I Almost Forgot They Were Gone

It is the start of May … granted, over a week ago … and that means we need to mourn the loss of celebrities who have departed the last few weeks. If I do nothing else, I need to remember to pay homage to those that entertained us and those that didn’t, but who were still considered “celebrities”. Shall we?

Steven Bochco – 74 – TV Producer and writer – April 1

David Edgerton – 90 – Co-founder of Burger King – April 3

Ron Dunbar – 77 Songwriter Give Me Just A Little More Time – April 3

Soon-Tek Oh – 85 – Actor; The Man With The Golden Gun, Mulan, M*A*S*H – April 4

Johnny Valiant – 71 – Professional Wrestler – April 4

Tim O’Connor – 90 – Actor; Peyton Place, Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century – April 5

Peter Grünberg – 78 – German physicist. co-discoverer of giant magnetoresistance – April 7

Chuck McCann – 83 – Actor/Voice Actor G.I. Joe, Ducktales, lots of other things – April 8

Mitzi Shore – 87 – Owner of The Comedy Store – April 11

Miloš Forman – 86 – Film director One Flew Over The Cucko’s Nest, Amadeus – April 13

R. Lee Ermey – 74 – Actor Full Metal Jacket, Toy Story – April 15

Harry Anderson – 65 – Actor/Magician Night Court – April 16

Barbara Bush – 92 – Former First Lady – April 17

Gerard Baldwin – 89 – Animator/Director Smurfs, Super Friends, Rocky and Bullwinkle – April 18

Bruno Sammartino – 82 – Professional Wrestler – April 18

Avicii – 28 – Swedish DJ – April 20

Verne Troyer – 49 – Mini Me – April 21

Charles Neville – 79 – A Neville Brother – April 26

 

Be sure to get your bets in for May’s results being on time. Right now, the odds in Vegas are 347-1.

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The Update Is Back … But These Celebrities Won’t Be

Welcome to the first Celebrity Death update of 2018. Yeah, I am a day late for January but I wanted to see if winter was going to die quickly too. According to Phil … not going to for 6 weeks. Additionally, we are supposed to get a small butt load of snow here this weekend. Nothing Kardashian sized butt, but enough.

Let’s remember the rules of inclusion. These are people (or otherwise) that I, and I alone, consider to be celebrities. You may or may not agree with me but … it’s my blog … so there. As always, if I miss someone that you think is worthy of inclusion … keep it to yourself. Just kidding! Feel free to add a comment. I like comments. Gives me something to read at work. So, without further ado, let’s get on with this macabre celebration, shall we?

Jon Paul Steuer – 33 – Actor Grace Under Fire, Star Trek TNG – Jan 1

Thomas S. Monson – 90 – President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – Jan 2

Jerry Van Dyke – 86 – Actor/Comedian; My Mother The Car, Coach – Jan 5

Thomas Bopp – 68 – Astronomer and co-discoverer of Hale-Bopp comet – Jan 5

Dave Toschi – 86 – Police Detective; Chief investigator of the Zodiac Killer case – Jan 6

Doug Young – 98 – Voice Actor; Doggie Daddy, Yippee, Grand Poobah – Jan 7

Donnelly Rhodes – 80 – Actor; Dutch on Soap­ – Jan 8

Milt Rosenberg – 92 – Radio host on WGN. Pretty big deal here – Jan 9

Eddie Clarke – 67 – Guitarist; motorhead – Jan 10

Simon Shelton – 52 – A Teletubbie

Mort Walker – 94 – Cartoonist Beetle Baily, Hi and Lois – Jan 27

Mark Salling – 35 – Actor; Glee – Jan 30

 

That’s it for today campers.  See ya soon.

Death Will Be The Exercise Of Me

I was going to go for a nice long walk today at work. I didn’t. My back hurts and I am lazy. Instead, I decided to exercise my brain and bring back the Celebrity Death Watch for 2018.

Of course, to start off the year, I need to make my predictions. I have had varying success over the years. Mostly, if you are a celebrity, and I put you on the list, you will more than likely make it until the following year. In the past, I have had 3 categories. I think we will go with that again. A brief explanation of the categories:

The Vigodas – He was on everyone’s list for years. Although he has passed, we will keep these “They’re still alive?” picks named after him. Mostly these are top picks from years past that are STILL hanging on.

Top Picks – Most likely. Usually on most lists.

Out On A Ledge – Unlikely to happen but … who knows.

I am glad I missed out on my predictions last year because … DAMN! There were so many out of left field that it boggled the mind. Let’s get this started though and move on.

 

The Vigodas – Some new ones added as some old ones have dropped off the list … literally.

Billy Graham – Pushing 100 and still pushing buttons. I think this might be the year.

Kirk Douglas – As of last month he was 101! He’s got himself a younger wife though (98) so she might be too much for him to handle

Ian McKellen – While not as old as the others … have you seen him lately?

Olivia de Havilland – 101 and going strong?

Herman Wouk – 102. I hear he wrote his own obit 4 years ago.

Carol Channing – Amazingly, her voice is getting deeper.

 

Top Picks

Liza Minnelli – While she isn’t that old comparatively, she hasn’t been doing well lately.

Bob Barker – All the spaying and neutering will finally catch up to him.

Stan Lee – I hate to say it but … Excelsior!

Jimmy Carter – The current state of affairs will be just too much.

