John Inman, better known as Mr. Humphries on the BBC comedy “Are You Being Served?“, passed away at age 71. Ron Lynch, his partner of over 30 years, is devastated according to the BBC News report. Wendy Richard, who played Miss Brahms, said Inman was, “one of the funniest and most inventive actors [she has] ever worked with.”

I came to appreciate “Are You Being Served?” only a few years ago, and Mr. Humphries quickly became one of my favorite Britcom characters.

Below is a video clip of one of my favorite scenes. A customer walks into Grace Brothers to buy a dressing gown, and Mr. Humphries demonstrates a few different styles; he gets carried away while demonstrating a kimono.

(news link via Towleroad)

Bob Denver, who played the title role on “Gilligan’s Island,” passed away.

“Gilligan’s Island” was never a particular favorite of mine, though I’d leave it on if there was nothing else to watch.

There’s been a rash of bad news lately. The hurricane has been the bulk of it, but amongst my friends here in town, a new tragedy arose.

I learned this morning that someone, somewhere within our circle of friends and acquaintances, committed suicide. A mutual friend of ours was kinda, sorta seeing this person romantically. It wasn’t until the mate and I went to lunch that I learned who it was. I was immediately shocked — I knew him too.

We’d only met once; a group of us went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when it opened in July. Without realizing who the other was, we both went to pick up our movie tickets from the automated kiosks in the theatre. When we figured we were part of the same group, we introduced ourselves to each other and joined everyone else in the restaurant next door.

That was our one personal interaction outside of cyberspace. We’d been following each other’s LiveJournals for a while and we chatted once or twice online.

He was a decent guy, at least from what I knew of him, and he will be missed.

Visitors to my LiveJournal site may have seen me use this icon in either my entries or my comments. This is “the Dot.” I use this icon to denote a moment of silence, usually out of respect for someone who lost a loved one–friend or relative.

Originally, I wanted to have a solid black icon, but decided it was too plain, even for an icon that wasn’t supposed to say much of anythng. It needed something to keep it from being boring, without being distracting. Enter the dot.

I joined MetaFilter nearly three years ago. Occasionally, when someone of notoriety passed away, other MeFi users would frequently comment on the entry with a single period.

According to the MeFi Wiki,

The original reason people placed a period as the sole content of their comment was to denote a moment of silence. … Additionally, the accumulation of dots is reminiscent of a tradition in Jewish and other cultures, in which pebbles and small stones are left at a gravesite or other memorial location. Also, a word balloon containing a string of dots is a custom in Japanese manga indicating a speechless moment of silence.

For those reasons, I decided that “the dot” would be the most appropriate element to include within the icon. It’s small, innocuous, and with the low contrast between its color and the background’s color, not distracting. Without looking busy and without a word printed on it, the icon implied, “There is nothing more to say. Period.”

If I’m not mistaken, the dot first appeared in a LiveJournal entry I posted after learning my grandmother died.

Since then, I’ve used it in comments when friends of mine post entries about their own losses. Sometimes, I’ll type a single period in the comment, other times I may enter “*hug*.”

This explanation was prompted today by an email Michael received. The message instructed him to call the Witchita Falls, Texas, police department. He called and left a message; they called back and told him that a colleague of his was just killed in a car accident.

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