Our Daily Dead

Although perhaps under suspicion Wikipedia gives us this interesting bit about Woden: according to Jonas Bobiensis, the 6th century Irish missionary Saint Columbanus is reputed to have disrupted a Beer Sacrifice to Wuodan (Deo suo Vodano nomine) in Bregenz, Alemannia. Wuodan was the chief god of the Alamanni, his name appears in the runic inscription on the Nordendorf fibula.

Disrupted a Beer sacrifice. Worse that cartooning around you think? By the by a Beer Sacrifice was not the ritualistic killing of beer, but rather a Drinking Ritual the aim of which was to achieve mystic revelation by way of drinking alcohol. These days Beer Sacrifices may of course be found in large numbers most any day at most any college campus - sans revelation likely however.

And this tidbit just in: Americans Feel U.S. is Ready for Woman President. According to the article that would be some 62 per cent of respondents who think the U.S. is ready for a woman president in 2008. Who said TV has no effect on people? Vote for Geena!

Alas its also true that today in HippyLand History nothing happened. No flashbacks even on our part not that we ever inhaled that is. And speaking of inhaling or no, a radio-jock was heard to say that he’d tried his best during a Clinton visit to his home town to have the band strike the usual Hail To The Chief theme music. His request instead? “Inhale To The Chief”.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Woden, Jonas Bobiensis, Saint Columbanus, Beer Sacrifice, Woman President, Geena, Clinton

The Independent Online
Sidney Harold Feller, arranger and record producer: born New York 24 December 1916; married 1941 Gertrude Hager (one son, three daughters): died Beachwood, Ohio 15 February 2006.

The arranger and record producer Sid Feller was best known for his 30-year association with Ray Charles; their work together included “Georgia on My Mind”, “Hit the Road Jack” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You”. Charles would say, “If they call me a genius, then Sid Feller is Einstein.”

In 1955, Feller moved to the new ABC Records and worked with the jazz musicians Charlie Byrd and Woody Herman. For Don Costa and the Freeloaders he arranged the album Music to Break a Lease By (1956). In 1959, the rhythm and blues artist Ray Charles moved to ABC from Atlantic. Both Charles and his new label wanted to stress his versatility and, hence, his crossover appeal. The classic first album, The Genius Hits the Road, included “Georgia on My Mind”, which Charles recorded with tears streaming down his face; his impassioned vocal worked brilliantly with the conventional choir which Feller had hired. Charles, although he was suspicious by nature, realised that he could trust Feller and they went on to work on one intriguing project after another.

For several years, Charles had wanted to record an album of country songs and he and Feller sifted through 100 possible titles for Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. It does not sound radical today but, in 1962, it was highly innovative to hear a soulful singer performing country ballads with strings. Numerous artists followed Charles’s lead, but it must be said that Charles himself repeated the trick much too often. Also with Feller, Charles recorded radical reworkings of the Beatles songs “Yesterday” (1967) and “Eleanor Rigby” (1968).

Although Feller sometimes conducted for Charles on the road, he had many other commitments, including Steve Lawrence’s album Come Waltz with Me (1962) and Doris Day’s The Love Album (1967). He wrote a dire song, “You Can’t Say No in Acapulco”, for the Elvis Presley film Fun in Acapulco (1963). He also scored the Osmonds’ Christmas Album (1976) and was the musical arranger for several television series, including The Flip Wilson Show (1969-74)

Technorati Tags: Sid Feller, Ray Charles

NY Times
Theodore Draper, a combative historian and social critic and one of the last of a generation of freelance intellectuals who wrote and lectured largely without academic affiliations or formal credentials, died yesterday at his home in Princeton, N.J. He was 93. His death was announced by his wife, Priscilla.

Mr. Draper went from Communist Party fellow traveler in the 1930’s to liberal anticommunist in the 1950’s and 60’s before breaking with the Cold War hawks and attacking the United States’ role in Vietnam. For a time he was also the leading historian of American Communism, writing two authoritative books about it.

