2016 Death Pool

Here's a list of celebrities who passed away this year.

JANUARY
10th - David Bowie, 69. Musician/actor.
14th - Alan Rickman, 69. Actor.
17th - Dale "Buffin" Griffin, 67. Drummer.
18th - Glenn Frey, 67. Musician.
26th - Abe Vigoda, 94. Actor.
28th - Paul Kantner, 74. Musician.

FEBRUARY
13th - Antonin Scalia, 79. U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
16th - Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 93. U.N. Secretary-General.
19th - Harper Lee, 89. "To Kill a Mockingbird," novelist.
19th - Umberto Eco, 84. "The Name of the Rose." author.

MARCH
6th - Nancy Reagan, 94. First Lady.
8th - George Martin, 90. Music producer.
22nd - Phife Dawg, 45. Lyricist.
24th - Garry Shandling, 66. Actor and comedian .
29th - Patty Duke, 69. Actress.

APRIL
6th - Merle Haggard, 79. Country singer.
17th - Doris Roberts, 90. Actress.
20th - Chyna, 46. Pro-wrestler.
20th - Victoria Wood, 63. Actress, singer, screenwriter, director.
20th - Dwayne "Pearl" Washington, 52. NBA player.
21st - Prince, 57. Musician.

MAY
19th - Morley Safer, 84. "60 Minutes" correspondent.

JUNE
3rd - Muhammad Ali, 74. Heavyweight boxing champion.
6th - Peter Shaffer, 90. British playwright.
6th - Kimbo Slice, 42. MMA fighter.
10th - Gordie Howe, 88. Hockey player.
10th- Christina Grimmie, 27. Singer
28th - Pat Summitt, 64. Women's college basketball coach.

JULY
2nd - Elie Wiesel, 87. Holocaust survivor & humanitarian.
2nd - Michael Cimino, 77. Movie director.
9th - Sydney H. Schanberg, 82. Newspaper correspondent .
16th - Nate Thurmond, 74. NBA Player.
24th - Marni Nixon, 86. Hollywood voice double.

AUGUST
13th - Kenny Baker, 81, Actor (R2D2)
16th - John McLaughlin, 89. Commentator & tv host.
28th - Gene Wilder, 83. Actor.

SEPTEMBER
5th - Phyllis Schlafly, 92. Conservative activist.
16th - Edward Albee, 88. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
16th - W.P. Kinsella, 81. "Field of Dreams." novelist.
25th - Arnold Palmer, 87. Pro Golfer.
28th - Shimon Peres, 93. Israeli President & Prime Minister.

OCTOBER
13th - Dario Fo, 90. Playwright & Nobel Prize for Literature.
13th - King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88. Thailand monarch.
15th - Dennis Byrd, 51. Former NFL defensive lineman.

NOVEMBER
7th - Janet Reno, 78. First woman U.S. Attorney General.
7th - Leonard Cohen, 82. Baritone singer-songwriter.
11th - Robert Vaughn, 83. Actor.
14th - Gwen Ifill, 61. PBS Co-anchor & journalist.
23rd - Ralph Branca, 90. Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher.
24th - Florence Henderson, 82. Broadway & tv actress.
25th - Fidel Castro, 90. Cuban leader.
25th - Ron Glass, 71. Actor.

DECEMBER
6th - Peter Vaughan, 93. Actor (Game of Thrones)
8th - John Glenn, 95.Astronaut & U.S. Senator.
13th - Alan Thicke, 69. Actor.
15th - Craig Sager, 65. NBA reporter.
17th - Henry Heimlich, 96. Surgeon (Heimlich maneuver).
18th - Zsa Zsa Gabor, 99. Actress.
24th - Richard Adams, 96. "Watership Down" author.
25th - George Michael, 53. Singer.
25th - Alexandrov Military Ensemble - 64 Musicians. Plane crash
25th - Michu Meszaros, 71. Actor (ALF)
26th - Ricky Harris, 54. Actor & comedian.
27th - Carrie Fisher, 60. Actress.
27th - George S Irvingis year.
28th - Debbie Reynolds, 84. Actress.
30th - George Kosana, 81. Actor
31st - William Christopher, 84. Actor (Father Mulcahy from MASH)

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Tonight!

