At 92

When you reach the old curmudgeon stage that I have, things like this mean something more than they might to a younger crowd:

• Horton Foote, the marvelous playwright who created the fictional town of Harrison, Texas, from his natural birthplace in Wharton, and captured the dreams, many of which were broken, of Texans in such masterpieces as Tender Mercies and Trip to Bountiful, died today. He was 92.
• Kirk Douglas, working through a speech impediment caused by a stroke he suffered in 1996, is in rehearsals for a one-man show that will open this Friday for four sold-out appearances at the (where else?) Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City, Calif. The actor, who has appeared in more than 75 movies ("Some good, some bad," he says), is 92.