h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Francis Matthews
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27859814

But... but... Captain Scarlet doesn't die

Gerry Conlon
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27955555

The 1980s was one of the most turbulent and news-filled decades I'm ever likely to live through, but one of the most memorable images from the 80s for me is Gerry Conlon outside the Old Bailey in 1989: "I've been in prison for 15 years for something I didn't do."

James Garner
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28390309

He's far from being a favourite actor of mine, but he was in a pair of films I'm very partial to and enjoy every time I watch them (and haven't seen for a while) - Support Your Local Sheriff and Support Your Local Gunfighter. Both he and Jack Elam showed a fine talent for comedy in those two films. God, The Devil and Bob, for which he voiced God (and Alan Cumming is a very good Devil) is well worth watching too, and let's not forget The Great Escape.

James Garner made a big impression with some friends of mine when they were filming scenes for Space Cowboys at a local watering hole that was popular with NASA folks for decades. They found him to be quite friendly and jovial. They weren't very fond of Tommy Lee Jones.

Robin Williams
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28749702

I must be honest, I was never much of a fan but I recognise his talent. When people ask me what superpower I'd like to have, I think Of Mork and, well, I don't remember for sure if he could actually do this but my mind conflates it with him. I'd like to be able to surreptitiously point a finger at any mobile device and instantly drain the battery.

Somebody yakking loudly on a mobile phone? *ZAP*. Someone listening to a personal stereo with tinny sound leaking out of the headphones? *ZAP*. Someone sodcasting with their smartphone? *ZAP*. Trying to have a conversation or a meal with someone and they can't leave their phone alone? *ZAP*. Someone talking or texting at the cinema? *ZAP*.

When I was in college, I saw a lecture by Adrian Cronauer, the inspiration for Williams character in Good Morning, Viet Nam.

He opened the lecture with the disclaimer that he was not as funny as Robin Williams.


He wasn't.

I just checked out the local Houston newspaper's website and they have two stories about Robin Williams at the top of the page. One is his most famous roles and the other is titled "Celebs react to Robin Williams' Death".

Both links lead to insipid slide shows to generate page views.

How callous, how brazen.

Correction: 4 slide shows.

Speaking of callous and brazen, I imagine you might have seen that image of ABC News' website that's been outraging the Twitterati for the past 12 hours and is still being re-circulated as I type http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Buy_jGvIIAAq1Uy.jpg:large

Jackals.

In just the last few minutes The Chronicle has added yet another slide show, this one is simply a list of his jokes done as black text on white background slides. They couldn't even do that as a single page of actual text, they had to build it as click-baity slide frame images.

THAT was weird. I'm listening to NPR and they're re-airing the Fresh Air Robin Williams interview with Terry Gross and she asks him about depression and if he gets sad and he starts explaining and it went to dead air.

Spooky

They dropped the rest of the interview. It was dead air for about two minutes (an eternity on air) then the local announcer passed it over to the BBC world feed. They came back to Fresh Air after the Williams interview was over. What's really odd is that the precise place where it cut off was the section they were playing as a teaser for the interview this morning. In other words the best part.

I'm getting irritated by a lot of the nonsense in the coverage. I'm sure a lot of it's well-meaning, but it's verging on all that romantic silliness about the tearful clown.

Yeah, I'm avoiding the lame-stream media. Fresh Air interviews are always much more poignant and substantive. I may see if I can stream the rest of it.

No sign of a 'Pray for Robin Williams' hashtag on Twitter yet Not that it'd do him any good now. Or before.

If you can't find a podcast or an archived stream of that Fresh Air, KUT is broadcasting it at 7pm, so you could stream it if you're near a PC or a smartphone.

The NPR.org page will have it tomorrow. It'll give me something to listen to instead