Death List Members in the News
May 2007
Charles Nelson Reilly
January 2007
Bobby Hamilton
December 2006
Gerald Ford
November 2006
Jack Palance
August 2006
Fidel Castro, Kirk Douglas, John Madden
July 2006
Keith Richards, Ozzy Osbourne, Gerald Ford, Tony Stewart, Phyllis Diller,
B.B. King, Dale Jarrett, Arnold Palmer
May 2006
Keith Richards, David Blaine
April 2006
Tony Stewart, Gerald Ford, B.B. King, Queen Elizabeth, Mickey Rooney, Bob
Barker, Harry Morgan, Charlton Heston, David Blaine, Vin Scully, Muhammad
Ali, Hugh Hefner, Arnold Palmer, Jerry Lewis
March 2006
Courtney Love, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, Jerry Lewis, Osama Bin Laden,
Queen Elizabeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Gerald Ford
February 2006
Walter Cronkite, Brian Dennehy, Don Knotts, Willie Mays, Vin Scully, Tony
Bennett, Courtney Love, Bob Barker
January 2006
Gerald Ford, Tony Stewart, B.B. King, Walter Cronkite, William Shatner, Courtney
Love, Nick Nolte
December 2005
Richard Pryor, Ozzy Osbourne & Queen Elizabeth, Nick Nolte, Hugh Hefner,
Tony Bennett, Tony Stewart, David Blaine
November 2005
George Michael, Courtney Love, William Shatner, Muhammad Ali
October 2005
October 25 - Rosa Parks, Dead at 92
October 25 - William Shatner
October 24 - Joe Namath
October 20 - B.B. King
October 18 - Jerry Lewis
October 17 - Tony Stewart
October 16 - Arnold Palmer
October 14 - Richard Pryor
October 14 - Jack Klugman
October 12 - Tony Stewart
October 5 - Michael Waltrip
October 4 - Hugh Hefner
October 3 - Dale Jarrett
September 2005
Courtney Love, Ozzy Osbourne, B.B. King, Michael Waltrip, Willie Nelson, Courtney
Love, Jerry Lewis, Arnold Palmer
August 2005
William Shatner, Vin Scully, Ron Popeil, Hugh Hefner, Dale Jarrett, Keith
Richards, Ozzy Osbourne, John Madden, Courtney Love, Richard Pryor, Sterling
Marlin, Tony Stewart, Tony Bennett, Don Knotts, Jerry Lewis
July 2005
Arnold Palmer, Richard Pryor, Courtney Love, Jerry Lewis, Muhammad
Ali, Kirk Douglas, Bob Barker, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett,
Phyllis Diller, Michael Waltrip, Gerald Ford, Mickey Rooney, Jack Klugman,
Keith Richards, Nick Nolte, Rosa Parks, Luther Vandross
June 2005
Jim Otto, Vin Scully, Tony Bennett, Gerald Ford, Tony Stewart, Queen Elizabeth,
Muhammad Ali, Ozzy Osbourne, Jack Klugman, John Madden
May 2005
Michael Waltrip, Queen Elizabeth, Fidel Castro, Tony Stewart, Walter Cronkite,
Arnold Palmer, B.B. King, George Michael, Vin Scully, Keith Richards, Don
Knotts, Brian Dennehy, Michael Waltrip, Wilford Brimley, Ozzy Osbourne, Willie
Mays, Bob Barker, Nick Nolte, Jim Otto
April 2005
Larry Hagman, Richard Pryor, Willie Mays, Phyllis Diller, David Blaine, Tony
Stewart, Queen Elizabeth, Muhammad Ali, Nick Nolte and William Shatner, B.B.
King, Ozzy Osbourne, Rosa Parks, Luther Vandross, Pope John Paul II
March 2005
Ozzy Osbourne, Pope John Paul II, Courtney Love, Phyllis Diller, Vin Scully,
Fidel Castro, Ed Asner, Bob Barker, B.B. King, Arnold Palmer, Keith Richards,
Muhammad Ali, Jack Palance, Jack Klugman, Sterling Marlin, Joe Namath, Charlton
Heston, Jerry Lewis, Horatio Sanz
February 2005
Pope John Paul II, Wilford Brimley, Tony Stewart, Queen Elizabeth, Willie
Nelson, B.B. King, Ozzy Osbourne, Dale Jarrett, Fidel Castro, Phyllis Diller,
Courtney Love, Gerald Ford, Larry Hagman, Rosa Parks, Mickey Rooney, Hugh
Hefner
January 2005
Willie Mays, Ozzy Osbourne, Arnold Palmer, B.B. King, Vin Scully, John Madden,
Johnny Carson, Brian Dennehy, Kirk Douglas, William Shatner, Rosa Parks, Jerry
Lewis, Courtney Love, Pope John Paul II, Willie Nelson, Mickey Rooney, Gerald
Ford, Bob Barker
December 2004
Richard Pryor, Queen Elizabeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Keith Richards, Rosa Parks,
Nick Nolte, Don Knotts
November 2004
Kirk Douglas, Ozzy Osbourne, Arnold Palmer, Jerry Lewis, Larry Hagman, Johnny
Carson, Queen Elizabeth, B.B. King, Muhammad Ali
October 2004
Courtney Love, Keith Richards, Tony Bennett, Fidel Castro, Ernest Borgnine,
Mickey Rooney, Willie Nelson, Jack Klugman, Jack Palance, Pope John Paul II,
Hugh Hefner, Rodney Dangerfield
September 2004
Courtney Love, Arnold Palmer, Rosa Parks, Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Barker,
Nick Nolte, Tony Bennett
August 2004
Arnold Palmer, Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Barker, Brian Dennehy, Ernest Borgnine,
Rosa Parks, Walter Cronkite, Willie Mays, Pope John Paul II, Fidel Castro,
Julia Child, Jerry Lewis, Mickey Rooney, Joe Namath, B.B. King
July 2004
Rosa Parks, Courtney Love, Fidel Castro, Nick Nolte, Don Knotts, Larry Hagman,
Kirk Douglas, William Shatner
October 25, 2005: Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks dies
DETROIT
- Rosa Parks, the black seamstress whose refusal to give up her seat on a
Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man sparked a revolution in American race
relations, died on Monday. The U.S. civil rights pioneer was 92.
