Our Daily Dead

Dang! We TOLD you strange things were afoot and the next thing we know a WEEK disappears! Egad.

Okay, sit up straight and pay attention. We are going to do our ODDly level best to keep you abreast of recent departures with no tit-for-tat required on your part. And where better to start than with Robert Brooks, chairman of the Hooters Restaurant chain. Natural causes the coronor says did catch up with Mr. Brooks. A curious note in one article had that “Brooks, 69, was found dead Sunday by his wife and a neighbor after he failed to show up at their usual Sunday breakfast, Coroner Robert Edge said.” Um, where were the wife and neighbor before breakfast?

One of the Second World War’s top flying aces, Wing Commander Robert Carl ‘Moose’ Fumerton, died at Muskoka Landing in Huntsville last Monday at age 93. Between 1941 and 1944, Wing Commander Moose shot down 14 enemy planes, damaging one other aircraft. He was shot down twice and survived due to his own skillful flying ability.

Dave Walter, an author and Montana Historical Society research historian, died Wednesday night after suffering a heart attack earlier in the week. He was 63. Mr. Walter was well-known for his Speaking Ill Of The Dead: Jerks In Montana History book and recently published the sequel Still Speaking Ill of the Dead: More Jerks in Montana History.

And finally the big finish. In fact let us go out with a bang and bring you Dr. Nicholas Bartha and his solution to the division of property during a divorce. Somehow this reminds us of old westerns and pledging to die with one’s boots on.

(P.S. Oh yea, “Mickey Spillane” died too just in case you were off-planet last week.)

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Robert Brooks, Hooters, Wing Commander Moose, Dave Walter, Montana Historical Society

Enron scandal centerpiece Ken Lay has died in Aspen Colorado according to CBS4 in Denver. The current hypothesis is that a massive heart attack nabbed him. CBS4 indicates that an autopsy will be performed later today in Grand Junction Colorado. Recall that Lay and fellow Enron bigwig Jeffery Skelling were convicted of fraud May 25 of this year. Lay was due to be sentenced this coming October. Exit stage left.

Much as Mr. Lay we found another story of someone who left the planet just shy of the finish line, albeit, Jose Garmendia was actually competing and not cheating.

Reaching wildly this morn we’ve found a way to work in the death of Robbie ‘Rocket’ Watts of the Cosmic Psychos. We like this one for two reasons - first any band named “Cosmic Psychos” just tickles us pink and second (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) we discovered that Robbie Watts joined the Psychos in 1990 for a Butch Vig-produced album ‘Blokes You Can Trust.’

‘Nuff said.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Enron, Ken Lay, Aspen, Jeffery Skelling, Jose Garmendia, Cosmic Psychos, Robbie Watts

“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