See you on the other side!

It is a shame that we don’t get around to celebrating the lives and accomplishments of people until the year-end death lists roll around, but that’s the way it is.

Rather than concentrate on the “big” passings of 2003, like Bob Hope, Johnny Cash and Warren Zevon, I’d like to devote my little plot of cyberspace to the category: Holy Crap! They Died? (or “Hell I Didn’t Even Know They Were Still Alive!”).

Lynne Thigpen, 54, actress. She was “The Chief” in the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? series.

Robert Atkins, 72, doctor and author. No, sorry, the inventor of the Atkins Diet died from hitting his head after slipping on the ice, not from a heart attack.

Elizabeth Huelette, 42, wrestler. I remember “Miss Elizabeth” from the when she was Randy Savage’s wife. Um, not that I ever… uh… I mean I didn’t really watch… oh nevermind.

Matt Jeffries, 81, set designer. Creator of the original Starship Enterprise, as well as all the props we’ve come to know and love, like phasers, and the Klingon and Romulan ships.

Sam Phillips, 79, record producer. I really thought the guy that discovered Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a host of others had died years ago. Oops.

Rod Roddy, 66, TV announcer. He replaced Johnny Olson as the announcer on The Price is Right in 1985. Um, not that I ever… uh… I mean I didn’t really watch… oh nevermind.

Art Carney, 85, actor. Another one I thought was already dead. He was a great actor/comedian besides his signature role on The Honeymooners, but due to a freak act of nature I am doomed to share a last name with that lovable sewage maintenance engineer.