Shirley Kaigler, Parks' lawyer, said she died while taking a nap early on Monday evening surrounded by a small group of friends and family members.
"She just fell asleep and didn't wake up," Kaigler said.
The cause of death was not immediately known. Medical records released earlier this year, as part of a long-running legal dispute over the use of Parks' name in a song by the hip-hop group OutKast, revealed the she was suffering from progressive dementia. She rarely appeared in public in recent years.
Kaigler said Parks was at home in an apartment complex overlooking the Detroit River and the border with Ontario, Canada, when she died.
"She lived in the neighborhood that I grew up in," Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said of Parks, who lived in the predominantly black city for decades and had a major thoroughfare named after her.
"Everybody knew where her house was. Everybody would walk past and point her out," said Kilpatrick. "She was an amazing individual."
Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement: "The nation lost a courageous woman and a true American hero. A half century ago, Rosa Parks stood up not only for herself, but for generations upon generations of Americans."
"We are saddened by the passing of Rosa Parks. We rejoice in her legacy, which will never die. In many ways, history is marked as before, and after, Rosa Parks," said civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.
"She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down."
Parks was a 42-year-old seamstress for a Montgomery department store when she caught a bus in downtown Montgomery on December 1, 1955.
Three stops after she got on, a white man boarded and had to stand. To make room for him to sit alone, as the rules required, driver James Blake told Parks and three other black riders, "You all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats."
The other riders complied but Parks did not.
"No. I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen," she told Blake. Blake called police, who asked Parks why she didn't move: "I didn't think I should have to. I paid my fare like everybody else."
Parks was not the first black Montgomery bus rider to be arrested for failing to give up a seat, but she was the first to challenge the law. For years before her arrest, Parks and her husband had been active with local civil rights groups, which were looking for a test case to fight the city's segregation laws.
Four days later, she was convicted of breaking the law and fined $10, along with $4 in court costs. That same day, black residents began a boycott of the bus system, led by a then-unknown Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The boycott lasted 381 days, and the legal challenges led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that forced Montgomery to desegregate its bus system and put an end to "Jim Crow" laws separating blacks and whites at public facilities throughout the South.
Parks and her husband, Raymond, moved to Detroit in 1957, after she lost her job and received numerous death threats in Alabama. From 1965 to 1988, she worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
"For a long time people were a little bit afraid of Rosa Parks because she had created this whole new modern civil rights movement," Conyers told Detroit radio late on Monday. "They didn't know what to expect, and they certainly didn't expect someone that quiet. She sought no limelight; you'd never hear her talking about her own civil rights activities and all the things that she had been in," he said.
"She has saint-like qualities," Conyers added.
Parks' husband died in 1977. The couple had no children and Parks' closest living relatives are her brother's 13 sons and daughters.
Parks received the highest U.S. civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1996 and Congressional Gold Medal of Honor in 1999. Recommending the medal for Parks that year, the U.S. Senate described her as "a living icon for freedom in America."
From Reuters, Tom Brown
October 25, 2005: SHATNER PASSES KIDNEY STONE
LATEST:
WILLIAM SHATNER has disclosed that his recent hospital stint was due to a
painful kidney stone.
The 74-year-old actor was taken from the set of his hit TV show BOSTON LEGAL last week, suffering from what was initially reported to be chronic back pain.
But Shatner now reveals he had a kidney stone, which he successfully passed after experiencing excruciating pain.
He says, "I was doing a scene and I was feeling uncomfortable and then I got on my knees behind the scenes, before going on. And then I did the scene and I broke out into a cold sweat. I finished the scene and the nurse said, 'Maybe you should go to the hospital.'
"The purity of the pain! They had to give me morphine. It was just unbelievable pain and it made you kind of think about what pain is. It was awful."
From contactmusic.com
October 24, 2005: He's 1 of a kind
He
was Broadway Joe, a king of football and prince of the city. He had it all.
And then some.
No quarterback ever lived and triumphed like Joe Namath. Others won more championships. Many threw more touchdown passes. Others had more powerful arms and most were quicker afoot.
But there was never anyone like Namath, a kid from Beaver Falls, Pa., who won a state high school title, a national title at the University of Alabama and a Super Bowl. Namath, who resides near West Palm Beach, was recently in Lee County to discuss osteoarthritis, football and even a little baseball.
He's 62 and has two plastic knees. He sat in a chair in a meeting room at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort. He wore cream-colored slacks, a dark blue, long-sleeve shirt and a tie. He held a paper Starbucks cup in his right hand, the hand that zipped footballs 40 yards with a mere flick, it seemed.
At one point, he rose out of the chair to demonstrate the proper throwing techniques for a football and a baseball. Young fans may recall Namath primarily for his lurching, leering and alcohol-addled declaration on live television to ESPN's Suzy Kolber that, "I want to kiss you."
Ouch. His defining moment should be his poolside guarantee in Miami before Super Bowl III. His New York Jets were three-touchdown underdogs to the Baltimore Colts. Namath guaranteed victory. Nobody did that. He did. And he delivered.
Ever since, Namath has been on a short list of athletes who combine charisma and championships. Muhammad Ali. Babe Ruth. Michael Jordan. Not many others.
Once, he dated starlets and appeared as a guest star on television's "The Brady Bunch." He lived in a New York City penthouse. When he signed a three-year, $427,000 deal with the Jets of the American Football League in 1965, it appeared that sports had gone money mad. He was a special talent. Alabama football coach Bear Bryant was quoted as saying of Namath, "He's the greatest athlete I've ever coached."
Fort Myers resident Charley Winner was the Jets' coach in 1974 and '75. He's known Namath for more than 30 years. He heard the carousing and womanizing stories. That isn't what Winner remembers. "Not what you were led to believe in the newspapers," Winner said.
Namath was portrayed, it seemed to Winner, as a young man who squeezed in a little football between his dates and nightclub visits.
