Obits

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.

wow. Long long ago... when I had a box of moving pictures in my house (actually my parents house) I must've seen Planet of the Apes at least 10 times. BTW add that to the top ten list and amend the comment I made about Clash of the Titans and Excalibur in your heads please!

I've never seen it. Is it really that good?

Animal rights activist Kingsley Amis (I may have the name incorrect) and writer for Saturday Evening Post.

Cleveland Amory is who I meant to say. Cleveland Amory, noted cat lover, animal fancy-ist, ad curmudgeon died yesterday, according to NPR. He will be buried on his Black Beauty Ranch (home to unwanted animals) next to his cat Snowball. He was 81.

From: pgp@pgmedia.net (Paul Garrin) To: nettime-l@Desk.nl Subject: Remembering Jon Postel Sender: owner-nettime-l@basis.Desk.nl Precedence: bulk X-UIDL: 2305fb2e83050f1cadf4d84d630f38f5 Status: RO X-Status: From: pgp@pgmedia.net (name.space) Subject: Remembering Jon Postel I just received this mail indicating that Dr. Jon Postel, controversial head of the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Agency) died on October 17. I have not yet received details on the circumstances of his death but will post them as soon as they come in. Although I disagreed with Dr. Postels actions of late, I have always had a high degree of respect and admiration for his important contributions to the internet. His death is an untimely tragedy. --Paul Garrin >Forwarded-From: Dave Farber I, and others I fear, have spent a sleepless night after hearing of the death of Jon Postel last night. This morning there was a note in my mail box from Vint Cerf that said many of the things I feel at this time. I asked him for permission to send on which he granted. I also remember Jon. I was his primary thesis advisor along with Jerry Estrin and I remember with fond memories the months spent closely working with Jon while his eager mind developed the ideas in back of what was a pioneering thesis that founded the area of protocol verification. Since I was at UC Irvine and Jon at UCLA we used to meet in the morning prior to my ride to UCI at a Pancake House in Santa Monica for breakfast and the hard work of developing a thesis. I gained a great respect for Jon then and 10 pounds of weight. I will miss him greatly. Jon was my second Ph.D. student. The first, Philip Merlin, also died way before his time. Dave ________________________________________________________________________ October 17, 1998 I REMEMBER IANA Vint Cerf A long time ago, in a network, far far away, a great adventure took place Out of the chaos of new ideas for communication, the experiments, the tentative designs, and crucible of testing, there emerged a cornucopia of networks. Beginning with the ARPANET, an endless stream of networks evolved, and ultimately were interlinked to become the Internet. Someone had to keep track of all the protocols, the identifiers, networks and addresses and ultimately the names of all the things in the networked universe. And someone had to keep track of all the information that erupted with volcanic force from the intensity of the debates and discussions and endless invention that has continued unabated for 30 years. That someone was Jonathan B. Postel, our Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, friend, engineer, confidant, leader, icon, and now, first of the giants to depart from our midst. Jon, our beloved IANA, is gone. Even as I write these words I cannot quite grasp this stark fact. We had almost lost him once before in 1991. Surely we knew he was at risk as are we all. But he had been our rock, the foundation on which our every web search and email was built, always there to mediate the random dispute, to remind us when our documentation did not do justice to its subject, to make difficult decisions with apparent ease, and to consult when careful consideration was needed. We will survive our loss and we will remember. He has left a monumental legacy for all Internauts to contemplate. Steadfast service for decades, moving when others seemed paralyzed, always finding the right course in a complex minefield of technical and sometimes political obstacles. Jon and I went to the same high school, Van Nuys High, in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. But we were in different classes and I really did not know him then. Our real meeting came at UCLA when we became a part of a group of graduate students working for Prof. Leonard Kleinrock on the ARPANET project. Steve Crocker was another of the Van Nuys crowd who was part of the team and led the development of the first host-host protocols for the ARPANET. When Steve invented the idea of the Request for Comments series, Jon became the instant editor. When we needed to keep track of all the hosts and protocol identifiers, Jon volunteered to be the Numbers Czar and later the IANA once the Internet was in place. Jon was a founding member of the Internet Architecture Board and served continuously from its founding to the present. He was the FIRST individual member of the Internet Society I know, because he and Steve Wolff raced to see who could fill out the application forms and make payment first and Jon won. He served as a trustee of the Internet Society. He was the custodian of the .US domain, a founder of the Los Nettos Internet service, and, by the way, managed the networking research division of USC Information Sciences Institute. Jon loved the outdoors. I know he used to enjoy backpacking in the high Sierras around Yosemite. Bearded and sandaled, Jon was our resident hippie-patriarch at UCLA. He was a private person but fully capable of engaging photon torpedoes and going to battle stations in a good engineering argument. And he could be stubborn beyond all expectation. He could have outwaited the Sphinx in a staring contest, I think. Jon inspired loyalty and steadfast devotion among his friends and his colleagues. For me, he personified the words =93selfless service.=94 For nearly 30 years, Jon has served us all, taken little in return, indeed sometimes receiving abuse when he should have received our deepest appreciation. It was particularly gratifying at the last Internet Society meeting in Geneva to see Jon receive the Silver Medal of the International Telecommunications Union. It is an award generally reserved for Heads of State but I can think of no one more deserving of global recognition for his contributions. While it seems almost impossible to avoid feeling an enormous sense of loss, as if a yawning gap in our networked universe had opened up and swallowed our friend, I must tell you that I am comforted as I contemplate what Jon has wrought. He leaves a legacy of edited documents that tell our collective Internet story, including not only the technical but also the poetic and whimsical as well. He completed the incorporation of a successor to his service as IANA and leaves a lasting legacy of service to the community in that role. His memory is rich and vibrant and will not fade from our collective consciousness. =93What would Jon have done?=94 we will think, as we wrestle in the days ahead with the problems Jon kept so well tamed for so many years. There will almost surely be many memorials to Jon=92s monumental service to the Internet Community. As current chairman of the Internet Society, I pledge to establish an award in Jon=92s name to recognize long-standing service to the community, the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award, which is awarded to Jon posthumously as its first recipient. If Jon were here, I am sure he would urge us not to mourn his passing but to celebrate his life and his contributions. He would remind us that there is still much work to be done and that we now have the responsibility and the opportunity to do our part. I doubt that anyone could possibly duplicate his record, but it stands as a measure of one man s astonishing contribution to a community he knew and loved. --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl

Autopsy report says FloJo's death caused by epileptic seizure CBS SportsLine wire reports Oct. 22, 1998 SANTA ANA, Calif. -- World record sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner suffered an epileptic seizure that caused her to die of asphyxiation, coroner's authorities said Thursday. Griffith Florence Griffith Joyner's autopsy report indicates she died during an epileptic seizure as she slept. (AP) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joyner, 38, died at her Mission Viejo home on Sept. 21, and investigators had been trying since then to determine the cause. There had been speculation about heart problems, and some had suggested the world's fastest woman used performance-enhancing drugs. None of it was true, Orange County officials said. "Flojo" to fans and competitors, Griffith Joyner had a congenital brain abnormality known as cavernous angioma, said Dr. Barbara Zaias, one of the investigators. The condition allows blood to accumulate outside normal blood vessels in the brain or spinal tissue, and may be found in 25 percent of the population, she said. Once considered rare, it has been detected more often in recent years with the advent of CAT scans and other diagnostic tools. THE SEIZURE APPARENTLY struck during sleep, causing Griffith Joyner's limbs to tense. It possibly wrenched her head to the right as she lay on her stomach, said Dr. Richard Fukumoto, chief of forensics for the Orange County sheriff and coroner. "In layman's terms, she suffocated," Fukumoto told reporters. Explaining the term "positional asphyxia," he said her airway was probably already constricted by the involuntary turning of her head. Pillows and blankets on that side further hampered her oxygen supply. "This episode I would say would have taken minutes, only," Fukumoto said. "Definitely less than an hour." Her husband, 1984 Olympic triple jump champion Al Joyner, called paramedics after discovering she was not breathing that morning. Toxicology tests showed she had taken about one tablet each of the over-the-counter painkiller Tylenol and antihistamine Benadryl, but "there was nothing unusual in terms of drugs," said Lt. Frank Fitzpatrick, head of forensic sciences for the sheriff's office. NOR WERE THERE ANY OBVIOUS heart problems, Fukumoto said. Griffith Joyner never failed a drug test. Family, friends and sports officials were happy to hear those rumors die. "We now hope that this great Olympic champion, wife and mother can rest in peace, and that her millions of admirers around the world will celebrate her legacy to sport and children every day," U.S. Olympic Committee president Bill Hybl said. "It is time for the whispers and dark allegations to cease." World-class athletes expressed similar sentiments. "I had felt bad about all the statements that had been made about her," said Roger Kingdom, two-time Olympic champion in the 110-meter hurdles. "I'm glad she's been cleared and exonerated. Now, she can rest in peace, and the rest of the world can see that she was a great athlete." Dwight Stones, former world record-holder in the high jump, said she was "the most tested athlete" of the 1988 Olympics. ``I think this (the autopsy) is fabulous and phenomenal vindication for her and her family. Now, they should just leave her alone," he said. ADDED LONG-JUMPER Martha Watson, a four-time Olympian, "She did too much for our sport to be accused of things that no one ever was able to confirm." Sandra Farmer-Patrick, a former record holder in the 400-meter hurdles, has long ties to the sprinter. Griffith Joyner was the godmother of Farmer-Patrick's daughter. "I just hope they'll let her rest in peace like they should have done before," she said Thursday. "It's time to stop the allegations -- they're ridiculous. They were disturbing to her family and friends and quite disrespectful." The seizure was not Griffith Joyner's first. She was hospitalized in 1996 a day after suffering a seizure on a flight to St. Louis. Her husband and daughter were traveling with her, but the family declined to discuss her condition at the time. Many people never show symptoms of cavernous angioma and may live their whole lives without knowing they have it. In others, it can cause headaches and seizures, Zaias said. The condition can sometimes be detected by CAT scans and can be treated, she said. But sometimes scans fail to detect it. DURING THE PRESS CONFERENCE, sheriff's spokesman Lt. Hector Rivera cut off questions about Griffith Joyner's medical history and whether the condition had been diagnosed. The abnormality has never been associated in medical research with steroids or any other drugs, Fukumoto said. It may develop right along with the brain of a fetus, Zaias said. Stylish, smooth and muscular, Griffith Joyner won three Olympic gold medals in the 1988 Seoul Games and set world records that still stand in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. In the mid-1980s, Griffith Joyner moved from Watts, her home neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, to upscale Mission Viejo on the Orange County coast. Her flowing black hair, skin-tight outfits and glittering 6-inch fingernails brought a dash of flash to track and field. A line of athletic shoes and clothes that she had been working on was scheduled to go on sale next month.

shit in a way it's almost sadder, knowing this so arbitrary, you know?

sigh okay convoluted reasoning (but look who's reasoning)

Poor flo Jo. And her poor husband and kids.

I wonder if Sonja has seen this in her cat scans?

Jean Marais died in France. The beast in Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, among other screen credits. Cocteau's lover.

is there a photo somewhere of him?

I don't have one. Try a web search?

Stokely Carmichael died in Africa. He started Black Power. He became Kwame Ture.

More details: Stokely Carmichael, age 57, in Conakry, Guinea, cancer.

rip Mo Udall, Lawton Chiles, Lord Lew Grade...

Lew Grade founded ATV, the first commercial TV station in the UK, and was responsible for series like ``The Saint,'' and the Muppets, The Persuaders, George and Mildred, Thunderbirds and (if I'm not mistaken) The Prisoner. He produced movies like the Pink Panther series, On Golden Pond, The Exorcist, Sophie's Choice, and the ill-fated Raise The Titanic. Of "Raise The Titanic" he said "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic."

the saint? the val kilmer saint movie? loved pp, the muppets, sophie's choice (although it really made me cry). hopefully he was really really old.

Mr. Roper from Three's Company. He died as a result of cancer.

Novelist William Gaddis died yesterday, aged 75, of prostate cancer. Gaddis wrote the post WWII classics the Recognitions, JR, Carpenter's Gothic, and a Frolic of His Own. Apparantly, he was able to finish a fifth novel, "Agape Agape" before he died.

love...love

love has died? (stacey, is that what agape means? this is how i read it-- a gape but is it read ah gahpeh?)

Agape is a greek word meaning: the deepest, most committed, form of love. Your second pronunciation is close. The accent is on the second syllable.

yes, you got it wolf. Thanks for the additional explanation Patrick

You're welcome, anytime, Stacey.

although sometimes, and someplaces, you're much more welcome than others!

*giggle*

Fred Astaire.

Iron Eyes Cody is memorialized at http://www.kab.org/index.html

Whew that was a lot of obits.

King Hussein of Jordan. Here's a good obituary done by the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/hussein/hussein.htm New York Times editorial on the passing of King Hussein: http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/06sat1.html Queen Noor, (aka Lisa Halaby of San Mateo, CA) is his surviving wife.

Gene Siskel. Thumb down.

so sad.

we forget to mention that John Ehrlichman died on Valentine's Day...

who was he?

One of the Nixon staff. Here's Eberts tribute to Siskel: www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/rog21i.html

Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell, age 68. Major League pitcher (Cardinals, Pirates, Mets) 1952-62; U.S. Congressman, 1968-74. One of my favorite sports heroes from my days in St. Louis.

wow. Siskel.

Glenn Seaborg has died, at age 86. http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/glenn-seaborg-obit.html

Rob Haubner, an Intel manager and a member of the original i960 team, and his wife, Susan Miller, hacked to death by machete-wielding rebels in Rwanda, while on a trek to observe endangered mountain gorillas... six other western tourists reportedly lost their lives in this incident as well... Terrible!

Dusty Springfield, 59, breast cancer You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Son of a Preacher Man I Only Wanna Be With You Rest peacefully, Dusty. What a sexy voice. And it was Uganda not Rwanda. Today's London Times ran a story on the Uganda killings claiming that the rebels specifically pulled out the British and American members of the party in protest against (I think) British and American support of the Tutsis. Six British people died, IIRC, at least one of whom was only about 23, a recent graduate taking a break before concentrating on his career. The French in the group were spared, as was one (British?) woman who faked an asthma attack.

Stanley Kubrick 2001 Clockwork Orange Details at http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9903/07/kubrick.obit/

Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio? Joe Dimaggio, 84.

to that great big baseball field in the sky....

Joltin' Joe has left and gone away...hey hey hey...

a sad day... http://www.cnn.com/books/news/9905/10/AM-Obit-Silverstein.ap/

yesterday, dana something-or-other of different strokes fame, was found dead. she was 34 or 36.

as i recall, she fought a pretty continuous battle with drugs...

yup, and it ended that way too. the day before, she told howard stern she was off drugs. sad, huh? (dana plato, 34).... i believe she had a child or two as well.

btw: above photo was from infoseek's entertainment site....

Saul Steinberg, the wonderful and versatile artist best known for his countless appearances in the pages and on the cover of The New Yorker (the most famous being the oft-reproduced and imitated view of the world from a New York perspective), died at 84 on May 12.

Gene Sarazen, 97, pneumonia. On May 13.

Wrestling tour goes on after Owen Hart's death Emergency medical personnel give Hart CPR inside the wrestling ring � Thousands witness accident; television audience does not May 24, 1999 Web posted at: 7:33 p.m. EDT (2333 GMT) --------------------------------------- 'Wrestlers were openly weeping' What witnesses saw WWF: 'We have no answers' 'We thought they were just playing with us' --------------------------------------- KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) -- A World Wrestling Federation tour was set to continue on Monday while an investigation looked for the cause of a fatal plunge by Owen Hart, a Canadian wrestler who went by the name "Blue Blazer." Hart fell 50 feet, hit his head and died Sunday when a wire holding him in the air either broke or became disconnected while he was being lowered into the ring during a WWF match at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. There were more than 16,000 people in attendance but viewers watching the event on pay-per-view television did not see the fall, which occurred about 75 minutes into the show. Recorded highlights of Hart's career were being shown at the time. 'Wrestlers were openly weeping' As Hart's fellow performers were boarding a plane in Kansas City on Monday for a cross-state flight to St. Louis, WWF President Vince McMahon Jr. said the death had provoked grief among the team. "Wrestlers were openly weeping last night," McMahon said, his eyes filling with tears. The WWF canceled the encore and replay Pay-Per-View program that was scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. The following live events were also canceled: Peoria, Illinois; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Hamilton, Ontario; Montreal; and Ottawa, Ontario. What witnesses saw Hart, 33, the younger brother of Bret (The Hitman) Hart, a star with rival World Championship Wrestling, fell as he was being lowered from the arena's ceiling as his match introduction was about to begin. Wrestler Owen Hart, right, applies a choke hold to his brother Bret Hart in this undated photo � It was a stunt he had performed before. Some witnesses said the cable snapped, while others said it appeared Hart was somehow disconnected from it. They said his head snapped backward when he hit a turnbuckle, one of the padded pieces of metal that hold the ropes together in each corner of the ring. Hart was given CPR inside the ring as the ring announcer haltingly told the audience that the incident was not scripted, as professional wrestling matches openly are. The wrestler was pronounced dead at a hospital. "He was supposed to be lowered down into the ring," said Michelle Hindorff, a paramedic and dispatcher for Kansas City's ambulance service. "It didn't get hooked on to him. He thought it was hooked on," she said. WWF: 'We have no answers' The World Wrestling Federation said it is investigating what went wrong. "We at the WWF are saddened by the tragic accident that occurred here tonight," McMahon said Sunday. "We have no answers as to how this happened yet. We will shortly." Hart curls a dumbbell while working out in a gym in this 1996 photo � 'We thought they were just playing with us' Hart was known for his acrobatic stunts and some members of the audience thought his fall was part of an act. "We thought it was a doll at first," said 15-year-old Robert McCome. "We thought they were just playing with us. We were really shocked when we found out that it was no joke." "He was moving pretty fast (as he fell)," said Jesse McDonald, who was sitting near the ring. "His chin and neck hit the top rope." The arena fell into silence. "I didn't see it, but from what I can gather, somebody slipped up," Hart's 83-year-old father, former wrestler Stu Hart, said from the family home in Calgary, Alberta. "You don't get up 60 or 70 feet in the air without being properly anchored down," he said. "I haven't talked to Vince McMahon yet, but somebody was careless or missed something or else Owen would still be here." The WWF is one of the biggest draws on cable and pay-per-view TV. The WWF admits that its events are more entertainment then sport. Hart's fall happened in the second part of an event called "Over the Edge." The first portion, called "Sunday Night Heat," was televised live on the USA cable network. The TV audience was being shown a montage of Hart's clips when he fell and the camera panned through the crowd while paramedics worked on him. The show stopped for 15 minutes before Hart was taken away, and the matches resumed. All seven of Stu Hart's sons entered professional wrestling, with Owen joining in 1989. He had recently told a magazine that he was planning to leave wrestling when his contract was up. Survivors include his wife, Martha, and two young children. His older brother Bret "The Hitman" Hart, the current heavyweight champ with the rival World Championship Wrestling, canceled a scheduled appearance on "The Tonight Show" Monday to fly home to be with his family in Canada. The WCW issued a statement on Owen Hart's death: "We are shocked and saddened by this terrible tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with Bret Hart and the entire Hart family." The Associated Press contributed to this report. ---------------------------------------

Oh, I have seen you have noticed Rob's untimely demise ( http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/news/9.10 ). Did You know Milli Vanilli was a German band? Rob lived in Munich, but the band was managed and produced by Frank Farian (the very man who did Boney M., who were, yes it's true, also a German band). Farian's famous studio is about 35 kilometers north of Frankfurt, right in my county.

i knew milli vanilli was german *grin*

Actually, we German men all have these braided hairdos, I thwear!

and you all lip sync too, huh? *grin*

Well, some sync, some pay and some bust lip. Whaddaya expect, we here derive from headhunting tribes!

Clifton Fadiman http://www2.nando.net:80/noframes/story/0,2107,62064-98653-702226-0,00.html Hope that works.

