June Cleaver died today at age 94. But I will always remember her for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKfS3udCCx0

This just in from the Stinque Emailbag:

Donate $3 now to be automatically registered for a chance to win a trip to meet President Obama backstage in Las Vegas.

Is Zach Galifianakis filming a sequel? Because that totally sounds like a high-concept premise.

Leonard Skinner, a Jacksonville, Florida P.E. teacher and basketball coach, and the inspiration for the name of rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died yesterday at 77 from Alzheimer’s Disease.  In the late ’60s, Coach Skinner upset future members of the band by sending them to the principal’s office for having long hair that reached past their collar, and the band later named themselves after him in a satirical tribute. Skinner was a good sport about it, as he once introduced them at a Jacksonville concert and let them use a photo of his real estate company’s sign in an album.

[Florida Times-Union: Tongue-in-Cheek Inspiration to Lynyrd Skynyrd Dies at 77]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4jiqYcUoOk

Son-of-Potatoehead Ben Quayle, last seen enjoying his imaginary children, is back with an ad that proclaims he was “raised right”. And with the news that he was a significant contributor to a Naughty Blog, we really can’t disagree:

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Longtime New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died this morning. He owned the Yankees since 1973.

“Wha’ choo talkin’ about, Willis?”

[SF Chronicle]

A giant of journalism is stepping down tonight, but it’s not getting that much attention.  PBS has announced that tonight will be the last episode of Bill Moyers’ Journal, as well as NOW, another PBS public affairs show started by  Moyers during the George W. Bush Administration.

Moyers is a national treasure, a reporter who has always treated his fellow citizens as adults who can understand nuanced arguments and multi-syllabic words.  In an era of soundbites, blatant lies, and superficiality, he is a thoughtful, probing critic who exposes the abuses of the powerful and espouses a brand of populism that honors the dignity of every person, regardless of their class, race, citizenship, religion, or gender.  He has taken on oil companies, tobacco companies, the chemical industry, mining companies, polluters, agri-business exploitation of undocumented farm workers, union-busters, the Iran-Contra scandal, and the corporate media’s complicity in the lead-up to the Iraq War, just to name a few.  As a result, he has been a lightning rod for many conservatives, most recently when George W. Bush’s appointee to Chair the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlison, engaged in a secret inquiry into Moyers’ alleged left-wing bias.

Charlie Rose says of Moyers:  “He is, I’ve always believed, a true son of Texas and like the best Texans he drew from the land his poetry, his politics, his populism, his spirituality and yes, his instinct for power.”

This is my tribute to an American and Texan treasure.

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