I am letting you into the secret of all secrets, mirrors are gates through which death comes and goes. Moreover if you see your whole life in a mirror you will see death at work as you see bees behind the glass in a hive.
Once upon a time there was a political observer who was thoughtful, intelligent, witty and polite, not an angry demagogue.
I know, it sounds like a fairy tale . . .
[Heath] Ledger’s ex-fiancée Michelle Williams and their two year old daughter Matilda flew from a film set in Sweden to their home in Brooklyn following the tragedy. . . .
Her father Larry Williams said: “It has just broken everybody’s heart in my family. I think Tennyson got it right in the poem he described someone as having died at a young age but burning the candles at both ends. And oh what a beautiful flame he made. That was Heath.
“The saddest thing is his daughter whom he just loved dearly. The Tennyson poem is just so true. His years were few but he left a beautiful legacy.”
Okay . . . Tennyson?!
Tennyson did write In Memoriam A.H.H. about a friend who died young, but the candle poem was written by Edna St. Vincent Millay:
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light!
He mentions Tennyson twice, in case you missed it the first time. I’m quotin’ Tennyson here! The first and last time anyone will be interested in anything this man has to say and instead of going down in history as a Tennyson scholar, he’ll be remembered as a puffed-up phony . . .
Some media outlets are using the occasion of Heath Ledger’s demise to publish lists of stars who died “too soon.”
Does anyone really die too soon? Maybe everyone dies at exactly the right time. Maybe some people die too late.
[James] Dean died before he could fail, before he lost his hair or his boyish figure, before he grew up.
James Dean died at age 24. Did he die too soon? Would he have been remembered as fondly if he’d lived to an old age?
Better to be a delicious fruit snatched away in mid-bite than something one finds in the back of the refrigerator and says, “My god, we should have thrown this out a long time ago.”
It’s never a bad career move to check out in your prime . . .
In memory of Heath Ledger, here’s a list of 79 more stars killed by drugs . . .
NEW YORK — Actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday of a possible drug overdose in a Lower Manhattan apartment, the New York Police Department said.
Possible drug overdose, possible suicide! Oh dear . . . another blow to the theory that being rich and/or famous is the ticket to happiness.
I think most famous actors — not all, obviously — are convinced that they can do things that nobody else can do, that they’re not cardboard people who are adored for no reason.
Tom Cruise, for example, I don’t think will ever commit suicide.
Oh well . . .
Americans like a winner. If you lose, you’re nothing. I’m going to win, though. It’s good for the match that Spassky has a plus score against me. We’ve met five times. He’s won three times and we’ve drawn twice. But I’m a stronger player and a long match favors me.
Bobby Fischer died last week in Reykjavik, Iceland, the site of his greatest triumph — the 1972 World Chess Championship. He was 64 years old, one year for each square on a chessboard.
For the first half of his life, his brilliance as a chess player mostly outweighed his irrational judgment and paranoia. For the second half of his life, it was the other way around.
In the middle of the Cold War, he beat the Soviets at their own game. He became as famous as a rock star while playing a game that absolutely no one in this country cares about. I’d bet a dollar to a doughnut that most Americans can’t name one other chess grandmaster, living or dead, such is our apathy for chess and the people who play it — but by god, we do love a winner!
ANAHEIM — Authorities say a woman apparently jumped off an Anaheim freeway overpass Thursday and died. The Orange County Register reports that 50-year-old Sally Brown plunged to her death just after 11 a.m. from the East La Palma Avenue overpass onto the westbound 91 Freeway.
PULLMAN, Wash. — A 6-year-old border collie died in a house fire after waking up his owner out of a deep sleep to warn her of the blaze.
Marilyn Harvey and her son, Brent, rushed out the basement door, but Sandler turned back. Marilyn’s husband, John Harvey, who was in Seattle at the time of the fire, thinks it was because Sandler wanted to save the family’s 17-year-old Australian shepherd, who was still inside the house.
Both dogs died in last Friday’s fire, along with a bird named Kellogg. A cat named Raja escaped unharmed.
According to the Los Angeles Times:
Among other accomplishments, Dan Fogelberg wrote “Longer,” one of the two worst songs I’ve ever heard, the other being “Sometimes When We Touch” by Dan Hill, who is unfortunately still alive.
Aside from that, he seems to have been a very decent man.
Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock’s critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife and icon Tina Turner, died Wednesday at his home in suburban San Diego. He was 76.
The news of Ike’s death hit me like a slap in the face . . .
Regarding the negotiations to keep USC football in the Coliseum, Scott Wolf writes:
USC’s Coliseum negotiations website implores fans to attend today’s commission meeting. It’s part of USC’s public-relations strategy to get the public to express outrage. So far, that ploy’s resulted in death threats against commission member Bill Chadwick and general manager Pat Lynch.
A USC official just shrugged his shoulders at that little byproduct of the negotiations.
Let’s see if I understand the cause and effect here. Encouraging people to attend a committee meeting resulted in death threats?
OK, that’s understandable . . . I hate meetings myself.
One of the HR reps at my new company is explaining Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance.
“What if someone intentionally dismembers me?” I ask. “Could happen.”
“Do you work in IT?” she asks.
“Do a lot of people in IT get intentionally dismembered?”
“Just something about your line of questioning . . .”
On New Year’s Eve Day, 1967, Evel Knievel, some crazy son of a bitch from Butte, Montana, jumped his motorcycle 151 feet over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
And that’s why, when I was a kid, every boy in my neighborhood grew up with a endless progression of scabs on knees and elbows from trying to jump Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes over every natural and man-made obstacle we could find.
Farewell to an iconic figure . . .
And if you want your kid to know what to do when the principal says “Code Blue” over the intercom, move to Cleveland:
Students said they took cover in closets after the school principal announced a “Code Blue” on the intercom.
I just asked my own high school-age son if he knows what “Code Blue” means and he doesn’t know. In a health care setting, it means cardiac arrest, or more generically, imminent loss of life. So the day your kid comes home and tells you he learned what to do when the principal says “Code Blue” over the intercom is a good day to start looking for a new school.
No hard feelings, but I’m looking at the company president’s new employment agreement on EDGAR . . . the stock’s down 50 percent, the bond rating’s been lowered to junk, you laid off 400 people end of July and announced plans to lay off 1,000 more, and yet shareholders will still be paying for a really fabulous set of benefits for this lout: luxury automobiles, first-class air travel, $35,000 a year for financial planning services, and not one, but two, country club memberships.
The rest of the peasants — er, employees — have to pay for their own cars, green fees, financial planners, etc., which is even tougher when you’ve been laid off thanks to my man’s (lack of) stewardship at the mortgage bank.
Let them eat cake!
I challenge you post a link to the employment agreement on the company web site and see if he isn’t guillotined within the fortnight.
