Q's Views

Within a span of two weeks, American broadcasting lost one of its premier sportscasters, a top-notch political analyst, interviewer, and moderator, and one of it's best clowns. Jim McKay was an icon of my childhood growing up watching sports on American television. He'd travel the world to bring some of the more obscure sports into our home. Ski jumping, cliff diving, the Olympics. Back when I cared about the Olympics, I stayed up into the night with Jim in 1972 as he covered the horrific events carried out by masked terrorists in the Olympic village against the Israeli team. McKay was one of those guys who could come on the air and bring perspective to world class sporting events.
Tim Russert's death at 58 is shocking in that he was relatively young. But who doesn't want to drop dead doing what you love.
My biggest personal loss is George Carlin. One of the saddest things about growing older is when the icons of one's youth begin to fade away. Losing Frank Sinatra wasn't a blow to me, I didn't grow up with him. I grew up with George Carlin. My first memory of Carlin is of him on some old variety show, like The Ed Sullivan Show, and he did a short poem about his beard. I don't quite remember it but it rhymed beard with weird and afeared. I remember being tickled. I laughed hysterically. I was probably 10.
In high school a buddy of mine got his hands on a copy of Class Clown. We giggled our way through it, as immature adolescent boys will do, and then there they were. The seven sacred words you can't say on TV. What was great about it was that for a while during the bit you didn't think he was ever going to say them...and then he does.
George Carlin was a master at observational humor. I remember him asking if you've ever noticed that the handrail on an escalator moves slightly faster than the escalator. I didn't but I do now. He could manipulate words and his routine on baseball vs. football is just classic.
Carlin could distort his face and make you laugh. Carlin could swear a blue streak and make you laugh. Carlin could rail against your basic belief system and still make you laugh.
Adios, clown, adios.