And Then There Were ...

There were but 11 Triple Crown winners in the last century, only three in the last 54 years. And with Seattle Slew’s passing the other day, all of them are dead. This we know because living Triple Crown champions are kept track of like ex-presidents and Titanic survivors.

--Mike Lopresti, USA Today, May 21, 2002
We do keep track of things.

I think since the above observation was made, the last of the Titanic survivors has passed away. No new Triple Crown winners were added, and the living ex-president count has decreased by one.

Added to the list of who we track we should add veterans of long-past wars. World-wide, we might be near the end of living WWI survivors.

This kind of countdown is maintained by obituary news staffs so that they can cite that the end of the line has been reached. Or nearly reached. It seems anything can be counted, and you have to give credit to those who follow how many living Munchkins from the 'Wizard of Oz,' are left. It seems we started with 124.

We're down to two now. Margaret Pellegrini, 89, has passed away, leaving Jerry Maren, 93, and Ruth Duccini, 95.

According to the obituary just published in today's NYT, Margaret danced in lilac pajamas with a flowerpot on her head after hearing that the Wicked Witch of the East was dead.

I can never read about the Munchkins without thinking about the one who told the story of the Munchkins on the set who overdid it with alcohol during a lunch break that went too long. They recalled that little seen to date had topped seeing a cast of inebriated Munchkins chase after each other like they had just finished devouring the spiked watermelon at the company picnic.

With or without the flower pots and the purple pj's, it had to be quite a sight.

http://www.onoffframp.blogspot.com