Astronaut Conrad Dies In Motorcycle Accident By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Apollo astronaut Charles ''Pete'' Conrad Jr., who in 1969 became the third person to walk on the moon, died after crashing his motorcycle on a California highway, authorities said Friday. He was 69. Conrad was riding his 1996 Harley Davidson Thursday with his wife Nancy and a group of friends on a central California highway Thursday afternoon when he apparently lost control of his motorcycle on a curve and was thrown onto the pavement, said Ventura County deputy coroner James Baroni. He died about five hours later while being treated at a hospital for internal bleeding. An exact cause of death has yet to be determined pending an autopsy. Baroni said Conrad's wife and friends, who were traveling with the space legend to Monterrey from his home in Huntington Beach, saw the accident and summoned an ambulance, but did not immediately realize the extent of his injuries. ``Initially ... I don't think the family thought it was all that serious,'' Baroni said. ``He apparently flew off, landed on his chest, had some scrapes and bruises and a little difficulty breathing, but he was able to walk around and talk.'' Baroni said an ambulance crew brought him to a hospital emergency room where his blood pressure began to drop and his abdomen started to swell -- signs that he was losing blood. He was rushed into surgery, but his heart soon stopped beating. Conrad, a veteran of four space flights, was best known for his role as commander of the second lunar landing on Nov. 19, 1969, on the Apollo 12 mission. U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person on the moon on July 20, 1969, followed by crewmate Edwin ``Buzz'' Aldrin on the Apollo 11 mission. In a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Conrad recalled that: ``the Earth resembled a beautiful blue marble suspended against a black velvet blanket.'' Conrad also described himself to the paper as a thrill-seeker, saying he enjoyed ``fast bikes, fast cars and anything that moves.'' Howard Benedict, director of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation who knew Conrad and as a reporter covered the Apollo missions, said of the astronaut's death: ``We have lost not only a friend but a strong voice for the future in space. It was a shock to have him die so tragically.'' Benedict remembered Conrad's sense of humor, recalling his reaction when lightning struck Apollo 12: ``He said 'hey guys, I think we just got hit by lightning.' He said 'this place was lit up like a pinball machine in here'.'' Benedict said when Conrad -- who at 5-foot-6 (1.67 meters) was the shortest member of the crew -- took his first step onto the moon, a drop of three feet (1 meter), ``His first words were 'whoopee. That may have been one small step for Neil but it was a heck of a long one for me.'' NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin called Conrad a space ''pioneer'' who was deeply committed to his country.'' Conrad was born on June 2, 1930, and was interested in flight from childhood, building model airplanes and working in an airfield machine shop to pay for flying lessons at age 15. He piloted the Gemini 5 mission in 1965, commanded Gemini 11 in 1966 and Apollo 12 three years later. In his final space mission, Conrad headed the first crew in the Skylab space station, which sustained damage during its launch. He and his crew repaired Skylab during three harrowing spacewalks, saving the program from potential failure. Conrad retired from the U.S. Navy and NASA in 1974. After leaving the space agency Conrad devoted his time to developing reusable spacecraft, first with aerospace giant McDonnell Douglas and later as chief executive officer of a Newport Beach, California, company called Universal Space Lines. Jim Albaugh, president of Boeing, which now owns McDonnell Douglas, said of Conrad: ``He served his country so well and so enthusiastically as an astronaut, as a naval officer and as a private citizen. ``His accomplishments and legacy will endure.''

Two obits today, the inspiration for Crocodile Dundee and the world's oldest goldfish. From the Washington Post obituaries section 8/5/99: Rodney Ansell Crocodile Dundee Model Rodney Ansell, an Australian bushman who inspired the 1986 hit movie "Crocodile Dundee" has been killed in a shootout with police in the outback. Police said he shot and killed a policeman by a roadblock south of Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, on Aug. 3 before being shot dead by the officer's partner. Local media said Mr. Ansell, once named Territorian of the Year, was the role model for Paul Hogan's knife-slinging outback hero Crocodile Dundee. Ken Shadie, who wrote "Crocodile Dundee" with Hogan and John Cornell, had seen a television interview with Ansell by British journalist Michael Parkinson. That interview fired Hogan's imagination about a bushman superstar that led to the making of the first Dundee film. Police could not explain Mr. Ansell's action, but said he might have been involved in a shooting incident on Monday night after which the roadblock was set up on the lonely Stuart Highway. Assistant Commissioner John Daulby told reporters Mr. Ansell could easily have evaded the roadblock but instead shot at a policeman from behind some bushes. And then there's: Tish, the world's oldest goldfish, 43. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_414000/414114.stm

Victor Mature. 86. Of cancer. William Shatner's wife, found dead in the family swimming pool by Shatner last night.

Food Network to Broadcast Salute to 'Two Fat Ladies' Jennifer Paterson Tribute Honoring the Memory of One of Television's Biggest Personalities Airs Sunday, August 15, from 9 - 11 p.m. ET. New York, August 10, 1999--Food Network today announced plans to broadcast a special tribute in honor of Two Fat Ladies' Jennifer Paterson. Paterson, 71, died early today at a hospital in London where she was being treated for lung cancer. The announcement was made today by Eric Ober, Food Network president and general manager. -- read the rest at http://www.foodtv.com/fn/contact/paterson/press.htm

wait, a 43 year old GOLDFISH??? Was it a koi?

Waaaaahhhhhh! I loved the fat ladies!

Me, too.

Who were they?

These two older British women have a cooking show on PBS. I love their rapport, they're always dishing out these saucy little comments (couldn't resist the pun!)

How did I miss something from the BBC?! I am now getting the Food Channel scrambled so I heard them mentioned in some future programming lineup = a tribute or whatever to these ladies. Must see if I can look sideways enough to see anything. Thanks, Autumn, dear.

Posted: Friday August 20, 1999 12:45 AM As a motivational speaker, Kim Perrot told young women there was nothing they could not achieve. Elsa Hasch/Allsport HOUSTON (AP) -- Kim Perrot, the popular Houston Comets point guard who was the heart and soul of the two-time WNBA champions, died Thursday of lung cancer. She was 32. Perrot died peacefully with friends and family by her side at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the team said. Perrot, diagnosed with lung cancer on Feb. 19, had been seeking alternative treatment in Tijuana, Mexico after undergoing surgery Feb. 24 to remove tumors in her brain, where the lung cancer had spread. "The world is not as good as it was before 3 o'clock today," said Carroll Dawson, the executive vice president for basketball for the Comets. The Comets were in Los Angeles on Thursday preparing for Friday night's game against the Los Angeles Sparks. Dawson said the team planned to play the game. "They thought she would want them to play, and I can guarantee you that she did. She would be kicking their tails if they didn't play," Dawson said. Coach Van Chancellor said even though he knew Perrot's condition was grave, news of her death still caught him off guard. "I was just totally unprepared when they called me. I thought I would be ready for it but in no way was I ready," Chancellor told Houston television station KRIV. "The entire WNBA family is devastated by this tragic loss," WNBA president Val Ackerman said in a statement. "We will remember Kim as a woman of great heart and indomitable courage who refused to be daunted by any challenge." Her condition worsened during her second trip to Mexico. She returned to Houston last Saturday. "It's totally changed my life," Perrot told Houston television station KTRK shortly after disclosing her illness. "I've never been really sick or injured and now I'm faced with life or death. It's just tough. All I can do is put it in the hands of the Lord." The Lafayette, La., native arrived in Houston three years ago, fresh off the professional women's circuit in Europe. She was signed as a developmental player for the fledgling Women's National Basketball Association franchise here. Despite her 5-foot-5 frame, Perrot quickly became a starter and crowd favorite noted for ferocious play that helped the Comets clinch championships in 1997 and 1998, the league's inaugural seasons. Last year, Perrot averaged 8.5 points and 4.7 assists and made 84 steals in 30 regular-season games and was second in voting for WNBA defensive player of the year. During the offseason, Perrot began suffering headaches. After conducting several tests, doctors delivered the startling diagnosis of lung cancer for Perrot, a nonsmoker. The cancer already had spread to her brain when it was detected. "I have the will to win. I won't accept anything less than winning." she told the television interviewer. "With this type of illness I'm facing now, I take the same approach. I won't be defeated. I just feel confident this is just a challenge, just a trial for me. ... I work really well under pressure." After brain surgery, Perrot entered radiation treatment to attack tumors in her head. She went to Mexico for alternative medical procedures rather than submit to chemotherapy prescribed by her Houston doctors. "Her fight off the court against cancer was heroic and brave," Houston Mayor Lee Brown said. "Although she lost her battle, she leaves the legacy of a winner." Perrot played four seasons at Southwestern Louisiana. She scored 58 points against Southeastern Louisiana in 1990, the second-highest total in NCAA history. Perrot set 26 other school records, including the career scoring mark of 2,157 points. She played six years in Europe for pro teams in Sweden, Germany, Israel and France, returning to the United States in 1997. In one of her last public appearances, on June 22, Perrot accepted her second championship ring during a Comets home game. "Who would have thought Kim Perrot would be a two-time WNBA champion?" she said. "When no one else believed in me, my teammates and the fans stuck with me." Despite her illness, Perrot made about 100 public appearances as a motivational speaker, often at schools. In one of her last regular columns for the Houston Chronicle's teen supplement "Yo!," she told young women there was nothing they could not achieve. "It's such an exciting time to be a female athlete in the U.S.A," she wrote. "I encourage you young women to follow your dreams. It will take a lot of hard work and determination, but there are no limits to what you can do." Survivors include her mother, Consuella Perrot; two brothers, Craig Perrot and Kevin Perrot; and a sister, Loretta Perrot, all of LaFayette, La.

Aug 23, 1999, John Jeffrey Chambers. My best friend since 1981. His roommate e'd me with the news. He went peacefully after complications from a seizure. I know he is in a better place, but I don't think he knew how much I love(d) him. He was 32.

My condolences.

Oh Wolf, I am so sorry!!! *hugs*

Koi are actually a Japanese carp species, and though they often are gold colored, they are not goldfish. With proper care (cleaned, aerated ponds) koi can live over 300 years and are often passed down many generations in Japanese families. They are quite popular in Hawaii.

thanks, guys, for your thoughts *hugs*

Allen Funt, the human nature expert and creative genius behind/original host of Candid Camera. Dead at 84. Died peacefully at his home in California. Suffered a stroke in 1993 from which he never fully recovered. Candid Camera started on radio as Candid Microphone. Moved to television in 1948. Some form of the program has been on the air ever since. The program reached its zenith in the 1960s with a 7-year run on CBS. Other than news, was the first "reality based" program, pav ng the way for "Cops," "America's Most Wanted" and other programs of the genre. When you least expected, you're elected, it's your lucky day Smile, you're on Candid Camera. With our hocus pocus, you're in focus, you're the star today Smile, you're on Candid Camera. It's fun to look at yourself, it's the tonic, tried and true, It's fun to laugh at yourself, as other people do. How's your sense of humor? There's a rumor You'll go far today. Smile, you're on Candid Camera.

Smile!

Jim "Catfish" Hunter, righthanded pitcher, clubhouse prankster extroadinaire, and legendary barroom brawler. Cy Young Award winner. Ace hurler of the dynastic Oakland A's in the early 1970s of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Age 53. Between the A's and Yankees, was on five World Series champions. When Hunter was drafted out of high school by the A's, iconoclastic team owner Charles O. Finley asked, "What's your nickname?" Hunter said, "I don't have one." "What do you like to do," Finley probed. "Hunt and fish," the genial Southerner replied. "This is your story," Finley said. "Remember it. When you were six years old you ran away from home with your fishing pole. Your parents looked all day for you and when they finally found you, around three o'clock that afternoon, you had caught two catfish and was reeling in a third. You have been 'Catfish' ever since." And what a magnificent "Cat" he was. Jim Hunter. Baseball legend and Hall of Famer.

And his team mates say he was very generous. He always bought eveyone food and drinks.

true suthahnuh!

Actress Ruth Roman Dead at 75 LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Ruth Roman, who starred opposite Gary Cooper and Errol Flynn and survived the Andrea Doria wreck at sea, has died. She was 75. Roman died Thursday in her sleep at her Laguna Beach home, said her son, Richard Hall. In 1956, she and her son -- then 3 -- were returning from Italy aboard the luxury passenger liner Andrea Doria when it was struck by another ship. More than fifty people died and 760 survived after the ship went down. The Boston-born actress got her start in community plays at age 9. She attended drama school and later moved to Hollywood. Roman appeared in some minor films before her big break in Stanley Kramer's 1949 "Champion," which featured Kirk Douglas as an unscrupulous boxer. Following the film, Warner Bros. offered Roman a contract and she starred in nine films in less than two years opposite Cooper, Flynn and James Stewart. Roman also appeared in "Beyond the Forest" with Bette Davis, "Three Secrets" with Patricia Neal and "Mara Maru" with Flynn. Her other films included "The Far Country" with Stewart, "Bitter Victory" with Richard Burton and "Dallas" with Cooper. In all, Roman appeared in more than 30 movies, most of them in the 1950s, and a number of television shows in the 1960s and 1970s, including "Naked City," "Knots Landing" and "Murder She Wrote." Roman once told The [New York Times] of her shipwreck experience that she never feared she would or her son would die. She said she was dancing on board the Andrea Doria when, "We heard a big explosion, like a firecracker." When it became clear the ship was sinking, passengers began piling into lifeboats. With her son, she climbed down a rope ladder to one of the boats, but it pulled away before they could hop on. Soon they were put on another lifeboat.

Jazz Trumpeter Harry 'Sweets' Edison Dead At 83 (7/28/99, 1 p.m. PDT) - Jazz trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, whose distinguishable soft sound led to a professional career working with a long list of famous singers and big-band leaders, died Tuesday (July 27) in Columbus, Ohio after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. He was 83. Born in Columbus in 1915, Edison began playing professionally at the age of 12, and was soon performing with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra in Cleveland and St. Louis. As a teen, he played with the Lucky Millinder band in New York. By the time he was 18, he had joined the Count Basie Orchestra, where Basie saxophonist Lester Young later gave him the nickname "Sweets" to describe his playing style. After the Basie band split up in 1950, Edison found himself in high demand as a session player for a variety of top-name vocalists. Throughout the decade, he logged time performing with Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker, Frank Sinatra, and Nat 'King' Cole. Edison also launched a solo career during this period, an endeavor that eventually yielded nearly three dozen releases, from Sweets at The Haig in the early 1950s to Live At The Iridium in 1997. In addition to playing with his own group, he appeared on the rosters of a number of big bands through the years, including those of Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini and Nelson Riddle. Though he had relocated to Los Angeles for much of his career, Edison's deteriorating health prompted him to return to his hometown of Columbus late in 1998. He had continued to perform, however, bringing his trademark sound to audiences with a trip to Europe last spring, and was scheduled to play at the Long Beach Jazz Festival in California this coming weekend. Edison is survived by his daughter, Helena.

Reuters news 'Honeymooners' creator dies LOS ANGELES, SEPTEMBER 15 � Veteran comedy writer Harry Crane, who created the Jackie Gleason TV classic ``The Honeymooners'' and wrote gags for some of the funniest men in show business, has died at age 85, a spokesman said Wednesday. Crane succumbed to cancer Monday night at his Beverly Hills home, according to publicist Warren Cowan, who also was Crane's son-in-law. During a career that spanned half a century, Crane wrote jokes and sketches for such comic greats as Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Bros., Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Joey Bishop, Danny Thomas, Henny Youngman and Red Skelton. But he is perhaps best remembered for giving birth to ``The Honeymooners,'' which started out as a 1951 comedy sketch Crane wrote featuring Gleason as New York bus driver Ralph Kramden, who is forever hatching get-rich-quick schemes with his sewer worker pal Ed Norton (Art Carney). The bit first appeared that year as part of the early DuMont television network's ``Cavalcade of Stars,'' then became a fixture on the CBS variety series ``The Jackie Gleason Show'' before being expanded into its own half-hour sitcom in 1955. As a principal writer for the Gleason variety show, Crane also helped create a number of Gleason's other signature characters. ``The Honeymooners,'' which co-starred Carney, Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph, aired just 39 episodes before leaving the air in 1956, but the classic series has enjoyed a considerable rerun after-life in syndication. The Brooklyn-born Crane began his showbiz career at age 19 as a standup comic in the ``Borscht Belt'' and was later recruited by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a writer. He made his screenwriting debut with the 1943 Laurel and Hardy comedy ``Air Raid Wardens,'' and his credits also include ''The Harvey Girls'' (1946), starring Judy Garland, and ``Song of the Thin Man'' (1947) with William Powell and Myrna Loy. Moving into television in the 1950s, Crane developed long-term relationships with a new generation of entertainers, -- among them Gleason, Berle, Martin, Perry Como and Dinah Shore -- for whom he wrote series and specials. His TV credits include a number of major awards shows during the '50s, '60s and '70s. He also is credited with giving a career boost to such promising young comedy writers as Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Garry Marshall, and he continued to contribute nuggets of humor to the biggest names in Hollywood until falling seriously ill several months ago. Crane is survived by his wife, Lillian, two daughters, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

"One day, Alice! POW! Right to the moon!"

Lemme guess - that comet-discovering chap? But he died a while ago... (Wolf: Sorry.)

And so did Jackie Gleason, the guy famous for delivering that line.

Oscar winner George C. Scott died Wednesday (Sep. 22, 1999) at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Westlake Village. He was 71. Cause of death was not immediately disclosed. Scott won the best-actor Oscar in 1970 for his performance in the title role of Patton (1970). Critic John Gillett said at the time: "Here is an actor so totally immersed in his part that he almost makes you believe he is the man himself." However, Scott refused to attend the Oscar ceremonies or even to accept the statuette, claiming that the Oscar race was a pointless contest that failed to contribute to the betterment of the industry or the acting profession. Scott was born October 18, 1927, in Wise, Virginia. He made three critically acclaimed cable movies in the last three years Inherit the Wind (1999), a remake of the classic about the historic Scopes Monkey Trial, Rocky Marciano (1999), in which he played the father of the late, great "Brockton (Mass.) Blockbuster", the undefeated heavyweight champion (1948-52), and a remake of Reginald Rose's award winning 12 Angry Men (1996), a jury-room drama in which he played Juror #3, the embitt red antagonist.

From CNN Plane slams into side of Hawaiian volcano, killing 10 September 26, 1999 Web posted at: 8:43 p.m. EDT (0043 GMT) From staff and wire reports KAILUA KONA, Hawaii (CNN) -- Ten people on board a twin-engine sightseeing airplane died when it crashed on the side of Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Diana Joubert said search crews located the wreckage at 6:30 a.m. Sunday at an elevation of about 10,500 feet. The volcano reaches 13,679 feet. Rescue crews later reached the remote site on the "big island" of Hawaii, where they found no survivors. The PA-31/350 Piper Chieftain, with a pilot and nine passengers, was operated by Big Island Airlines, which offers regularly scheduled sightseeing tours. "The plane was totally demolished, just like a plane would be if it went into rocks at a high rate of speed," said Doug Lentz, spokesman for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where Mauna Loa is located. "It's pretty rough terrain on the side of the volcano, with plenty of lava fields," said Roy Mann, the airline's operations director. Identities of the victims were not immediately released. The recovered bodies were being flown by helicopter to the city of Hilo on the east side of the island. The plane had taken off about 4:30 p.m. Saturday for a tour of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, two dormant volcanoes. About three hours later, Big Island officials notified Kona International Airport that the plane was an hour overdue. Searchers began looking for the plane but suspended their search when darkness fell. They resumed the search Sunday morning and found the plane about an hour later, Joubert said. Since a large part of the island is inaccessible by car, air tours are a popular way to see it, including the active Kilauea volcano. Helicopters and planes fly near the bubbling summit and then over nearby valleys to view rainbows and waterfalls. From John Burnett (who was on the air during the morning and had to scramble for his coverage: The plane crash in Hawaii Sat. eve. Sep. 25 was here on the Big Island. Was a two-engine tourist plane, a Piper Navajo Chieftain, with 10 aboard, including the pilot. It took off from Kona airport on the west side of the island at 4:22 p.m. Was reported missing shortly after 6 p.m. A Coast Guard helicopter discovered the still smoldering wreckage on the northeastern slopes of Mauna Loa (on the Hilo side) shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday. The plane, which was 16 years old and considered relatively young and airworthy, had slammed into the side of the mountain. Weather conditions were unknown. The last transmission from the pilot, who had worked for Big Island Air, the tour plane company, for over five years, was a request to enter restricted airspace, nothing unusual for a tour plane. It is the first mishap ever for Big Island Air. As of this posting, no names of victims have been released, but all ten aboard are confirmed dead. The wreckage was charred and most, if not all, will have to be ID'd through dental records.

Boy, that's so tragic.

euw, i heard about this on the news. very sad indeed.

The last I heard they were still hunting for the remains of the 10th victim. It is very rugged terrain up on that a'a flow...That is another job I am glad someone else is willing to do...ID'ing the charred remains of crash victims!

sad that they have to look for teeth just to figure out who they were. i pray those people didn't suffer.

If you saw the picture of the plane, the entire front 2/3rds is disintegrated into a few pieces of metal. Those people never knew what they hit or what hit them... Mercifully!

no, didn't see the actual footage.

