Losing a legend

I was caught off guard this morning when I heard on the radio during the ride to work that George Carlin had died.

Mainly I couldn't believe that was the first I was hearing about it. I get all kinds of breaking news alerts on my phone from NBC News, often for things I could care less about. You mean to tell me the death of George Carlin doesn't merit a text alert? C'mon NBC!

I loved Carlin. I remember when he came to Plattsburgh when I was in college. I psyched myself up for his show by listening to every George Carlin album I could get my hands on over and over again. Unfortunately, when I saw the actual show he had very little new material and I could recite verbatim most of his routine that night. But it was still great to see him live.

One of the most memorable bits from that night is one of the routines that everyone is trotting out today as they pay tribute to George -- his hilarious comparison between football and baseball. That and his legendary "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" are showing up embedded on blogs left and right today.

I decided to go old school. My dad wasn't the biggest George Carlin fan. His counter-culture humor wasn't always dad's style. But dad did always get a kick out of the Hippy Dippy Weatherman (perhaps the forerunner to his "Cars" character)...



Also left out of most of the tributes today is any mention of the underrated "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure."

And of course, we won't mention to Thomas that Mr. Conductor #2 is dead.