Tim Conway

My father died in the same condition comedian Tom Conway is currently in. His daughter doesn’t expect him to last much longer. As a child, my parents, older brother and I laughed uproariously at his performances on The Carol Burnett Show. It was a time when comedy was still clean and free of attacks on others. The last gasp of innocence in America. Carol is still good and decent, as evidenced by her new Netflix series about children, similar to the 60’s show Kids Say the Darnedest Things.

I was once interviewed on the radio by Tom Conway, Jr. so I feel an odd connection to his father, though I never met him.

So another light is going out, and that’s what it is in a world filled with dimmer bulbs. A soldier friend of mine once shared a photo on Tim Conway’s Facebook page of himself holding an 8×10 signed by him. He actually re-shared it saying, “Here’s one of our fighting men with a signed photo of me he’s not trying to sell on eBay.” (Or something to that effect.) He went on to say some nice things about veterans in general. The man was old school in that way, too. The current crop in Hollywood, at least most of them, are either conspicuously silent or outright critical of the military. I suppose they think that’s more hip.

Here’s more about Mr. Conway’s life right now.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/08/27/carol-burnett-star-tim-conway-is-battling-dementia-and-is-almost-entirely-unresponsive-report-says.html

And one of his most famous skits –

Dirge Without Music

I am not resigned to the shutting away

of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been,

time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.  Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go;

but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,

A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen,

the honest look, the laughter, the love,—

They are gone.  They are gone to feed the roses.

Elegant and curled

Is the blossom.  Fragrant is the blossom.

I know.  But I do not approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes

than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know.  But I do not approve.  And I am not resigned.

– Edna  St. Vincent Millay

 

The Last Days

This idiot’s expression is incredible when he finds out starving an infant to death is punishable by life in prison without parole. Too many people, especially men, think their children are their property, not separate lives independent of them. Too many people call themselves Christians without having any idea what it means, too. Unfortunately, these two morons have two other kids who will now be raised in foster homes. What is it with all the stories about child murders, child abandonment, etc., these days? Maybe it’s time to start requiring a license for having a child the same way licenses are required to catch fish and drive cars. Or are fish and cars more important than babies? Sorry for the rant. This is just another of the dozens of things I don’t get about human beings.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/christian-couple-baby-girl-starvation-dead-michigan-seth-welch-tatiana-fusari-mary-a8482311.html

I wish that was all the bad news in America today, but there was also this:

South Carolina Mother Arrested for Homicide After Leaving Newborn in Trash Bag on Car Floor

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/07/south-carolina-mother-arrested-charged-with-homicide-after-leaving-newborn-in-trash-bag-on-car-floor.html

And this:

Man Arrested at Extremist Muslim New Mexico Compound Was Training Kids to Commit School Shootings

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/08/man-arrested-at-extremist-muslim-new-mexico-compound-was-training-kids-to-commit-school-shootings-documents.html

And this:

Mother of Dead Fetus Found in American Airlines Bathroom Arrested

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/mother-dead-fetus-found-american-143326928.html

And this:

Police Locate Mother of Baby Found Dead in New York River

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/police-believe-located-mother-baby-found-dead-york-100106574–abc-news-topstories.html

Then there was the little boy yesterday who overdosed on meth because his father was too strung out to get out of bed when he said he was hungry, so the kid ate his entire stash thinking it was cereal. Yep. Cereal. He died horribly a few hours later, and I’d be willing to bet the dad regretted losing the meth as much or more as losing his son. Here’s the boy and the waste of skin he called “dad.” In better times, that kid might be at a park or zoo today with parents who laughed with him. He’s laying on a cold, steel gurney at the morgue instead because this piece of dog crap (not to insult any actual dog craps) was too lazy even to keep his drugs out of reach.

I’m sorry to bring everybody down. I usually try to keep things light. But we’re all used to this crap anyway, right? Today is just a little bit worse than most days in America. Adults have never been able to get along, but the ignorance of some people is even more appalling when it affects the lives of children who didn’t ask to be born and got ripped off in the cosmic lottery by ending up with monstrous parents. 

I’ve never been a big believer in the “end times” because people have always been brutal, because we probably just hear more about it now that everyone has a camera in their pocket, and because we have such easy access to news, which is all bad by nature. But it’s still hard not to take these words from the bible seriously –

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

– 2 Timothy 3:1-5