Who has died recently? Grandpa Jones from Hee Haw. He joins Minnie Pearl and Bill Monroe in the Opryland in heaven. Abe Ribicoff, who stood up to Boss Daley at the 68 Demo convention bout the demonstrators getting beat up by the Chicago cops outside. I saw a cut on this on Meet the Press Sunday. Henny Youngman. Good night Henny. The guy who drew Spy vs. Spy in Mad died. Antonio Prohias. Marie-Louise Von Franz. A Jungian analyst. A great contributor to the psychological meaning of fairytales, which I've been deeply involved in lately in the creation of the Spring's http://www.childrenstory.com She minted the term "poer aeternis" for "eternal boy" who charms and flies around and is delightful, seductive and and never grows up. Who ever wants to grow up. And set sail on the ship that's going to sink? And one more. J. T. Walsh, Jack Nicholson's second in command in a 'A Few Good Men' and the psychopath in Sling Blade and the triple con worker in "House of Games".

Athelston F. Spilhaus One of the greatest popularizers of science. Look up one of his books next time you're at the library.

Paolo Soleri, builder of Arcosanti, died in a car crash. Bella Abzug, wearer of hats.

That was her occupation?

She was a Congresswoman and leading figure in the women's movement. And the story of Soleri's death is a *hoax*

Tammy Wynette at 55.

wow... miss tammy is dead?

hadn't heard that, either... wow

not like i'm a huge fan or anything (and let's face it, belushi and ayckroyd really did a better "stand by your man")... but... wow... that's really sad... when i was a little kid, in hooterville, you know, "d-i-v-o-r-c-e" (and some other song- something about this little kid that died, who was afraid of the dark) used to really tear me up... really, really sad... (would be nice, though, if she could maybe report back... on the angel issue, i mean)

Half of Milli Vanilli (couldn't tell you which one)

Rob, the light-skinned, ugly one... or so the guys on KLBJ referred to him as

Sandra McGovern age 15, sophomore in high school (I used to babysit her many years ago) she and some friends were riding to the Poteet Strawberry Festival and were racing. One car bumped the other 'for fun' and the bumped car went out of control and flipped several times. Sandra was thrown from the vehicle. She was airlifted to WHMC (trauma center) but died in the ER of massive head injuries. the funeral was yesterday.

Oh jeez Stacey, sorry to hear about this. Sympathies.

whom the gods love die young, was said of yore. and many deaths do they escape from this: the death of lovers, and then that which slays even more- the death of love, youth, all that is except mere breath; and since the silent shore awaits at last even those who longest miss the old archer's shafts, perhaps the early grave which men weep over may be meant to save. (byron) (sigh... i don't believe it either... pretty words... dead is dead, and it sucks... very sorry about sandra mcgovern, age 15... very sorry, indeed)...

the pretty words sometimes help, even if they're hard to believe. (thank you)

Ron E., the subject of one of my pieces, The Man That I Know, died of cancer, March 15. Rest in Peace, Ron...

Ding dong Pol Pot is dead.

So is Wendy O Williams

and Linda McCartney.....

I read that just now before I logged on. Paul's wife. She died in Santa Barbara of breast cancer. I loved it that she espoused the vegetarian cause with her cookbooks and articles in Vegetarian Times. And, despite what some say, she was a fine photographer. From the MSNBC site where I read this: Paul McCartney would issue an announcement later in the week and asked that people wanting to send flowers should give a donation to charities involved in cancer research, animal welfare, or best of all the tribute that Linda herself would like best: Go veggie. Their marriage was one of the longest in show business and produced three children, Mary, Stella and James.

oh, put the wrong date for Ron. It was March 14. Sorry......

wow. bringing me back down to reality... my condolenceses to those who require them...

(godspeed, linda mac)...

James Earl Jones :(

That's James Earl *Ray*; not James Earl Jones.

*blush* (t'anks) my bad!

is anyone else still curious... did he really do it?

