BY MARTIN KICH

In Trump world, there are no coincidences. To cite just one of the more recent egregious examples of this phenomenon, Trump suggested that if Ted Cruz’s father bore a close resemblance to someone in the background of a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald, then Ted Cruz’s father may have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy.

Now, to be fair to Mr. Trump, he did not say that he was absolutely certain that Cruz’s father was involved in such a conspiracy, only that there was enough there to warrant further investigation—at least that was what a lot of people were saying.

So I would like to note that although he had recently suffered a debilitating stroke and had been treated for cancer in the not too distant past, Garry Marshall passed away on the day immediately after Scott Baio spoke at the Republican national convention.

I have no way of knowing whether Mr. Marshall was even conscious on the evening that Baio spoke, never mind whether he watched a broadcast of the speech, but the fact that he died the very next day seems to me enough to consider whether even the vague awareness that “Chachi” was speaking at a major party’s national convention was just too much for Mr. Marshall’s great comedic soul to bear.

Mind you, I am not actually blaming Scott Baio for Garry Marshall’s death. Rather, I am just saying that that is what some people are saying and perhaps someone ought to look into it further because why would some people be saying it if there were not at least some truth to it.

P.S. Mr. Marshall’s passing reminds us that, even in a very accomplished career, for every Odd Couple, there is a Me and the Chimp, and for every Dick Van Dyke Show, a Joanie Loves Chachi.