SpongeBob Creator, RIP

"He's the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919."   "Fixed the World Series?"  I replied.  The idea staggered me.  I remembered, of course, that the World Series had been fixed in 1919, but if I'd had thought of it at all, I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain.  It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of 50 million people with the single mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe."

This excerpt from Great Gatsby came to mind when I read that Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob died at the tragic young age of 57 from ALS.  It'd never before occurred to me, if I'd thought about it at all, I should say, that one man would be responsible for such a phenomenon.

And at the same time I have to concur with Catherine Keener character in Friends with Money who says she never got SpongeBob.  I don't get him either, perhaps simply because I've never taken the time. 

But it is quite endearing to think that such a fanciful and silly creature would be the brainchild of one man, and a man who, I've read, seems very genuine; private and real and fun-loving and kind.