Obituaries for 2017

[libertybele]

R.I.P. Mr. Lewis and thanks for all the laughs and your generosity and devotion in both time and talent to the MDA. 

[Restored]

Lewis could be an azzhole but his closest friends believe it was an act because he was SO good at being it. It wasn't small that many people wouldn't recognize it. It wasn't large so that people knew it was a gimmick. It was just the right size to make people believe it.

[Smokin Joe]

R.I.P. Mr. Lewis and thanks for all the laughs and your generosity and devotion in both time and talent to the MDA.

^^^^ This!

[sneakypete]

R.I.P. Mr. Lewis and thanks for all the laughs and your generosity and devotion in both time and talent to the MDA.

@libertybele

I guess I am the only one here that always considered him to be whiny,irritating,male bitch? His voice was like fingernails on a blackboard to me.

[Applewood]

@libertybele

I guess I am the only one here that always considered him to be whiny,irritating,male bitch? His voice was like fingernails on a blackboard to me.

Wasn't a huge fan myself, but I respected him for his work for the MDA.  Just too bad political correctness ultimately destroyed his efforts for that organization. 

[sneakypete]

Wasn't a huge fan myself, but I respected him for his work for the MDA.  Just too bad political correctness ultimately destroyed his efforts for that organization.

@Applewood

I admit to not watching those telathons since becoming old enough to escape the house when they were on,but how and why did they become PC?

[Cyber Liberty]

@Applewood

I admit to not watching those telathons since becoming old enough to escape the house when they were on,but how and why did they become PC?

I didn't like them either, but I can think of about 2.5 Billion reasons why they were important.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/21/jerry-lewis-telethons-raised-billions-for-muscular-dystrophy-many-cheered-when-he-went-off-the-air/

[EasyAce]

@Applewood

I admit to not watching those telathons since becoming old enough to escape the house when they were on,but how and why did they become PC?

@sneakypete
The telethons didn't really become PC (they had as many critics as admirers, with the critics thinking Lewis merely
exploited those for whom he raised those billions and barely understood the people for whom he was doing it and
his admirers reminding critics that if not him, who?), but some remarks Lewis made ticked off the MDA enough to
maneuver him away from the telethon a few years ago, though the organisation didn't distance themselves from
him entirely.

[sneakypete]

@sneakypete
The telethons didn't really become PC (they had as many critics as admirers, with the critics thinking Lewis merely
exploited those for whom he raised those billions and barely understood the people for whom he was doing it and
his admirers reminding critics that if not him, who?), but some remarks Lewis made ticked off the MDA enough to
maneuver him away from the telethon a few years ago, though the organisation didn't distance themselves from
him entirely.

@EasyAce

Thanks,but let's face it,Lewis was a geezer a long time before a few years ago,and chances are he didn't really realize what he was saying. He had been dealing with the public and PR for so many decades you know he knew better on his good days.  You can dismiss what old people say if you just don't agree with them as well as "diss" them,but you pretty much have to cut senile people a little slack. We are all going to get "there" if we live long enough.

[Smokin Joe]

@EasyAce

Thanks,but let's face it,Lewis was a geezer a long time before a few years ago,and chances are he didn't really realize what he was saying. He had been dealing with the public and PR for so many decades you know he knew better on his good days.  You can dismiss what old people say if you just don't agree with them as well as "diss" them,but you pretty much have to cut senile people a little slack. We are all going to get "there" if we live long enough.

Part of that is the whole assemblage of moving target social expectations placed on people. My grandfather would have been killed today for some of the common references of his day, and those were not derogatory, only descriptive. When culture decides that what was okay yesterday is a hanging offense tomorrow, it gets tough to keep up, even for a relative youngster.

[EasyAce]

@EasyAce

Thanks,but let's face it,Lewis was a geezer a long time before a few years ago,and chances are he didn't really realize what he was saying. He had been dealing with the public and PR for so many decades you know he knew better on his good days.  You can dismiss what old people say if you just don't agree with them as well as "diss" them,but you pretty much have to cut senile people a little slack. We are all going to get "there" if we live long enough.

I suspect a lot of it was that, by somewhere as the 60s turned to the 70s Lewis had been passed by
in terms of comedy, with many of the passers having been influenced directly by his old improvisational
style, in hand with an apparent stubborn inability to move his comedy forward in places other than
the annual telethons.

[sneakypete]

Part of that is the whole assemblage of moving target social expectations placed on people. My grandfather would have been killed today for some of the common references of his day, and those were not derogatory, only descriptive. When culture decides that what was okay yesterday is a hanging offense tomorrow, it gets tough to keep up, even for a relative youngster.

@Smokin Joe

True. I hadn't even thought about that.

[Machiavelli]

Science fiction author Brian Aldiss dies aged 92

Brian Aldiss, the “grand old man” of science fiction whose writing has shaped the genre since he was first published in the 1950s, has died at the age of 92.

Aldiss’s agent, Curtis Brown, and his son, Tim Aldiss, have announced that the author, artist, poet and memoirist died at home in Oxford in the early hours of 19 August. “Brian had celebrated his birthday with close friends and family and spoken to many close to him,” wrote Tim on Twitter as he announced the death of “our beloved father and grandfather”.

Aldiss was the author of science fiction classics including Non-Stop, Hothouse and Greybeard, as well as the Helliconia trilogy, which his agent said bridged “the gap between classic science fiction and contemporary literature”. His numerous short stories include Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, which was adapted into the Steven Spielberg film AI ...

More

Wikipedia

[goatprairie]

@EasyAce

Thanks,but let's face it,Lewis was a geezer a long time before a few years ago,and chances are he didn't really realize what he was saying. He had been dealing with the public and PR for so many decades you know he knew better on his good days.  You can dismiss what old people say if you just don't agree with them as well as "diss" them,but you pretty much have to cut senile people a little slack. We are all going to get "there" if we live long enough.

In the not too distant future, if certain people have their way, it will be against the law to make fun of anybody who is not a white, Christian male.

[sneakypete]

In the not too distant future, if certain people have their way, it will be against the law to make fun of anybody who is not a white, Christian male.

@goatprairie

Huh? I thought that was already a federal law?

[Sanguine]

In the not too distant future, if certain people have their way, it will be against the law to make fun of anybody who is not a white, Christian male.

Naw, blonds are fair game too.

[Cyber Liberty]

Naw, blonds are fair game too.

Swell.  I'm male, white, straight AND blond.  :nometalk:

[Sanguine]

Swell.  I'm male, white, straight AND blond.  :nometalk:

You're blonde.  Blond is feminine.   Or, something.

[Cyber Liberty]

You're blonde.  Blond is feminine.   Or, something.

Double swell.  Do you remember what Clint Eastwood was called in "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly?"  "Blondie."

[Sanguine]

Double swell.  Do you remember what Clint Eastwood was called in "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly?"  "Blondie."

I never saw that movie.  I'm familiar with it, just never actually watched it.

[bigheadfred]

I have no future, either, @Cyber Liberty.

[Wingnut]

I was going to go back and quote a few posts made before this.
But I didn't want to waste my time.... and your time and energy.  That being said, I did want to say this on the subject. Only my hairdresser knows for sure.

[Smokin Joe]

I have no future, either, @Cyber Liberty.

All you need is a red shirt...

[Wingnut]

All you need is a red shirt...

He has a red S.  The shirt does not matter.

[Smokin Joe]

He has a red S.  The shirt does not matter.

I ain't touching that.