No NO No!! People keep dying! We must stop this thing from happening.

All the good ones are dying this year. What I really mean, people i really like or admire are dying this year. Andy Williams passed away and although he lived a long respectable life and made many people happy with his smooth almost innocent sounding crooning, it still sucks when the news flashes a headline that someone we like has passed away.
A quick list of people I didn't know personally, but admired for various reasons who have died include Christopher Hitchens, Nora Ephron and now Andy Williams. Nora Ephron was particularly special to me because i loved her early essays she wrote for Esquire and she entered the literary world in the 60's and 70's when it was dominated by men who prowled their industry like lions, examples of ego and bluster like Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, Christopher Hitchens, Truman Capote,Gore Vidal and Martin Amis to name a few. In short, you should check out her volumes of hilarious and dry essays sometime- they are like gifts on Christmas, nice surprises of honesty and men and women could enjoy them. Christopher Hitchens was another favorite of mine, I started reading his works in high school, then college, then kept it a habit, using the internet to search for his later Vanity Fair articles and interviews he would do. He was always funny to me, sometimes unwittingly funny, just his purposeful (not on purpose) look of swagger, brushed back mane of hair, large watery eyes that spoke of long nights in British pubs arguing with early friends during his college years. He was a "character" but he had real talent. He was uneven as a writer, sometimes spot on, sometimes rambling but his delivery was honest. He changed his mind about politics later in life, deciding to be pro -war after 9/11 but his ditractors (most of them) forgave him for they seemed to see it is either a sign of his growing old, or just a way to be contradictory. Whatever his personal beliefs, I just kept loving his work. He was human. He was flawed and I do miss seeing something new from him on the web.

Andy Williams is a weird one for me. I am not a big crooner fan, never saw the big deal about Sinatra or anyone in that genre. But, I do have very early memories of my parents playing Andy Williams records in one of our early homes, which may explain why my ears always perk up when his songs are played. One day, years ago, I heard Moon River, and it was love at first sound. Yes we've all heard parts of it in movies, ads, or general pop culture but I heard the entire song and could not believe the sound of his voice. It was, as they say, like "buttah". I am picking on this one song because I've heard his other songs and this one is my favorite. It sounds innocent, sweet but also has a very understated darkness to it, haunting. Of course, during my more moody days, i agreed with other lyric interpreters that Moon River is really talking about death. So, when people slow dance to it at weddings, they are dancing a macabre sweep to crinoline and lace. It may just be about old memories or just happiness. The lyrics are wonderfully open to interpretation and that is it's beauty. RIP Andy Williams, not that ghosts read the internet (but I hear the read FB)...but a lot of people will miss this voice.