From the New York Times:

Mr. Pochter, who was to enter his junior year at Kenyon in the fall, worked as an intern at Amideast, a nonprofit organization “engaged in international education, training and development activities in the Middle East and North Africa,” according to the group’s Web site. A statement issued by Mr. Pochter’s family said that he had planned to return to the Middle East for his spring semester abroad.

“Our beloved 21-year-old son and brother Andrew Driscoll Pochter went to Alexandria for the summer, to teach English to 7- and 8-year-old Egyptian children and to improve his Arabic,” the statement said. “He was looking forward to returning to Kenyon College for his junior year and to spending his spring semester in Jordan.”

"He went to Egypt because he cared profoundly about the Middle East, and he planned to live and work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding,” the family said.

Following the violence, the American State Department issued a warning for Americans "to defer nonessential travel to Egypt at this time due to the continuing possibility of political and social unrest.”

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In its obituary for the journalist, however, the New York Times towed a line peddled by the government at the time of the McChrystal scandal by casting some doubt on Hastings' reporting. The journalist's widow, Elise Jordan, has been swift to take issue with the Times obit. As HuffPo reported, "Jordan did not take kindly to the Times’ remembrance, and in an email to Times' editor Jill Abramson, asked the paper correct its report before printing it in the morning paper. Abramson sent the note to Bill McDonald, obituaries editor, who rejected the request."

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Teary-eyed, the comedian then shared details about his mother's life and the positive impact she had on her 11 children.

“I know that it may sound greedy to want more days with a person who lived so long, but the fact that my mother was 92 does not diminish, it only magnifies the enormity of the room whose door has now quietly shut.”

“We were the light of her life, and she let us know it until the end. And that's it. Thank you for listening.”

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Hollywood is just beginning to mourn the sudden and unexpected death of an actor whose portrayal of Tony Soprano was, as Salon's Willa Paskin put it, "so great that it finally made TV a prestigious place for actors to work."

Celebrities took to Twitter to express their condolences and sense of loss:

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There have been great performances on TV since Gandolfini’s mafioso king Tony, but none have been as powerful or as original: It's a performance so good it’s almost impossible to exaggerate its greatness. Gandolfini created from scratch an entire, now bedrock-seeming archetype, the character who, through the skill of his portrayer, is simultaneously charismatic and menacing, threatening and charming, winning and terrifying. His Tony was scary and pained, hulking and sometimes shockingly lithe, so brutal but so funny. Playing him, Gandolfini masterfully manipulated audiences' sympathy, held their attention, and kept their interest, sometimes against their better judgment and even, toward the end of the series, against their will. He was like a pickpocket so good you ended up just handing him your wallet, abdicating before his insane skill.

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Michael is probably best known as the Rolling Stone reporter who had the guts to challenge the military establishment by publishing a piece that ended up getting Gen. Stanley McChrystal removed from his post. Even a brief perusal of the headlines of his reporting for Rolling Stone and BuzzFeed show that such a truth-to-power attitude defined his professional career.

I knew Michael through crossing paths with him in our respective work (most recently in one of the best TV experiences I've ever had -- a Young Turks panel with him, Glenn Greenwald and Cenk Uygur).

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According to Third-Beat.com, Lorna Colbert died one hour before the Wednesday night "Colbert Report" episode featuring Sir Paul McCartney. Thursday's episode was canceled in light of the death, though no official statement has been released.

"The Colbert Report" went on hiatus for a week last year when Mrs. Colbert was ill; upon the show's return Colbert said of his mother, "Evidently, having 11 children makes you tough as nails. Confidential to a lovely lady."

In November, the comedian honored his mother on her 92nd birthday:

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She died of natural causes, according to her family, and is survived by her children, television producer Pamela Putch and film and television director John Putch.

Stapleton was a Broadway actress for several years before landing her role as bigoted Archie Bunker's (Carroll O'Connor) devoted wife, for which she won three Emmy Awards. She continued acting, appearing on film and television, until 2001.

Below, Stapleton's final appearance with O'Connor, who died in 2001:

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From the Oregonian:

As high school valedictorian and Miss Everett, Margaret's highest honor was being named May Queen of Linfield College. She graduated from Linfield in 1941 and married classmate Homer Groening, whom she chose because he made her laugh the most. Margaret taught high school English before starting a family, and her love of language was apparent in the many Double-Crostics she completed (in ink). Margaret and Homer supported the Oregon Symphony, the Portland Trail Blazers and many local yarn shops (Margaret was a talented needlework artist).

Many of the fictional "Simpsons" character names came from the Greoning family, including Lisa, Homer, Marge, Maggie, Patty and Chief Wiggum (Wiggum was Margaret's maiden name). The show's main character, Bart, however, was named as an anagram for "brat."

Margaret's husband, cartoonist Homer Groening, died in 1996.

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Kelly and Chris "Daddy Mac" Smith, two teenagers whose gimmick included wearing baggy clothes backwards, rose to international stardom in 1992 with their multiplatinum debut album, "Totally Krossed Out," which carried their hit single, "Jump."

According to the authorities, Kelly died of an apparent drug overdose on Wednesday after being taken to an Atlanta hospital.

