Wednesday Night at the Obituary Pages

 Howard Fineman, a journalist long affiliated with Newsweek and could be found giving his take on political issues and personalities on CNN and other places, has died at the age of 75.  Sadly, he had suffered from pancreatic cancer, which is as bad as it gets.  He lived with it for at least two years after he was diagnosed.

The older I get, the more I think that people who die in the seventies or even eighties "aren't that old."  

Anyway, about Fineman:

Born Nov. 17, 1948, in Pittsburgh, Fineman joined Newsweek in 1980 and quickly began building a reputation as one of the nation's most astute observers of the Beltway scene.

From his perch at what was then one of the most widely read newsweeklies in the U.S., Fineman covered presidents and political players and gave his readers a look behind the scenes on Capitol Hill where the decisions that affect their lives were being made.

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Fineman had degrees from both Colgate University and Columbia.

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Basketball great Jerry West, 86, has died.  He was the silhouette on the NBA logo, so you know he had to be good enough to be honored in that fashion.   West was downright tiny at 6 feet, 3 inches, but he somehow compensated for it.

Snip:

His was a life like few others: an NBA and Olympic champion as a player, a champion as an executive and someone selected to be enshrined by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame not once, not twice, but three times. West died on Wednesday at age 86, the Los Angeles Clippers announced.

“We can only hope there is someone we meet during a crucial time in our lives that will change you in ways you could dream about,” said Miami Heat President Pat Riley, who played with and worked with West during their time together as Los Angeles  Lakers. “Jerry was that person for me.”

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Finally, I will mention the death of former Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt, whose reputation went into the shitter years after he left office when he was accused of rape of a minor in the 1970s, has died at the age of 83.

Details:

Between converting a busy highway into a popular riverfront park and developing the seeds of a robust public transit system, Portland’s fuzzy-haired, sideburned mayor had a secret double life. For years in the 1970s, he engaged in an illegal sexual relationship with the teenage daughter of an aide.

At 32, Goldschmidt was elected the youngest mayor of a major American city in 1972. Seven years later, he left City Hall to become President Jimmy Carter’s transportation secretary. He served one term as Oregon governor, from 1987 to 1991.