"Joe was the first guy there in the morning and the last guy to leave
in the afternoon," Winner said.
The alleged party animal endeared himself at Alabama to an old-school coach,
Bryant. The kid from Pennsylvania so impressed his Alabama teammates that
he became a team captain on a squad populated mainly by Southerners. Sure,
he grew his hair long and did other rebellious things, but he was first and
foremost a football player.
Namath, as Winner recalls, was a young man who endeared himself to just about everybody. Namath grew up in an integrated town and was astonished when he reached Alabama in the early 1960s to find a segregated school and team. When he was with the Jets, Winner recalls Namath going out of his way to eat lunch with black teammates.
Now, 30 years after coaching Namath, that's the quarterback Winner recalls. The teammate. The athlete. The friend.
"He's a great guy," Winner said when Namath's name was first mentioned
in a telephone interview.
There was one other thing. Winner wants to get a message to Namath.
"Tell him it's about fishing," Winner said.
Here are the highlights of a conversation with Namath:
Q: People still recognize and remember you?
A: I move around the country and people know me, but they're not throwing
stones.
Q: What's the topic people bring up when they recognize you?
A: Football.
Q: What specifically about football? Super Bowl III?
A: Nothing specifically, but every now and then, yeah, you'll get an old-timer
from Baltimore, somebody from Baltimore, they'll bring it up. It could be
"The Brady Bunch." ... Memories are important in life and somehow
you trigger a memory that brings back a good time in their lives. When I meet
people, they smile. They smile and I thank God for that. You pick up somebody's
day, it makes you feel good. I'm also feeling good because they're not angry
at me.
Q: What are your most precious memories?
A: Most precious memories?
Q: Most precious football memories?
A: Winning a championship in high school. Of course, at that age, it's the
biggest thing in life if you're an athlete or sportsman. Winning the championship
in high school is a dream come true. I remember the high school coach. We
had a team meeting. We were talking about the championship. Our team had never
won it, ever, I don't think.
He made a statement. He said, "Don't dream about it. It will never happen.'' Winning that championship was special. Winning the national championship at Alabama and, of course, winning the pro championship. So, the special memories are winning the championships and the people that you work with. Special memory for an athlete is the team concept of winning the championship. The dearest to my heart was being elected a captain at the University of Alabama.
Q: What was the name of your high school coach?
A: Larry Bruno.
Q: What made him a great coach?
A: Well, his desire, first of all. Enthusiasm. But he was innovative and we
believed in him.
Q: What did he do to help you?
A: Everything. He was very specific about footwork. He helped me so much as
a quarterback. He laid the groundwork for me to become the kind of quarterback
I became. Footwork is critical. To go from Point A to Point B. I believe in
going the most direct route. A lot of people still don't understand that with
their footwork. He insisted on that.
Q: What else?
A: He was to me, as much as the other players, a guiding light. We didn't
all want to work in the steel mill and we all didn't want to go in the military.
Q: I understand baseball teams wanted to sign you coming out of high school?
A: But it was at a time in society that at 18 you still listened to your mother.
Q: You were known for having a very quick release on your passes. Was that
natural or did you work on developing that?
A: My brother Bob. I was a baseball player, too. Throwing a baseball is different
than throwing a football. ... My brother Bob insisted when I first started
passing, "Throw it from the ear. Throw it from the ear. Get it up to
the ear. Throw it from the ear.''
Q: Growing up near Pittsburgh and playing baseball, were you a Pirates' fan
and a fan of Roberto Clemente?
A: Big time. I even have an autographed Roberto Clemente baseball at home.
Q: What did you like about Clemente?
A: I used to catch like Roberto. I stepped into the box like Roberto. Tried
to be like Roberto. He was my baseball hero. He was the first hero I had.
Q: Could you throw like him?
A: I wouldn't dare say that I had an arm like Clemente.
Q: What impressed you about Clemente?
A: He had such a flair. He had such a grace. He was a gentleman. I remember
a royal essence about him. He was just so graceful.
Q: You came from an integrated community in Beaver Falls and went to Alabama
when the school and the team were still segregated. What was that like?
A: It was difficult. Extremely. I was ignorant of any of the social changes
I was dealing with. I didn't know the lifestyle in the South.
Q: Would you describe yourself as content and happy?
A: Content? No. Content I kind of associate with finished. No. I have a 19-year-old
in college. I'm happy with our lives at this point. I'm happy that we're healthy,
No. 1. But I promise you, having teenagers, especially daughters, is an ongoing
education for me, and things aren't always just right.
Q: What was Bryant like?
A: He was a joy. He was our leader. He was our leader away from home. At that
age — 18, 19, 20, 21 — you may think you know what's happening
in life and we may want to make all our decisions. I learned over the years,
I need discipline and if I didn't have his guidance back then, his discipline,
his rules back then. ... He was like, I liked to say, a father away from home.
Q: Who do you believe are the top quarterbacks now?
A: There's a handful of guys and more who could play for any team. You have
to go with (Tom) Brady right now because he's proven he can lead the team.
He's been spectacular. Now what about Peyton Manning? You know what, Tom's
had the opportunities. Tom's had the team and, when he's had the opportunity,
he's come through.
You take Michael Vick's game and compare it to Manning's game and (Daunte) Culpepper's game. Different pieces. I'd have to say Brady first of all. And then the rest of them. It would take me too much time because there's a lot of good ones. Really, you put them on different teams.
Dan Marino, one of the all-time bests. OK, no championships. Well, excuse me. Put him with that San Francisco team (Joe) Montana and (Steve) Young were with. Put him with that Dallas team that (Troy) Aikman was with. Lady Luck. Put Archie Manning with a better team when he was playing. Not Peyton. Archie Manning with a good team when he was with the Saints and Archie would be in the Hall of Fame. You got to be lucky with the teams you get, too.
Q: What about the quarterback situation with your old team losing Chad Pennington
and Jay Fielder to injuries and signing Vinny Testaverde to back up Brooks
Bollinger?
