YouTube of Howard Cosell announcing John Lennon's death.

Monday night football--- Pat's against the Phins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcdz1IRVoM

Miami won that game 16-13.

Couldn't bet Pitt avatars because----DU didn't exist and he was only 9.

One of those moments where you remember exactly what you were doing....me? I was a junior at college visiting an old girlfriend up in her dormroom. Of course we were watching the game...just stunned by the news. I grew up idolizing John (in fact, happy & I were going to name the kid after him..didn't work out)so it was something burned in my memory. Being a sports nut, it seemed justifiable that it was Cosell that announced it.

If I'm not mistaken it was a week before he was killed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds82Id_GMe8

Incredible sense of humor and wit. Just incredibly HUMAN...with all the faults. Thanks, Tru. Great pieces. I've watched them both a coupla times, now.

I think he got along with ol' Howard.

but not Lennon. I think I was more concerned at the time, that Reagan had just been elected, there was a hostage situation in Iran, and there was a war in Afghanistan, I had just registered for the Selective Service, and classes were in full swing.

I was not really into the Beatles and they had broken up before I was old enough to really care about those types of things.

:shrug:

Where the fuck have I been?!?! Shit. When???

Man, I figured that guy was dead eons ago.

which I happen to share with Madonna.

What a terrible fate.

I had been living in San Francisco just a year, watching MNF alone on a 13" B&W TV in a tiny studio apartment -- a murder that haunts me 29 years later.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who cried himself to sleep for weeks after hearing the news. I try not to think about it now...

My wife loves Paul. I've read every biography on John. It was a very depressing time in my life.

Not only was I not a Beatles fan but I was like 10. The impact it had wouldn't register with me for a few years to come, and even then not so much how it affected me (I was a punk rock fan at a young age) but how it affected others around me. My friend's older brother was literally crying the next day, and part of me wanted to make fun of him, but a bigger part of me sensed this was something big. It took a few years to realize how big, and while I'm still not a huge Beatles fan what Lennon represented was bigger than some Top 40 song. His spirit is missed.

I thought you were Buddy Holly's age. LOL. In all seriousness, a crushing blow to us who grew up with The Beatles. And you had your favorite. Always, John. Now, when Springsteen dies, I'll eat the gun, myself.

The closest I come would be Jello Biafra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jello_Biafra

It's still hard for me to register the effect Lennon's loss has had on so many because I look up to no one, to be honest. Even the best musicians with the best message are just other dudes like me or you when you talk to them, so I have a real hard time attributing to them anything larger than what I attribute to you or I or the people working in shelters, food pantries, etc. But, having said that, you'd have to be an idiot not to see what Lennon meant to others, and for reasons far beyond the musical. Fan or not, it's a spirit that this world needs more of, and his death is a loss to all of us who care about the things we do.

And hey, at 42 I'm just a youngin'. :)

Lennon always said what needed to be said. He had a lot of faults. But to me, just ultimately, human. I think that continues to resonate, 29 years later.

We're all guilty of it to some extent in our desire to see the right thing done, myself certainly included. And I think it's still resonating or Lennon would be just a footnote on this day.

..if Tiger Woods had an iota of John's wit he wouldn't be in this jam. And John got into some jams. Christ! Who could forget the Jesus comments?

He's not worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as Lennon to me. Best golfer of all time, no doubt (imo), but not the best person. I have little patience for people who cheat on those they claim to love.