Literotica Cemetary

[JennyOHill2]

Ziggy Creator Tom Wilson Sr. Dead at 80

Tom Wilson Sr., creator of comics page and licensing icon Ziggy, died September 16, 2011, after a long illness. He was 80 years old.

Ziggy, which celebrated 40 years in syndication in June 2011, continues to be produced by Wilson's son, Tom Wilson Jr., who has handled the day-to-day operation of the panel since 1987. Ziggy is distributed to newspapers worldwide by Universal Uclick, an Andrews McMeel Universal company.

"We are saddened at the passing of Tom Wilson, a visionary cartoonist and longtime friend," said John McMeel, chairman and president of Andrews McMeel Universal. "Tom leaves behind a wonderful legacy in Ziggy, a hard-luck comics page hero who serves as a reflection of Tom's endearing wit and optimism in the face of adversity. Our hearts are with the Wilson family during this time of loss."

"Tom Wilson had a unique gift for producing creations that stirred imaginations and touched people's lives," said Hugh Andrews, chief executive officer and president of Andrews McMeel Publishing. "It speaks volumes about Tom that Ziggy, a character he held very dear to his heart, has been a mainstay on the comics page for more than 40 years and continues to make new fans worldwide to this day. We join millions of fans around the world in mourning the loss of a truly exceptional innovator."

Tom Wilson was born August 1, 1931. For more than 35 years, he served as a creative director at American Greetings, where he was responsible for the development of many breakthrough card lines. Wilson first published Ziggy in the 1969 cartoon collection When You're not Around. The Ziggy comic panel, syndicated by Universal Uclick (formerly Universal Press Syndicate), launched in 15 newspapers in June 1971. It now appears in more than 500 daily and Sunday newspapers and has been featured in best-selling books, calendars and greeting cards.

Throughout his career, Wilson demonstrated a remarkable ability to anticipate future trends in the marketplace. A veteran of the licensing business, Wilson headed up the creative team that developed such character licensing blockbusters as Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears.

In 1987, Wilson passed the Ziggy torch to his son, Tom Wilson Jr., after the younger Wilson had served as an assistant on the strip for many years.

Wilson was a talented painter, with works appearing in exhibitions throughout the United States, including the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Society of Illustrations annual show in New York. He also made his mark in animation with the Emmy Award-winning special, "Ziggy's Gift," which was re-released on video in 2005.

Tom Wilson is survived by his wife Carol, son Tom Wilson Jr, and daughters Ava and Julie.

 

[phrodeau]

Arch West, 97-year-old former naval officer who invented Doritos, died on Sept. 20.
The idea for Doritos tortilla chips, which brought about a sea change in snacking and became a top seller for Frito-Lay, came from the mind of former Navy man Arch West, who died of natural causes on Sept. 20. He was 97. West joined the Navy in 1943 and served as a gunnery officer onboard destroyer escort Holt in the Pacific during World War II, according to The Dallas Morning News.
A chance encounter on a family vacation inspired West to mass-market tortilla chips, according to The Washington Post:
“He was on a family vacation in Southern California in 1964 when he first bought a grease-smeared bag of toasted tortillas at a roadside shack.
As marketing vice president at Frito-Lay, Mr. West immediately sensed he had stumbled upon a snacking phenomenon.
When he returned to work, Mr. West pitched his idea: a crispy, triangle-shaped corn chip that would complement the company’s lighter Lay’s potato chip and the thicker, curly Frito.”
The Washington Post also published a photo of West from his Navy days.
Doritos are now the chips of choice for millions around the world. They come in 21 flavors, from old stand-bys like Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese to more extreme offerings like Blazin’ Jalapeno and All Nighter Cheeseburger. Global sales of Doritos were nearly $5 billion in 2010, a Frito-Lay spokeswoman told the Post.
Family members plan on tossing Doritos chips at his Oct. 1 burial so that West can face the ages with his addictive creation on-hand.
http://militarytimes.com/blogs/scoopdeck/2011/09/29/navy-officer-and-doritos-inventor-dies/

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Steve Jobs, Dies at 56.

Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apple's board of directors. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

The homepage of Apple's website this evening switched to a full-page image of Jobs with the text, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011."

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and, with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, marketed what was considered the world's first personal computer, the Apple II.

Shortly after learning of Jobs' death, Wozniak told ABC News, "I'm shocked and disturbed."

Industry watchers called him a master innovator -- perhaps on a par with Thomas Edison -- changing the worlds of computing, recorded music and communications.

In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 he was forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobs announced on Aug. 24, 2011 that he was stepping down as Apple's chief executive.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation. "Unfortunately, that day has come."


One of the world's most famous CEOs, Jobs remained stubbornly private about his personal life, refusing interviews and shielding his wife and their children from public view.

"He's never been a media person," said industry analyst Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, after Jobs resigned. "He's granted interviews in the context of product launches, when it benefits Apple, but you never see him talk about himself."


The highlights of Jobs's career trajectory are well-known: a prodigy who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon and, at 21, started Apple with Wozniak in his parents' garage. He was a multimillionaire by 25, appeared on the cover of Time magazine at 26, and was ousted at Apple at age 30, in 1984.

In the years that followed, he went into other businesses, founding NeXT computers and, in 1986, buying the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, Ltd., which became Pixar Animation Studios.

He was described as an exacting and sometimes fearsome leader, ordering up and rejecting multiple versions of new products until the final version was just right. He said the design and aesthetics of a device were as important as the hardware and software inside.


In 1996, Apple, which had struggled without Jobs, brought him back by buying NeXT. He became CEO in 1997 and put the company on a remarkable upward path.

By 2001 the commercial music industry was on its knees because digital recordings, copied and shared online for free, made it unnecessary for millions of people to buy compact discs.

Jobs took advantage with the iPod -- essentially a pocket-sized computer hard drive with elegantly simple controls and a set of white earbuds so that one could listen to the hours of music one saved on it. He set up the iTunes online music store, and persuaded major recording labels to sell songs for 99 cents each. No longer did people have to go out and buy a CD if they liked one song from it. They bought a digital file and stored it in their iPod.

In 2007, he transformed the cell phone. Apple's iPhone, with its iconic touch screen, was a handheld computer, music player, messaging device, digital wallet and -- almost incidentally -- cell phone. Major competitors, such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, struggled after it appeared.

By 2010, Apple's new iPad began to cannibalize its original business, the personal computer. The iPad was a sleek tablet computer with a touch screen and almost no physical buttons. It could be used for almost anything software designers could conceive, from watching movies to taking pictures to leafing through a virtual book.

Personal Life

Jobs kept a close cadre of friends, Bajarin said, including John Lasseter of Pixar and Larry Ellison of Oracle, but beyond that, shared very little of his personal life with anyone.

But that personal life -- he was given up at birth for adoption, had an illegitimate child, was romantically linked with movie stars -- was full of intrigue for his fan base and Apple consumers.

Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, were married in a small ceremony in Yosemite National Park in 1991, lived in Woodside, Calif., and had three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.

He admitted that when he was 23, he had a child out of wedlock with his high school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan. Their daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs, was born in 1978.

