I've been a Beatles fanatic since age 5 or so. A friend's older brother played me side 2 of Sgt. Pepper, and that was it. Just this morning, it hit me that the common thread between a number of apparently-utterly-dissimilar bands whom I love was this -- beneath the surface, you could hear they clearly love the Beatles.

So I get to work, and there's voice mail from Bob telling me that George Harrison had died. I won't waste time extolling his virtues; listen to "All Things Must Pass" or the solo in "Something" for that. It's just heartwrenching in a very particular way, when someone who'd brought beauty and joy into your life for so many years is gone; not unlike the deaths of Jim Henson, Ted Geisel, Douglas Adams... and I'll never really get over Lennon's death.

But as always, it's his wife and family who've suffered the real loss. My thoughts are with them.