Mr. News - It's been a while and I still can't wrap my mind around a world without Walter Cronkite. Growing up he was always my favorite, even if early on I'd confuse him with 'Captain Kangaroo', who wasn't my first choice of cartoon show host. Cronkite gave the news dignity and objectivity, and you always felt you could trust him to be truthful. Thinking back, the same could really be said about many of his competitors, it's just he seemed to stand a foot taller than the rest somehow. He had been gone from the news scene for a long time before his death, and his absence was felt deeply. Now he's gone for good, we are left with an unpalatable, if marketable, mix of biased cable news and eviscerated broadcast coverage.
Mr. Hughes - Back in the 80's, watching one of John Hughes' over-sentimental comedies, I assured myself I wouldn't miss his work, if it disappeared into a smoking pile of celluloid chips. I have lived to eat my words. Long before his recent death, I had come to miss the man's movies big time. No one since has quite captured that dicey combination of the energy of sweet youth, a growing (and burdensome) awareness of responsibility, and the shield of ironic absurdity, that is growing up middle-class in America. Everyone remembers 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', but I pick 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' as the best of the bunch, even with that smarmy ending. So Long, John ...
And the Big Dealer - I've read several histories of the Rolling Stones, and all feature Allen Klein as a principal figure in the band's Altamont-era career. Aside from allegedly being a bit too Machiavellian, a lot too greedy, and not entirely trustworthy, Mr. Klein could be an astute businessman, and served as, if not the model (that would be Colonel Tom Parker), the archetype of the wheeling-dealing agent who could get anything for his clients.
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