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We lost a great guy a few days ago. Richard Belzer, 78. Long-running TV detective, standup comedian, friend of the core comic mind across several generations, MC of the nightly scene at Catch A Rising Star. A brilliant analyst of the art of show business. He’d been out of the business for many years, at his home in the south of France. I learned that his friend Bill Scheft has been working on a documentary about him, so there may be something to reconnect with him after his many years of retirement. I was not a close friend, but when he disappeared from the scene, I didn’t take it personally when he stopped returning my calls. He was always gentle, soft-spoken, and kind in a way I’d rarely experienced in that world. To me, relationships in the business are like living experiments. If they worked, that was interesting; if not, no fault.

It’s a tough time in the technology business: layoffs, haircuts, dashed expectations, I can’t talk much about it for a while. I haven’t felt much motiva…