"God must have needed a photographer, and He got the very best with Tim."

That was one of the very first thoughts that came to mind this morning.

My heart felt like it broke into a hundred pieces yesterday afternoon, upon hearing of the passing of my very good friend Tim Talley.

Tim was many things to many people.  I suppose the first aspect that comes to the minds of lots of folks is that he was an amazing photographer.  For more than forty years Tim made his mark not just in Reidsville and Rockingham County, but throughout the Piedmont region.  Tim was blessed with an incredible vision and sense of composition.  The man worked with light the way that the finest sculptors work with clay.  Tim came up with seemingly countless ways of staging photos and he would go to whatever lengths it took to pull them off.  He also had a way of bringing out the best of his subjects.  Everyone was beautiful in his eye and he knew how to capture and convey that with his camera.  Tim had ways of pulling off the almost impossible... like when he coaxed my dachshund Tammy into sitting still when we did a photo shoot with him in 2017.  I had told him that if he could do that then he was a better man than me... and lo and behold he did it!

If nothing else then the many thousands of portraits that he made, hanging in family living rooms throughout the region, attests to his talent.

Those who knew him best, though, will remember him for so much else.

Tim was a devoted husband to his wife Donna, and a father to his son Brandon.  He absolutely adored Brandon's wife and their three daughters. When Tim finally retired some years ago, it was always with it borne in mind that he and Donna were going to move to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania so he could be closer to Brandon and his family.

And once Tim got situated in Lancaster County, he very quickly made friends among the people there, especially his Amish neighbors.  I think Tim might have been the one photographer they trusted enough with his getting an occasional picture of them (but not for widespread publication, those were meant for his friends and family).  Not long after relocating there, Tim became the driver of a tour bus, and he became much beloved for his knowledge, his sense of humor, and just the fact that he was a southerner driving visitors around "Amish Country".

Tim's good cheer and friendliness were absolutely contagious.  His smile lit up everything... and every one... who came into his proximity.  I don't think Tim ever met a stranger.  And in that regard, he certainly became a role model for my own place in this world.

Tim had principles.  He stood resolute upon them.  I think it's safe to say that there were some people who didn't agree with those.  But there was too much respect for Tim than to think any less of him for those.  With Tim, you knew where he was positioned.  And that had to be admired by all who knew him or knew of him.

Tim devoted his life to serving God, in whatever capacity that might be.  God gave him a talent and Tim was determined to make the most of it.  He truly was a brother in Christ who cared for all who came into his life, for however long or brief it might have been.

I think that most of all, though, what especially rends my heart right now, is that I have lost a true friend.

I had my photo taken by Tim several times.  I also knew him from the Boy Scouts.  He and I were adult leaders in Reidsville's Troop 797.  In fact, that's where I first laid eyes on him, after seeing his work displayed around the area for years already.  Once, a month or so before I graduated from high school, Tim and me and several other Scouts and Scouters made a long drive to camp in the North Carolina mountains for a weekend and to hike part of the Appalachian Trail.  Tim made sure to bring a camera along to snap photos.  He took to mountain hiking the way a fish takes to water.  The troop also went camping a few times at Tim's place outside of Reidsville.

We were already friends.  When Facebook came along that gave us more opportunity to keep in touch on a regular basis.  Tim often shared some of his latest handiwork, and he was ever eager to demonstrate to his readers how he worked his trade.  I learned a lot about photography from Tim and his informal academy.  I believe a lot of people did, too.

Well, I could say so much, much more.  All that I really know since yesterday afternoon is that the world has lost a tremendously talented man, a family has lost a husband and a father and a grandfather, two communities hundreds of miles apart have lost a respected citizen, and I have lost a wonderful friend.

Until we meet again, Tim.  Thank you for being you. And I thank God that He let you be in our lives, for however brief a season it seemed.

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One of the most amazing people who I have ever known has left us

 

A short while ago I got the word from her daughter that Nell Rose, one of the most enthused and energetic and especially dynamic people who I have ever had the great pleasure of knowing, passed away yesterday.

Nell was the embodiment of model leadership.  She would see things that could have been better and she threw herself into it, no questions asked.  This was especially noted in her myriad of activities involving education.  She spearheaded a number of initiatives when she and her family moved to Charlotte.  And then some years later when they moved back to the Reidsville area, she brought that same vision to bear.  The woman was nigh unstoppable.

