
Bernie Worrell, the masterful Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist, died June 24 at his home at age 72. I saw him when he played with the Talking Heads.
Scotty Moore, the pioneering rock guitarist for Elvis Presley, died June 28 at his home. He was 84.

Bonnie Brown, of Country Music Hall of Fame trio The Browns died July 16 at 77.
Alan Vega, Suicide singer, and punk rock pioneer, died July 16 at 78.
Marni Nixon, ‘The Sound of Music’ singer best known dubbing vocals for Hollywood stars in ‘The King and I,’ ‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘West Side Story,’ died July 24 at 86.

Ricci Martin, singer and youngest son of Dean Martin, died Aug. 3 at 62.
Glenn Yarbrough, a founding member of folk trio The Limeliters, died Aug. 11 at 86.
Ruby Wilson, blues, soul and gospel singer known as “The Queen of Beale Street,” died Aug. 12 at 68.

Bobby Hutcherson, a legendary jazz vibraphonist, died Aug. 15 at 75.
Lou Pearlman, the creator of Backstreet Boys and NSync, died in prison Aug. 19 at age 62.
Toots Thielemans, a jazz harmonica legend heard on ‘Sesame Street’ theme, died Aug. 22 at 94.

Kacey Jones, singer-comedienne best known for “I’m the One Mama Warned You About,” “Donald Trump’s Hair,” and an appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” died Sept. 2 at 66.
Charmian Carr, who played Liesl von Trapp in ‘The Sound of Music,’ died Sept. 17 at 73.
Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr., Buckwheat Zydeco leader and Louisiana accordionist, died Sept. 24 at 68
Jean Shepard, Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member, died Sept. 25 at 82.
Rod Temperton, Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ songwriter and Heatwave member, died in September at 66. On rereleases of Off the Wall and Thriller CDs, he describes the writing process of some of the songs.

Neville Marriner, British conductor behind Oscar-winning “Amadeus” soundtrack, died Oct. 2 at 92.
Joan Marie Johnson, The Dixie Cups singer known for ‘Chapel of Love’ and ‘Iko Iko,’ died Oct. 3 at 72.
Bobby Vee, ’60s teen idol who replaced Buddy Holly and helped Bob Dylan get his start, died Oct. 24 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease at 73.

Kay Starr, bluesy singer of swing, pop, and country songs on Nov. 3 at age 94.
Leonard Cohen, the singer-songwriter behind ‘Hallelujah,’ died Nov. 7 at 82. Tribute at Coverville 1148.
Leon Russell, influential singer-songwriter and all-star collaborator, died Nov. 13 at 74.
Buck Malen, bassist with the early-’80s rock band French Letter, and many other bands died Nov. 13 at 66.
David Mancuso, DJ and New York nightlife pioneer who popularized breaking new music in clubs via a “record pool,” died Nov. 14 at 72.
Mose Allison, the great jazz pianist, died Nov. 15 at 89.
Sharon Jones, the Grammy-nominated soul singer with The Dap-Kings, died Nov. 18 at 60 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Cliff Barrows, who directed music for Billy Graham’s evangelistic crusades, died Nov. 24 at 93. “Cliff Barrows has led more people in singing than any other man in the world,” Graham said in 1992.

Greg Lake, King Crimson singer-bassist and ELP co-founder, died Dec. 8 of cancer at 69.
Joe Ligon, the lead singer for the Grammy-winning gospel group Mighty Clouds of Joy, died Dec 11 at 80.
Alan Thicke, composer of the original themes for Wheel of Fortune, Celebrity Sweepstakes, The Wizard of Odds, and Diff’rent Strokes, the latter of which he also sang, died Dec. 13 at 69 after a heart attack.
George Michael, the pop singer who was half of the duo Wham! before superstar solo career, died Dec 25 at 53 from heart failure. AmeriNZ remembers.
Alphonse Mouzon, the legendary drummer, died Dec. 26 at 68 of Neuroendocrine Carcinoma, a rare form of cancer.
Debbie Reynolds, singer – Tammy was a gold record which went to #1 in 1957 – and actress (Singin’ in the Rain) died Dec. 28 at 84 after a stroke.
Allan Williams, the Beatles’ first manager, died Dec. 30 at 86

And there are others with whom I was not familiar.