I'd rather not.

Isn't it amazing how death slaps one in the face every time you open a newspaper or switch on the TV?

yup. number 1 reason NOT to have a tv

I refuse to watch the news. I don't mind blood and gore in movies - but for real I just can't handle it.

I agree...I once asked my son when he was in mid-teen years if violence on TV made him desensitized to real carnage on the news. He immediately looked at me like I was some sort of mental deficient and told me TV is just acting. Real stuff on news they cannot wash off and go home for the night to their families. Where did today's kids get desensitized? and, How?!

From http://westhawaiitoday.com/display/inn_news/news1.txt By KEITH KOSAKI/West Hawaii Today HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK - Two victims of the fatal tour airplane crash were identified preliminarily as Big Island residents Monday and federal officials began taking steps to determine the cause of the crash that killed all 10 people on board. Names of the victims weren't released officially, but the two Big Island residents believed on board were identified in news reports as Wade Abac, a passenger who worked at the Keauhou Beeach Hotel, and Kentucky native Dennis O'Leary, 53, the pilot of the Big Island Air Piper Chieftain aircraft. Jeff Hammerschmidt, a National Transporta-tion Safety Board board member, said at a press conference Monday while no preliminary cause has been determined, information such as the angle of impact and placement of the wings are important to the investigation. He said the NTSB's top priority is to get two of its investigators to the crash site. "Things of that nature are all very important just to give us basic information from which to further analyze the accident scenario," Hammerschmidt said. He said the wreckage also appears to be contained in an relatively small area, "which makes it easier from an investigative standpoint because you can stay in contained area and try to look at everything you need to," he said. Hammerschmidt said the twin-engine aircraft was not required to have a flight data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder on board, but did have a global positioning system. "If it survived, we hope it contains some good memory-type data," Hammerschmidt said. Six NTSB officials, including Hammerschmidt, who was appointed by President Clinton, arrived late Sunday evening from Washington, D.C., in Kona. An NTSB investigator from Los Angeles arrived earlier that day to begin investigating one of the Big Island. The Big Island Air tour plane took off from Kona International Airport about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The pilot's last radio transmission came at about 50 minutes later, requesting permission from the flight control tower to fly over the Pohakuloa Training Area near Saddle Road. A Coast Guard official said such transmission are routine. The plane was due back at the airport at about 6 p.m., and was reported overdue at 7:20 p.m., though it is not known exactly when it went down. The wreckage was discovered early Sunday morning by Hawaii County Fire Rescue personnel. Hammerschmidt said NTSB personnel met with officials from the Federal Aviation Administration, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Big Island Air early Monday. He said officials from Piper Aircraft and Lycoming, the engine manufacturer, also planned to join the investigation. Hammerschmidt said Monday afternoon that the weather would play a factor in how quickly the investigators made it to the scene. He said one investigator specializes analyzing aircraft structure, such as the fuselage and wings. The other is a system person who looks at hydraulics and avionics, Hammerschmidt said. "Our main priority was to get the two investigators up there as soon as feasible," Hammerschmidt said. The agency hoped to get two of its investigators to the crash site Monday afternoon, but they were stopped by poor weather conditions at the 9,800-foot level where the crash occurred. "We were too socked in," he said. They were to try again at daybreak Wednesday. He said the NTSB plans to be in Hawaii two to three days, and will take any pertinent evidence from the wreckage to Washington, D.C., to continue the investigation. "We don't know right now if we will need any of the wreckage," Hammerschmidt said. Hammerschmidt said he wasn't sure if there were any unusual conditions or and did not have details about Big Island Air's safety record. He said the FAA official did not bring up anything about the Kailua-Kona company's record during the Monday morning meeting. Other victims identified in news reports said Hank Risley, head of the New Hampshire state Department of Corrections, died in the crash. New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen said Monday that Risley his stepmother were on board. Harry Kim, Hawaii Civil Defense Agency administrator, said the families of three victims still were not notified Monday afternoon. The American Red Cross has set up a center for victims' relatives at King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel. The center will stay open as long as there is a need, said Red Cross public affairs officer Carole Nervig The crash was the Big Island's worst air disaster since June 11, 1989, when all 11 people aboard a twin-engine Beechcraft plane were killed when it slammed into a Waipio Valley ridge at about the 1,800-foot level. Also in 1989, an Aloha Island Air DHC-6 Twin Otter went down on the island of Molokai, killing 20 people. Since 1974, there have been five fatal air crashes within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, killing a total of 43 people. Hammerschmidt said the NTSB has been proactive is air tour safety and even held public meetings here on the subject in the early 90's.

8 die as trains collide in London 160 injured, at least 17 seriously, in fiery wreck MSNBC staff and wire reports LONDON, Oct. 5 � At least eight people were killed and some 160 injured Tuesday when two trains packed with commuters collided and burst into flames near London's Paddington station. The last survivors were freed from the wreckage some five hours after the crash, NBC's Charles Sabine reported from the scene. AMONG THE injured, at least 17 were in serious condition. Survivors told of a fireball immediately after the collision and the rush to flee. One woman said it was "mass panic" as passengers rushed the doors in the car she was on. The collision occurred about two miles from Paddington, near Ladbroke Grove. Another passenger said her wagon "went up into flames" and tipped over. "There were really badly hurt people, badly burnt people," echoed another commuter. "Some people have been impaled by seats." And one of the passengers who saw the fireball recalled how he wondered if he and others would perish in the flames. SIDE CRASH? Passenger Mark Rogers said he "was reading a book and found myself crashing into the person opposite me. The train was going over and over and over, and people were thrown onto the floor." "People were screaming, a person pretty clearly dead, a woman who was thrown out of the train," he added. The accident happened at an intersection on the busy rail line, and might not have been head on but rather from the side. "I think we hit on an angle, on the side," said BBC radio editor Phil Longman, who was on board the inbound train. An engine and a front car were on their sides, he said, and another was pointing at the sky. One of the train drivers survived the crash, but he could not confirm the fate of the other one. The cause was not yet known, but it comes as public dissatisfaction with the railway system's performance is at an all-time high. Consumer groups and regulators say the system, privatized two years ago, cannot cope with passenger traffic that is growing faster than forecast. They are calling for more investment for train maintenance. The accident happened on the same line as a 1997 train crash that killed seven people and injured 150. EIGHT WAGONS DAMAGED Reuters journalist Wolfgang Waehner-Schmidt, who was on one of the trains, an inter-city Great Western Trains service from Cheltenham to Paddington, said the collision was with a smaller local train. The other train was headed away from London, toward Wiltshire. It had left Paddington Station about five minutes before the accident happened shortly at 8:11 a.m. local time. Waehner-Schmidt said about eight wagons were damaged and smoke was coming from some of them. "We were in one of the last carriages. We got out immediately, smashed the window and jumped out of the train," he added. 'AMAZED WE ARE ALIVE' Andrew Hoskin, who lives near the scene of the crash, said: "It is a terrible mess. One train is completely off the rails." Danny Firth, a passenger on the Great Western train described the crash as "an almighty bang and everything that was in front of me came flying forward. There was fire outside. It was general chaos. People were walking around with burns and bruises." "I am amazed we are alive," said a 21-year-old woman sobbing with shock and relief after clambering out of a twisted carriage. "The first I knew there was a sudden brake. The train flipped over on to its side. There were sparks and screams and seats falling all apart and lots of glass." The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

From the BBC (detail on the below stories http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1999/10/99/london_train_crash/newsid_465000/465503.stm Wednesday, October 6, 1999 Published at 18:54 GMT 19:54 UK Disaster in the rush hour Two trains collide in west London in what looks likely to be the UK's worst crash for more than 80 years, calling safety standards into question yet again. Emergency number: 0171 834 7777. The fatal collision 'At least 70 dead' Police say 28 passengers are confirmed dead and 42 others are believed to have died - with 100 other people still unaccounted for. Driver 'went through red light' Prescott orders rail safety review Train drivers threaten strike over safety Victims fight for life The Paddington train crash in pictures Q&A: Tom Heap answers some key questions Survivor Brendan Batley describes the crash "The death toll is expected to rise sharply..." "The driver went through a red light..." "Dozens of patients remain in hospital..."

Amazing carnage. An incredible tragedy.

Take a look at the BBC's pic of the wreck! (it won't be on here long as they change it frequently)

Oh God. You mean it will automatically change here, too as it does at their website?

No, it will show up as a little pink and blue square - just like when one goofs and the picture does not show up ... I believe just the maps I post in Weather on Geo update auto-magically!

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Morris West, a best-selling Australian thriller writer, died Saturday. He was 83. West, who wrote "The Devil's Advocate," "Children of the Sun" and "Shoes of a Fisherman," died while working on his latest novel, "The Last Confession." He wrote 27 novels, as well as screenplays, radio dramas and plays. His works, which have been translated into 27 languages, have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide.

Chamberlain found dead at age 63 Pro basketball Hall of Famer may have suffered heart attack Associated Press LOS ANGELES, Oct. 12 � Wilt Chamberlain, a center so big, agile and dominant that he forced basketball to change its rules and the only player to score 100 points in an NBA game, died Tuesday at 63. CHAMBERLAIN WAS FOUND dead in his bed at his Bel-Air home at about 12:30 p.m., police said. There were signs that he might have had a heart attack, authorities said. Chamberlain was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat in 1992, and his agent, Sy Goldberg, said the Hall of Famer was on medication. Known as "Wilt the Stilt" and "The Big Dipper," the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain starred in the NBA from 1959 through 1973, when he played for the Philadelphia (later the San Francisco) Warriors, 76ers and Lakers. He later stirred controversy with boasts of his sexual exploits. Chamberlain scored 31,419 points during his career, a record until Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke it in 1984. Chamberlain, who never fouled out in 1,205 regular-season and playoff games, holds the record for career rebounding with 23,924. "Wilt was one of the greatest ever, and we will never see another one like him," Abdul-Jabbar said. Chamberlain, who began his professional career with the Harlem Globetrotters in 1958, was one of only two men to win the MVP and rookie of the year awards in the same season (1959-60). He was also MVP in 1966 through 1968. He led the NBA in scoring seven straight seasons, 1960-66, and led the league in rebounding 11 of his 14 seasons. "We truly lost one of the icons of professional basketball and, more importantly for myself, someone who I've known for almost 40 years," a teary-eyed Jerry West, a former teammate and now the Lakers vice president, said at the Forum. Former Lakers star Magic Johnson called Chamberlain one of the greatest sports heroes ever. "Wilt was my idol, and definitely changed the game of basketball," Johnson said. "As a kid, I loved watching him play for Philadelphia." Chamberlain was such a force that the NBA changed some of its rules, including widening the lane to try to keep him farther from the basket. One of his most famous records is the 100 points he scored in the Philadelphia Warriors' 169-147 defeat of the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa. "I spent 12 years in his armpits, and I always carried that 100-point game on my shoulders," Darrall Imhoff, the former Knicks center, said Tuesday. "After I got my third foul, I said to one of the officials, Willy Smith, 'Why don't you just give him 100 points and we'll all go home?' Well, we did." Chamberlain also holds the single-game record for rebounds, 55, against Boston in 1960. He averaged 30.1 points a game in his career, including a record 50.4 in the 1961-62 season with Philadelphia. He also was one of the most versatile big men ever, leading the league in assists with 702 in 1967-68. He led his team into the playoffs 13 times, winning two world championships. The first came in 1966-67 with the Philadelphia 76ers, the second in 1971-72 with the Lakers, which won a record 33 straight games. His teams lost in the finals four other times and were beaten in the conference final six times. Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics almost always seemed to be the nemesis of Chamberlain-led teams, beating them twice in the championship series and five times in the conference finals. Three times, a series was decided by a seventh game that Boston won by either one or two points. "Wilt Chamberlain had a great deal to do with the success of the NBA," said Red Auerbach, coach of those great Celtics. "His dominance, power, demeanor and the rivalry with Bill Russell says it all." Long after his career ended, Chamberlain made news by claiming in an autobiography that he had had sex with 20,000 women. "The women who I have been the most attracted to, the most in love with, I've pushed away the strongest," the lifelong bachelor said in a 1991 interview with The Associated Press. "There are about five women I can think of I could have married. I cared for them a lot, but not enough to make a commitment." Before his death from AIDS in 1993, Arthur Ashe was critical of sexually promiscuous athletes like Chamberlain, saying the behavior reinforced racist stereotypes. Ashe added that he didn't believe Chamberlain's claim, concluding, "I felt more pity than sorrow for Wilt as his macho accounting backfired on him in the form of a wave of public criticism." Wilton Norman Chamberlain was born on Aug. 21, 1936, in Philadelphia. He didn't begin playing basketball until he was in the seventh grade. He grew 4 inches in three months when he was 15, and was 6-11 when he entered Philadelphia's Overbrook High School. After leading Overbrook to three public school championships and two all-city titles, Chamberlain became one of the most recruited players ever with over 200 colleges interested. He chose the University of Kansas and Hall of Fame coach Phog Allen. In his first game against the Kansas varsity - freshmen weren't allowed to compete against other teams then - he scored 50 points before a packed Allen Fieldhouse crowd of more than 15,000. The next year, Chamberlain scored 52 points against Northwestern in his first game, a total he never surpassed in college, partly because of zone defenses designed to keep him from getting the ball. As a sophomore, he led the 1957 Jayhawks to the NCAA tournament finals, where Kansas lost to unbeaten North Carolina in triple overtime. Disgusted by being smothered by the zone defenses, Chamberlain left Kansas after his junior year and joined the Globetrotters. Chamberlain, extremely agile for his size, ran cross-country in high school and was an outstanding high jumper and shot-putter at Kansas. He remained active after his NBA career and was considered an outstanding volleyball player. He also ran in the Honolulu marathon recently and competed in a 50-mile race in Canada. "We've lost a giant of a man in every sense of the word," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "The shadow of accomplishment he cast over our game is unlikely ever to be matched." In January 1998, Chamberlain made his first official visit to Kansas since his college career ended. His jersey was raised to the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse. "I've learned in life that you have to take the bitter with the sweet, and how sweet this is," Chamberlain said at the ceremony. He seemed genuinely surprised at how much he was loved by the rabid Kansas fans, especially after staying away for 40 years. "Forty years ago I lost a heartbreaking battle, losing to North Carolina by one point in triple overtime," he told the crowd. "It was a devastating thing for me because I felt like I let the university down, I let KU down." The crowd interrupted, yelling, "No, no," before resuming another standing ovation. His huge hand brushed his cheek as he paused again, drowned out by more applause. Chamberlain is survived by sisters Barbara Lewis, Margaret Lane, Selina Gross and Yvonne Chamberlain, and brothers Wilbert and Oliver Chamberlain. Chamberlain�s family had not yet made funeral plans, according to Kim Hill of Angeles Funeral Home, which is handling the arrangements.

Thanks for posting this. I walked into the swimming stadium in Hilo right behind him. The was so HUGE!!! He was a frequent visitor to Hawaii!

He was a good friend of former Rainbow coach Bruce O'Neil. He once paid me a $50 tip for playing a request for him at Spat's nightclub in Honolulu when I was the D.J. there. I'd have done it for free. He had good taste in music, as well. His request was "Until You Come Back to Me" by Aretha Franklin.

What a neat memory of him...a really nice guy!

20,000 women can't be wrong!

Yeah....so they say...just ask Magic Johnson!

I watched Wilt on tv (even imagining I saw the 100 point game), and saw him play against the St. Louis Hawks. I consider him the greatest athlete of all time, he excelled at basketball, volleyball, track and field, the NFL drooled over him as a potential wide receiver, boxing (he contemplated getting in the ring with Ali), and who knows what else. The list of 50 point plus games in the NBA is one Wilt game after another, occasionally punctuated by a performance from Jordan or soemone else. Arguably, you can say Jordan or Jim Brown was better, but he was so far ahead of his time that there never be another athlete who stood so tall among every one of his peers. Wilt Chamberlain. What a shock!

Wilt holds the single game rebound record with 55 (it happened during the same historic 1961-62 season during which he had his 100-point game; that year, he averaged 27.2 Rebounds per game and 50.4 points per game. Averaged!). Some wild facts about Wilt's 100-point game -- The final score was Warriors 169 - Knicks 147! Imagine how it must have felt to score 147 and *still* lose by 22! (Three Knicks scored over thirty -- Richie Guerin (39), Cleveland Buckner (33) and Willie Naulls (31)). Wilt's most amazing record from that season is for minutes-per-game -- he averaged 48.5. But... but... there's only 48 minutes in a game! Well, the Warriors were involved in ten overtime periods that season, which means that the team played 3,890 minutes in 80 games. Wilt played 3,882 of those minutes -- that's right, he only sat for eight minutes the entire season, and even then, it was not the choice of Chamberlain or his coach, nor was it due to injury -- Wilt was tossed from the game for multiple technical fouls.

The Denver Nuggets used to score 140 regularly and lose in the mid to late 1980s, but if they had played against Wilt in his prime, he'd have probably scored 130 himself off their non-existent defense. I did not know the story about multiple technical fouls. To me, the most amazing stat about Wilt is that he played over 1200 games in his 14-year career and did not foul out (due to personals) ever. That's a streak that will likely never be matched, like Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, and maybe Cal Ripken, Jr.'s consecutive games played streak. I also doubt there will ever be another undisputed heavyweight champion who retires undefeated after 49 or more fights (Rocky Marciano, 49-0, undisputed champion 1952-56).

Chamberlains teams lost *3 times* in game sevens against the Celtics by *1 or 2* points. Inches away from World Championships three times. And his Kansas team lost a national championship by 1 point in triple overtime to North Carolina. Wilt grew 4 inches in a couple of months in junior high. He entered high school at 6-11. He scored 51 points in his first college game, but later quit in disgust at the zone defenses the college teams were throwing at him and joined the Globetrotters. Who did Wilt think was the greatest basketball player of all time? Meadowlark Lemon. Wilt may go down as the greatest all around athlete of all time.

Jim Moran Dies at 91 Source: Associated Press NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Jim Moran, known for outrageous publicity stunts in the '40s and '50s to promote products, Hollywood films -- and himself -- died Monday. He was 91. Sell an icebox to an Eskimo? Moran traveled to Alaska and did just that, at the behest of a refrigerator company. Change horses in midstream? Moran performed the feat during the 1944 presidential election, in the Truckee River in Reno, Nev. A longtime resident of Los Angeles and New York City, Moran spent the last three years of his life at the Actors' Fund Nursing and Retirement home in Englewood, said friend Mimi Brace. "He was like an icon to many people, and a mentor as well. The world isn't the same without him. It's the end of an era," she said. Coddling an ostrich egg under a tailpiece of ostrich feathers, Moran managed to induce hatching in 1946. Not by coincidence did he pose during the gestation with a best-selling book, "The Egg and I," which would soon become a comedy film starring Claudette Colbert. Acquaintances described Moran as a tall, rotund, blue-eyed Irish prankster. Gags like walking a bull through Ovington's -- a china shop on Fifth Avenue in New York -- may have been nutty, but Moran "was crazy like a fox," said Herb Steinberg, a retired executive who worked at the MCA, Paramount and Universal film studios. When the producers of a Broadway show, "Fanny," failed to win much ink, they turned to Moran. So Moran put a chimp in the driver's seat of an English taxi that had a trunk bearing the show's name and -- with Moran actually driving from the back seat -- motored around midtown Manhattan, Steinberg said. A picture landed in Life magazine. James Sterling Moran was born in Woodstock, Va., on Nov. 24, 1907. A 1945 Associated Press article said that before entering the publicity business, Moran was an airline executive in Washington and operated a studio where congressmen recorded speeches for their radio stations.

Payne Stewart died today killed in a mysterious plane crash. The plane took off in Florida, went on autopilot and crashed in South Dakota. Stewart was known for his trademark "knickers".

That is very sad, indeed. I though him the best dressed golfer of them all. He will be missed!

Payne Stewart was from my hometown--there's a golf course here named for him. Oddly enough, I never got to meet him.

Your home town would be...? Unless you came from a very tiny town, there is a good chance you would not have met him...or do you hang around golf courses a lot?

Springfield, Missouri, of course! He was here for a lot of golf tournaments and autograph-signings, so I could have seen him if I wanted, but I've never really had any interest in golf.

Me too. I figure if I want to walk that far I'd rather hike and see something more interesting than a little white ball...! (Oh yes, you did tell me about Springfield...getting out a map...!)