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Hogmanay \hog-muh-NEY\, noun:

• a gift given on New Year's Eve.

proper noun:

• New Year's Eve in Scotland.

Hogmanay is the name for Scottish New Year's Eve. It probably comes from the Old French aguillanneuf, "last day of the year."

 

New Year's Heaves

• To "throw up" multiple times on New Year's Eve, typically caused from excessive drinking after the realization that it was yet another sucky year of life. This happens many times when people see their significant other kissing someone else on the "stroke of 12" during the Midnight hour.

If it wasn't for Bobby having the New Year's Heaves, we could have seen Dick Clark celebrate his 243rd straight New Year's broadcast.

new year's eve

• The one night of the year when getting drunk and making a fool of yourself is not optional, but in fact mandatory.

Sara displayed her exemplary discretion by making out with a mere 15 guys at the frat party on new year's eve.

 
Holiday

• New Year's Eve

History

• light bulb: was first demonstrated by inventor Thomas Edison, in Menlo Park, New Jersey (1879)
• Times Square: Waterford crystal ball dropped for the first time in celebration of New Year's Eve (1907)
• farthing: British coin in use since 13th century ceased to be legal tender (1960)
• Panama Canal: waterway that connects the Caribbean with the Pacific was handed over to Panama by the US in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties (1999)

Birthdays

• Henri Matisse 1869
• George Marshall 1880
• Simon Wiesenthal 1908
• Jonah (Robert) Jones 1908
• Rex Allen ("The Arizona Cowboy") 1924
• Ross Barbour (The Four Freshmen) 1928
• Odetta 1930
• Anthony Hopkins 1937
• Rosalind Cash 1938
• Sarah Miles 1941
• Tim Considine 1941
• Andy Summers (Police) 1942
• John Denver 1943
• Ben Kingsley 1943
• Pete Quaife (The Kinks) 1943
• Barbara Carrera 1945
• Diane von Furstenberg 1945
• Tim Matheson 1947
• Burton Cummings (The Guess Who) 1947
• Donna Summer 1948
• Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith) 1951 
• James Remar 1953
• Bebe Neuwirth 1958
• Joe Dallesandro 1958
• Val Kilmer 1959
• Paul Westerberg 1959
• Scott "NOT" Ian (Anthrax) 1963
• Gong Li 1965 
• Joe McIntyre (New Kids on the Block) 1972

WTF Friday: In Soviet Russia...

I got nothing for this one.

TGIF! Friday, December 30, 2016

dithyrambic \dith-uh-RAM-bik\, adjective:

1. Wildly enthusiastic.
2. Wildly irregular in form.
3. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a dithyramb.

Dithyrambic is ultimately from dithyrambos, a word of unknown origin but associated with Greek, meaning "a wild choric hymn, originally in honor of Dionysus."

 

Internet Coma

• When you are sitting on your couch, feet up on the coffee table, laptop on your lap. 4-10 hours later you are in an entirely prone position with your legs off the edge of the coffee table and your head on the seat cushion. You become completely unresponsive to your surroundings.
• Loss of peripheral vision, amnesia, severely reduced motor function ability, and drooling with one eye closed are common symptoms.

I got online this morning to check my email and mess around on facebook for a bit. Next thing I know it's 7pm, my legs are totally numb, and I have this nasty trail of dried drool down my chin. That internet coma completely ruined my day!

Amazonukkah

• When Christmas really lasts 8 days because the presents take longer to deliver from Amazon.com than anticipated by the purchaser. This is often caused by the reckless use of Super Saver Shipping on items which were bought on Christmas Eve. As a result, the presents are received in small amounts each day over an 8 day period, similar to Hanukkah.

Kid 1: Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?

