Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was in the new Villainmobile yesterday listening to the CBC. (He has a demo of SirriusXM radio for a few more months and he’s found that he listens to the CBC once and a while.) While listening to the CBC he heard a number of commentators reminiscing about the life of Christopher Hitchens. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t recall who was speaking at the time but the individual was commenting on how, contrary to his public persona, Hitchens was a consummate gentleman with impeccable manners. The speaker (who now as your Maximum Leader thinks about it, might have been David Frum) said that he visited Hitchens a few weeks ago and even though Hitchens was weak and ravaged by cancer and its side affects, he (Hitchens) stood up from the sofa on which he was laying down and attempted to offer his visitor a seat. The speaker indicated that Hitchens was always the gentleman in private.

This prompted your Maximum Leader to recall that many years ago he met Hitchens in DC. They ran into each other in a hotel lobby. Hitchens was going to a party, your Maximum Leader to a different party. Your Maximum Leader introduced himself in the lobby and we rode the elevator together. We exchanged small talk about some goings-on in town. Somehow the conversation was drawing down and we exchanged emails. Your Maximum Leader later mailed Hitchens a short polite email thanking him for sharing an enjoyable elevator ride. To your Maximum Leader’s surprise, Hitchens responded the next morning with an equally pleasant email. That struck your Maximum Leader as showing a civility that was often missing from public people.

In closing, your Maximum Leader will restate that which he quoted earlier. The world is a whole lot dumber (and less interesting) without Christopher Hitchens.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that Christopher Hitchens has died. (Good WaPo obit here.) Actually, your Maximum Leader learned of this earlier today. But he wasn’t sure what to write.

Your Maximum Leader thought of titling this post “Hitchens - RIP” or “Fare thee well Christopher Hitchens” or any one of a number of other normal titles that include some variation of resting or moving on. But in the end your Maximum Leader decided that all these potential post titles implied some sort of belief in something more beyond death. Of course, Hitchens did not believe in God, the afterlife, or anything like that.

So your Maximum Leader decided that the best thing to do was to just announce it. Christopher Hitchens is dead.

As Anthony Bourdain tweeted earlier, the world got a whole lot dumber today. That is true. The world was better off for Hitchens being in it. Your Maximum Leader didn’t always agree with Hitch, but he was thoughtful, exciting, combative, entertaining, and a hell of a writer.

Because your Maximum Leader can’t help it… Rest in peace Hitch.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was just perusing the web and saw on Skippy’s site that Lawrence Eagleburger has died. Go and read Skippy’s post, because he’s said much of what your Maximum Leader would have wanted to say if he’d known the news.

Your Maximum Leader is saddened by the fact that the couldn’t find an obit on the Washington Post web site by cruising through all the normal headings. He was reduced to a search of the site to turn up a result. And sadly the Post obit is tragically poor.

Rest in peace Mr. Secretary. A few of us remember your noble service to our republic.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that Elizabeth Taylor has passed.

What really can one say about Elizabeth Taylor?

She was a MOVIE STAR. In many ways she was the MOVIE STAR of her generation. She was more beautiful, more talented, more shocking, more shameless, more, more, more, more than any other star.

Your Maximum Leader should thank Elizabeth Taylor for engendering a love of Shakespeare in his eldest daughter. One day, a few years ago, your Maximum Leader was watching his copy of “The Taming of the Shrew” with Taylor and Burton. As the film got started, Villainette #1, then 10 years old, sat down next to her dad and asked what he was watching. After a very short explaination of the basic elements of the story, Villainette #1 asked if she could watch the film. Sure was the response. She loved it. She “got” it too. From that day on she’s liked her Shakespeare. In many ways your Maximum Leader owes that to Elizabeth Taylor. (FYI… Villainette #1 also likes Cleopatra. A film which your Maximum Leader also likes a great deal.)

Requiescat in pace, Elizabeth.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader’s early childhood was musically scored by great opera. He still recognizes specific recordings that his mother owned on record and were played with great frequency at home. He remembers Pavarotti. Sherrill Milnes, a young Placido Domingo, Maria Callas, Leontine Price and Joan Sutherland all singing in his home over the ole hi-fi stereo.

