Nanoo No!!!!!!!!!! No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         This is doubly tragic, for personal reasons, which I will get to.

                         Last night, while bringing dinner home from our neighborhood Chinese eatery, and passing the local watering hole, the Salty Dog, which, in the Summer, is open air, I heard two bar types talking.  One of them mentioned someone who had committed suicide, but I did not catch the name. My first thought, was, "How awful!," as I thought they were talking about losing someone they knew to suicide.  I know what that is like.

                           Then I heard the other person say something like, "You mean, the actor?," and I realized it was a celebrity, someone in show business. When I got home, and learned of Robin Williams' death, I was shocked.  His was the last name I would have guessed, if asked to.  This is the Philip Seymour Hoffman Story Of This Year, unfortunately, and it makes me uneasy--are we to have one annually?????????//

                            Mork was cute, but I was not a devotee. What fascinated me with Robin Williams, was when he began to expand as an actor, in movies like "Dead Poets' Society (which also features a suicide), "Good Will Hunting." "The World According To Garp," "The Fisher King," and one, almost forgotten role that, retrospectively, almost gave us in a glimpse into the darker side of Robin Williams--the sad, obsessive loner, Seymour Parrish, in 2002's "One Hour Photo."  I found that film hard to watch, and had no desire to see it a second time.  Williams' tragic demise now compounds that aversion.

                            A brilliant performer has left the world too soon. What is so sad it that it was his choice.  But one from which you cannot change your mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             I know from where I speak. Because, 25 years on this very day, a friend and colleague, named Paul, I lost, when he jumped from his sixth floor apartment window.  I saw first hand what someone's
suicide does to those who are left behind, and it was a key reason Tyler Clementi's passing affected me so strongly.  Paul has receded into memory; the injury is gone, but the remembrance is never forgotten

                              Let's all remember Robin Williams (and I Paul!!!!!) best, by making sure we all make the right choices, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!