Tag Archives: r.i.p.

Knut!

der Speigel is reporting that Celebrity Polar Bear Knut is demised. Polar bears are large and frightening and amazing. I never saw Knut in person, but his picture makes occasional appearances on my desktop because he’s a handsome devil.

R.I.P. Socks the Cat

Former First Cat Socks has gone to the great Catnip Field in the Sky. He was 19 years old.

Socks the Cat

Here’s the biography.com blurb about Socks:

Socks the cat joined the Clinton White House while First Daughter Chelsea was a young girl. Chelsea’s piano teacher found two kittens playing under her porch one day. She tried to locate the mother, but was unsuccessful. When the First Lady brought Chelsea for her piano lesson, they noticed the two kittens playing. Chelsea held out her arms and one kitten, black with white feet, jumped into her arms. The cat was named Socks for her distinctive markings. Hillary Rodham Clinton later wrote a book titled Dear Socks, Dear Buddy which includes letters written to Socks and Buddy (the Clinton’s chocolate Labrador retriever) by children from around the world. Since both Bill and Hillary Clinton are allergic to cats, Socks was always Chelsea’s cat. When Chelsea went off to Stanford University, Socks was adopted by Betty Currie, President Clinton’s White House Secretary.

Rest in peace Socks, I always thought you were way cooler than Buddy.

Sally Smith

Yesterday the Washington Post had a pair of articles about a longtime colleague who passed away over the weekend.

Ellen Edwards, writing for the Washington Post Style section, summed up a first (second, third and fourth) encounter with Sally Smith perfectly:

“At first glance you might have thought you had come upon some improbable tropical bird, full of color and feathers, dressed in layers of patterns on patterns, a pile of rolling blond curls on her head.”

[read the whole piece]

The obituary in the Metro section had a more serious in tone:

Sally L. Smith, 78, founder of the Lab School in Washington, a school widely known for its innovative curriculum and its uncommon success in unlocking the mysteries of learning for those who learn differently from others, died Dec. 1 of complications of myeloma at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

[read the entire obituary]

Sadly, I was highly sensitive to Sally’s perfume and so most of our interactions were by phone, so I missed many of her more spectacular ensembles. I certainly experienced her boundless energy and enthusiasm, though.