Our Daily Dead

Thomas Arthur has served his last Dodger Dog. Arthur borrowed the foot-long hot dog idea from Coney Island and transplanted it out West to feed the L.A. Dodger faithful. After receiving a few snide remarks that his 10 inch long hot dogs were not really a “foot-long” Arthur coined the term Dodger Dog. Arthur served up Dodger Dogs from about 1962 right up until he sold his company in 1991. His view? A simple menu of Dogs, peanuts, soda and beer. And so we understand that amoungst major league ballparks Dodger statium was No. 1 with nearly 1.7 million hot dogs consumed. Wrigley Field and Denver’s Coors Field trailed with about 1.5 million (according to the latest figures compiled by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council).

Oh…and lest we forget…Happy Birthday Dad.

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Oh the choices, oh the choices. We could go on and on about Aaron Spelling, TV producer of “Dynasty,” “The Love Boat,” “Fantasy Island,” “Charlie’s Angles,” and “Beverley Hills 90210,” dead at age 83 from a stroke.

Or how about Anna Nichole Smith’s legal nemesis E. Pierce Marshall (67 from infection) who has been suing the woman on great breasts and poor taste over his father’s fortune? It is not clear what impact Marshall’s death will have on the battle. Will Anna Nichole send flowers?

The there’s Claydes Charles Smith, co-founder of Kool and the Gang, who died at age 57 from kidney disease. Think of Smith the next time you’re at a wedding reception and the DJ spins (uh, no one spins anymore) what has become an obligatory record, and a bunch of males in rented clothing and females in dresses they’ll never wear again lead the crowd in shouting, “Celebrate good times, come on!”

Well, for our most notable death we choose to go with Harriet who has died in Australia. Harriet is/was a Giant Galapogo Turtle who, in her brief life of 175 years, survived at least two personal tragedies. The first was being kidnapped by Charles Darwin and taken to England. (She was moved to Australia in 1841—yes, that’s 1841.) The second is a conflicted sexual identification. Harriet lived as a male for 124 years. (Someone in ODDland tells us how one sexes a turtle.) We ODDfellows are not sure we can reconcile these two events with her Brisbane zoo keeper’s attribution of her longevity to “a stress-free life.” We think it was due to a vegetarian diet, good genes, and a very hard shell.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Aaron Spelling, Anna Nichole Smith, Claydes Charles Smith, Kool and the Gang, Giant Galapogo Turtle, Charles Darwin

“Helter Skelter” was scrawled on the walls of a refrigerator, and helped frame the Manson Family trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders, presided over by Judge Charles Older, now dead at age 88 due to complications from a fall at home. You don’t want to check out what is scrawled on our ODDrefrigerator, but it has to do with dairy products, manual labor, the entitlement-to-be-taken, juices of ground-hugging plants, friendly chemicals, and flesh of ichthyoids. Incidentally, Paul McCartney wrote “Helter Skelter” in response to The Who’s “I Can See For Miles,” which was thought to have been the wildest rock song recorded to that time. Oh such delightful competition in days long gone. Save us now from white guys doing hip-hop. (We won’t name names.) Judge Older came to the courtroom with a few personal credentials, including becoming a double ace as a Flying Tiger’s pilot in WW II. He shot down 10 1/4 Japanese aircraft (someone out there in ODDland please explain how you shoot down ¼ airplane).

In the category of “It works, but what do it mean?” we report the death of Manny Cortez, long-time president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, who, when Vegas was in a post-9/11 slump, came up with the slogan, “What happens here, stays here.” Well, 37 million annual visitors seem to have personal resonance with this little bit of ambiguity, and fill in their own blanks. We ODD fellows think having a moment of abduction and orifice violation by aliens on loan to the Ka Cirque du Soleil should definitely stay in Las Vegas. Do the tourist thing and see them (but don’t bend over) at the MGM Grand. Manny died of a heart attack. Guess it beats 13 rounds from a white caddy.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Tate-LaBianca murders, Charles Older, Helter Skelter, Manny Cortez, What happens here, stays here