In Memoriam

Captain of the Memphis Belle

[Ed. note: Yesterday I was gushing enthusiastically about the futuristic concept of human spaceflight. Today I’m going to wax nostalgic about ancient airplanes. Hey, it’s these little contradictions and paradoxes that make people interesting, right?]

Among my assorted interests, enthusiasms and oddities is a love of old propeller-driven airplanes, especially the “warbirds,” the combat aircraft of World War II. People who are familiar at all with that term usually think of the fighter planes of the era, but in my usual non-conformist fashion, I prefer the bombers.

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Tony Randall

In addition to the rocket launch I mentioned in the last post, there is also sad news on the ‘net today. One of the faces I grew up with, the terrific Tony Randall, has passed away. Randall is best known for playing neat-freak Felix Unger on the TV version of The Odd Couple, and it’s mostly from this show that I know him. I fondly remember watching TOC with my folks. Randall inhabited the role so successfully that when I saw the original Odd Couple film in later years, I had a hard time accepting Jack Lemmon in the role. I recently saw a few re-runs of TOC and was disapppointed to find that they don’t play as well now as I remember them — this is always a problem with seeing something that you loved as a kid, and if you don’t believe me, just try sitting through an episode of Gilligan’s Island these days — but Randall was still funny.

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Old Friends

When was the last time you thought about the person you called your best friend when you were in the fifth grade? If you’re mid-way through your thirties, as I am, you probably don’t think about your grade school pals very often at all. Maybe once or twice a year. Maybe less than that. It was so very long ago, after all, and a grown-up life is so very busy and filled with distractions. It’s hard to find time to think about your current friends, let alone those you haven’t seen in decades.

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Death in the Family

After getting my shoes muddy in the swampland of politics, I was planning something lighter for my next post, a frothy counterpoint to all the doom ‘n’ gloom of the last couple of entries. Unfortunately, fate had plans of its own, and tonight I must report on the passing of a dearly loved member of the Bennion clan.

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