10 LIES YOU HEAR EVERY DAY

I recently came across an article listing 10 lies that we all hear (and say) on a daily basis…things not necessarily thought of as lies.  These are usually considered to be slight exaggerations, an attempt to be polite rather than confrontational, or merely being nice rather than hurt someone's feelings.  But no matter how you rationalize it, they are still lies.

1)  "Everything's great."

It's the usual response in a restaurant when your server asks how everything is, a brush-off even though the soup is too salty.  And the possible consequences of this insignificant little lie?  The chef never finds out he's heavy-handed with the seasonings, people stop coming to his restaurant, and you end up with the same too-salty soup everyone else was also reluctant to mention.  You might be doing the chef a favor if you tell your server—politely—that something is off.

2)  "I'm fine."

Reality check for men: No woman who says this to you is actually fine.  Something's wrong and you need a strategy to figure out how to fix it.  Most of the time it's as easy as asking her how she really feels.

3)  "I love your new haircut."

People usually compliment anything that catches their eye as new or different—no matter how ugly it may be or how much they don't like it.  If your significant other has a different opinion on your new hair style—or jacket, or shoes—than your chipper coworker, trust your significant other's take.  The I get so many compliments on this defense doesn't hold up.

4)  "No thanks, I've got it."

Guys, in particular, feel guilty accepting assistance from others, especially from a woman—even if they could really use it.  If you have to ask "Can I give you a hand with that", you should already be helping—not offering to lend a hand.

5)  "I couldn't find time to look at that today."

It doesn't matter if your boss said that, a client, or someone else, rest assured that you're being put off.  If you need the feedback right away but fear you might irritate your boss or client with repeated requests, you'll need to come up with a new way to present your need.

6)  "It's so great to see you."

Is it really great?  Your wife's or husband's friend from college looks to be in a huge hurry, and you don't really know the person that well.  This is a polite lie that really means, "I want to stop talking to you now."  Offer a quick smile then you can both get on with your day.

7)  "That's interesting."

People throw out this meaningless phrase so often it's become more of a cliché or silence-filler than a lie.  Instead, consider what you actually think before speaking, and come up with a more insightful adjective (and "That's stupid!" doesn't count).

8)  "Your email ended up in my spam folder."

Of all the emails you've successfully sent this person and it's this one that mysteriously ended up in the spam folder?  No need to call this person out on it.  Recognize this deception for what it is and figure out a better way to grab this person's attention next time.

9)  "I just saw your text."

Your friends have no problem lying about being busy when they're actually looking at other things or surfing the net.  But when they actually have a lot on their plates, they become reluctant about admitting it (sometimes for fear that it sounds like a flimsy excuse).  This text message is their polite way of saying, "I was too busy to answer you right away."

10)  "Sorry."

Admit it: Even you toss out apologies as readily as you would a losing lottery ticket.  At least 95 percent of the time you tell someone you're sorry when you really mean, "That's too bad."  Don't apologize unless there's something you need to apologize for and you mean it.

STRANGEST THINGS WASHED UP ON BEACHES

It's not unusual to see all sorts of things washed up on beaches around the world. There are the natural things such as seaweed/kelp and sea shells, including all things native to the oceans such as dead sea animals of various sorts ranging from small creatures to the occasional large whale.

But things washed up on the beaches also includes strange and surprising items that are not normally associated with beaches. Most of this marine debris is trash such as plastic bags, bottles, and cans from land-based sources. Some of it, however, is due to weather events like hurricanes and tsunamis. While other sources include vessels in storm-tossed seas. We have seen several very large and strange things washed up on the shores of western U.S. and Canada that arrived from Japan courtesy of the 2011 tsunami.

Here is a list I came across of unusual beach findings that didn't belong there.

In January 2012, huge shipping containers from a distressed cargo vessel washed up on one of New Zealand's most popular beaches. Up to 300 containers were reportedly tossed overboard when 6 meter (approximately 19.5 feet) waves struck the ship. People were warned against looting, but both locals and tourists flocked to the beaches to take photos of the giant containers.

A recurring washed-up-on-the-beach sensation appeared at Zandvoort, Netherlands, in 2007, and Brighton Beach in England in 2008, and at Siesta Key Beach in Florida in 2011. And what was this surprise visitor to these shores? It was a giant (8 feet tall) Lego man that weighed about 100 pounds and featured a bright green torso showing the message "No Real Than You Are." The number 8 appeared on its back along with the words "Ego Leonard." The mystery was finally resolved when it was revealed that "Ego Leonard" was the alter ego of a Dutch artist. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office in Florida joined in the fun and issued a press release saying it had taken the giant Lego man "into protective custody." In response, numerous "Free Lego Man" Facebook pages and campaigns popped up on the Internet.

