A Brief History of Xmas
Jonny gives a personal recollection of his holiday celebrations over the past 60 years. Runtime: 28 minutes, 58 seconds.
The Year in Photos
Runtime: 3 minutes, 29 seconds.
GLENN SIMON
1962-2020
2020 was a horrendous year by any measure but it saved the worst for last when our beloved friend Glenn Simon passed away on December 18. I had known Glenn since 1986 when we performed in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Nevada Shakespeare in the Park and we acted together many times in such productions as The Alchemist,The Taming of the Shrew, and Richard III. He also performed in stagings of Romeo & Juliet, The Brewery Follies, So You Want to Be a Vampire, as well as being a longtime fixture at the Golden Raspberry Awards and the Virginia City Players. I had the honor to appear in the last piece Glenn directed, the one-act play Suit of Lights, and was an appreciative fan of his wonderful comedy writing, especially for the Manka Brothers mock movie studio website.
But it is as a friend that I will remember Glenn the best. He was my partner in the broadcast booth for our hilarious Computer League Baseball telecasts, in which his drunken sot announcer Johnny Schmarm stole the show with his singular calls of flyballs that he was sure were homeruns ("It could be...IT MAY BE...IT'S...a routine fly ball"). When I had two wisdom teeth removed, he insisted on driving me and related to me my strange behavior when I was high on painkillers (as he was negotiating me out of the dentist's door, we passed a young woman going in to whom I gleefully exclaimed "I just had my testicles removed!!!"). He helped me through multiple heartbreaks and helped me keep perspective during multiple triumphs. But his kindness extended to everyone whose life he touched, and it's characteristic that he spent his final year in Seattle (not his favorite city) to care for his ailing father.
Glenn had more health problems than anyone had a right to expect, from open heart surgery in his 20's to suffering from multiple sclerosis which so badly affected him that he had to use a walker for a time. But he always managed to keep his high spirits and bounced back from his health scares, returning to kick butt in his ice hockey league after he no longer needed the walker and always being optimistic for the future. The last years of his too-short life were happy ones, buoyed especially by the unwavering love of his wife Megan. When he went into serious decline in the latter half of 2020, we were sure that it was just one more setback that he would ultimately rebound from. The last time, I saw him, in a Zoom get-together with some old friends not long before his death, he was the same upbeat and quick-witted dude that I knew from Nevada Shakespeare in the Park all the summers ago. His passing was a crushing loss to everyone who knew him.
2020 was a horrendous year by any measure but it saved the worst for last when our beloved friend Glenn Simon passed away on December 18. I had known Glenn since 1986 when we performed in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Nevada Shakespeare in the Park and we acted together many times in such productions as The Alchemist, The Taming of the Shrew, and Richard III. He also performed in stagings of Romeo & Juliet, The Brewery Follies, So You Want to Be a Vampire, as well as being a longtime fixture at the Golden Raspberry Awards and the Virginia City Players. I had the honor to appear in the last piece Glenn directed, the one-act play Suit of Lights, and was an appreciative fan of his wonderful comedy writing, especially for the Manka Brothers mock movie studio website.
Glenn had more health problems than anyone had a right to expect, from open heart surgery in his 20's to suffering from multiple sclerosis which so badly affected him that he had to use a walker for a time. But he always managed to keep his high spirits and bounced back from his health scares, returning to kick butt in his ice hockey league after he no longer needed the walker and always being optimistic for the future. The last years of his too-short life were happy ones, buoyed especially by the unwavering love of his wife Megan. When he went into serious decline in the latter half of 2020, we were sure that it was just one more setback that he would ultimately rebound from. The last time, I saw him, in a Zoom get-together with some old friends not long before his death, he was the same upbeat and quick-witted dude that I knew from Nevada Shakespeare in the Park all the summers ago. His passing was a crushing loss to everyone who knew him.