Here’s an album I actually own, on vinyl. Sir Neville Marriner: Masters of Music (Händel / Mozart / Rossini – 1972)

GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL (1685-1759)

1. The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (Sinfonia from “Solomon”)
2. Concerto grosso in D, op. 6 no. 5

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)

3. Divertimento in D, K. 136

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI (1792-1868)

4. Sonata for String Orchestra no. 1 in G

ACADEMY OF ST. MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS
conducted by NEVILLE MARRINER

Listen HERE

And in more positive musical news: BEST OF 2016: Greg Haymes’ Favorite Concerts, Albums, More

November rambling #2: Book two of the trilogy

Albany by Roger Whitaker

1941 Dr Seuss cartoon illustrating the U.S. stance denying Jews safe haven from the Nazis. — 1941 Dr. Seuss cartoon illustrating the U.S. stance denying Jews safe haven from the Nazis.

From The Weekly Sift, November 21, 2016:

Like most people I know, I’ve been suffering occasional attacks of rage or depression. But it’s also oddly energizing sometimes. If you ever had fantasies of being a hero, well, gear up; the villains are taking the field. It feels like we’re in a trilogy, somewhere around the end of Book Two. Ancient evils have jumped out of history books and grainy newsreels, and are appearing on live TV. Their words and ideas are coming out of the mouths of our neighbors.

Who thought we’d have to deal with this in our lifetimes?

For some while now, everything that you can think to do about the situation is going to seem hopelessly inadequate. But it’s important that you do it anyway. That’s how it is at the end of Book Two.

You’re a hobbit with all of Mordor in front of you, or an Ewok facing a galactic empire. The idea that you’re going to turn things around is laughable. And a lot of the stuff that people think to do will come to nothing, just like it seems. But some of it won’t, and if anybody can say for sure which is which, I haven’t met them yet.

So anyway, today I plan to type a bunch of words onto a screen. It’s what I can think to do. You think that seems hopelessly inadequate? Tell me about it.

[I do SO relate!]

Also from the Weekly Sift: The Trump Administration: What I’m watching for and Should I Have White Pride?

Donald Trump and the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, explained

Farewell, America

Trump summons a monster he can’t control – “White supremacists are acting as if they’ve hit the swastika sweepstakes.” cf Why I Left White Nationalism

“Sore winner” syndrome: Why are Donald Trump’s supporters still so angry?

Through a Looking Glass, Darkly

Donald Trump — the Boy King

America first, Trump second

Donald Trump: Anyone who burns American flag should be jailed or lose citizenship

Welcome to the Trump kleptocracy, plus kakistocracy

Potential Conflicts Around the Globe for Trump, the Businessman President

More Weekly Sift, especially the section on corruption

An ethical double standard for Trump — and the GOP?

Professor predicts impeachment

Mike Pence’s top seven most homophobic moments (out of many)

79-Year-Old Trump Supporter Arrested for Allegedly Vandalizing Children’s Mural

Confederate States of America currency?

Rapp On This: As a Matter of Fact, the Sky Is Falling

TV News and Its Long Dark Night of the Soul, though, finally, The Associated Press has defined ‘alt-right’

Atlético Nacional, the Colombian team, asks that its opponent, Chapecoense of Brazil, be awarded the Copa Sudamericana soccer tournament title, after the plane crash which killed nearly all of Chapecoense’s players and coaches

The Kind of Christian I Refuse To Be

Aboard an overloaded ship carrying more than 500 refugees, a young woman becomes an unlikely hero

That disruption at a performance of Hamilton

The Bubble – SNL

They may well be sincere in what they say but they may just be buttering you up

Fidel Castro dead at 90;

Florence Henderson passed away – I never saw a single episode of the Brady Bunch during its original run but caught it in syndication occasionally. She played Florence Henderson at least a couple of times in later shows, but my favorite role of hers was as the wife in Amish Paradise by Weird Al.

The GREAT character Fritz Weaver died at the age of 90. Some know him for a few appearances in the original Twilight Zone, but he had a massive body of work

I know I liked Harris on Barney Miller because I didn’t often see the black intellectual on TV – RIP, Ron Glass

American comedy vs. British comedy

Internet Wading – Looking and listening

An interesting blog on family photo copyrights

Why can’t you go out and buy cashews in the shell?