In September 2005, many giant squid washed up in Newport Beach, California. The creatures, believed to be Humboldt squid, normally reside in deep water. It was rare for people to encounter them at sea and especially on land. Authorities said the squid might have been pursuing bait fish and gotten too close to shore. Other factors, such as warm ocean temperatures or record rainfall, were also suspected.

In May 2012, dozens of fly swatters emblazoned with logos of collegiate and professional sports teams washed up on the beaches of Kodiak, Alaska. The fly swatters were originally believed to be debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami, but were eventually proven to have come from a shipping container that got loose from a ship carrying products from China. The container went overboard in dangerous weather in the Gulf of Alaska. Other sports-related items, such as Nerf balls and water bottles were also found on Kodiak's beaches.

In August 2010, hundreds of tea packets washed ashore in Rajbandar in the Raigad district, Maharashtra, India. Nine containers from the cargo ship MSC Chitra spilled into the sea after the cargo ship suffered a collision with another ship.

In 2007, residents of the Dutch North Sea island of Terschelling, 70 miles north of Amsterdam, discovered thousands of bananas washed ashore after at least six containers of the fruit fell off a cargo ship in a storm and at least one of the containers broke open. Bunches of the still green bananas from Cuba also washed up on neighboring Amerland Island. It's not known exactly what happened to the beached bananas, but at the time residents suggested sending most of the fruit to local zoos.

In February 2006, also on the Netherlands' Terschelling Island, thousand of sneakers washed up on the beach when containers from the P&O Nedlloyd ship Mondriaan fell overboard in a storm. Residents of the island rushed to get the sneakers, searching for shoes in their size. Other items that washed up on the beach from those containers included children's toys and briefcases.

Perhaps one of the most famous container spills in history occurred in January 1992 when 28,000 rubber duck toys fell into the sea.  The incident inspired a book titled Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn. The great rubber ducky spill occurred when a shipping crate on a cargo ship headed to the U.S. from China fell overboard onto the Pacific Ocean during a stormy night.

Some of the rubber ducks (nicknamed Friendly Floatees) have since washed up on the shores of Alaska, Hawaii, South America, Australia and the Pacific Northwest. Some have traveled 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic sank or spending years frozen in an Arctic ice pack. Some 2,000 of the rubber ducks are still circulating in the ocean and helping researchers chart ocean currents.

On January 26, 2011, a grand piano was found on a sandbar in Miami's Biscayne Bay, mysteriously charred from being burned. Speculation about its origins included the idea that it was part of a music video production. It was later discovered that the piano was a junk art installation, the brainchild of a 16-year-old hoping to use the piece for a college application.

And the list goes on—a life size E.T. doll, rocks with inscribed messages, a mechanical hand, thousands of bags of Doritos.

In 2015 billions of gelatinous blobs, and in 2016 Siberian snowballs.

The History of Mardi Gras and the Tradition Of Flashing

This year Mardi Gras falls on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. In the Catholic Church, it's Shrove Tuesday, also known as Fat Tuesday. The date for Mardi Gras depends on the date of Easter—always occurring forty-six days before Easter.

In the most literal sense, the Mardi Gras celebration is the three days prior to the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. It's the last opportunity for partying and indulgence in food and drink. In practice, Mardi Gras—or Carnival, as it is called in many countries—is usually celebrated for a full week before the start of Lent.

Celebrations take place all over the world with the most famous modern day festivities being in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Nice, France; and Cologne, Germany.

Even though Mardi Gras is a Christian festival, it dates back to the pre-Christian spring fertility rites and embodies many of the traditions of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In the early Middle Ages, after converting pagan tribes to Christianity, the Catholic Church was still unable to abolish all the ancient traditions. To combat this, the Church ended up taking many ancient feasts and festivals originally celebrated in honor of pagan gods and adapted them to Christian beliefs. An example of the pagan roots—today revelers on parade floats still dress as Bacchus, the Greek god of wine.

The first Mardi Gras celebration in the United States was near modern day New Orleans on March 3, 1699, but it was the mid 1800s before parade organizations, known as krewes, came into being. The first Mardi Gras parade was held in New Orleans on February 24, 1854, by the Krewe of Comus. They began the tradition of a parade with floats followed by a ball for the krewe and their guests. The official colors of Mardi Gras were chosen by Rex, King of Carnival, in 1892 and given their meaning—purple for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.

