In honor of Ray Bradbury, I will burn a copy of the 2012 Chicago Fire media guide! Just kidding. I wouldn't buy one. In honor of Ray Bradbury, I will tattoo myself with the story of the 2012 Chicago Fire season. Just kidding. I'm going to try to forget it. In honor of Ray Bradbury, I have scheduled a friendly with Martians F.C., a PDL team from one of the new colonies on Mars. Just kidding. They said they wanted a challenge. Actually, I wouldn't mind a Fire jersey with MONTAG and the number 451 on the back. Sufficiently dystopian for our season.
"Death doesn't exist. It never did, it never will. But we've drawn so many pictures of it, so many years, trying to pin it down, comprehend it, we've got to thinking of it as an entity, strangely alive and greedy. All it is, however, is a stopped watch, a loss, an end, a darkness. Nothing." - from Something Wicked This Way Comes A sad day, but I'm sure he'd give us all a raspberry and tell us to get on with it.
I was fortune enough to meet Ray twice. First time I met him was in the mid nineties when he paid a visit to the central Illinois town where I grew up. How often does your favorite author visit your hometown where you went to the library to check out all of his books and was lost in his stories for weeks on end? Ray was quite the talker too. Very personable and friendly. He was one of my few heroes and I'm sad to see him go. Sadly, the world just became more empty without him. He always quoted a magician (Presto?) that told him to, "Live Forever!" when he was a young boy. His body may not but his words and stories certainly will.