Sargent Shriver, 1915-2011

*sigh* ‘Bisco and I will be over here in the corner, lighting candles as if we didn’t have a reliable source of electricity.

I’m glad I decided not to run Don Kirshner’s obit. Although that would have made an interesting contrast…

A decent guy. Too bad he’s gone.

@Dodgerblue: He had Alzheimer’s. He’s been gone a long time.

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: Man, that’s an awful disease. Seems to be a lot of it around these days, doesn’t there?

@Dodgerblue: I really fear that disease most of all. I do not fear a painful death; I fear a death where my mind slips away.

I’m afraid to look at the Freeper pages. Probably tens of millions of shitfaced guys standing outside firing their weapons into the sky in celebration of his death, cackling like insane hyenas and the tobacco spittle oozing down their faces and necks.

I think it was 1978 – had to go to a wedding at U of M. My Volvo was broken, so I borrowed Dad’s Dodge Coronet 440. Suited up, sitting at a light on Democracy Boulevard in Bethesda, on my way to pick up my girlfriend. WHAM! Mid-70s Mercury Capri rear-ends me. The Dodge has a small dent in the bumper and a larger one in the trunk, but the Capri is smashed to the point of being undriveable. The driver’s door creaked open and … out stepped Sargent Shriver. He said he was a lawyer and that we could move the cars, but I wasn’t buying it – I hiked up a hill to a senior center to call my dad and the cops. Nice guy though, and the tiny DC company that insured Sarge delivered a check to our house 3 days later by messenger. Repairs were done at the dealer, full price. My mother still blames me.

@FlyingChainSaw: You think they even know who he is?

Yes, he’s a Kennedy. But since I wasn’t paying attention when the Peace Corps was founded, I know him better for not being Thomas Eagleton.

@blogenfreude: Of course she blames you. You should have thrown yourself to the pavement and started screaming and moaning and walked away with a multi-million dollar settlement which she could have confiscated and used to hire house help and take tours of the world. Wonder she didn’t sell you.

@nojo: All they need is the Kennedy angle to start baying at the moon.

@FlyingChainSaw: wore my seat belt, even back then.

@Dodgerblue: I don’t know, I think for a long time it was probably just lumped under dementia.

@blogenfreude: Shriver didn’t have to know that. All he had to see was this guy shrieking in soul-shattering agony long enough to get his check book out. Seriously, can you blame your mom?

@nojo: Whoa! Don Kirshner! That dude brought us The Archies. He also had a live music tv show for a while.

@redmanlaw: If I did run the obit, I was going to hunt down Paul Shaffer’s impression.

@FlyingChainSaw:

If they are, I hope they simultaneously choke on their diyup and take a stray downward-headed round.

@al2o3cr: Oh, I am sure a few will and end up in wheelchairs and collect disability and rage about taxes.