Stewart, 42, was a sportsman and a champion, the essence of emotion at the Ryder Cup, playing on three winning teams. He won 18 times around the world, but made his name at home with three major championships - the last on an unforgettable day in June when he thrust his fist into the air to celebrate his second U.S. Open victory. Stewart�s finest moment in a 20-year professional career came on Father�s Day at Pinehurst No. 2, the famed course in North Carolina that became a stage for remarkable drama in the final round. A year after Stewart lost a four-stroke lead in the final round of the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club, he trailed Phil Mickelson by one stroke with three holes to play, then one-putted the final three greens for a stunning victory. His 15-foot par putt on the last hole was the longest ever to decide the Open in its 105-year history. Stewart thrust his fist in the air, an unforgettable image, let out a roar and later broke down in tears. The U.S. Open secured a spot in the Ryder Cup for Stewart, who could wear the Stars and Stripes as easily as his knickers. He never apologized for his patriotism, something he carried to all five of his Ryder Cup appearances. The knickers were not misleading. Stewart was a traditionalist. His father taught him to dance by having him stand on his shoes while he waltzed around the room, and instructed the son to be sure to dance with every woman at the table. Stewart�s most cherished memory was the 1982 Quad Cities Open (in my hometown), because it was the only victory his father saw. William Stewart died in 1985, and when Stewart won the Bay Hill Invitational two years later he donated the winner�s check to a hospital in his father�s memory. While Stewart had an edge to him at times, and was especially surly during an eight-year slump during which he won only once, he never lost his respect for golf�s traditions. Born Jan. 30, 1957 in Springfield, Mo., Stewart went to SMU in Dallas. He graduated with a business degree in 1979 and spent two years playing around the world. He met his wife, Tracey, while playing in Australia. They had two children - Chelsea, 13, and Aaron 10. Stewart�s first breakthrough came in 1989 when he won his first major, the PGA Championship, at Kemper Lakes outside Chicago. Two years later, he won the U.S. Open at Hazeltine by defeating Scott Simpson in an 18-hole playoff. Stewart won more than $11.7 million in a PGA Tour career that began in 1980. He was ranked No. 8 in the world and was third on this year�s money list with just over $2 million. Stewart had planned to go to Spain next week for the final World Golf Championship event, and still had the Grand Slam of Golf next month for the winners of this year�s major championships. "It's a tragedy," said Tiger Woods. "I don't think anyone comprehends the scope of the loss at this point." excerpts � 1999 Associated Press.

A Learjet carrying champion golfer Payne Stewart and at least four other people flew a ghostly journey halfway across the country Monday, its windows iced over and its occupants apparently incapacitated, before spiraling nose first into a grassy field. Everyone aboard was killed. The flight plan said two crewmembers and three passengers were on the jet, but there were reports a sixth person boarded the plane just before it took off from Orlando, Fla. The chartered, twin-engine Lear 35 may have suddenly lost cabin pressure soon after taking off for Dallas, government officials said. Air traffic controllers couldn't raise anyone by radio. Fighter jets were sent after the plane and followed it for much of its flight but were unable to help. The pilots drew close and noticed no structural damage but were unable to see into the Learjet because its windows were frosted over, indicating the temperature inside was well below freezing. Set apparently on autopilot, the plane cruised 1,400 miles straight up the nation's midsection, across half a dozen states. Authorities say the plane was "porpoising," fluctuating between 22,000 and 51,000 feet. It presumably ran out of fuel some four hours after it took off. "The plane had pretty much nosed straight into the ground," said Lesley Braun, who lives two miles from the South Dakota crash site. From FOX news

Stewart had a lot of ties to Austin golfers, like Ben Crenshaw. And a bunch of them had a press conference yesterday. He'll be missed around here. His coach lives in Austin and he had some kind of ties to Golfsmith.

One of my favorite singer/songwriter/character actors, Hoyt Axton, died of congestive heart failure at age 61. He was a mountain of a man, standing over 6-2 and weighing close to 300 pounds. He was one of the original progressive/outlaw country songwriters and his songs were often covered by rock and pop acts in the 1960s. His best known songs are "Joy to the World" (a.k.a. "Jeremiah was a bullfrog..."), recorded by Three Dog Night and included in the soundtrack to the movie The Big Chill, and "The Pusher" ("God damn the pusher man!") recorded by Steppenwolf. I loved his own recordings, such as "Poncho and Lefty," which was also covered by Willie Nelson, "Della and the Dealer (and a Cat Named Kalamazoo)" which he sang in a guest appearance on WKRP in Cincinnati, and "Snowblind Friend." A an actor, Axton was best known as the traveling salesman/narrator in the movie Gremlins. I interviewed him in 1976 at K-108 Radio in Honolulu. He was massive, hulking, and extremely laid back. I found out why, when right in the middle of the interview, he pulled a joint the size of Omaha out of his sheepskin jacket pocket, lit up and started puffing away. He offered me a hit. I politely declined (I got a contact high from the air in the studio, anyway). Despite his lack of concern about illegal behavior publicly, he was otherwise thoughtful and well-spoken. He brought his guitar and did an "unplugged" liver version of "Della and the Dealer" on the air: If he could talk what tales he'd tell about Della and the Dealer and the dog as well but the cat was cool and never said a mumbling word. Hoyt, may you rest in peace in a place where your stash box is eternally full!

And of course, Hoyt played a "live" rather than "liver" version of the song. I'm really bad today. Think I'll vamoose!

And of course, Steppenwolf's "The Pusher" was included on the soundtrack of the legendary film Easy Rider. Hoyt Axton was one of the most important American songwriters of his generation.

That was really nice, John! Thanks for the memories of a truly gifted man.

Despite the fact that many know his face and voice, but not his name, he will be missed.

Although he was best known as a singer/songwriter, his acting resume was quite extensive. Here it is, courtesy of the Internet Movie Database http://www.us.imdb.com Hoyt Axton Birth name: Hoyt Wayne Axton Date of birth: 25 March 1938, Duncan, Oklahoma, USA Trivia: Mother is Mae Axton, who wrote "Heartbreak Hotel." (I did not know that) Actor filmography (1990s) (1980s) (1970s) (1960s) 1.King Cobra (1999) .... Mayor Ed Biddle 2.Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long (1995) (TV) .... Huey P. Long, Sr. 3.Number One Fan (1995) .... Lt. Joe Halsey 4.Season of Change (1994) .... Big Upton 5.Doorways (1993) (TV) .... Jake 6.Harmony Cats (1993) .... Bill Stratton 7."Civil War, The" (1990) (mini) TV Series (voice) aka "American Civil War, The" (1990) (mini) (UK) 8.Buried Alive (1990/II) (TV) .... Sheriff Sam Eberly 9.Disorganized Crime (1989) .... Sheriff Henault 10.We're No Angels (1989) .... Father Levesque 11.Desperado: Avalanche at Devil's Ridge (1988) (TV) .... Sheriff Ben Tree 12.Dixie Lanes (1988) .... Clarence Laidlaw 13.Retribution (1988) .... Lt. Ashley 14.Christmas Comes to Willow Creek (1987) (TV) .... Al Bensinger 15.Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story (1987) (TV) .... Charlie Hartford 16.Act of Vengeance (1986) (TV) .... Silous Huddleston 17.Dallas: The Early Years (1986) (TV) .... Aaron Southworth 18.Gremlins (1984) .... Rand Peltzer 19."Domestic Life" (1984) TV Series .... Rip Steele 20.Black Stallion Returns, The (1983) (voice) .... Narrator 21."Rousters, The" (1983) TV Series .... Cactus Jack Slade 22.Deadline Autotheft (1983) 23.Heart Like a Wheel (1983) .... Tex Roque 24.Endangered Species (1982) .... Ben Morgan 25.Junkman (1982) 26.Liar's Moon (1981) .... Cecil Duncan 27.Cloud Dancer (1980) .... Brad's Mechanic 28.Black Stallion, The (1979) .... Alec's Father 29.Smoky (1966) .... Fred Composer filmography (1980s) (1970s) (1960s) 1.Junkman (1982) 2.Mitchell (1975) 3.Legend of Hillbilly John, The (1973) ... aka Ballad of Hillbilly John (1973) ... aka My Name Is John (1973)... aka Who Fears the Devil (1973) 4.Easy Rider (1969) (song "The Pusher") Miscellaneous crew filmography 1."Flo" (1980) TV Series (singer: title theme) Notable TV guest appearances 1."Murder, She Wrote" (1984) playing "Sheriff Tate" in episode: "Coal Miner's Slaughter" (episode # 5.5) 11/20/1988 2."WKRP in Cincinnati" (1978) playing "T.J. Watson" in episode: "I Do, I Do...For Now" (episode # 1.21) 3."Bionic Woman, The" (1976) in episode: "Road to Nashville" (episode # 2.5) 1977 4."McCloud" (1971) playing "Johnny Starbuck" in episode: "Moscow Connection, The" 5."I Dream of Jeannie" (1965) playing "Bull" in episode: "Fastest Gun in the East" (episode #2.7) 10/24/1966 6."Iron Horse, The" (1966) in episode: "Right of Way Through Paradise" (episode # 1.4) 10/3/1966 7."Bonanza" (1959) playing "Johann" in episode: "Dead and Gone" (episode # 6.27) 4/4/1965

Jim Bohannon played his works for bumper music last night. Good stuff!! I had no idea he got around that much in sitcoms, but as a character actor, he was versatile enough to fit in almost anywhere. Thanks for the summary!

Notice he played a lot of sheriffs. In real life, he'd have to arrest himself!

...curious the mantles we choose to wear for the world to see. They are often the flip side of our true personaities...!

I'm basically sure somebody chose his casting. He was a cowboy "type" and sang and spoke with a molasses smooth Okie baritone. He, Waylon Jennings, and Sam Elliott all have those incredible Western voices that are wonderful for narration.

...as in typecasting?! Yes, indeed! He had a wonderful voice, indeed!

Sure, typecasting. I wouldn't mind being typecast, if my type were in demand. There's MY whine! ;)

...too bad I CAN'T have the cheese to go along with it...

When next I see you - IRL - I'll bring the cheese. Please specify your preferences in this area...I am happy to oblige *smile*

and let's not forget the two men who were flying one of the blue angels' jets.

They and the Thunderbirds have a lot of those accidents, it seems (probably not in relation to flight hours). But they do some incredibly high risk maneuvers to entertain the public. Fighter pilots in general must be prepared to die at any time. God bless them. I wouldn't want the job, even if I could do it.

Please more information on this terrible accident.

they said (msnbc) that two blue angels took off together. seconds later, a mushroom cloud was seen over a group of trees. two men pilot the plane. and in this case, the second pilot was in training to become one of the blue angels. both men were in their thirties. i'll try and find a link.

for the latest on the egyptair situation: http://abcnews.go.com/

and on the blue angels: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters19991029_20.html

Thanks Wolfie...and now we have the Egyptian airliner crash off Nantucket, Rhode Island, USA in the same area as JFK's plane went down. No apparent survivors. Reuters and just about everyone is carrying the story.

It was a 767 which is a fairly new aircraft. President Clinton actually talked to reporters today. Well over 100 Americans on board. He said there is no evidence at this point of any foul play. The plane went into a steep nosedive, just as JFK Jr's. plane did. I wonder if there is a "Nantucket Triangle" with a south end somewhere off Long Island (TWA 800).

My thoughts exactly, John. Hmmmm...Nantucket triangle indeed !

Walter Payton. 45. Sweetness. Payton was diagnosed earlier this year with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare liver disease. His only hope for survival was a transplant and he had been on a waiting list since February. Payton rushed for 16,726 yards in his 13-year career, one of sport's most awesome records. And Barry Sanders ensured it would be one of the most enduring, retiring in July despite being just 1,458 yards shy of breaking Payton's mark.

That is so sad.... He was really a great person as well as a superb athlete. His like will not come to Chicago for a long time again, if ever!

He was a regular at the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl every year, both during his career and after it. I interviewed him after one game. His locker was right next to Eric Dickerson's, who was still putting up phenomenal numbers before he got weird and ignored his career. I asked Sweetness "How long do you plan on playing?" He smiled and said "As long as Eric does." He retired before Dickerson, but the latter, who had a legitimate shot of beating Sweetness' records, turned out not to have the heart necessary. It s a shame. Payton was an excellent businessman (he owned the Studebaker's chain of dance clubs, among other holdings), and graduated from Jackson State at age 20. Unlike Dickerson or Barry Sanders, Sweetness did not have great speed or elusiveness. He made his yards after being hit. You had to bring him down. He was not running out of bounds or going out on his own. It is a shame that they could not find a donor liver for him. That could be me in a few years as I have Hepatitis C.

Oh John...do not even say that. I know of your condition as you confided in me long time ago...but its enormity and gravity did not hit home till just now. I am doubly stricken.

I heard late this evening that Sweetness had metastatic liver cancer as well as the other disease, which is why they took him off the waiting list for transplants. It wouldn't have done any good... So sad. :(

They had kept the bile duct cancer a secret until now. The early stories after his death said that he died awaiting a donor liver. That now is obviously not so, and it is extremely tragic. I never heard or read a bad word about him from anyone.

I am so saddened to hear of your medical problems, John...I will certainly keep a good thought for you. My mother-in-law had hepatitis (I don't know which kind) when they still lived in France and has some liver damage as a result. I just read the most interesting story last night about a little boy (age 5?) who needed a liver transplant and his brother gave him 1/3 of his to graft onto his existing liver. Apparently, the older brother's liver will regenerate and both are fine now. Anything could be p ssible down the road.

Thank you for your kind words. I am fairly healthy at the moment and am optimistic about the future. But the news of Walter Payton, with whom I was acquainted, although not a personal friend, hit me hard. He was a class act and as far as I'm concerned, irreplaceable. Although they are farther down the road in Hep B research, Hep C research and indirectly, its patients--like me--cannot help but benefit from it as well. I've read literally thousands of medical articles on it and have become a pain in t e ass for internists. I finally found one who knew more than me and was delighted that I had done my own research. He is now my doctor.

This news of your internest makes me a little less apprehensive...My internests have either died on me or were so sick they left the practice. I now have a GP and do my own homework. (Who is your MD, I wonder...)

No wonder they abandoned the practice = that is an i in their title, not an e...

Sacramento (California) Mayor Serna died of Kidney Cancer according to the Reuters ticker running across my desktop.

john, which form of hepatitis do you have? didn't naomi judd make a full recovery (or go into remission) with hers? hadn't heard anything about mayor serna. was he young?

Joe Serna; Sacramento Mayor, Activist From Times Staff and Wire Reports SACRAMENTO--Mayor Joe Serna Jr., a college professor who picked grapes and tomatoes as a youngster and spent nearly two decades as an elected city official, died Sunday morning of kidney cancer and complications arising from diabetes. He was 60. Serna died in his home surrounded by his family. Although he had expected to finish his current term, the mayor announced in June that he would not seek a third term because of a recurrence of the kidney cancer he first experienced nine years ago. "Joe was a true giant in the Latino community, and a visionary leader for all of Sacramento," said Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante in a statement. "He leaves a great legacy of public service, whether he was standing in the fields fighting for farm worker rights or visiting the White House advocating for the city he so dearly loved." Serna, who was born in Stockton and reared in Lodi, served 11 years on the Sacramento City Council and was first elected mayor in 1992, then reelected in 1996. Because Serna died with more than a year left in his term, a special election will be held to pick a successor. The election will probably take place concurrently with the March 7 primary election, according to mayor's office spokesman Chuck Dalldorf. A follower of the late farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, Serna served on the Sacramento-area support committee for the United Farm Workers, and was a former member of the Sacramento Central Labor Council. In his youth, he served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala as a community development volunteer specializing in cooperatives and credit unions. More recently, Serna was a board member of the League of California Cities. He had also served on an array of municipal bodies, including the Sacramento Regional Transit board of directors, the Employment and Training Agency, the Metropolitan Cable Television Commission and the Air Quality Management Board. Serna earned a bachelor's degree from Sacramento State in 1966 and attended graduate school at UC Davis. He became a professor of government at Cal State Sacramento where he earned the distinguished faculty award in 1991. He is survived by his wife, Isabel, and two children, Philip and Lisa. The public is invited to gather Wednesday in Sacramento's Cesar Chavez Plaza to carry the mayor to a local church for services. Serna's family requested that all donations be directed to the UFW. Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times

John has Hepatitis C...

ok, and this means? i know there's a couple of vaccines (a and b) and knew they are contagious (kind of, i guess). what about type c? i'll do some research in the meantime. thanks for the info on the mayor....

Type C as I understand it, is the most severe sort and eventually fatal (which is why John did not go on to Law School as he has planned to do...). He is hoping to stay healthy enough to live long enough for them to find a cure for it. I pray that he does...we will all be much the poorer for having lost him if he does not.

THE PILLSBURY DOUGHBOY - DEAD AT 71 Veteran Pillsbury spokesman, The Pillsbury Doughboy, died yesterday of a severe yeast infection and complications from repeated pokes to the belly. He was 71. Doughboy was buried in a slightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out, including Mrs. Butterworth, the California Raisins, Dolly Madison, Hungry Jack, Pam, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, Suzie Q, Captain Crunch, Little Debbie and many others. The graveside was piled high with flours as longtime friend, Aunt Jemima, delivered the eulogy, describing Doughboy as a man who "never knew how much he was kneaded." Doughboy rose quickly in show business but his later life was filled with many turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Still, even as a crusty old man, he was a roll model for millions. Doughboy is survived by his second wife, Play Dough. They have two children and one in the oven. The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

Victims of the Texas A&M Bonfire collapse Miranda Adams, a sophomore in biomedical sciences from Santa Fe, Texas Christopher Breen of Austin, Texas -- 1997 graduate Michael Ebanks, a freshman in aerospace engineering from Carrollton, Texas Jeremy Frampton, a senior psychology major from Turlock, California Christopher Lee Heard, a freshman in pre-engineering from Houston, Texas Jamie Hand, a freshman in environmental design from Henderson, Texas Lucas Kimmel, a freshman in biomedical science from Corpus Christi, Texas Bryan McClain, a freshman agriculture major from San Antonio Chad Anthony Powell, a sophomore in computer engineering from Keller, Texas Jerry Self, a sophomore engineering technology major from Arlington, Texas Nathan Scott West, a sophomore oceanography major from Bellaire, Texas

How sad! I guess it is back to the drawing board to figure out a new "tradition" for the future years. I did not know they made bon fires that big anywhere in the world...but it IS Texas, and everything is bigger in Texas...

The whole bonfire at A&M is "under review"; they might keep it but make it smaller or safer somehow. Some folks around town are wearing arm bands, the flags have been at half staff.

It is even on foreign news...

Doug Sahm died. You probably wouldn't know him unless you were from Austin. He died at a hotel in Taos, NM of a possible heart attack. He was 58 and had been complaining of chest pains for a couple of days. You might have heard his songs. "She's about a mover" and "Mendocino" among others. His band was the Sir Douglas Quintet.

One of his girlfriends was Connie Coulton.

A twelfth A&M student died of his injuries - a freshman (17 years old!)

Madeline Kahn passed on Dec 3 of ovarian cancer.

and let's not forget the three airmen who died after a C-130 crash landed at the Kuwait International Airport. And the 16 injured, please keep them in your prayers.

Nor the chopper crash which claimed 15 servicemen's lives...

that's right, knew i forgot to add something to my post. i know three people in the region so please keep them in your prayers especially during the holidays!