I knew Nell from a variety of situations.  The first time we met, it was during our high school swim team's weekly meets.  Her two daughters were on the team and Nell often came to cheer not only her own girls on, but she was behind all of us.  Her beautiful beaming smile never failed to encourage and inspire us ever forward.

Nell was one of the first members of the consolidated school board after all the systems in Rockingham County merged.  And that led to further contact with Nell as I got involved in the county's education affairs.  She and I had many conversations about a variety of subjects, and I always went away feeling that much more wise and enlightened.

And then there was Theatre Guild of Rockingham County.  Nell served on the board of that.  And she came to most of our performances.  It was a special feeling, knowing that she was in the audience as we put on our production.  I think we made sure to put a little extra heart into the act when Nell was in the house.

Wow.  So much I could say about this fine lady.  She was the kind of person who really did make this world a much better place for her being here.  There is, was and ever will be only one Nell Rose.  God broke the mold when He designed her.

Here is Nell's extensive obituary on the Citty Funeral Home site.

Thoughts and prayers going up and out for her loved ones.

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Johnny Robertson has died

The word arrived a short while ago that Johnny Robertson, who there has been no small amount of contention with at times over the years, passed away earlier today.

Life is too short than to spend any more moments than necessary in bitterness.   We aren't guaranteed tomorrow.  We have to make the most of what we have, because there is no knowing when it will be taken away.

That being said, I will ask that his family and friends be kept in our thoughts and prayers.

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Hulk Hogan has passed away

A big piece of my childhood has gone.

Thank you Terry Bollea, known forever to American history as Hulk Hogan.  You brought a lot of joy and pleasure into our lives.

There is a chapter of the book I've written, that focuses on the Eighties.  As I say about the year 1984, any twelve months that kicked off with Hulk Hogan defeating the Iron Sheik for the WWF championship was bound to be on fire.

Hulkamania, now and forever.

EDIT: it has been a sad day, but Hogan's fans are remembering the many good times we had watching "the Hulkster" as he entertained us both inside the ring and out.

I think Hogan would be laughing hard at this article from The Babylon Bee, one of my favorite websites.

Hulk Hogan Makes Surprise Entrance To Challenge Jacob To Wrestling Match

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In memory of Malcolm-Jamal Warner

The very sad news broke today that Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the extremely talented actor and director and producer whose greatest role Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show kept us uproariously laughing, has passed away at age 54.

It was hard to name a favorite character from that series, but Theo was definitely up there on my list.  Maybe because he was the only son of Cliff and Claire.  A lot of the comedy was his to bear because of that and he did it magnificently!

When I think of all the Theo-centric episodes of The Cosby Show, there is one stands out above the rest, and I believe that a lot of other people are going to say that this is funniest the character had.  Here in Warner's memory is a clip from the first season episode where Theo buys a "Gordon Gartrayal" shirt.  The interaction between Theo and his parents is hilarious!

Thoughts and prayers going out for his family.

EDIT: Wow, there's a part 2 from that episode that's been uploaded!  Here it is, Theo in the shirt that Denise made for him:

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Kenneth Colley, who played Admiral Piett AKA the luckiest guy in the Empire, has passed away

The sad news is coming out today that Kenneth Colley, the British actor who portrayed Admiral Firmus Piett across two Star Wars films, has passed away at the age of 87.

Colley had enjoyed having many roles in his six decades as an actor.  He did some work with Monty Python (that's him playing Jesus in the opening of Life of Brian) and he appeared in Clint Eastwood's 1982 sci-fi Cold War thriller Firefox.  Colley was also among the amazing cast of the sweeping television epic War and Remembrance.

But it is his portrayal of Captain... and then Admiral... Piett that is most remembered in the annals of pop culture.

Piett first appeared in 1980's Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back as the captain of Executor, Darth Vader's flagship Super Star Destroyer.  Following the deployment of thousands of probe droids across the galaxy, Piett was monitoring their progress when a droid in the Hoth system picked up signs of habitation.  Admiral Ozzel was quick to brush it off, though Vader took interest and was convinced that this was the Rebel base that the Empire was looking for.  Vader ordered the fleet to set course for Hoth, as Ozzel gave Piett a spiteful glare.  Piett merely stood in quiet confidence, content to have done his job to the best of his ability.

