R.I.P. George Carlin

Like I said during the Winston piece, some amazingly talented and legendary people in their fields are dying these days. It's an odd "trend."

George Carlin was never my favorite comedian. I didn't run around reciting his bits or watching everything of his I could get my eyeballs on. But I did recognize that he was widely considered one of the most brilliant, most controversial comedians to ever take the stage - and you've gotta appreciate that. And I did recognize that whenever I saw him in something... whether it was a standup special I wandered upon or those awesome cameos in Dogma and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back not to mention how endearing he was in Jerseu Girl... he entertained me, he made me smile and laugh - and I know I appreciated that.

I also said in the Winston piece that it seemed far too frequently you could look at a death and start a story with, "It's weird that he just died because..." Well, I've got one for this one. When I saw this news this morning when I woke up, my stomach sank. Not because I'm some huge megafan of Carlin but... well, during the planning stages for our recent Vegas trip, we were looking at different shows that we might want to attend. Some wanted to do Spamalot, some wanted to do Phantom or the Beatles' Love. I remember seeing that George Carlin was going to be there while we were and pointing it out. But as often happens while on vacation, we got wrapped up in other stuff and didn't end up going. Even while we were there, I saw a billboard promoting his show and said, "Aw damn. I totally forgot he was going to be here this weekend. _That's_ what we should have gone to."

But we didn't - and now we'll never be able to.

R.I.P. George Carlin.