B.B. King has died. It’s reported that he passed away peacefully in his home tonight. He was 89. Here he is singing his signature song “The Thrill is Gone” in 2010 at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, sided by Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan, and the Robert Cray Band, joined at the nine-minute mark by a host …
Former basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian died today at 84. He was a great coach and a thorn in the NCAA’s side for his entire career, a career in which he won 729 games and lost only 201 for three Division 1 universities, all in the West: Long Beach State, UNLV and Fresno State. He won …
He died today at 81. Back when I was in college in the late 1960s his poetry was everywhere. I gave at least one girl a book of his works for her birthday, probably “Listen to the Warm”. I recognize the cover. Here’s his most famous song, from the 1969 movie “The Prime of Miss …
She and Bogie were only married for 12 years before he died of esophageal cancer. What a damned shame that was.
Williams died today at his home in Marin County, Ca. The police suspect suicide of asphyxiation. I really hope that’s not true. I realize it’s ridiculous to prefer one reason for a 63-year-old man to die over another, but suicide is so cruel to those who remain behind. He had two ex-wives and three children …
Three-term Republican Senator from Tennessee Howard Baker died Thursday in his home state. He was 88. “What did the president know and when did he know it?” That phrase, uttered by Republican Senator Howard Baker during the Senate Watergate Committee hearings on June 29, 1973, will forever be associated with Baker, who died Thursday at …
If you have to attend a burial service as we did today, there are a lot less beautiful places to visit. National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific — Punchbowl Photo from City Dictionary
At 94, it’s hard to say he went too soon, but the world will surely miss him. Labor rights champion, civil rights proselytizer, environmentalist, and always, always antiwar activist. Here’s one of his greatest compositions. Here he was at President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 with grandson Tao Rodriguez and Bruce Springsteen singing Woody Guthrie’s …
He passed away today at age 95, probably of respiratory failure. He’d been hospitalized for a lung infection three months ago. There will be many many tributes to the man, all richly deserved. But the thing that will always stick in my mind is what’s represented by this photo: That’s a line of new voters …
Loved or loathed, she didn’t leave anyone without an opinion of her and of her policies. Here’s one: Thatcher provided . . . a sustained, violent assault on British society launched on behalf of big business in the name of ‘strong government’ and cloaked in the rhetoric of national renewal. That’s from Tom Mills at …