Indeed! I shall, as I will for those near and dear to me here on the Spring. 'Catch 22' Author Joseph Heller Dead at 76 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Joseph Heller, the former ad man who turned his Second World War military service into the tragicomic anti-war novel ``Catch-22'' and gave the English language a new phrase for a no-win situation, has died at age 76, his agent said on Monday. Heller died at his home in East Hampton, New York, on Sunday night of a heart attack, a spokesman for his literary agent, Amanda Urban of International Creative Management, said on Monday. Heller had recently completed writing what would be his final novel, ``A Portrait of an Artist, As an Old Man''. ``Any time a great writer dies there's a great hole no other writer can fill ... because great writers are one of a kind,'' said Matthew Bruccoli, Jefferies Professor of English at the University of South Carolina, which houses an archive of Heller's works and letters. ``'Catch-22' turns out to be probably the most important novel of World War Two because it provided a new way of regarding war as a literary subject,'' said Bruccoli, to whom Heller recently had sent a typescript of his final novel. ``It's unlike any other war novel.'' ``Catch-22,'' written in 1961 and first dismissed by the critics, was named one of the best English-language novels of the century by the Modern Library this year. The darkly comic novel that describes a Second World War bombardier's quest to avoid the horrors of war coined the term ''Catch-22,'' which for millions of readers came to represent the feeling of being helpless against a capricious bureaucracy. For its main protagonist, Yossarian, the ``Catch-22'' is that he claims he is too crazy to fly any more bombing missions, but he is told by the military that anyone who seeks to avoid combat must be sane. ``I won't try to define 'Catch-22,''' Heller said in a 1998 interview with Reuters. ``I believe the book remains relevant in so many ways because it deals not so much with the war situation but our societal situation (in) which people are at the mercy of other people.'' Eliciting a range of reviews from ``pretentious, immoral and poorly written'' to ``the best American novel that has come out of anywhere in years'' the novel and subsequent 1970 film made Heller a millionaire. In 1998 he defended the novel against accusations that it was similar to ``The Sky is a Lonely Place'' by Louis Falstein, a little-known book published 10 years before ``Catch 22.'' Heller's second novel did not appear until 1974. The widely anticipated ``Something Happened,'' a bleak look at a moderately successful but emotionally vacant man who appears unaware he is having a breakdown as he muses about his life, inspired comparisons to John Cheever. Like ``Good As Gold,'' which followed five years later, ''God Knows'' in 1984, ``No Laughing Matter'' in 1986 and ''Picture This'' in 1988, it sold respectably but did not recapture the success of ``Catch-22.'' In 1994, Heller published ``Closing Time,'' a sequel to ``Catch 22'' followed in 1998 by the memoir ``Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here.'' Heller's ``We Bombed in New Haven'' (1968), an anguished response to the American military involvement in Vietnam, had a moderately successful run on Broadway. Joseph Heller was born May 1, 1923, in the Coney Island section of New York City. After high school he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force as a bombardier but soon transferred to cadet school after hearing bombardiers were turned into gunners and as Heller recalled, ``a gunner's life was worth no more than three days.'' Heller flew more than 60 bombing missions and during his tour of duty came to understand the true horror of his situation. After the war, Heller earned a Bachelor of Arts from New York University in 1948, a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1949 and ultimately a Fulbright Scholarship to Oxford University. This led to jobs teaching English at Pennsylvania State University, writing advertising copy for Time and Look magazines, and as a promotion manager for McCall's magazine. Though Heller started writing in college, it was not until he was working that several of his short stories were published in Esquire and the Atlantic Monthly. Teaching jobs at Yale University and University of Pennsylvania followed, as well as television and screen-writing work. One day in 1982, Heller entered his Manhattan apartment building and was struck by a sudden weakness in his limbs. The next day he was in a hospital intensive care unit suffering from a rare creeping paralysis called Guillain-Barre syndrome, unable to swallow and nearly unable to move. Heller's struggle with the disease lasted several years before his body was completely back to normal. Heller divorced his wife of 35 years, with whom he had a son and daughter, and in 1987 married the nurse who helped him recover from Guillain-Barre syndrome.

We know this Ranger's wife - also a National Park Ranger. How incredibly sad! Suspect in ranger shooting claiming self-defense FBI, though, says evidence doesn't support his assertion By Suzanne Tswei Star-Bulletin A 30-year-old California native arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of Big Island park ranger Steve Makuakane-Jarrell said he shot in self-defense, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Eugene Frederick Boyce III, described as an unemployed transient, said he shot the ranger Sunday morning during a violent confrontation involving the two men and Boyce�s three dogs, the affidavit filed today by FBI Special Agent Lisa Nielsen says. Makuakane-Jarrell, a 15-year national park veteran, was killed while investigating a vicious dog complaint at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park, where he worked. Boyce said he turned the ranger�s 9 mm semi-automatic pistol against the ranger during the struggle, �which resulted in the ranger shooting himself,� the affidavit says. But Myron Fuller, FBI special agent in charge, said evidence so far does not support Boyce�s claim. Fuller declined further comment. Makuakane-Jarrell fell to the ground after he was shot, but he was still alive and squirming, the affidavit says. Boyce then shot him until he went limp. �If I could have I would have emptied the gun, I shot him as many times as I could,� the affidavit quotes Boyce as saying. Fuller said Makuakane-Jarrell was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the forehead. Boyce dragged the body into nearby bushes to hide it, Fuller said. Boyce also hid the gun by burying it and placing a rock on top, he said. After his arrest, Boyce led investigators to the gun, the ranger�s hand-held radio and a pepper spray canister. Boyce fled on foot with his dogs, one of which had been injured and later was abandoned during the flight. Investigators on Monday released a description of a suspect and asked for the public�s help. Rewards totaling $41,000 also were offered. Boyce was arrested yesterday evening about 20 miles from the shooting. Fuller credited the quick arrest to a well coordinated manhunt by federal and county law enforcement agencies and 130 tips from the public. Boyce is in federal custody without bail on a charge of murdering a federal official engaged in official duties. Conviction on the charge may result in the the death penalty, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliot Enoki said. Boyce�s three dogs also were in custody, and the injured dog was treated by a veterinarian.

Also departed in the last few weeks: Hank Snow Curtis Mayfield Moondog

Hall of Fame Pitcher Bob Lemon Dead at 80 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hall of Fame pitcher and former New York Yankees manager Bob Lemon died Wednesday. He was 80. The cause of death was not immediately available. Lemon was 23-7 with a 2.72 earned run average on the 1954 World Series Champions Cleveland Indians on a staff that included fellow-hall of famer Bob Feller, Early Wynn and Mike Garcia who beat the New Giants four straight games.

Hedy Lamarr, actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, the sultry, sexy screen star of the 1930s and 1940s who also conceived the frequency-hopping technique now known as spread spectrum, has died. Lamarr was found dead in her suburban Orlando, Florida, home January 19. She was believed to be 86. Born Hedwig Kiesler in Austria, Lamarr came to the US in 1937 after being signed by MGM. Among her most successful films was the 1949, directed Cecil B. DeMille classic, Samson and Delilah. In her 1992 book Feminine Ingenuity, Lamarr described how she came up with the idea of a signaling device for radio-controlled torpedoes that would minimize the danger of detection or jamming by randomly shifting the frequency. She and composer George Antheil developed the concept and received a patent for it in 1942. The concept was not developed during World War II, but when the patent expired, Sylvania put the idea to use in satellites. Spread spectrum also has found applications in wireless telephones, military radios, wireless computer links, and Amateur Radio experimentation. A more-detailed version of Lamarr's role in spread spectrum is described in the IEEE book Spread Spectrum Communications, published in 1983.

It's a technology that is just now gaining widespread use in cell phone and wireless networking devices, it's somehow hard to put spread spectrum together with a sultry, movie star of the 30s. Amazing.

I had no idea, either. I posted it in Radio as well. I think many will be amazed. Brains and beauty are not always mutually exclusive; some fortunate few have both!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Jim Varney, the voice of Slinky Dog in the "Toy Story" movies and the bumbling handyman Ernest in TV ads and a popular series of slapstick films, died Thursday of cancer at age 50, friends said. Varney, who lost two-thirds of his right lung to cancer in September 1998, died before dawn at his home in Whitehouse, Tenn., outside Nashville, his spokesman and former wife, Jane Varney said. "He passed away very peacefully," she said. "It all happened rather quickly." His death came just months after he reprised his voice role as Slinky Dog in a sequel to the 1995 computer-animated Disney hit "Toy Story." A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Varney is best known for his role as Ernest P. Worrell, the grinning, tool-belted bumbler he has portrayed in a host of television commercials. His character always appeared opposite an off-camera, silent neighbor, whose attention he got with the line "Hey Vern!" before launching into a hard-sell. His Ernest persona has been the star of a series of nine slapstick comedy films dating back to the '80s, including "Ernest Goes to Camp," Ernest Saves Christmas," "Ernest Goes to Jail," "Ernest Rides Again," "Ernest Goes to Africa" and "Ernest in the Army." The Ernest character originally was created to help promote a newly opened amusement park in Bowling Green, Ky., his longtime attorney and friend, William "Hoot" Gibson, said. His battle with cancer was first revealed publicly in November after questions were raised about his loss of hair when he was seen at public appearances in connection with "Toy Story 2." Following his 1998 lung surgery, he suffered a bout of pneumonia, then underwent radiation treatments after cancer was detected in his brain in January 1999, Ms. Varney said. She said cancer also was believed to have spread to his spine. Friends said he had been a heavy smoker. Still, he continued working, and "it's really been in the last three months that he was laid up, not able to get around," she said. Varney will return posthumously to the big-screen in two upcoming films, according to his friend, Gibson. He co-stars with Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton in the comedic love story "Daddy and Them," scheduled for release by Miramax Films later this year. In the film, written and directed by Thornton, Varney plays a character named Uncle Hazel, whose relatives are trying to rescue him from prison. He also will supply the voice of a cook named Cookie in the upcoming Disney animated feature "Atlantis," due for release next year. ------------------ *sniff* i loved ernest!

I'm sorry, Wolfie! (He shouldn't have smoked!)(...which really scares me...)

you don't smoke do ya Marcia?!?!?! or are you referring to the infallable, indestructible ('cept by his own mind), dark-side personified (got in trouble for that once...) Mr. WER? hear that WER... pick up some other nasty habit... like posting here more often! *grin* (sorry, couldn't help m'self)

No, I am not the one I am concerned about. Never thought it made very much sense to smoke, actually. um...yes...! 'sok...

me either, didn't see the coolness in it. i loved jv in beverly hillbillies and i knew that slinky dog sounded familiar! think i saw all the ernest movies.....

Hope you don't mind if I post some of John's comments on Jim Varney... Saw it on TV. Not unexpected. Varney also had a regular role in the Tv sitcoms "Alice" and "Flo" as Flo's boyfriend Milo Skinner, was host of the 1970s TV variety show "Pop Goes the Country," was a regular on "Johnny Cash and Friends" and played Seaman Skinner on "Operation Petticoat." He was great as Jed Clampett in the 1993 big screen version of "The Beverly Hillbillies." Despite the lowbrow image, he was one of Hollywood's most bankable comedic actors. He was successful, if not famous, long before he hit it big as "Ernest." I thought he was hilarious and often smarter than given credit for. Some of his best lines were ad-libbed. When he was being interrogated in the movie "Ernest Goes to Jail," he ad libbed in an angst-filled rant, "All right! I admit it! I kidnapped the Lindbergh baby!" Too damn bad he was a Kentuckian, where tobacco is considered a staple of the fruits and vegetables food group.One other note on Varney's sophistication and self-deprecating sense of humor. In a 1997 episode of the animated feature Duckman (USA Network), Varney played the voice of a tobacco company CEO in an episode titled "You've Come the Wrong Way, Baby."

Tom Landry died

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 13 � Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz died Saturday night at his home in Santa Rosa, just as his final strip � a poignant farewell to his readers � was headed for newsstands. He was 77. Schulz delighted the world with the adventures and adversities of Charlie Brown, his friends and a dog named Snoopy. *sniff*

I know. I have a little Snoopy sitting beside me. He has a wee Woodstock sitting on his head. Daisy Hill Puppy Farm's finest graduate is now an orphan! *sniff*

i have a snoopy stuffed animal that i've had for ages and you can tell it was loved on. he went through my son and now my daughter. don't plan on getting rid of it. wonder how i can get him white again!

Cornmeal and/or dry shampoo? Hmmm. Even baby powder? Someone on the internet must have "how do I clean stuffed animals"....Ask Jeeves???!

i don't think he's ever been cleaned (i might have thrown him in the washer once).

Oook. Hand wash gently...if he is stuffed with cotton or kapok you will be sorry if he gets soppy wet. What my mom used to do was make a very sudsy batch and whip it into a blur of teeny bubbles. Use this bubble froth to cleanse your Snoopy. Use an old wash cloth or some thing of this nature to get the best results. Change the place on the wash cloth often!!!

This happened perilously close to where my son used to live and work: Three Dead in Cargo Plane Crash Near Sacramento SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - An Emery Worldwide DC-8 cargo plane crashed into an auto salvage yard near Sacramento soon after takeoff late Wednesday, killing all three people aboard and sparking a huge fire, officials said. FAA Western Region spokesman Jim Whitehead said the cargo jet crashed shortly after the pilot reported a ``severe center of gravity problem,'' which refers to the way cargo is stashed in the aircraft's hold. Witnesses described seeing a fiery crash that ignited at least 100 cars and sent a huge black cloud of smoke into the nighttime sky. There were no reported injuries on the ground. ``I seen a big giant ball of fire in the sky,'' Brian Delaney told the local NBC television affiliate. ``I told my son I bet that plane went down and sure enough that's what happened.'' Officials said the plane was making a sharp left turn as it attempted to return to the airport when it crashed in the auto salvage yard near the California capital, he said. Capt. Dan Haverty, from the American River Fire Department in Rancho Cordova, Calif. a suburb of Sacramento, said the pilot reported unsettled cargo, which included transmission fluid, clothing and a small amount of detonating explosives. ``When our crews arrived there was a large fire burning and there was no chance of rescue,'' he said in a telephone interview. Authorities said Emery Flight 17 left Sacramento Mather Airport, a former U.S. air force base that has been converted for civilian use, shortly before 8 p.m. PST (11 p.m. EST) and was headed to Dayton, Ohio. Firefighting crews and other emergency personnel were on the scene, and the flames were dying down and the National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending inspectors to the scene of the fiery crash. Emery Worldwide announced last week it planned to replace its entire fleet of 28 DC-8's over the next five years. Based in Redwood City, Calif., Emery operates in 229 countries through a network of more than 500 service centers and agent locations around the world. Emery Worldwide is a subsidiary of CNF Inc. (CNF.N.), a $5.6-billion management company of global supply chain services based in Palo Alto, Calif.

Benny Quick. December 22nd 1999 (just heard about it) - pop/beat singer since early Sixties (late Fifties?). Had some major singles then. I know people who played for him. Benny hanged himself on the day he was supposed to marry his girlfriend of many years. Curtis Mayfield, in January. Genius in music, genius in soul. And soul doesn't spell the music style, but his attitude, his civil rights involvement, his political stand. Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Saturday last week. Moondog. Late 1999, in Germany.

Luved Screamin' Jay Hawkins...tres weird but really cool.

Guy around here who rents PAs out did play in a band for him. There just came a new double CD out late 1999 with a recording of a 1998 concert in Paris (label: Roadrunner).

I knew he was an expatriot living in Paris. I figured if anyone knew a connection with him it would be you! Wonder if John ever interviewed him...

Mezz Mezzrow worked in Paris, too, in the Fifties... Don't know if he stayed there, but I got two 78s from 1954 or 56 with him on it, one side features a nice drum solo.

Don't know what his real name was, but what a great jazz name he has/had. You DO have a cool record collection with some of the guys you mentioned from time to time in it...*wow*

please pray for the little 6 year old Kayla (michigan) who died as a result of a gunshot (only one bullet in the gun-thank goodness) from one of her classmates. this has got to stop! my baby girl is 6 and i really feel this deeply.

I know another little girl who just turned 6 ... You may be assured of my prayers as may this precious other little one!

*hugs*

*Big nurturing and protective H U G S* back atcha!

Girls on Way to Mardi Gras Parade Crushed by Truck NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Two toddlers on their way to a suburban Mardi Gras parade on Saturday were crushed to death by the rear wheels of an 18-wheel truck as their mother prepared to cross a highway, police reported. There were conflicting reports about whether the double stroller carrying Veronica Carney, 2, and Jacqueline Carney, 1, was still on the curb or had just started across the busy road. At least two witnesses said the girls and their mother, Elizabeth Carney, 23, were all on the sidewalk when the tractor-trailer's rear wheels jumped the curb and crushed the stroller. Police in suburban Gretna near New Orleans said the rig driver, 40-year-old Derrick Williams, had a history of speeding and passing violations and was driving with an expired license when the accident occurred. The girls' mother was hospitalized after collapsing following the accident, authorities said, adding it appeared she had stepped into the street when the accident occurred. Hundreds of parade watchers about 100 yards away were oblivious to the afternoon accident. Williams was issued several citations for safety violations and the expired license, none of which police said were directly related to the accident. Police are continuing their investigation.

oh my goodness.....those poor baby girls didn't know what hit them, thank goodness. their poor mother....

Print that out for your little munchkins and make them read it if they tend to chafe at your caution when they are at the parades! That's why I posted it. Poor babies, Indeed! And, how terrible for the parents! God needed a few more cherubs...*sniff*

Pee Wee King, co-writer of ``Tennessee Waltz,'' dies LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - Pee Wee King, a songwriter, singer and bandleader who wrote the ``Tennessee Waltz,'' diedTuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said. King, 86, who was born Frank Kuczynski in Milwaukee, suffered a serious heart attack late last month and died with his wife and family at his bedside, a spokeswoman for Jewish Hospital said. King began his career playing accordion with local polka bands in Milwaukee and then moved into country music, in part because he and cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry got to know each other when both performed on the same Chicago radio station. It was as a songwriter that King had his greatest successes. Besides co-writing the ``Tennessee Waltz'' with Redd Stewart, King wrote such hits as ``Slow Poke,'' ``Walk Me By the River'' and ``Napoleon's Retreat.'' Patti Page turned the ``Tennessee Waltz'' into a hit when she recorded it on the flip side of her 1947 disc featuring ''Santa Claus Boogie.'' The waltz later became the state song of Tennessee. As a performer, King was a regular on the radio program ''Mid-Day Merry Go Round'' in Knoxville in 1936, and joined the ''Golden West Cowboys'' band. He became leader of the group that helped launch the careers of crooner Eddy Arnold, honky-tonk singer Cowboy Copas and singer Ernest Tubb. King's group also became the first full-time band for the Grand Ole Opry in 1937 at a time when Opry performers were part-time and often held other jobs to make ends meet. King was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1974. He is survived by his wife, a daughter and three sons.

I saw him take his first breath in life and I saw him take his last Furman Bisher - Staff Writer Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday, April 19, 2000 Let me tell you about Roger Bisher, the athlete. It won't take long because the career was short. He was well-built for a kid. Looked like an athlete. Could run like a deer. He had a coachable attitude. So the Pop Warner coach at Chastain Park talked him into coming out for the team. His brother Jamie was already a player. Roger looked like a natural. He pitched in with moderate enthusiasm, then discovered that the coach knew all about machinery, so while the others practiced, Roger talked machinery with the coach, who enjoyed talking machinery with Roger, and football got lost. End of career. His next career led to machines and science and stuff. He had a little workshop under the house out of which came some of the strangest sounds you ever heard. Sometimes it was crackling electricity. Sometimes it was an explosion, nothing major, just the budding scientist learning by trial and error. Once, he freeze-dried a dead bird he had found and won a prize in a citywide science contest. The paper printed his name wrong, Thomas Bisher. Made no difference to him. He knew who it was. On our street, he was everybody's repairman. TV, refrigeration, air-conditioning, appliances, plumbing, anything. As they say in sports, he could do it all. Best part, there was no waiting. Knock on the door and ask if Roger could come over and fix something. Oh, once in awhile I'd have to tell them, "Soon as he finishes his homework." One of my neighbors said, "He's kind of pricey, but he does good work and you can count on him." He liked to swim, but when we used to vacation at Hilton Head, sometimes you'd look around for him and he'd be gone. You'd find him with some maintenance men or guys installing something. Sometimes he'd be down or up or inside something, just as dirty as they were. Once I asked him why he didn't get out of his workshop and play games. He said, "Daddy, you play golf for fun. This is my game." Junkyards were his playgrounds. He'd make friends with the man who ran the place and get rummaging privileges. Sometimes he'd take some kind of scrap or discard to make a trade, but that was usually a token. One of his closest friendships was made in a junkyard --- well, a scrap dealership would be more proper --- with a man named Dave Pirkle, who while Roger was still a youth, accepted him as an equal. After he and his wife developed their business, Prime Power Inc., and it grew out of a patch of woods into a good-sized complex, he didn't sit back and delegate. He was hands-on. Once, he and an associate, Rick Taylor, were working on a project at the Communicable Diseases Center and Roger spied a dumpster on the grounds. Being a natural forager, he jumped into the dumpster and began looking around when a CDC official showed up. "I'd like to meet your president," he said to Rick. "He's right here," Rick said, and at that moment, Roger, the president, stood up in the dumpster and said, "Pleased to meet you." I took him to his first Indianapolis 500, and as soon as we hit town, he caught a taxi to a manufacturing company he'd corresponded with. It wasn't long before he was in the president's office talking shop, this sophomore at Georgia Tech. It was sort of like the time when Jesus disappeared and his parents found him in the temple talking with the elders, and I hope that isn't overdrawn. I took him to his first, and only, bowl game. Georgia Tech played Texas Tech in the Sun Bowl, but the highlight of the trip was crossing into Juarez, his first time in a foreign country. He was careful not to drink the water. The subject of Roger comes up today because I have lost him. A beautiful, handsome, loving man, no finer son has any parent ever had, and I grieve. Old men like me should be going first, not one who had so much to give to the world as he. Roger Chisholm Bisher passed away Monday afternoon. I saw him take his first breath in life and I saw him take his last. He was just 44, but in my heart he shall always be that smiling child blowing up his workshop. Thanks for giving me your time. e-mail: furman@ajc.com

What's your connecton with Roger, Marci?