The King family doesn't seem to think that he did it.

Oh, OK. was wondering who james earl ray was. and to think, i saw an interview on some news magazine about him. Stacey, no am not curious. we'll find out one day.

Well, scribble works. The body of Ethan Allan Crosby (David Crosby's brother) has been found in nothern California. He'd disappeared earlier. Blurb in today's Contra Costa Times.

oh wow...

Frank Sinatra died last night at 10:50 pm at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, 1915-1998. Dead at 82. Francis Albert Sinatra.

wow... that's really sad... really respected sinatra- he changed popular music as profoundly, in his way, as anyone... even own several of his records... wow... (guess this means the Rat Pack really IS down to the rats, now)... (shit, who's gonna get custody of steve and edie?)

wow... mortality strikes again.

Phil Hartman. He played Pres. Clinton on Saturday Night Live, recently had a comedy series, was several voices on the Simpsons, and even did album cover art and the logo for Crosby, Stills and Nash. Found shot in his upscale Encino home. His wife shot herself as the police arrived. They took his two children from the house, unharmed but obviously shaken. The shooter, possibly his wife. Under investigation. Sad, the tragedy of SNL continues. Belushi, Radner, Farley, now Hartman.

He was also in Jingle All The Way. She was taking antidepressants and had alcohol and cocaine in her system. Very sad indeed...

damn roy rogers (from the american statesman): ...when trigger died in 1965, rogers had the golden palomino mounted and placed on display in the (roy rogers) museum, to (dale) evan's chagrin. "i was so angry, i said,'allright, but when you go, i'm going to have you stuffed and placed on top of trigger,' she said in 1984. rogers responded: "i told her just to make sure i'm smiling." (damn, i loved that horse) (loved roy, too... happy trails, bubba)

Who is Roy Rogers? Nick, I am truly sorry we fell out yesterday. I'm not going to say you were right or I was right. We were right to support Wolf, and wrong to snap at each other. Unfortunately that kind of support is not going to help her, so I offer you truce. I would also like to ask you to go back to poetry. You have been there for a long time, you're very good there, and it isn't right to go just because you don't like me - it affects alot more people than just me. On the other hand, I'm not a poetry expert, so I'll stay away and leave the great responses up to you. Fact is, I do have a great deal of respect for your work, I sometimes used to go to poetry just to read the things you wrote, because I thought your responses beautiful, and admired you for it. Please go back and help Wolf keep that conference as popular as it has been in the past. Oh, and tell her to feel free to scrap Emily. Her stiff upperlip doesn't fit in anyway! All the best.

Roy Rogers is a legendary American show biz cowboy. His sidekick had been Dale Evans forever. He liked to dress in fancy duds and a cowboy hat and boots, full regalia, and he rode a horse called . . . ???

Buck?

Happy Trails to you, Roy Rogers.

Roy's horse was named Trigger. i am a huge fan of westerns, a big roy rogers fan (grew up with his movies playing on TV thanks to my dad) and am very saddened at his death.

Alot of the big celebrities seem to be dying at the moment, or have I just been blind up to now? And you are right, it is very sad, no matter who dies.

