The words etched into Mel Blanc's tombstone are few: his name (sort of the baseline requirement, really), the years he lived (1908-1989), the usual postmortem bric-a-brac ("Man of 1000 voices. Beloved Husband and Father), a Jewish star, and the following three word phrase: "That's All Folks".

A last little bit of cleverness. We're all used to seeing the words spoken by the stuttering swine, but Blanc was Porky's vocal chords, as he was for almost every Warner Brothers character. Death, literally the end of the show, gets its final call leaving an entire universe of beloved beings suddenly silent.

But it's different than saying "The End" isn't it? Which suggests simply that the story has reached its conclusion, nothing more. Rather, to say "that's all" implies something deeper. More meaningful.

In the end, literally, we leave this place regardless of the drama of the moment. We cannot time our last to be poignant, or heartfelt, or weighty.

But, if we've done it right — if we've lived as really, we ought to have — we can gasp in our final breath, "The stores of my energy and mind are bare. Whatever I was, I have left on this Earth for you. I've given you anything and everything I am."

"That's All Folks"