I've wanted to do this blog since January, but it's been so busy driving the school bus.
I have to be up and at 'em at 5am, so by evening I'm pretty zonked! I've been going to bed
at 9pm some nights!! I haven't done that since I was 8 years old!

While on the surface the subject matter seems a rather grim and gloomy item for a blog,
the reason I wanted to write about it because I find it strange how we feel so sad about
someone who we don't even know. When I think of some of the stars that have passed
away over the years I am surprised at my sense of grief. I think it's a combination of true
sadness, a kind of sense of loss and, if we're honest here, a tinge of greed!

TCM made an beautiful tribute to the passing stars and it is simply beautiful. WATCH IT HERE
and be sure to hit "High Quality". It was wonderfully done with care. Someone there really cared enough. May cause a lump in the throat. Have a tissue handy as well!

BTW, the song is called "God Only Knows" by Joe Henry and it is very moving.
Watch him perform it HERE.
HERE are the lyrics.

HERE is another one done by a fan of movies.
Music: "The Famous Final Scene" by Bob Seger

We'll never again enjoy a laugh with, Bernie Mac, George Carlin, Harvey Korman or Dick Martin.
We'll never again be able to sit stunned by acting performances by the likes of Charlton Heston,
Paul Newman, Mel Ferrer, Roy Scheider, Suzanne Pleshette, Van Johnson, Nina Foch, Eartha Kitt or Richard Widmark or Lois Nettleton. Never again will we read any stories or screenplays from the pens of authors Michael Chrichton or Arthur C. Clarke.

Some of the departed are of less known fame, but more icons of the news events of the time. Some, like famous stars are more a marker of our own mortality, as we remember where we were etc. when that person became famous. They are the watershed moments of our own lives. When they go we're reminded that we're that much closer to shaking hands with the grim reaper! Brrrr!

While some of them had long since left the public eye and had a great career and it simply was their time to go, and we give them a heartfelt and warm thank-you's: Paul Newman, Charlton Heston, Harvey Korman, Richard Widmark, etc. But some others still had more to give and went far, far too soon; Heath Ledger, Bernie Mac, Brad Renfro, Anthony Minghella, Michael Chrichton and many others. You can't help but think, "What more would they have done?"

Of course every year I am shocked to hear of someone's death. The worst was Roddy McDowel back in 1998. I didn't know he died for almost 2 years! I simply thought he was doing plays or directing etc. Or even this year, as I only just heard that James Whitmore died Feb. 6th 2009!

SURPRISED ME:

Majell Barett - Actress: Star Trek (Mrs. Roddenberry)
Michael Chrichton - Author/Director/Doctor: Jurrasic Park, Terminal Man, Andromedia Strain, Congo, Sphere, Disclosure, Rising Sun. TV: ER

UNDER THE RADAR:

Allan Melvin - Beloved character actor: Dick Van Dyke Show, Sam the Butcher (Brady Bunch), Magillia Gorillia, countless other cartoon voices.
Don LaFontaine - Voice actor: Movie Trailer king...."In a World...."
Earle Hagen-composer: themes for Dick Van Dyke Show, Mod Squad, 8isenough, That Girl, I Spy, Make Room for Daddy
Neal Hefti- composer: themes for Batman, The Odd Couple (movie/TV),
Sir Edmond Hillary-Explorer and Mt. Everest conqueror
Bobby Fischer-Former World Chess Grandmaster (legendary battles with Soviet Champion Boris Spassky
Richard Knerr - co-founder of the Wham-O toy company that introduced hula hoops, the Frisbee, slip'n slide and Silly String to North American children
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - Guru and the man who brought transcendental mediation from India to the West through the Beatles.
William F. Buckley - conservative commentator and journalist in the United States, founded the magazine National Review in 1955 and hosted the political talk show "Firing Line" from 1966 to 1999.
Gary Gygax - the co-inventor of Dungeon's and Dragons.
Herb Peterson - a McDonald's franchise owner who invented the Egg McMuffin in 1972
Jim McKay -American sportscaster. Voice of "Agony of Defeat" on Wide World of Sports. He covered the 1972 Munich Olympic games and the terrible Israeli athlete kidnapping/massacre.
Randy Pausch- Carnegie Mellon University professor. Made famous by his inspirational "last lecture" on obtaining your childhood dreams. (WATCH IT HERE)
Bettie Page- The original pin-up girl of the 50's and 60's. Famous posing as Miss January in the 1955 Playboy calendar
W. Mark Felt - The FBI bureaucrat who was revealed in 2005 to be "Deep Throat"; reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein source of Watergate information and helped bring down the Nixon presidency.
Martha "Sunny" von Bulow - American socialite. After 28 years in a insulin induced coma in a nursing home at 76 in New York City. Her husband Claus von Bulow was aquitted of trying to kill her.
Estelle Reiner - singer and mother of director/actor Rob Reiner and wife of Carl Reiner. Most famous for her hilarious line in her son's movie, "When Harry Met Sally": "I'll have what she's having."

Canadian Content:
Cy Leonard-ventriloquist. Most of us kids from Ontario/Western NY remember him from "The Uncle Bobby Show" (right AprilFox?)
Jack Duffy - singer, actor but we all loved him from his years on "The Party Game"
Barry Morse - Canadian/British actor, most notably "Space 1999" and his Lt. Gerard from "The Fugitive".
Milt Dunnel & George Gross - Toronto sports writers extrodinare
Jeff Healy- blind jazz and rock guitarist (only 42!)

NAME THAT THEME: GAME 3!

NTT game 2 didn't fool anyone! Of course it was the theme from "Room 222".
EVERYONE got it! Can't fool tvdot members! No-siree!


Ok, Challenge extended: NAME THAT THEME GAME 3

Do you know it? Hmmm?

SOME BURIED YOUTUBE GEMS.....

A very elegant and cool explaination of how the Internet came to be:

History of the Internet

A funny look at how musical notes come alive inside a cello.

Concerto Grosso Modo

GREAT PIC & A FUNNY.....

St. Paul's Cathedral in Minneapolis on a foggy day