He had a biological sister, Mona Simpson, the author of such well-known books as "Anywhere But Here." But he did not meet Simpson until they were adults and he was seeking out his birth parents. Simpson later wrote a book based on their relationship. She called it "A Regular Guy."

Fortune magazine reported that Jobs denied paternity of Lisa for years, at one point swearing in a court document that he was infertile and could not have children. According to the report, Chris Ann Brennan collected welfare for a time to support the child until Jobs later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.

There were other personal details that emerged over the years, as well.

At Reed, Jobs became romantically involved with the singer Joan Baez, according to Elizabeth Holmes, a friend and classmate. In "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs," Holmes tells biographer Alan Deutschman that Jobs broke up with his serious girlfriend to "begin an affair with the charismatic singer-activist." Holmes confirmed the details to ABC News.

Jobs' Health and Apple's Health

Enigmatic and charismatic, Jobs said little about himself. But then his body began to fail him.

In 2004, he was forced to say publicly he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In 2009, it was revealed that he had quietly gone to a Memphis hospital for a liver transplant.

He took three medical leaves from Apple. He did not share details.

In 2009, sources said, members of Apple's board of directors had to persuade him to disclose more about his health as "a fiduciary issue," interwoven with the health of the company.

He was listed in March as 109th on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, with a net worth of about $8.3 billion. After selling Pixar animation studios to The Walt Disney Company in 2006, he became a Disney board member and the company's largest shareholder. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.


Analysts said Apple performed well during Jobs' absence, partly because he was available for big decisions and partly because his chief lieutenant, Tim Cook, was the hands-on manager even when Jobs was there.

The company has a history of bouncing back. In January 2009, after he announced his second medical leave, Apple stock dropped to $78.20 per share. But it quickly recovered and became one of the most successful stocks on Wall Street. On one day in the summer of 2011, with the stock hitting the $400 level, Apple briefly passed ExxonMobil as the world's most valuable company.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Arthur C. Nielsen Jr. dies at 92. Oct 3, 2011.

Los Angeles Times
October 6, 2011

"If you can put a number on it," Arthur C. Nielsen Jr. said his father once told him, "then you know something."

It was a lesson the younger Nielsen — who died Monday at age 92 — never forgot. His lifelong efforts remade his father's once-obscure Chicago market research firm into a sprawling, worldwide measurement giant with a brand name that, in the U.S. at least, became a household synonym for television ratings.

Today — even after his company has undergone ownership changes, not to mention weathered near-continuous industry complaints of supposedly flawed methodology — TV executives still arise before dawn to check out the Nielsens, foretelling the fate of their shows and their careers with each ratings point. In recent years, the company has expanded into measuring online traffic and other new media.

Nielsen, who in 1984 retired from the company that now simply bears his surname, had been suffering from Parkinson's disease. He died in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka.

Earlier this year, the New York-based Nielsen Holdings N.V. — an umbrella entity that covers numerous units including the TV measurement service — issued one of the largest private-equity-backed public stock offerings in recent years, raising $1.6 billion.

In a statement, the company called the younger Nielsen "an early pioneer of the global information services industry, dedicating his life to investing in innovative ideas to understand and measure consumer purchasing and viewing behavior."

It added that his "passion and tireless commitment to helping industries better serve consumers led to the creation of many innovations we all rely on today, including consumer and performance surveys, market share, department and food index, and television ratings to name a few."

"Art" Nielsen was born in Winnetka on April 8, 1919, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1941. During World War II he served as an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers.

Up to that time, the elder Nielsen's company had offered mainly research on sales of dry goods and drugs. It had tried with some success to gauge the size of radio audiences during the Depression, although it was overshadowed by a powerful competitor, C.E. Hooper.

But Art Nielsen happened to join his father's firm at an auspicious time. In the postwar years, the nascent commercial television industry was growing rapidly — 7.5 million sets were produced in 1950, compared with fewer than 200,000 three years earlier — but there was no clear and universally accepted means of telling how many people were actually watching the programs. Network executives sometimes relied on reports from Variety or from Hooper; other times they guessed how popular their shows were by weighing the bags of mail that came in from viewers. The issue was of vital interest to sponsors trying to determine whether the programs were worthy of financial support.

The Nielsens developed a system that sampled a small portion of U.S. viewers — hence the neologism "Nielsen family" — and asked them to fill out diaries recording what they had watched. (In 1987, the company switched to a "people meter" system that electronically logged what viewers watched in real time, allowing for more detailed measurements and demographic information.)

In 1950, Nielsen dubbed "Texaco Star Theater" the nation's most-watched program, although by that time the show and its star, Milton Berle, were already sensations. But the Nielsen system caught on; the same year, the company had bought out its one-time radio rival, Hooper.

Over the years, TV executives have frequently complained about what they view as Nielsen's stranglehold on ratings data and alleged propensity to undercount viewers; but so far, no alternative has met with wide acceptance.

Art Nielsen was considered instrumental in pushing the company to use computers and other new technologies, partly because of his Army engineering experiences. He also helped oversee Nielsen's expansion into virtually every corner of the globe. Today the company has outposts in such far-flung spots as Bangladesh, Cameroon and Kazakhstan.

In addition to TV ratings, Nielsen Holdings has units that measure book and music sales, shopping habits, media sales and other data. Many of these units began as independent businesses that Nielsen acquired.

The elder Nielsen died in 1980.

After he retired, Art Nielsen retained an active interest in the company. He served on the board of Dun & Bradstreet, which had acquired his company in 1984 and later split it in half. Nielsen complained publicly that his father's legacy had not been well managed by B&D. The Dutch conglomerate VNU completed a purchase that recombined the companies in 2001. After VNU was bought by a group of private-equity firms, the entire company was renamed Nielsen in 2007.

Nielsen and his late wife, Patricia, had three children: Arthur Charles II, John Christopher and Elizabeth Kingsbury (Cocciarelli). They survive him, along with seven grandchildren.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Raiders owner and Football legend, Al Davis dies at 82

Saturday, Oct 8, 2011 | Updated 8:01 AM PDT

Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis has died, according to Raiders.com. A message on the team's homepage Saturday read:

"Al Davis / July 4, 1929 - October 8, 2011 / The Raider Family Will Issue a statement later today"


The obituary below was up on Raiders.com:

An unyielding total commitment to excellence has marked the three-time World Cham- pion Raiders monumental rise during the last 48 years to the very top of the profes- sional sports world.

In these memorable 48 years, the Raiders have had 28 winning seasons, including 16 in a row from 1965 through the 1980 World Championship season. In 34 of those seasons, the Raiders earned a record of .500 or better.

Al Davis’ six-decade professional football story, from assistant coach of the Chargers, to head coach and general manager of the Raiders, to Commissioner of the American Football League and finally to principal owner and president of the general partner of The Oakland Raiders — is a standard that no one in the history of professional football can match for winning and excellence.

In April 1966, the then 36-year-old Davis, head coach and general manager of the Raid- ers, became Commissioner of the American Football League. This was a post he accepted reluctantly, for first and foremost, Al Davis was a football coach and knew that assuming the Commissionership would in all probability mean an end to his coaching career.