A: That was a tough one. I was thrilled when we got Fiedler. When we made
the deal for Fiedler in the offseason, I was thrilled because I knew that
if something were to happen to Chad, that Fiedler could still lead the team
to the playoffs and championship. I believe in Fiedler that much. And so Chad
gets hurt and Fiedler gets hurt. Lady Luck. It's rough. It doesn't look like
either Chad or Fiedler is going to be back. You know, you can have a dislocated
shoulder like Fiedler and still come back and play, except for if you're a
quarterback and it's your throwing arm. I've known players — we had
players on our championship team — who had had a chronic dislocated
shoulder, but he was a defensive end. So they strapped it down and then they
operated after.
Q: The Jets didn't call you instead of Testaverde?
A: They couldn't afford me with the payroll cap the way it is. Vinny is a
hair too young. But he's closer. He lives on Long Island. It's too tough for
me to commute. The problem I see right now, Vinny has all the experience any
quarterback would want. However, he's learning a new system, as far as I know.
This is a new offensive coordinator with the Jets that came in from Tennessee
last year, so I don't know that Vinny has ever worked with this kind of terminology
and stuff. Vinny's strong. He's big. He's physically fit. Not to play a game
today. You got to develop and practice some more. But he's definitely an emergency
quarterback. Bollinger is going to play and Bollinger gets hurt or something,
then Vinny will go in. (The Jets said Testaverde will start today's game against
Tampa Bay).
Q: Would you rather play now or when you played?
A: I would have liked to have played under the current rules. Under the current
rules, absolutely. I mean, your offensive linemen can reach out to block.
You're allowed one bump on the receiver? A holding penalty is only 10 yards?
They used to be 15 and you're coming back with that extra 5 yards. Excuse
me, yeah, I would love to be playing under these rules.
From News-Press.com, Glenn Miller
October 20, 2005: How B. B. King Avoids the Diabetes Blues
He
grew up among country folks in Mississippi. As a child, he performed on street
corners for dimes, sometimes in four towns each night. That was only the beginning
for the man who ended up being perhaps the most successful blues musician
of all time.
Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 25 years ago, King has used the same work ethic to stay in the best possible health while maintaining a tour schedule that would be considered grueling for a musician one-quarter his age.
Eighty Years Old and Still Going Strong
“The King of the Blues,” who turned 80 on September 16, 2005,
says, “So far I’m still doing pretty well as a whole.”
Some days, King doesn’t even feel like he has diabetes, a diagnosis that he says came as a surprise. “I thought I wouldn’t live very long. I didn’t know much about diabetes.”
Upon diagnosis, King started reading up on diabetes and learning more about his condition. After learning that he could control type 2 by testing his blood glucose and taking an oral medication, he began to develop more confidence.
The internationally renowned blues musician says he is amazed at the technology available today to help people manage their blood glucose levels. “Now there’s help from little machines, like the OneTouch [LifeScan glucose meter], that help you keep good control,” he says.
A Strong, Bluesy Voice for Diabetes
King says it’s fairly simple to stay healthy with type 2. But it wasn’t
always that way, especially for his father and mother.
“My father died at 87, and the only thing I know is that he had high blood glucose and gout. My mother died when I was 9. I think she went blind before she died. It must have been related to diabetes. Nobody knew what to do at that time. We were people living out in the country. We didn’t have all the modern conveniences like blood glucose testing.”
As a LifeScan spokesperson, King says he is honored to have the chance to tell people the truth about diabetes. “I hope my voice and the things I say will encourage someone out there and help them learn the truth about diabetes and act on it,” he says. “A lot of people would like to have the actual truth. Some people don’t believe that diabetes is life threatening. But it is. I lost a sister and a niece who had diabetes. I tried to beg them to do what they should, but they’re not with me anymore.”
His message about the importance of diabetes management and blood glucose control is clear. “Make sure you check your blood sugar and see your doctor. Try your best to go with the diet you’re given— and don’t cheat by eating foods or quantities you’re not supposed to, or by doing things you’re not supposed to,” he says. “I’ve lived a pretty long time. I’m not sick today, and I haven’t been sick for a while.”
Performing in Control
King has never had a problem with a low blood glucose while performing.
“I don’t worry much. I can feel sluggish when my blood glucose is up, but I’ve never had a low blood glucose on stage,” he says. “They have glucose, like a glass of orange juice, on stage for me if I go low. But I haven’t [gone low]. I’ve been able to stick to a daily routine with my diabetes management. I hardly know I’m diabetic sometimes.”
Daily Monitoring
Blood glucose testing has become much easier over the years, says King, who
tests every day. He manages his diabetes with Glucophage and also takes Actos.
“I used to have to use the old way, to prick my fingers for tests. It was like taking a shovel and digging it into my hand,” King says, and laughs. “But today, it’s quick, and before you know it, you have your reading.”
Sweet-Tooth Blues
King admits to having a sweet tooth, like many people with or without diabetes.
Sugar-free products made with artificial sweeteners provide him with the sweet
treats he enjoys but that work with his dietary requirements.
“Most of us crave [sweets] more than ever because we’re told they’re off limits,” he says. “But I learned how to shop. I can go buy sugar-free candy and ice cream and cookies.”
Taking Diabetes on the Road
King tries to maintain a normal diet while he’s on the road. He travels
eight months out of the year on average, which makes it hard for him to go
for routine checkups or tests. But he says he follows his doctor’s orders
for medications, blood glucose testing and diet.
“I don’t eat a lot of heavy foods,” he says. “I try to eat vegetables quite often, and not too many fattening foods… I try not to eat too much each day because I’m well overweight.”
Even with his meal plan, his unpredictable travel schedule and late nights performing make it a constant challenge to keep regular mealtimes.
“It’s sort of weird for me,” he says. “My breakfast might be at noon. We travel a lot, you see. Last night I was in Hyannisport, and tonight I can’t tell where I’m gonna be. Today I’m somewhere in New Hampshire, tomorrow I think we’ll be in Canada.
Even if breakfast isn’t until midday, King likes to eat something simple like oatmeal. Later in the day he’ll enjoy a heavier dinner of steak. As a general rule, he tries to avoid refined sugar and simple carbohydrates. He adds that he never drinks store-bought juices.
