C. Everett Koop -- RIP

Defined the surgeon general for most of us, thanks to his gleaming epaulets. Showed more courage and honor explaining the horrors of AIDS than the rest of the Reagan administration.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/02/25/us/ap-us-obit-koop.html?hp

Strongly associate him with anti-smoking ads.

strongly associate him with a certain pattern of facial hair

and the man on the box of Stratego

only know this guy from a Bloom County mention or two and LifeAlert commercials

Koop was name-checked by Apu during the Simpson's B-Sharps episode, iirc. He was one of the more honorable Reagan appointees and certainly the most publically prominent Surgeon General of my lifetime.

Jocelyn Elders enthusiastic cheerleading for masturbation wins that one for me.

Yeah, Koop was massively important. He pretty much called it as thoroughly as medical science knew what AIDS was at the time and was blunt, polite but firm, on what could be done to stop or slow its spread. For the national mailout alone, gotta give the dude major credit.

Also worth noting -- MAJOR scourge on tobacco and smoking. If AIDS had not emerged we probably would be associating him more with that.

A few years ago when The New Yorker published a long article on the Bush administration's war on science, there was Koop, denouncing them, and citing both his work on AIDS and tobacco education -- how the Jacobins in the Reagan years tried to squelch his research.

I vividly remember this testimony.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/QQ/B/D/P/H/_/qqbdph.pdf

It's not a hyperbole to claim that people are alive today thanks to Koop.

Not in the least.

Great stuff from a friend of a friend on FB:

I once called the Surgeon General's office on the phone with a question - and Dr. Koop answered. What a guy.

Holy shit I thought he had died a few months ago, but then I realized that was Bork.

Good vs evil beards.

Who is John Bolton's analog?

John Waters

http://smackmyflickup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/446_mustaches-5-things-you-didnt-know_flash.jpg

I'd vote for that mustache.

i want a musical based on his life called "See Everett Koop!"

dammit, I can't find the strip. Apparently Opus met with Koop over the dangers of dandelion snorting during that run of Bloom County.

I did find this mention, tho

Michael Specter in the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/02/postscript-c-everett-koop-1916-2013.html

Also, in the Gawker comments, this:

I was working at the National AIDS Hotline, which is the telephone number listed on this pamphlet. We collaborated with the Surgeon General to make sure we all had the same message and that we were prepared for our number to given out to every home in America. After this mailing, our calls went from about 40 calls a day to 45 English speaking operators and 22 Spanish speaking operators getting back-to-back calls for two years. This man not only saved lives by educating people about risk and exposure but he stopped a string of terrorism that was horrifying. Kids with hemophilia who had been infected from their blood transfusions were having their homes burned down and being run out of school after school. I was, and still am, so proud of the way Surgeon-General Koop discussed not only methods of infection but bullying. He was a man of integrity who stood up to an administration that just wanted people with AIDS to die. I will be forever grateful to him.

Not a single eulogy on The Corner.

Well, here's one.

I think Specter is overemphasizing Koop's hand in tying abortion to GOP policy; that bridge had already been crossed long before and was an idea bubbling around when Pat Buchanan suggest it during the 1st Nixon Admin.

And guys like Frank Schaeffer were pushing for the same connecting from the religious side.

Tho one thing I like about Koop is that while he was a conservative, he wasn't an authoritarian.

another commenter:

You could publish that brochure tomorrow, and it would still be relevant, fairly accurate, and educational (except for the part about spermicidal lube and HIV). This is the kind of frank information everyone, including children, need to have. I'm actually kind of shocked this was mailed out, to all Americans, by the Reagan administration.

I thought I heard someone say in a radio story that the Reagan White House was not happy with that brochure

http://www.bachrachportraits.com/assets/images/db_images/db_Reagan_smiling1.jpg

"The rectum is easily injured during anal intercourse"

He's had it up to his keester.