But AFL owners, in their battle with the rival National Football League, prevailed on Davis to accept the position. He was described by AFL President and Buffalo Bills Owner Ralph Wilson as “a coaching genius and astute administrator.”

Just eight weeks later, when pro football’s two major leagues put an end to their six-year war, Davis was acclaimed nationally as the driving force who brought the leagues to merge . In 1969, he was once again a prime force in the dramatic realignment of professional foot- ball when two, 13-team conferences — the AFC and NFC — were formed for 1970.

As a member of the NFL Management Council’s Executive Committee, Davis has been a major factor in achieving collective bargaining agreements with the players.

Al Davis first came to the Raiders in January 1963, dedicated to rescuing the faltering Oakland franchise and building the finest organization in professional sports. Just 33, Davis was the youngest man in pro football to hold the demanding dual positions of head coach and general manager.

But Davis already possessed 14 years coaching experience. He had been tabbed a “young coaching genius” by Sports Illustrated and “the most inventive mind in the country” by Scholastic Coach Magazine.

The Raiders — “picked to finish dead last” — thundered to a 10-4 record and just missed the Division Championship . In 1963, Davis was named Pro Football Coach of the Year.

Perhaps his most singular honor is having made a record nine presentations of inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio . The nine great enshrinees to have selected Al Davis to make the presentation speeches on their behalf are Lance Alworth, Jim Otto, George Blanda, Willie Brown, Gene Upshaw, Fred Biletnikoff, Art Shell, Ted Hendricks and John Madden.

Davis himself became enshrined on Aug . 1, 1992 when he was presented for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame by Madden. In May of 1991, Al Davis became the very first recipient of the NFL Players Association’s Retired Players Award of Excellence “for his contributions to the men who played the game .” Born July 4, 1929, Al Davis was raised in Brockton, Mass. and moved at an early age to Brooklyn, N .Y . He attended Wittenberg College and Syracuse University, earning a degree in English while participating in football, basketball and baseball. Al Davis received a Letterman of Distinction Award from Syracuse University . In March of 1998, Davis was inducted into the NFL Alumni’s “Order of the Leather Helmet,” presented annually to “Individuals who have made significant contributions to the game of professional football.”

On Dec . 29, 1999, the Oakland Tribune and the Alameda Newspaper Group named Al Davis as the Bay Area’s most significant sports figure of the 20th Century on a list that in- cluded such greats as Joe Montana, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio and Bill Russell. The Orange Bowl inducted Davis into its Hall of Fame in 2001.

In 1950, Davis was named line coach at Adelphi College in New York. He then went into the Army, being assigned as head football coach at Ft . Belvoir, Va . There he molded a na- tional power service team and capped one season by defeating the University of Maryland, National Collegiate Champions, in a squad game.

Davis next served on the staff of the NFL’s Baltimore Colts in 1954, at age 24, concen- trating on player personnel work . During 1955-56, he was line coach and chief recruiter at The Citadel . He then spent three years at the University of Southern California as line coach.

In 1960, Head Coach Sid Gillman hired Davis as offensive end coach of the newly formed Los Angeles Chargers . After two Division Championships in just three years there, it was on to meet the challenges with the Raiders of Oakland in 1963.

Based on personal achievement, team achievement and contributions to the game, no one has had a more profound and lasting impact on professional football . In recognition of his status in pro football annals, NFL Films produced a film entitled, “AL DAVIS, NO . 1 FOR ALL TIME .”

 

[Weird Harold]

Davis' career was amazing, but he hung onto control for a bit too long.

 

[eyer]

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/10/06/1976-AppleI-Flickr-Ed-Uthman_540x405.jpg

 

[JennyOHill2]

Charles Napier, Hollywood actor known for playing authority-types, dies at 75

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_296h/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/10/06/Obituaries/Images/Obit_Napier_04c21.jpg

Charles Napier, whose square jaw, sturdy frame and hard-edged voice made him one of the busiest and most adaptable character actors in Hollywood, died Oct. 5 at a hospital in Bakersfield, Calif.

The 75-year-old Mr. Napier appeared in hundreds of television and film roles, starting in movies by porn director Russ Meyer and becoming a fixture in the work of Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme. Both Meyer and Demme considered Mr. Napier one of their favorite actors.

The death was reported by the Bakersfield Californian, citing a friend of the actor. The cause of death was not disclosed.

From his earliest years in Hollywood, the Kentucky-born Mr. Napier was cast in roles as an authority figure with a sweaty-browed difference. He was a randy cop in Meyer’s “Cherry, Harry and Raquel!” (1970) and a sadistic officer in Meyer’s “Supervixens” (1975).

As his career progressed, he was a duplicitous intelligence officer in “Rambo: First Blood Part 2” (1985) and played ludicrously grim-faced military men in “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (1997) and its sequel.

The film critic Roger Ebert once summarized the menacing charisma of Mr. Napier by describing him as “a character actor with a smile like Jaws.”

Mr. Napier was also skillful at playing oafish and deliriously self-obsessed comic roles: a musical space hippie in a 1969 “Star Trek” episode, a dim and short-tempered country singer in “The Blues Brothers” (1980) and the voice of TV-station owner Duke Phillips in the animated pop-culture sendup “The Critic” (1994).

While the handful of Meyer films were something Mr. Napier tried to put behind him, they were crucial to his career trajectory. Those early kinky films won a devoted following, with fans including director John Landis (“Blues Brothers”) and Demme, who saw in Mr. Napier an actor willing to be mauled, taunted and otherwise humiliated for dramatic or comic effect.

In Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), Mr. Napier was a guard whose face is removed and used as a mask by Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins). He was a fair-minded judge in Demme’s AIDS melodrama “Philadelphia” (1993).

Working with Demme, Mr. Napier played a womanizing trucker with the CB handle Chrome Angel in “Handle With Care” (1977) and then played very against type as an effeminate hairdresser in “Married to the Mob” (1988). He also had small roles in Demme’s “Melvin and Howard” (1980), “Swing Shift” (1984) and “Something Wild” (1986).

Mr. Napier was born in Mount Union, Ky., on April 12, 1936. After Army service, he attended Western Kentucky University and worked as a teacher in Kentucky and Florida while also appearing in community theater productions.

Settling in Southern California, he supplemented his acting work by taking photos for Overdrive Magazine, a trucking publication. He said he began working for Meyer by chance after showing up at a casting call to act as bodyguard to a stripper being considered for a role.

Mr. Napier recently wrote a memoir, “Square Jaw and Big Heart,” in which he recalled his first film with Meyer.

“Russ convinced me to do what is easily the most embarrassing moment of my film career,” he wrote. “He talked me into running naked, except for my boots and hat, straight at the camera. If you ever have the misfortune of seeing yourself doing what I did, you’d never do it again. And I didn’t.”

 

[JennyOHill2]

David Hess, Songwriter of Elvis Hits and Horror Actor, Dead at 69

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OQfucaOFSNg/SX52xwFsj0I/AAAAAAAAAAU/C0Nso9Zoaqs/s320/DavidHessPortrait.jpg

David Hess, a songwriter who penned hits for Elvis Presley and an actor in several horror films, died Friday, Oct. 7 of a heart attack at his home in Tiburon, Calif., the New York Times reports. He was 69 years old.

