George Carlin dead at 71

While on the road again for business (which, interestingly enough, is giving me more time to blog), I took sad note this morning of death of comedian George Carlin. Carlin died of heart failure at the age of 71.

I remember listening to recordings of him that my older brother owned back when I was a kid. (Mom and Dad wouldn’t have appreciated that he was letting us listen, I’m sure.) I found the 7 Bad Words You Can’t Say on TV to be just the funniest thing I, at age 10, had ever heard. And yes, I can still recite them all. I actually got the chance to see him perform in 1981 when he did a show at the University of Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall and he was every bit as funny as I’d remembered.

In recent years, his commentary and comedy turned darker than usual picking up on the distaste – sometimes downright hatred – of our present Administration. Still, he managed to entertain in ways that avoided the whole politics thing, for the most part. While it makes perfect sense to me now that I’ve heard it, I was surprised to find out that he was the voice behind the Disney Cars character Fillmore, the 60′s-era doper VW minivan.

He’s become a classic, now, and classics are missed when they are gone. Godspeed, Mr. Carlin.

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