“I buy oranges and make my own juice,” says King, who also enjoys
“lite” foods as well as “diet” beverages and foods
without added sugar.
50 Albums and Now a Memoir
Today, King is actively touring the country, playing 90-minute blues sets
with his trusted guitar “Lucille.” He is celebrating the September
publication of “The B.B. King Treasures: Photos, Mementos and Music
From B.B. King’s Collection” (Bullfinch Press), a lavish volume
co-written by King that includes a CD-ROM of him talking about his music and
his life. Earlier this year, he released “B.B. King: The Ultimate Collection”
(Geffen), and “B.B. King and Friends” (Geffen), on which he performs
duets with noted artists such as Eric Clapton, Bobby Bland, Elton John, Gloria
Estefan, Roger Daltrey, John Mayer and Sheryl Crow. King’s discography
includes more than 50 recordings.
B.B. King Fast Facts
B.B. King averages more than 250 concerts per year around the world.
Over the years, the Grammy Award-winner has had two #1 R&B hits, 1951’s “Three O’Clock Blues” and 1952’s “You Don’t Know Me,” and four #2 R&B hits, 1953’s “Please Love Me,” 1954’s “You Upset Me Baby,” 1960’s “Sweet Sixteen, Part I” and 1966’s “Don’t Answer The Door, Part I.”
King’s most popular crossover hit, 1970’s “The Thrill Is Gone,” went to #15 on the pop chart.
Birth name: Riley B. King
Born: September 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi
Recorded between 90 to 100 blues albums
1948: Performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program on KWEM in
West Memphis. What started out as Beale Street Blues Boy, was shortened to
Blues Boy King and eventually to B.B. King
1956: King and his band played an astonishing 342 one-night stands.
1968: Played at the Newport Folk Festival and at Bill Graham’s Fillmore
West
1969: Opened for the Rolling Stones for 18 American concerts
1984: Inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame
1987: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; received NARAS’
Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award
1991: B.B. King’s Blues Club opened on Beale Street in Memphis
1996: Pens autobiography, “Blues All Around Me”
2005: Received Congressional Legends Medal
From Diabetes Health Magazine, Mary Milewski
October 18, 2005: Jerry Lewis describes his painful breakup with Dean Martin in new book
NEW
YORK - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis barely spoke during the last 10 months
of their decade-long partnership, Lewis writes in his forthcoming book, Dean
& Me (A Love Story).
The longtime friends shocked showbiz when they broke up after starring together for years in movies, radio and nightclubs. But skinny funnyman Lewis wanted to grow as a comedian and actor, while handsome crooner Martin wanted his own TV show, Lewis writes in an adaptation from Dean & Me to be published in the Oct. 23 issue of Parade magazine.
"I couldn't shake the childish hope that, just like a fairy tale, everything would be all better. But I knew that Martin & Lewis' days were numbered. Meanwhile, we continued to perform together, but we weren't really speaking."
Their last show was at the Copacabana Club in New York on July 24, 1956. Lewis says the nightclub was packed, and thousands of fans had gathered outside.
"Then we closed the book on 10 great years - with the exception of the last 10 months. Those were horrific - 10 months of pain and anger, uncertainty and sorrow."
Twenty years later, Frank Sinatra called Martin onstage while Lewis was doing the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in Las Vegas, but the former partners didn't reconnect.
Lewis, now 79, says it took the 1987 death of Martin's son Dean Paul "Dino" Martin in a plane crash to bring them close again.
Martin died in 1995 at age 78.
From the Associated Press
October 17, 2005: Charlotte race turns into debacle after tire troubles
CONCORD,
N.C. -- Slumped over and scowling, Tony Stewart made no effort to mask his
disgust after finishing a race in which he feared for his safety.
He wasn't alone.
Kevin Harvick called on NASCAR to halt Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway after a rash of exploding tires turned the event into a dangerous debacle.
"This is the biggest joke in racing I've ever seen," said Harvick, who crashed hard after blowing tires in both the Nextel Cup race and Friday night's Busch Series event.
"It's just terrible. Everybody is just out there, knowing that at any moment the tires are going to pop. It's pretty disgusting and pretty embarrassing for our sport."
Asked what NASCAR could do to fix the problem, Harvick didn't hold back: "Throw the checkered flag and get the hell out of here," he said. "That's the best thing they can do."
A smooth, sleek surface at Lowe's -- the result of track president Humpy Wheeler twice using a grinding process on the asphalt as a temporary fix until he could repave it -- created high speeds Saturday night that proved too fast for the tires Goodyear provided.
In all, the race was marred by an event-record 15 cautions, including 12 for accidents, and most were the result of blown tires. Five of the 10 Chase for the championship drivers had tire problems, including Stewart, who crashed hard into the wall after he cut a tire while leading the race.
Stewart -- who at one point radioed his crew that he needed "a renewal of my life insurance policy" when they asked if he needed anything -- finished 25th and blew all of his 75-point advantage in the standings. He is tied at the top with Jimmie Johnson, who had his own tire problem but still managed to win his fourth consecutive race at Lowe's.
"It's just one of those screwed-up nights that's probably going to dictate the way the Chase comes out," Stewart said, growling. "It's over with. We're stuck with it the way it is.
"It just sucks when you're the fastest car, and something that's out of your control happens like that that really shouldn't happen."
NASCAR took the unusual step of issuing a mid-race mandate on air pressure requirements for the right front tires, then sent its inspectors up and down pit road to make sure teams were obeying the order. Those reluctant to meet the mandate were told they would be docked points.
Stewart said it was one of the most bizarre things he had seen NASCAR do in his career.
"I thought I'd seen all the craziest things I'd think I could ever see in this sport, and (this) just proved to me there will be something else down the road that will keep that line open in my head that we're not done seeing stupid things happen," he said.
But NASCAR president Mike Helton, in a rare post-race interview session,
defended his mandate.
"NASCAR was acting in the best interest of finishing this event and as
correctly as it could," Helton said. "We took that step, which was
more unusual than we have done in the past.
