Would Have Been

Abe Vigoda would have been 99 today.  Except he died in 2016.  He was known for years as one of those guys everyone thought was dead, but wasn't (until he was).  There'd been rumors of his death going back to 1982.  There was even a website created to tell people if Vigoda was alive or dead.

I was a fan of Abe, who appeared in hundreds of TV shows and movies, but is best known as Fish on Barney Miller (and Fish) and Tessio in The Godfather.  He also used to show up regularly for bits on Conan O'Brien's show.  I remember once Robert Duvall was a guest, and Duvall and Vigoda performed the "uncut version" of their scene in The Godfather.

Today also would have been the 65th birthday of Steve Jobs.  Except he died in 2011.  I think we can agree he accomplished a lot for a somewhat short life.

The question some have asked is how much more would Apple of done if he were still around.  Impossible to know, but would it have made any difference?  Apple had been up and down during Jobs' life (as had Jobs), but things were running pretty smoothly by the time he left.

Finally, Mitch Hedberg would have been 52 today.  Except he died in 2005.  He was one of the best comedians of his era.  Only 37 at his death, he was a drug casualty.  Not entirely shocking, since much of his image and stand-up material was built around drugs.

Thus, his line "I used to do drugs.  I still do, but I used to, too."

Even more of his jokes were about food (which may be related to drug use):

My friend asked if I wanted a frozen banana.  I said "No, but I want a regular banana later.  So, yeah."

My friend said "You know what I like?  Mashed potatoes." I was like "Dude, you gotta give me time to guess."

Rice is great when you're hungry and want to eat 2000 of something.

And many more.