Mr. Draper was dogged in pursuit of whatever issue caught his attention, whether it was France’s collapse on the eve of World War II, Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution, the American war in Vietnam, Henry Kissinger’s conduct of Middle East policy or the Reagan administration’s Iran-contra affair. On each of these subjects he made himself a respected expert and wrote a book exhaustive in its research. His prose was blunt and factual, its logic severe and pitiless. His pithy judgment of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 as “a perfect failure” became the earmark of that misadventure. As he said in his preface to >A “Present of Things Past,” a collection of his essays published in 1990: “I have rarely stayed with a single subject for more than five years. I get interested in a subject; I devote myself to it; I do what I can with it; I know — or think I know — as much as I want to know; I turn to something else.”

Technorati Tags: Theodore Draper, historian

In the queue today you’ll find Billy Cowsill, the lead singer and guitarist of the Cowsills and brother to formerly missing during Hurricane Katrina Barry Cowsill. There is no word on the cause of death for Billy, but you can bet that deep sadness likely played a significant role.

Dire warning: mayhaps you’ll want to avoid any dealings (as if) with our own On Deck Liza Minnelli now that we see she sold her Daddy’s house with her step-mom still inside. Kind Liza is allowing her to stay as long as she lives and the new owners have thoughtfully delayed their move in date until that passing too. Tick. Tick. Tick…

And another On Deck personality, the lovely, but seriously dependent Tom Sizemore, pins the blame for his drug problems squarely where personal issues should always be placed…on someone else of course. In this case Tom blames the lovely and (apparently) extremely talented Heidi Fleiss.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Billy Cowsill, Cowsills, Hurricane Katrina, Barry Cowsill, Liza Minnelli, Tom Sizemore, Heidi Fleiss

It looks to us like actor Tom Sizemore has a serious drug problem, and if he doesn’t get it under control, he’s headed for his day of ODDfame. Methamphetamine is a nasty drug. Tom has also been a nasty actor by beating up his girl friend the Hollywood madam, Heidi Fleiss, as well being accused of sexual harassment by a woman who said she was fired in retaliation for making the claim.

Tom’s latest encounter with the justice system occurred when he was discovered trying to give a urine sample using a fake penis. If your curious, you can read about this illicit little device at The Wizzinator. Ain’t technology just great?

You may recall Sizemore from his roles in Blackhawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Wyatt Earp, and Natural Born Killers, but his most famous role is that of the sergeant in Saving Private Ryan.

Technorati Tags: Tom Sizemore, Heidi Fleiss, Blackhawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Wyatt Earp, Natural Born Killers, Saving Private Ryan

The daughter of Judy Garland and Oscar-winning actress Liza Minnelli was hospitalized last year after “falling out of bed.” Pardon us, but exactly what sort of circumstances lead to this kind of boudoir-based potential lethality? We’re in the dark, but we bet there’s more to the story, particularly since Liza has been/is involved in a series of legal troubles, including a suit by her former chauffer who claims she forced him to have sex with her. We choose to not make any asides to a semi-famous portion of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint about thoughtful family members.

And now we have that Dear Liza has sold Daddy’s house with her step-mommy still in it. Mayhaps it is best to just stay away from Dear Liza.

Technorati Tags: Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, sex, Portnoy’s Complaint

LA Times
Robert W. Peterson, a former newspaper editor who shed light on a little-known aspect of baseball history with his seminal book on the sport’s Negro Leagues, “Only the Ball Was White,” has died. He was 80.

Peterson, who had lung cancer and emphysema, died of a heart attack Feb. 11 at a hospital near Allentown, Pa., according to his wife, Peggy.

Published in 1970, “Only the Ball Was White” was the first detailed accounting of Negro baseball. As both an oral history by the players and an accounting of the glory and despair of their times, the book was like no other.

One day a team might be playing before a huge crowd made up of fans of all colors at Yankee Stadium, the book related. A few days later the same team might be on a bus in the countryside, the players broke and looking for a game to earn gas money.

