My sympathies to the Biden family.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden has canceled his campaign appearances Monday and Tuesday after the death of his mother-in-law Sunday.

Biden spokesman David Wade said Bonny Jean Jacobs, the mother of Biden’s wife, Jill, died Sunday after a long illness.

Jacobs was 78 and lived in Willow Grove, Pa. Wade described her as a “homemaker and avid gardener with a lifelong love of reading.”

Source: MSNBC

Don LaFontaine died last week. Even if you didn’t know him, you know his voice. And pretty much everyone who’s ever made a parody trailer, or riffed on trailer ad copy, has imitated him. Here’s some of his work:

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Oh man…… terrible news. My sympathies to Jack and his family. RIP Carol Cafferty.

From CNN:

Jack Cafferty isn’t here today for the Cafferty File because of some tragic news.

His wife of 35 years, Carol, passed away unexpectedly this morning. Carol was everything to Jack. The dedication of his book reads, “for Carol, my wife, my life.”

Jack wrote about how she was the inspiration for him to get sober and straighten up his life: “In all the years that we’ve been married, she has always brought to the table her unshakable grounding in something a lot more real than being on television or being recognized in the corner drugstore. She has been my rock, having done a magnificent job of keeping me from getting full of helium and drifting off the surface of the earth… She was all the incentive I needed to make painful but transforming changes – to get sober and stop smoking. I knew that I’d lose her if I didn’t. She’s an amazing woman who simply wasn’t worth losing.”

One story Jack loves to tell is how he and Carol met – when he was a local news anchor in Kansas City. They started to meet regularly for a quick meal between his shows and became good friends. Whenever Jack had to leave, his exit line was “We’d better wrap this up. Got to get back to the station.” One night Carol finally asked, “What kind of a gas station do you work at? You’re always wearing a tie.”

Jack explained it was a television station. He loved the fact that she had no clue and couldn’t care less that he had been on air there every night for four years. He later described that as one of his life’s “twenty-four-carat moments” that made his heart soar. He said to himself then that he might marry her because “it can’t get any more honest and pure than that.”

Our deepest sympathies go out to Jack and to their two daughters, Leslie and Leigh. Our thoughts are also with Jack’s other two daughters, Julie and Jill, and his grandchildren.

Carol was an animal lover. If you’d like to make a donation in her memory, the family asks you give to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. You can contribute at aspca.org.

RIP

A Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman says U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones has died.

The Clinic released a statement just before 7 p.m. which said the congresswoman’s condition since suffering a brain aneurysm and hemorrhage had declined throughougt the day. Rep. Tubbs Jones was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m.

More here

Another recent loss was legendary music producer Jerry Wexler. Mike Finnigan, who worked with him, has a good remembrance. I’ll also pass on NPR’s piece. As with Wexler’s colleague, Ahmet Ertegün, he will be missed.

Every account I’ve heard about Jerry Wexler talks about what an encyclopedic knowledge of music he had, and how much he loved music and musicians. For the man who coined the term “Rhythm and Blues,” there’s another word that also comes to mind:

(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)

Fresh Air re-ran interviews with both Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac.

The Washington Post piece on Bernie Mac looks at the big differences between “the two Bernies,” his onstage persona versus the offstage man. His New York Times obituary ain’t bad (although reading “Mr. Mac” provides some unintentional comedy).
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Man. Carlin was one of my all-time favorite stand-up comedians, as I know he was for many people. I taped one of his HBO specials as a teenager, and watched it more times than I count. His material was good to brilliant, but his delivery was about as sharp as you can get, due to the speed, the faces, the vocal inflection, the shifts. There’s a line attributed to both Bernard Shaw and Billy Wilder: “If you tell people the truth, make them laugh, or they’ll kill you.” Carlin often exemplified that. But even when he was being more silly than deep, he was damn funny. He had a long and impressive career, but boy, he will be missed.