I think that Darth Vader appreciated that.  Vader appreciated Piett as a man.  I have to wonder if Vader had wanted Piett to be higher up in the chain of command all along.  It would explain Vader's disdain for Ozzel.  When Ozzel messed up by coming out of hyperspace too close to Hoth, Vader was all too eager to express his displeasure.  Vader immediately tapped Piett to take Ozzel's place: "You are in command now, Admiral Piett."  Piett expressed his thanks and immediately gestured for Ozzel's corpse be taken off the bridge.  And then toward the end of the film, when standing there after Vader had lost the Millennium Falcon, Piett awaited his lord's next action, certainly that he now would be punished.  Instead Vader walked away, and no doubt Piett breathed an inward sigh of relief.

Piett showed up again in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.  He must have been doing something right because by that point in the story he had survived being admiral aboard the Executor for a year.  Admiral Piett had been ordered by Emperor Palpatine to move the fleet around the Death Star to the far side of the Endor moon, where it waited to ambush the incoming Rebel forces.  In the massive space battle that followed a Rebel A-wing veered out of control and slammed into Executor's bridge.  Piett and the rest of the command staff were killed, and Executor was sent smashing into the second Death Star's  surface.

Piett has been called one of the most important of the many background characters in the Star Wars saga.  Kenneth Colley certainly brought dignity and gravitas to the role.  It was one of those nuances that gave Star Wars its rich and deep presence in our culture.  It also endeared himself tremendously with fans, who Colley always came across as being very appreciative of.  I had the honor of meeting him a couple of times, at Star Wars Celebration II and then III a few years later.  The first time we met, I told him that it must be quite something to be known as "the luckiest guy in the Empire".  Colley said that he heard that quite a bit actually!

He played an honorable and decent bad guy, and you had to respect a character like Piett.  Colley really was the only person who could have pulled that off as magnificently as he did.

I think that in his memory I'll plop in my Blu-Ray of The Empire Strikes Back for background sound as I work this afternoon.  Which includes this classic scene of Darth Vader "promoting" Piett to admiral:

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In memory of Gene Hackman

The sad news came out this morning that Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead in their home in New Mexico.  An investigation as to what happened is underway.

My first exposure to Hackman was his portrayal of Lex Luthor in 1978's Superman: The Movie.  I've seen most of his films.  My favorite film of his was the 1992 western Unforgiven: he played the evil sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett and it earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

A few years ago I watched The French Connection - the winner of the 1972 Academy Award for Best Picture among many other prizes - for the first time.  All I knew about it going in was that it starred Hackman and that it was about drug smuggling.  If anybody had told me beforehand that I was going to be screaming my lungs out while watching it, I would not have believed it.  But that is indeed what happened.  The scene where Hackman's Popeye Doyle (which snagged him his first Oscar win) commandeers a car and goes off in pursuit of a train is one of the most terrifying spectacles committed to film that I've ever beheld.  It's just CRAZY.  It might be the best chase scene in the history of American cinematography.

So I thought that to honor the memory of Gene Hackman, I would share that scene.  A fine actor at his very finest.

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Rest in peace David Lynch

He passed away today at the age of 78.

The impact that this man had on the cinema arts can not be emphasized nearly enough.  Everything he did, be it surreal or more traditional storytelling, he made his own.  David Lynch showed us more than most what the camera was capable of doing when guided by a mind willing to step away from the safe path.  He saw the guardrails and crashed through anyway.

I first came upon Lynch's work when I was a high school sophomore.  I had seen the promos for Twin Peaks and they intrigued me terribly.  So I did something I rarely did and still rarely do: I watched its two-hour television premiere.  Twin Peaks sucked me in hard and never let go.  And it was the gateway drug for more of Lynch's unique vision.

Admittedly, I will never be able to confess ever "getting" Eraserhead.  But that's okay.  Somehow, I think Lynch wouldn't mind.

David Lynch was also a fellow Eagle Scout.

Thoughts and prayers going up and out for his family. 

