I want to acknowledge the passing of three most interesting people this month, Elwy Yost, Lucian Freud and Cy Twombly.

Elwy Yost, who passed this week, was host of Saturday Night at the Movies, aired on TV Ontario from 1974 to 1999. On Saturday nights, they aired two movies commercial free and as a bonus, Mr. Yost and guests would chat about them. They showed all kinds of movies and Yost seemed to be able to find positive things about all of them, even films I had little interest in. I admired his enthusiasm, his knowledge and his affection for movies, and I watched Saturday Night at the Movies off and on for years. Mr. Yost was 86.

British painter Lucian Freud  also died this week. He was 88. Mr. Freud was known for his portraiture, including a portrait of the Queen that made some noise not so long ago. I haven’t seen many of his works outside of photographs and I’ve never felt a strong personal connection to his work, although I recognize the difficult problems of portraiture.

American artist Cy Twombly died earlier this month at 83. I’ve been aware of Twombly’s work for many years, but it wasn’t until we spent some time at the Cy Twombly Gallery of the Menil Collection in Houston just a few years ago, that I really began to appreciate his efforts (what do I call them…paintings? drawings?). I think his work is intense and intensely personal, poetic and magical and the work in Houston stopped me in my tracks.

RIP