Carlin has too many routines to post them all, but here are several. Feel free to link more. (Oh, needless to say, most of these routines are Not Safe for Work.)
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Cyd Charisse oozed sex appeal! Here she is in “Party Girl” RIP

From the New York Times:

Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock ‘n’ roll whose distinctive “shave and a haircut, two bits” rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles

Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show (Oh how I wish they’d run reruns of that show!)

Sydney Pollack was by every account a nice, humble guy, and I’d say an underrated director. He was never that flashy with the medium, but he was a solid director who I agree made “films for adults,” that were often quite good. Coming from a theater background, Pollack consistently got good performances from actors, nothing to sneeze at by any stretch. As an actor, Sydney Pollack often wound up playing “the Sydney Pollack role,” probably because he played those roles so grounded and so well - the standouts for me off the top of my head were his performances in Tootsie, Eyes Wide Shut, A Civil Action and last year’s Michael Clayton. Desson Thompson has a good short piece on Pollack in The Washington Post (I think the Howard Hawks comparison is fairly accurate), while Roger Ebert, Kenneth Turan and A.O. Scott also weigh in.

Fresh Air re-ran an interview with him full of some great anecdotes (particularly about Tootsie, and his start as a director, thanks to Burt Lancaster!). You can hear NPR’s basic story, also quite good, on the same page. Fresh Air’s Cannes recap with John Powers also makes brief mention of Pollack near the end. My review of Michael Clayton is here and brief review of The Interpreter is here (scroll down for both).

(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)

World-renowned artist Robert Rauschenberg, 82, has died.

He died at 11:30 p.m. Monday at his home on Captiva. He was on a respirator, according to Jennifer Benton, a longtime friend.

Rauschenberg recently had been hospitalized with pneumonia, but came home last week. His wish was to die peacefully in his bed, Benton said.

He was considered the foremost contemporary artist in the United States.

More at NPR

Two weeks ago I wrote a brief post on Major Andrew Olmsted, who was tragically killed while on active duty in Iraq on January 3rd. His last blog entry at Rocky Mountain News is here, and has become a condolence thread. Once again, the moving post he wrote to be posted in the event of his death is here at Obsidian Wings, where he blogged under the name G’Kar (he was a big fan of Babylon 5). I didn’t know him personally, and I missed much of his earlier work. He didn’t want his death to be used for any political purposes, but by all accounts, he was a thoughtful, generous guy with a good sense of humor, and it’s a tragic loss. Many commentators wondered if there was anything that could be done for his family.

There were so many comments to the original post that Hilzoy opened a new one, “Remembering Andy Olmsted,” with more information and some personal anecdotes. She also posted “How to Help,” which links the many posts about Andy, but also relays:

A member of Andy Olmsted’s family has just written me to say that if people want to do something in honor of him, they can send donations to a fund that has been set up for the four children of CPT Thomas Casey, who served under Andy and was killed while trying to help him. The address is here:

Capt. Thomas Casey Children’s Fund
P.O. Box 1306
Chester, CA 96020

Thanks so much.

The comment thread for the “How to Help” post features still more links to pieces about Andy. Last Thursday, I happened to see his photo on the periodic honor roll of American dead on PBS’ NewsHour, always affecting. Last Friday, I heard NPR’s story on Andy while I was driving home. It’s a good piece, if you want to take a listen. Thanks.

(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)

Andy Olmsted, who blogged as G’Kar at one of my favorite sites, Obsidian Wings, was killed yesterday while on active duty in Iraq.

Hilzoy’s posted the piece Andy wrote to be published in the event of his death. It’s very moving.

Several commenters have asked if there’s any way to do something for his family, and I’ll post an update if there is. If you comment in the Obsidian Wings thread, please read the comment guidelines within the post itself, to respect Andy’s wishes not to politicize his death. I don’t think it’s political, though, to say it’s a tragic loss, it was a jolt to hear, and my thoughts are with his family and friends. Condolences.

Update: A follow post is here.

(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)