Stan Winston, special effects genius behind movies such as Aliens, Edward Scissorhands, The Terminator and Jurassic Park, died yesterday at the age of 62. More information about his work is available at the Stan Winston Studios website.
Category Archives: r.i.p.
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is just too sad without Tim Russert. I have to go garden.
Farewell to the Magazine Reader
Recently, over 100 writers at the Washington Post accepted early retirement/buyouts. Peter Carlson’s farewell Magazine Reader column on Tuesday reminded me how much we’re losing:
“Looking at 12 Years Between the Covers”
Last week, the cover of Us Weekly screamed in big yellow type “The Plot to Destroy Lauren,” and my first reaction was, ‘Oh, no, they can’t destroy Lauren.”
My second reaction was, “Who the hell is Lauren?”
It wasn’t the first time I was utterly baffled by a magazine cover since I started writing this column, but it turned out to be the last. That’s because this is my final Magazine Reader column. I’m taking The Post’s early retirement buyout and heading off to pursue other interests, such as sloth and gin.
For nearly 12 years, I’ve been paid real American money to read magazines and write about them. During those years I’ve pondered the glories of magazines ranging from Life to Sounds of Death, from Reason to Paranoia, from George to Jane, from Spy to Sly, from Good Dog! to Murder Dog, from New Beauty to New Witch, from Modern Maturity to Modern Ferret to Modern Drunkard.
And let’s not forget Wrapped in Plastic, a magazine devoted to David Lynch’s long-dead TV show “Twin Peaks.”
Such are the fruits of the First Amendment, God bless it.
Many strange things happened in magazines in those 12 years. The National Review published a story called “Is Sex Still Sexy?” McCall’s published a story called “My Boy Built a Bomb! Trouble Signs No Mom Should Miss!” Glamour posed the question “Is your hair making you look fat?” Fitness asked, “Is Your Body Toxic?'” Reader’s Digest asked, “Are you normal or nuts?”
Go read the whole thing, you’ll want to go back and look up all of his old columns.
Few have captured the utterly earnest absurdity of the magazine publishing world as well as Carlson, possibly because he always seemed game to read anything once, to delve into the pages with an open mind, and to describe the results of his forays in ways that were witty and, more often than not, much more entertaining than his source material.
I requisition one of these every year, but apparently it's not technically considered a legitimate a "management tool."
Let us all have a moment of silence for Colin Murdoch, recently deceased inventor of the tranquilizer gun.
I’m willing to let him slide on that whole child-proof cap thing, since he also gave the world the disposable syringe, which is one of those unsung revolutionary medical devices of our time.
RIP, James Unger
I picked up the paper this morning to see that my college debate coach died. (I didn’t really stay on the team very long – constant weekend travel, even free, got old for me fairly fast).
“James Unger, 66; Debate Coach at Georgetown, AU.”
In the late 1970s, Mr. Unger’s “policymaking” approach to debate strategy became standard practice for debate teams at the high school and college levels.
“Jim is regarded as a pacesetter in terms of theory and technique of debate,” University of Kentucky debate coach J.W. Patterson told The Washington Post in 1978. “He is regarded as one of the two or three best coaches in the nation. If there is any criticism of Jim, it is that his teams are over-coached, but they always acquit themselves well.”
Mostly, I remember that James Unger was the only human being I ever encountered who could use phrases such as vis-a-vis in casual conversation without sounding completely insane. A little bit like Frasier Crane at times, perhaps, but who’s perfect?