Sunday, January 23, 2005

Notable passings I have never watched much late-night TV; it's way past my bedtime. But Johnny Carson was special, and I'm sad that he's gone. Johnny Carson, 30-year king of late night TV, dead at 79. Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show TV host who served America a smooth nightcap of celebrity banter, droll comedy and heartland charm for 30 years, has died. He was 79. [USATODAY.com News - Top Stories] Carson helped us laught through some of the weirdest years of the past century. Including Watergate. Which makes it notable that Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's incredibly loyal secretary, also passed away today: Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's Secretary, Dies By By PHILIP SHENON. [NYT > Home Page] Ms. Woods was responsible for one of the most bizarre moments of the whole Watergate mess: the Rose Mary Woods Stretch, in which she demonstrated -- painfully -- how it might just have been barely possible for her to stretch allllll the way across her desk to answer the phone while still holding down the Dictaphone pedal with her foot, thereby just maybe, maybe, accidentally erasing the infamous and likely incriminating 18-1/2 minutes of audio tape. I felt so very sorry for that poor woman, literally stretching to protect her boss. 6:34:55 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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