Tag Archives: RIP

RIP, Jim McKay

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The nation’s first sports journalist, Jim McKay, has passed away at age 86. I grew up watching Wide World of Sports on teevee; I have seen countless Olympic Games.

Jim McKay was in all of them. Not doing play-by-play, but bringing an obvious passion and a deep understanding of the sport to the television audience. In short, being a journalist. Without doubt, he was an inspiration to all the sports talking heads we have today.

It’s a shame that the majority of today’s sports talking heads aren’t fit to pour Jim McKay a cup of coffee.

-k-
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Week on, Week off

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One more week in my shabby cubicle in a nondescript building in a nondescript industrial park. The next week, it’s an Al Bundy vacation of sorts. My little bride and I plan to give our townhouse a good dunging-out and rearranging.

For the first time, we’ll rent a space from Public Storage or somesuch like place, and move valuable dreck from our house to there1. I never thought I’d pay to have crap stored. But we need the space, and that dreck we store will hopefully grace another house, in a land far away from Northern Virginia, at some later time.

In the interim, we’ll have a nice, tidy, and neat place. That’s my story, anyhow,

-k-
[stags]NorthernVirginia, life, work[/stags]

1 Never collect 1/24 scale NASCAR diecasts without adequate space in which to display same.

RIP, Dick Wilson (Mr. Whipple)

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Beloved TV advertising icon, Dick Wilson, known to a generation as Mr. Whipple, has passed away at age 91.

George Whipple, the character, ran a small grocery where he guarded the Charmin display, admonishing customers,

Please, don’t squeeze the Charmin.

A simple slogan like that was part of popular culture for a good many years. There were over 500 different spots; they aired from 1964-1985. The slogan even spawned a country song called Don’t Squeeze My Sharmon, performed by the likes of Ernest Tubb and Charlie Walker. This was another country song that I doubtless first heard at my grandparents’ farmhouse; my Granddad got tickled every time he heard it. At least I think the ads spawned the song; all I know is I saw the commercial before I heard the music.

Dick Wilson seemed a humble man, content with his lot in life:

“Everybody says, ‘Where did they find you?’ I say I was never lost. I’ve been an actor for 55 years,” Wilson told the San Francisco Examiner in 1985.

Though Wilson said he initially resisted commercial work, he learned to appreciate its nuance.

“It’s the hardest thing to do in the entire acting realm. You’ve got 24 seconds to introduce yourself, introduce the product, say something nice about it and get off gracefully.”

and:

After Wilson retired, he continued to do occasional guest appearances for the brand and act on television. He declared himself not impressed with modern cinema.

“The kind of pictures they’re making today, I’ll stick with toilet paper,” he told The Associated Press in 1985.

Thanks for the memories, Mr. Whipple. I’ll squeeze a roll in your memory.

-k-
[stags]RIP, Charmin[/stags]

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RIP, Hank Thompson

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Hank Thompson, another country singer whose stardom slightly predates my interest in the genre, has passed away at age 82. Hank was yet another one of my grandparent’s favorites, and I doubtless was first exposed to his music at their farmhouse atop a rocky Kansas hill.

I came to like and enjoy Hank’s music, along with that of his peers, as I grew a bit older.

But then, a song called A Six Pack to Go has timeless qualities, and could have been my theme song in my misspent collegiate days.

And, I had no idea that he had an so many firsts in the music industry:

Thompson was the first country entertainer to travel with his own light and sound system, the first to have a corporate sponsor, the first to record in high fidelity stereo and the first to broadcast his television show in color.

In 1961, Thompson recorded the historic album “Live At The Golden Nugget,” the first live album ever recorded.

RIP, Hank. My next six pack to go will be a Shiner’s.

-k-
[stags]RIP,Hank Thompson, country music[/stags]
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RIP, Porter Wagoner

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Porter Wagoner, legendary country singer who never donned a rhinestone suit that didn’t become him, has passed away at age 80.

My first recollection of him is watching his TV show, which started in 1960, and ran for 21 years. I watched at my grandparents’ house when we were there visiting, early in the show’s run. At my age then, I thought my Granddad and Grandma were hopelessly out of touch, and I couldn’t wait until the show was over. As I got older, and hopefully a little wiser, I grew to appreciate the show, and to enjoy both Porter’s suits and his music. Porter had this to say about the show:

“Some shows are mechanical, but ours was not polished and slick,” he said in 1982.

Even when I wasn’t the biggest fan of the show, it for sure wasn’t mechanical. I later came to appreciate that if you have good songs, performed well, that’s about all you need.

Porter’s record deal was with RCA; as all contracts go, his came to an end, and I hadn’t seen nor heard about him for a good long time. As he said about record labels:

“I stopped making records because I didn’t like the way they were wanting me to record,” he said. “When RCA dropped me from the label, I didn’t really care about making records for another label because I didn’t have any say in what they would release and how they would make the records and so forth.”

Amen. But earlier this year, he signed with ANTI-records, a label featuring primarily alt.rock acts. I don’t know much of anything about alt.rock, I just know that if you want real country music today, it likely carries the label alt.country. His deal with ANTI lead to what would be his final album:

Wagoner’s final album, “Wagonmaster,” was released in June and earned him some of the best reviews of his career. Over the summer, he was the opening act for the influential rock duo White Stripes at a sold-out show at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“The young people I met backstage, some of them were 20 years old. They wanted to get my autograph and tell me they really liked me,” Porter said with tears in his eyes the day after the New York show. “If only they knew how that made me feel _ like a new breath of fresh air.”

Amen again.

Rest in Peace, Porter. Thanks for not compromising your music, and for being a class act’s class act.

-k-
[stags]RIP, PorterWagoner,music[/stags]

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Beware of SysAdmins in Pajamas

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I slept in a bit yesterday morning, after being up late on Friday to help facilitate application patching on some work machines.

On awakening, I make a trip to the coffee maker for a mug of hot caffeinated jumpstart. In mid-staircase, I heard the ring of the stinking on-call pager. Cuppa’ joe in hand, I plop myself down in the tbbs headquarters Captain’s chair, and call the indicated number. One of the application folks had a runaway application1, and wanted me to stop the recalcitrant process. A scripted kill -9 later, and I’m enjoying my coffee, with a promise I’ll stand by in case they have any further problems. They restarted their app, their life was good, and the lady I was talking to thanked me profusely, and said “Thanks, baby doll.”
Suppose she knew I was still in my bedclothes while I was helping her out?

-k-

1 Imagine that