Week 699: Our Greatest Hit

Joe Barbera:
The cartoon muse to the baby boom
Has met his yabba dabba doom.
(Mark Eckenwiler, Washington)

Red Auerbach:
The Celtics' Auerbach is dead;
The foes of Green no more see Red.
(David Smith, Santa Cruz, Calif.)

Hooters chairman Robert Brooks:
He taught America the knack
Of buying dinner off the rack.
(Jay Shuck)

Mike Douglas once had John and Yoko co-host on his show.
(I used to watch it every day at 5.)
The Reaper has an awful lot to answer for, you know:
Of those three folks, look which one's still alive.
(Brendan Beary, Great Mills, Md.)

Gerald Ford:
When I was young, you pardoned
Richard Nixon.
I labeled you a crooked, evil jerk.
But you were in the right. Please
pardon me, sir.
And thank you for the extra day off work.
(Bob Dalton, Arlington)

Betty Friedan, feminists' pal,
Last year became a femme fatale.
  (Phyllis Reinhard, East Fallowfield, Pa.)

Saddam Hussein:
You may regret you called our bluff,
But you've been proven smarter.
Our president looks like a fool,
And you've become a martyr.
(Michelle Stupak, Ellicott City)

Steve Irwin brought us crocs and snakes,
A great wide world of wonder;
We hate to say "Goodbye now, mate,"
But crikey! He's Down Under.
(Beverley Sharp, Washington)

Don Knotts:
O Barney boy, the Fife, the Fife is calling,
Death came for Goober, Otis and Aunt Bea.
Old Floyd is gone, and Andy can't be long now.
Have Opie douse the lights in Mayberry.
(Jeff Brechlin, Eagan, Minn.)

Bernard Lacoste:
See you later
Alligator.
(Michael Levy, Silver Spring)

When planning the wake for Kenneth Lay,
Just don't have it be at 4:01, 'kay?
(Jay Shuck)

Alexander Litvinenko:
We buried you two months ago,
But still you've got that healthy glow.
(Brendan Beary)