Well… Dame Joan Sutherland has died, aged 83, in Switzerland. The Washington Post obituary reads in part:

Born in Australia, she first trained with her mother; a vocal scholarship then brought her to London, where she reencountered Richard Bonynge, a compatriot who was then working a vocal coach at the Royal Opera House. Bonynge helped unlock and develop the upper register and rock-solid technical ability. He remained her constant artistic partner throughout her career, conducting most of her appearances and her legacy of recordings: “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Norma,” “I Puritani,” “La sonnambula.”

Bonynge also helped guide her away from the Wagnerian track that might have seemed to be a natural for someone of her vocal endowments, and into the realm of the coloratura soprano. Sutherland’s first roles included the Forest Bird in Wagner’s “Siegfried” and Clothilde, a bit part, to Maria Callas’s Norma in Bellini’s opera of the same name. Her breakthrough came with a 1959 “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Covent Garden, directed by Zeffirelli; her success put her on the map. She reprised the role for her Metropolitan Opera and La Scala debuts in 1961 — it was for this that the Italian press dubbed her “La Stupenda” — and never really looked back.

Your Maximum Leader has some excerpts of Sutherland singing in Wagner’s Ring on his iPod. He’s listening to them now.

The world of opera has lost one of its finest practionners. Lucky for us her recordings remain as a testament of her talents.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader asks that you remember Richard III, King of England. He was killed in battle at Bosworth this day in 1485. He fought valiantly, if not triumphantly. He was the last Plantagenet to rule England. He was the last King of England to die in battle. And his death marks the generally accepted end of both the Wars of the Roses and the medieval period in England.

It is from Shakespeare’s play Richard III that the name of this site is taken. The important lines come in Act One, Scene III:

But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

Richard is, in your Maximum Leader’s opinion, one of the most maligned kings in all history. Shakespeare’s play, while vastly entertaining, is far from an accurate portrayal of history and the man as we now know him. But that is the subject of another post.

To close, allow your Maximum Leader to post an obituary first penned by Rex Stout.

“PLANTAGENET — Richard, great king and true friend of the rights of man, died at Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. Murdered by traitors and, dead, maligned by knaves and ignored by Laodiceans, he merits our devoted remembrance.”

While your Maximum Leader would not lump Shakespeare in with the knaves, Richard’s memory has certainly been besmerched by many.

Remember poor Richard Plantagenet.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader heard on the radio this morning that Robert Byrd, the longest serving Senator in history, had died this morning. If you have not, you should read the 6 (internet) page obit in the Washington Post.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t have much to say about Senator Byrd. This is due to a reticence about speaking ill of the dead so soon after they pass; but also because he doesn’t have much to add to the big picture of his life. Your Maximum Leader can’t recall an issue on which he agreed strongly with Senator Byrd. He can recall a few where he did disagree strongly with Senator Byrd. Your Maximum Leader does have tremendous admiration for the man because of his knowledge of the minutae of the Senate’s arcane rules. Your Maximum Leader loves parliamentary procedure and the ways it can (and frankly should be) used in the legislative process. While he has not read it, your Maximum Leader understands Byrd’s book on Senate Procedure is a classic of the genre.

Rest in peace Senator. Your work here is done.

Carry on.

As many of you already know, my best buddy Kevin’s mother passed away yesterday. It is hard to express the emotions that crowd one’s mind and heart at such a time. There is sorrow because of the permenant loss. There is relief that her suffering has passed. The contradiction of emotions one feels is often more difficult to deal with than the power of the emotions singly.

I spent time yesterday evening trying to shoo away my family for a little quiet reflection. I eventually did get some time to myself. I regret to say that I didn’t come to any great and noble ideas in my reflective time. I remembered the many kindnesses given to me over more than 3 decades. I remembered camping trips, picnics, concerts, and so many other moments. There was joy, sadness, embarassment, grief, and I suppose some calm at the end.

After my quiet time I went to bed a little earlier than normal. Strangely upon waking this morning I realized I’d been dreaming of the old cartoon “Star Blazers.” Star Blazers was a cartoon that Kevin and I watched together so often afterschool when we were younger.

Strange how the mind works.

