2016 - You Suck

On so many levels, this was not a good year.  I know that I don't have to tell you all that.  But with the announcement of the death of Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher, today, December 27, this was a year that sucked, truly.  Let's hope that they didn't know something we didn't about 2017.

Here's a list of deaths that significantly impacted me over the past year.  Unfortunately, this list is by no means comprehensive.

Literature:

• Harper Lee, 89 (February)
• Edward Albee, 88 (September)
• W. P. Kinsella, 81 (September) - author of the story that became Field of Dreams

Television:

• Beth Howland, 74 (December 2015) - Vera from Alice
• Wayne Rogers, 82 (December 2015) - Trapper John McIntyre from MASH
• Pat Harrington, 86 (January) - Schneider from One Day at a Time
• Dan Haggerty, 74 (January) - Grizzly Adams 
• Abe Vigoda, 94 (January) - Detective Fish from Barney Miller 
• Larry Drake, 66 (March) - Benny from LA Law
• James Noble, 94 (March) - the Governor from Benson, but for me he's the Rev. John Witherspoon from 1776
• Patty Duke, 69 (March)
• Garry Shandling, 66 (March)
• Doris Roberts, 90 (April) - the matriarch from Everybody Loves Raymond
• Morley Safer, 84 (May) - 60 Minutes legend
• Garry Marshall, 81 (July)
• Florence Henderson, 82 (November) - Mrs. Brady helped raise me.
• Ron Glass, 71 (November) - from Barney Miller
• Grant Tinker, 90 (November) - Mr. Mary Tyler Moore
• Alan Thicke, 69 (December)

Movies:

• Alan Rickman, 69 (January) - for me, he's always Hans
• David Margulies, 78 (January) - the Mayor in Ghostbusters
• George Kennedy, 88 (February)
• Anton Yelchin, 27 (June) - the new Chekov from the Star Trek reboot
• Gene Wilder, 83 (August) - the one and only Willy Wonka
• Zsa Zsa Gabor, 99 (December)
• Robert Vaughn, 83 (November) - I've listed him under movies for his role in The Towering Inferno (he dies in that one, too)
• Bernard Fox, 89 (December) - you know him from a lot of TV and movies.  I just saw him the other night on Big Jake, one of my favorite John Wayne films
• Carrie Fisher, 60 (December)

Music:

• Natalie Cole, 65 (December 2015)
• David Bowie, 69 (January)
• Glenn Frey, 67 (January)
• Frank Sinatra, Jr., 72 (March)
• Merle Haggard, 79 (April)
• Prince, 57 (April)
• Kay Starr, 94 (November) - legendary jazz singer
• Leonard Cohen, 82 (November)
• George Michael, 53 (December)

Sports:

• Meadowlark Lemon, 83 (December 2015) - star of the Harlem Globetrotters
• Andy Bathgate, 83 (February) - legendary New York Ranger
• Muhammad Ali, 74 (June)
• Joe Garagiola, 74 (March)
• Gordie Howe, 88 (June) - Mr. Hockey
• Pat Summitt, 64 (June)
• Arnold Palmer, 87 (September) - Mr. Golf
• Ralph Branca, 90 (November) - Brooklyn Dodgers player
• Craig Sager, 65 (December) - sports announcer

Politics:

• Boutros-Boutros-Ghali, 81 (February) - former United Nations Secretary General
• Nancy Reagan, 94 (March)
• Elie Wiesel, 87 (July)
• John McLaughlin, 89 (August) - founder of the McLaughlin Group
• Phyllis Schlafly, 92 (September)
• Shimon Peres, 93 (September)
• Tom Hayden, 76 (October) - among other things, he was married to Jane Fonda
• Janet Reno, 78 (November)
• Gwen Ifill, 61 (November)
• Fidel Castro, 90 (November) - finally
• John Glenn, 95 (December)

Other:

• American Democracy, 226 (November)