Of course, Art Linkletter himself just passed away. He was from these parts, having attended both high school and college in San Diego, and often returned here. He recently donated his archives to San Diego State University. I knew that he had lost two children and both under unusual circumstances, I have heard.

I am so inured to conspiracy theories by now, yet they still capture the imagination and hold a weird fascination for people. My former neighbor was a Viet Nam veteran who served in tanks, one of which he inadvertently torched while his crew was "toking up" near the DMZ. This was the proximate cause of his discharge from the Army and the probable reason he indulged in endless talk of "power elites" and "others" who were responsible for all the world's evils. Never did he take responsibility for his own actions. He was also a very bad musician who insisted everyone share his output.

I knew a lot of musicians back in the sixties who were influenced by "wacky tabacky" and many more mind-altering substances. Likely, much of the musical output created during that period was, at least partly, drug-induced. I never met any one of them, though, who "worked both sides of the street," as they say about informants and government operatives.

By the way, the only person I knew who really detested David Crosby was someone who needed a liver transplant and couldn't understand how Crosby got his so easily.