2024 (in some jurisdictions)
By 
Happy New Year!
Why don’t we start things out with an iteration of “I am surprised and pleased to discover that he was still alive” that seems appropriate to the occasion:
Shecky Greene, a high-energy stand-up comedian who for many years was one of the biggest stars in Las Vegas, died on Sunday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 97.
His daughter Alison Greene confirmed his death.
Mr. Greene was a frequent guest of Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and other television hosts, and had acting roles in movies and on television. But he never reached as wide an audience as many of his fellow comedians, probably because his humor was best experienced in full flower on a nightclub stage rather than in small doses on the small screen.
In Las Vegas, though, he was an institution. A versatile entertainer of the old school — he told stories, he made faces, he ad-libbed, he did impressions, he sang — he would do just about anything for a laugh, including physical comedy so broad that it sometimes left him black and blue.
He was not one to stick to a set routine. “I wasn’t an A-B-C-D comic. ‘Hello, ladies and gentlemen’ and then the next line,” he told the comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff in 2011. Audiences who went to see Shecky Greene never knew quite what to expect.
To (some) American institutions!
Las Vegas is a beautiful city with the best Asian food in America outside of LA and has gambling. Sorry it doesn’t have some stupid tower and a bunch of mid restaurants with little chairs outside for tourists to sit and go ‘ahhh culture.’ (Except it does at the Paris casino) https://t.co/ELt2TMKayW— kang (@jaycaspiankang) December 30, 2023