Welcome to another of our weekend specials this summer. From James Bond's dialect coach to refugees fleeing Isis, the Chinese coronavirus has cut a swathe through the obituary notices - as Mark has noted each week in his popular Last Call feature on The Mark Steyn Show. In this anthology he remembers some of those lost to ChiCom-19 from all around the world: a non-corona virus expert, Joan Jett's hit writer, the patriarch of a great jazz dynasty, a Brechtian on 'ludes, a right royal red, a controversial Canadian, a mononymous Mexican, a slapstick Sumo, a Gallic non-charmer, a Swedish radio programmer, and a Pushtun squash legend ...along with musical contributions from Sting, the Doobie Brothers, Rodgers & Hart and more.
We hope these forty minutes of words and music will provide a respite from the civilizational collapse all around this Sunday. To listen, simply click above.
Mark will be back later today with Steyn's Song of the Week and Episode Thirty of our new Tale for Our Time, The Prisoner of Windsor.
Last Call is made possible by members of The Mark Steyn Club. Mark launched the Steyn Club over three years ago, and we're immensely heartened by all the longtime SteynOnline followers - from Fargo to Fiji, Madrid to Malaysia, West Virginia to Witless Bay - who've signed up to be a part of it. Membership in The Mark Steyn Club also comes with other benefits, including:
~Our latest audio adventure in the above-mentioned Tales for Our Time, and its more than three dozen thrilling predecessors;
~Other audio series on pertinent topics, such as last year's nightly installments of Climate Change: The Facts;
~Exclusive Steyn Store member pricing on over 40 books, mugs, T-shirts, and other products;
~The opportunity to engage in live Clubland Q&A sessions with Mark;
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~The opportunity to join Steyn and his guests on our annual Mark Steyn Cruise, likewise assuming we are ever again permitted to sail;
~and the chance to support our print, audio and video ventures as they wing their way around the planet.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here. And for our special Gift Membership see here.
One other benefit to Club Membership is our Comment Club privileges. So, whether you like this feature or would rather we lowered it six feet under, then feel free to comment away below. Please do stay on topic on all our comment threads, because that's the way to keep them focused and readable. With that caution, have at it.