Our Daily Dead

Dead in a jail-based suicide is Andrew Martinez, who in the 1990’s attended classes and strolled around the Berkeley campus in the 6 foot 4 inch buff. The university amended the campus dress code to ban nudity. Oh to have a similar rule for middle-aged Frenchmen on the beaches of the Caribbean.

Lawrence “Ramrod” Shurtliff has ended his long strange trip as Uber-roadie for the Grateful Dead and protégé of Ken Kesey and Neal Cassidy of The Merry Pranksters has died of lung cancer. If you attended any Dead concert from the 60’s until Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, you may well have seen Ramrod doing the roadie thing—of course, seeing is not necessarily remembering, depending on the nature and therapeutic level of your friendly chemicals of choice. Ramrod died as a consequence of chronic drug addition, meaning lung cancer from cigarette smoking.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Andrew Martinez, Lawrence “Ramrod” Shurtliff, Grateful Dead, Merry_Pranksters

Dead today is Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, Head of the World Health Organization is dead at age 61. Brain Hemorrhage. Take your blood pressure medicine (we guess.) In 2004 Dr. Lee said, “Another pandemic is inevitable.” Recall that the last one killed over 40 million people, with a lot fewer souls on the planet. Good excuse to buy that more expensive bottle of wine.

Also off to the never-ether is Val Guest, director and writer of science fiction (“Quatermass Xperiment” and “The Day the Earth Caught Fire”). Happy, happy. Age 94 years; prostate cancer.

We’re off to wallow in superficiality. Surf’s up.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, World Health Organization, pandemic, Val Guest, Quatermass Xperiment, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, prostate cancer

If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink (and if you haven’t, you should), then you will recall the opening story of the Roman statue for which the Getty Museum paid over $30 million. Every high-tech examination vetted the statue as authentic; however, two experts, in the blink of an eye, felt it was a fake. One said, “I hope you haven’t paid for it yet,” and the other, “It looks too fresh.” Jiri Frel, the curator who fell for the counterfeit, is dead at age 82.

Word is that Saddam is ready to die. Welcome to the ODDon-deck circle your dictatorship. To your right, you will notice the Bush Presidency which has apparently preceded you.

We’re off to Opus Dei day-camp.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Blink, Getty Museum, Jiri Frel, Saddam, Opus Dei