In 1956, Hess recorded the first version of the Otis Blackwell tune 'All Shook Up' before it became a hit for Elvis Presley. Hess became a professional songwriter for Shalimar Music and went on to write and co-write such songs as Presley's 'I Got Stung' and Pat Boone's No. 1 hit 'Speedy Gonzalez.' Hess also recorded several solo albums, producing the Top 10 folk hit 'Two Brothers,' and later became head of A&R for Mercury.

He made the jump to acting in 1972, starring in Wes Craven's first movie, 'The Last House on the Left,' which was one of the pioneering films in the slasher genre. After that, he got several more roles playing villains in horror flicks, appearing in 'House on the Edge of the Park' and Craven's 1982 'Swamp Thing.'

Hess is survived by his wife Regina, a brother, two sisters, three sons and a daughter.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Dennis Ritchie, Trailblazer in Digital Era, Dies at 70

Dennis M. Ritchie, who helped shape the modern digital era by creating software tools that power things as diverse as search engines like Google and smartphones, was found dead at his home in Berkeley Heights, N.J. He was 70.

Mr. Ritchie, who lived alone, was in frail health in recent years after treatment for prostate cancer and heart disease, said his brother Bill.

In the late 1960s and early ’70s, working at Bell Labs, Mr. Ritchie made a pair of lasting contributions to computer science. He was the principal designer of the C programming language and co-developer of the Unix operating system, working closely with Ken Thompson, his longtime Bell Labs collaborator.

The C programming language, a shorthand of words, numbers and punctuation, is still widely used today, and successors like C++ and Java build on the ideas, rules and grammar that Mr. Ritchie designed. The Unix operating system has similarly had a rich and enduring impact. Its free, open-source variant, Linux, powers many of the world’s data centers, like those at Google and Amazon, and its technology serves as the foundation of operating systems, like Apple’s iOS, in consumer computing devices.

“The tools that Dennis built — and their direct descendants — run pretty much everything today,” said Brian Kernighan, a computer scientist at Princeton University who worked with Mr. Ritchie at Bell Labs.

Those tools were more than inventive bundles of computer code. The C language and Unix reflected a point of view, a different philosophy of computing than what had come before. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, minicomputers were moving into companies and universities — smaller and at a fraction of the price of hulking mainframes.

Minicomputers represented a step in the democratization of computing, and Unix and C were designed to open up computing to more people and collaborative working styles. Mr. Ritchie, Mr. Thompson and their Bell Labs colleagues were making not merely software but, as Mr. Ritchie once put it, “a system around which fellowship can form.”

C was designed for systems programmers who wanted to get the fastest performance from operating systems, compilers and other programs. “C is not a big language — it’s clean, simple, elegant,” Mr. Kernighan said. “It lets you get close to the machine, without getting tied up in the machine.”

Such higher-level languages had earlier been intended mainly to let people without a lot of programming skill write programs that could run on mainframes. Fortran was for scientists and engineers, while Cobol was for business managers.

C, like Unix, was designed mainly to let the growing ranks of professional programmers work more productively. And it steadily gained popularity. With Mr. Kernighan, Mr. Ritchie wrote a classic text, “The C Programming Language,” also known as “K. & R.” after the authors’ initials, whose two editions, in 1978 and 1988, have sold millions of copies and been translated into 25 languages.

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie was born on Sept. 9, 1941, in Bronxville, N.Y. His father, Alistair, was an engineer at Bell Labs, and his mother, Jean McGee Ritchie, was a homemaker. When he was a child, the family moved to Summit, N.J., where Mr. Ritchie grew up and attended high school. He then went to Harvard, where he majored in applied mathematics.

While a graduate student at Harvard, Mr. Ritchie worked at the computer center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and became more interested in computing than math. He was recruited by the Sandia National Laboratories, which conducted weapons research and testing. “But it was nearly 1968,” Mr. Ritchie recalled in an interview in 2001, “and somehow making A-bombs for the government didn’t seem in tune with the times.”

Mr. Ritchie joined Bell Labs in 1967, and soon began his fruitful collaboration with Mr. Thompson on both Unix and the C programming language. The pair represented the two different strands of the nascent discipline of computer science. Mr. Ritchie came to computing from math, while Mr. Thompson came from electrical engineering.

“We were very complementary,” said Mr. Thompson, who is now an engineer at Google. “Sometimes personalities clash, and sometimes they meld. It was just good with Dennis.”

Besides his brother Bill, of Alexandria, Va., Mr. Ritchie is survived by another brother, John, of Newton, Mass., and a sister, Lynn Ritchie of Hexham, England.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

TV Legend, Andy Rooney, dies at 92

Former '60 Minutes' commentator Andy Rooney dies
AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Andy Rooney so dreaded the day he had to end his signature "60 Minutes" commentaries about life's large and small absurdities that he kept going until he was 92 years old.

Even then, he said he wasn't retiring. Writers never retire. But his life after the end of "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney" was short: He died Friday night, according to CBS, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary.

Rooney had gone to the hospital for an undisclosed surgery, but major complications developed and he never recovered.

"Andy always said he wanted to work until the day he died, and he managed to do it, save the last few weeks in the hospital," said his "60 Minutes" colleague, correspondent Steve Kroft.

Rooney talked on "60 Minutes" about what was in the news, and his opinions occasionally got him in trouble. But he was just as likely to discuss the old clothes in his closet, why air travel had become unpleasant and why banks needed to have important-sounding names.

Rooney won one of his four Emmy Awards for a piece on whether there was a real Mrs. Smith who made Mrs. Smith's Pies. As it turned out, there was no Mrs. Smith.

"I obviously have a knack for getting on paper what a lot of people have thought and didn't realize they thought," Rooney once said. "And they say, 'Hey, yeah!' And they like that."

Looking for something new to punctuate its weekly broadcast, "60 Minutes" aired its first Rooney commentary on July 2, 1978. He complained about people who keep track of how many people die in car accidents on holiday weekends. In fact, he said, the Fourth of July is "one of the safest weekends of the year to be going someplace."

More than three decades later, he was railing about how unpleasant air travel had become. "Let's make a statement to the airlines just to get their attention," he said. "We'll pick a week next year and we'll all agree not to go anywhere for seven days."

In early 2009, as he was about to turn 90, Rooney looked ahead to President Barack Obama's upcoming inauguration with a look at past inaugurations. He told viewers that Calvin Coolidge's 1925 swearing-in was the first to be broadcast on radio, adding, "That may have been the most interesting thing Coolidge ever did."

"Words cannot adequately express Andy's contribution to the world of journalism and the impact he made — as a colleague and a friend — upon everybody at CBS," said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. president and CEO.

Jeff Fager, CBS News chairman and "60 Minutes" executive producer, said "it's hard to imagine not having Andy around. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms. We will miss him very much."

For his final essay, Rooney said that he'd live a life luckier than most.

"I wish I could do this forever. I can't, though," he said.

He said he probably hadn't said anything on "60 Minutes" that most of his viewers didn't already know or hadn't thought. "That's what a writer does," he said. "A writer's job is to tell the truth."

