A random blip of perspective on my radar.
Matthew Cowles died. Frankly I had no idea who he was, and I guess unfortunately that would be true of most people because the headlines all read some variant of Christine Baranski's husband dies. Christine Baranski is someone I'm always delighted to see on screen. I can't get enough of her. So it's saddens me that she is losing her husband of 30 years. At the same time it's kind of a cool piece of news to read because, I always have this impression stuck in the back of my head that Hollywood actors are engaged in massive levels of disfunctional relationships, in and out of rehab etc. I don't really read gossip sites or magazines much, but you see all these tabloid waiting in the check out line and the idea seeps into your brain. I've read before that statistically actors and politicians really aren't any more unstable in their relationship than anyone else, and it's just that news is about trouble. There are rarely news stories about commuters successfully navigating their way to work. Or it's kind of like seeing one of those charts about how despite all the horrid international conflicts many measures of quality of life in what we want to think of as poorer countries are actually trending in really positive directions (200 countriies 200 years 4 Min & Don't Panic the Truth about Population Growth). So, I'm not happy that this man died, but that's one of the few reasons he would come to my attention, and I appreciate the hidden reminder that life is generally better than headlines.