Good evening, Kibitzers!
This is a diary without a proper introduction, because I’ve been running flat-out all day and didn’t have time to write one. But I know you don’t really care, so I’m not as sad as I might be.
Since the losses of beloved figures in 2022 are already piling up, it seemed as if I should not wait to revisit the too-long list of those we lost in 2021. This is certainly not a complete list; feel free to add your own entries. They’re in order by date of death in 2021.
Tommy Lasorda (September 22, 1927 – January 7, 2021) was a left-handed pitcher whose major-league debut was with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he ended his career as a Hall-of-Fame manager for the Dodgers in their Los Angeles incarnation. My Sicilian grandpa liked him because he was a paisan who played for Brooklyn; he’s the one who told me that la sorda means “the deaf (one)”.
In this odd little 1984 video segment, Tommy invents (or passes along, anyway) the Apple Watch. [1:13]
Hank Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021) was one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and also, was ultimately the last former Negro League player left on a major-league roster. Although his total of 755 career home runs no longer holds the record, after doing so for 33 years, many of his other records still stand today. Here, he hits his 715th home run, to blow past Babe Ruth’s career total. [4:38]
Hal Holbrook (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an actor and director with an extensive resume (he played Deep Throat in All the President’s Men, which I had forgotten). But he’s probably best known for his portrayal of Mark Twain in a one-man show, Mark Twain Tonight!, he first developed as a student, drawing on Twain’s writings. He began performing it in 1954 and continued to present it throughout his career, retiring in it 2017 when he was 88, which is quite a run.
At the time of his retirement, Holbrook noted that he had been performing under the name "Mark Twain" 13 years longer than its originator: Samuel Clemens had adopted the pseudonym at age 24 and died at the age of 74.
There are numerous YouTube clips from the show, of every vintage from 1960-ish to the 20-teens. This one is quite apt just now. [10:45]
Cicely Tyson (December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021) was an actor whose list of awards and honors (including the Presidential Medal of Freedom) has its own separate Wikipedia page. The Oprah Winfrey Network’s YouTube channel has an extraordinary playlist of segments of Ms. Tyson telling stories of her life directly to the camera. I could scarcely pick just one. I recommend going there and watching some more. [3:29]
Christopher Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) had a long and distinguished acting career, studded with awards and honors including being the oldest person to be nominated for an acting Oscar, at the age of 88.
The Sound of Music may be his best-known role; I hadn’t realized his singing voice was dubbed in the film. This unusual clip contains Plummer’s own singing voice, before the song was dubbed by singer Bill Lee — compare the released version here. [3:22]
Samuel E. Wright (November 20, 1946 – May 24, 2021) was chiefly a stage actor, although he portrayed Charlie Parker in the 1988 film Bird. His voice-over work on Disney films may be the way he’s known to most people. His songs in The Little Mermaid and its sequels made Sebastian the Crab a well-loved figure. [3:26]
Clarence Williams III (August 21, 1939 – June 4, 2021): The first two Clarence Williamses were jazz musicians, but the 3rd one went into acting. His best known TV role was in the 60s cop show The Mod Squad, about three diverse young rebels going undercover to fight crime as a way out of jail. So when he turned up in 1984 playing Prince’s dad in Purple Rain, I really felt old. But, as it turns out, not as old as I feel now.
In this interview audio clip, Mr. Williams talks about those career highlights. (For my fellow geeks: Mr. Williams once played a Jem'Hadar on Deep Space Nine, but that unaccountably does not come up here.) [2:19]
Dusty Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was the bassist of ZZ Top. That’s all you need to know, right? [4:22]
Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas (February 9, 1951 - August 7, 2021) was a founding member of Kool & the Gang, their alto sax player. The band were a group of friends from Lincoln High School in Jersey City, NJ, starting out playing only instrumental music — jazz and R&B. Not until they’d been playing together for more than five years, and had already had a record with modest success on the Billboard R&B chart, did they realize they needed to make their act more theatrical, and maybe even sing. [8:03]
Charlie Watts (June 2, 1941 – August 24, 2021) was originally a graphic artist, so no surprise, I guess, that he designed some of the Rolling Stones’ early graphic art, including tour stages, as well as being their drummer for 58 years. He, Mick, and Keith are the only Stones members to have appeared on every album and every tour date until his retirement in 2019. I posted this video at the time Charlie died — I like its Watts-centric perspective. [4:16]
Graeme Edge (March 30, 1941 – November 11, 2021) — another drummer lost, this time a co-founder of the Moody Blues. Apparently, this video is a 1968 French TV taping, which is several songs from 1967’s Days of Future Passed, and is a little rough but, on the other hand, obviously not lip-synched. [16:18]
Stephen Sondheim (March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021) was a legendary composer/lyricist for American musical theater, and I didn’t even really need to type that. You could spend a long time reading that Wikipedia page, and you’d almost certainly find out something new. For the moment, though — I wasn’t expecting that a clip from the Carol Burnett Show was what I’d be pasting here. I had a Tony Awards show performance of the same song all lined up. But… this was better. [11:30]