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Rest in peace James Earl Jones

 

I got to meet him, briefly, in 2003.  Amazing man, with an intellect as formidable as his voice if not more so.

Ninety-three is a good run.  And he definitely made his mark.

Who else could make saying the alphabet so dramatic?

Godspeed Mr. Jones.  Thank you for sharing your gifts with us for so long.

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Bob Newhart, 1929 - 2024

 The man was and forever will be a legend!

So much that could be said about the amazing life of Bob Newhart.  Coming up in the Eighties I loved his sitcom Newhart.  Then later I discovered his earlier series The Bob Newhart Show.  And after that I came upon his comedy albums, like his 1960 debut The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart.

The guy just shined in everything that he did.  He was always a class act.  Modern comics could learn a lot from Bob Newhart's style and demeanor.

Well, as noted, a lot could be said about Newhart's life.  And there is so MUCH of his body of work to draw from in his memory.  So I'll close out this post with a great lil' sketch from several years back.  One that has become a classic among those of us who have been involved in the field of mental healthcare.

"STOP IT!!!"

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Gordon Lightfoot died yesterday

The man is responsible for a lot of well known songs.  One of the local stations played "Sundown" around lunch today.  There are a few others he did too.

But the main subject of this post is about one that's especially dear to me.

I was almost two and a half years old when Gordon Lightfoot released his haunting ballad "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald".  The song came out several months after the loss of the largest ship on the Great Lakes in a fierce November storm.  It was featured on Lightfoot's album Summertime Dream as well as getting a single release.

Dad bought the 8-track of Summertime Dream.  And his favorite song from it must have been "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald".  I know this because I heard it so many times that it got impressed in my young memory.  That song is the earliest one I can recall knowing the sound and words of.  I very clearly and distinctly remember the sound of it, listening to it as I played with my toys in the living room.

The runner-up has to be The Chipmunks Christmas Volume 2.  And there were a few others that come to mind.  But "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" was my first "grown-ups" song.  And Lightfoot himself was the first musical artist that I remember the name of.  I know because I asked Dad what was he listening to and he told me "Gordon Lightfoot".

Don't know much else what to say with this post.  Except that I tweeted this last night, and it seemed right that I put it on my blog too.

So here is "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald".

 

 

 

Thanks for the good memories Mr. Lightfoot.

 

 

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Dr. Charles Stanley has gone Home

"Well done, My good and faithful servant."

 

Let us be thankful for the very long time that God let him be among us.  A lot of people came to Christ... and drew closer to Him... because of this man's seemingly tireless efforts.  Dr. Charles Stanley truly had a servant's heart.  I for one learned quite a lot from watching his In Touch weekly series on television.

I got to meet him once.  It was January 2001, some friends and I went to a service at First Baptist Church of Atlanta.  Stanley struck me as one of the kindest people I've ever encountered.  He asked where was I from and I told him Reidsville, North Carolina.

"Oh I know where Reidsville is!" he replied.  "That's right down the road from Danville!", where he grew up.

I asked him if he could sign my Bible and he did on the inside front page.  Below his name he wrote "Isaiah 64:4".  It reads as thus, from the New International Version:

 

Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

In hindsight, I should have taken that verse more to heart.  I am thankful now though, that I get to appreciate it anew.

See you later Dr. Stanley.

EDIT 04/19/2023: my best friend since forever, Chad Austin, is managing editor of Biblical Recorder.  He just published an excellent article about Dr. Stanley's early years, from his first devoting his life to Christ on through serving as pastor of several churches and becoming a teacher.  It's a very inspiring read and I felt truly moved by it.  Click here to read "Stanley's global ministry has deep, formative roots in NC".

 

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Elizabeth II has passed

 

There were fifteen prime ministers, many James Bonds, four Beatles, and thirteen Doctor Whos... but there was only one Queen.

Thinking of her family and this blog's friends throughout the Commonwealth, on this sad occasion.

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Lenten Blogging 2022: Day 35

Not too much to report this evening.  It was a fairly busy day on the job.  Peer support certainly does not lack for drama!

I didn't know what to post tonight until I read some sad news.  Bill Fries passed away a few days ago at the age of 94.  He was an ad executive who started acting in his own commercials as the character he created, C.W. McCall. Then he decided to have his fictional character become a singer and he sang about life as a trucker.

