Antonio, my condolences to you and your family. RIP Uncle José Luis.

Edited August 29Aug 29 by guzziguy

On 8/27/2026 at 9:42 AM, Torpedo said:

It’s just a bad year. My uncle José Luis, my father’s oldest brother, passed this morning at 96. Fulminant prostate cancer.

Sorry I missed this. My sincere condolences to you, Antonio.

In my defense, I got distracted by the thought of Jaye P. Morgan's breasts.

Cassandra Wilson, Star Jazz Singer, Dies at 70 - The New York Times

"New Moon Daughter" has been a favorite of mine forever:

No cause listed yet. Although the article says "peacefully, surrounded by family".

RIP.

Sad news. We saw Jason Moran accompanying Cassandra on piano at SF Jazz in 2013 and I'm pretty sure we saw her perform elsewhere before then. Gone too young. ☹️

Gloria Steinem too.

https://apnews.com/article/gloria-steinem-dies-724836935f6547fda60f361c15238d14

with stepson

^ Michelle Goldberg wrote what many of us were thinking.

"What a wretched time for Gloria Steinem to die."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/opinion/gloria-steinem-feminism.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-lA.A-HN.zQSy2JfoMd5w&smid=url-share (gift article)

Holy shit. I just learned that a guy named Sebastian that I went to college with the 90s died of leukemia last month. He was 56. Sebastian was an interesting character. He was significantly dyslexic, and so was in college at a far later age than most of the students. The college we attended (Landmark) was specifically for LD students, so he didn't stick out that much. I had a strong if occasionally antagonistic friendship with him. I caught another student referring to him as "Sebbie" so I started calling him that. He immediately put the kibosh to that, telling me if I kept it up he wasn't going to respond to me when I talked to him. I complied with his wishes. Not that long after we watched Dumb & Dumber on Laserdisc (a huge deal at the time.) I saw the famous "Kick his ass, Sea Bass!" scene, and poor Sebastian had to deal with me calling him "See-Bass" for the rest of his time at Landmark.

Apparently Sebastian had been sick for many years. He was, to put it charitably, a very heavyset fella in the 90s. We're FB friends, but he does fuck all on that platform (which is to his credit.) Occasionally family members tag him in photos and I had noticed that Sebastian had lost a shit-ton of weight. "Good for him!" I thought foolishly. Now, looking at his profile (it's his birthday today) it's clear he had kept losing weight and not for good reasons.

Sebastian is not the first college chum I've heard about dying entirely too young. Hell, he's not even the first Landmark student. There was a guy named Alex Knowlton who died of cancer 2017 at age 45. Still, it's never not a shock when one of one's peers dies of a disease like leukemia.