George Carlin, dead at 71.

While I was at the gym this morning, the background visual noise of plasma screens blaring annoying images finally showed me something that hit home: the legendary comedian George Carlin died.


It's odd, because my cousin and I were just discussing him a week ago now on, in a conversation about the death of our uncle. She was telling me how she had seen him performing back in 2001, just before 9/11 (B.9/11 will have to be a new dating system in the US, I believe), and he was talking about how he loved to see planes fly into buildings. Apparently, that show was taped at the Oakdale Theater for airing, but never made it. This of course is interesting because Mr. Carlin was an icon and avid supporter of free speech. Many years ago, when I was working on a construction site, one of the sheetrockers was talking about taking the day off to go see Mr. Carlin perform somewhere in CT. For some reason that one fact about the guy had always stuck with me, because otherwise, I thought he was a bit creepy, but he couldn't be half bad if he enjoyed the comedy of George Carlin. Of course, on the construction site, every conversation seemed to be a George Carlin bit; particularly the time someone told an anecdote where every other word used was some variation of the word 'Fuck' and ended with four guys one after the other saying, "Fuck." in agreement with the story.

Saddest of all, was listening to WNPR attempting to pay tribute to him, but giving us an interview with Joan Rivers. Apparently they were friends and contemporaries, but she seems like the type he would have ridiculed. Add to that her canned comments about him, and the whole piece just cheapened the memory of George Carlin.