True to his occasional crotchety nature, though, he complained about being famous or bothered by fans. His last wish from fans: If you see him in a restaurant, just let him eat his dinner.

Rooney was a freelance writer in 1949 when he encountered CBS radio star Arthur Godfrey in an elevator and — with the bluntness millions of people learned about later — told him his show could use better writing. Godfrey hired him and by 1953, when he moved to TV, Rooney was his only writer.

He wrote for CBS' Garry Moore during the early 1960s before settling into a partnership with Harry Reasoner at CBS News. Given a challenge to write on any topic, he wrote "An Essay on Doors" in 1964, and continued with contemplations on bridges, chairs and women.

"The best work I ever did," Rooney said. "But nobody knows I can do it or ever did it. Nobody knows that I'm a writer and producer. They think I'm this guy on television."

He became such a part of the culture that comic Joe Piscopo satirized Rooney's squeaky voice with the refrain, "Did you ever wonder ..." Rooney never started any of his essays that way. For many years, "60 Minutes" improbably was the most popular program on television and a dose of Rooney was what people came to expect for a knowing smile on the night before they had to go back to work.

Rooney left CBS in 1970 when it refused to air his angry essay about the Vietnam War. He went on TV for the first time, reading the essay on PBS and winning a Writers Guild of America award for it.

He returned to CBS three years later as a writer and producer of specials. Notable among them was the 1975 "Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington," whose lighthearted but serious look at government won him a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.

His words sometimes landed Rooney in hot water. CBS suspended him for three months in 1990 for making racist remarks in an interview, which he denied. Rooney, who was arrested in Florida while in the Army in the 1940s for refusing to leave a seat among blacks on a bus, was hurt deeply by the charge of racism.

Gay rights groups were mad, during the AIDS epidemic, when Rooney mentioned homosexual unions in saying "many of the ills which kill us are self-induced." Indians protested when Rooney suggested Native Americans who made money from casinos weren't doing enough to help their own people.

The Associated Press learned the danger of getting on Rooney's cranky side. In 1996, AP Television Writer Frazier Moore wrote a column suggesting it was time for Rooney to retire. On Rooney's next "60 Minutes" appearance, he invited those who disagreed to make their opinions known. The AP switchboard was flooded by some 7,000 phone calls and countless postcards were sent to the AP mail room.

"Your piece made me mad," Rooney told Moore two years later. "One of my major shortcomings — I'm vindictive. I don't know why that is. Even in petty things in my life I tend to strike back. It's a lot more pleasurable a sensation than feeling threatened."He was one of television's few voices to strongly oppose the war in Iraq after the George W. Bush administration launched it in 2002. After the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, he said he was chastened by its quick fall but didn't regret his "60 Minutes" commentaries.

"I'm in a position of feeling secure enough so that I can say what I think is right and if so many people think it's wrong that I get fired, well, I've got enough to eat," Rooney said at the time.

Andrew Aitken Rooney was born on Jan. 14, 1919, in Albany, N.Y., and worked as a copy boy on the Albany Knickerbocker News while in high school. College at Colgate University was cut short by World War II, when Rooney worked for Stars and Stripes.

With another former Stars and Stripes staffer, Oram C. Hutton, Rooney wrote four books about the war. They included the 1947 book, "Their Conqueror's Peace: A Report to the American Stockholders," documenting offenses against the Germans by occupying forces.

Rooney and his wife, Marguerite, were married for 62 years before she died of heart failure in 2004. They had four children and lived in New York, with homes in Rowayton, Conn., and upstate New York. Daughter Emily Rooney is a former executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight." Brian was a longtime ABC News correspondent, Ellen a photographer and Martha Fishel is chief of the public service division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Services will be private, and it's anticipated CBS News will hold a public memorial later, Brian Rooney said Saturday.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Former Cardinals star Bob Forsch dies at 61

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ST. LOUIS (AP)—Bob Forsch, the only pitcher in St. Louis Cardinals history to throw two no-hitters, has died. He was 61.

Team spokesman Brian Bartow said Forsch, the third-winningest pitcher in franchise history, died Thursday at his home near Tampa, Fla. The cause of death wasn’t immediately known.

The death came less than a week after Forsch threw out the first pitch at Game 7 of the World Series, a few hours before the Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 6-2 to win the championship. Forsch was the stand-in for his longtime manager, Whitey Herzog, who is recovering from a fall that left him in a hospital for more than three weeks.

“I was supposed to throw out the first ball and was still on medicine, so they decided Forschie would do it,” Herzog told the AP in a phone interview from his home in suburban St. Louis County. “We’ve kept in touch throughout the years. To drop dead like that, it’s a real shock.”

Forsch, a 6-foot-4 right-hander known for clutch performances in crucial games, played on three World Series teams in the 1980s under Herzog, and one of his three career postseason victories came against the Milwaukee Brewers in the Cardinals’ 1982 World Series championship.

Forsch won 20 games in 1977 and twice was a 15-game winner, and had a career record of 168-136 with a 3.76 ERA. Forsch was an accomplished hitter, too, with a .213 career average and 12 home runs.

“We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Bob Forsch,” chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said. “Bob was a one of the best pitchers in the history of our organization and a valued member of the Cardinals family.”

Forsch, who was a 26th- round draft pick of St. Louis in 1968, threw no-hitters in 1978 (Phillies) and 1983 (Expos). His older brother, Ken Forsch, threw a no-hitter for the Astros in 1979, making them the only brothers in major league history to pitch official no-hitters.

The younger Forsch is one of only 30 major league pitchers to throw at least two no-hitters, according to STATS LLC. His were the only two thrown at old Busch Stadium, where he won more games and pitched more innings than any other pitcher. In all, he won 163 games for the Cardinals from 1974 to 1988, trailing only Bob Gibson and Jesse Haines. He finished his career with the Astros in 1989.

Herzog said Forsch was well-liked for his bulldog toughness on the mound, and off the field as well. Herzog also said Forsch was one of the more sensible players on his roster.

“I was fortunate to have Bobby on my team,” Herzog said. “He never missed a turn, pitched 200 innings each year. He’d take the ball, and he was a great competitor.”

The last three years, Forsch was the pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds’ rookie league affiliate, the Billings Mustangs.

“He spent his entire life in baseball and touched many people both inside and outside the game,” general manager Walt Jocketty said in a statement. “Over the last few seasons, he played an important part in the development of our young players.

“Our baseball operations staff and the players he touched will miss him.”:

Survivors include Forsch’s wife, Janice, and two daughters.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Family: Frazier dies after fight with cancer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- He beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century, battled him nearly to the death in the Thrilla in Manila. Then Joe Frazier spent the rest of his life trying to fight his way out of Ali's shadow.

That was one fight Frazier could never win.

He was once a heavyweight champion, and a great one at that. Ali would say as much after Frazier knocked him down in the 15th round en route to becoming the first man to beat Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971.

But he bore the burden of being Ali's foil, and he paid the price. Bitter for years about the taunts his former nemesis once threw his way, Frazier only in recent times came to terms with what happened in the past and said he had forgiven Ali for everything he said.

Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be linked to Ali. But no one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin' Joe.

