Eh, ben! Two institutions gone in a day...
I have a tremendous admiration for Peter Ustinov, his humour and his sharp wit and intelligence.
I was a teenager when an uncle gave me a copy of Ustinov's 'Add a Dash of Pity', a splendid collection of clever, sometimes satirical short stories which I recall finding as amusing as they were moving.
And he was unforgettable in 'Spartacus' (Rotten Tomatoes), in which, as Roger Ebert wrote in a 1991 review on seeing the film for the third time, the man upstaged everybody else...
Ever since those early years of my life, Ustinov has always been a small part of it in his many different capacities, but a big-hearted man. He was irascible perhaps, but had a tremendous gift for getting his deep humanism across in a way that was never anything but entertaining.
"I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me to be the most civilised music in the world," the raconteur, actor, writer and mimic apparently told Reuters last year (BBC obituary).
That strikes me as a self-composed epitaph fitting enough for one of the greats.
And on this note, 'The Age' gives him a fine send-off.
Alistair Cooke has died too, taking in his wake a big bouquet of tributes from all over the world.
When first I mentioned his 'Letter from America' in May last year, I couldn't help but say how his mannerisms sometimes grated on my nerves. Indeed, there were times when he made me snarl at the radio: "Will you just, please, get to the point!"
But there are those who say the same of me.
I never stopped listening to those weekly broadcasts and often in recent years went to some lengths to make sure I was in earshot of a radio for those 15 minutes on a Sunday morning. Sometimes it was Cooke whose voice dragged a reluctant Marianne out of bed while I shaved, learned much, and mentally disagreed with and admired the man by turns.
When this "icon/doyen/permanent fixture" retired just a few weeks before his death, Terry Sedgewick down under remarked how Cooke was "used to getting his way with celebrities. Most of them were only too happy to appear on his programs for minimum pay. That was until he met Groucho..." (read on at 'There Ain't No Sanity Clause').
British domestic radio even made Cooke's departure its top new item in one of this morning's bulletins and the BBC news site is full of highlights and remembrances.
He's irreplaceable, of course.
In the event that I ever reach the age of 95, it would be a remarkable gift from the gods to retain the kind of professionalism and acuteness of mind that graced Cooke until the last.
10:21:33 PM link 
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