"There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary." --Brendan Behan
The wisdom of experience
Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus' latest project, "Tuesday," is a film about a single mother who tries bargaining with Death to spare the life of her sick, teenage daughter. And because it's a dark comedy, Death (voiced by Arinzé Kene) appears in the form of a talking macaw:
Sickness, death, loss -- these are all experiences that Louis-Dreyfus has had to face in recent years. In 2016, she lost her father Gérard Louis-Dreyfus. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. And her half-sister Emma died from a seizure at the age of 44 in 2018.
“Death is not a subject that people delve into a lot, maybe because it’s uncomfortable,” Louis-Dreyfus recently told The Los Angeles Times. “But it happens to everybody. Not just your own ending, of course, but if you’re lucky enough to have lived long enough, you’re going to be exposed to loss. And that’s worth talking about.”
On her podcast, "Wiser Than Me," Louis-Dreyfus also discusses these topics and shares the wisdom of some of the most iconic older women of our time, including Billie Jean King, Jane Fonda, Beverly Johnson, Julie Andrews, Ruth Reichl, Fran Lebowitz, even her own mother.
When "Wiser Than Me" won the prestigious Webby for podcast of the year last month, Louis-Dreyfus came up with a brilliant bit of advice in her "five-word acceptance speech": "Listen to old women, motherfuckers!"
FMI: Click here.
A camp for coping
Loss comes to us all, and learning how to deal with it is just part of what it means to be mortal. But when you experience loss as a child, you may not have the skills needed to deal with such monumental grief.
That's where Camp Kangaroo comes in.
The bereavement camp was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012. Each summer, Camp Kangaroo accepts children between the ages of 5 and 17 who've experienced the loss of a loved one, then teaches them how to cope:
Camp Kangaroo employs board-certified music therapists, clinical social workers and hospice chaplains to help the children. Using art, music and games, the staff create a fun and safe space for kids to mourn with others who've also experienced loss. The camp also gives kids the tools to work through their pain.
Best of all, it's free of charge.
Camp Kangaroo weekends will also be offered in California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland and Texas this year.
FMI: Click here.
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NOTABLE OBITS
* Trailblazing Black journalist Doris Biscoe, 77, died. She worked as a reporter and anchor for WXYZ-TV in Detroit for more than 25 years. (Myesha Johnson, The Detroit News)
* Figure-skating coach Frank Carroll died. He was 85. During his six-decade career, Carroll helped to guide six Olympic medalists at 10 Winter Games, including Michelle Kwan and Evan Lysacek. (Dave Skretta, The Associated Press)
* Pioneering computer scientist Lynn Conway, 86, who was fired by IBM in the 1960s despite her many significant technological innovations because she came out as transgender, has died. Fifty-two years later, she received a formal apology from the company during a virtual ceremony that 1,200 employees viewed. (Trip Gabriel, The New York Times)
* William Donaldson, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, died at 93. During his tenure at the watchdog, the SEC went on a hiring spree and engaged in more than 1,700 enforcement actions against alleged securities violations. (Brian Murphy, The Washington Post)
* Mike Downey, a sports columnist who worked for major newspapers in Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles, died at 72. Downey was so talented that his peers voted him state sportswriter of the year 11 times. (Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times)
* Civil rights advocate Christopher Edley Jr. died at 71. Edley taught at Harvard Law School, served as dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and worked as an adviser to three presidents. (Bryan Marquard, Boston Globe)
* Howard Fineman, a political correspondent and TV commentator who spent 30 years at Newsweek, died at 75. His work played a role in the collapse of the 1988 Democratic presidential campaign of Gary Hart, who withdrew from the race due to revelations of infidelities. (Emily Langer, The Washington Post). (Sidenote: I also worked with Howard at HuffPost.)
