Yesterday’s sudden news that director/screenwriter John Hughes had passed away from a heart attack at age 59 shocked and saddened me. I was already in my twenties when Hughes’ films – my favorites being the brilliant and hilarious Sixteen Candles, and the staggering work of genius that is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – were exploding all over the universe and creating pop culture memes and buzz phrases that we still perpetuate today. While I loved and was highly entertained by his movies, they didn’t have the life-changing effect on me that many of his films had on teenagers. Just a glance at the countless comments flooding my Face Book news feed since last evening say that much. I think that the pop-culture paradigm shift initiated by Hughes is perhaps best illustrated in this touching and uniquely personal remembrance, Sincerely, John Hughes by Alison Byrne Fields from her blog, We’ll Know When We Get There. Please have some tissues handy. I would like to close this post with one of my favorite lines from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: “Cameron is so uptight, if you shoved a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you would have a diamond.” Farewell John Hughes, rest in peace.