But what about that popular activity that has become a seemingly integral part of the New Orleans Mardi Gras, much to the chagrin of the festival purists? Women pulling up their shirts and flashing their bare breasts to procure some worthless plastic beads?

Exactly where did this tradition come from?

Well, first of all, it's not really a tradition. It's more along the lines of what has become a traditional activity in the same vein as getting stupid drunk and passing out now seems to fall into that same 'traditional' Mardi Gras category. Over the years, more and more media attention has been directed toward the drunken revelry that occurs on Bourbon Street which has helped in defining flashing as a traditional part of the Mardi Gras celebration.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point-of-view, flashing in exchange for beads is mostly limited to the New Orleans' French Quarter. And even in the French Quarter, it's an illegal activity. Women flashing their bare breasts run the risk of being arrested.

Maybe flashing is not a true tradition, but you can't deny that it has become a custom. After all, the history of wild Mardi Gras behavior comes from celebrating the last day before Lent—Lent being a time of atonement. And this naturally lends itself to activities of excess and craziness.

Which apparently has come to include flashing.

But there is one crazy excess even more daring than the momentary baring of the female breasts known as flashing. And what, you may ask, could possibly be crazier than flashing and still be done in public? And the answer is having clothes painted on your bare skin. There are artists who specialize in this. It probably started as something simple and basic like face painting but has grown to include full body artistic renderings. At a casual glance, it appears that the person is clothed (albeit skin tight clothing). But on closer inspection, you discover that's far from the truth. Some of these examples shown below are basic and others are quite elaborate. 

History of President's Day Holiday

President's Day is a legal federal holiday in the U.S. originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington. It's currently celebrated on the third Monday in February. In 2026, that's February 16th. The federal government still officially calls it Washington's Birthday. When first established, it was celebrated on February 22—Washington's actual date of birth.

The story of President's Day begins in 1800. Following President George Washington's death in 1799, his February 22 birthday became a perennial day of remembrance. At the time, Washington was venerated as the most important figure in American history, and events like the 1832 centennial of his birth and the start of construction of the Washington Monument in 1848 were cause for national celebration.

While Washington's Birthday was an unofficial observance for most of the 1800s, it was not until late 1879 that it became a federal holiday when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed it into law. The holiday initially only applied to the District of Columbia, but in 1885 it was expanded to the whole country.

The shift from Washington's Birthday to President's Day began in the late 1960s when Congress proposed a measure known as the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This law shifted the celebration of several federal holidays from specific dates to a series of predetermined Mondays creating three-day holiday weekends. While some argued that shifting holidays from their original dates would cheapen their meaning, the bill had widespread support. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act also included a provision to combine the celebration of Washington's Birthday with Abraham Lincoln's, which fell on February 12, thus giving equal recognition to two of America’s most famous presidents.

The main piece of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed in 1968 and officially took effect in 1971 following an executive order from President Richard Nixon. Washington's Birthday was then shifted from the fixed date of February 22 to the third Monday of February.

Washington and Lincoln still remain the two most recognized leaders, but President's Day is now popularly seen as a day to recognize the lives and achievements of America's chief executives. For its part, the federal government has held fast to the original incarnation of the holiday as a celebration of the country's first president. The third Monday in February is still listed on official calendars as Washington's Birthday. [I just took a look at my office calendar and it shows February 16, 2026, the third Monday in February, as President's Day rather than Washington's birthday.]

The History of Valentine's Day

Every February candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day and its patron saint is shrouded in mystery. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, how did St. Valentine become associated with this ancient rite?

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men—his pool of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform secret marriages for young lovers. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered him put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself.  While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl who visited him during his confinement who may have been his jailor's daughter. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today.

Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and most importantly as a romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial which probably occurred around 270 A.D., others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to Christianize celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

Around 498 A.D., Pope Gelasius declared February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day. Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of the mating season for birds, which added to the idea that the middle of February should be a day for romance.

The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America. Valentine's Day is the second largest card-sending holiday of the year with Christmas being the highest.

Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women. In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia. 

Groundhog Day…And I Don't Mean The Movie

NEWS FLASH—MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, PUNXSUTAWNEY, PENNSYLVANIA:  PHIL WILL EMERGE FROM HIS BURROW TO PREDICT WHEN WINTER WILL END.  NO SHADOW…NO MORE WINTER.  SEES HIS SHADOW…SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER!

