Levon Helm, the widely respected and influential singer and drummer with the Band, whose Arkansas drawl colored the group's signature hits, including “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” died Thursday in New York of throat cancer. He was 71. One of three lead singers of the group that first gained fame backing Bob Dylan when he “went electric” in 1965, Helm and the Band largely created the template for a genre now labeled “Americana music” for its blend of rock, country, folk, blues and gospel strains/Los Angeles Times Pop & Hiss. More here. (AP file photo of Levon Helm drumming for the Band)

Question: Any fans of the Band out there?

In this Feb. 22, 1999, photo, veteran CBS newsman Mike Wallace listens to speakers during a conference about covering assisted death at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. Wallace, who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1939, died Saturday. He was 93. Story here. (AP Photo/Detroit Free Press, David P. Gilkey)

Question: Are you a Mike Wallace fan?

In this June 17, 2006, SR file photo, painter Thomas Kinkade works on a landscape painting of Lake Coeur d'Alene from a hillside where builders will begin a series of luxury homes based on his paintings.  Kinkade said each house will come with a print of the painting. A family spokesman says California artist Thomas Kinkade, known for scenes of cottages, country gardens and churches in dewy morning light died Friday. He was 54. Story here. (AP Photo/Gene Blythe, File)

Question: Where you a Thomas Kinkade fan?

Earl Scruggs, performs at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. Scruggs' son Gary said his father passed away Wednesday morning at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital of natural causes. He was 88. Wall Street Journal story here. (AP Photo/Eric Parsons, File)

Tagging Earl Scruggs as a legend is to diminish what he was to Mountain Music. He was arguably the best banjo picker that ever lived or ever will. Prior to his leap to fame in the 1940's, 5-string banjo was frailed rather than picked with three fingers. He invented the style which is used by most traditionalists including yours truly/Bay Views. More here.

Question: Do you enjoy hearing bluegrass/banjo music?

More than 20 years ago I was on the way home from a trip to Washington, D.C. with Clancy Standridge, who was for many years the legislative liaison and a top political confidante of my old boss Idaho Gov. Cecil D. Andrus. It was late, the flight had been a long one, we were a little grumpy and tired from a series of those non-stop and not very productive meetings you often have in the nation’s capitol. As we stumbled up the long concourse in the Salt Lake City airport headed for the connecting flight to Idaho, handsome, debonair Clancy offered up an observation I have found myself repeating ever since. “This time of day,” he said, “your shoes feel like they are on the wrong feet.” Everyone laughed and the ordeal of getting home suddenly didn’t seem so onerous. That was Clancy Standridge. Anyone who was around the Idaho Statehouse during the late 1980′s and early 1990′s will remember white haired, well-tailored Clancy Standridge who died recently in Portland, Oregon at age 84/Marc Johnson, The Johnson Report. More here.

Thoughts?

The Oregonian newspaper reported Monday that Bob Caldwell, the long-time editor of the editorial pages, died in the apartment of a 23-year-old woman after going into cardiac arrest following a sex act. The paper had previously reported that Caldwell was found in his parked car. The paper now says the woman was the one who called 9-1-1 on Saturday to report that Caldwell was unresponsive. According to the correction published in The Oregonian, the woman told deputies she met Caldwell a year ago at Portland Community College and he provided cash for books and other school expenses, in exchange for sex/Frank Mungeam, KGW.com via KREM. More here.

Thoughts?

Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger whose posting of a sexually explicit photo of former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner led to the congressman's downfall, has died, his attorney confirmed Thursday. He was 43. Joel Pollak, editor-in-chief and in-house counsel for Breitbart's website, Breitbart.com, posted a statement confirming his death. “Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles,” the statement read. “We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior”/CNN. More here. (AP/BigGovernment.com file photo posted by Andrew Breitbart that purported to show Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., shirtless)

Thoughts?

In sixth grade, when the television show started about the rock band, my girlfriends and I spent hours discussing our favorite Monkee (mine: Peter Tork). We bought all their albums, memorized all the songs, waited in line for their movies. We didn't care when we later learned that none of them were very good at playing music when they got together. They were chosen for their chemistry. And boy, did they have it. They allowed us to daydream about love, romance and all the other stuff we didn't really know about yet in sixth grade/Rebecca Nappi, SR End Notes. More here. (AP file photo: “The Monkees,” from top left, during TV show in 1960s, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, from lower left, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork pose next to their customized Pontiac GTO)

Question: Anyone have a favorite Monkee who wasn't Davy Jones?

In this 1997 file photo (left to right), Monkees Davy Jones, Peter Tork,Mickey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith. Jones, the lead singer who popularized “I'm A Believer,” died this morning of a heart attack. Story here. (AP file photo)

Question: Do you have a favorite Monkees' song?

Janice Berenstain displays a copy of the first book, left, she and husband, Stanley Berenstain, created and the second book, which was the first to actually call the characters Berenstain Bears, in Solebury, Pa. Jan Berenstain, who with her husband Stan created the Berenstain Bears books that have charmed preschoolers and their parents for 50 years, has died. Her son Mike Berenstain said she died Friday. She was 88. Story here. (AP File Photo/Mel Evans)

Question: Do you read the Berenstain Bears books to your kids as they were growing up?