This was part of American life for decades until 1951, when the Negro Leagues finally went out of business after the integration of baseball’s major leagues. Through much of that time an unofficial — but firm — color barrier kept blacks from playing in the majors. Jackie Robinson broke that barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

“It isn’t possible to exaggerate how important that book is,” said Lawrence Hogan, a professor of history at Union County College in Cranford, N.J., who is also a leading expert on the Negro Leagues. “When you start [investigating] the Negro Leagues, you start with Bob’s book.”

Jim Gates, the library director at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., agreed: “His book is among the top 10 ever written [on baseball], the key that unlocked the door to a missing piece in baseball history.”

Technorati Tags: Robert W. Peterson, newspaper, Negro Leagues, baseball

NY Times
William Cowsill, the lead singer and guitarist of the Cowsills, a sweet-toned 1960’s family band that inspired “The Partridge Family” television series, died on Saturday at his home in Calgary, Canada. He was 58.

No cause of death was reported, but a longtime friend and producer, Neil MacGonigill said yesterday that Mr. Cowsill had suffered from emphysema, Cushing’s syndrome and osteoporosis.

The family learned of his death as they were holding a memorial service for another Cowsill brother, Barry, in Newport, R.I. Barry Cowsill, who lived much of the year in New Orleans, disappeared in the flooding after Hurricane Katrina. His body was recovered on Dec. 28 and identified a week later.

“He was heartbroken about his brother’s death,” Mr. MacGonigill said of Billy Cowsill, as he was known. “That ate away at him.”

The Cowsills recorded several hits in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, including “The Rain, the Park and Other Things,” “We Can Fly,” “Indian Lake” and “Hair” from the rock musical. Their wholesome image and sunny harmonies attracted television producers for a series about their lives. The show was never made, but the material became the inspiration for “The Partridge Family.”

The band began in Newport in the mid-60’s, when Billy Cowsill and his brother Robert took up the guitar. Barry was recruited to play bass, and John to play the drums. Robert also played the organ. Later, their mother, Barbara, joined the band, along with Susan, a sister.

Technorati Tags: William Cowsill, Cowsills, The Partridge Family, Barry Cowsill

CBS 4 Boston
(CBS4) BOSTON Former Red Sox and NBC television broadcaster Curt Gowdy died at his home in Florida Monday, after a long battle with leukemia. He was 86 years old.

Gowdy’s family was with him at the time of his death.

He was the radio voice of the Red Sox from 1951 to 1965. That time included his famous call of Ted Williams’ final home run in his final at-bat at the end of the 1960 season.

Gowdy left the Red Sox to join NBC Sports, where he was the network’s lead television broadcaster for it’s baseball game of the week. From 1966 to 1975, he called the play-by-play for every World Series and All-Star game for NBC.

In his long career, he also announced Super Bowls, NCAA basketball championships and the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

He also spent two decades as the host of “The American Sportsman”. He was honored in his native Wyoming in 1971 when Curt Gowdy State Park was established.

Gowdy was named National Sportscaster of the Year three times.

He was presented the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award in 1984. It’s given each year to a broadcaster for major contributions to baseball.

Technorati Tags: Red Sox, Curt Gowdy, Ted Williams, The American Sportsman, Curt Gowdy State Park

The ODDradar picked up a mention of ODD On Deck guest Viktor Yushchenko earlier this day. The Moscow News reports the death of “white magician” Yuri Longo due to an aorta aneurism although his fans say it was an “energy stroke.”

We also discovered another movies and death site at Movie Crypt.com - thrillers, chillers and killers, as the site says.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Viktor Yushchenko, white magician, Yuri Longo, aorta aneurism, movies

The Independent Online
Sybille von Schoenebeck, writer: born Charlottenburg, Germany 16 March 1911; OBE 1981; FRSL 1964; CLit 1994; married 1935 Walter Bedford; died London 17 February 2006.

Sybille Bedford belonged to that distinguished line of 20th-century expatriate authors who chose to write in English in preference to their native tongues, in her case German. Her grand predecessors were, she believed, Conrad, Isak Dinesen, and Nabokov, for whom English was a third language, but the one in which their creative powers came to full fruition. They enriched English literature with contributions from their own cultures, and by their use of the language - a striving for clarity and grace which gave their writings a charming quirkiness similar to a slight, attractive foreign accent.

