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DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

PADDY

I'll Lock Up
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I just heard that Christopher Hitchens, the sharp-witted provocateur who used his formidable
learning, biting wit and muscular prose style to skewer what he considered high-placed hypocrites, craven lackeys of the right and left, died Dec. 15 at a hospital in Houston. He was 62.
 

PADDY

I'll Lock Up
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Vaclav Havel, Politician and playwright, leader of the "Velvet Revolution" that overthrew Communism in Czechoslovakia, as a dissident he was jailed many times by the Communist government but later became the popular president of the Czech Republic.

I remember the story of when he became President, he donned a pair of roller skates and explored the massive Presidential Palace. A very brave man of his times.
 

PADDY

I'll Lock Up
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Folks - Just a kind reminder, as it's easy to forget with all the rooms in the Lounge, that this *place* is akin to an Obituary Column.

We 'note' the Death/Passing of a person here so that other Members may be aware.

Tread lightly as you stroll through here as you would with the respect reserved for a grave yard or cemetery.

Thankyou for your sensitivity and cooperation, Ladies & Gentlemen of the Lounge.

Paddy.
 
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15,563
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East Central Indiana
Kind of surprising to me how I felt about Hitchen's death. I rarely agreed with him. He could infuriate me with the pompous attitude...but I was deeply saddened to hear the news. Something about him that I did like and truely will miss. Strange how things can work like that sometimes....
HD
 

Connery

One Too Many
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Crab Key
George Whitman, the American-born owner of Shakespeare & Company, a fabled English-language bookstore on the Left Bank in Paris and a magnet for writers, poets and tourists for close to 60 years, died on Wednesday in his apartment above the store. He was 98.

Mr. Whitman’s store, founded in 1951, has also been a favorite stopover for established authors and poets to read from their work and sign their books. Its visitors list reads like a Who’s Who of American, English, French and Latin American literature: Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Samuel Beckett and James Baldwin were frequent callers in the early days; other regulars included Lawrence Durrell and the Beat writers William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso, all of them Mr. Whitman’s friends.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/b...seller-and-cultural-beacon-is-dead-at-98.html

WHITMAN-obit-popup.jpg

George Whitman at Shakespeare & Company about 1980.
 

Tomasso

Incurably Addicted
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13,719
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USA
I think that there is a documentary on the store as well.

BTW, George Whitman named his shop Shakespeare & Company as an homage to Sylvia Beach's iconic book shop. His daughter, the current proprietor, is named Sylvia Beach Whitman.

[video=youtube;rDOUcvb2hWs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDOUcvb2hWs&feature=related[/video]
 
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Giftmacher

One Too Many
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1,405
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Hohenmauth CZ
Vaclav Havel, Politician and playwright, leader of the "Velvet Revolution" that overthrew Communism in Czechoslovakia, as a dissident he was jailed many times by the Communist government but later became the popular president of the Czech Republic.

I remember the story of when he became President, he donned a pair of roller skates and explored the massive Presidential Palace. A very brave man of his times.
I didn't noticed this topic. Honour of his memory! He was a great man.
 

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