Kid 2: I dunno, we're celebrating Amazonukkah this year. My parents are real procrastinators. FML

Holiday

• Bacon Day
  

History

• Gadsden Purchase: was signed, acquiring the land of southern New Mexico and Arizona from Mexico (1853)
• The Pirates of Penzance: Gilbert and Sullivan operetta was first staged (1879)
• USSR: was established when Russia joined Byelorussia, Ukraine and the Transcaucasian Federation (1922)
• Arroyo Seco Parkway: aka the Pasadena Freeway, connecting Los Angeles with Pasadena, opened (1940)
• Saddam Hussein: the Iraqi dictator was executed by hanging for war crimes in the Dujail massacre (2006)

Birthdays

• André Messager 1853
  
• Rudyard Kipling 1865
• Simon Guggenheim 1867
• Stephen Leacock 1869
• Hideki Tojo 1884
• Vincent Lopez 1895
• Bert Parks 1914
• Marie Wilson 1915
• Jo Van Fleet 1922
• Bo Diddley 1928
• Barbara Nichols 1929
• Jack Lord 1930
  
• Skeeter Davis 1931
• Russ Tamblyn 1934
• Fred Lorenzen 1934
• Sandy Koufax (MLB) 1935
• John Hartford 1937
• Noel Paul Stookey 1937
• Paul Stookey (Peter, Paul and Mary) 1937
• Joseph Bologna 1938
• Del Shannon 1939
• Fred Ward 1942
• Michael Nesmith (Monkees) 1942
• Davy Jones (Monkees) 1945

• Roger Glover (Rainbow) 1945
• Patti Smith 1946
• Jeff Lynne (E.L.O., Traveling Wilburys) 1947
• Suzy Bogguss 1956
• Sheryl Lee Ralph 1956
• Patricia Kalember 1956
• Matt Lauer 1957
• Tracey Ullman 1959
• Ben Johnson 1961
• Jay Kay (Jamiroquai) 1969
• Tiger Woods 1975
• Meredith Monroe 1976
• Tyrese 1978
• Eliza Dushku 1980
• Kristin Kreuk 1982

Turtle New Year!

Thursday, December 29, 2016

engram \EN-gram\, noun:

1. The supposed physical basis of an individual memory in the brain.

2. A presumed encoding in neural tissue that provides a physical basis for the persistence of memory; a memory trace.

Engram derives from the Greek roots en, "within," and gram, "something written."

voluntold

• The exact opposite of volunteering. Always used in reference to an unpleasant task to which you have been assigned by your boss.

Example 1:

Co-worker 1: I hear you got a transfer.

Co-worker 2: Yeah. I didn't want to, but I was voluntold.

Example 2:

Co-worker 1: You want to go fishing Saturday???

Co-worker 2: I can't, I got voluntold I have to work this weekend.

History

• Thomas Becket: the Archbishop of Canturbury was killed by four knights in his cathedral; he later became a saint (1170)
• Texas: Lone Star State became the 28th American state (1845)
• YMCA: the first such men's club in the US was founded, based on the London model that was started in the previous decade by George Williams (1851)
• Wounded Knee Massacre: last major confrontation between the Sioux and the US Army ended with hundreds of Indians killed (1890)
• Tian Tan Buddha: 110-ft.-(34 m.)-tall bronze Buddha statue in Hong Kong was completed (1993)
• Guatemala: peace treaty ended 36 years of civil strife (1996) 

Birthdays

• Marquise de Pompadour 1721
• Charles Goodyear 1800
• Andrew Johnson (U.S.) 1808
• William Gladstone 1809
• Pablo Casals 1876
• Viveca Lindfors 1920
• William Gaddis 1922
• Rose Lee Maphis 1922
• Dina Merrill 1928
• Inga Swenson 1932
• Tom Jarriel 1934
• Ed Flanders 1934
• Ray Nitschke 1936
• Jon Voight 1938
• Mary Tyler Moore 1938
• Ed Bruce 1940
• Ray Thomas (Moody Blues) 1942
• Marianne Faithfull 1946
  
• Ted Danson 1947
• Cozy Powell 1947
• Jon Polito 1950
• Gelsey Kirkland 1952
• Yvonne Elliman (Jesus Christ Superstar) 1953
• Ed Autry 1954
• Neil Geraldo 1955
• Paula Poundstone 1960
• Mark Day (Happy Mondays) 1961
• Jim Reid (The Jesus and Mary Chain) 1961
• Jason Gouuld 1966
• Mystro Clark 1966
• Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket) 1970
• Jude Law 1972
• Shawn Hatosy 1975
• Jessica Andrews 1983

Hasselhoff Wednesday: Happy Chanukah!