(from savoy magazine): The one constant in my life, the one thing that followed me from place to place, was the cinema. There were movie theaters everywhere, from the Denali in Anchorage, Alaska, to the Koza in Okinawa. And the constant in movie theaters was the Western. Heroic individuals rode tall in the saddle. They saved women and children, protected the aging, dispatched bad guys, befriended the downtrodden and never surrendered their boots. They got in knockdown, drag-out, glass-busting, furniture-demolishing, mirror-shattering, bar-brawling fights and never lost their hats. They extolled things like truth-telling and square-dealing. They were faithful to the girl back home and their motherland and justice tempered with mercy. At the center of their cadre was a simple, soft-spoken man with ever-smiling eyes. He wore a white hat and boots decorated with eagles. He loved a girl named Dale and a horse named Trigger and he was true-blue to both. He made me believe that some things couldn�t be shaken, among them a simple characteristic called honor. For a kid whose world changed more often than colors in a kaleidoscope, it was a valuable lesson. He also opened up a whole world of imagination to me, a world where bad guys were always defeated, where good always prevailed, and where the sun never set until a hero was riding into it. It was a world my brother and I could share, even after other options were closed to us. Roy Rogers remained an honorable man until his death on Monday, July 6, of congestive heart failure. Thankfully, he left behind a legacy of films that will maintain his legend for decades to come. Happy trails, Roy. We�ll be thinking of you. -Editor (okay... i'll shut up about roy now... it's just, he was my first hero... and while many (most, nearly all) heroes have feet of clay, roy was pretty much the real deal... roy stood for something, and it was something good, and something i'm afraid will be lost, as he and those like him perish into memory... that's another thing- what he embodied, those values, was not fiction... i've known men like roy, like him in the ways that mattered... my dad was that kind of man, and his dad, and his...(etc.)... and these are no doubt a vanishing breed, and this is made all too apparent to me by roy's passing, and the impending millenium, and the terribly flawed generation i (so ably) inhabit... sort of makes you realize... well, the differences, i suppose... take stock, and hope that the choices we've made... the enterprises we have discarded, as thoreau suggested, "like so many abandoned vessels"... have been appropriate ones... may not be any way back to them, from here... yeah... anyway... that's all i have to say)... (except so long, to roy... and to all the roys... the resolute uncomplaining men that populated my childhood... strong hands, capable it seemed of doing anything... smiling eyes, which always seemed to fix on the best part of whatever it was they saw... simple (by our terms), and honorable always... i miss them, more than i ever believed i could)...

i'm sorry about roy too. riette, they're passing because they're really getting up there. even heros get old :(

We all do. I'm glad of it - I don't want to be 15 or 20 again, and I don't want to live forever.

no, definately not 15 again (20 maybe, cuz that's when i married my mr wolf)

I NEVER want my wedding day again. I was four months pregnant, on the verge of vomiting the whole time, and convinced that I was making the mistake of my life!

me too! HAHA. standing there praying i wouldn't hurl on anyone!!!

ha-ha!!! Great girls act alike! . . . Vomit alike?

Ooh, everyone, I've got news. I'm going on holiday in 2 weeks time . . . though only for 6 days, sadly. Mike, you'll practically feel my presence - going to the Lake District. Can't wait!! I adore England, and wish I could immigrate there right now.

Visualizes Mike waking up one night with a balloon over his head that says: "I can feel the force!"

haha!

Only one balloon?

Richard McDonald, one of the brothers who founded the McDonald's food chain in San Bernadino, CA, in 1948, has passed away.

Then blue is the appropriate background, huh?

it's funny when you drop into a topic and discover people talking about you when you've never posted there :-)) when you come to the UK, riette, i'd love to meet you. are you flying or boating?

Swimming isn't she?

Wow! NO, Terry, that's a picture I never want entering anyone's head!! I'd be sinking all the way to England!! Mike, I'd love to meet you too. But the chances look pretty slim. We're flying to Manchester on the Wednesday evening, and will be driving to the Lake District straight away it seems, where a friend of ours has a cottage. Doesn't look like I'll be spending any time in Manchester at all. But you know what I can do? I could ask Chris to look after the kids and take the train to Manchester for a day. How far is Manchester from where you live? We could have a walk around, go for a pub meal (and exchange chocolate!!!), and go home again. How does that sound? That's the best I can o, so let me know.

Sounds too good to pass up, Mike!

The chocolate will make it worth while for him, I'm sure.

Will Mike ever be pumped when he checks in and finds out!

BOOH!

Alan Shepard is dead at 74. He was 1 of only 12 men - all Americans - to have walked on the moon.

Goodness. And the rest of them? Are they all still alive?

