Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

An Unexpected Passing

After I'd broken out the laptop at ConFusion, there was a Facebook posting from Sarah Gibbons. Now a fellow itinerant college professor, back in 2004 she was a grad student at Michigan State and beloved by those of us at the 2004 Clarion workshop as "our copy girl". One can only imagine the hours she endured making more than two dozen copies of the 115 stories with a collective word count of 385,562.

On Friday she said that Lister Matheson had died the night before. Lister had been Director of the 2004 Clarion workshop.


Lister introducing Jeffrey Ford at a reading at Archives Books, 1 July 2004. (Click on photo for larger.)


Lister holding court in his kitchen at the Clarion BBQ 4 July 2004 -- it's a terrible picture but it was muggy, rainy and dark, and the flash-and-focus on my tiny Sony U30 got fooled.

Lister Malcolm Matheson Haslett, Michigan and Lochalsh, Scotland was born on May 19, 1948 in Glasgow, Scotland and died on January 19, 2012 of complications arising from a form of aplastic anemia. He was 63. Lister was the eldest son of Charles and Margaret Anderson Matheson (née Lister). In the United States he is survived by his son, Calum, and life partner, Tess Tavormina. In Scotland he is survived by his mother, his sister and brother-in-law Charlotte and John Barbour, his brother Calum, and cousins Edna Shoebridge, Robert Sinclair, Gordon Sinclair, Evelyn Topp, Ian Fraser, Malcolm Freeman, Susan Steward, Heather Marskell, Charles Findlay, Hilda Ross, Farquhar Matheson, and many nieces and nephews. At the time of his death Lister was Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Michigan State University (MSU), where he had taught since 1986. He was an alumnus of the University of Glasgow (Ph.D., 1978), and served as an Assistant Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary while completing his degree. From 1975 to 1986, he worked at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) as an Associate Editor of the Middle English Dictionary and Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature. His scholarly interests lay in the study of the languages and literatures of England and Scotland and especially in their medieval chronicles. His expertise and publication history were wide-ranging and authoritative. Lister's magisterial study of the Middle English Prose Brut - the legendary and historical account of the founding of Britain - is widely recognized by his peers as the definitive work on the topic. At MSU he taught courses in the history of the English language, Old English language, Old and Middle English Literature, Geoffrey Chaucer, Arthurian literature, medieval English drama, comparative epic, and Scottish history and culture. For several years he directed the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop in Lyman Briggs School at MSU. Lister's family and friends will treasure his memory as loving son and brother, devoted father and life partner, dedicated colleague and loyal friend, and esteemed professor and mentor to many undergraduate and graduate students. He was generous with his time, knowledge, and talents and was keen to spur on the intellectual growth and scholarly pursuits of his students. Lister was a natural host whose large heart, expansive soul, and mischievous sense of the silly and ridiculous endeared him to those who knew him and made strangers feel immediately welcome and appreciated. He was a gifted raconteur, actor, reader of poetry, singer of inspired and inane songs, and connoisseur of haggis and single malt Scotch. He lived a full life, travelled widely, and absorbed everything. He cherished his family and friends and was always the animating spirit around any crowded table, sharing good food, drink, and lively conversation. His family and a very large crowd of admiring friends shall miss him terribly. A memorial service for Lister will be held on the MSU campus this spring, at a time and location still to be announced. Lister's ashes will be interred in Lochalsh, Scotland and there will rest honorably in the company of many generations of Mathesons. The family asks those who wish to honor Lister's memory to contribute financially to the ARC Great Lakes Blood Services Region (please add "Blood Services" in the memo line), American Red Cross, 1800 E. Grand River Avenue, Lansing, MI 48912 or by donating blood at the Lansing Blood Donor Center of the American Red Cross, 1729 East Saginaw Street, Lansing, MI 48912 or at any blood donor center or blood drive convenient to them. The family is being served by Gorsline Runciman Funeral Homes, East Lansing. On line condolences may be made to www.greastlansing.com.

Published in Lansing State Journal on January 24, 2012

Anything In A Coffee Cup Is Coffee

Lister could be cantankerous, but it was clear he loved writing and writers. His field was more Chaucer than Tolkien or Clarke, but he saw the connections with Literature and SF/F. With Clarion moved to San Diego, alas I had no need to go to MSU for Clarion readings in the summer and we lost touch. Condolences and sympathy to all who knew or worked with him.

