Tribute Thread for the Recently Passed Greats

We often went to Horn and Hardart at some point during our visits to a dear aunt who lived in New York City. RAZD and xongsmith lived in nearby Rhode Island and have probably also gone there.Horn and Hardart's had a lot of imitators, and there was one whose name escapes me that offered stiff competition for a while, but even as a kid I could tell the other place was inferior.I think the automats were popular because they fit the period's image of the space age as envisioned by the 1950s. It's amazing to me that Horn and Hardart lasted as long as it did. Wikipedia says the last one closed in 1991.--Percy

I had seen auotmats in movies as everyone has (there are a number of YouTube videos featuring movie clips), but I learned more about it in a 2021 documentary, The Automat, when it aired on Turner Classics. It's available to rent on Spectrum and various streaming channels and is currently being carried on Max (former HBO Max).Horn and Hardart had gotten the idea from a Berlin automat. Not featured in the documentary, I wonder if the Germans had gotten their idea from some emperors (the Tsars especially after Catherine, as I seem to recall) who wanted privacy from servants at dinner parties, so the servants were on the floor below and would hoist each serving up through holes in the table. Kind of a more elaborate version of the dumb-waiter idea.The whole automat ran on nickels, so when you entered you would first go to the cashier for nickels. She had a box full of nickels and was so practiced that she could grab a handful of coins and know exactly how many she had -- exact change every time without having to look or count.The documentary cited fast food chains one of the reasons for the automat's demise.

When I was kid we visited my grandparents in NYC during the 60's and 70's. I remember going to the automat when we we would go downtown to do touristy things. I don't remember any uptown. We visited NYC every month or so, but don't have a lot of memories.

I lived in New Haven CT for a few years. When visiting NY, I would usually eat at one of the automats.I moved to Chicago in 1968, and there was an automat there. But I never ate at the Chicago automat, and I think it closed a year or two after that.

dang, the Dancing continues in another world.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3McCuGl4j8oddly i was thinking of her the other day and wondered how old she was...i coulda looked, but thenother things were happening.

Carl Weathers Dead: Rocky's Apollo Creed, Star Wars, Predator Actor Was 76Veteran actor; most well known as Apollo Creed from the Rocky franchise. RIP.

it has been awhile since I've posted a recent great. Joe died on the 27th of March:Joe Lieberman - Wikipedia

Louis Gossett Jr. - Wikipedia.Always liked his work.

Peter Higgs, Nobel prize winner in physics in 2013 for his work on the boson which bears his name, died yesterday at age 94. He was, one might say, a massive figure in science. --Percy

His work was a smashing success.Really bad puns aside, it made me emotional watching the expression on Higgs' face at the meeting where the results of the two LHC experiments were presented. It's not often you get to see the moment where someone's amazing ideas come to fruition.So a big thank you to Peter Higgs. We are all the better for the knowledge you blessed us with.

Dead.

Good.

Or did he? Don't lift the lid to find out

If they don't take him to the cemetery in a white Bronco I'm going to be disappointed.

Perhaps reenacting the slow speed chase on the way?