None, whatever. It was sent to me by John and I wanted to post it somewhere on Good Friday (when he sent it to me). This seemed to be the right place. Had you ever heard of him?

Nope. Not really.

*sigh* John, too.

John forwarded these to me: Sir John Gielgud has died of natural causes at his home in London at age 96. Gielgud -- who made his name as a Shakespearean stage actor -- made his debut in Hamlet at age 17. He would later be known for defining the role. He went on to appear in 54 theatrical films, ranging from Julius Caesar to his Oscar-winning performance in Arthur. He was the last in a generation of classic British actors which included Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir Laurence Olivier and Dame Peggy Ashcroft. The West End's Globe Theater was renamed in his honor 10 years ago. He worked as recently as spring, appearing in the BBC's Merlin miniseries. John's note: Although Americans know Sir John best from his Oscar winning turn as the gentleman's gentleman, Hobson in Arthur" (1981). Although he had many memorable roles, his best film role was almost assuredly as Cassius in the 1953 production of Julius Caesar, in which he shone throughout despite having to share scenes with Marlon Brando (Antony) James Mason (Brutus), Edmond O'Brien (Casca) and the forgotten but fabulous Louis Calhern (Caesar). He did a lot of voice only work later in life, taking narration jobs as both King Arthur ("Dragonheart," 1996) and Merlin ("Quest for Camelot," 1998), and was awesome as Guinevere's adviser Oswald in "First Knight" (1995) and Pope Paul IV in "Elizabeth" (1998). His movie career spanned back to the days of silent films, his first credited role was as Daniel in 1924's "Who Is the Man." As fine of a film actor as he was, he was an even better stage actor, classically trained in the Royal Shakespeare Company. His body of work is as impressive as any actor's this side of the ancient Greek stage and he will be greatly missed. England's queen of romance novels has died at age 98. Barbara Cartland's trademark books matched uninitiated virgin women with handsome, rich worldly men.

Johnnie Taylor Dead At 62 (6/1/00, 6 p.m. ET) - Veteran soul singer Johnnie Taylor has died at the age of 62. On Wednesday (May 31), Taylor seemingly suffered a heart attack at his home in Duncanville, Texas, just outside Dallas, and died at approximately 10 p.m. that night at the Charleton Methodist Medical Center in Dallas. No immediate information was available as to burial plans. Born May 5, 1938, Taylor was at one time a member of the Soul Stirrers, the gospel group that counts among its alumni Sam Cooke. His first charted single was "Baby, We've Got Love" (written by Cooke), which peaked at Number 98 in Billboard in late 1963. It was Taylor's third single, "Who's Making Love," that catapulted him to fame. "Who's Making Love" spent 14 weeks on the Hot 100 chart in late 1968 and early 1969, peaking at Number Five and going gold. Taylor enjoyed moderate success with a string of singles after that, although it would be some time before he cracked the top 10 again. That happened in 1976, when "Disco Lady" was released. The single spent 19 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, and reached Number One. Besides being a huge hit, "Disco Lady" was the first single that was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for sales of 1 million copies. After the heights that Taylor achieved with "Disco Lady," his career returned to the moderate levels of success that he had been enjoying for years. While he never had another chart-topper, Taylor continued to perform year-round, which was the thing he enjoyed doing the most. Last year, LAUNCH asked Taylor if it bothered him to be so closely associated with his two biggest hits, when he had so many other songs in his catalogue. He told us it's exactly the opposite. "No, because you gotta be related to something," he said. "Some people sing a long time, don't be related to anything, you know what I'm saying? So those are masterpieces, and I'm not, no, I'm not, I have no, nothing about that - except have a lot of humbleness and appreciation." -- Bruce Simon, New York

http://www.personal.cet.ac.il/yonin/jt.htm

I wish more artists of the musical variety had websites of this magintude. What a great collection of his output. Amazing!

Vincent Canby, NY Times film and theater critic, 76, of cancer. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/16/national/16CANB.html Gus Hall, American Communist Party leader, 90, of complications from diabetes.

I just heard this on NPR on the way in to Austin this morning. The debates are being reconsidered because of it. Gov. Mel Carnahan of Missouri, his son, and his chief advisor, in a plane crash. His Republican opponent has stopped campaigning.

Steve Allen. Musician, songwriter, writer, and inventor of late night tv talk shows. The first host of the Tonight Show. Survived by Jayne Meadows and his kids. He died in his sleep after helpingndkids carve a pumpkin.

He was one of the great ones of our time.

Poet Gwendolyn Brooks, age 83. A Sunset of the City Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love. My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls, Are gone from the house. My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite And night is night. It is a real chill out, The genuine thing. I am not deceived, I do not think it is still summer Because sun stays and birds continue to sing. It is summer-gone that I see, it is summer-gone. The sweet flowers indrying and dying down, The grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown. It is a real chill out. The fall crisp comes I am aware there is winter to heed. There is no warm house That is fitted with my need. I am cold in this cold house this house Whose washed echoes are tremulous down lost halls. I am a woman, and dusty, standing among new affairs. I am a woman who hurries through her prayers. Tin intimations of a quiet core to be my Desert and my dear relief Come: there shall be such islanding from grief, And small communion with the master shore. Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin, Consult a dual dilemma. Whether to dry In humming pallor or to leap and die. A great poet spirit has died.

A good starting place to learn about Gwendolyn Brooks: http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=02B3A000 Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth (1917- ), American poet, the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize. Born in Topeka, Kansas, Brooks graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936. Her first book of poems, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), was praised by critics as a clear and moving evocation of life in an urban black neighborhood. For Annie Allen (1949), Brooks was awarded the 1950 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Her other works include the novel Maud Martha (1953); the children's book Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956); and the volumes of poetry Selected Poems (1963), In the Mecca (1968), Riot (1969), Family Pictures (1970), Aloneness (1971), To Disembark (1981), The Near-Johannesburg Boy (1987), BLACKS (1987), Gottschalk and the Grande Tarantelle (1989), and Children Coming Home (1992). Her autobiographical work Report from Part One appeared in 1972. Brooks is noted for her adaptation of traditional forms of poetry and for her use of short verse lines and casual rhymes. Her work has always depicted black struggles, but after 1968 she became more active and outspoken in attacking racial discrimination. She also worked extensively to distribute black poetry. Brooks was named poet laureate for the state of Illinois in 1968, succeeding Carl Sandburg. In 1985 she was appointed poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, and in 1988 she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Her many awards include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award (1946) and a National Endowment for the Arts Senior Fellowship for Literature (1989),a lifetime achievement award. In 1990 Brooks became the first American to receive the Society for Literature Award from the University of Thessaloniki in Athens, Greece. She received the National Book Foundation's medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 1994.

i used one of her pieces in a poetry interpretation contest in high school.

poem For Gregory Corso By Robert Creeley Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2001, at 4:00 p.m. PT I'll miss you, who did better than I did at keeping the faith of poets, staying true. It's as if you couldn't do otherwise, had always an appetite waiting to lead. You kept to the high road of canny vision, let the rest of us find our own provision. Ruthless, friends felt, you might take everything. Nothing was safe from you. You did what you wanted. Yet, safe in your words, your poems, their humor could hold me. The wit, the articulate gathering rhythms, all made a common sense of the archaic wonders. You pulled from nowhere the kingly chair. You sat alone there.

Michel Navratil, 92. The last male survivor of the Titanic.

he was 3 years old when the ship went down.

I wonder how many women survivors are still alive?

Dan Del Santo, famed Austin radio personality who had been on the lam since 1992, died recently. Del Santo's voice and personality is probably familiar to anyone who spent time in Austin in the lates 80s or early 90s. He used to do the world-beat music show on KUT and had been a fixture on the local music scene since the mid 70s. In '92 he was busted for pot, jumped bail, and disappeared. Here is his obit from today's statesman: Dan Del Santo, 1951-2001 From offbeat to world beat, Del Santo knew music By Michael Corcoran American-Statesman Staff Wednesday, October 17, 2001 Austin world music guru Dan Del Santo's nine years as a fugitive has ended in a small town outside Oaxaca in southern Mexico, where he was found dead. John Del Santo of San Diego said the U.S. Consulate in Mexico City notified him Friday that his brother had died the day before of internal bleeding. "His girlfriend Gloria said he'd had terrible back pain after a couple of car accidents and used painkillers, which eventually caused the bleeding," the musician's older brother said. The bandleader, who wore colorful traditional African garb and coined the term "world beat" while leading an Afro-Cuban band in the 1980s, was 50. Del Santo disappeared from the Austin music scene in 1992 after being charged in Virginia with conspiring to distribute marijuana. But while he may have been avoiding the law, he was hardly on the run, ex-wife Anne Sherwood said. "He lived outside of Oaxaca the whole nine years," said the mother of his two children. "He played guitar in clubs under his own name." "Austin City Limits" producer Terry Lickona, who moved with Del Santo from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to Austin in 1974, said he had occasionally heard reports from people who said they saw Del Santo playing at an Italian restaurant in Oaxaca. "It was never a secret that he was in Mexico," Lickona said. Jim Carney, who heads the U.S. marshal's international investigation office in Washington, said such easy evasion is not uncommon considering the workload of Mexican police. "We have no authority there, but we'll press the Mexican authorities to go after the violent offenders," Carney said. "There are as many as 4,000 American fugitives in Mexico, and in the big scheme of things (Del Santo) must not have been a top priority." Deputy U.S. Marshal Kevin Connolly, whose office in Richmond, Va., handled the case, said his marshals knew where to find Del Santo. "We notified the Mexican authorities of his whereabouts about two years ago," he said. After Del Santo was arrested Aug. 17, 1992, and released on his own recognizance, he sent a letter to the manager of Austin public radio station KUT resigning from his popular world music radio show "due to an unseen family tragedy that will take me away from Austin for an indefinite period of time." When he didn't show up for his arraignment in Norfolk, Va., the next month to face charges of attempting to arrange the sale of more than a ton of marijuana to two Virginia men, Del Santo was deemed a fugitive. "We couldn't figure out why he didn't just go to trial," Sherwood said. "It didn't seem to be a strong case against him." But Lickona said Del Santo had become increasingly paranoid in the year or so before his arrest. "After his divorce, he'd sleep on the floor in his office and rarely go outside. He didn't trust anyone." Most of all, though, Del Santo was terrified of the prospect of prison, Lickona said. "He thought he was looking at 25 years." Lickona said he saw a completely different person in 1992 than the one he met in the early '70s, when Lickona was a disc jockey and Del Santo played in a progressive bluegrass band. "We were like brothers," Lickona said. "He was my best friend for 15 years, but then things started getting a little weird." Enchanted by the Texas "outlaw country" scene, Lickona and Del Santo came down from New York to the 1974 Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic and fell in love with Austin. "Dan thought his music would fit right in, but when he saw that everyone else was doing the same progressive country style, he decided to do something new," Lickona said. Del Santo would call his new outfit the Professors of Pleasure. "Before he went 'world beat,' Dan's music was offbeat," said former musical collaborator Mike Mordecai. "It was this jazzy, bluesy, stream of consciousness stuff that just blew me away," Mordecai said. "I told Dan that his deep voice called for a trombone player in the band, and a few days later he asked me to join." By the mid-'80s, Del Santo had become engrossed in African music and altered his band accordingly. He also started a Friday night world music tradition at KUT that ended with the cancellation of the 8-to-11 p.m. program just a month ago. Del Santo didn't hide his affinity for marijuana, which he often packaged in Mason jars. "It was no secret that Dan sold the strongest pot in town," said Mordecai, noting that the rotund bandleader once posed in his marijuana field for an album cover. "This is a sad ending to a bittersweet story with a twist about a real talented guy," Lickona said. Del Santo's next of kin, 18-year-old daughter Dominique Del Santo, gave permission Monday for her father to be cremated. John Del Santo said plans are to scatter his ashes in the Mexican village he called home for the past nine years. Deputy Marshal Connolly said the Del Santo case would be considered open until his office received a copy of the death certificate.

Bands, fans loved Continental Club's Shoeshine Charley By Michael Corcoran American-Statesman Staff Thursday, November 15, 2001 "Shoeshine" Charley Miller often butchered the names of bands he introduced at the Continental Club. "How 'bout that Hondo Escalator?" he'd announce after a set by Alejandro Escovedo. At first the flubs were genuine, but Miller started doing them on purpose, to the delight of patrons. Miller, a beloved fixture at the South Austin club and a colorful presence in the city's music scene, died Wednesday of respiratory failure at the Monte Siesta nursing home. He was 64. Owner Steve Wertheimer turned Miller's shoeshine stand into a shrine at the news of the death. "He left his personal stamp on the club, that's for sure," Wertheimer said. Miller was the third member of the Continental Club family to die recently. Fiddler Champ Hood died Nov. 3, and percussionist John "Mambo" Treanor died Aug. 20. Miller had been at the Continental for 10 years but had scarcely been seen in recent months because of failing health. He returned to the club Sept. 12 for a tribute concert that raised more than $3,000 to help pay his nursing home expenses. Miller had such a great time that night and stayed so late that he was locked out of the nursing home. He was often cantankerous, especially when clubgoers leaned against his stand or sat in his chair to watch the bands, but those who steered clear of his wrath instantly took a shine to the nattily attired character who looked like he'd stepped out of a 1950s juke joint. "Some people would come just to see Charley," Wertheimer said. "It didn't matter who was playing." Those who knew him best describe a soft core to his gruff exterior. "When the Grey Ghost played the club for the last time, the Ghost was so sick, so weak, that Charley just cried like a baby," said Glover Gill, whose former band 8 1/2 Souvenirs featured Miller in its "Happy Feet" video. Miller also made cameo appearances in "Lone Star" and "The Newton Boys." Peppering his down-home dialect with profanities, Miller didn't hesitate to give his opinion of bands he didn't like, especially loud ones. But he was an uncle figure to a host of Austin acts, including Junior Brown, who would often take Miller on tour with him to lead the guitarist to the stage. "With me as a bodyguard, ain't no (expletive) gonna mess with Junior," the 130-pound Miller would boast. "Charley was a special friend," Brown said in a written statement. "He was unique because he wasn't afraid to completely open up his heart to people." Born in Smithville, Miller began shining shoes at age 10 in a "whites only" barbershop. As a young adult, he booked music at the legendary East Austin blues club Charlie's Playhouse. From 1959 to 1976, Miller ran the after-hours juke joint Ernie's Chicken Shack on Webberville Road and worked with Blues Boy Hubbard and other blues acts. It was while shining shoes at Antone's in the late 1980s that Miller met Wertheimer. "I'd tell him, `Man, you ought to shine shoes at my club,' " Wertheimer recalled, "but he'd always turn me down." Then one day in 1991, out of the blue, Miller pulled up in a pickup with his shoeshine stand in the back. "All right, where do you want me to set up?" Miller said to Wertheimer. It wasn't long before Miller's elevated shoeshine chair became his throne and the club his kingdom. One night, a band was taking a set break deemed too long by Miller, so he went backstage and ordered the players to cut the chitchat and get onstage. Watching the band dutifully follow the orders, Wertheimer made Miller stage manager. "It was his club, too, as far as he was concerned," Wertheimer said. When a second Continental Club opened in Houston last year, Miller insisted on moving there for a few months to make sure the club was being run right. "Any time a touring band would come through, the first thing they'd ask is, `Where's Charley?' " Wertheimer said. "Everybody remembered him. He was a true character, one of a kind." Wertheimer plans to commission a bust of Shoeshine Charley to put near his cherished stand. Miller is survived by brothers William and Carl Miller of Austin and sister Eleanor Keys of Phoenix. Final arrangements for the funeral, expected to be Monday at King-Tears Mortuary, are pending. New York Times November 16, 2001 Ex-Rep. Bob Eckhardt, 88, Liberal Democrat of Texas, Dies By DAVID STOUT WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 � Bob Eckhardt, who survived for 14 years in Congress as a liberal Democrat from Houston despite a constituency that was considerably to his right politically, died on Tuesday in Austin, Tex., his hometown. He was 88. His family said Mr. Eckhardt had suffered a series of strokes. Mr. Eckhardt represented Texas's Eighth Congressional District from 1967 until 1981, losing his seat in the 1980 Republican landslide led by Ronald Reagan. Mr. Eckhardt was a man of deceiving appearance. With his flowing mane, loud bow ties, Panama hats and three-piece linen suits, he looked like an old-style Southern congressman � at least if one were to go by stereotypes, which Mr. Eckhardt spent much of his career defying. He supported busing to achieve school desegregation and supported federal money for abortions. He opposed a constitutional amendment to allow organized prayers in public schools. Perhaps most importantly, considering the economics of his district, he repeatedly sponsored or backed legislation that oil and gas interests disliked. His influence in the energy area was considerable, since he served for a time as chairman of an oversight panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Mr. Eckhardt successfully fought deregulation of natural gas prices in the late 1970's. In 1975, he wrote legislation to keep price controls on oil. He also supported antipollution bills that the petroleum and chemical interests in his district found too restrictive. Mr. Eckhardt, who once termed himself as "something of a populist," was decidedly liberal on civil rights and labor issues. He was an early critic of United States involvement in Vietnam and in 1975 became the first Southerner to be elected chairman of the Democratic Study Group, an organization of House liberals. Yet he was sometimes bored by the speechmaking that precedes lawmaking. To alleviate the tedium, Mr. Eckhardt drew cartoons, something he had taken up in grade school and refined as editor and chief cartoonist for a humor magazine at the University of Texas. During House proceedings, he drew on note pads, scrap paper or pages of the Congressional Record "to puncture the shield of sham," as he once put it. President Richard M. Nixon's ski-jump nose (not to mention his politics) made him a natural and frequent target. Robert Christian Eckhardt was born on July 16, 1913. He graduated from the University of Texas and its School of Law, served in the Army Air Corps from 1940 to 1944 and practiced labor law before being elected to the Texas Legislature in 1958. Various explanations were offered for Mr. Eckhardt's survival as a liberal, first in the Texas Legislature and then in Congress. For one thing, his Texas roots ran deep. His ancestors on both his father's and mother's sides arrived from Germany in the first half of the 19th century. A great-grandfather fought at the Battle of San Jacinto in the Texas Revolution. A great-uncle married into the King family, which controlled the vast King Ranch. And Mr. Eckhardt's second cousin Representative Richard M. Kleberg of Texas gave the young Lyndon B. Johnson his first job in Washington. Then, too, Mr. Eckhardt could be an entertaining speaker, whether relying on drawled puns or quotes from Shakespeare. Mr. Eckhardt, who once wrote a book on the Constitution with a Yale law professor, Charles L. Black Jr., was respected for his intellect. In the campaigns of 1976 and 1978, oil and gas interests spent heavily in trying to oust Mr. Eckhardt. They succeeded in 1980 when he lost by 4,000 votes to a young lawyer who had never held office, Jack Fields, who served until 1997. Mr. Eckhardt said afterward that he had no regrets. "I believed Edmund Burke's idea that a legislator should not simply be a reflection of public opinion," he said. Mr. Eckhardt's three marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by three daughters, Sarah, of Austin, Rosalind, of Durango, Colo., and Orissa Arend of New Orleans; two brothers, Norman, of Dallas, and Joseph, of Nyack, N.Y., and six grandchildren.

Now there are two. George Harrison My Sweet Lord http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/obituaries/george_harrison/default.stm http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011130/en/obit_harrison.html OS ANGELES (AP) - George Harrison, the Beatles' quiet lead guitarist and spiritual explorer who added both rock 'n' roll flash and a touch of the mystic to the band's timeless magic, has died. He was 58. Harrison died at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a friend's Los Angeles home following a battle with cancer, longtime friend Gavin De Becker told The Associated Press late Thursday. Harrison's wife, Olivia Harrison, and son Dhani, 24, were with him. ``He left this world as he lived in it, conscious of God, fearless of death, and at peace, surrounded by family and friends,'' the Harrison family said in a statement. ``He often said, `Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another.''' With Harrison's death, there remain two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. John Lennon was shot to death by a deranged fan in 1980. ``I am devastated and very, very sad,'' McCartney told reporters outside his London home Friday. ``He was a lovely guy and a very brave man and had a wonderful sense of humor. He is really just my baby brother.''

