Every year about this time many people, especially in the northern states, have a tradition of driving around at night to admire their neighbors’ Christmas decorations. For some people, preparing for Christmas is a simple matter of tastefully decorating a tree that sits in front of their living room window. For others, it’s the decorated tree and nice little candles sitting on their window sills. For others, it’s the decorated tree, the nice little candles and string of white lights wound around their bushes. For others, it’s the decorated tree, the nice little candles, the string of white lights and a backlit nativity scene on the front lawn.

For still others, it’s the tree, the candles, the string of lights, the nativity scene and a huge inflated snowman surrounded by colored lights. For others, it’s the tree, the candles, the lights, the nativity scene, the inflated snowman and a cheerful animated Santa waving merrily as his reindeer team readies for flight. For still others, it’s the tree, the candles, the string of lights, the nativity scene, the inflated snowman, the animated Santa and his reindeer and eight robotic elves working at their workbench.

For still others, it’s the decorated tree, the candles in the windows, the string of lights, the nativity scene, the inflated snowman, the cheerful Santa and his reindeer, the robotic elves and 18 foot high letters that dance across the lawn spelling out MERRY CHRISTMAS. And in the background Dean Martin serenades onlookers with a deafening rendition of “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” on continuous loop.

I Guess “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot like Christmas!”

Our icons are falling one after the other. Most recent among our fallen heroes is Bill Cosby, a man we’ve known and loved since his hallmark role in I SPY in the mid-60’s (that’s 19… BTW). When he co-starred with Robert Culp on weeknight TV in the first spy series of its kind, he became the first black man to have a starring role on a TV series and brought his character Scotty into the limelight. As Scotty he was funny, warm, stable, rather shy and generally understated. He was focused on the job and not on the seductive women who were always getting Kelly Robinson (a world class tennis player) in trouble.  From there, Bill Cosby went on to star in and be loved for other roles as through the years he became someone we all, but especially young minority men looked up to, a leader, a funny man, a wise man.

Who didn’t love Bill Cosby? No one! We all did. He was terrific and loveable and spontaneous with his homey self-effacing anecdotes, his tales about his mother in Philadelphia. And what I loved the most about him was how sincerely human and real he seemed. So imagine my shock, no doubt our collective shock, when one woman after another came forward to tell her story about the Bill Cosby she knew.

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