The world turns in odd & interesting ways sometimes

So within a few days of each other, Roger Ebert and Maggie Thatcher clock out. I don't propose to put them on any kind of equal footing; I don't think they're at all comparable, it would be like comparing Dr. Johnson with Pitt (either one). I don't have a whole lot of thought or feeling one way or the other about The Baroness, I suspect one would really have to be a subject of HM Betty (or perhaps a citizen of one of the myriad erstwhile colonies other than our own) for Maggie to have impacted your life a whole lot, at least directly. I don't think I was paying a great deal of attention to UK politics twenty-odd years ago. I knew she was great pals with Ronnie Reagan, which all by itself erodes her esteem in my book, practically down to a nub.

Roger Ebert, on the other hand, I've admired for many years, since the Siskel & Ebert days of "Sneak Previews" and in more recent years for his continued writings about film, and his more general writings about life and culture. In the last few years I've come to think a great deal of his intellect (not to mention his verbal acuity) and his great taste (and luck) in women. I will miss Ebert's ongoing contribution to our times; Maggie, enh, not so much.