* Neil Goldschmidt, 83, the former governor of Oregon and the former mayor of Portland, died. Goldschmidt's once soaring political career was derailed when The Willamette Week published an expose about how he had repeatedly committed statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl. That story won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. (Harry Esteve, The Oregonian)
* French singer, actress and model Françoise Hardy has died. She was 80. In 2023, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her as No. 162 on a list of the greatest singers of all time; she was the only French performer listed. (Chris Willman, Variety)
* Grammy Award-winning songwriter Mark James, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014, died at 83. He penned over 200 songs, but was best known for writing or co-writing "Always on my Mind," "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Suspicious Minds." (Chris Willman, Variety)
* The Rev. James Lawson Jr., an architect of the nonviolent sit-in protests during the Civil Rights movement, died at 95. A close adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Lawson also spent decades working as a pastor, labor movement organizer and university professor. (Christopher Weber, Travis Loller and Adrian Sainz, The Associated Press)
* Harry D. Leinenweber, 87, who served as a federal judge for nearly four decades, has died. Leinenweber presided over some of Chicago's biggest trials, including the child-sex abuse trial of former R&B star R.Kelly and the corruption trial involving four political insiders tied to ComEd. (Michael Sneed and Jon Seidel, Chicago Sun-Times)
* Actor Tony Lo Bianco, 75, who starred in the 1970s dramas "The French Connection" and "The Seven-Ups," died. Although he received a best actor Tony nomination in 1983 for playing Eddie Carbone in a revival of "A View From the Bridge," Lo Bianco was best known on the stage for portraying Fiorello La Guardia in several productions. (Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter)
* Architect Fumihiko Maki, 95, who designed many notable buildings in his native Japan and in the U.S., died. Maki won the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honor, in 1993. (Fred A. Bernstein, The New York Times)
* Morrie Markoff, a blogger, photographer and scrap-metal sculptor who was believed to be the oldest man in the U.S., died at 110. Markoff's brain has been donated to science for research into super-aging. (Alex Williams, The New York Times)
* Actor, dancer and choreographer Tony Mordente, 88, who starred in the original Broadway and film versions of "West Side Story," has died. He later became a TV director and worked on dozens of shows, including "Family Ties," "M*A*S*H," "Rhoda" and "Walker, Texas Ranger." (Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter)
* YouTube personality Ben Potter died. He was 40. Potter posted nearly 4,000 videos under the account name Comicstorian and had a dedicated fan base of more than 3 million subscribers. (Emmett Lindner, The New York Times)
* Physicist Ed Stone, who played a leading role in NASA missions to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, died at 88. He also led the Jet Propulsion Laboratory when it landed its first rover on Mars. (Deborah Netburn and Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times)
* Retired Col. Edward Thomas Ryan, who was also a retired firefighter, chef and the co-owner and co-founder of radio station WHRL-FM in Albany, N.Y., died at 85. Ryan's death notice included his own revelation that he was gay and that he'd been in a "loving and caring relationship with Paul Cavagnaro" for 25 years. (Legacy.com and Jonathan Edwards, Molly Wadzeck Kraus and Jiselle Lee, The Washington Post)
* Actor-turned-Broadway producer Ron Simons, who earned five Tony Award nominations and four wins, died at 63. He also produced the films “Night Catches Us,” “Blue Caprice” and “Mother of George." (Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times)
* L.A. Lakers legend Jerry West, who as general manager helped to guide the team to the NBA finals eight times and won four championships, died at 86. As a basketball player, he earned a 27-point scoring average, numerous Most Valuable Player awards and a gold medal at the Olympics. (Mike Kupper, Los Angeles Times)
FAMOUS DEATHS IN HISTORY
On June 17, singer/actor/writer Kate Smith (79), Nobel Prize-winning chemist Donald J. Cram (82) and fashion designer/heiress Gloria Vanderbilt (95)
On June 18, Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen (55), actress Ethel Barrymore (79) and Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Cheever (70)
On June 19, spies Julius Rosenberg (35) and Ethel Rosenberg (37), science fiction writer William Golding (81) and actor Ian Holm (88)
On June 20, English painter John Clayton Adams (65-66), gangster Bugsy Siegl (41) and electrical engineer/inventor who won the Nobel Prize in Physics Jack Kilby (81)
On June 21, Italian statesman/author Niccolò Machiavelli, tennis player Maureen Connolly and actor Carroll O'Connor
On June 22, singer/actress Judy Garland, former first lady Pat Nixon and comedian George Carlin
On June 23, virologist/developer of the first polio vaccine Jonas Salk, TV producer Aaron Spelling and actor Peter Falk
On June 24, former President Grover Cleveland, actor/comedian Jackie Gleason and Lonesome George (the last known Pinta Island tortoise)
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"I did what I could." --Edward Paul Abbey
MOMENT OF GRATITUDE
Thanks to Magann, Instagram, A24 Films, YouTube, Lemonada, Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New York Times, CBS News, Los Angeles Times, Camp Kangaroo, NBC Chicago, Apple News, Big Think, Ashim D’Silva, Unsplash, The Detroit News, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, The Oregonian, The Pulitzer Prizes, Variety, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Chicago Sun-Times, Marek Studzinski, On This Day, Playback.FM, Britannica: This Day in History, Time and Date, Wikipedia, "Epitaph for a Desert Anarchist: The Life and Legacy of Edward Abbey" by James Bishop, "Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More Than 3,500 Noteworthy People Throughout History" by William B. Brahms and Deposit Photos for art and story suggestions.
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