“With pool, it’s smoke and guts”
We ODDfellows like the above quote from Steve Mizerak, National Pool Champion who is dead at age 61 from heart disease following gallbladder surgery. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, “Scary places those hospitals.” Mizerak gained national fame for his trick shots in Miller Lite beer commercials. He also played the character that got beaten in a pool tourney by Paul Newman in “The Color of Money.”
Speaking of sinking balls (now that is totally lame segue), Raymond Davis spent years underground in South Dakota’s Homestake gold mine, sitting next to a 100,000 gallon vat of dry cleaning fluid, trying to capture neutrinos from the sun. Check this out! When a neutrino hits a chloride ion, it produces radioactive argon, a sort of atomic “ding.” Davis had to work deep in the mine to get away from those pesky cosmic rays that would muck up his experiment. (Anyone who gets our little pun, please send us a comment. First winner gets a recording of Tuva throat singing of the Tasty Freeze jingle.) Davis, who received a Nobel prize for his work, died of Alzheimer’s at age 91.
It appears that 91 is a popular age to die today. This is the age of Perry Bass, Texas oilman and major league philanthropist. Bass, along with other members of his family, was a billionaire with a conscience. He made mega millions, and gave a lot of it away. In 2001 the Bass family had a little financial miscue, and had to sell Disney stock worth $2 billion to cover loans and margin calls. Gad, we ODDones felt devastated when we had to hold a garage sale to cover the veterinary bills for our Eclectus roratus after she ate one too many Papaver somniferum.
~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com
Technorati tags: Steve Mizerak, Miller Lite, The Color of Money, Raymond Davis, Tuva throat singing, Perry Bass