By a strange coincidence those six more weeks of winter takes us almost to the Vernal Equinox which signals the official end of winter and the first day of spring.

Every year on February 2 a furry rodent of the groundhog variety named Punxsutawney Phil sticks his head out of his burrow in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to do his annual weather forecast.  In the United States and Canada, this is celebrated as Groundhog Day.  If Phil sees his shadow, it will frighten him and he'll return to his burrow.  If he doesn't see his shadow, he'll emerge and winter will soon be over.

At least, that's what the tradition claims.

The earliest American written reference to a groundhog day was 1841 in Pennsylvania's Berks County (Pennsylvania Dutch) referring to it as the German celebration called Candlemas day where a groundhog seeing its shadow was a weather indication.  Superstition says that fair weather at that time was seen as a prediction of a stormy and cold second half to winter, as noted in this Old English saying:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Winter has another flight.

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Winter will not come again.

Since the first official celebration of Groundhog Day in Pennsylvania in 1886, crowds as large as 40,000 people have gathered in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, for the annual celebration.  And in recent years it's been covered live on television.  Quite an accolade for the little ol' groundhog.  Since 1887, the groundhog has seen his shadow over 100 times [hmm…I wonder how many of those recent times were due to the television lights] predicting a longer winter and has not seen it only a few times to predict an early spring.  There is no record of his prediction for 9 years in the late 1800s.

The groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, is a member of the squirrel family.  The current Punxsutawney Phil weighs fifteen pounds and lives in a climate controlled home in the Punxsutawney library.  On Gobbler's Knob, Phil is placed in a heated burrow underneath a simulated tree stump on a stage before being pulled out at 7:25AM to make his annual prediction. Quite removed from the concept of the groundhog waking from hibernation and emerging from his burrow in the wild.  :)

Over the decades, the groundhog has only about a 30% accuracy record. Today's meteorologists are far more accurate than that.

Those We Lost In 2025 part 2of2

Continuing from last week's part 1of2, here is the rest of the abbreviated list of those we lost in 2025.

Chuck Mangione

Born Nov. 29, 1940 | Died July 22, 2025

Jazz musician Chuck Mangione more than 30 albums over the course of his career. Playing the trumpet and the flugelhorn, Mangione won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition in 1977, and won another Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1979. His 1977 album Feels So Good hit No. 2 on the Billboard chart. In 2012, he was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame.

Ozzy Osbourne

Born Dec. 3, 1948 | Died July 22, 2025

Born John Michael Osbourne in 1948, Ozzy Osbourne formed a band in 1968 that became Black Sabbath. Their 1970 self-titled debut album reached the U.K. Top 10 and their next album, Paranoid, topped the U.K. charts. Osbourne later released a solo album in 1980, Blizzard of Oz. The Emmy winning reality TV show, The Osbournes, ran from 2002 to 2005 on MTV. Osbourne was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005, and that same year Black Sabbath was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He died on July 22 at the age of 76.

Bill Moyers

Born June 5, 1934 | Died June 26, 2025

In 1954, Bill Moyers worked as a summer intern for then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson, later serving as President Johnson's press secretary from 1965-1967. After serving as publisher of Newsday from 1967-1970, Moyers went on to a storied career in TV journalism, working for both PBS and CBS News. He worked on such TV shows as Bill Moyers' Journal and Moyers & Company. Over the course of his career, Moyers won 11 Peabody Awards and over 30 Emmy Awards. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. He died at the age of 91.

Brian Wilson

Born June 20, 1942 | Died June 11, 2025

Brian Wilson was one of the members of the seminal rock group The Beach Boys, which released their first single, Surfin', in 1961. They signed with Capitol Records in 1962 and went on to record such iconic hits as Surfin' Safari, Surfin' USA, and Good Vibrations. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, the same year they released the #1 hit Kokomo. In 1990, Wilson's autobiography, Wouldn't It Be Nice, was released. Wilson received a Kennedy Center honor in 2007. In 2014, Love and Mercy, a movie about his life, premiered. He died at the age of 82.

Loretta Swit

Born Nov. 4, 1937 | Died May 30, 2025

Loretta Swit began her TV career in the early 1970s, appearing in such shows as Mannix and Hawaii Five-0. She is best known for playing Maj. Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan on the hit TV show MASH, which aired from 1972 to 1983. For that role, she won an Emmy Award in 1980 and another in 1982. Swit won a People's Choice Award in 1983 for favorite female TV performer. She made her Broadway debut in 1975 in Same Time Next Year. She also appeared on Broadway in The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 1986. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989. She died at the age of 87.

