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Opinion: Scott Simons unite!

The doo-wop group Sha Na Na poses during a rehearsal for their special performance to mark the 75th anniversary of Hofstra University in Melville, N.Y. From left are Screamin' Scott Simon, Donny York, David Garrett, Elliot Cahn, Robert Leonard and Jocko Marcellino.
Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
/
AP
The doo-wop group Sha Na Na poses during a rehearsal for their special performance to mark the 75th anniversary of Hofstra University in Melville, N.Y. From left are Screamin' Scott Simon, Donny York, David Garrett, Elliot Cahn, Robert Leonard and Jocko Marcellino.

I am dead in Buffalo.

This week, The Buffalo News featured an obituary for Screamin’ Scott Simon, the great keyboard artist for the doo-wop group Sha Na Na. He died, at 75, in Ojai, Calif., of cancer.

However, the newspaper ran a photo of me. 

I knew Screamin’ Scott Simon. I’m sure he would have been as amused as I was to see what his daughter, the writer Nina Simon, calls “this sad but comical mix-up.” 

Scott and I enjoyed any occasional confusion. Scott said fans would come up to him at concerts to say, “You sure are a lot more ... serious … on Saturday morning!” A flight attendant once saw my name on my ticket and asked, “The Scott Simon?” When I said yes, they told me, “You are a monster onstage!”

I did not correct them. I enjoyed that they thought that I could be the man who performed "Splish Splash" from a bathtub. Maybe I’ll try that in our studio someday. 

For all we read about how insults and trash talk score more likes and thumbs up on social media platforms than respect and friendliness, social media has made it possible for me to become friends with several people with whom I share our name.  

There’s also professor Scott Simon at the University of Ottawa, an expert on the indigenous people of Taiwan.

And Scott Simons — why that superfluous S? — keyboardist on America’s Got Talent, and voice of the theme song “Paw Patrol! Paw Patrol!” Oh, sorry.

There’s Scott D. Simon, a lawyer who is commissioner of the Westchester Hebrew Softball League. I like the sound of Commissioner Simon. 

Scott Simon of Fayetteville, Ark., is head of a foundation that runs the Nelms Dyslexia Center.

And just this week I shared a stage with Scott Simons, an architect who is designing new quarters for Maine Public, the home of public radio and TV in that state. He says he sometimes gets mail meant for me. I may get calls meant for him from Maine Public if their roof begins to leak.

I think we Scott Simons are charmed and even a little proud to have such an interesting assortment of people share our name, and are sad to see our mover and shaker, Screamin’ Scott Simon, leave the stage. 

And if The Buffalo News ever prints an obituary for me, I hope that under my name they run a photo of Colin Firth.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.

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