This looks like a photo of my old band, The Rabbis of Doom!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

gambrinus \gam-BRAHY-nuhs\, noun:

• A mythical Flemish king, the reputed inventor of beer.

Gambrinus is a folkoric name that has uncertain grounding in history.

 

mechanic

• A paid assassin who "fixes" a problem, i.e., offs someone who has been causing trouble for the person paying the assassin.

You wantsta rub him out? You hires yourself a mechanic. Easy.

History

• Westminster Abbey: London church where kings have been crowned since 1066 was consecrated (1065)
• Iowa: the Hawkeye State became America's 29th state (1846)
• chewing gum: patent was issued to William Finley Semple of Ohio (1869)
• Cyrano de Bergerac: Edmond Rostand's heroic comedy premiered in Paris (1897)
• The Pledge of Allegiance: US oath of loyalty was officially recognized by Congress (1945)
• Elizabeth Jordan Carr: the first American in-vitro fertilization baby was born in Norfolk, Virginia (1981)

Birthdays

• Woodrow Wilson 1856 - 28th U.S. President
• Arthur Stanley Eddington 1882
• John Molson 1763 - Beer brewer, founder of Molson Beer
• Cliff Arquette (Charley Weaver) 1905 - Actor (The RCA Victor Show, Hollywood Squares), grandfather of actress Roseanna Arquette
• Earl "Fatha" Hines 1905 - Musician, songwriter, bandleader
• Lew Ayres 1908 - Actor (Of Mice and Men, Advice and Consent)
• Billy Williams 1910
• Sam Levinson 1911 - Humorist
• Lou Jacobi 1913 - Actor (Arthur, The Diary of Anne Frank)
• Roebuck "Pop" Staples (Staples Singers) 1915
• Stan Lee 1922 - Artist, writer, creator of Marvel Comics (Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk)

  
• Johnny Otis 1924
• Hildegarde Kneff 1925 - Actress (The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Svengali)
• Martin Milner 1927 - Actor (Route 66, Adam 12, Columbo)
• Dorsey Burnette 1932 - Singer
• Maggie Smith 1934 - Actress (Lettice & Lovage)
• Bruce Yarnell 1935 - Actor (The Outlaws)
• Charles Neville 1938 - Musician (The Neville Brothers)
• Bobby Comstock 1943 - Singer
• Hubert "Hubie" Green 1946 - Golfer
• Edgar Winter 1946 - Musician (Edgar Winter’s White Trash)
• Dick Diamonde (Dingeman Van Der Sluys) 1947 - Musician (The Easybeats)
• Aurelio (Ituarte) Rodriguez 1947 - Baseball player
• Alex Chilton 1950 - Musician (Big Star, Box Tops)

  
• Denzel Washington 1954 - Actor (Glory, Malcolm X, The Hurricane)
• Nigel Kennedy 1956
• Joe Diffie 1958 - Musician
• Mike McGuire 1958 - Musician (Shenandoah)
• Chad McQueen 1960
• Marty Roe 1960 - Musician (Diamond Rio)
• Anita Doth 1971 - Singer (2 unlimited)
  Noomi Rapace 1979 
• Sienna Miller 1981
• Mackenzie Rosman 1989  

Review Tuesday: Ash vs The Evil Dead Season 2

What I've been watching this season...

ASH VS THE EVIL DEAD

Season 2

Ash and the team have to get back to business with unlikely allies and forced to take strolls down memory lane, both literally and figuratively, to save the world. 

THE EVIL DEAD is as cultish a movie as there ever will be. If you hit your teen years at anytime during the 1980's you were swept up in the hype and had to at least give the unlikely trilogy a view. The original Evil Dead was grossly overrated. There was little story and plot to it and seemed more like Sam Raimi was just some film student experimenting on a project. Evil Dead 2 was more like a reboot, a more coherent and polished version of Evil Dead. The development of Ash made it endearing and lovable. Then the studio pulled a fast one and Raimi had to change the name for the third installment, Army of Darkness. Fast forward a couple decades and Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi got back together to create a series based on that trilogy called -- what else? -- ASH vs THE EVIL DEAD. Season two finished up earlier this month and has enough of a following that it appears to be on track for a third season, likely coming out next October. 

