I grew up right next to New York City, and lived there for two years while Ed Koch was mayor. In fact, I used to be a waiter for special events, including a brunch during which John Denver sang to visiting Chinese dignitaries. This was back during the Cold War, but after which relations with China had thawed somewhat.

So I shall remember Ed Koch on TV, visiting the neighborhoods and asking citizens “How’m I doin’?”

Whatever I may have thought of his policies then, I have to admit, he had style. You’re doing just fine, Ed. Thank you for your public service.

shortformblog:

Ed Koch, the iconic former New York City mayor who died Friday, has some of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s last words — “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.” — on his tombstone. Koch explained his reasoning for doing this in a 2011 blog post for The Huffington Post: “I believe those words should be part of the annual services on the Jewish High Holiday of Yom Kippur, and should be repeated by the congregants.”

Pearl was brutally murdered by al-Qaeda terrorists after being kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002, with his death videotaped and used as a propaganda tool. He died on February 1, 2002, eleven years ago exactly — making Koch’s usage of Pearl’s words symbolic in another way.

sometimesagreatnotion:

Sad.

To my students, the Cold War is history. I lived through the events described in the CBS story of Havel’s life.

Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright and leading member of the Czechoslovak opposition Civic Forum, is pictured addressing demonstrators in Prague, December 10, 1988. At the end of 1989, Havel was elected first president of Czechoslovakia when the state-communist system crumbled. (LUBOMIR KOTEK-JOEL ROBINE/AFP/Getty Images)

(AP)  

PRAGUE (AP) — Vaclav Havel wove theater into revolution, leading the charge to peacefully bring down communism in a regime he ridiculed as “Absurdistan” and proving the power of the people to overcome totalitarian rule.

Shy and bookish, with a wispy mustache and unkempt hair, the dissident playwright was an unlikely hero of Czechoslovakia’s 1989 “Velvet Revolution” after four decades of suffocating repression — and of the epic struggle that ended the wider Cold War.

His country’s first democratically elected president, he led it through its early years, overseeing its bumpy transition to democracy and its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Havel, a former chain-smoker who had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist jails, died Sunday morning at his weekend home in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Tancevova said. His wife Dagmar and a nun who had been caring for him the last few months of his life were by his side, she said. He was 75.

“Havel was a symbol of the events of 1989 — he did a tremendous job for this country,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas said.

(via Czech playwright, ex-president Havel dies - CBS News)

steampunkanachronism:

“M*A*S*H*” Col. Potter, Henry Morgan, Dies

Today is the tenth anniversary of the death of Douglas Adams, author of the “increasingly inappropriately named trilogy” of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books.

I also love his nonfiction work on species extinction, Last Chance to See (with Mark Cawardine). His Twain-like humor and misanthropy will be missed.

(via Facebook is the Private Beta of the Semantic Web | Intridea Blog)

It is with great sadness that we report the death of the actress Elisabeth Sladen - forever known to us as the Doctor’s best friend, Sarah Jane Smith. Born in Liverpool in February 1948, Elisabeth Sladen took an interest in acting from an early age; she joined the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company as assistant stage manager after drama school, where she would meet her future husband Brian Miller. After a stint touring the country in repertory, she settled in Manchester, during which she had her breakthrough television role in 1970, appearing as Anita Reynolds in Coronation Street. More small roles were to follow in popular shows like Doomwatch, Z Cars and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.

Then in 1973 came what would be her defining role as she was cast as the replacement companion for third Doctor Jon Pertwee. Following in the footsteps of popular companion Jo Grant played by Katy Manning, Sladen was to hit the ground running as investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith in her debut story The Time Warrior, and over the next three years would see her popularity soar as she became part of what is arguably known as the “golden years” of Doctor Who alongside fourth Doctor Tom Baker, an era including the story frequently appearing top of fan polls, Genesis of the Daleks.

… in 2005, a discussion with the revived Doctor Who’s head writer and long-term fan of hers, Russell T Davies, led to a guest appearance in the second series adventure School Reunion, which re-united Sarah (and K9!) with the Doctor in his most recent incarnation (David Tennant) - her appearance proved instrumental in cementing the connection between the 20th and 21st Century productions in a way that the Daleks couldn’t!

The character, and Sladen’s performance, proved to be as popular as ever, if not more so, and led to her own starring role in spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures; the CBBC series continued on from her re-introduction in Doctor Who as an independent investigator of alien activity - now joined by her young own assistants as well as her faithful K9 - and winning a whole new legion of fans, both young and old. It is also a testament to the strength of the show that it has been graced by the appearance of the both the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney), and the Doctor himself in both his Tenth incarnation in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (and David Tennant’s final performance as the Doctor), and Eleventh in the form of Matt Smith in Death of the Doctor - where Sladen was also to come ‘full circle’ by performing with the actress she ‘replaced’ way back in 1973, Katy Manning, aka Jo Jones né Grant.

(via The Doctor Who News Page: Elisabeth Sladen 1948-2011)