The Friday Night Obituary Page

 Comic Louie Anderson, 68, has died of cancer complications:

Born one of 11 children in St. Paul, Minnesota, Anderson was a counselor for troubled children when he won a the first--place trophy at the 1981 Midwest Comedy Competition.

The host of the competition, legendary comedian Henny Youngman, was so impressed that he hired the young comic as a writer.

Anderson was soon basking in his own spotlight on comedy stages all over the country.

Johnny Carson invited Anderson to make his national television debut on the "The Tonight Show" in 1984 and Anderson's career took off.

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Singer-actor Michael Aday, better known by his stage name of Meat Loaf, has died from complications of COVID.  He was 74.

Snip:

The Dallas-born singer was born Marvin Lee Aday but also known as Michael, and got his nickname when his dad said he looked as red as meat at birth, before a high school football coach added the "loaf".

As well as the Bat Out Of Hell trilogy, he released a string of other albums in the late 1970s and 1980s, most notably Dead Ringer and Midnight at the Lost and Found.

In the 90s, I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) was the UK's best-selling single of 1993 and earned him a Grammy Award.

On screen, he played Eddie in 1975 musical film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, was bouncer Tiny in 1992's Wayne's World, and appeared opposite Brad Pitt as bodybuilder Robert Paulsen in 1999's Fight Club.

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Vietnamese peace activist and monk Thich Nhat Hanh, 95, has died.

In a majestic body of works and public appearances spanning decades, Thich Nhat Hanh spoke in gentle yet powerful tones of the need to "walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet".

He suffered a stroke in 2014 which left him unable to speak and returned to Vietnam to live out his final days in the central city of Hue, the ancient capital and his place of birth, after spending much of his adult life in exile.

As a pioneer of Buddhism in the West, he formed the "Plum Village" monastery in France and spoke regularly on the practice of mindfulness - identifying and distancing oneself from certain thoughts without judgement - to the corporate world and his international followers.