Season one was about Ash being an idiot and getting pulled back into the world of the Necronomicon and demons on Earth. Season one seemed to end with Ash settling on a truce with the main villain, Ruby (played by Lucy Lawless) and decides to retire to Jacksonville, Florida. 

Of course the world and Ash and his team (Kelly and Pablo played by Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago) can never be safe while demons and deadites walk the Earth. In a moment of perfidy, Ruby's "children", which are vicious demons, turn on her. Ruby has to beg ASh and the team to help her recover the Necronomican. 

The season ran ten 30-moniute episodes without commercial breaks. Thanks cable! It was like having a little taste of bloody gory horror flick each week without having to commit for the long-haul. Seems appropriate when you have an irresponsible lead-man like Ash. 

A lot of fun. A bunch of gore. Really nicely executed special effects. This may be a TV series, but Raimi didn't cheap out at all. Again, A LOT OF FUN!   

More on IMDB

STAR WARS Heroine CARRIE FISHER dead at 60

WTF 2016! Stop it already!

After going into cardiac arrest over the weekend while on a flight flight, Carrie Fisher passed away earlier today. She was 60.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

eschatological \es-kuh-tl-OJ-i-kuhl\, adjective:

1. Regarding last, or final, matters, often of a theological nature.

2. Regarding any system of doctrines concerning theological endings, such as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc.

Eschatological is built from the Greek roots eschatos, "last, furthest, remote," and logia, "a speaking" (in a certain manner). In theology, the study of the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, hell.

 

Christmas Crashing

• Used to describe the after-effect of Christmas, or the Holidays in general: 12 Days of Hanukkah/Christmas, etc. is usually a busy time, very exciting, and enjoyable. By the end of the celebrations (The night of Christmas Day/Dec. 26th) you feel exhausted and overwhelmed. People are usually groggy, lethargic, and almost depressed from exhaustion.

I love Christmas. But all the celebrating, visiting with family, and celebrating...I'm Christmas Crashing

Joe 1: What are you doing for New Years?

Joe 2: I'll be in rehab.

Joe 1: Why?

Joe 2: I'm Christmas Crashing hard this year. The idea of going out for a drive is exhausting.

History

• anesthesia: was first used for childbirth (1845)
• Peter Pan: play by J.M. Barrie debuted in London (1904)
• Carry Nation: hatchet-wielding temperance activist smashed her first saloon (1900)
• Radio City Music Hall: world's largest indoor theater staged its first show (1932)
• World Bank: was formed to fund postwar reconstruction in Europe; later, the focus turned to developing third-world countries (1945)
• Afghanistan: was seized by Soviet forces; president Hafizullah Amin, was overthrown, executed and replaced with Soviet-supported Babrak Karmal (1979)
• Free Aceh Movement: Indonesia's Aceh rebels formally disbanded their military wing, ending a 30-year armed struggle for independence, in accordance with a peace deal that came out of the 2004 tsunami (2005)

Birthdays

• Johannes Kepler 1571
• George Cayley 1773
• Louis Pasteur 1822
• Sydney Greenstreet 1879
• Marlene Dietrich 1901
• Anna Russell 1911
• William H. Masters 1915
• Oscar Levant 1916
• Scotty Moore 1931
• Walter Norris 1931
• Lee Salk 1926
• Inga Swenson 1932
• Dave Marr 1933
• Bernard Lanvin 1935
• John Amos 1941
• Leslie Maguire (Gerry and The Pacemakers) 1941
• Pete Quaife (Kinks) 1943
• Cokie Roberts 1943
• Tracy Nelson 1944
• Mickey Redmond 1947
• Mick Jones (Foreigner) 1947
• Gerard Depardieu 1948
• Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons) 1950
• Karla Bonoff 1952
  
• Tovah Feldshuh 1952
• David Knopfler (Dire Straits) 1952
• Arthur Kent 1953
• John Watts (Fischer-Z) 1954
• Maryam D'Abo 1960
• Youth (Killing Joke) 1961
• Jeff Bryant (Ricochet) 1962
• Eva La Rue 1966
• Joan Marie "Chyna" Laurer 1969
• Matt Slocum (Six Pence None The Richer) 1972
• Wilson Cruz 1973
• Olu 1973
• Emilie de Ravin - Actress ("Roswell", "Lost")