Good News and Bad News

Catherine Goldberg, born March 9, 1928, died December 21, 2024.

She survived the Great Depression, the Nazi occupation of her homeland,

and 70 years of living in New York City.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is, 2024 is over. The year we lost:

* From acting: David Soul of Starsky & Hutch, Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, Carl Weathers, Louis Gossett Jr., Dabney Coleman, Donald Sutherland, Martin Mull, Bob Newhart, James Earl Jones, Maggie Smith. Also, talk-show hosts Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Phil Donahue, exercise expert Richard Simmons, game show host Peter Marshall.

* From music: Shangri-Las singer Mary Weiss, folksinger Melanie Safka, Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts, guitarist Duane Eddy, Four Tops singer Duke Fakir, singer James Darren, singer Tito Jackson, songwriter J.D. Souther, Kris Kristofferson and Quincy Jones.

* From politics: President Jimmy Carter; Senators Jean Carnahan, Fred Harris, Bob Graham, David Pryor, Jim Sasser and Tim Johnson; Representative Sheila Jackson Lee; Russian dissident Alexei Navalny; political matriarch Ethel Kennedy; and civil rights figures Dexter Scott King and Thelma Mothershed Wair.

* From journalism: Charles Osgood of CBS, Robert MacNeil of PBS, and Aaron Brown of ABC and CNN.

* From sports: Baseball players Willie Mays, Carl Erskine, Rocky Colavito, Orlando Cepeda, Luis Tiant, Fernando Valenzuela and Rickey Henderson, and manager Whitey Herzog; football players Jimmy Johnson, Jim Otto, Larry Allen, Joe Schmidt and Billy Shaw; basketball players Jerry West, Bill Walton and Dikembe Mutombo, and coach Lou Carnesecca; hockey star Johnny Gaudreau; soccer legends Mário Zagallo, Gigi Riva, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Neeskens, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and George Eastham, and managers César Luis Menotti and Sven-Göran Eriksson; broadcaster Chris Mortensen. (But also sports pariahs Pete Rose and O.J. Simpson.) 

And, in my own family, a beloved dog, Carly the Hug-a-Pug, age 12; and my great aunt, Catherine Goldberg, 96, the last surviving family member from my grandparents' generation. (For perspective: The last survivor from my great-grandparents' generation passed away in 1966, 58 years ago, before I was even born.)

And we lost the White House to Donald Trump again. 

And I had two nasty colds this year.

And, while the New York Liberty won their sport's final, the New York Yankees and the New York Red Bulls lost theirs.

So, yes, 2024 is over. That's the good news.

The bad news is, 2025 isn't looking much better.

As an old Christmas song put it, we'll have to muddle through somehow.