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2016, you were just mean
Mostly it’s due to the Baby Boomers — which it seems is true of everything — that 2017 was such a tough year to watch in terms of celebrity deaths. The first Boomers were born on January 1, 1946 — an arbitrary date, of course, but consensus has a way of supplanting truth — and so this was the year that various of the oldest of them turned 70. Or the year that they failed to. As these early Boomers have dominated entertainment for most of the lives of people in their 40s through 60s, their loss (in not really unexpected numbers, given their ages) has been most deeply felt.
Among these first Boomers, in the Political Entertainment Division, was Donald Trump, born on June 14, 1946 — Flag Day, of course, as is appropriate for a hustler and huckster. Also among them, Bill Clinton, born on August 19, 1946. And George Bush, born on July 6, 1946. Apparently, you had to be born during a 67-day span of 1946 to make you an early boomer President — especially if you wanted to lose the popular vote. Two popular vote winning non-Presidents missed 1946 it by no more than 15 months: Hillary Clinton was born on October 26, 1947 and Al Gore was born on March 31, 1948. For reasons that are compelling yet unclear, this is probably the real reason that she didn’t become President.
But the Grim Reaper reaped none of those people, instead taking David Bowie, Prince, the Fisher-Reynolds pair, and so on. But how did it end? Cruelly. It took Sutter Brown, First Dog of the State of California. A story in the LA Times (hat tip to Martin Wisckol) ended with a quote from animal rights activist and Sutter wrangler Jennifer Fearing: “If we were all like Sutter, I think that politics could be a much better place.” My take is that if we were all like Sutter Brown, we’d be pre-linguistic and spend our time begging for table scraps and sniffing each others butts. Politics, in other words, would not be all that different.
You were a nasty year, 2016, but this — appropriately enough for a corgi — was awfully damned low.
2017 will probably be even worse, you know. We’re nowhere near out of Boomers and prescription drug overdoses continue to be a bull market. This year may someday be seen as the last of the Good Old Days.
The Year is Dead. Long Live the Year.
“pre-linguistic and spend our time begging for table scraps and sniffing each others butts”
Sort of like Lil’ Clumski and the Wordsmith.
We dropped by Lady & Lord Ward’s place this afternoon. Their two corgis Maggie and Sarah were obviously trying to put a brave face on things, and not be wet blankets on the humans’ new year celebration, but you could sense, at a deeper level, their shock and sorrow over having suddenly lost the most prominent and charismatic of their breed. It was, to them, something like the day JFK was killed.
Vern, my corgis are Republicans, but in a non-partisan nod to their canine brethren, you may have noted Sarah only jumped on you twice and failed to leave her nail marks in your shins this time, and THAT is corgi-grief. May Sutter enjoy eternity wiggling on his back, with his belly in the air, passing corgi-gas into the atmosphere of Heaven for the rest of his days. There is a little sister they adopted not too long ago. I understand Sutter has had run of the Gov’s office, with staffers expected to simply go around or over him if he was passed out on the carpet. Not a bad life.
I believe that the new First Corgi is named Colusa, after the county where they live.
*Sutter live 13 years….that is 91 in dog years. Sutter received and gave love every day of his life. Sutter was a ward of the State of California in his final eight years and no doubt had a professional dog poop collector do his bidding. Sutter probably didn’t have to settle for table scraps……probably most things he ate were organic. Sutter got regular exercise and regular visits to the dog groomers to have his nails trimed and his coat cut and brushed with great love and luster. Wherever Sutter has gone, his memory and his love for his owners will never be forgotten. For Auld Lang Syne! Take the high road Sutter!