"You can't mention Ali without mentioning Joe Frazier," said former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. "He beat Ali, don't forget that."

They fought three times, twice in the heart of New York City and once in the morning in a steamy arena in the Philippines. They went 41 rounds together, with neither giving an inch and both giving it their all.

In their last fight in Manila in 1975, they traded punches with a fervor that seemed unimaginable among heavyweights. Frazier gave almost as good as he got for 14 rounds, then had to be held back by trainer Eddie Futch as he tried to go out for the final round, unable to see.

"Closest thing to dying that I know of," Ali said afterward.

Ali was as merciless with Frazier out of the ring as he was inside it. He called him a gorilla, and mocked him as an Uncle Tom. But he respected him as a fighter, especially after Frazier won a decision to defend his heavyweight title against the then-unbeaten Ali in a fight that was so big Frank Sinatra was shooting pictures at ringside and both fighters earned an astonishing $2.5 million.

The night at the Garden 40 years ago remained fresh in Frazier's mind as he talked about his life, career and relationship with Ali a few months before he died.

"I can't go nowhere where it's not mentioned," he told The Associated Press. "That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life."

Though slowed in his later years and his speech slurred by the toll of punches taken in the ring, Frazier was still active on the autograph circuit in the months before he died. In September he went to Las Vegas, where he signed autographs in the lobby of the MGM Grand hotel-casino shortly before Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s fight against Victor Ortiz.

An old friend, Gene Kilroy, visited with him and watched Frazier work the crowd.

"He was so nice to everybody," Kilroy said. "He would say to each of them, `Joe Frazier, sharp as a razor, what's your name?'"

Frazier was small for a heavyweight, weighing just 205 pounds when he won the title by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their 1970 fight at Madison Square Garden. But he fought every minute of every round going forward behind a vicious left hook, and there were few fighters who could withstand his constant pressure.

His reign as heavyweight champion lasted only four fights - including the win over Ali - before he ran into an even more fearsome slugger than himself. George Foreman responded to Frazier's constant attack by dropping him three times in the first round and three more in the second before their 1973 fight in Jamaica was waved to a close and the world had a new heavyweight champion.

Two fights later, he met Ali in a rematch of their first fight, only this time the outcome was different. Ali won a 12-round decision, and later that year stopped George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire.

There had to be a third fight, though, and what a fight it was. With Ali's heavyweight title at stake, the two met in Manila in a fight that will long be seared in boxing history.

Frazier went after Ali round after round, landing his left hook with regularity as he made Ali backpedal around the ring. But Ali responded with left jabs and right hands that found their mark again and again. Even the intense heat inside the arena couldn't stop the two as they fought every minute of every round with neither willing to concede the other one second of the round.

"They told me Joe Frazier was through," Ali told Frazier at one point during the fight.

"They lied," Frazier said, before hitting Ali with a left hook.

Finally, though, Frazier simply couldn't see and Futch would not let him go out for the 15th round. Ali won the fight while on his stool, exhausted and contemplating himself whether to go on.

It was one of the greatest fights ever, but it took a toll. Frazier would fight only two more times, getting knocked out in a rematch with Foreman eight months later before coming back in 1981 for an ill advised fight with Jumbo Cummings.

"They should have both retired after the Manila fight," Schuyler said. "They left every bit of talent they had in the ring that day."

Born in Beaufort, S.C., on Jan 12, 1944, Frazier took up boxing early after watching weekly fights on the black and white television on his family's small farm. He was a top amateur for several years, and became the only American fighter to win a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo despite fighting in the final bout with an injured left thumb.

"Joe Frazier should be remembered as one of the greatest fighters of all time and a real man," promoter Bob Arum told the AP in a telephone interview Monday night. "He's a guy that stood up for himself. He didn't compromise and always gave 100 percent in the ring. There was never a fight in the ring where Joe didn't give 100 percent."

After turning pro in 1965, Frazier quickly became known for his punching power, stopping his first 11 opponents. Within three years he was fighting world-class opposition and, in 1970, beat Ellis to win the heavyweight title that he would hold for more than two years.

It was his fights with Ali, though, that would define Frazier. Though Ali was gracious in defeat in the first fight, he was as vicious with his words as he was with his punches in promoting all three fights - and he never missed a chance to get a jab in at Frazier.

Frazier, who in his later years would have financial trouble and end up running a gym in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, took the jabs personally. He felt Ali made fun of him by calling him names and said things that were not true just to get under his skin. Those feelings were only magnified as Ali went from being an icon in the ring to one of the most beloved people in the world.

After a trembling Ali it the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked by a reporter what he thought about it.

"They should have thrown him in," Frazier responded.

He mellowed, though, in recent years, preferring to remember the good from his fights with Ali rather than the bad. Just before the 40th anniversary of his win over Ali earlier this year - a day Frazier celebrated with parties in New York - he said he no longer felt any bitterness toward Ali.

"I forgive him," Frazier said. "He's in a bad way."

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

I liked Frazier almost as much as I did Ali. Joe hated Ali his entire boxing career. I admired Frazier when I was a kid. Never once did I understand his hatred for Ali.

 

[clutch1]

I liked Frazier almost as much as I did Ali. Joe hated Ali his entire boxing career. I admired Frazier when I was a kid. Never once did I understand his hatred for Ali.

Ali called him a gorilla. Sure it was just pre-fight hype which Ali always used to his advantage, but Joe took it personal.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Ali called him a gorilla. Sure it was just pre-fight hype which Ali always used to his advantage, but Joe took it personal.

There has to be more to it than that. Why wait 40 years to 'forgive' someone over publicity hype? Besides, Ali always tried to do whatever he said in the ring. Almost always, he succeeded. It is almost as much a mystery as the Kennedy assassination.

 

[Disgustipated]

Rapper Heavy D Dies

Story

Wiki

http://www.sweetslyrics.com/images/img_gal/5680_Heavy%20D%20And%20The%20Boyz%20Big%20Tyme--f.jpg

 

[JennyOHill2]

'Family Circus' creator Bil Keane dies at 89

PHOENIX (AP) — Bil Keane's "Family Circus" comics entertained readers with a simple but sublime mix of humor and traditional family values for more than a half century. The appeal endured, the author thought, because the American public needed the consistency.

Keane, who started drawing the one-panel cartoon featuring Billy, Jeffy, Dolly, P.J. and their parents in February 1960, died Tuesday at age 89 at his longtime home in Paradise Valley, near Phoenix. His comic strip is featured in nearly 1,500 newspapers across the country.

Jeff Keane, Keane's son who lives in Laguna Hills, Calif., said that his father died of congestive heart failure with one of his other sons by his side after his conditioned worsened during the last month. All of Keane's five children, nine grandchildren and great-granddaughter were able to visit him last week, Jeff Keane said.

"He said, 'I love you' and that's what I said to him, which is a great way to go out," Jeff Keane said of the last conversation he had with his father. "The great thing is Dad loved the family so much, so the fact that we all saw him, I think that gave him great comfort and made his passing easy. Luckily he didn't suffer through a lot of things."

Jeff Keane has been drawing "Family Circus" in the last few years as his father enjoyed retirement.

