George Carlin

Comedian George Carlin died last night in Santa Monica, California from heart failure. He was 71 years old. Most obituaries and tributes mention his famous 7 Dirty Words, which he noted with perverse delight made him a legal footnote or that he was the comedian of the counter-culture movement, and as usual such facts do not do justice to the man's body of work. For me, Carlin was not only an extremely funny man but more important, a keen, trenchant observer of the human condition, with that special gift of making us laugh and think at the same time. He will be missed.