Unintended irony

In my last post, on Nov. 12, I waxed nostalgic about how, in November 1968, I decided to become a writer.

Then my local store apparently ran out of Nostalgia Wax (I had a coupon, too), and despite my professed love of writing I didn't do any more blogging last month. So far, I think it's the only month in which I've had only one item.

I didn't mean to stay away, but the last few weeks of this year seem to be slipping by quickly, as if Father Time himself had slipped on a patch of black ice. (As I did many years ago.)

So, in an attempt to catch up, I offer the following detritus from my alleged mind....

Am I the only one who thinks that Gary Sinise, of "CSI," might be perfect casting if any movie maker decides to film "The Robert Young Story"? Something about his eyes, I think. Heck, if the erstwhile Jim Anderson were still alive and working, he and Sinise could have played father and son, I think.

And who knows? Maybe after "CSI" and all its spinoffs have run their course, Sinise might settle down as "Marcus Welby Jr." And maybe he could have a young assistant, played by Josh Brolin....

Irving Brecher died last month.

"Irving who?" you might be saying, and perhaps that's understandable; his was hardly a household name.

But he was perhaps the last living person who had written for the Marx Brothers. He wrote two of their movies, in fact: "A Day at the Circus" and "Go West." He also created "The Life of Riley," a radio and later TV show that I never could warm up to, though it probably gave William Bendix his best role.

Are any other writers for the Marx Brothers still alive? I doubt it (though I suspect someone who wrote for only Groucho in later years might still be around). Anyway, feel free to let me know if you know of any....

Similarly....

Actress Anita Page, 98, died in September. She was quite possibly the last living person to have appeared in a movie with Lon Chaney (Sr.), "While the City Sleeps," in 1928. And she was certainly one of the last living performers to have appeared in a silent movie. I can think of two who are still alive: Baby Peggy, a child star who now goes by the name of Diana Sera Carey and just turned 90, and Mickey Rooney, who starred in many short subjects under the name Mickey McGuire.

Anyone know of anyone else?....

Also similarly....

The death of Studs Terkel, who at one point made money by playing gangsters on radio shows, prompts this question: Is anyone else from the old days of radio still around? I believe Hugh Downs used to announce a soap opera. (Was it "Hawkins Falls"?) And Anne Francis, whom guys of a certain age (namely mine) fondly remember as the 1960s TV detective Honey West, was a child actress on radio. If any listeners (oops, I mean readers) out there know of any others, the number to call is -- oops, there I go again; heck, just e-mail me.