Another excerpt from the above AP story: After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Harrison had sporadic success. He organized the concert for Bangladesh in New York, produced films that included Monty Python's ``Life of Brian,'' and teamed with old friends, including Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison, as ``The Traveling Wilburys.'' Harrison was born Feb. 25, 1943, in Liverpool, one of four children of Harold and Louise Harrison. His father, a former ship's steward, became a bus conductor soon after his marriage. Harrison was 13 when he bought his first guitar and befriended Paul McCartney

Catya Sassoon, 33. According to MSNBC, she died in her sleep after returning from a New Year's Party feeling woozy.

Wendy's founder Dave Thomas *frown*

Mati Klarwein http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/8599/mati2.html

Abdul Mati Klarwein's surrealistic renderings first came to the notice of the world when Carlos Santana personally chose the cover for the LP "Abraxas", but Mati's art is also associated with Miles Davis album covers in the 1970s. His works are Dali-esque and occasionally "provocative".

Sounds fascninating but did not recognize the name. I'll go edify myself.

I was surprised that John Thaw passed. I loved him as Morse.

LONDON, March 23 (Xinhuanet) -- England cricketer Ben Hollioake has been killed in a car crash in Australia, the BBC said here on Saturday. The 24-year-old died instantly in the accident involving his black Porsche 924, which came off the road in the early hours of Saturday morning (1600 Friday GMT) in Perth, Western Australia. Hollioake lost control of the Porsche as it came off a ramp on an expressway in the south of the city and hit a pylon. A 22-year-old female passenger is in a "serious but stable condition" in a Perth hospital after suffering serious head and chest injuries. Police have begun an investigation into the accident, in which no other car was involved. Relatives - including Hollioake's sister Eboni - who were travelling in a vehicle behind the Porsche, were first on the scene after witnessing the crash, police said. Constable Raphael Perez of the police operations center in Perth said that Hollioake "failed to negotiate a bend and hit a pylon which rolled the vehicle". He added that Hollioake's parents, who live near Melbourne, are being given counselling and treatment for shock. England's cricket side, currently playing New Zealand in the second Test in Wellington, were made aware of Hollioake's death at the lunch interval. They requested that the England flag be lowered to half-mast during the lunch break and black armbands were worn by both teams' batsmen. The 24-year-old Surrey all-rounder was born in Australia but moved to Britain from Perth in 1984. Hollioake played two Tests for England - against Australia in 1997 and Sri Lanka in 1998. Hollioake is the second Surrey player to die in a car crash in recent years, following Graham Kersey's similar accident near Brisbane in December 1996. Enditem

Milton Burl and Dudley Moore today....

- Britain's Queen Mother dies at 101. Watch CNN or log on to http://CNN.com

and Billy somebody (sorry, can't remember the last name) died Thurs. He was famous for all sorts of movies including Some Like It Hot and he was responsible for pairing the odd couple-walter mattheau and jack lemmon

Billy Wilder !!! Indeed, he directed and produced many famous films.

thanks for that marcia, i didn't mean any disrespect in my post (by forgetting his last name)!

The Queen Mother. Queen Elizabeth.

Best thing I could find on the web: http://www.queenmother-100years.com/regmain.htm

robert urich (sp?)

Correct spelling. from the official roberturich.com website. ROBERT URICH Biography For the past twenty-five years, Robert Urich has been one of the most popular and prolific actors on television. His �TVQ�, an index of recognition and likeability, is not surprisingly one of the highest in television, ranking in the top five. Urich has starred in over fifteen weekly television series� including the popular and long-running series� Spenser: For Hire and Vega$, which consistently earned top 20 ratings. He has also starred in the series� S.W.A.T., Gavilan, Soap, Tabitha, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, American Dreamer, Crossroads, Lonesome Dove, It Had to be You, The Lazarus Man, Vital Signs, PBS�s Boatworks, UPN�s The Love Boat: The Next Wave and the WB�s animated drama Invasion America, and the current EMERIL on NBC. Upon concluding National Geographic�s On Assignment series, Urich received the 1992 Cable Ace Award for Informational Host of National Geographic�s Explorer, which he hosted for three years. He also received a 1992 Emmy Award for his narration of the Explorer film U-Boats: Terror on Our Shores. In addition to his success in weekly television series�, Urich has also worked extensively in movies for television, having received both critical and popular acclaim for The Defiant Ones, Young Again, The Comeback, Lady Be Good, Stranger At My Door, And Then She Was Gone, Survive the Savage Sea, Final Descent, and Miracle on the 17th Green, in which he was executive producer. Urich most recently completed two movies for CBS Television, For the Love of Olivia with Lou Gossett Jr. and Aftermath with Meredith Baxter. Urich has also starred in numerous mini-series� including Princess Daisy, Mistral�s Daughter, the CBS dramatic telefilm To Save the Children, the highly-rated Danielle Steele�s Perfect Stranger, two Spenser: For Hire movies for Lifetime and ABC, Tailhook, the Hallmark Hall of Fame feature Captain Courageous, The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue for the Family Channel, CBS�s Family Descent, and Final Run. Among Urich�s feature film credits are starring roles in Turk 182! With Timothy Hutton, Endangered Species with JoBeth Williams, Ice Pirates with Anjelica Huston, Jock of the Bushveld, and most recently, Cloverbend. Urich has also performed on stage in productions that include The Hasty Heart in which he teamed with his wife, Heather Menzies, at the Kennedy Center for the Arts. He also completed a starring role as Billy Flynn in the touring company of Chicago, ending his successful run on Broadway. A small town high school football hero of Toronto, Ohio, Urich earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio and Television Communications at Florida Sate University while on a four-year football scholarship. While still a student, Urich hosted his own weekly television talk show. He subsequently earned an MA in Broadcast Research and Management from Michigan State University. Urich made his stage debut by talking his way into a community theater production of Lovers and Other Strangers. He spent the next 18 months performing at Chicago�s Ivanhoe Theater and the Arlington Park and Pheasant Run Theaters, during which time he caught the attention of a talent agent and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional career. He landed his first series starring role in Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice based on the controversial movie of the same title. Shortly thereafter, he made his feature film debut in Clint Eastwood�s second outing as Dirty Harry Callahan, Magnum Force � five lines before being crushed under a motorcycle by Eastwood�s speeding car! Urich began to work steadily after Magnum Force with the police series S.W.A.T. and then his own starring roles in Vega$ and Gavilan. He has worked consistently ever since. In 1996, following the final production of the first season of The Lazarus Man, Robert was diagnosed with Synovial Cell Sarcoma, which is a rare soft tissue cancer. He underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for eight months. During treatment, he spoke very publicly about his cancer. Robert has been awarded many honors including the Gilda Radner Courage Award from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Urich continues to do a speaking tour throughout the United States, and he has publicly spoken more than 45 times to over 200,000 people across the country. The audiences range from Cancer Support Groups to Fortune 500 Companies. He has been featured on Primetime Live interviewed by Dianne Sawyer, and has appeared Extra, Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America and Larry King Live. He had been a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, The Conan O�Brien Show, Live with Regis, and The View. He is survived by his wife, Heather, and three children, Ryan, Emily, and Allison.

he was good looking too! Linda Lovelace, today (most famous for Deep Throat)

left eye lopez from TLC in a car crash in hondurus....(yesterday)

is THAT who it was. Why Left Eye? *sigh* I am so out-of-it...

Jack Buck did the Cardinals games for about 30 years, I think I heard on NPR. What a great trio, Jack Buck, Harry Carey and Joe Garagiola. These three did the Cardinals games on KMOX that I listened to as a child growing up in St. Louis.

Ann Landers Psychology Today magazine once praised the Ann Landers column for influencing how many people resolved their problems. Ms. Lederer was a strong believer in counseling and often sought advice from prominent experts when a reader's problem proved too complicated. Ms. Lederer answered hundreds of letters a day from the office in her high-rise apartment in Chicago, working on a typewriter because she did not like computers. Despite her illness, Ms. Lederer worked right up until her death. Sunday's edition of the Chicago Tribune carries her latest column.

Agony aunt Ann Landers dies of bone disease June 23 2002 at 11:12AM By Jane Light Chicago - Ann Landers, who was reputedly the most widely read columnist in the world and famously urged her readers to "wake up and smell the coffee", died on Saturday at the age of 83, the Chicago Tribune reported. The Tribune, which had been her home base since 1987, said she died in her Chicago home of multiple myeloma - a malignant tumour of the bone marrow. Her real name was Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman Lederer, and according to the Tribune her column was for 40 years the world's best read and most widely syndicated - carried by 1 200 newspapers http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=5&art_id=qw1024822620422B211&set_id=9

Rosemary Clooney. and Arthur Spud Melin. Co-Invented the hula hoop. Melin was a co-inventor of the Hula Hoop, which ultimately became the lone job skill required of the nation's Hooters girls. Melin, however, has failed to capitalize on the success of Hooters, and was even denied when he attempted to legally change the spelling of his last name from "Melin" to "Melon." Children around the world have always played with hoops, by rolling and throwing them or twirling them around the waist and limbs. For adults, hoop twirling has at times been recommended as a weight-loss measure (ancient Greece) and, ironically, denounced as a source of sprains, pains and even heart attacks (14th-century England). These hoops were once made of vines or other plants, wood, or metal. The conversion of the toy hoop into 20th-century Americana came thanks to Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin, founders of the Wham-O Company. In 1957, an Australian visiting California told them offhand that in his home country, children twirled bamboo hoops around their waists in gym class. Knerr and Melin saw how popular such a toy would be; and soon they were winning rave reviews from schoolkids for the hollow plastic prototype they had created. The next year, the hula hoop, whose name came from the Hawaiian dance its users seemed to imitate, was marketed nationwide. Americans kids and adults alike were hooked: Wham-O sold 25 million hula hoops in two months. Almost 100 million international orders followed. Wham-O could hardly patent an ancient item, but did reinvent, manufacture and market the hula hoop for the modern world---for example, by using Marlex, a lightweight but durable plastic then recently invented by Phillips Petroleum. By the end of 1958, after $45 million in profits, the craze was dying down. But Richard Knerr was ready with another bombshell: that year he had discovered the "Frisbie." http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/inventorsI-Q/hulahoop.html

Ted Williams. A real American hero. He batted .400 in a season and fought in two world wars. But his death has brought controversy and jokes on Jay Leno. The Splendid Shiver? Will Ted Williams hit over .400 in the year 2150? Don't count on it By Shankar Vedantam THE WASHINGTON POST Tuesday, July 9, 2002 A few hours after he died, the body of Ted Williams was removed from a Florida funeral home and taken to Arizona, where family members said his son had arranged for the 83-year-old baseball Hall of Famer to be drained of blood, filled with a freezing solution and floated inside a container filled with super-cold liquid nitrogen. Williams' death and a quarrel that has broken out among his children over the disposal of his body have sparked a macabre collision between technology and an old-fashioned family feud, raising ethical, scientific and legal questions. Williams' will might resolve whether his body will be thawed and cremated or will remain frozen. The executor of his estate is expected to file the will today or Wednesday in Florida. Williams, who played 19 seasons for the Boston Red Sox and missed three full seasons and most of two others because of military service, might be the biggest celebrity to be "cryo-preserved." The Web site of the company that family members say has his body -- Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Scottsdale, Ariz. (www.alcor.org) -- indicates 49 people have been preserved in its frozen crypts. Nationwide, about twice that number have been cryo-preserved, and a thousand living people have signed up for the process at companies charging $28,000 to $120,000, which is Alcor's top price. While the exact location and condition of Williams' body could not be confirmed by family members, this much is certain: There is a growing industry called cryonics whose leaders say that frozen corpses could be thawed out one day and, with the help of technologies as yet unknown, revived from death, healed of afflictions and restored to youthful grace. No human has been frozen so cold and thawed alive. There is nothing in current science to suggest this will be possible. "It's a bamboozle," said Herman Feifel, an emeritus professor of psychiatry and an expert on aging at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "They're milking the public. Hope never dies, I suppose. It's a bunch of baloney -- this is wishful thinking and will never occur." Williams, who 61 years ago was the last major-league baseball player to bat .400 in a season, died Friday at an Inverness, Fla., hospital. He had been in failing health for several years from strokes and heart disease. It is unclear whether the freezing procedure was something Williams had requested. His eldest daughter, Barbara Joyce Williams Ferrell, brought the procedure to light when she accused her half-brother, John Henry, of moving the corpse to Arizona to have it frozen. Ferrell, who is Williams' daughter from his first marriage, said her father wanted to be cremated and have his ashes scattered over the Florida Keys. She contends that John Henry and Claudia, children from Williams' third marriage, are behind the Alcor move. "My dad's in a metal tube, on his head, so frozen that if I touched him it would crack him because of the warmth from my fingertips," Ferrell told a Boston television station. "It makes me so sick." Eric Abel, a Williams family lawyer, told The Boston Globe that all preparations are in accordance with Williams' wishes. A spokesman for Abel said he was not accepting calls from the media Monday, and attempts to reach John Henry Williams were not successful. John Henry, whose parents divorced when he was 4, moved to Florida in 1991 to take over his father's business interests. He increasingly limited access to his father, drawing criticism from Williams' former teammates and friends. "It hurts the whole image of everyone's thoughts about Ted when he was alive," said Haywood Sullivan, former owner and general manager of the Red Sox as well as a teammate of Williams, who was known as the "Splendid Splinter." "He was flamboyant, he was controversial, yet down deep he was a good person. That's what hurts so much: to see all this right now. It's tainting the whole situation." While Alcor did not return calls seeking comment Monday, the president of the next-largest company, the Cryonics Institute, near Detroit, said the cryonics technique was growing in popularity. Robert Ettinger said his company had frozen 41 corpses. He said he has also signed up more than 400 living people who have contracted with the company, mostly by making it the beneficiary of life insurance policies. Ettinger said the company asked that corpses be packed in ice immediately after death and taken to the facility or a morgue that was equipped for the procedure. Blood is drained from the body and replaced with a liquid containing glycerine. Simultaneously the body is cooled, either with cold air, ice or crushed dry ice. The body is then floated in a sleeping bag and immersed in liquid nitrogen, for as many years or decades as are necessary to develop techniques to revive the person. Ettinger said science would have to address three problems to make the technique work. Of these, he said, the easiest would be to revive the dead. More difficult would be finding cures for whatever killed the person, and most difficult would be finding ways to reverse damage caused by the freezing operation. "Dying is not something separate from trauma or disease -- it is simply the cessation of vital processes," he said. "For example, if something like a nematode -- a little worm -- is frozen and then thawed, it was dead when it was frozen and when you thawed it, it was alive again. It changed from dead to alive when it warmed up -- if someone is dead because his heart stopped, and if you put in a new heart, he will automatically be alive again." Not so, say most scientists. While human tissues have been frozen and thawed, and while the process is used routinely for preserving embryos, sperm and blood, freezing and thawing a body involves preserving not just the organs and tissues but the connections among them, the system of interconnections that makes life possible. WILLIAMS: Family feuds over freezing his body

On Feb. 19, 1953, flying low on a bombing run far above the 38th parallel, Williams' F-9 Panther was hit by small arms fire and started leaking hydraulic fluid. With his plane shaking badly (he didn't know it was also on fire), his control panel lit up with warning lights, and his radio dead, Williams followed a fellow pilot back to base, flying without hydraulics and wrestling his stick all the way. Approaching the landing field, an on-board explosion blew off one of the wheel doors and Williams was forced to land his crippled jet at 225 miles-an-hour and on one wheel. When the F-9 finally came to a stop at the end of the runway after skidding over 2,000 feet, Williams walked away from the burning wreck as firemen hosed it down with foam. Fortunate but enraged, he reacted to nearly auguring in as if he had just popped out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth -- he yanked off his helmet and slammed it to the ground. "Ted Williams was what John Wayne would have liked us to think he was," said sportswriter Robert Lipsyte. "Williams was so big, and handsome, and laconic, and direct, and unafraid in that uniquely American cowboy way. To me he epitomized the sense of the athlete as gunslinger." more stories like this at http://espn.go.com/classic/obit/williams_ted_obit.html

25-year old Gnutella pioneer Gene Kan http://news.com.com/2100-1023-942180.html?tag=cd_mh Lore Noto, 79, Monday after a lengthy battle with cancer. "The former actor and artists' agent saw the possibilities in a small one-act show written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt when it was first produced in 1959 at Barnard College in New York. He commissioned the authors to expand the musical, which eventually opened at the tiny Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village on May 3, 1960, to mixed reviews and no advance sale. " The show? "The Fantasticks", the world's longest-running musical, which closed in January of this year. http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/07/09/obit.noto.ap/index.html This is from the Sound Portraits mailing list: Sound Portraits has suffered another devastating loss. June Marie Jones, LeAlan Jones's grandmother and a matriarch of the Jones -- and Sound Portraits -- families, passed away yesterday at the age of 72. She died suddenly of a heart attack in her life-long home on Chicago's South Side, surrounded by family. Nearly a decade ago, June's blesing of her thirteen-year-old grandson's participation in Ghetto Life 101 made that project -- and all of the work that grew out of it -- possible. Believing that the stories of young people growing up in this country's ghettos needed to be heard, she took the courageous step of sharing her family's story with the nation and the world. June was a spectacular woman who lived an astonishingly rich life. In the last six weeks alone, she saw her grandson LeAlan graduate from college, her granddaughter Jeri graduate from high school, and her life celebrated in the movie version of Ghetto Life 101, which premiered in Chicago. June's nurturing spirit, courage, unflappable will, faith in God, and fierce dedication to her family were an inspiration to anyone lucky enough be in her presence. Our condolences and love go out to the entire Jones family: her husband Gus and her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. You can hear June singing "One Day at a Time" from the Ghetto Life 101 here: http://stream.realimpact.net/?file=realimpact/soundportraits/soundportraits/june _jones.rm that all has to be one line or the entire program is at http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/ghetto_life_101/ Yousuf Karsh, portrait photographer. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/arts/newsid_2127000/2127298.stm Ward Kimble, in addition to being one of the true pioneers of character animation, was (with Ollie Johnson) one of the model train buffs at Disney whose passion for the hobby incited Walt to want to design a larger-scale railroad ride--which, in time, became Disneyland. site: www.mudcat.org. "Barbara Carns died this morning, 7/9/02, at 6:60 AM. She was 76, and still a grand singer of blues, sea songs, labor songs, and just good songs. She lived in Plainfield, VT, with roots in New Bedford and Cape Cod; many will associate her with the Eisteddfod and Tryworks Coffee House in MA. Others remember her appearances at Fox Hollow and Champlain Valley Festivals. All her children were with her at the end: Tom, Robin, Dan, Louisa and George, and at her request, friends in her Vermont community gathered in her hospital room for goodbyes and some singing. She sang too. She had a gentle, classy exit . . ." Richard (Dick) Korn, 79, Berkeley activist and therapist. Richard Korn was the founder of the Center for the Study of Criminal Justice in Berkeley, which participated in a number of penal system investigations, and was a therapist in New York and in the Bay Area, and was one of the inventor/developers of the therapy technique called "psychodrama", involving role-playing. Alan Lomax http://www.rounder.com/rounder/artists/lomax_alan/timeline.htm Lomax obit http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/07/19/obit.lomax.ap/index.html Rod Steiger

chuck hearn (spelling?)

Bruce Paltrow, director and family man. Survived by his daughter Gwenyth Paltrow and wife, Blythe Danner.

Paul Wellstone, Senator from Minnesota, in a small plane crash on the eve of his election. There is talk of Walter Mondale or his son stepping in to the race at the last minute. Shades of Mel Carnahan.

Karen Flaherty has passed. KAREN SHARKEY FLAHERTY Nov. 30, 1948 - Feb. 4, 2002 On February 4, 2002 Plenty lost a dear friend, sister, Board member, Treasurer and field worker when Karen Sharkey Flaherty passed away. Karen brought beauty, grace and courage into the Plenty circle. She was passionate with a gentle touch. She turned an unblinking eye on injustice in the world, especially the plight of women and children living in poverty. She lived for helping the victims of circumstances beyond their control, without hesitation, and often without consideration of her own health and well-being. Karen gave herself away. She had no enemies, only friends, by the thousands. Karen was a founding member of the Farm community where Plenty was born. She was a founding member of Plenty and served on the Board of Directors since 1988 and has been our Treasurer since 1989. She cofounded the Bhopal Justice Campaign to help the people of Bhopal, India obtain justice and compensation for their injuries as a result of a massive chemical accident at a Union Carbide plant that killed thousands of people in December 1984. Karen was deeply involved in Plenty�s projects at Pine Ridge and Round Valley Indian Reservations. She was strongly committed to Plenty�s Fair Trade programs and the Indigenous Women�s Economic Development project (IWED), traveling to Beijing to attend the International Women�s Conference in 1995 as a delegate of Plenty to help build awareness of Fair Trade. More recently, Karen was employed as a Project Administrator at the Florida Association of Voluntary Action for Caribbean Action (FAVACA) coordinating women�s development projects in the Caribbean and Central America and participated in joint Plenty/FAVACA projects in Dominica with the Indigenous Carib Peoples. The Mayor of Oakland, California, Jerry Brown, declared Sunday, Feb. 10, 2002 : Karen Flaherty Day See http://www.farmnetnews.com which is the Spring's tribute to Karen, this was going to be the Spring's gift to her while she was living and now it is her memorial.