David Gulpilil (July 1, 1953 - November 29, 2021) was an Indigenous Australian actor, dancer, and artist of the Yolngu people of northern Australia. He grew up in his people’s traditional way of life, and was noticed in 1969 by British director Nicolas Roeg, who had come to scout film locations. Gulpilil, then 16 and a skilled ceremonial dancer, was cast in Roeg’s film Walkabout, released in 1971, and thereby became a star who went on to make many more films. The film for which this is a trailer is an autobiographical documentary made at a time he realized he was dying of lung cancer. [1:53]
Michael Nesmith (December 30, 1942 – December 10, 2021) was the Monkee with the hat. He had the most extensive experience of the four at being a pop/rock musician/songwriter prior to being cast for the show. After his Monkees career, he was an early pioneer of music video, and missed accepting an invitation to be one of the creators of MTV because he had prior commitments. His song Different Drum was a hit for the Stone Poneys, the first of many for their vocalist Linda Ronstadt, but he does it a little differently. (Ronstadt version here.) [3:06]
Anne Rice (October 4, 1941 - December 11, 2021) was the author of, among many other unusual books, the Vampire Chronicles series of novels that made her famous. I knew she was a bit odd, but reading the Wikipedia page was rather eye-opening, starting with the fact that her birth name was “Howard Allen Frances O'Brien” (not because anyone thought her gender was male) and going from there. This undated interview ran on Canadian public TV. [8:31]
Joan Didion (December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was a distinguished writer of fiction and non-fiction, in particular about politics and about the counterculture of the sixties. This is a trailer for the documentary The Center Will Not Hold, a film about her life made by her nephew Griffin Dunne. It draws its title from Yeats’ poem The Second Coming, also the source of the title of Didion’s first non-fiction book, Slouching Towards Bethlehem. [2:19]
Cloris Leachman (April 30, 1926 – January 27, 2021)
Gavin MacLeod (February 28, 1931 – May 29, 2021)
Ed Asner (November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021)
Betty White (January 17, 1922 - December 31, 2021)
All the others listed here were by date of death, but I’ve pulled this last group out of order and grouped them on Betty White’s date, because that’s how they belong. Among other appalling things 2021 did was remove from Earth all the remaining Mary Tyler Moore Show cast members. That being so, what else could I do for them as an ensemble but post the closing scene of the last episode of the show? Stay for the curtain calls after the blackout. Bring tissues. [7:10]
I was sorely tempted to run over into 2022, but this is probably enough bad news for one evening/one year.
Instead, let’s go for a little topical comedy, because we need to keep laughing at assholes, without disregarding how dangerous they are. Colbert show first. [1:43]
And Trevor Noah. [1:49]
Okay, that’s it for dark topical comedy. Let’s close with Betty White in 1959, doing the cha-cha on the Arthur Murray Party (hosted by Arthur and Kathryn Murray), a TV show that was basically a long commercial for Arthur Murray’s dance schools. (See a full 1954 episode here, if you have always wondered what Arthur Murray looked like. Sucker sure could dance.) [2:01]
🦠 JFC, This Again 💉
🦠 How to prepare now in case you get a breakthrough case of Covid later:
🦠 The CDC’s Covid Data Tracker offers maps, charts, and all manner of data, updating daily. Their “county view” shows you what the conditions are in your area. The overall CDC Covid information homepage is here. If you’re thinking of traveling, forget about it see their travel information page.
🦠 Starting January 15, people with health insurance can have the costs of up to eight FDA-approved over-the-counter home COVID tests per month reimbursed by their insurance companies. See this web page from the (US government) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for details.
🦠 The COVID-19 Data Dispatch is a website devoted to examining and interpreting Covid-related data. (They offer a weekly update newsletter.) This week: As Omicron Hits Schools, K-12 Data Void Is Wider Than Ever.
🦠 The health/medicine/life sciences news source STAT News has a whole section covering Covid, including some newsletters you can sign up for. Latest: 10 lessons I’ve Learned from the Covid-19 Pandemic.
🦠 The Atlantic has listed their ongoing virus coverage here, and none is behind a paywall. Their most recent additions are all about Omicron, unsurprisingly.
🦠 This thread unroll, tweeted by Dr. Farid Jalali, is a useful list of Covid-related things that are true in 2022. (h/t Greg Dworkin)
🦠 Here’s a horrifying little animation, thanks to Denise Oliver Velez, illustrating how the smallest Covid-containing droplets (the blue ones) travel much further than we’d like to think. Good reason to wear a good mask!
🦠 Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding is a very informative Twitter follow concerning Covid, although not generally a comforting one.
🦠 Among the companies from whom one can order NIOSH-approved N95 and N99 masks is Glendale, AZ manufacturer Bielcor. I forget who directed me there, but I’ve bought several boxes from them and gotten quick delivery and the occasional bogo special. [Approved N95 list here ~ Illustration of markings to look for on a genuine approved N95]
SEE ALSO Project N95, recommended by Doktor Zoom on Wonkette. They describe themselves as a “National Critical Equipment Clearinghouse for personal protective equipment (PPE), COVID-19 diagnostic tests and critical equipment,” so you can buy tests, masks, and other PPE through them.
🦠 Meanwhile, the American Red Cross has declared a “dire” blood shortage, worsened by the pandemic. To learn more about how to help, see their website. Also, Kos user mookieb points out there are tons of non-Red Cross blood centers that might be better for you — find them here. He also notes that all blood centers also have volunteer shortages now because of Covid, which can prevent them from being able to accept donors they really need. Ask your local center about volunteering, and/or hosting a blood drive.
SO FAR, I’m not adding back the section on ways to amuse yourself while locked in your house, but I’m edging in that direction...
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