2009's saddest departures

What with the 2009 top ten lists bandied about, here's Third Edge of the Sword's ten five saddest deaths of 2009. Brittany Murphy will not appear on this list.

H.M. Ted Kennedy
He doesn't deserve a picture. The other Ted Kennedy doesn't deserve one either.

5. Irving Kristol
Bill Kristol founded The Weekly Standard in...oh, sorry, wrong Kristol. Irving Kristol was the man who decided to not only push conservatism as a political philosophy but also an intellectual one... in fact, reasoning that the only intellectuals are conservative. You gotta admit he's onto something.

4. Roméo LeBlanc
I phoned Sonic 102.9 when they were talking about celebrity deaths "coming in threes" and wondering who would die next. I angrily reminded them that LeBlanc had died the day before, and he was more than a little important, even though he couldn't sing.

3. Ludovic Kennedy
Anybody who remembers Yes, Minister saw how this famed BBC announcer had a longevity that his peers never could. But did you know his father was a famed WWII merchant captain, and the younger Kennedy took to the seas and participated in the hunt for the Bismark? Ludo also wrote the book about the Lindbergh baby that became the movie Crime of the Century

2. Ricardo Montalban
From "Baby Its Cold Outside" to The Wrath of Khan, Ricardo did it all. I did a tribute when it happened, and Big Hollywood does a memorial to him as well.

1. The United States ConstitutionWell, it did outlive George Burns...