We've lost Jean Shepherd. Despite being a New Yorker by birth, I never knew who he was, other than the Funny Columnist in Car and Driver - my childhood radio-listening habits didn't include WOR-AM, where he did his show. I probably wouldn't have cared at the time anyway about some guy improvising monologues about some Midwestern backwater

Years later, he did occasional work for PBS, and I became "mature" enough to dig him. Still later, I caught some of his radio work (Shepherd was kewl punk trash compared to Garrison Keillor's wine-and-cheese milquetoast), but I imagine the stuff he did long before I was born was the coolest. Thanks to the WWW, I can, hopefully, find some old airchecks.

Everything Jones! Actually, I finished unfinished nodes (since I usually have emacs running, I start 'em at the drop of a hat). Withdrawal was belated: I was distracted by Real Madrid disgracing itself against Porto in the Champions League.&Shameful! Why wasn't Seedorf in the first XI? I'll tell you why...

...men in white coats arrive to wipe the flecks of foam from his mouth and administer sedatives -Ed.

October 19, 1999 | October 21, 1999