So Long, Farewell

Last year, we said goodbye to...George Carlin, Cyd Charisse, Arthur C. Clarke, Bo Diddley, Bobby Fischer, Estelle Getty, Isaac Hayes, Jesse Helms, Charlton Heston, Sir Edmund Hillary, Harvey Korman, Heath Ledger, Bernie Mac, Jim McKay, Dick Martin, Paul Newman, Suzanne Pleshette, Randy Pausch, Sydney Pollack, Robert Rauschenberg, Tim Russert, Yves Saint-Laurent, Roy Scheider*, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Tony Snow, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

With the loss of Carlin, Korman and Pollack, we've lost some genuine, original comic talent. Other than Ledger, whose death may or may not have been accidental, I think Bernie Mac is the only person on the list who was close to my age.

*Though Scheider's cause of death was determined to be a staph infection, he'd been treated for MM since 2004 and underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2005. Other famous folks who have/had MM include Geraldine Ferraro, Mickey Hargitay, Sam Walton, Louis Rukeyser, Don Baylor, Ann Landers, and Peter Boyle. I believe only Ferraro and Baylor are still alive.