So he was an executive pretending to be an actor who was pretending to be a singer who was pretending to be a trucker. That's a lot of mileage out of one character!

In memory of Bill Fries aka C.W. McCall, and in honor of all the one-hit wonders of the Seventies, here is "Convoy":

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Rush Limbaugh is gone

 The very sad word broke a little while ago that Rush Limbaugh passed away earlier today.

I learned more from listening to his show, especially in my late teens and early twenties, than from a lot of other things put together.

Going to forever treasure the audio cassette of when I called into his show in December 1993.  I was nineteen.  I started off the call saying hey to my coworkers at Libby Hill Seafood in Reidsville.  For the next week and a half people kept coming into the place wanting to meet the guy who talked with Rush.

That's my own little anecdote about the life of Rush Hudson Limbaugh III.

I did not agree with him on everything.  Indeed, at times I posted some very harsh things about the man.  He was often too much of a partisan (dare I say even a "hack"?  Or might that be inaccurate?).  And I stopped calling myself a "dittohead" long ago.  But even so, there was a lingering respect for Limbaugh.  He was always honest about himself, and to his listeners, wherever he happened to be along the road of his ideologically self-discovery: something I believe he was earnest about.

Going to pay homage to him with the photo of the time when I first discovered him.  The cover of his bestselling first book.  How I'll always best remember Rush.

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Cicely Tyson's finest work

A few days ago came the sad word that Cicely Tyson had passed away at 96.  What an amazing career she had.  Actually, what an amazing life she lived.  Tyson arose in the entertainment industry at a pivotal moment for African-Americans in the medium of movies and television.  For her devotion to her craft she won every major award in the field, and a place of fondness in the hearts of her many fans.

So in honor of her memory, I thought it worthwhile to share what is easily her best performance.  The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a made-for-television movie that premiered in 1974.  Based on the novel of the same name, it tells the century-spanning story of a young girl born into slavery, who comes to witness emancipation and Reconstruction, the rise of American industry, the world wars, and ultimately her taking part in the civil rights movement at the age of 110.

It is a fascinating film.  One of the greatest to come from the made-for-TV movie genre.  Something that they just can't seem to nail this perfectly anymore.  Ideally it is a film that would be shown to every high school student.  There is a real sense of history in this movie.  So much so that The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman has often been mistaken for a true nonfiction story.  Tyson portrayed Pittman through eight decades of life, made astoundingly realistic with makeup from none other than Rick Baker and Stan Winston.

It's on YouTube.  Instead of embedding it as a playable video, I'll make it a clickable link.  This isn't the kind of movie you need to see squished up within the margins of a blog post.  Better to watch it widescreen, maybe even streaming it to your high-def set if you're set up to do that.  And as I alluded, maybe some teachers will appreciate being able to show this to their students.

Click here for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (one hour fifty minutes)

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He had the right stuff

 

Chuck Yeager

February 13 1923 ~ December 7 2020

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This game show host brought dignity, class, and an astounding intellect into millions of homes for almost forty years

 "Who is Alex Trebek?"

Rest in peace, good sir.

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In memory of Charlie Daniels...

Daniels and his band performing "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" in concert:

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On the passing of H. Ross Perot

Hearing the news that Ross Perot had died earlier today was like feeling a punch to the gut of that persistent eighteen-year old in my personal nature.  Maybe it had to do with the memory of working the local Perot campaign headquarters in those heady days of fall 1992.  Located in rented space on a small shopping strip in Eden, North Carolina, at first glance it wasn't what I was expecting.  There was a shabbiness to the place.  But whatever it lacked in looks, it more than made up for it in frenetic energy.  There was a sense of unstoppable enthusiasm among all those good and wacky characters, and I must have worked at least forty hours there making phone calls on Perot's behalf, assembling yard signs, picking up bumper stickers to hand out...

I forget how much of a percentage Rockingham County went for Perot, but it was a fair amount.  It had less to do with our own efforts, I think, than the character and charisma of Ross Perot himself.  "Now there's a choice!" read campaign signs and many in the county took that to heart.  I certainly did, when I registered to vote the day after turning eighteen some months before.  I knew even then: Perot was going to be the one I cast a ballot for.