Kelly's mother, Donna Kelly Pratte, and music producer Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def label have released the following statement:

“It is with deep sadness that we announce that our beloved Chris Kelly has passed away on May 1. To millions of fans worldwide, he was the trendsetting, backwards pants-wearing one-half of Kris Kross who loved making music. But to us, he was just Chris – the kind, generous and fun-loving life of the party. Though he was only with us a short time, we feel blessed to have been able to share some incredible moments with him. His legacy will live on through his music, and we will forever love him.”

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"He Stopped Loving Her Today"

George Jones - LIVE He Stopped Loving Her Today.3gp from Dana on Vimeo.

"The Grand Tour"

"I Don't Need Your Rocking Chair"

"She's My Rock"

"Race Is On"

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Winters could improvise with literally anything--including a set of pen and pencils:

and just a stick:

In fact, Winters never read from a script, even when on "The Dean Martin Show":

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Pulitzer, who married into the famous newspaper family, got her start in fashion by spilling orange juice on her clothes. A rich housewife with time to spare and a husband who owned orange groves, she opened a juice stand in 1959, and asked her seamstress to make dresses in colorful prints that would camouflage fruit stains.

The dresses hung on a pipe behind her juice stand and soon outsold her drinks. The company's dresses, developed with the help of partner Laura Robbins, a former fashion editor, soon caught on.

"Lilly has been a true inspiration to us and we will miss her," according to a statement on the Lilly Pulitzer brand Facebook page. "In the days and weeks ahead we will celebrate all that Lilly meant to us. Lilly was a true original who has brought together generations through her bright and happy mark on the world."

Her death was confirmed by Gale Schiffman of Quattlebaum Funeral and Cremation Services in West Palm Beach. She did not know Pulitzer's cause of death.

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The Sun-Times, home of Ebert's review column for 46 years, wrote on Thursday that Ebert "was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic." He "had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland."

The tragic news comes only two days after the Ebert announced that he was cutting back from writing reviews due to his ailing health. The first-ever film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, Ebert had ambitious plans to relaunch his web site and reconnect with audiences through a campaign to bring back his PBS show "At the Movies."

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However, instead of highlighting her career accomplishments in its opening, the Times opened with Brill's cooking skills:

She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. “The world’s best mom,” her son Matthew said.

The obituary then casually segued into her other accomplishments--you know, those non-mom activities that earned her an obituary in the New York Times at all:

But Yvonne Brill, who died on Wednesday at 88 in Princeton, N.J., was also a brilliant rocket scientist, who in the early 1970s invented a propulsion system to help keep communications satellites from slipping out of their orbits.

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Ramone, who lived in Wilton, Conn., had elective surgery on Feb. 27 to prevent an aortic aneurysm, son Matt Ramone said. He later developed pneumonia and died Saturday morning at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the son said.

Few in the recording industry enjoyed a more spectacular and diverse career. Phil Ramone won 14 competitive Grammy Awards and one for lifetime achievement. Worldwide sales for his projects topped 100 million. He was at ease with rock, jazz, swing and pop, working with Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, Elton John and Tony Bennett, Madonna and Lou Reed.

One of the biggest names not to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ramone was on hand for such classic albums as The Band's "The Band" and Bob Dylan's "Blood On the Tracks." He produced three records that went on to win Grammys for album of the year - Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," Joel's "52nd Street" and Charles' "Genius Loves Company."

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Gen. Jose Ornella told the AP that the president's last words indicated how much "he loved his country" and wanted to keep living for it. Regardless of one's opinion of the leader, his plea for life in his final moment is stirring, if not out of keeping with the strong political figure he cut.

His last words inspired us to recall some other famous and infamous last utterances -- the stuff of fact and legend:

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Motown Museum board member Allen Rawls said Rogers died about 6 a.m. in Southfield. Rogers had been ill for several years.

Rogers formed the group in 1956 with cousin Claudette Rogers, Pete Moore, Ronnie White and Robinson. Their hits included "Shop Around," `'You've Really Got a Hold on Me," `'The Tracks of My Tears," `'Going to a Go-Go," `'I Second That Emotion" and "The Tears of a Clown."

"Another soldier in my life has fallen. Bobby Rogers was my brother and a really good friend," Robinson said Sunday in a statement. "He and I were born on the exact same day in the same hospital in Detroit. I am really going to miss him. I loved him very much."

Roger's cousin Claudette told the Detroit Free Press that everyone was drawn to his personality.

"People always commented on the tall one with the glasses," she said. "He was personable, approachable and he loved talking to the women, loved talking to the guys, loved to dance, loved to sing, loved to perform. That was the joy of his life."

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Cliburn died at his home in Fort Worth surrounded by loved ones, said his publicist and longtime friend Mary Lou Falcone.

"Van Cliburn was an international legend for over five decades, a great humanitarian and a brilliant musician whose light will continue to shine through his extraordinary legacy," Falcone said in a statement. "He will be missed by all who knew and admired him, and by countless people he never met."

Cliburn made what would be his last public appearance in September at the 50th anniversary of the prestigious piano competition named for him. Speaking to the audience in Fort Worth, he saluted the many past contestants, the orchestra and the city. "Never forget: I love you all from the bottom of my heart, forever," he said to a roaring standing ovation.

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