Steven Latimer

I live in the city of Charlottesville, where I am represented by Democrat Creigh Deeds in the Virginia State Senate. I signed up to be on the failed 2009 gubernatorial candidate's email list a few months ago, and today, found an email in my inbox titled, "48 Hours." Clearly, as election day is only two days away, Deeds must be trying to futilely persuade me to vote for Barack Obama's favorite congressman, Tom Perriello.

I just watched a half-hour flashy infomercial for the Bullet Express, a $120 do-all, be-all kitchen appliance which aims to take a lot of the work out of cooking big meals. The infomercial shows actors preparing meals in 60 seconds or less using this contraption.

Now, I am not much of a cook. Most of what I eat is either from a TV dinner box or similar, or from a fast food or quick service restaurant. But when I do cook something for myself or for friends and family, I am proud of my effort. It is the product of my labor.

In my opinion, the Bullet Express is cool, but it takes much of the creativity and rewarding labor out of preparing a meal from scratch. I wouldn't want to use it. It would be like me cheating when creating a meal.

Today is a day of reflection for many: and a day to look back. One year ago today we lost Tony Snow. Snow was the affable White House Press Secretary from 2006 to 2007, serving a little over a year until he retired due to poor health (and because he could make more money in the private sector: his gig in the White House paid only 180,000 or so dollars annually -- a drop in the bucket compared to what he earned when he worked in media.)

While I pride myself as a person who is knowledgeable on all current events, I readily admit I probably would've passed over the anniversary of Snow's death (it was cancer; he was only 53) had I not tuned into FOX News this morning. Snow, who used to work at FOX, was being remembered fondly by his former Fox News Sunday coworkers in between news stories.

Before I divulge more, I want to say that I still - and perhaps always will - remember when and where I was when I learned of Snow's death: interestingly enough, I was on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., where I was attending the Ron Paul Revolution March, which I blogged about a year ago. (summary here, videos here)

I met up on the Hill with my friends from VCU and my good friend and freedom-lover Conor Murphy, a huge fan and devotee of Snow, broke the news to me. I knew Snow was in poor health, but I was taken aback to learn of his death from Conor.

Robert Dougherty, a contributor at Associated Content, writes a great article on Snow, FOX News, and his role he played as press secretary.

I think Snow will be remembered for years to come, especially in a time in which people think press secretaries are so important. (Who doesn't know who Robert Gibbs is?)

Snow had the pizazz, story, and attractive flair that Ari Fleisher and Scott McClellan did not.

Rest in peace, Tony Snow.

It seems like every now and then a bunch of celebrities drop dead in a very condensed time frame. One must be living under a rock to not know that Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays have died within just three days of one another.

This reminds me of a time last summer in 2008, when Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes, and George Furth died on August 9th, 10th, and 11th, respectively. Their deaths were preceded by household names like Tim Russert, George Carlin, and Tony Snow who died in June and July.

So I surmise that celebrity deaths must be coming in spurts, or something.