Maybe that's part of why to this day I'm proud that no one I've voted for President has won.  Each one of those victors in his own way made a mess of America.  And that "giant sucking sound" that Perot warned us would be jobs in these United States going south to Mexico?  He was right.  He was 1000% right.  NAFTA would never have wrecked its havoc on Perot's watch.  And for that alone, history has proven that he was more than correct.  For there was no doubting the patriotism and concern behind his warnings about it.

And I will also dare say that Donald Trump's win in the 2016 election had a great deal with the lingering sentiment from 1992.  Voters have longer memories than they get credit for, especially after a quarter century of two major parties bringing economic ruin to America.  Trump played a smart game: running as an independent candidate while using the Republican Party's infrastructure to mount his campaign from.  That was the one major deviation from Perot's approach.  But Perot did it first, and he broke the ground for what came later.

Did I agree with everything Perot stood for?  No, I did not.  My differences with him about abortion and gun control are as strong as ever.  Maybe stronger, even.  But no candidate is going to be someone any of us should hold to their positions with equal fervor.  The candidates who try to appeal to everyone are the worst of candidates.  At least Perot was honest about his convictions.  And even as a kid I wouldn't believe Perot could pull off anything about those issues.  His agenda was about something else, and many of us saw the handwriting on the wall: America was headed toward economic disaster and we needed someone of Perot's caliber to avoid it.

Did Perot cause Bill Clinton to be elected in 1992?  I've never seen that.  When the popular vote is worked out and compared with the electoral votes, Clinton was still going to win over George H.W. Bush... who still would have had the majority of the popular vote.  Perot drew voters from each of the two major party candidates, no doubt.  But with 19% of those votes spread out as they were, Perot proved to be at most a large element to not ignore, but not large enough to make that big a difference in the outcome.

There was no doubting Perot's commitment to America and her people.  A commitment that was demonstrated with two incidents in particular.  There was his compelling the North Vietnamese to provide better treatment of American POWs during that conflict.  And then there came the 1979 rescue mission of two employees of Perot's Electronic Data Systems (EDS) from an Iranian prison.  Perot hired legendary Green Beret vet Arthur "Bull" Simons to lead a team recruited from within EDS to plan and execute the mission.  It involved inserting team members into Tehran as the Iranian Revolution was nearing its climax.  The rescue worked, none of the team were lost in the mission.  It was chronicled about a few years later in Ken Follett's book On Wings of Eagles.

Not long after that rescue, the revolutionaries took over Iran completely.  They also stormed the American embassy and took its occupants hostage.  Their 555 days of capture was punctuated by a disastrous rescue attempt sanctioned by President Jimmy Carter that ended in the deserts of Iran.  One can only wonder what might have been had Ross Perot been called in to consult with.

 EDS already made Perot a very wealthy man and he became ridiculously more wealthy when he sold the company some years later.  A billionaire multiple times over, he went on to found Perot Systems.  And then came that night in March of 1992 when Larry King asked Perot on nationwide television if he would run for President.  Perot said he would, provided he qualified for the ballot in all fifty states.  A few short months later he had met all qualifications.  And though we could debate all day about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of his early departure from the campaign, none can question that when he came back months later promising "a world class campaign"... and he delivered on that promise.

Of course, that campaign cannot be mentioned without bringing to mind those informercials - which ran simultaneously every time on all the major networks - that Perot made.  In each one he laid out with nothing more than a pointer and a series of charts the situation in America and what would be needed to fix it.  From one of those came a personal catchphrase of mine: "It will be tough, but it will be fun."

It would be tempting to post a clip of myself doing my Ross Perot impersonation.  But not now.  I will however post a pic of the two campaign buttons I proudly wore that season.  One of which was made during a craft fair during lunch one day at my high school:

There isn't much else that one could say about H. Ross Perot.  Except that he may not have won in 1992 and then again in 1996 when he ran again.  But he left an indelible mark upon American presidential politics.  And that mark may have come back to haunt the Clintons more than two decades later after all.  Not a few times  have I heard in recent years "Ross was right".

Whatever one may think of the guy, it has to be said: he lived an enviable life and abided by his principles.  And we are each the better for that kind of example.

Godspeed, Mr. Perot.  And thank you.

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