It's not easy being green

For a little bit of fun today, I went and searched in Wikipedia about May 16. So many things happened today in history.

Did you know that on May 16 President Andrew Johnson was nearly impeached? One vote shy and still another one vote shy later, he never was - but one vote shy isn't an overwhelming amount of support.

Also, today, back in 1770, Marie Antoinette married Louis-Auguste at the ripe old age of 14. Too bad she didn't never saw 40. Too much cake will do that to a gal.

But the most noticible thing I saw that happened today in history was that back in 1990 - we lost a good friend, Jim Henson.

According to Wikipedia, on the DVD commentary for the movie Love Actually, director/ writer Richard Curtis describes an episode at Henson's funeral:

"At the end of (the funeral)...Frank Oz was talking and he suddenly lifted up Kermit's puppet and started to sing this song. And it turned out that all the guys in the memorial service had brought their puppets with them, and they lifted them up, and when you turned around and looked backwards there were fifty puppets all singing. And Big Bird walked down the aisle, and they all came forward and just this massive chorus of puppets all singing...It was an extraordinary thing..."

A memorial service for him aired on PBS and drew millions of viewers and dozens of celebrities in reverence for his life and work. As per Henson's wishes, no one in attendance wore black, and a Dixieland jazz band finished the service by performing "When the Saints Go Marching In." In what was probably one of the most touching moments of the service, the Muppet character Big Bird walked out onto the stage and sang a quavering rendition of Kermit the Frog's signature song, "Bein' Green."

So here's to Jim... Thanks for introducing us all to Kermit, Big Bird, Oscar, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and the likes. The world would never have been the same.