The obit's all over the news, I'm sure you can find it without a link.

[roadrunnertwice]

Also: RIP Crocodile Hunter; adventurer, scholar, and artist.

To some supercilious students, in the 1940s, Shostakovich offered a different musical analogy: "The circus is the purest of art forms. And note that like any genuine art form it brooks no counterfeit. The director's tone-deaf wife, the committee chairman's aunt or somebody else may sing in opera. But only a person expertly trained can perform on the flying trapeze. It is inconceivable to enter the lion's cage simply by 'pulling strings.' "

—Fay, Laurel E. Shostakovich: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 300, note 61.