December 6 RIP

Umm, it's my sad duty to relate the following:  Santa Claus is dead!  PSYCH!  It's not true.  However, today marks the death and feast day of Saint Nicholas.  And if you need me to explain the connection, you are a truly deprived person.  He died in 343.  He made his reputation in part by handing out secret gifts to people, and he's the patron saint of sailors, merchants, children, and archers. 

Have to throw this one in.  RIP to a Dutch priest and composer named Benedictus Buns.  He was apparently prolific, but wrote nothing I recognize.  Still, with a name like "Benedictus Buns", how could we leave him off our list?

We go back to the Confederacy today, to say RIP to the provisional president, later real president, Jefferson Davis. He previously served as a US senator, and in several cabinet posts.  It's somewhat likely that, as Secretary of War, he arranged to have weapons shipped to armories in the South, where they just happened to be captured by rebels in the early weeks of the War.  What were the odds!?!

RIP to Johannes Wagner, who died in 1955.  Don't recognize the name?  Then it's possible you know him as "Honus" Wagner, probably the finest shortstop in the history of baseball.  When he was selected for the Hall of Fame (in the first group chosen) he got more votes than anyone except Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth (Wagner and Ruth were tied for second place).  He still holds the National League record for most batting titles, though he's now tied with Tony Gwynn.

Music lost a big name on this date:  RIP Roy Orbison, who died in 1988.  Wow.  It doesn't seem that long ago, but he was relatively young when he died.  And I guess it makes sense- it was shortly after the Traveling Wilburys came along that he died.  So I guess he had a final shot at fame, though he seemed to be around a lot, even though his glory days were long past. 

I wouldn't have mentioned this one, but I'm honor-bound.  RIP to General William Yarborough, who created the design for US military jump wings.  If you don't understand why I have to mention him, it's because you're a Dirty Nasty Leg.  He's the Father of the US Army Special Forces, which are also known as Green Berets, and in WWII took part in 4 combat jumps.  He also seems to have some similarities to "Red" Hanrahan of the Brotherhood of War series of books, though some of that could just be that in order to tell the intended story, the author had to make somebody similar to Yarborough.  At any rate, he was apparently quite interesting. 

And that's a good place to end it, in part because there's nobody interesting who died on this date after him.  But I like to think that's because nobody could top him.  After all, they're mostly just Legs.