Thanks Uncle Ed. Thanks George.
It’s personal. George Carlin is dead. What chance do I have?
When Uncle Eddie came home from being in the Navy he gave me his comedy records. Allan Sherman. Bill Cosby. George Carlin.
I listened to Carlin’s “Take-offs & Put-ons” so frequently that I can still quote it fully today.
Uncle Eddie gave me something that day that only a bad heart could take away.
While I haven’t done an inventory, I’m pretty certain I own (or have owned) all of George Carlin’s comedy albums. I own and have read his books. I’ve seen all his HBO specials. My wife and I have seen him live twice (more proof that I married the right woman).
His HBO specials were sporting events in my life. My friends and I looked forward to them like they were the Super Bowl or a heavyweight prize fight. This tradition continued into my marriage (again, right woman). “We have to close up shop, Babe,” she would say. “Carlin’s new show is on at 11 tonight!”
Carlin has been a part of me since Uncle Eddie came home from the Navy. When was that? 1972? 1974? Now George Carlin is gone.
I left a note on Twitter when I woke up: “There’s a small chance that George Carlin is trying to make sense of things and barter his way into a better situation.”
And then I left a comment on Reid’s website:
I go to bed with the radio on. It stays on all night. I heard the news of George’s passing in my sleep.
I dreamed that I cried.
The last time I shed a tear over the passing of a celebrity was in 1990 when Jim Henson died.
I, too, have eclectic tastes.
Carlin’s humor, his love of words, his search for reason, and his crankiness in the face of all this bullshit are all part of me. Here is where I should give you some pithy quotes and examples of Carlin’s work that is particularly meaningful to me, but I can’t. It’s all meaningful to me. Go to youtube yourself. Search for George Carlin. There’s plenty there. Tell them I sent you.
After commenting on Reid’s site I wrote a list of 10 Famous People Who Have Influenced What Goes On Between My Ears. Here’s the list in no apparent order:
- Yeshua, the Teacher
- Emily Dickinson, the Poet
- Epictetus, the Stoic Philosopher
- Carl Jung, the Psychologist
- Robert Fulghum, the Storyteller
- Vincent van Gogh, the Painter
- Jim Henson, the Imaginer
- Neil Peart, the Lyricist
- Thomas Jefferson, the Polymath
- George Carlin, the Comic
Carlin’s gone.
Well. Fuck.
If you liked that, maybe you will like this:
- Nonsequitors for 2008-06-24
- Nonsequitors for 2008-06-23
- Me-me-meme
- Nonsequitors for 2008-06-17
- Once In a Lifetime
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