Clicking on banner ads keeps JWR alive
Jewish World Review Dec. 6, 2001 / 21 Kislev, 5762

Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

I read the news today, oh boy

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- LONDON -- The sidewalk in front of the Abbey Road recording studio was packed ... with journalists.

The word had come two hours earlier that George Harrison had died. Newspeople stood waiting to grab mourners who had come to salute the passing of the Quiet Beatle.

Joe Whitehead, 25, of London came with flowers and his good friend Donald. The two got on television in Germany and the United States -- in fact, on "practically every network," as desperate reporters grabbed the two men in succession. He noted, "To be honest, I thought there would be loads of people here." Instead, he found more cameras than mourners.

Chilean Cynthia Davila, 23, had planned on making a pilgrimage to Abbey Road, the spot of a band so beloved by her parents that she was named for John Lennon's first wife and her sister, Barbara, was named for Ringo's second wife. Davila had planned on making that famous trek across the famous street -- a favorite spot for tourists to have their picture taken. Perhaps she would have scrawled graffiti on the studio fence to join missives such as:

"Nessa & Danny got engaged here. 22/09/01."

"Together Forever."

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

The fence is repainted every three months.

It wouldn't feel right now, she said, to mug for a photo in front of Abbey Road. Instead, Davila came to say goodbye.

Three mourners under the age of 30 (too young to understand the unmatched fame and phenomenon of the Fab Four) and a small army of journalists mostly over 30 came to mourn because in their lifetimes no four men were more happily famous than the Beatles.

We knew growing up that the Beatles were supposed to grow old. Our elders chuckled as they speculated on how John, Paul, George and Ringo would age. How they would handle it when their fame ebbed and they were returned to mere mortal status, when their words no longer were considered pronouncements from on high?

They surprised their critics as they faded from the absolute pinnacle of fame to being simply enormously famous; they seemed glad for the opportunity to breathe freely away from the limelight. Each man set out to establish his own creative locus outside the group. George Harrison did so, even as he worked with other stars -- Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and others.

Now the youngest Beatle is the first to die a natural death. His death means something different to those of my generation, the Boomer generation. We think of his passing as the passing of our vanished youth.

When I arrived at Abbey Road, reporters were eager to build a story about the mass mourning of George Harrison set against a backdrop of one lonely bouquet of roses tied to Abbey Road studio's wrought iron.

The young mourn George Harrison for his music. The middle-age mourn George Harrison for ourselves. As the man said, "All things must pass."


Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.


Up


12/03/01 It's not cricket
11/28/01 Admissions and omissions
11/26/01 Guns and abayas
11/21/01 Depraved minds think alike
11/19/01 Guilty, a la carte
11/14/01 Interpreting the entrails of Election 2000
11/12/01 Life and liberty
11/09/01 Safety is as safety does
11/07/01 More hot air on global warming
11/05/01 Bumped Pakistani's molehill
11/01/01 Freedom snuffed out
10/29/01 Give war a chance
10/26/01 Airline bill needs liftoff
10/22/01 The Riordan Principle
10/19/01 Before America gets tired of the war on terrorism
10/17/01 Patriot games
10/15/01 I was a 'McCainiac,' and I have seen the light
10/12/01 University of Censorship's fall semester
10/11/01 Poor little rich boy, Osama
10/07/01 Don't feed Israel to the beast
10/05/01: bin Laden is not our Frankenstein monster
10/04/01: Where no man has gone before
09/26/01: Who's bloodthirsty?
09/26/01: What's to understand?
09/20/01: Barbara Lee's line in the sand
09/14/01: You gotta love this country
09/13/01: ENTER TERROR
09/11/01: You can't clone ethics
09/06/01: NOW's goal: equal rights for women without equal responsibility
08/30/01: What's love got to do with it?
08/24/01: A clean, well-lighted place for junkies
08/20/01: Bush should stand up for justice
08/08/01: Don't give Peace (Dept). a chance
08/03/01: Lose a kid, pass a law
08/01/01: Welcome to France, killers
07/30/01: Why it's easy being green (in Europe)
07/26/01: If disabled means expendable
07/23/01: Condit should not resign
07/18/01: Feinstein should learn her limit
07/16/01: A drought of common sense
07/13/01: The catalog has no clothes
07/05/01: It's Bush against the planet
07/03/01: The man who would be guv
06/29/01: Wheeled, wired and free
06/27/01: O, fearful new world
06/25/01: End HMO horrors
06/21/01: Either they're dishonest or clueless
06/18/01: Freedom is a puff of smoke
06/15/01: In praise of going heavy: Yes, you can take it all
06/13/01: McVeigh: 'Unbowed' maybe, but dead for sure
06/11/01: Gumby strikes back
06/08/01: Los Angeles' last white mayor?
06/07/01: Kids will be kids, media will be media
06/04/01: Draw a line in the sand
05/30/01: Just don't call him a moderate
05/29/01: Operation: Beat up on civil rights
05/24/01: Of puppies, kittens and huge credit-card debts
05/22/01: Bush needs an energy tinkerbell
05/18/01: Divided we stand, united they fall
05/16/01: Big Bench backs might over right
05/15/01: Close SUV loophole
05/11/01: Kill the test, welcome failure
05/09/01: DA mayor's disappointing legacy
05/07/01: If it ain't broken ...
05/03/01: They shoot civilians, don't they?
04/30/01: Executions are not for prime time
04/12/01: White House and the green myth
04/10/01: The perjurer as celeb
04/04/01: Bush bashers don't know squat
04/02/01: Drugging our oldsters
03/30/01: Robert Lee Massie exercises his death wish
03/28/01: Cheney's nuclear reactor
03/26/01: Where California and Mexico meet
03/16/01: Boy's sentence was no accident
03/14/01: Soft money, hard reform
03/12/01: Banks, big credit lines and consumer bankruptcy
03/09/01: Free speech dies in Berkeley
03/02/01: When rats have rights
02/28/01: Move a frog, go to jail?
02/26/01: They knew they'd get away with it
02/20/01: How Dems define tax fairness
02/16/01: The jackpot casino Carmel tribe?
02/14/01: You can fight school success
02/12/01: Hannibal -- with guts this time
02/08/01: A family of jailbirds
02/05/01: Reality's most demeaning TV moments
02/01/01: Justice for the non-Rich
01/26/01: Hail to the chiefs of D.C. opinion
01/24/01: A day of mud and monuments
01/22/01: Diversity, division, de-lovely D.C.
01/19/01: Parties agree: Give back the money
01/17/01: Get tough with the oil companies, or forget pumping more Alaskan crude
01/15/01: Mineta better pray that no attending confirmation senator has ever driven to San Jose during rush hour
01/12/01: Europeans should look in the mirror
01/10/01: Dems' reasons for dissin' Dubya's picks
01/08/01: Jerry, curb your guru
01/03/01: A foe of Hitler and friend of Keating
12/28/00: Nice people think nice thoughts
12/26/00: The Clinton years: Epilogue
12/21/00: 'Tis the season to free nonviolent drug offenders 12/18/00: A golden opportunity is squandered
12/15/00: You can take the 24 years, good son
12/13/00: Court of law vs. court of public opinion
12/08/00: A salvo in the war on the war on drugs
12/06/00: Don't cry, Butterfly: Big trees make great decks
12/04/00: Florida: Don't do as Romans did
11/30/00: Special City's hotel parking ticket
11/27/00: No means yes, yes means more than yes
11/22/00: The bench, the ballot and fairness
11/20/00: Mendocino, how green is your ballot?

© 2000, Creators Syndicate