This is sad. Kurt Vonnegut has died. Pessimist, existentialist and damn great writer. As he said in God Bless You Mr Rosewater:
"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- 'God damn it, you've got to be kind.' "
I've taught his Galapagos many times over the years and Slaughterhouse-Five is a classic that reflects his experiences in Dresden during the fire-bombing of 1945.
From Slaughterhouse-Five:
"And every day my Government gives me a count of corpses created by military science in Vietnam. So it goes."
So it goes, indeed.
Update: Wow. No sooner did I hit post than I noticed that some of my SciBlings have already paid their respects (that's what I get for spending the evening preparing lectures). Check out what Mike, Bora, Tara, John, Monkey
Boy, Josh, and Steinn have to say.