"We talked about a lot of options ... and the recommended air pressure was the one we came up with to try to get through the evening. Certainly, we talked about a lot of options -- including the possibility of having to shorten the race. But we never got to that extreme."
Goodyear spokesman Phil Holmer said more than half of the blown right front tires were attributed to teams starting with lower-than-recommended air pressure and the company "told and told and told (teams) to keep their air pressures up and for some reason they don't want to do it."
He said Goodyear still was trying to assess what went wrong, but that the company never told NASCAR to stop the race.
"Is the track too fast? Don't know," Holmer said. "Maybe in a few weeks when we get all the information and put it all together we might know something."
Wheeler also defended his changes to the track surface, explaining that the bumps around the speedway were so bad he had to do something. So he chose to "levigate" certain spots on the asphalt, a $250,000 grinding process, before the track hosted its May races.
But when the Cup race in May was marred by a NASCAR-record 22 cautions, Wheeler went back and levigated the rest of the track. He hoped to make it through Saturday night, resigned to the fact he will have to repave the facility this winter.
"It was a tough night for everybody," Wheeler said. "Nobody liked it; I certainly didn't. But we'll get back to normal next time."
From the Associated Press
October 16, 2005: Palmer stays coy on future
Only
Arnold Palmer knows if Sunday was his last hurrah as a competitive golfer,
if the army that cheered his every swing at Augusta Pines Golf Club was the
final one to witness his chase of a check. The truth lies somewhere within,
but Palmer seems unsure of where to look, wavering between the reality of
his limitations and the lure of the game he loves.
"The golf was lousy," Palmer, 76, said of a final-round 82 that included eight consecutive holes on which he shot bogey or worse and produced a last-place finish at the Administaff Small Business Classic. "I couldn't ask for anything but maybe a little better score."
While Palmer is rankled by his inability to shoot his age, his fans couldn't care less. The adoration washes over him from every corner of every course, from those pinned behind the ropes to those stationed above the 18th green. They shower Palmer with love he gladly acknowledges, but when the subject turns to his future on the course, Palmer grouses. He won't exclusively commit to charity events; he won't pledge to abandon competition.
"I'm getting to the point where I'm going to just sort of fade away," Palmer said.
Fans hope otherwise
That has become the stock answer Palmer delivers when asked if he will return
to a given event. But the idea of a seven-time major winner fading away seems
unimaginable. His fans won't embrace the concept, and his Sunday playing partner
scoffed at the notion.
"Arnie is never going to slow down. You can forget it," said Lee Trevino, 65, who was paired with Palmer for the second consecutive round. "Arnie is like Bob Hope: As long as he gets a gig, he's happy. Arnie will slow down when he doesn't have anything to do.
"And Arnie is the type of person that will not like that. Arnie is going to go 150 miles an hour each and every day. And thank God, because I don't know how many people the leaders had (following them), but we had a lot ourselves. We were (23) over and 15 over."
While Palmer continues to contemplate drifting away from the game, Trevino, a winner of six majors who shares Hall of Fame credentials with Palmer, appears rejuvenated after undergoing successful back surgery in May. The radical procedure performed by a German surgeon has given Trevino a new lease on life.
He shot a final-round 73 on Sunday — his best round in the four tournaments he has played since his tour return.
"My back was wonderful," Trevino said. "I've put it to the ultimate test, and it passed.
"Now the question is a little bit of practice and a little bit of strength. I need some strength. I don't have any power to get the ball up and, you know, work different shots."
Talking and signing
Trevino rambled on, optimistically discussing his chances at the upcoming
SBC Championship in San Antonio and his switch to graphite irons. All the
while, he signed for an endless pool of autograph seekers, which brought him
back to the subject of the legend with whom he spent the previous two days
on the links.
"When they asked me to do this, I said, 'Are you kidding me?' " Trevino said. "There are a lot of people that'd kill to play with this guy for two rounds. It's two days I'll never forget. Playing with Arnold Palmer at this time in my life, it was just wonderful."
From the Houston Chronicle, Moisekapenda Bower
October 14, 2005: Richard Pryor sues record label over sales
LOS ANGELES - Comedian Richard Pryor has sued Universal Music Group for allegedly marketing and selling 11 of his recordings without a license.
Pryor's suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages for unfair competition, conversion, unjust enrichment and other claims.
Representatives at Universal Music, the world's largest record company, said they had not seen the suit and could not comment.
According to the complaint, it took years for Pryor to realize that Universal Music was claiming to have licensed such titles as "Are You Serious?," "Wizard of Comedy," "Black Ben and the Blacksmith," "Richard Pryor," "I Ain't Lied Yet" and "Everything's Big."
Pryor now accuses the company of "reaping substantial profits from (the recordings) without ever having acquired any rights in such recordings."
From the Hollywood Reporter, Jesse Hiestand
October 14, 2005: Messy half of odd couple finds Judaism late in life
He
was TV’s most loveable slob.
For years, Jack Klugman portrayed Oscar Madison on “The Odd Couple,” opposite the late Tony Randall’s ultra-fastidious Felix Ungar. It was a TV mismatch made in heaven.
But in spite of their onscreen arguing, Klugman and Randall were best friends. Klugman reveals just how close in his new book “Tony and Me: A Story of Friendship.” He will appear Wednesday, Oct. 19 at Borders in San Rafael.
His book is a tribute not only to an artistic partnership but also to the mysterious bonds of friendship that seemingly grow stronger through tragedy.
“I didn’t realize how important he was in my life,” says the actor in a voice left permanently raspy after throat cancer surgery 16 years ago. “He taught me so much, but a deep friendship doesn’t begin until someone needs something.”
Klugman grew up in a Yiddish-speaking household in Philadelphia. Randall, born Leonard Rosenberg, grew up in a tiny Jewish community in Tulsa, Okla. But both got their start in the New York theater scene and branched out from there.
Starting in the 1950s, Klugman became a familiar face on the big screen thanks to memorable appearances in films like “Twelve Angry Men” and “Goodbye, Columbus.” But he was just as active on the stage, and was an early replacement for Walter Matthau in the original Broadway production of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.”