In this Oct. 27, 1986, file photo, New York Mets GAry Carter is lifted in the air by relief pitcher Jese Orosco following the Met 8-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of baseballs World Series at New York's Shea Stadium. Baseball Hall of Fame president Jeff Idelson said today that Hall of Fame catcher has died at age 57. Story here. (AP Photo/Paul Benoit, File)

Question: What is your all-time favorite World Series moment?

Artist Whitney Houston performs onstage at the 37th Annual American Music Awards in November 2009 in Los Angeles. Houston died today, she was 48. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday. She was 48. Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen told KABC-TV that Houston died in her room on the fourth floor of the Beverly Hilton. Her body remained in the hotel and Beverly Hills detectives were investigating. Houston’s publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the cause of her death was unknown/Associated Press. More here.

In this June 9, 1998, file photo, Keiko, who starred in the Free Willy films, carries a live crab in his mouth while cavorting in his pool at Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Ore. Dr. Steven Brown, the veterinarian at the Oregon Coast Aquarium who cared for the killer whale, has died. He was 62. Story here. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)

Question: Have you ever visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium Newport?

Angelo Dundee, the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Muhammad Ali in his greatest fights and willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, died yesterday in Tampa, Fla. He was 90. The genial Dundee was best known for being in Ali’s corner for almost his entire career, but those in boxing also knew him as an ambassador for boxing and a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it. He died with his family surrounding him, said son, Jimmy Dundee, but not before being able to attend Ali’s 70th birthday bash in Louisville, Ky., last month. “It was the way he wanted to go,” Jimmy Dundee said. “He did everything he wanted to do”/Tim Dahlberg, New York Post. More here. (2011 AP file photo of Angelo Dundee)

Question: Are you a boxing fan?

Following is the obituary of Rose Mary (Poelma) Peak, co-owner of historic Enaville Resort (Snake Pit), as it appears in Coeur d'Alene Press today: “Rose Mary was born on Jan. 13, 1947, in Cheyenne, Wyo., and died on Jan. 20, 2012, in the presence of her loving family at Hospice House in Coeur d'Alene. Rose Mary was the second of four children of Jim and Eileen Poelma. She grew up in the rural farming community of Carpenter, Wyo., 20 miles southeast of Cheyenne. She lived in a community, school and family where faith and music went hand-in-hand with the hard work of farming. Her grandmother taught her to play the piano at an early age, and the rest of her family often played music together as a group, whether it was during informal family gatherings or for barn dances.” More here. (Kathy Plonka SR file photo: Enaville Resort)

Reaction?

For years, Penn State University game days meant long lines of cars and RVs bearing fans making pilgrimages from all corners of Pennsylvania to a school right in the middle of the state, and by extension, to coach Joe Paterno, the man long regarded as its center. The school's flagship campus, established in 1855 in the small town of State College and conceived as a place for farmers to receive a scientific education, sits in the state's geographic center. But its physical presence is also woven throughout Pennsylvania, with two dozen campuses scattered across the state. So Paterno's death from cancer on Sunday has created emotional ripples that have spread throughout the university's broad network of alumni, both within the state and far beyond/CBS News. More here. (AP file photo)

Question: What will be Joe Paterno's legacy?

n this April 29, 2006 photo, Etta James performs during the 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. James, the feisty rhythm and blues singer whose raw, passionate vocals anchored many hits and made the yearning ballad “At Last” an enduring anthem for weddings, commercials and even President Barack Obama, died today. She was 73. James had been suffering from dementia and kidney problems, and was battling leukemia. In December, her physician announced that her leukemia was terminal. CNN story here. (AP Photo/Jeff Christensen)

Question: Any thoughts re: the passing of singing legend Etta James? And/or: When did you last hear “At Last” sung at a wedding?

Johnny Weissmuller, right, as Tarzan, Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane, and Cheetah the chimpanzee, in a scene from the 1932 movie Tarzan the Ape Man. A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah the chimpanzee from the Tarzan movies of the 1930s died Saturday of kidney failure at age 80. Story here. (AP Photo/ho, File)

Question: Would you like to see a modern, action-hero, movie version of Tarzan, Jane, & Cheetah?

Christopher Hitchens, who has died at the age of 62 in the Houston hospital where he had been receiving treatment for cancer, was among the greatest polemicists of his generation. Many writers make the journey from a left wing youth to a right-leaning posture in later adulthood. And Hitchens' support for the military intervention in Iraq - along with his thoroughly disabused view of President Clinton - dismayed many of his erstwhile friends on the political left both in the United States and in Britain. But he was always too original a figure and too much his own man ever to be accommodated easily in the neat little pigeon holes of 'left' and 'right'/Hywel Williams, Mail Online. More here.

Question: Were you a fan of Christopher Hitchens?

In this Dec. 23, 1982, photo, from left, Alan Alda , Burt Metcalfe , Harry Morgan and Loretta Swit (Maj. Margret stand on the set of M*A*S*H* in Los Angeles. The Emmy-winning character actor whose portrayal of the fatherly Col. Potter on television's “M*A*S*H” highlighted a show business career that included nine other TV series, 50 films and the Broadway stage, died today. He was 96. More here. (AP file photo)

Question: Which long-running show did you enjoy more: “M*A*S*H*” or “Seinfeld”?