December 30 RIP

We start off with Richard Plantaganet, and not the one that I seem to recall talking about a few days ago, but his presumed father. This was the Duke of York, who died in 1460 in battle.  And didn't get the throne he wanted, though his son did.  Not Edmund, who was with Dad, and coincidentally died the same day. 

Another person who we hope is RIP is Richard Rodgers.  He never claimed a throne, so far as we know, but he was a great composer of Show Tunes.  He won a Grammy, Emmy, Oscar, Tony and for good measure, a Pulitzer.  Feel inferior yet?  He died in 1979. 

Oh, and Artie Shaw also died on this date in 2004.  He was a brilliant musician, but a bit acerbic.  He once said of Glenn Miller that it would have been better if he (Miller) had lived, and his music had died.  Shaw was a brilliant musician, who had quite an influence on Big Band and Jazz music before he retired in the 1950s.  His band members included Buddy Rich, Mel Tormé, Ray Conniff,  and Billie Holiday.  He once told an interviewer that"I thought that because I was Artie Shaw I could do what I wanted, but all they wanted was 'Begin the Beguine'". Which I suspect is why he retired. 

And finally, rather than RIP, we have an RIH for "rest in Hell" for Saddam Hussein, who was executed in 2006, making the world a much better place for everyone.