Death came a knocking this weekend/today

I am back. I was not going to post today, but something came up. Again, the muse is giving me the silent treatment, but the news is not. It has been the day of death announcements and both leukemia related (a sore or soft subject with me). It was just announced that both Tom Snyder and Bill Walsh had died (add Swedish film maker Ingmar Bergman, too, he had that great Swedish bit of melancholy that you can only get in the north with a lot of winter darkness and bleakness). Both had leukemia, though I know that Tom Snyder had chronic lymphocytic leukemia. I do not know what kind that Bill Walsh had.

I will start with Bill Walsh. I absolutely loved the teams he coached in San Francisco. He was the architect of those 49er championship teams in the early 80s. He took a 2-14 crappy team and with Joe Montana and other great player development won Superbowls in 1982, 1985 and 1989. He was a true offensive innovator and the NFL is the poorer with his passing.

Tom Snyder. I loved the Tomorrow show. I loved the parody that Dan Aykroyd would do of him on SNL. For those who do not know, or remember, in the time before Late Night, the show after the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was Tomorrow. It started at 1 am (the Tonight Show was an hour and a half back then) and had the most ecclectic guests imaginable with one on one interviews with Tom Snyder in a darkened studio. I always recall the cigarette in his hands with the wisps of smoke wafting upward.

It was not until the summer of 1978. the summer that allergies were doing me in. I did not go to camp that summer and did not really work (I turned 14) so I hung out with friends, stayed up late every night and slept til noon everyday. Life was good, I am not sure I was living it but it was good (still is, really). I started to stay up to watch Tom Snyder. I recall interviews with Meat Loaf (wearing a Maple Leafs jersey), some people into S&M and brewers. Different strokes for different folks. He was a great interviewer and the shows were both entertaining and informative, even to a young teenager. He was a staple of the 70s in my mind and the evolution of television talk shows runs through him. It was Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Tom Snyder, David Letterman....Conan O'Brien.

Well, good bye to them and thanks for the memories. Ciao!