That’s why he was the obvious choice to play Oscar in the sitcom version of the play, which premiered in 1970.
Klugman had been familiar with Randall’s work, as the two had teamed
up once before on a live TV production in the ’50s. But the “Odd
Couple” turned them into consummate collaborators.
“We loved rehearsal,” he recalls. “Our chemistry came because
we loved working together. We never cared who got the laughs as long as the
scene worked.”
The series lasted five years. Klugman went on to further TV stardom with the hit show “Quincy,” while Randall went on to create the National Actors Theater, a major repertory ensemble in New York.
Klugman, 83, still retains the vitality that made him a star. But he admits he was always a something of a loner, keeping others at bay, despite his success. That, he says, changed late in life thanks to Randall, who proved himself during Klugman’s battle with cancer.
“He was the first one to visit me in the hospital,” remembers Klugman of the lowest point in his life. “Acting was my life. It gave me my identity, it gave me a reason to live, but it was taken away from me.”
It took time for Klugman to get anything resembling a speaking voice, but Randall told his friend early on that when the time was right, he would put Klugman back on the stage.
He meant what he said. Randall enlisted his friend for a one-night-only performance of “The Odd Couple” at the National Actors Theater in 1991. Klugman says without hesitation it was the greatest night of his life. “I was so scared,” he says. “But he handled it with such kindness.”
Kindness was never Klugman’s strong suit growing up in Depression-era Philadelphia. Though Yiddish was the language at home, there was not a lot of Judaism. “I was never bar mitzvahed,” he says. “My grandfather in Russia was a religious fanatic and the butt of the town jokes. My father was ashamed and became an atheist.”
A trip to Israel 20 years ago brought him back in touch with his Jewish roots. “I got on the bus to Jerusalem and burst into tears,” he adds. “I thought, ‘We finally have a place of our own, a place we belong. That was the essence of my life: belonging.”
Klugman is pleased that “The Odd Couple” will have a Broadway revival this season with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane in the starring roles. He considers the play the best American comedy of the 20th century.
These days, Klugman says he enjoys life to the fullest. From his Malibu condo, he says his relationships with his children are better than ever, and he views each day as a miracle.
“Life is so wonderful, so precious,” he says. “It’s never the end. How can you give up? I want to die on stage.”
Jack Klugman will appear at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19 at Borders Books, 588 Francisco Blvd. West, San Rafael. Information: (415) 454-1400.
From Jewish News Weekly, Dan Pine
October 12, 2005: Tony Stewart Finishes 4th Despite Bad Day
First
the alternator belt failed on Tony Stewart's car, then the battery began to
lose power. The only option was switching to a backup power source, and doing
so meant turning off every fan inside his Chevrolet.
All in all, it was a terrible day at Kansas Speedway for Stewart.
And he still finished fourth.
Stewart's knack for turning his bad days into gains — despite his troubles in Kansas, he still widened his lead in the points standings — is making it very hard for the rest of the field to challenge him in the Chase for the championship.
"He's a tough customer," Greg Biffle said. "He runs really well. He's a smart race car driver. He thinks. He executes. They're going to be very hard to beat."
Biffle knows firsthand: He finished second in Kansas, but gained only 10
points on Stewart.
Heading into the fifth round of the 10-race title hunt, Stewart holds a 75-point
advantage over Ryan Newman. He's notched a top-five finish in three of the
first four Chase events, and his lowest result was an 18th last month at Dover.
That consistency is making it impossible for the other drivers to stay with him in the standings. Even Newman has struggled despite scoring a win and three top fives.
Newman's 23rd-place finish in Kansas cost him valuable ground in the standings. Now Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield are the only Chase drivers to not have a finish lower than 18th.
So it's suddenly become Stewart's championship to lose — and everyone knows it.
"We have to stay focused as a team, go out and do the best job we can," Newman said. "Nothing that we do, aside from the obvious, would benefit us as far as Tony Stewart and his situation."
Stewart, the 2002 series champion, isn't stepping up to accept his second crown just yet. He steadfastly refuses to discuss hypothetical situations, focusing on one race at time.
"It's so unpredictable right now," he said. "You just don't know what's going to happen with the guys at the front of the pack."
Asked if he was comfortable as the points leader, or if he would prefer chasing another driver, Stewart said it didn't matter either way.
"If I spent that much time worrying about what everybody else was doing, I'm really not doing my job as a driver," he said. "It's more important for me to make sure we're doing everything 100 percent. We can't control what they do anyway, so why worry about what they're doing?
"The only thing we can control is what we do. We need to focus 100 percent of our energy on what we're doing and not on what everybody else is doing."
As Stewart prepares for the final stretch of the season, he takes a decided advantage with him. Of the six Chase races remaining on the schedule, Stewart has scored victories at five of the venues — including Lowe's Motor Speedway, site of Saturday night's race. The only track remaining on the schedule where Stewart has yet to record a victory is Texas, where the series races Nov. 6.
If the other Chase drivers are going to make up any ground, they'll need
Stewart to start slipping.
"They're going to have to have another off day like they did at Dover
and we're going to have to not get a flat tire in order to close in on them,"
Biffle said. "Just 10 points a race isn't going to do it, and what are
the chances of me finishing second for the next six races?
"That's pretty unlikely, as well, so we can only do as good as we can do and can't really worry about the outcome. We're worried about it, but we really can't do anything about the outcome of (Stewart)."
From the Associated Press, Jenna Fryer, AP Motorsports Writer
October 5, 2005: Michael Waltrip's Penalties Overturned
Michael
Waltrip's penalties for allegedly making an inappropriate gesture during a
race last month were overturned Wednesday.
NASCAR had accused Waltrip of gesturing during the Sept. 18 race in New Hampshire after Robby Gordon threw his helmet at Waltrip following an accident involving the drivers. Waltrip was fined $10,000, docked 25 points and placed on probation until the end of the year.
