Obituaries -- names from the old Forum

[pbrower2a]

Bob Stuart, game-show creator
Meow the cat, 39-pound house cat. That's animal abuse!
Maurice Sendak, French illustrator
Bruno Sassetti, jazz pianist*
Donna Summer, disco singer. Probably the only disco singer who had any talent.
Chuck Brown, pop singer
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German singer of Lieder.*
Albert Falco, captain of Jacques Cousteau's Calypso. (I consider Cousteau the greatest explorer of the 20th century).
Robin Gibb (Bee Gees)
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, Libyan secret police officer connected to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland  (Roast in Hell!)*
Paul Fussell, social critic*
Klass Carl Faber, Dutch Nazi traitor and war criminal. (Roast in Hell!)*
Vidal Sassoon, hair stylist and entrepreneur
Ray Bradbury, SF author
Frank Cady, TV grocer on three of CBS' old rural comedies*
Richard Dawson, actor and game-show host
Nolan Miller, clothing designer for Dynasty
Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Prize winner in economics*
Henry Hill, parasite. Aren't all gangsters parasites?* (Roast in Hell)!
Roger Garaudy, Holocaust-denying crank*
Rodney King, victim of police brutality 21 years earlier*
LeRoy Neiman, painter largely of athletic scenes*
Judy Friedberg , writer for Sesame Street.

...I once saw Sesame Street as one of the greatest TV series ever. It is definitely a kid's show, but it has enough clever writing that an adult who gets deputed to watch it with a child can relate to it. Writing a kid's show so that it has some adult appeal without compromising its educational utility is tricky in the extreme. I Love Lucy, Bonanza, The Andy Griffith Show,  Taxi, and M*A*S*Hi, had no such problem.

"Lonesome George", a giant tortoise* Somehow I missed "Socks", the Clinton family cat, in this list...but I doubt that I will find another reptile in this list. I have horses and dogs, too. So to give some semblance of equal time for reptiles:

Quote:Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni, known as the Pinta Island tortoise, Pinta giant tortoise, Abingdon Island tortoise, or Abingdon Island giant tortoise, is a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise native to Ecuador's Pinta Island, believed to have become extinct in June 2012

The last known individual of the subspecies was a male named Lonesome George (Spanish: El Solitario Jorge/George), who died on 24 June 2012. In his last years, he was known as the rarest creature in the world. George served as a potent symbol for conservation efforts in the Galápagos and internationally.

George was first seen on the island of Pinta on 1 December 1971 by Hungarian malacologist József Vágvölgyi. The island's vegetation had been devastated by introduced feral goats, and the indigenous C. n. abingdoni population had been reduced to a single individual. It is thought that he was named after a character played by American actor George Gobel. Relocated for his safety to the Charles Darwin Research Station, George was penned with two females of a different subspecies. Although eggs were produced, none hatched. The Pinta tortoise was pronounced functionally extinct as George was in captivity. On 24 June 2012, Lonesome George died of unknown causes.


On 24 June 2012, at 8:00 am local time, Director of the Galápagos National Park Edwin Naula announced that Lonesome George had been found dead by his caretaker of 40 years, Fausto Llerena. Naula suspects that the cause of death was heart failure consistent with the end of the natural life cycle of a tortoise. A necropsy is planned to determine an official cause of death. He was believed to be over 100 years old, and he weighed 200 lbs. The event may have marked the total extinction of his subspecies. The reason for the ambiguity is that one or more individuals from the subspecies may still be living in captivity or on a neighboring island in the Galápagos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesom...onesome_George

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_George#Lonesome_George][/url]

Nora Ephron, writer

Andy Griffith*, beloved sheriff of Nottingham -- just kidding. Mayberry, North Carolina. I consider him the epitome of the self-effacing comedian who defines the most memorable and longest-lasting cultural achievement of the Silent Generation. We used to take this for granted, but as these comedians disappear from stage and screen we get too full of ourselves.

Sergio Pinnafarina*, auto designer (Ferrari)
Ernest Borgnine*, actor
Celeste Holm, actress*
Steven Covey, writer of self-help guides
18 July 2012 Damascus bombing -- mostly gangsters* associated with the Assad crime syndicate in Syria
Sally Ride, astronaut
August Kowalczyk*, last survivor of an escape from Auschwitz
Gore Vidal, writer
Garrett Reid, American football player