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George Carlin, 1937-2008

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I don't get off-topic here very often, and he was never a particular favorite of mine, but the fact is I was ripped right out of sleep when the radio I leave playing all night emitted the clause, "George Carlin was..."

Those shots were taken by Milwaukee Police not as a result of drugs, though they could have been, but because of certain words Carlin said on stage. I thought his later material was underwhelming –– a generational thing, I'm sure, on top of the natural effects of aging and iconoclasm –– but I also know that the arguments I have with my dad about certain words I can say on this blog would be a lot more lopsided if Carlin hadn't insisted on saying them 35 years ago.

Or maybe he was just an opportunist who hit on the inevitable in a rapidly changing culture, who took Lenny Bruce mainstream. Doesn't matter now –– not where he is. Or, he'd prefer, where he isn't. So, for what it's worth, RIP, motherfucker.