June 25, 2009

RIP Michael

When I was in the fifth grade, my music teacher decided that it would round out our early education nicely if all the boys would listen to a Jackson Five record and attempt to emulate young Michael's angelic singing voice during mandatory choir practice. He was one year older than we were and our teacher was convinced that we could sound just like him if we tried hard enough.

Of course that was impossible....and deeply embarrassing for pre-adolescent boys doing our best to disguise squeeky high-pitched voices with chin-in-chest attempts to magnify what little bass could be coaxed from our hormonally-starved baby-thin vocal chords. Naturally, the girls just watched and giggled.

Later, we all grew up -- all of us except Michael that is -- who was seemingly trapped in some kind of horrible childhood nightmare from which he could not awaken, even with all his talent, success and fame.

May 31, 2009

Last Titanic survivor dies at 97

Nancy Palmieri / Associated Press

Millvina Dean signs a Titanic movie poster at the Titanic Historical Society's convention in 1998.

Millvina Dean was about 2 months old when she sailed on the doomed ocean liner in 1912. She, her mother and brother were saved. Her father was among those who went down with the ship.

Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the legendary ocean liner Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg in the North Atlantic, died today. She was 97.

She died at a nursing home near Southampton, England, the port where she and her family boarded the ship on its only voyage, according to Charles Haas, the president of the Titanic International Society. Her death came on the 98th anniversary of the launching of the Titanic on May 31, 1911.

"She was a remarkable, sparkling lady," Haas told the Times Sunday. "She knew her place in history and was always willing to share her story with others, especially children. She was the last living link to the story."

Dean was about 8 weeks old when she and her family set sail, third class, on the luxury ocean liner on April 10, 1912. Five days later, she was among some 700 passengers and crew rescued off the coast of Newfoundland. She and her mother, Georgetta, 32, and her brother Bertram, 23 months old, were put into lifeboats. Her father, Bertram, 27, stayed on board the ship and was among more than 1,500 passengers and crew members who went down with the Titanic.