Bad News Comes in Threes

There were three losses in the last few days that were painful to acknowledge. The first was the death of one of my heroes, Neil Armstrong, at the age of 82 last week.    

He was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, a town about ten miles from where I grew up in St. Marys, Ohio. My Aunt Nell lived in Wapak. When our kids were young and we were visiting their grandparents, we would all drive to Wapak for dinner at Brown's restaurant, where they could get fries shaped like dinosaurs and Peppermint ice cream for dessert. We took them through the Neil Armstrong Space Museum in Wapak to see a record of his accomplishments.  As I grew up, I found out that I was related to Neil Armstrong, something like a third or fourth cousin according to the local family historians who charted things like that. It made watching the moon landing even more special and helped me decide that I wanted to have something to do with math or science when I grew up.   

In recent years, he had become more vocal in his concern for the lack of funding for space exploration. In an interview this spring, he said,  

"NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It's sad that we are turning the program in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people. And that's a major concern to me."

His family, in their statement announcing that he had died, asked people to dispense with words:
"For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request," they said. "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."   

Someone in school asked me once, "Was anybody in your family famous?"  I think I can say yes to that.

The second loss was the death of the voice behind everyone's favorite vampire mathematician. Jerry Nelson, the voice of the Count on Sesame Street, died at the age of 78. He also did the voice and puppet work for Snuffleupagus, Gobo Fraggle, and bass player Sgt. Floyd Pepper.  

Lisa Henson, daughter of the late Muppet creator Jim Henson and chief executive of the Jim Henson Co., said in a statement: "Jerry Nelson imbued all of his characters with the same gentle, sweet whimsy and kindness that were a part of his own personality." He had retired from the physical work of puppeteering, but still did voices. He can be heard as the Count on several episodes in the new 43rd season of Sesame Street which debuts this September.    

And finally, on a lighter note, after 24 years in existence, the magazine Nintendo Power is going out of business at the end of this year. For my kids, the arrival of a new Nintendo Power magazine was a joyous occasion. This was pre-internet time: there was no easy way to search for tricks, tips, and cheat codes for Nintendo games. But we were in luck. Nintendo sent them to us in magazine form. The issue pictured below was the one I remember the most. It included a strategy guide for Mario Bros 3 which the boys pored over for hours.   

I think we still have boxes of these magazines stored somewhere in the basement. They are probably collector's items, but I can't imagine anyone selling such a huge part of their childhood. We still all play video games from time to time (Dr. Mario on the original Nintendo system for me), so I would say Nintendo did a great job of motivating their customers.