Pryor knowledge

For a brief moment in the newsroom Saturday, I was torn between whose obit story I should put on page A1. Eugene McCarthy or Richard Pryor?

Both deaths were announced Saturday and I had space for only one on A1. The other was to go inside.

My bend toward politics and dabbling in 1960s radicalism led me toward McCarthy. His impact on Johnson and the anti-war movement and the victory of Nixon seems historically significant. But Richard Pryor was an entertainer and, in our society, that's way more important.

I asked my coworkers (all of whom are younger than I am). None of them could recall McCarthy without some prodding (some confused him with the anti-Communist senator) and one didn't know who Pryor was.

Well, I went with Pryor on A1 and McCarthy in a refer box with a full story inside. I think more readers would associate with Pryor.

Personal here: Though Pryor discussed racism openly and got to write his own ticket with a movie company, I don't see him as significant. I did like "Silver Streak" and "Stir Crazy," but mainly for Gene Wilder. To me, Pryor's still a vulgar drug abuser who didn't make the world a whole lot better with his work. There are significant living comedians who deserve more attention -- Robin Williams (I know, he used drugs, too), Billy Crystal, Bill Cosby, Bill Murray, Mel Brooks and Whoopi Goldberg, for example. We'll see where they go in the newspaper when they die.

Thought: Last night the wife said, Oh, boy, when you're dead, you don't take nothin' with you but your soul.