Her first book, A Visit to Don Otavio, was published in 1953 and was highly acclaimed. It was an amusing and serious account of a year she had spent in Mexico in the mid-Forties, which she defined as “an unusual travel book written by a novelist”. It described the beauty of Mexico with its underlying sadness and violence inherited from a bloody history.

Three years later she published her first novel, The Legacy, considered her masterpiece. At first it was a critical and commercial flop: “the dullest book I ever read”, declared her own American publisher. Eventually Evelyn Waugh reviewed it in The Spectator and it took off, becoming a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. It was televised 20 years later, in 1975, and has been reprinted several times since.

Technorati Tags: Sybille Bedford

NY Times
Helmut Schulz, a chemical engineer who received 64 patents in disparate fields like nuclear physics, rocketry and waste-to-energy processes despite having been blinded in a laboratory accident as a young man, died on Jan. 28 at a hospital in White Plains. Dr. Schultz, who lived in Harrison, N.Y., was 93.

His death was announced by his son Roland.

Helmut Wilhelm Schulz was born in 1912 in Berlin and moved to New York with his family in 1924. He was valedictorian at Brooklyn Technical High School. He received a Pulitzer scholarship to Columbia and earned a B.S. in 1933 and a master’s in 1934.

He went to work for Union Carbide, which in 1940 sent him to Niagara Falls to help improve its methanol plant. While experimenting, he inadvertently used a contaminated bottle. The solution he prepared exploded, splattering caustic potash into his eyes and blinding him.

While in the hospital at Columbia, he learned that physicists at the university had achieved fission of a uranium isotope. After leaving the hospital, he devised a process for separating uranium isotopes using gas centrifuges, presenting his idea in a paper to university researchers.

When the government settled on the gaseous-diffusion process to enrich uranium, Dr. Schulz filed for a patent in 1942. Originally placed under wartime secrecy, the patent was granted in 1951.

Returning to Union Carbide after receiving his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Columbia in 1942, Dr. Schulz wrote two papers on the possibility of using infrared radiation to generate molecular reactions.

In 1948, he approached Dr. Charles H. Townes, chairman of Columbia’s physics department and researcher of microwave physics, and offered him a Union Carbide fellowship.

“I had never heard of him before, but I learned soon enough that he was a brilliant and inventive person,” Dr. Townes wrote in “How the Laser Happened.” “It was my lucky day.”

Dr. Townes used the fellowship to hire a young scientist, Arthur L. Schawlow. They invented the laser and its cousin, the maser. Both received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Technorati Tags: Helmut Schulz, chemical engineer, laser, maser

LA Times
Richard Bright, a character actor who portrayed a Corleone family bodyguard in all three “Godfather” movies, was struck and killed by a bus in New York, police said.

Bright, 68, was hit by a private bus as he crossed the street about 6:30 p.m. Saturday in his Manhattan neighborhood, said Det. Bernard Gifford.

There were no arrests as of Sunday, but police said the investigation was continuing. The bus driver told police he was not aware that he had hit anyone.

In the “Godfather” trilogy, made from 1972 to 1990, Bright portrayed mob enforcer Al Neri, a bodyguard to the Corleone family patriarchs played by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. He counted the part among his favorite roles.

Bright played a con artist hustling Ali McGraw in 1972’s “The Getaway” and acted in dozens of other films, such as “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” (1977) and Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), and in TV shows such as NBC’s “Hill Street Blues.”

“He always said it was the work that was the reward,” said Brett Smiley, a friend and fellow actor.

Bright was arrested in 1965 on an obscenity charge for language he used in a San Francisco production of poet Michael McClure’s two-person play “The Beard,” which was shut down.

The American Civil Liberties Union took up the case, and the charges against Bright were later dismissed in what was considered a precedent for artistic expression rights.

More recently, Bright was featured on NBC’s “Law & Order” and HBO’s “The Sopranos.”

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Richard Bright, Corleone, Godfather, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, The Getaway, Looking for Mr. Goodbar