Two Point Conversion Chart (football)

8 Memorable Comics Screw-Ups

Now I Know: The Spaceship Graveyard and A Def Vacation

“Hipster” nativity scene for the holidays

The Strange History of Microfilm, Which Will Be With Us for Centuries

Accidentally Closing Browser Window With 23 Tabs Open Presents Rare Chance At New Life

Music

Beethoven’s 7th

Tchaikovsky’s “fantasy overture” Romeo and Juliet

100 Days, 100 Nights – Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

Albany songs, plus Albany by Roger Whitaker, lyrics here

Elvis at the Wheel

Spirit of the ’60s albums

LOVER COME BACK TO ME – The Peanuts

The Leonard Cohen song that saved Roger Ebert’s life

A Temptations musical?

Norm Nissen (1958-2016)

Norm was a great hugger.

I always thought of Norman as a surprise. He was this bear of a man, who might have been a Viking warrior at a different time. He was farm-boy strong. I learned that many years ago when he accidentally put a Roger-sized hole in the baseboard of our mutual friend Bill Anderson’s apartment.

He had that young man with the gray-to-white hair as long as I’ve known him. He wore it well. I met him, as did a few of us gathered at his funeral, at FantaCo, the comic book shop shop on the first block of Central Avenue, where Broome and Bill and I all worked at some point in the 1980s or ’90s.

I specifically remember the surprise party that was thrown for Norm on his 30th birthday party. Almost all the presents had a bovine theme.

He was this farm boy with a sometimes goofy grin, who was book smart. I could always count on him to make, sometimes unsolicited, great recommendations about what to read, which is why he was so good at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza or its Troy location, Market Block Books, where he worked for many years.

It was difficult to try to explain Norm Nissen to other people, except to say that Norman was the GUY. He was the best man for Carol’s and my wedding in 1999. You WANTED Norm Nissen to be your best man. Not only did you KNOW he wouldn’t forget, or lose, the rings, but that he would be a steadying influence on the nervous groom.

I had a shed that needed deconstruction a couple years, and of course, he had the tools, which he brought to me. He brought this young man with him, who had a beard and a deep voice. It turned out to be his son Sam. I can’t keep track of the number of times Norm mentioned that Sam and I were roommates, when I was in the midst of a romantic breakup in 1994, and that Norm and Jay let me stay in Sam’s room for a couple of weeks.

Though I only needed the tools for less than a month, he hadn’t picked them up until nearly a year later. Norm and I sat on the front porch of my house, just talking for over an hour. He was my sounding board, as he always had been.

Norm was such a sweet guy. A couple years ago, my wife and I were talking with our friend Bonnie, who, unfortunately, died last year. She worked at the Bruegger’s Bagels in Stuyvesant Plaza, and she was going on how nice the folks from the Book House were, but ESPECIALLY this guy named Norm.

For a lot of years, we played racquetball, three, four, even five times a week, at the Albany YMCA on Washington Avenue in Albany, only a block from the comic book store. We played regularly from the late 1980s until March of 2010, when they, most unfortunately, closed the place. We played sporadically at Siena after that, but it wasn’t the same.

You get a sense of a person when you play racquetball with someone regularly. A friend of Norm’s, who I know as well, wrote on Facebook that he was going to miss the big galoot, and I appreciated the sentiment. Still, I looked up the standard definition of galoot, and it is “a clumsy or oafish person”. The example: “I was expecting the big galoot to trip over his own feet.” Yet, in his racquetball prime, he was surprisingly quick and agile, and smart.

We used to play this guy who made questionable calls in his own favor, a minister, as it turns out. This used to irritate ME. But instead of getting upset with him, Norm would redouble his effort to whup him on the court.

For a number of years, there was a coterie of us who’d show up at the Y, Danny, Charlie, Mike, Alan, Tyrone. Depending on numbers and arrival times, we would play one-on-one, or three of us in a game of cutthroat, or four of us playing partners. Norm was facile no matter what the game. I loved as a partner, because we developed an often unspoken strategy of how best to cover the court.

Norman was funny. He laughed easily. His humor tended to be self-deprecating, and it was almost never mean. Recently, he was talking with my wife. He had indicated that his daughter Abby was going to go to Europe with a friend, but the friend got sick, so now Abby’s going with her mother. Somehow my wife thought she meant going with the FRIEND’S mother, rather than Abby’s mother, Jay. They both laughed for five minutes.

