HERE COMES THE MAN WITH THE ORCHID IN HIS HAND. As it is the holiday season and the very end of the year, I thought it would be fun to remind everyone of death. As is my wont at this time of year, I would like to take a moe and remember all those who departed this vale of tears during this year. So here is THE BUTCHER'S BILL FOR 2007:

• A. I. Bezzerides, screenwriter "Kiss Me Deadly"
• Del Reeves, singer
• Magnus Magnusson, TV host "Mastermind"
• Yvonne DeCarlo, actress "The Munsters"
• Iwao Takamoto, producer "Scooby-Doo", "Super Friends"
• Carlo Ponti, producer "Dr. Zhivago", "Smashing Time"
• Tudor Gates, screenwriter "The Vampire Lovers", "Twins of Evil", "Barbarella"
• Ron Carey, actor "High Anxiety", "Fatso", "Barney Miller"
• Peter Ronson, actor "Journey to the Center of the Earth"
• Art Buchwald, humorist/author
• Denny Doherty, singer "The Mamas & the Papas"
• Liz Renay, actress "The Thrill Killers"
• E. Howard Hunt, Watergate shenanigans-doer
• Steve Mitchell, actor "The Killing", "Thriller - Late Date"
• Tige Andrews, actor "Star Trek - Friday's Child"
• Sidney Sheldon, producer "Charlie's Angels"
• Molly Ivins, political journalist/author
• Frankie Laine, singer
• Anna Nicole Smith, blonde
• Sir Ian Richardson, actor "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead","Gormenghast"
• Janet Blair, actress "Night of the Eagle aka Burn, Witch, Burn"
• Bruce Bennett, actor "Mildred Pierce"
• Hideo Takamatsu, actor "The Last Emperor"
• Arthur Schlesinger Jr., historian
• Pompin Iglesias, actor
• John Inman, actor "Are You Being Served?"
• Richard Jeni, comedian "Platypus Man", "The Aristocrats"
• Betty Hutton, actress "Annie Get Your Gun"
• Arnold Drake, screenwriter "The Flesh Eaters", "Who Killed Teddy Bear"
• Freddie Francis, director "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors", "Tales From the Crypt"
• Calvert DeForest, comedian "Larry Bud Melman"
• Luther Ingram, singer "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right)"
• Marshall Rogers, comic book artist "Batman", "Dr. Strange"
• Calvin Lockhart, actor "The Beast Must Die", "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me"
• Dave Martin, writer "Doctor Who", "co-creator of K-9"
• Bob Clark, director "A Christmas Story", "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things", "Murder By Decree"
• Dakota Staton, singer
• Roscoe Lee Browne, actor "Soap"
• Kurt Vonnegut Jr., author "Breakfast of Champions"
• Don Ho, singer "Tiny Bubbles"
• Tran Bach Dang, Vietnamese dude, patron saint of free soda
• Kitty Carlisle, actress "What's My Line?", "A Night at the Opera"
• Jean Pierre Cassel, actor "Murder on the Orient Express"
• Boris Yeltsin, Russian leader
• Bobby "Boris" Pickett, singer "Monster Mash"
• Jack Valenti, former assistant to LBJ/chairman of Motion Picture Academy
• Mstislav Rostropovich, musician
• Dabbs Greer, actor "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", "The Vampire"
• Tommy Newsom, band leader "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson"
• Tom Poston, actor "Newhart", "Thriller - Masquerade"
• Wally Schirra, astronaut
• Curtis Harrington, director "What's the Matter with Helen", "Night Tide"
• Jerry Falwell, hypocrit
• Charles Nelson Reilly, actor "The Match Game", "Lidsville"
• Nellie Lutcher, singer
• Mala Powers, actress "Thriller - The Bride Who Died Twice"
• Kurt Waldheim, UN secretary general/ Nazi guy
• Ed Friendly, producer "Backstairs at the White House"
• Chris Benoit, murderer
• Fred Saberhagen, author "The Dracula Tape"
• Joel Siegel, critic
• Beverly Sills, opera singer
• Boots Randolph, musician
• Kerwin Matthews, actor "7th Voyage of Sinbad"
• George Melly, singer/writer "Smashing Time"
• Charles Lane, actor
• Lady Bird Johnson, first lady
• Kieron Moore, actor "Dr. Blood's Coffin", "Day of the Triffids"
• Jerry Hadley, opera singer "Liverpool Oratorio"
• Tammy Faye Bakker, makeup wearer
• Mike Reid, actor "EastEnders"
• Tom Snyder, TV host
• Michelangelo Antonioni, director "Blow Up"
• Ingmar Bergman, director "The Seventh Seal", "Autumn Sonata"
• Bill Walsh, football coach
• Tommy Makem, singer
• Lee Hazlewood, songwriter
• Merv Griffin, TV host/producer
• Phil Rizzuto, baseball player
• Michael Deaver, political consultant
• Hilly Kristal, former owner of CBGB's

• Miyoshi Umeki, actress "Sayonara", "Courtship of Eddie's Father"
• Marcia Mae Jones, actress "The Gang's All Here", "Haunted House"
• Madeleine L'Engle, author "A Wrinkle In Time"
• Luciano Pavarotti, opera singer
• Loretta King, actress "Bride of the Monster"
• Jane Wyman, actress "The Lost Weekend"
• Brett Somers, actress "The Match Game", "The Odd Couple"
• Alice Ghostley, actress "Bewitched"
• Karl Hardman, actor "Night of the Living Dead"
• Marcel Marceau, mime
• Charles B. Griffith, screenwriter "Little Shop of Horrors", "A Bucket of Blood"
• Lois Maxwell, actress "The Haunting"
• Ronnie Hazlehurst, composer "Yes, Minister", "The Two Ronnies", "Last of the Summer Wine"
• George Grizzard, actor "Advise & Consent"
• Deborah Kerr, actress "The Innocents"
• Joey Bishop, comedian
• Teresa Brewer, singer
• Chef Tell, TV chef
• Porter Wagoner, singer
• Robert Goulet, singer
• Linda Stein, manager "The Ramones"
• Norman Mailer, author
• Laraine Day, actress
• Ira Levin, author "Rosemary's Baby"
• Ronnie Burns, actor "The Burns & Allen Show", "The Honeymooners"
• Dick Wilson, actor "Mr. Wilson on Charman ads"
• Verity Lambert, producer "Doctor Who"
• Reg Park, actor "Hercules in the Haunted World"
• Robert Houghton Hepburn, brother of Katharine Hepburn
• Mel Tolkin, writer "Your Show of Shows", "All in the Family"
• Evel Knievel, daredevil
• Ike Turner, musician
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer
• Dan Fogelberg, singer
• Frank Morgan, saxophonist
• Frank Capra Jr., producer
• Jeanne Carmen, actress "The Monster of Piedras Blancas"
• Michael Kidd, actor/choreographer "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"
• Oscar Peterson, pianist
• Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Prime Minister