Rest in peace Mrs Neidlinger. I will miss you.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was looking over various twitter feeds he follows today and found an obituary in the NYT that was so interesting: Knut Haugland, Sailor on Kon-Tiki, Dies at 92.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t want to steal the Amazing Ben’s schitck from Badass of the Week, but Knut Haugland seems to be a real badass. Resistance fighter against the Nazis. Sailor on a balsa wood raft across the Pacific. That is pretty awesome. That he seemed to be a decent man as well was an added benefit.

Your Maximum Leader used to regularly read the Obits in the Times of London to catch the interesting passings. He’s grown out of the habit recently. It would serve him well to start again.

RIP - Knut Haugland.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sure that by now you’ve heard that Senator Ted Kennedy has died. If for some reason this blog is your first exposure to this bit of news your Maximum Leader suggests the following:

1) Swear your complete and unquestioning fealty to your Maximum Leader (contract written and signed in blood will do).

2) Just go to the WaPo and read this 5 web-page long obituary.

Your Maximum Leader will not heap praise or scorn on Kennedy’s memory. His life can be read however you choose based on your own views. There is plenty of material for detractors and haigiographers alike.

Your Maximum Leader will leave you with this thought… Of all the obituaries and commentary that he’s read so far today on Kennedy’s passing there is one person’s obituary/comments that he’d like to read. Alas, that person’s not written anything on the subject yet. That blogger would be Skippy.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, like many people who grew up in the 1980s, remembers the films of John Hughes as part of the cultural background of his life. He can’t think of a Hughes film that he’s seen (and there are likely a few he hasn’t seen) that he hasn’t either loved or liked a lot. Ferris Bueller, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. All of them great. Your Maximum Leader also remembers very fondly She’s Having a Baby one of Hughes’ lesser-known films.

Although your Maximum Leader doesn’t often get really emotional over the passing of people he’s never met, he actually does feel a little sad about Hughes’ passing. He seemed too young at age 59. Hughes had the ability to connect with a whole generation of move-goers, of which your Maximum Leader was one. Although Hughes was not particularly productive lately, his body of work is classic. Hughes will be remembered among Hollywood’s greatest directors. At least your Maximum Leader will so remember him.

Rest in peace, John Hughes. Your Maximum Leader prays you receive your heavenly reward.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wakes up every day now and wonders what other famous person is going to be found dead, die, or be killed. There seems to be someone new every day…

Today comes the news that Former Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara died yesterday in Washington DC, aged 93. The Washington Post has a comprehensive obituary posted for him.

Your Maximum Leader, starting in the late 1990s, started to feel sorry for Robert McNamara. He was a man condemned to live his life in the knowledge that he engineered the policies of the Vietnam War. Those policies resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of American lives and much treasure. In the end one can say that the statistical know-how that had well served McNamara until 1961 and there after was the key to his failed Vietnam policies. The statistics and analysis that he so wanted to lead to a dispassionate application of a rational policy was in the end doomed to failure for not being able to quantify the human factors of the war.

Your Maximum Leader hopes Robert McNamara has found his peace now. It seemed as though it was too elusive in life.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader and his lovely wife spend a lovely long weekend at the Nemacolin Resort (with a brief foray to Pittsburgh for the Pirates/Royals game on Saturday night). And what has been going on in the meanwhile?

Ed McMahon - dead.
Farrah Fawcett - dead.
Michael Jackson - dead.
Billy Mays - dead.

Great jeezey chreezey!

On the flip side…

Abe Vigoda - lives!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees on the Entertainment wire that actor David Carradine was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok today. Apparently Carradine hanged himself. One wonders why… Your Maximum Leader wonders if news of some auto-erotic asphixiation thingie will come out in the news soon. Like that guy from INXS…

Your Maximum Leader was a fan of “Kung Fu” and the “Kill Bill” movies. Although Carradine was older, it seems sad that he should go out this way.

RIP

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been rather busy with life of late and has let his blogging (and X-box playing before you all start going off thinking the worst) go. Sorry ’bout that.

Your Maximum Leader has just read on the Washington Post that Ricardo Montalban has died, aged 88.

Your Maximum Leader used to love Fantasy Island. He also is a huge fan of Star Trek II. It is as a fan of those works that Mr. Montalban’s passing is noted.

Now your Maximum Leader is imagining Montalban (in Khan garb) demanding “SMILES EVERYONE! SMILES!” on the dock at Fantasy Island…

Imagine that yourself.

Carry on.