You know how you say you’re going to get together, but you never do? Well, my wife arranged so that Norm and Jay, and my family got to finally go out to eat this past March at the Old Daley Inn. We had a marvelous time. I paid, only because I had a vague recollection that I probably owed him dinner from some racquetball bet. We played pretty evenly most of the time, but when wagers were made, he was almost always victorious. We agreed that, once he had knee surgery, we could get back to playing again; alas, it was not to be.

Norm was this sweetheart of a guy. The only time I could predictably get under his skin was to start singing the song Norman by Sue Thompson – peak Billboard position # 3 in early 1962. It went “Norman , ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Norman, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.” He HATED that song; his aunt told me she used to sing it to him when he was young, and he hated it even then. Listen to the song Norman HERE or HERE.

Finally, Norm was a great hugger. The problem now is that I could really use one of his bear hugs right about now.

Norm Nissen died last week in his sleep at the age of 57. Here’s a lovely article in the Times Union, written by Paul Grondahl.

Invocation of Peace by Fiona Macleod, read at Norm’s funeral.

Pictures from May 15, 1999 – TOP: Norm giving the toast; BOTTOM: my brother-in-law John Powell (d. 12 Feb 2002), my college friend Mark, me, and Norm.

May rambling #2: Blind In Your Mind

Since when did Christianity become more about preaching the rules than preaching the Gospel of mercy?

A sad case of Facebook blackmail.

“Dude, enough with the entitlement.” She doesn’t owe you @#$!”.

Women are getting harassed in bathrooms because of anti-transgender hysteria. Plus Utah man attacked for taking his 5-year-old daughter into Walmart men’s bathroom. I have taken my then-5 y.o. daughter to a Wal-Mart men’s bathroom, in North Carolina, without incident.

Obituary of a Homophobic Racist, or, My Grandfather.

Killing Dylann Roof. “A year after Obama saluted the families for their spirit of forgiveness, his administration seeks the death penalty for the Charleston shooter.”

Why should schools move away from suspensions?

Poor People Deserve To Taste Something Other Than Shame.

The Election Is About the Country, Not the Candidates

Cartoon: Cut from commencement speeches.

The End Of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Campaign.

What third parties CAN do.

John Oliver: Primaries and Caucuses.

R.I.P. Pinius Bergmann (1925-2016).

Aphantasia: How It Feels To Be Blind In Your Mind.

Book review: Stardancer by Kelly Sedinger.

Alicia: As I’m leaving the library today, I walked by a pile of new books and literally said out loud to myself, “No, I already have enough at home to read right now.”
Roger: The question: What did the books say in response?
Alicia: It was more of a quiet weeping.

On the heartbreaking difficulty of getting rid of books.

Neither Rand nor McNally. Death by GPS.

This month in 1856: Violence on the U.S. Senate floor.

Three-minute video about the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region, produced by the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.

The Trouble with Comics: the epic Question Time survey of the best current comics titles.

Now I Know: Combat Juggling and The Land Down Under in the Land Down Under and And Together They’ll Make Music.

True Facts About The Owl.

Sodium.

TELEVISION

60 Minutes, the Sunday night news staple, honored Morley Safer, one of television’s most celebrated journalists. Then, days later, Safer died at 84. From the New York Times: “Mr. Safer had broadcast 919 “60 Minutes” reports, profiling international heroes and villains, exposing scams and corruption, giving voice to whistle-blowers and chronicling the trends of an ever-changing America.”

Alan Young, RIP, star of Duck Tales, and, of course, Mr. Ed. But, of course, of course, some are unhip to the lingo.

Beth Howland, Accident-Prone Waitress Vera From the Sitcom ‘Alice,’ Dies at 74, on New Years’ Eve 2015. Her husband was the actor Charles Kimbrough, who played the anchorman Jim Dial on the television series ‘Murphy Brown.’

Muppets TV show, RIP.

David Letterman – Behind The Scenes Of Late Night’s Longest Running Broadcaster and Leaving Letterman, Part I.

The closing of Johnny Carson’s last Tonight Show.

I disagree broadly, but as for these three: Celebrities Should Not Play Jeopardy. Plus Buzzy Cohen Might Be The Most Polarizing ‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Yet.