Robert Young dead at 91

Wow, Shepard was old. Father knew best.

Shepard wasn't THAT old... Robert Young sure was though.

Of the original 12 astronauts, 3 are now dead. One is returning to space sometime this year!

REALLY? That's interesting. Which one?

John Glenn. US Senator from Ohio.

for info on John Glenn: http://cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/06/glenn

Thanks, I'll have a look.

*** TV cowboy 'Buffalo Bob' Smith dies of cancer "Buffalo Bob" Smith, the kindly cowboy who with the help of a freckle-faced wooden puppet named Howdy Doody pioneered children's television, died Thursday. He was 80. Smith, who lived in Flat Rock, N.C., died of lung cancer at Margaret R. Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, N.C., a hospital spokeswoman said. "Say kids, what time is it?" Buffalo Bob cried out to open his show. "It's Howdy Doody time," the lucky 40 kids in the studio "Peanut Gallery" screamed. And with that, hundreds of thousands of kids watching from home were off to Doodyville to spend the next half hour with Howdy Doody. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2555321942-742

And Clarabelle was his clown. And Princess SummerSpringWinterFall, can't forget her.

Shari Lewis, the woman behind (or next to) LambChop, Charlie Horse, Hush Puppy and the gang died of uterine cancer today at age 65. My kids will miss her!

i read about that one today. don't think my kids really got into her and Lamb Chop....

Mine were only so-so on "Lambchop's Play Along", but more recently they loved her new show, "Charlie Horse Music Pizza." The paper said that they had already taped 3 new episodes for fall, and once they show them that will be the end of it (I guess there's always syndication).

We're not kids any more.

says who?

Glad we're not kids anymore. I didn't like it - too many rules and limitations to the whole thing.

and there aren't any when your an adult?

Sure there are - but now I get to choose my own rules and limitations, and don't have some lame-ar$ed adults telling me about right and wrong when they're totally buggered up themselves.

Former Alabama governor George Wallace, who went from "Segregation forever" to opposing it.

Wow! That's radical.

Olympian runner Florence Griffiths Joyner died today of a heart seizure--she was 38. Loved those fingernails, FloJo.

WHAT??? You serious? Flo Jo is dead??? I loved watching her run. What a terrible pity.

Cause?

Uhm.....too many Smarties?

What do you mean, Ree?

Don't steroids come in all sorts of colours?

She always denied taking steroids and never failed a drug test.

That is because she dropped out of athletics the day before they tested.

can someone tell me what a heart seizure is as opposed to heart attack, heart failure, etc., etc. (and don't say it's when the heart seizes up)

my understanding is that a heart seizure occurs when the nervous system of the heart goes into some sort of spastic state. the heart has its own little neural network and if the nodes of that network are not precisely in step with each other then you get a seizure. a "heart attack" is usually the result of a myocardial infarction, which is just a fancy way of saying clogged up heart arteries. the heart burns a lot of oxygen and energy to do its job and this oxygen and energy is supplied by four or five major arteries to the heart. when those arterises get clogged, the heart muscle starts to starve, as it gets worse, pain from the starving heart tissue is referred to the shoulder chest, and arm. soon the heart is unable to do it's work and begins to fibrillate, then stop altogether. cardiac failure occurs with even worse blockages of the arteries throughout the body. the heart is starving and trying to pump blood thru clogged arteries. as a result is grows in size and can sometimes become 3 or 4 times it's normal size. at some point the pumping becomes unable to sustain normal function, and a person will pass out and body systems (e.g., lungs, kidneys) will fail. i was a medic a long time ago and this is about all i can remember, and it is probably not accurate. so, anyone for a cheeseburger?

thank you for those definitions....would a heart seizure be along the same lines as a brain seizure?

i think so.

in our lethargy, we forgot to mention the passing of the singing cowboy and mr. planet of the apes.

Gene Autrey and Roddy McDowell. I saw these movies for the first time just a week ago when they ran a specail on cable tv.