Just imagine Humphrey Bogart playing Sam Spade as Sam Wilson — a 1941 version
of Sam Wilson, private eye turned Captain America’s unofficial and unorthodox partner.

That’s what I did in this mockup for the mashup Captain America and the Maltese Falcon. Ever since brainstorming the title a couple of years ago for a hashtag game on Twitter, I’ve found its Reese’s Peanut-Butter Cup potential hard to shake.
Photo: Al Levine for NBC © 1982.
What’s most surprising about Don Pardo’s passing on Monday is either half of
this sentence taken with the other: He was 96 and still working as the primary voice
of Saturday Night Live.
Cropped image from To Have and Have Not © 1944 Warner Bros. Pictures.
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That was a really difficult post title to type.
Photo: Jim Britt for ABC © 1978.
I was introduced to Robin Williams, who died on Monday at 63, as Mork from Ork
— first on Happy Days and then, of course, on Mork & Mindy. Although I’m twenty years younger, I aged with him, through his stand-up and dramatic roles and talk-show appearances and film comedies and mush and, just this past year, his return to network TV.
Which I think is a big part of why his death hits so hard.