Tag archive: Grieve

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Aster-Obit:  Loretta Swit

On 30 May 2025, American actress Loretta Swift passed away at her home in New York City, at the age of 87.  Best remembered for her performance as Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in the smash 1970s TV hit series M*A*S*H, Swit effortlessly grew that character from one-dimensional, strait-laced, traditionalist army nurse having an extramarital affair with an inept doctor, to a married, then divorced, fully emancipated modern woman.  The metamorphosis was stunning to behold, and Swit’s character became an icon of feminism for the time.  Swit won two Emmy Awards for her portrayal, appearing in all but 11 of the series’ 256 episodes, only one of two actors to appear through the run of the show, from pilot to finale (the other being Alan Alda, Captain Hawkeye Pierce).

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Eclipse Notes: Of Bombs, Bonds and Bridges

Hold onto your cosmic hats!  We’re gonna do a down-and-dirty overview of three stories that made the news in recent days – the terrorist attack in Moscow on March 22nd that left more than 130 dead; the diminution of Donald Trump’s civil fraud bond on the 25th; and the catastrophic bridge collapse in Baltimore on the 26th.  Each deserves a deeper dive, buy hey!  I’m only human.

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Requiem for a Queen

Although national mourning and celebration of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s life has been protracted for more than ten days after her passing, the official State Funeral ceremony is slated to begin in Westminster Abbey at 11 AM BST on Monday, 19 September 2022.   Much of the passing chart remains in effect, but there are significant changes and additions which reflect the funeral itself.

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The 2022 Midterm Elections: Expect the Unexpected

Election Day 2022 promises to be quite a stunner, a supercharged day which is, ultimately, unpredictable.  Held November 8, the day features multiple activations of Uranus, the planet of the shocking and unexpected, disruption, turmoil, revolution and change, including a conjunction by the Moon and oppositions from the Sun and Mercury.  As well, it’s the day of the Sun/Mercury conjunction, and the Sun/Moon opposition, which just happens to be a total Lunar Eclipse!

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Aster-Obit: John Lewis

On July 17, 2020 US Representative John Lewis (D-GA), known as “the conscience of the Congress”, passed away at the age of 80.  A former associate of Martin Luther King Jr, Lewis was an influential civil rights leader and had served his district as representative for more than thirty years.  Lewis, one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington and the last surviving speaker at that rally, was a leader of the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, which protested suppression of black voting rights, when he was viciously beaten by Alabama State Troopers at the crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  Members of this same organization now saluted his remains when Lewis’ casket was conveyed across that bridge one final time, as part of a protracted funeral process.

 

The five-day official commemoration of Lewis’ death focused on Alabama, where he was born; Georgia, where he represented the state’s 5th district; and Washington DC, where he had served in the House, highlighted in a funeral and lying-in-state at the Capitol Rotunda, first African American to be given that honor.

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