Dr. Phil

UPDATE 1/25/2012 Wed:

A public memorial service will be held on (Saturday) April 7, at 2 pm, in the MSU Alumni Chapel (we chose the date for reasons of family schedules, with regrets that it may conflict with religious observances of the Easter weekend and beginning of Passover).

Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009

The Voice of Reason from my childhood, legendary CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite, died just about two hours ago at age 92. In those days we had just three national TV networks in America, and while we watched the news on NBC with The Huntley-Brinkley Report and later the NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor, we still watched Uncle Walter, especially at major news events -- and most especially switching between NBC and CBS during the US space program. It is perhaps telling that I remember Frank Reynolds was the anchor on ABC at the time of Apollo 13, but I cannot remember the name of anyone anchoring the ABC news during the rest of Walter's tenure at CBS.

Watching some remembrances on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, everyone was talking about Walter crying twice on air -- announcing the death of President Kennedy and Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon. But what I remember was Walter Cronkite breaking into programming one night to announce in tears the loss of Grissom, White and Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire on the pad during a test at Cape Kennedy. The moon program and JFK, brought together in one sentence. You might consider that my generation's Hindenburg. How ironic that Walter Cronkite died just shy of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing itself. Perhaps it best that his resonant voice will be played out this week and he will be remembered along with the first men on the moon -- and not drowned out by the recent weeks' tumult over Michael Jackson.

There are those who say that reporters of the news shouldn't be the news itself. A sentiment which is sorely breached by those who merge news and commentary and, may I suggest, creating news and things meant to look like news. Yet Walter is also best known for one simple commentary, where after traveling to Vietnam in 1968, he announced on the air that the war was unwinnable. As a result, President Lyndon Johnson decided not to run for re-election, citing that if he'd lost Cronkite, he'd lost middle America.

He left CBS before he was ready, that is probably true. Yet he managed to continue to do things like host the Kennedy Center Honors and the Vienna New Year's Concert. And he sailed his boats for a long time.

The Most Trusted Man in America is now gone. Would that we see the likes of his kind grace our lives again... but I fear not.

Good night, Walter.

Dr. Phil

All Death, All The Time

Celebrity deaths always get the attention of the media, but we've just had three in a row in the U.S., each one bigger than the last. Indeed, this third one has created a juggernaut of human emotions and media frenzy, preempting both news and entertainment TV for a second day now.

What fascinates me is that each of these celebrities touches different generations and slices of society. Each had a big hit, and then reinvented themselves more than once, and have been in some sort of decline for some time. Yet all also have many people left with fond memories.

Ed McMahon

As announcer and sidekick to Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show, Ed welcomed a generation to their after-the-news entertainment. Probably helped invent a whole host of maladies brought on by sleep disorders as people stayed up an hour after their bedtimes -- but then they say laughter helps extend life, so perhaps it's a wash. Then long before American Idol and so-called reality television, there was Star Search. And Jerry Lewis' annual Labor Day telethon. And Publisher's Clearinghouse paying the bills.

To some extent, Ed McMahon helps end the generation of the big television show.

Farrah Fawcett

The 70s big smile, big blond hair and star of Charlie's Angels amazingly only did one season on the show. Her 1976 swimsuit poster, which scandalously suggested nipples, is still the all-time best-seller. Teenage and college boys loved Farrah. Young women wanted and got "the hair". Win for everyone. Then 1984's The Burning Bed revealed to the public at large that she could do serious roles. Most recently, Farrah took her terrible ordeal with anal cancer public.

Michael Jackson

The cherub songster of the Jackson Five. Then the singer whose performances included moves which didn't look possible -- the Moonwalk was merely the best known. The singer with one glove. Thriller. Probably the perfect production mind for the early MTV video era. Weird Al practically made a career of song and video parodies of Jackson -- with his approval. Then came isolation in an age of media frenzy. People asking What happened to Michael? even as others still enjoyed his music. Scandals.

I am fascinated not by how big this story is, but by the range of people and ages for whom Michael Jackson played a significant role for them. Amazon.com sold out of everything associated with MJ in their inventory within hours. Crowds gathered at the UCLA Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. And then they gathered at so many other places worldwide. His childhood home in Gary IN. The Motown Museum in Detroit where the Jackson Five recorded their first hits. Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, etc. I haven't seen such a reaction since Princess Diana's death.

Many of the generation who miss Ed McMahon have little use for Michael Jackson -- and I expect vice versa as well.

What To Make Of All This?

