The Pencil Today:

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“No man can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow.” — Euripides

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These people turned in their timecards in the year 2012. Some of them were great souls; some not.

Robert Hegyes — Juan Epstein on “Welcome Back, Kotter.”
Etta James
Ben Hana — Famous Wellington, New Zealand homeless person; he worshipped the Maori sun-god Tama-nui-te-rā; known as “the blanket man,” he eschewed clothing as a religious observance; legend has it he took to the streets as an act of atonement for killing a friend in a drunk-driving accident.
Davy Jones

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John Severin — One of the original Mad magazine cartoonists
Florence Green — At nearly 111 years old, the last surviving veteran of World War I, member of the Women’s Royal Air Force (Britain).
Ben Gazzara — “A Jackie Treehorn Production.”
Don Cornelius — “Peace, love, and soul.”

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Addie L. Wyatt — First black woman named named international vice president of a major labor union (Amalgamated Meat Cutters); first black woman named Time magazine Person of the Year (Co-winner with Barbara Jordan).
Earl Scruggs — Bluegrass banjo picker; member of Flatt & Scruggs.
Harry Crews — Tough guy author, playwright, and essayist.
Adrienne Rich — Lesbian feminist poet and essayist.

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Bert Sugar — Basso-profundo boxing journalist; also, co-writer with James Randi of the book, “Houdini: His Life and Art.”
Murray Lender — CEO of Lender’s Bagels; developed ideas of selling frozen bagels and pre-slicing them.
Chaleo Yoovidhya — Billionaire legal dangerous drug peddler; developed the Red Bull energy drinks.
Tom Johnson — Founder of telescope manufacturing company, Celestron; his company kick-started amateur astronomy in the United States.
Peter Bergman — Founder of The Firesign Theater; coined the term “love-in.”
Mike Wallace — CBS news reporter who was famously punched in the stomach on the floor of the 1969 Democratic National Convention; father of the execrable Chris Wallace.
Jim Marshall — If you’ve ever attended a rock concert, his amps blew your ears out.
Mr. Imagination — Born Gregory Warmack, outsider artist.
Eddie Blazonczyk — Polka king, leader of The Versatones.

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Donna Summer — “Love to Love You Baby” is one of the most important recordings in American pop history.
Andrew Brietbart — Professional obfuscator, political smear artist, media scourge, shrieking, moaning, pissing, infantile tantrum-thrower; his passing set off weeks of spontaneous raucous celebrations around the globe.
Donald “Duck” Dunn — Blues guitarist with Booker T. & the MGs.
Maurice Sendak
Marilyn Houlberg — Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, leading academic expert on Haitian voodoo.
Andrew Sarris — Film critic; brought France’s auteur theory to the United States.
Judy Agnew — Veep Spiro’s widow.
Rodney King — 1992 LA beating victim.
Elinor Ostrom — IU Nobel Prize winner in Economics; & Vincent Ostrom, IU political scientist.
Henry Hill — Mob rat whose gut-spilling was the basis for “Goodfellas.”

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Phil Corboy — The personal injury lawyer.
Ray Bradbury — “Fahrenheit 451.”
Gore Vidal — Author & homosexual.
Sally Ride — Astronaut & lesbian.
Alexander Cockburn — Irish-born political journalist for the Village Voice and The Nation.
Celeste Holm — I never could understand why Gregory Peck’s Phil Greene didn’t go for her Anne Detrey in “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” she was pretty, smart, fun-loving, and a rebel — instead Greene went for the bland WASP, Kathy Lacy; truly, love is blind.
Ernest Borgnine — Marty.
Andy Griffith — Lonesome Rhodes.

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Neil Armstrong — First human on the moon.
Phyllis Diller
Scott Mackenzie — Sang the 1967 hit, “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair);” the song had been commissioned to promote the Monterey Pop Festival
Ron Palillo — Ooh, ooh, Horshack!
Helen Gurley Brown — Cosmopolitan editor and author of “Sex and the Single Girl.”
Sid Waddell — British darts commentator — who knew there was such a job?
Judith Crist — New York magazine and New York Herald Tribune film critic
Marvin Hamlisch — The definitive 1970s movie musical scorer.
Sister Boom Boom — Born Jack Fertig, San Francisco gay rights activist and aspiring politician.

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Barry Commoner — Environmentalist; founder of the Citizens Party
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger — New York Times publisher; made the decision in June, 1971 to run the Pentagon Papers.
Louise Johnson — British biophysicist and crystallographer at the University of Oxford.
Russell Train — EPA administrator under Nixon & Ford; president of the World Wildlife Fund.
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon — The seminal Moonie.

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Hal David — He wrote the lyrics to Burt Bacharach’s tunes.
Russell Means — Oglala Sioux, Native American rights activist, member of the American Indian Movement
George McGovern — Liberal.
Paul Kurtz — Philosophy professor at State University of New York at Buffalo and noted skeptic; known as “the father of secular humanism.”
Sylvia Kristel — Godawful actress who gained fame and glory as the star of the unwatchable uber-70s soft core porn franchise “Emmanuelle”
Mr. Shit — Born Abba Bina; Port Moresby, New Guinea businessman and political aspirant; he ran a manure operation, ergo earning his moniker.
Larry Sloan — Boss at Price Stern Sloan publishers; he brought us “Mad Libs.”
Joey Pal — Canadian football player; could his parents have known about the movie “Pal Joey” when they named him?
Keith Campbell — Scottish biologist who was part of the team that cloned Dolly the Sheep
Marvin Miller — Labor leader in the steel industry, went on to become the single most important force behind professional players unions as the head of the Major League Baseball Players Association
Lawrence Guyot — Civil rights activist, director of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

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Hannie Lips — I had no idea who this person was until I came upon her obituary; she was a Dutch television announcer; her name was perfect.
Major Harris — Delfonics singer
Carmen Basilio — Boxer; his name was a poem to me; I used to hear it every week as I was drifting off to sleep and my father and brother were watching the Friday Night Fights on TV; go ahead, say it with me: CAHR-min buh-SILLY-oh — doesn’t it make you want to smile?

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Charles Bush — First black man to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy.
Dave Brubeck
Robert Bork — The Watergate figure who came thisclose to being a Supreme Court Justice.
Jean Harris — I remember this line from somewhere: the 51st way to leave your lover.
Frank Calabrese, Sr. — Mobster & hitman; his kid flipped on him and turned state’s evidence, leading to the Operation Family Secrets investigation and trials that essentially decimated the Chicago Outfit.
Fontella Bass — “Rescue Me.”

Any omissions are purely intentional.

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