Bob Hope He really loved it when people laughed. He lived for peoples laughter. And he died serenely last night at the ripe old age of 100. Thanks for the memories.

Charles Bronson http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=762&e=1&u=/nm/20030901/en_nm/people_bronson_dc

Tough buy movie star. Rough edged.

woody allen said hope was the greatest movie comedian of all time, and i agree... from '39 to '51 or '52, he made some of the funniest films ever made... i think it's kind of a shame that those films aren't seen more, and that his reputation as a comedian is not at least the equal to that of the patriotic persona everyone identifies with him... anyway, i'm a huge fan of his... gonna miss him...

johnny cash, john ritter.....

Art Carney, 85. Jackie Gleason's sidekick in the Honeymooners. Oscar Winner. "Norton"

Ronald Wilson Reagan http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?file=bo040614&vts=61420042141 http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/2004/06/14/

Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, known as Yogi Bhajan to hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide, left his physical body at 9 pm MST on October 6th. His passing took place at his home in Espanola, New Mexico surrounded by family and friends. The cause of death was complications due to heart failure. He was 75 years old. An outstanding pioneer in many fields with a deep and compassionate insight into the human condition, he established permanent institutions, created spectacular events, and produced a prolific body of teachings. Memorial Services Photo Gallery Press Photos Press Release Meditations Discussion Forum Articles - Updated Videos In accordance with Sikh tradition, and his wishes, cremation will take place at Berardinelli's Family Funeral Services at 1:00 PM Saturday October 9th, 1399 Luisa Street Santa Fe, NM 87505. Click Here For more information, memorial services, events and ceremonies in his honor, or call (505) 367.1688. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to: "Kundalini Research Institute" for the Library of the Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, P.O. Box 249, Santa Cruz, NM 87567 USA If you would like to leave a message for Yogi Bhajan's family or staff please call 505-367-1661, or send email to ybmemorial@sikhdharma.org. NOTE: The information on this page is constantly being updated. Come back from time to time for the latest information and news. The first to publicly teach Kundalini Yoga, when he arrived in the West in 1968, he announced he had come to the West "to create teachers, not to gain students". A deeply devoted Sikh, his inspiration and example motivated thousands to embrace the Sikh way of life. Through his personal efforts, Sikh Dharma was legally incorporated and officially recognized as a religion in the USA in 1971. In 1971, in acknowledgement of his extraordinary impact of spreading the universal message of Sikhism, the president of the SGPC (governing body of Sikh Temples in India), Sant Charan Singh called him the Siri Singh Sahib, Chief Religious and Administrative Authority for the Western Hemisphere, and he was given the responsibility to create a Sikh Ministry in the West by the Akal Takhat, the Sikh seat of religious authority in Amritsar, India. He was honored with the title Bhai Sahib by the Akal Takhat in 1974. from http://www.sikhnet.com/yogibhajan

Superman. Christopher Reeve. Christopher Reeve, who became an international star in 1977's Superman and then proved to be a real-life superhero when a 1995 near-fatal riding accident turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died of heart failure Sunday, his publicist said. He was 52. Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his Bedford, N.Y., home, publicist Wesley Combs told the Associated Press. His family was at h side. More

Johnny Carson. My mom used to watch Jack Paar. Then there was Johnny. For 30 years he told America its bedtime story. 1925-2005. He was smooth and effortless. He made it seem easy. He was 79. He took over from Jack Paar on Oct 1, 1962 when I was a Junior in High School and turned it over to Jay Leno on May 22, 1992 30 years later.

From Rick Herdon Thought you might be interested in this... (an article about the death of Kelly Freas) from 01/03/2005: http: //my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=4&cat=0800&id=2005010315030001321120 The text follows quoted: == LOS ANGELES (AP) - Kelly Freas, an influential illustrator who produced sleek, stirring images for science fiction and fantasy books and helped shape the image of Mad Magazine mascot Alfred E. Newman, has died. He was 82. Freas died in his sleep Sunday at his home in Los Angeles, said his wife of 16 years, Laura Brodian Freas, the host of a Los Angeles classical music program. The cause of death was old age, she said. ``He always wanted to be a science fiction illustrator, and the life of a science fiction illustrator led him to so much more,'' she told The Associated Press on Monday. ``Life with a Mad artist was never boring.''

Playwright Arthur Miller Dies at 89 By Associated Press Published February 11, 2005, 9:39 AM CST ROXBURY, Conn. -- Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer prize-winning playwright whose most famous fictional creation, Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman," came to symbolize the American Dream gone awry, has died, his assistant said Friday. He was 89. Miller died Thursday evening, said his assistant, Julia Bolus. She did not give a cause of death. His plays, with their strong emphasis on family, morality and personal responsibility, spoke to the growing fragmentation of American society. "A lot of my work goes to the center of where we belong -- if there is any root to life -- because nowadays the family is broken up, and people don't live in the same place for very long," Miller said in a 1988 interview. "Dislocation, maybe, is part of our uneasiness. It implants the feeling that nothing is really permanent." Miller's career was marked by early success. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman" in 1949, when he was just 33 years old. His marriage to screen star Marilyn Monroe in 1956 further catapulted the playwright to fame, though that was publicity he said he never pursued. In a 1992 interview with a French newspaper, he called her "highly self-destructive" and said that during their marriage, "all my energy and attention were devoted to trying to help her solve her problems. Unfortunately, I didn't have much success."

Above pic. Honeymooners Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe with Sir Laurence Olivier and his wife, Vivien Leigh in Surrey, England, in July 1956. Mrs. Olivier was expecting a baby that December.

HST: THE END OF THE WAVE, 2/20/05 What useful thing can be said this bleak day, when most of what we believe in seems so out of step with our neighbors, when so many dark fears alluded to in the past only in parody verge on barely challenged reality; when even the irony so beloved among our kind, challenged by the flag and ribbon wavers as being poisonous to the New America, withers from disuse. It is wasting as surely as the commonality that was the undergirding of what we supposed was our connecting faith, revealed nakedly now for what it is, what it has probably always been but for our softness: a marriage of convenience, no longer convenient. The Doctor told us it was only a "tribal myth" to them, and we believed him, but we lulled to their purposes anyway, constitutionally unable to conceive of their real ends, now facing the monstrous possibilities proposed by this new century filled with doubt and contempt, not only for the yokels out there bought on the cheap by smirking Empire, but for the ideas we believed so invulnerable, and for the selves so willing to believe them. And now to find we face it without him, too. Hunter Thompson wasn't what he was made to be by his critics, caught up as they were in the weirdness that preoccupied their attentions, a weirdness that wasn't what they perceived it to be, either, but that's to be expected, and even moreso now, gone over as he has to "the guts of the living", there to be modified, misunderstood, pigeon-holed and quantified by the foriegn codes of conscience that are the Aaron Browns of this tawdry mess of a planet he left behind. They were and are incapable of understanding what he was, a true-believing romantic of the old order, befitting a man who may have been among the last of his country's real patriots. What else can a genuine believer do, what protection does he have in the face of his enemy, but his dissent from their terms, from their mendacity, from the sham of their society? He fought them with his printed words, with his bombast and absurdism, with his life as object lesson lived for all we poor slobs who could only read about it, could only taste a little o that ignis fatuus that drove his high-flying prose, that elusive hunt for the American Dream; we tilted for it with him, unrelentingly, certain that it waited. Hunter Thompson called out the frauds and the fakers, the fat, sleek hypocrites the dream would protect us from, passed the promise on to those of us who might love it as he did, as Scott Fitzgerald did, as Thomas Wolfe, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg did, all the doe-eyed dreamers of the last century and their sentimental, joyful ideas about America- Hunter believed it, and sold it to us by virtue of his jeering, frantic poetry, with all it's secret meanings, ellipses, detours and misdirections, his hysterical humor- always with the hidden, earnest light at it's center, the nearly child-like faith in the trip, the experience, the "orgiastic future" expressed in that ultimate justice, that vindication waiting for all of us, collectively, if only we would beat the whore-faced shit-eyed bastards together, once and for all... God, I loved him. I will miss him, as all of us who got it will miss him, our General in search for mythic dreams, our Doctor of hope, laughter, and commiseration; our fellow fallen believer. May the God who made him gather him to the place he dreamed on, where "the pillars of this earth are founded". And may the wind truly rise, the river really flow. Blasting caps would probably be nice, too.

In the 1970s, Hunter Thompson inspired a legion of young journalists to believe that the best way to cover a story was to get tanked to the gills on drugs and alcohol, present oneself in a state of near-psychotic meltdown at the scene of whatever one was covering, and record the affronted and sometimes violent reactions of the people one encountered. Concepts like "facts" and "objectivity" were to be regarded as quaint, if not entirely notional. The author became the story. This was "gonzo journalism." What Thompson himself never felt the need to point out � although other practitioners of what at the time was called the New Journalism, like Tom Wolfe, were quick to note it � was that his gonzo style rested on a foundation of solid journalistic experience. (Although he hadn't actually graduated from high school, Hunter had studied journalism at Columbia University, and he later worked for such publications as Time and the New York Herald Tribune.) Getting loaded didn't make you a journalist; nor did it make you a talented writer (another key requirement of the style). Getting loaded, in the case of most of his many young admirers, simply made them loaded � a time-honored way of avoiding the annoying work of actually sitting down to write the story. Hunter had immersed himself in the California biker culture to write a 1967 book called "Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs." (Still a good read today.) But his later gonzo style only began to emerge in a 1970 article for Scanlan's Monthly called "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved." Returning to his home town of Louisville to cover the annual horse race, Thompson had been teamed for the first time with Ralph Steadman, an English illustrator with a spattery, apocalyptic style. "Neither of us had brought any strange illegal drugs," Thompson wrote, "so we would have to get by on booze." MTV News correspondent Gideon Yago also weighs in on Hunter S. Thompson and his legacy ... Hunter was subsequently assigned by Sports Illustrated to go to Las Vegas and cover something called the Mint 400 motorcycle race. He took along an associate, Oscar Zeta Acosta, a 250-pound Chicano legal-aid lawyer. They rented a car for the trip, and used Hunter's expense money from the magazine to stock its trunk with, as he later wrote, "two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls." more at http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1497300/20050222/index.jhtml?headlines=true

Jeff Raskin, inventor of the Mac http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin Raskin was born in New York City. He received degrees in mathematics (B.S. 1964) and philosophy (B.A. 1965) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He earned a master's degree in computer science at Pennsylvania State University in 1967. His first computer program, a music program, was part of his master's thesis. Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), but stopped to teach art, photography and computer science there, working as an assistant professor from 1970 until 1974. Raskin joined Apple in January 1978 as the company's 31st employee. For some time he was director of Publications and New Product Review, but also worked on packaging and other issues. Through this time he continually wrote memos about a much simpler-to-use computer, and suggested Apple start such a project. He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to work at Apple, and began the Macintosh project in 1979. The machine he envisioned was much different than the Macintosh that was eventually released, and had much more in common with PDA's than modern GUI-based machines. The machine was similar in power to the Apple II and included a small 9-inch black-and-white character display built into a small case with a floppy disk. A number of basic applications were built into the machine, selectable by pressing function keys. The machine also included logic that would understand user intentions and switch programs on the fly. For instance, if the user simply started typing it would switch into editor mode, and if they typed numbers it would switch to calculator mode. In many cases these switches would be largely invisible to the user. In 1981 Steve Jobs, who had supported the Macintosh project but was more deeply involved in shaping the direction for the Apple Lisa, was asked to stop interfering in the Lisa project. He directed his attention to Raskin's Macintosh project, intending to marry the Xerox PARC-inspired GUI-based Lisa design to Raskin's appliance computing, "computers-by-the-millions" concept. Raskin takes credit for introducing Jobs and other Apple employees to the PARC concepts, but it appears this is not really the case. Raskin also claims to have had continued direct input into the eventual Mac design, including the decision to use a one-button mouse as part of the Apple interface, a departure from the Xerox PARC standard of a three-button mouse. Larry Tesler, among others kurac, debates this claim. Raskin later stated that were he to redesign the interface he would use a two button mouse. Raskin left Apple in 1982 and formed Information Appliance, through which he implemented his original concepts for the Macintosh. The first product was a firmware card for the Apple II, called the SWYFT card, which was a keyboard-driven integrated application suite. Information Appliance later shipped the Swyft as a stand-alone laptop computer. Raskin licensed this design to Canon, who shipped a similar product as the Canon Cat. Released in 1987, the unit had an innovative interface which attracted much interest but it did not become a commercial success. Raskin claimed that its failure was due in some part to Steve Jobs, who successfully pitched Canon on the NeXT Computer at about the same time. Raskin also authored a text, The Humane Interface, in which he developed his ideas about human-computer interfaces. At the beginning of the new millennium, Raskin undertook the building of The Humane Environment (THE). THE is a system incarnating his concepts of the humane interface, by using open source elements within his rendition of a ZUI or Zooming User Interface. While best-known as a computer scientist, Raskin also had other interests. He conducted the San Francisco Chamber Opera Society and played three instruments. His artwork was displayed at New York's Museum of Modern Art. He received a patent for airplane wing construction. He was said to be an accomplished archer, target shooter and an occasional race car driver. Jef Raskin was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2004 and died in Pacifica, California on February 26, 2005, at age 61.

Jeff Raskin

http://www.obitcentral.com/ A central clearing house for obituaries on the web.

March 03, 2005 Samuel Alderson Samuel W. Alderson was no dummy. But he designed one that saved countless lives. Born in Cleveland and raised in Southern California, Alderson graduated from high school at 15 and attended four colleges: Reed College, the California Institute of Technology, the University of California Berkeley, and Columbia University. His education was interrupted several times during the Depression when he would return home to help out in his father's sheet metal shop. During World War II, Alderson improved missile guidance systems for the U.S. military and developed a special coating that helped enhance vision on submarine periscopes. He then formed Alderson Research Labs, a company that designed an anthropomorphic test device later known as the crash test dummy. Weighing approximately the same as humans, these mechanical surrogates were used by the military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to test ejection seats, parachutes and exposure to radiation. The first crash test dummies for the automobile industry were cadavers. Since the bodies deteriorated quickly during repeat trials and had no uniformity in size or shape, automakers began seeking a new way to test its safety features. Alderson built the first automobile test dummy in 1960, but few took notice until five years later when former presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader published the book, "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile." In 1966, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act passed, which authorized the government to set and regulate safety standards for motor vehicles and highways. Alderson's dummy, which was built specifically for automotive testing, resembled an average-sized adult man. It had a nearly featureless face, a steel rib cage, articulated joints and a flexible neck and lumbar spine. Instruments designed to collect data during crashes were implanted inside the dummy's head, chest and thighs. In 1973, Alderson formed Humanoid Systems, another company that designed and produced test dummies. Humanoid Systems and Alderson Research Labs competed against each other until 1990, when they merged to form First Technology Safety Systems. Today, Alderson's original dummy has been improved and expanded into a high-tech family that includes women, children and infants. Alderson died on Feb. 11 from complications of myelofibrosis and pneumonia. He was 90. from http://www.blogofdeath.com/

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson, the renegade writer who stretched the boundaries of journalism, committed suicide on Feb. 20 at the age of 67. He died at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colo., of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Born in Louisville, Ky., Thompson finished high school, but missed the graduation ceremony because he was in jail serving a 60-day sentence for robbery. When he got out, Thompson enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and discovered a passion for journalism. He edited the sports section at an Air Force newspaper in Florida, then worked as a correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and the National Observer. In the 1970s, Thompson helped pioneer the "New Journalism" movement. Utilizing first person narrative, he discussed current events and politics in a more novelistic and opinionated manner. While writing for Rolling Stone magazine, the gonzo journalist once covered a district attorneys' anti-drug conference after taking copious amounts of psychedelic drugs. The unapologetic and self-destructive writer never graduated from college, yet he bestowed on himself the title of "the good doctor." His original voice filled nearly a dozen books, including "Hell's Angels," "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72" and "Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century." Thompson was best known for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream," the 1972 book that turned him into a counterculture icon. His latest book, "Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness," was published in 2004. Thompson's influence reached from bookstores to newsstands to Hollywood. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau modeled the balding, pot-smoking character of Uncle Duke in the "Doonesbury" comic strip after Thompson, a move that angered the journalist. At one point, Thompson vowed to set Trudeau on fire, if they ever met. Bill Murray portrayed him in the 1980 film "Where the Buffalo Roam," and Johnny Depp did so in the 1998 film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." A film adaptation of "The Rum Diary," Thompson's only published work of intentional fiction, is currently in production. Thompson became more reclusive in recent years, spending most of his time shooting firearms in his backyard. In 2000, he accidentally shot his assistant, Deborah Fuller, while chasing a bear off his property. Thompson also wrote the popular column, Hey Rube, for ESPN.com. In his most recent column ("Fore!"), he called Murray to discuss a new extreme sport: shooting golf balls like skeet. � Listen to a Tribute From NPR at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4507067 � Complete Coverage From The New York Times at http://nytimes.com/indexes/2005/02/21/books/authors/index.html

Pope John Paul II, April 2.

Yes, I was just going to say. He was a good Pope. And he went quickly without tying up everyone's energy for years like that other news story that he pushed off the front pages.

Peter Jennings, ABC News Anchor. He died of lung cancer, maybe this will turn some folks off to smoking.

oh, that just broke my heart. now i have trouble watching world news tonight, seriously. he was the reason why i chose that news show over the others.

CJ William Rehnquist, according to CNN.

you know he was at work the day before (i think it was the day before)? the dedication. gonna take a lot to fill those shoes.

Bernard Epp. My wife's father died this afternoon. He was over 90 years old. In Abottsford, British Columbia, Canada.

as a god self-slain on it's own strange altar: death lies dead (swinburne) (or very nearly, it appears)

'JAXON' KNOWN AS FIRST UNDERGROUND CARTOONIST By M.B. Taboada AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Saturday, June 10, 2006 Austin artist Jack "Jaxon" Jackson, generally credited as the first underground cartoonist, died Thursday. He was 65. Jackson's body was found Thursday night outside the Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Stockdale, where his parents were buried. His death is being investigated as a suicide, according to the Wilson County sheriff's office. [] � Jack Jackson 1941-2006 Jackson's first underground comic, "God Nose," appeared in 1964. He co-founded Rip Off Press, one of the first independent publishers of underground comics in San Francisco in 1969. Jackson was well known as a historian cartoonist who created graphic novels of Texas history, including "Comanche Moon," "Los Tejanos" and "El Alamo." He was the art director of Family Dog, which promoted concerts in San Francisco. Jackson received multiple awards for his work, including a lifetime fellowship of the Texas State Historical Association. "He was someone very accomplished who had come before me and treated me like a peer and made me feel like I was a part of the club," said Sam Hurt, a 48-year-old Austin cartoonist whose work became prominent in Austin in 1980. "Like a lot of cartoonists, there was something about (his) presence that resonated in his cartoons." Hurt described Jackson's work as having an "amazing level of detail." A mentor to other cartoonists, Jackson was the first artist featured at the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture when it opened to the public in 2004. The museum will create a memorial for him, said Leea Mechling, executive director. "He has left us with visions of imagined worlds and of the steps made on it by others," wrote Emma Little, a close friend of Jackson's, in an e-mail sent Friday to his friends and colleagues. "He enriched our imaginations and our hearts." Jackson is survived by his wife Tina, and son Sam. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. June 17 at Hyde Park Christian Church, 610 E. 45th St. http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/06/10jackson.html ==

Alice Coltrane, Jazz Artist and Spiritual Leader, Dies at 69 By BEN RATLIFF Alice Coltrane, widow of the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane and the pianist in his later bands, extended her musical searches into a vocation as a spiritual leader. Dora E. McDonald, Secretary to Martin Luther King in �60s, Dies at 81 By SHAILA DEWAN Dora E. McDonald served as secretary and confidante to Dr. King in the most turbulent years of the civil rights movement. Larry Stewart, a Businessman Known for a Santa-Size Generosity, Dies at 58 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Larry Stewart became known as Secret Santa for roaming the streets each December and anonymously handing money to people.