The Daily Goodbye

Good morning.

If you've ever served on a jury, you've probably noticed the court reporter, sitting over a little machine taking notes at the speed of speech. Coley Griffin was a court reporter, but he used a fountain pen with purple ink. He took notes at 260 words per minute, despite witnesses with thick brogues and technical experts spouting terms such as oxyacetylene and potassium dichromate. He died Sunday at age 92.

OK, I passed this obit yesterday but found that people are wild about it -- mostly because Vic Mizzy wrote the earwigs of the TV show theme songs for the Addams Famly and Green Acres. Good luck getting these low-rent tunes out of your head today.

Sheldon Segal who led the team that developed the first significant birth control since the Pill, died Saturday. He created the intrauterine device Mirena, but his most notable breakthrough came with Norplant.

Marjorie L. Nagle, 92 years old when she died, is remembered by residents of Carroll County, Maryland for the ice cream she and her family made at their general store since the early 1920s. All ice cream that is sold is wrapped in newspaper -- Hey! Here's a way to save the newspaper industry!

Time for me to head off to the newsroom and do my part. Have a lively day, everyone.