Alistair Cooke dead at 95

March 30, 2004 6:15 AM

Alistair Cooke dead at 95
in this age of savagely polluted airwaves, Cooke as still a beacon from another age - and a helluva of class act. he'll be missed.
posted by specialk420 (16 comments total)

This is his Letter From America on being in the Ambassador Hotel when RFK was shot. Interesting read.
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:47 AM on March 30, 2004

A very intereresting character, also see this fpp.
posted by johnnyboy at 6:53 AM on March 30, 2004

The BBC played his last Letter From America just a week or two ago. This is sad news.
posted by y2karl at 7:30 AM on March 30, 2004

I loved Alistair Cooke. I also loved this:

I can never visit Philladelphia without being reminded of the story of the Texan who on visiting to Pennsylvannia’s ancient capital and happened to visit Artureas, the famous fish restaraunt. Unfamiliar with the custom this traditionally...
posted by soyjoy at 8:02 AM on March 30, 2004

I came to like the Letters From America very much. Alistair Cooke will be missed around the world.
posted by crazy finger at 8:17 AM on March 30, 2004

"There was a head on the floor, streaming blood and somebody put a Kennedy boater under it and the blood trickled down like chocolate sauce on an ice cake."

The death of Sir Peter Ustinov has robbed the world of one of its funniest men.
posted by clavdivs at 8:23 AM on March 30, 2004

A great loss to us all. They shall both be missed.
posted by Lynsey at 9:49 AM on March 30, 2004

heaven's IQ just went up a bunch of points with these two.
posted by amberglow at 10:10 AM on March 30, 2004

Alistair Cooke will be missed around the world.

i debated whether to say this, because i have no wish to be rude, but if people are going to start speaking for others, maybe i can comment that i must have written to the bbc about twice in my life, and that one of those letters was to ask them to broadcast something more interesting than letter from america.
posted by andrew cooke at 10:15 AM on March 30, 2004

from bret: a skeleton in cooke's closet:

"I read your post on Metafilter but couldn't reply because I'm not a member. I just wanted to point out that years ago in a linguistics course in college our prof showed us a letter she got from Alistair Cooke, a form letter asking for contributions to a group called 'US ENGLISH,' with which he is an advisory board member. The purpose of the group is to "make English the official language of the US" (Because it isn't, interestingly; there isn't one). The goal is, essentially, to force everyone to learn English. On the US English website it's not as clear, but when you read the letter, you realize that their purpose is, in fact, quite racist. They seem to be worried that our country will be taken over by other languages and that English will disappear. This group has considered trying to eliminate 911 services in Spanish, to drive home the point. And check out this part of the site: http://www.usenglish.org/inc/official/costs.asp for a feel of what their mission is. If you're interested in a copy of that letter, I could send you one."
posted by specialk420 at 10:34 AM on March 30, 2004

Maybe Cooke didn't know it's an anti-hispanic immigrant group?
posted by amberglow at 11:01 AM on March 30, 2004

Bob Edwards thoughtfully remembers Cooke.
posted by amphigory at 11:47 AM on March 30, 2004

Maybe Cooke didn't know it's an anti-hispanic immigrant group?

Oh, I'm sure he knew. And I suspect it was Arnold Palmer who encouraged him. He was a terrible old reactionary in his later years, but that's what comes from being living history. And being attached to the Augusta National. (A pity that he didn't make it through to next week, in a way, since he always spoke with wistful affection for the Masters.)

It's a bad week for raconteurs, though. The world's supply of anecdotes dropped considerably.
posted by riviera at 2:04 PM on March 30, 2004

I wonder if this means that Sesame Street will stop airing Alastair Cookie's Monsterpiece Theater. I especially loved it when Cookie Monster would eat his pipe at the end of the skit.
posted by jonp72 at 3:11 PM on March 30, 2004

I thought about Monsterpiece Theater too when I read this story...Alastair Cookie rocked. : ) "Me, Claudius" was a classic.
posted by SisterHavana at 9:50 PM on March 30, 2004

soyjoy: QUACK!
posted by whuppy at 1:46 PM on March 31, 2004