Vonnegut's Gone

Johnny Hart now Kurt Vonnegut. I can hear Mark Knopfler singing "Vonnegut's Gone" to the tune of his song Donegan's Gone from his excellent LP Shangri-La.

As a tail end boomer - born in '60 - I am beginning to realize that we are watching our pop culture icons begin to enter the mass exit phase. I mean CBC had a story on Vera Lynn and I was all braced to hear she had passed away only to be informed that it was her birthday. There are fewer weeks passing where we don't hear of another person passing away who we have know about or who's work we have seen, read, heard and appreciated.

Mortality - what a concept! My apologies to Robin Williams. At least he's still alive. Isn't he?

I remember that my parents used to mention almost every time I called or visited with them in their last years that someone they knew has died. Now my wife is reading the online obituaries. Well as either Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde or Will Rogers said, "Every day I don't find my obituary in the paper is a good day."

Man, this kinda sucks. And we don't even have grandchildren yet! No wonder guys buy Corvettes and Harleys when they hit 40 to 50. My problem is I can't afford either. Well maybe I can build another scale model. I'll know desperation has set in when I start collecting 1:18 scale copies of OCC and West Coast Choppers bikes.

Still, Kurt was great writer. Guys like him are rare. Rarer still to get to the top and get noticed these days. Nobody reads anymore. And I haven't even met Ray Bradbury or Harlan Ellison yet. I haven't written the "Great Canadian Novel" - mostly because Robertson Davies, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood have already claimed all of the decent territory.

Does blogging count?

For anything?

Day-yam!!

Time's a wastin'!