This week saw the passing of Bo Diddley and Sidney Pollack. Diddley was just before my time, if you can believe that. By the time I tuned my transistor radio into WINX-AM (DC) he was already “an oldie.” Diddley is revered by a lot of musicians that I revere but I never connected with him even though his right hand had a punch that was undeniable.

Meanwhile, Pollack is definitely of my time. He was an unabashed Hollywood director and producer who made several schmaltzy blockbusters that I found unwatchable. I don’t know that anyone would call him a risk taker, but as a talented provider of escapism there was a sensibility, yes, OK, a boomer sensibility to his films that makes his overall body of art “important.” His legacy will be tied to a line of dialog that he used in at least three different movies (that I know of):

“You think not telling a lie is the same as telling the truth?”

How boomer is that? He was totally tapped into the Watergate-J. Edgar Hoover-paranoia from “Three Days of the Condor” through “The Firm” and even later as producer on “The Quiet American” and “Michael Clayton” and that’s why we loved him.

But my favorite work he’s ever done, just on a shits-and-giggle level, was as an actor (he’s acted in as many movies as he’s directed) in “Husbands and Wives” by Woody Allen. He has several scenes in the film but the one that stands out for me is when his character literally drags his new young, trophy wife away from a party of his hyper-intellectual contemporaries after she tries to engage them in a discussion about astrology. Pollack’s delivery of this character’s embarrassment and rage was as genuine, heart-wrenching and hilarious as anything you’ll ever see.