Deaths come in threes, so they say. Whoever "they" are.
And this week saw the world of entertainment lose icons in Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, within about 48 hours of each other.
Jackson's story is the most sad. Those of us who were young when his record-setting "Thriller" album came out reminisced Thursday afternoon. Almost every radio station seemed to have a Jackson tune on the rest of the day Thursday.
His talent was unquestioned. However, so too were his bad choices made in later years.
My wife, who's a bit younger than me, has been appalled by the outpouring of love for a man whose actions involving young children have been brought into question. As a dad with young kids, I can understand why.
Fawcett's death had been more expected than Jackson's, as her three-year bout with cancer came to an end with loved ones, including longtime companion Ryan O'Neal at her side.
Those of us in my age range and slightly older remember her as our favorite of Charlie's Angels.
And for McMahon, leaving this world at nearly the same time as Jackson and Fawcett leaves him playing second -- or even third -- fiddle again, much as he did throughout the best years of his career working with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
It's all about timing, even when your time is up.
n n n
It's so hot out there, you can ...
(I can't believe I stooped to such a clich?. I can't do this. OK, maybe I will, just this once ...)
It's so hot out there, you can burn the tops of your feet because your black shoes got so hot under the beating sun.
It really happened in just a half-hour or so of watching some of the week's Sunbelt Classic. The downside of being in the office for most of my job is missing some good baseball. The upside is that it's quite a bit cooler in here.
Big praise to these young men, not just for being picked to represent their respective states, and not just for putting up with a hotter-than-usual mid-June in Oklahoma, but for playing a pretty high level of baseball in the process.
n n n
It wasn't much of a shock to see former Oklahoma superstar Blake Griffin taken with the first pick of Thursday's NBA Draft. Griffin becomes the first OU player ever selected with the first pick of the professional draft.
But credit is due to his older brother Taylor, not just for a solid career at OU and countless hours working with and pushing Blake to great heights. He will have his NBA shot, too, as the Phoenix Suns took the older Griffin with the 48th pick of the draft.
Taylor Griffin had already gotten some interesting news earlier in the week when the Harlem Globetrotters announced they were interested in having him come try out if things didn't work out in the NBA.
No offense to the Globetrotters, but let's hope Taylor will be busy in Phoenix in the fall.
Christian Potts 366-3531 cpotts@normantranscript.com
Columns
World loses three entertainment icons
- Columns
-
-
Tobacco ban comes as shock
Gov. Mary Fallin’s State of the State contained few surprises. The tobacco ban, however, came as a total shock to many legislators and state agency heads. “It was a surprise,” the governor told state press association members this week at ...
-
Quitting should be smokers’ choice
The Jan. 29 editorial “The high cost of tobacco” claimed that tobacco use costs Oklahomans a lot of money, but it did not disclose the fact that tobacco use produces a lot of money for Oklahomans, which — in the interest of being fair — ...
-
Polio nearly eradicated worldwide
From her quarantined hospital room on the third floor of Ellison Hall, seven-year-old Alesha Timmons Moring could often see her father, Boyce, as he headed into his office inside OU’s Evans Hall each day. They would exchange waves. ...
-
Climate change remains in the cards
Nothing about Earth’s history is static or unchanging. That’s particularly true of climate, and thereon hangs more than one interesting tale, including recent news of a scientific advance in understanding how past climate has changed....
-
Does making the press the villain work?
As a journalist and editor, I receive a lot of requests for help....
-
Home on the train
PAOLI — The meandering Washita River that first crosses below my Heartland Flyer passenger rail car south of here actually has water in it on this sunny December morning. Rains in western Oklahoma replenished the stream that eventually ...
-
A lesson in common sense
By Bill Huntington For The Transcript For many years the announcer at the Indianapolis Speedway made an announcement at the end of the race day. Paraphrasing, it went, “Ladies and gentlemen, you are entering the most dangerous place on ...
-
The Resentment Equivalence
Recent opinion pieces have expressed a simple theme, an incredibly simple theme, that the Occupy Movement is all about envy…nothing more…just envy....
-
Is money safer inside a shoebox?
During the 1920s, when the stock market failed and many financial institutions closed, cautious souls hid money in mattresses, flour sacks and shoeboxes hidden under the bed. Again during the Depression, grandparents commonly kept cash in ...
-
Why we need the Keystone pipeline
“Game on” was the cry from the industry. “Game over” was the cry from the environmentalists, as they expressed their feelings over the Keystone pipeline construction. The true story lies somewhere between....
- More Columns Headlines
-
Tobacco ban comes as shock