Keane said in a 1995 interview with The Associated Press that the cartoon had staying power because of its consistency and simplicity.

"It's reassuring, I think, to the American public to see the same family," he said.

Although Keane kept the strip current with references to pop culture movies and songs, the context of his comic was timeless. The ghost-like "Ida Know" and "Not Me" who deferred blame for household accidents were staples of the strip. The family's pets were dogs Barfy and Sam, and the cat, Kittycat.

"We are, in the comics, the last frontier of good, wholesome family humor and entertainment," Keane said. "On radio and television, magazines and the movies, you can't tell what you're going to get. When you look at the comic page, you can usually depend on something acceptable by the entire family."

Jeff Keane shared the sentiment, saying "Family Circus" had flourished through the decades because readers continue to relate to its values of family moments.

"It was a different type of comic, and I think that was my dad's genius — creating something that people could really relate to and wasn't necessarily meant to get a laugh," he said. "It was more of a warm feeling or a lump in the throat."

Keane said the strip hit its stride with a cartoon he did in the mid-1960s.

"It showed Jeffy coming out of the living room late at night in pajamas and Mommy and Daddy watching television and Jeffy says, 'I don't feel so good, I think I need a hug.' And suddenly I got a lot mail from people about this dear little fella needing a hug, and I realized that there was something more than just getting a belly laugh every day."

Even with his traditional motif, Keane appreciated younger cartoonists' efforts. He listed Gary Larson's "The Far Side" among his favorites, and he loved it when Bill Griffith had his offbeat "Zippy the Pinhead" character wake up from a bump on the head thinking he was Keane's Jeffy.

Keane responded by giving Zippy an appearance in "Family Circus."

Born in 1922, Keane taught himself to draw in high school in his native Philadelphia. Around this time, young Bill dropped the second "L'' off his name "just to be different."

He worked as a messenger for the Philadelphia Bulletin before serving three years in the Army, where he drew for "Yank" and "Pacific Stars and Stripes." He met his wife, Thelma ("Thel"), while serving at a desk job in Australia.

He started a one-panel comic in 1953 called "Channel Chuckles" that lampooned the up-and-coming medium of television. (In one, a mom in front of a television, crying baby on her lap, tells her husband: "She slept through two gun fights and a barroom brawl — then the commercial woke her up.")

He moved to Arizona in 1958 and two years later started a comic about a family much like his own. Keane and his wife had a daughter, Gayle, and sons Glen, Jeff, Chris and Neal — one more son than in his cartoon family.

"I never thought about a philosophy for the strip — it developed gradually," Keane told the East Valley Tribune in 1998. "I was portraying the family through my eyes. Everything that's happened in the strip has happened to me.

"That's why I have all this white hair at 39 years old."

Thelma Keane died of Alzheimer's disease in 2008 and was the inspiration for the Mommy character in the comic strip.

When his wife died, Keane called her "the inspiration for all of my success. ...When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up to her and say, 'Aren't you the mommy in 'Family Circus?'"

She also served as his business and financial manager.

Arizona and Keane had a mutual influence on each other. Keane's work can be found all around — from children's centers to ice cream shops.

Likewise, Arizona could also be found in Keane's work.

A 2004 comic saw the family on a scenic lookout over the Grand Canyon with the children asking "Why are the rocks painted different colors" and "What time does it close?"

Jeff Keane said those memories endure.

"He was just our dad. The great thing about him is he worked at home, we got to see him all the time, and we would all sit down and have dinner together. What you see in the 'Family Circus' is what we were and what we still are, just different generations."

 

[JennyOHill2]

Mariners' Greg Halman fatally stabbed

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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Seattle Mariners outfielder Greg Halman was stabbed to death early Monday and his brother was arrested as a suspect, Dutch police said.

Rotterdam Police spokeswoman Patricia Wessels said police were called to a home in the port city in the early hours of the morning and found the 24-year-old Dutch player bleeding from a stab wound.

The officers and ambulance paramedics were unable to resuscitate Halman.

Wessels said the officers arrested Halman's 22-year-old brother. She declined to give his name, in line with Dutch privacy rules.

"He is under arrest and right now he is being questioned," Wessels told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It will take some time to figure out what exactly happened."

No charges have been filed in the case.

Mike Nicotera, Halman's agent, said in a statement: "This hurts."

"The loss of a talented 24-year-old young man like Greg, amid such tragic circumstances, is painful for all of us throughout the game," MLB commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. "On behalf of Major League Baseball, I send my deepest condolences to the entire Mariners organization and to all those whose lives were touched by Greg."

Mariners chairman Howard Lincoln, president Chuck Armstrong and general manager Jack Zduriencik paid tribute to Halman on behalf of the club.

"Greg was a part of our organization since he was 16 and we saw him grow into a passionate young man and talented baseball player," they said in a statement. "He had an infectious smile that would greet you in the clubhouse, and he was a tremendous teammate. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Greg's family."

Halman hit .230 in 35 games and made starts at all three outfield positions for the Mariners in 2011 before being optioned to Triple-A Tacoma.

Because he played professionally in the United States, Halman was not part of the Netherlands team that won the Baseball World Cup in Panama last month. The Dutch beat Cuba 2-1 in the final to become the first European team to win the title.

Born in the city of Haarlem, Halman played in the Dutch Pro League and was part of the gold medal winning Dutch squad at the 2007 European Championship.

MLB Players Association president Michael Weiner said in a statement that the union was "deeply saddened" to learn of Halman's death.

"Greg was passionate about the game of baseball and generously gave of himself to share his passion with others in an attempt to help grow the sport's popularity across Europe. He will be sorely missed. Having played for the Netherlands in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, and having participated in the recent 2011 European Big League Tour, Greg's lasting legacy is sure to be the trail he helped blaze for European youth to follow in his footsteps," Weiner said in the statement.

Former major leaguer Robert Eenhorn, the technical director of the Dutch baseball association, said he was devastated by the news.

"The only thing I can say right now is we are deeply shocked," Eenhorn, who played for the New York Yankees and Anaheim Angels in the 1990s, told the AP. "All our thoughts are with his family and how they are going to have to deal with this tremendous loss."

Halman was in Europe this month as part of the European Big League Tour, an initiative organized by Baltimore Orioles pitcher Rick VandenHurk in which major leaguers gave clinics to children. VandenHurk also is Dutch.

"It's really sad and it's really terrible the way it happened," International Baseball Federation president Riccardo Fraccari said. "We mourn for him and respect his family's sorrow."

Massimo Fochi, the vice president of the Italian baseball federation, said he met Halman less than two weeks ago at a European Big League Tour event in Parma.

"He was a great guy and the most appreciated by the kids," Fochi said. "His passing away is really painful."

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Larry Munson dies at 89

ATHENS, Ga. -- The University of Georgia's Sports Communications office has confirmed that the legendary "voice of the Bulldogs" has died.

Larry Munson passed away at his Athens home Sunday night with complications from pneumonia, according to his son.

Munson began calling games for the Georgia Bulldogs in 1966 and continued until 2008.

Over the years, Munson delivered some of the most passionate and memoriable calls in football history.

