HILLARY DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to scale Mt. Everest died today at the age of 88.
The native New Zealander was also a passionate beekeeper!
His accomplishment as part of a British climbing expedition; even added luster to the coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II four days later, and she knighted Hillary as one of her first act.

Here's something else I don't get...
When I was six years old, my Grandmother took me shopping at Wanamaker's in Philadelphia for my birthday. I loved & looked forward to these annual excursions. On this ocassion, we arrived to find picketers in front of the store. It was some kind of retail worker's strike. I started crying when "Gram" explained to me that we could never cross a picket line & would not be shopping that day, or any other, until the strike was settled. {This same woman used to drive me crazy because we were never allowed to buy anything that didn't say "Made In The U.S.A." If she were alive today, I don't know where the hell she'd shop!)
Anyway...I just thought that was the whole purpose of a strike. Unhappy workers carrying signs, picketing in front of businesses, & relying on the help of their customers, clients, & fellow working people to honor their strike, thereby hurting business until owners/management came back to the table with a better offer! Right?
So what's up with the WRITER's STRIKE?? How can anybody take it seriously when LETTTERMAN has a "seperate deal"? When TOM CRUISE's FIRST ARTISTS production company is negotiating some side "thing"? When LENO may or may not get fined for actually writing & delivering jokes? When ELLEN keeps shooting because, I don't know...she's NOT in the W.G.A.? She's on Daytime T.V? I know DAVE & JAY kept paying their writers even after the strike. And I know they & Ellen & everbody else I guess; are likley motivated by keeping the rest of their non-writing staff in business. But if Studios & Networks & Production companies get all just get around all these various rules & clauses, how is this strike ever going to work. They cancelled THE GOLDEN GLOBES which DOES hurt many, many, people. Not just the Studios & Networks but the "little people" limo drivers, makeup artists, waiters, caterers, florists. And THE OSCARS looks less likely too. But I just think either everything goes dark (No New Television, No New film production, No Awards Shows, No Reality shows which, face it, ARE SCRIPTED!) or, or, or what? I don't know. But this "Sort-of-on-strike-but-not-if..." isn't going to help anyone.