The idea that celebrity deaths always comes in threes is a product of the reality that randomness comes in bunches, not evenly spaced. You can almost always find three-in-a-row if you look hard enough. Ed McMahon's star was not big enough not to be overshadowed by Farrah's death after her public cancer airing. Unfortunately, the good thing of cancer awareness in the media is eclipsed by Michael Jackson. Indeed, plenty of comics will be quick to point out that the true beneficiary of Jackson's media blitz is Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC).

For me, personally, it is damned hard to see MICHAEL JACKSON (1958-2009) everywhere -- I, too, am fifty and born in 1958. This will increasingly be a problem, as I and my age peers get older, and we will eventually all die as well. Almost feel like echoing one gentleman outside the Apollo Theatre in Harlem -- who thought MJ was immortal and would live forever...

Addendum

1 -- MTV2 is actually showing videos, in particular Michael Jackson videos. Haven't seen these in years.

2 -- odd that I thought of the young Michael Jackson in the Jackson Five as a little kid, considering that we were about the same age (he was older by a few days). I guess I'd never thought of myself as a little kid, even when I was a little kid. In some ways I was born old.

3 -- I'd seen somewhere that one of the cable stations may be playing Charlie's Angels first season episodes this weekend.

Dr. Phil

A Tough Time

As mentioned earlier, I didn't go to Kalamazoo and Western Michigan University on Thursday and Friday last week. So it came as quite a surprise to hear on the news Friday night that Rick Beckett had died. Who is Rick Beckett you say? Well I knew him as half of a team with Scott Winters of WOOD-AM radio's The Rick and Scott Show.

The morning drive to K-zoo has changed a lot over the years. Over 51 semesters the cast of characters and interesting radio shows evolves. But for the last several years I've usually had WOOD-AM on in the 9-10am range. And that meant Rick and Scott. These two have been paired together, and fired together, from a number of different radio stations and formats. But ending up as news talk radio really seemed to suit. Rick was famous for being both generous and acting, yes acting, like a diva. Once he was an alcoholic and out of control, but that was long before I listened to Rick. Last Thursday he died at age 54 of an apparent heart attack.

Today, Monday, they had a joyous memorial show and I got to listen to a wee bit of it. Scott Winters managed to survive, but later he will have a meeting with management to find out what is next for him. Rick-and-Scott, it was practically one word, one team. For the most part I am a loner in my work. There's me... and the students. Me... and the department. Me... and my graders. I can't even fathom to imagine how it is to lose a teammate like this. Well, actually I can -- and I don't want to go there.

Good-bye, Rick Beckett. And all my best wishes to help you through this, Mr. Scott Winters.

A Second Blow

Then radio legend Paul Harvey died at age 90. I know a lot of people have no patience for Paul Harvey, but I was always happy when my driving time corresponded to hearing even his short five minute morning update, let alone his longer fifteen minute broadcast. Some thought his reporting was too rah-rah or too folksy, but at heart I am a Midwesterner -- even when I first heard Paul Harvey in the New York metroplex. His stories and essays on "The Rest of the Story" were often interesting and like a really good Puzzler on NPR's Car Talk, the final gotcha was often unanticipated. As Harvey aged, he often had substitutes, but they never had that Paul Harvey delivery. "Hello, America -- stand by for news!"

He might've retired completely, except for 9/11. Though he didn't claim to understand how or why the world had changed, he felt an obligation to report -- and calm -- his audiences. To stop and report and listen. To make some sense, yet know that life also goes on. 9/11 may've been a national tragedy, but it was also an East Coast event. We were all affected, and I like to think that Paul Harvey managed to transmit the news to a larger audience.

Taking It On The Chin

As I head south on US-131, WOOD-AM fades. If I want the radio, I usually go to WLAV, classic rock station we are very, very fond of. And from 5:30 to 10am, that means The Morning Show With Kevin Matthews. Kevin returned to WLAV-FM the other year, having grown up in Grand Rapids radio from his days as a GVSU student, then moving to Chicago to make it big. No, Kevin's not dead, too. Far from it. But he was missing some days in the fall and it turned out he was going back to Chicago to get tested. And now he let's everyone know about what he calls "his disease". Kevin's got MS. He's been open about it and jokes about it, and I think we're all a little better for it.

I tell you, Grand Rapids radio listeners have had to deal with a lot lately. Well, change is inevitable. Life goes on. You think driving 77 miles each way a day is easy?

Dr. Phil