George Wendt

Born Oct. 17, 1948 | Died May 20, 2025

George Wendt got his start in the 1970s in the famed Chicago improv group Second City. He's best known for his portrayal of Norm Peterson in all 11 seasons of the classic TV sitcom Cheers from 1982 to 1993, earning six Emmy nominations for the role. Wendt made his Broadway debut in 1998 in the comedy Art and went on to play Edna Turnblad on Broadway in the musical Hairspray in 2007-2008. He died at age 76.

Pope Francis

Born Dec. 17, 1936 | Died April 21, 2025

Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is well known for his devotion to the poor and his progressive views. Bergoglio joined the Society of Jesus in 1958. He was named the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was named a cardinal in 2001. In 2013 he was elected pope, becoming the first Jesuit pope in nearly 500 years.

Val Kilmer

Born Dec. 31, 1959 | Died April 1, 2025

Val Kilmer rose to fame in the 1980's, starring in such hit movies as Top Gun and Willow. In 2012, Kilmer was nominated for a Grammy Award for best spoken word album for The Mark of Zorro. A documentary about his life, titled Val, premiered in 2021. More recently, Kilmer appeared in the 2022 movie Top Gun: Maverick, reprising his role as Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky. Val Kilmer died at the age of 65.

George Foreman

Born Jan. 10, 1949 | Died March 21, 2025

George Foreman won an Olympic gold medal in boxing in 1968 at age 19. In 1973 he won his first world heavyweight championship. The 1974 bout in Zaire against Muhammad Ali, called the Rumble In The Jungle, is one of boxing's most famous matches. Foreman won his second heavyweight championship in 1994 when he was 45. He retired from boxing in 1997. Foreman also became an ordained preacher and, in 1994, he began selling his hugely successful George Foreman Grill. In 2003, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. George Foreman died at the age of 76.

Gene Hackman

Born Jan. 30, 1930 | Died Feb. 26, 2025

Gene Hackman is one of Hollywood's most acclaimed, prolific actors. He's won numerous awards including two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes. Hackman has played numerous characters, from an ex-spy to a beloved basketball coach to Lex Luthor. With each role, he brought his unique charisma to the screen and left lasting impressions with his audiences. He died at the age of 95.

Roberta Flack

Born Feb. 10, 1937 | Died Feb. 24, 2025

Legendary singer Roberta Flack, the piano prodigy with a soulful voice, heavily influenced R&B artists as well as other musicians. Flack was nominated for 14 Grammys, winning five, including a Lifetime Achievement Award and a Grammy for her hit song, Killing Me Softly with His Song. The song would again find popularity in the 90s when it was covered by The Fugees. She was the first artist to win a Grammy for record of the year two times in a row. In 2022, Flack was diagnosed with ALS, which caused her to lose her singing voice.

David Lynch

Born Jan. 20, 1946 | Died Jan. 15, 2025

David Lynch directed his film debut, Eraserhead, in 1977. He won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990 for Wild At Heart, and won the Best Director Award at Cannes in 2001 for Mulholland Drive. In 2007, Lynch received the French Legion of Honor. Over the course of his more than six-decade long career, Lynch was nominated for four Academy Awards and received an Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 2019. He also received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his 1990s TV series Twin Peaks. He died at the age of 78.

Bob Uecker

Born Jan. 26, 1934 | Died Jan. 16, 2025

Bob Uecker made his MLB debut in 1962 with the Milwaukee Braves. In 1964, Uecker was playing for the St. Louis Cardinals when they won the World Series. He retired from baseball and started calling games for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1971, which he continued to do for 54 seasons. He also became an actor, appearing in the movie Major League, as well as the tv show Mr. Belvedere. Uecker was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. He died at the age of 90.

Peter Yarrow

Born May 31, 1938 | Died Jan. 7, 2025

Peter Yarrow, along with Paul Stookey and Mary Travers, began performing as Peter, Paul and Mary in 1961, in New York. Their 1962 debut album topped the Billboard album charts. The 1964 single Puff the Magic Dragon, rose to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It also inspired three animated television films, as well as a 2007 book. The trio's biggest hit was their 1969 recording of Leaving on a Jet Plane. The single was Peter, Paul and Mary's only U.S. No. 1 hit, and their last top-40 song before they disbanded in 1970. Peter Yarrow died at the age of 86.