Waltrip denied making the gesture and appealed to the three-member National Stock Car Racing Commission. The panel said two members found TV footage "inconclusive," and the commission then voted to rescind the penalties.
From the Associated Press
October 4, 2005: Hugh Hefner: real American patriot
Playboy
empire king Hugh Hefner says he had to reinvent himself over the years in
order to leave behind his Puritan roots.
Hefner told Time magazine he is a direct descendant of William Bradford, a Puritan who came over on the Mayflower.
''There was a great deal of repression in their lives and the way they were raised and, in turn, the way I was raised,'' he said.
The most obvious difference, of course, being that Bradford and company went on to found a nation based on the separation of church and state, while Hef founded a magazine intent on separating women from their clothes.
Hefner says the motivation for his initial reinvention came from the desire to become a ladies' man (the Puritans, you might remember, desired simply to practice their religion in peace.)
He says, after being rejected by a girl while in high school, he started calling himself ''Hef'' and wore yellow cords, saddle shoes and flannel shirts he wouldn't tuck in instead of what his parents wanted.
Later, after his magazine became successful, he reinvented himself again. He started smoking a pipe, bought a Mercedes-Benz and bought the Playboy mansion.
''I became the personification of the prototype that I was describing in the magazine. I became, in effect, Mr. Playboy,'' he said.
He credits his success to his transformations.
''Instead of the Puritan world that my folks accepted and, from my perspective, paid the price for, I created a world for myself,'' he told Time. God bless America.
From The Miami Herald
October 3, 2005: Dale Jarrett is back!
TALLADEGA,
Ala. - The last time Dale Jarrett won a NASCAR Nextel Cup race, he's not sure
he cherished the moment the way he should have.
That won't happen this time, the 48-year-old veteran from Hickory, N.C. vowed after breaking a 98-race winless streak with a dramatic victory Sunday in the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
"We were so used to winning in those days, I didn't see any reason we wouldn't just continue right on doing that at least a couple of times each year," Jarrett said of his victory at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham in February 2003. "But over the past couple of years ... we haven't been in position to do that as much. I think we've got some more victories to go, but in case that doesn't happen we'll make sure we enjoy this one."
Jarrett will certainly have longer to appreciate this one than he did to anticipate it, for it wasn't until he'd already run 500 miles Sunday that he found himself in position to surge by Tony Stewart and get his 32nd career win.
Jarrett was in the lead draft of a dozen or so cars as those who'd avoided or recovered from two major wrecks in the first half of the race pounded toward a finish. He'd purposely kept his No. 88 Ford back out of the swarm for most of the day.
"That time of the race doesn't pay anything," Jarrett said of the early laps, when two multicar metal storms substantially culled many would-be contenders and Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers. "Once we got the car right, I wasn't in any hurry to go anywhere."
That attitude changed, however, after the leaders all made final pit stops under green and drafted back up into formation for the final frenetics.
Jarrett was up to sixth by Lap 182 in a race scheduled for 188 laps, but it seemed at that point like all that he might get was a pretty good view as Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman duked it out ahead of him for the win.
"I was sitting there thinking, 'Good gosh, this is going to be wild,'" Jarrett said. "I have no idea what was going to happen at that point. But the opportunity was still there."
After Ken Schrader had a tire go down on Lap 185 to bring out a caution and set up a green-white-checkered finish, opportunity started knocking.
Hard.
Jarrett had already been part of the deal as McMurray, who'd led from Lap 176 to Lap 183, got shuffled back to fifth. On the green-white-checkered restart, Jarrett made a deal to help Stewart try to move past Kenseth and Newman, and he stuck to that plan.
"I did help (Stewart) by the 12 car (Newman) there as we got the white flag," Jarrett said. "But Tony dove to the inside of the 17 (Kenseth) and I couldn't make that move. I was on the outside and the 99 (Carl Edwards) was pushing me. I got in front of the 17 and then he pushed me by the 20 (Stewart). It was just incredible."
Especially since that happened between the entry to Turn 1 to the exit of
Turn 2 on the final lap.
"I thought DJ was still somewhere around Ryan and me," Stewart said.
"I didn't know he was on the outside, and it was definitely a surprise
when he went by us like that."
Jarrett roared out of Turn 2 on the high side and slid ahead of Stewart's Chevrolet. He appreciated the push from Kenseth but was just about to abandon his fellow Ford driver and pull in front of Stewart to secure the lead going into the final two corners.
"I hated to leave Matt hanging out there, but I felt like Tony's was the car I needed to block," Jarrett said.
As that thought crossed Jarrett's mind, Kyle Petty spun on the backstretch and into the inside wall. NASCAR lingered for a moment but finally had to put out the caution.
Since there's no racing back to the line, even to the checkered flag, the race was over.
NASCAR would have to use its computerized scoring loops and videotape to determine the final results, but Jarrett was convinced he'd won. Just for safety's sake, though, he didn't slow as much or as fast as he otherwise might have for the caution.
"I know you're supposed to slow down, and I know I saw the caution lights, but I was just making sure I was the first one that got back to the line," Jarrett said. "My emotions were going crazy. I wanted to get to the start-finish line as quick as I could before somebody changed their minds about anything."
After its review, NASCAR did change some things, but not first place.
Jarrett won, with Stewart finishing second for the fifth time in his career at Talladega without a victory. Newman was originally scored third, but was dropped one spot behind Kenseth afterward. Edwards wound up fifth.
With Jimmie Johnson, the points leader coming in, finishing 31st after being widely blamed for causing the first big wreck and getting a piece of the second one, too, the Chase standings were shuffled significantly.
Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Greg Biffle took hits, too, finishing 41st, 25th and 27th, respectively.
Stewart came away with a four-point lead over Newman with seven races left in the season. Wallace is 76 back, with Johnson 82 behind and Biffle trailing by 98. Edwards (100 back), Kenseth (111 behind) and Jeremy Mayfield (down 112 after a relatively clean 14th on Sunday) all moved up, too, as Martin fell to ninth, 138 back.
Busch, despite bouncing back from adversity to finish eighth Sunday, is now 180 behind Stewart.
From The Charlotte Observer, David Poole
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