Sparky Anderson in hospice care

Our best wishes go out to his family.

Speedy descent

I'm less interested in whether or not Walter Cronkite was on the short list to be McGovern's VP choice, than I am by this:

How ill was Cronkite in 2007? It's probably unrealistic to expect any 90-year-old to come to the phone when a reporter calls, but it's worth mentioning that the month before Leubsdorf's story appeared, Cronkite [sic] release a statement toasting Jane Pauley for winning the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism at Arizona State University. When I saw Cronkite give an address at Columbia University in February 2007, he apologized for being a little wobbly on stage, but he read his speech perfectly.

According to his recent obituary, the cause of Walter Cronkite's death was "complications of dementia." I have no idea what that means, but in any case, for him to wobbly but ably read a speech perfectly in 2007 and die from dementia in two years is scary.