A favorite among Dawg fans is this call he made during Herschel Walker's 1980 debut against Tennessee: "We hand it off to Herschel! There's a hole! Five! 10! 12! He's running over people! Oh, you Herschel Walker!... My God Almighty he ran right through two men. He drove right over orange shirts, just driving and running with those big thighs. My God, a freshman!"

Verron Haynes, who was on the receiving end of the famous "Hobnail Boot" call wrote on facebook.com/11alive: "Larry Munson allowed us Bulldog players to become names and more than just numbers. It was an honor to have such an announcer legend call my Hobnail Boot play. We will miss you Larry and your name will live on through your voice, forever archived. Today we pay our respects and send prayers to the family of the 'Legendary Voice of the Georgia Bulldogs,' Mr. Larry Munson."

Munson received numerous honors for his tenure with the Bulldogs. In 1983, Gov. Zell Miller honored him with a proclamation celebrating his 50 years in broadcasting.

In 1994, Munson was inducted into the Georgia Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In 2009, he won a similar induction into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.

Munson entered radio broadcasting after serving in World War II. He used his military discharge pay to enroll in broadcaster's school in Minneapolis, Minn. After 10 weeks of training, he landed a job at a small radio station in North Dakota.
Munson got his big break in 1966, when he landed a job calling Atlanta Braves baseball in their inaugural season. That job didn't last long, however, because after one phone call with UGA Athletics Director Joel Eaves, he was offered the Georgia football job.

Georgia fans welcomed him into their hearts until health problems forced him to retire in 2008.

According to family, funeral arrangements have not been made.

Munson was 89 years old.

 

[JennyOHill2]

Karl Slover, actor who played trumpeter Munchkin in ‘The Wizard of Oz”

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DUBLIN, Ga. — Karl Slover, one of the last surviving actors who played Munchkins in the 1939 classic film, “The Wizard of Oz,” has died. He was 93.

The 4-foot-5 Slover died of cardiopulmonary arrest in a central Georgia hospital, said Laurens County Deputy Coroner Nathan Stanley.

Slover was best known for playing the lead trumpeter in the Munchkins’ band but also had roles as a townsman and soldier in the film, said John Fricke, author of “100 Years of Oz” and five other books on the movie and its star, Judy Garland. Slover was one of the tiniest male Munchkins in the movie.

Long after Slover retired, he continued to appear around the country at festivals and events related to the movie. He was one of seven Munchkins at the 2007 unveiling of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame dedicated to the little people in the movie. Only three remain of the 124 diminutive actors who played the beloved Munchkins.

Slover was born Karl Kosiczky in what is now the Czech Republic and he was the only child in his family to be dwarf sized.

“In those uninformed days, his father tried witch doctor treatments to make him grow,” Fricke said. “Knowing Karl and his triumph over his early life, you can’t help but celebrate the man at a time like this.”

He was buried in the backyard, immersed in heated oil until his skin blistered and then attached to a stretching machine at a hospital, all in the attempt to make him become taller. Eventually he was sold by his father at age 9 to a traveling show in Europe, Fricke said.

Slover continued to perform into his late 20s, when he moved to the United States, changed his name and appeared in circuses as part of a vaudeville group known as the Singer Midgets. The group’s 30 performers became the nucleus of the Munchkins.

He was paid $50 a week for the movie and told friends that Garland’s dog in the movie, “Toto,” made more money.

The surviving Munchkin actors found new generations of fans in the late 1980s when they began making appearances around the country.

“It wasn’t until the Munchkins started making their appearances in 1989 that they all came to realize how potent the film had become and remained,” Fricke said. “He was wonderfully articulate about his memories, he had anecdotes to share.”

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

*clicks*

 

[phrodeau]

http://images.wikia.com/x-files/images/6/6e/Well-Manicured_Man.jpg

John Neville, O.B.E. C.M., who ran theatres on two continents, starred on stage, screen and television and could list Judi Dench, Liv Ullman and Vanessa Redgrave among his leading ladies, died in Toronto on Nov. 19 at the age of 86.

In Canada, he will best be remembered for having been Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival from 1986-1989, as well as having led the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton and the Neptune Theatre in Halifax.

A study in contrasts, the honey-voiced thespian with the ramrod posture and patrician onstage air was actually the son of a British lorry driver.

And despite the fact that he became famous playing monarchs like Richard II and Henry V, his feet were always on the ground. His politics pointed ever leftwards and he was married for 62 years to the former Caroline Hooper cherishing her, their six children and their six grandchildren above all else.

He dazzled in his early years with the Old Vic, alternating the roles of Othello and Iago with a young Richard Burton and creating the part of Alfie in the stage version of the play that would later go on to make Michael Caine famous on screen.

At the height of his West End success, he threw it all over in 1963 to become the first Artistic Director of the Nottingham Playhouse, emmigrating to Canada when he was invited to direct and act for the National Arts Centre Theatre Company in 1972.

Following his time there, as well as at the Citadel and Neptune Theatres, he took over a financially troubled Stratford Festival in 1986 and turned its fortunes around in three seasons by a combination of savvy practicality (he put the first musical on the Festival stage) and artistic daring (programming all three of Shakespeare’s late romances in one season).

During those years, his star rose even higher when Terry Gilliam cast him in the title role of The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, then after Stratford he became famous as “The Well-Manicured Man” on the cult series, The X-Files as well as numerous other appearances.

He always raised the quality of every company he was with, bringing Peggy Ashcroft to Edmonton, or Tony Randall to Halifax.

Dame Judi Dench made her professional debut as Ophelia opposite Neville’s Hamlet in 1957 and the feelings she shared with the Star in a 2009 interview sum up those of his other colleagues as well.

"Dearest John, what a great actor, a great man and a great friend. I learned everything you need to know about the craft of acting from him: the energy required, the quality of danger you have to bring to everything you do, the importance of vocal and emotional clarity; he understood it all.”

The last few years found him inactive for the first time in a long career as he battled against Alzheimer’s disease, which finally claimed him on Saturday at Wellesley Central Place in Toronto.

There will be a private family funeral this week, followed by a public memorial to be announced in the new year.

http://www.thestar.com/article/1090000--former-stratford-director-john-neville-died-saturday

 

[Weird Harold]

RIP Anne McCaffrey

from Del Rey's website:

It is with great sadness that Del Rey Books and Random House report the passing of beloved author Anne McCaffrey. Anne McCaffrey was best known for her award-winning and immensely popular Dragonriders of Pern® novels. McCaffrey died at her home in Ireland on November 21st shortly after suffering a stroke. She was 85 years old. She is survived by her two sons and daughter. We will provide more information as we receive it from Anne’s family.

 

[Mushroom_Samba]

http://images.wikia.com/x-files/images/6/6e/Well-Manicured_Man.jpg

sad.

from Del Rey's website:

It is with great sadness that Del Rey Books and Random House report the passing of beloved author Anne McCaffrey. Anne McCaffrey was best known for her award-winning and immensely popular Dragonriders of Pern® novels. McCaffrey died at her home in Ireland on November 21st shortly after suffering a stroke. She was 85 years old. She is survived by her two sons and daughter. We will provide more information as we receive it from Anne’s family.

this is upsetting