We lost two beacons of uncompromising and outspoken intelligence who never hesitated to speak truth to power this past week. First, Jane Jacobs (whose Salon appreciation piece I have been unable to locate, ahem) and then JK Galbraith. Their voices shall be missed, especially in these times of continuous spin and reality denial.

When I was a freshman undergrad at Harvard, JK Galbraith would come to the huge Ec10 ("Introduction to Economics") course as a guest lecturer once a semester. I remember sprinting with my friends to get good seats for the great man's appearance - right in the front so we could look up at his huge height. After months of mind-numbing graphs of supply and demand, JK came out on stage like an ancient god, dismissed our diminuitive regular professor Marty Feldstein with one square of his massive shoulders, and declared that "today I would like to discuss one of the most powerful forces in economic history and operation - human stupidity." He gave an extraordinary lecture on this very topic, covering Czarist Russia, 14th century central Asian trade routes, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the drug trade in Miami, and the living wage movement, and more. Economics sprang to life, and we all sat spellbound - fine arts and government majors alike - none of us have ever forgotten it. Even though my onw studies of economics ended with that one course, I think about his principles more than ever these days. He was a magnificent mind, a piercing communicator, and an astonishing observer of humanity. We are all poorer for his loss.

Thank you Tosca for the compelling picture of JKG at the podium. I read him many years ago in high school but never fully appreciated his work. Perhaps it is time to reacquaint myself with him and his prescient insights.

My first reaction to Galbraith's death was that it was, indeed, the "end of an era". Whether or not this is the case, I am sad to realise that I won't get to chance to laugh at at anymore new jokes, or read any new articles. I enjoyed R. Parker's biography, but it did not reveal as much as I thought it could. Perhaps it is correct to say that Galbraith's death does not close an old chapter since history is cyclical, and the march of foly timeless. In any event, perhaps the best that can come of his passing away is a renewed, balanced, enlightened debate about a man, who in the past century provoked either indignation or faithful disciples.