It's a dreaded disease. The fourth-highest cause of cancer deaths in the United States, it's usually portrayed as an unstoppable, incurable killer. It has struck some high-profile figures: Hollywood actor Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with it. Opera star Luciano Pavarotti and former Ronald Reagan aide Michael Deaver died of it. So, too, on July 25, did Randy Pausch, the former Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor whose "last lecture" before a university audience became a YouTube sensation and a best-selling book. ...more

August 11, 2008

At the start of each new year the media reports a list of people, famous and infamous, who died during the previous 12 months. Reviewing this year's list, I couldn't help but think about what it had cost each individual to make it onto that roster. Aside from the obvious cost, (they had to die to get there), every person listed had done something notable, either admirable or ignoble. A few contributed to the advancement of medicine or science, or like Ruth Bell Graham, spiritual inspiration, leaving a legacy of healing and improvement in the quality of life for the entire planet. Each of those individuals studied long and hard, worked countless hours, and some spent fortunes of their own money to achieve a success, for which they will be remembered in encyclopedias, and scarcely anywhere else. ...more

January 6, 2008

In its 75th year, the "Christmas Spectacular" at Radio City Music Hall is a relatively mellow affair. ...more

November 22, 2007

The pairing of Led Zeppelin's flamboyant ex-frontman with bluegrass' longtime darling might seem like a particularly lame "Saturday Night Live" sketch: "Then we'll have Marilyn Manson sing with Luciano Pavarotti! Crazy!" ...more

November 7, 2007

Liza Minnelli is on the telephone, calling from New York, New York. She's also on the computer screen, singing 'New York, New York' onstage with Luciano Pavarotti in a concert in Italy. ...more

October 4, 2007

Liza Minnelli is on the telephone, calling from New York, New York. ...more

October 3, 2007

Italy will mark the death of tenor Luciano Pavarotti with a series of concerts, film screenings, photographic retrospectives and other commemorative events at its cultural centers around the globe, the Foreign Ministry said. ...more

September 30, 2007

FESTIVAL DEL SABOR: Centro Mi Diario and CentroTampa.com will celebrate CENTRO Mi Diario with another Festival del Sabor Latin food festival on Oct. 13 Ybor City's Centennial Park. The festival, which runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., coincides with Hispanic Heritage Month ...more

September 25, 2007

Luciano Pavarotti left half his estate to his second wife and half to his four daughters, including three from his first marriage, an attorney said Tuesday. ...more

September 19, 2007

In 1978, the same year that Luciano Pavarotti sang the famous duet with his father in Italy, I was privileged to sit in a master's class held for the voice majors of my university, and listen to not only his massive and rich voice, but his vocal direction. A small group of us had been asked to sit under him for the day, and an even smaller group had been asked to sing for him and let him critique their singing. The few, very brave singers in my class that got up and sang for him had my intense awe. I sat in wonder as he answered our questions about himself. He told us about his background and his love of music. He had not had the privileged background that some of the other students in my class had, but he certainly had gone after his dream, believing that he could achieve it with enough hard work. ...more

September 11, 2007