Mel Brooks – Putting him on so that he’s got at least another year or 2!

Tim Curry – Just a feeling I got.

Pierre Cardin – Fashion is fleeting … right?

Steven Hawking – He has been making some bold statements lately. Thinking he is doing is to laugh at us soon.

 

Out On A Ledge

Charlie Sheen – The odds are stacked against him on so many levels.

Don Johnson – He hasn’t made a record in years.

Axl Rose – Obvious, isn’t it?

Jenny McCarthy – Plastic surgery accident while eating a Wahlburger.

All YouTube “stars” – Big pipe dream on that one but, still …

Hoda Kotb – She will go into withdraw from not being able to drink the first 3 hours of the Today Show

Going to end it here before I start getting into areas that cause WAY too much derision. And before I start using more words like derision. As always, if you have some picks of your own … drop a comment and save them for posterity. We can go back and look at the end of the year!

Celebrity Deaths In April – I Don’t Have A Catchy Title

Well, February, I mean April has finally passed, as well as a number of celebrities this month. The Blackhawks are on so I really can’t think of much else to say. Sorry … but it is playoff hockey.

 

Lucy Hood – 56 – President of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences – April 2

Arthur Smith – 93 – Songwriter of Dueling Banjos – April 3

John Pinette – 50 – Comedian – April 5

Mickey Rooney – 93 – His 5^th wife Barbara was murrrrrrdered – April 6

Peaches Geldof – 25 – Daughter of Bob Geldof – April 7

The Ultimate Warrior – 54 – Professional wrestler – April 8

Shane Gibson – 35 – Guitarist Korn – April 15

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lee Marshall – 60ish – Voice of Tony the Tiger – April 26

DJ E-Z Rock – 46 – Musician – April 27

Bob Hoskins – 71 – Actor Who Framed Roger Rabbit; Hook – April 29

 

Like I said, Blackhawks are on. I am a little distracted but they are winning 1 – 0 at the end of the first. Sorry if I missed anyone.

 

GO HAWKS!

Why I Will Miss Campaign Season

By now, everyone is aware that the election is over, the votes are counted, and a winner has been declared. Millions of Americans are crying, rejoicing, getting stoned (in Colorado and Washington) or just decompressing after the months and months of commercials, mailings and robo-calls. While I am glad that I won’t have to see another campaign ad for a while, there is one aspect of the endless bombardment of negativity that I will miss. I will miss the fact that the campaign ads took over the news from Lindsay, Snookie, The human thumb and a myriad of other freak shows that seem to qualify as news these days.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t enjoy watching the political ads, however, they were a nice break from hearing about people who are famous for being famous train wrecks. As annoying and condescending as some of the ads were, they were still more pertinent to my life than Snookie having a baby or Lindsay running over someone in a parking garage.

Unfortunately, now we must return to those days of yester-month and tune into the news to see the top story of how a new Kardashian sex tape is being released of Bruce Jenner and Hulk Hogan, doing extreme couponing with Honey BooBoo.

I know, I am cranky and yes I still yell at my own kids to get off my lawn. Have a great evening and may the force be with you when you wish upon a Death Star.

Dead Celebrities: A Two-Fer

I know, I haven’t posted for a while. As I mentioned before … a long time ago … 2 kids are taking up all my free time. AND I LOVE IT! Anyhoo, the new job is going great, the kids are doing well and all is outstanding lately for Mr. and Mrs. Voices and the clan. That can’t be said for a big bunch of celebs over the last 2 months. They have decided to give up on the problems and BS that is piled on all of us everyday. Hmm, maybe they are on to something. Nah, I will stick around for a while. I want to see how it ends this December. Here are those that got a head start on us. At most, they will get the better condos in the afterlife. A side note, my death pool picks have jumped this year. I am going to have a good summary at the end of this year I think.

June

Richard Dawson – 79 – Hogan’s Heroes and host of Family Feud – June 2

Kathryn Joosten – 72 – Actress Desperate Housewives, The West Wing – June 2

Ray Bradbury – 91 – Author – June 5

Lil Phat – 19 – Rapper – June 7

Bob Welch – 66 – Musician; Fleetwood Mac – June 7

Frank Cady – 96 – Mr. Drucker on Green Acres – June 8

Ann Rutherford – 94 – Actress Gone With The Wind – June 11

Henry Hill – 69 – Mobster inspiration for  Goodfellas – June 12

Jim Drake – 83 – Inventor of the Windsurfer – June 19

Richard Lynch – 76 – Actor Battlestar Galactica (orig), Star Trek: TNG – June 19

Richard Adler – 90 – Producer and composer – June 21

George Randolph Hearst Jr. – 84 – A Hearst – June 25

Nora Ephron – 71 – Screenwriter and director Sleepless in Seattle– June 26

Doris Singleton – 92 – Actress  I Love Lucy – June 26

Don Grady – 68 – Actor  My Three Sons – June 27

Norman Sas – 87 – Inventor of Electric football – June 28

July

 Andy Griffith – 86 – He was Andy Griffith – July 3

Scamper – 35 – Rodeo Horse – July 4

Ernest Borgnine – 95 – Actor – July 8

Maria Hawkins Cole – 89 – widow of Nat King Cole – July 10

Donald Sobol – 87 – Author of Encyclopedia Brown – July 11

Sage Stallone – 36 – Son of Sylvester – July 13

Richard Zanuck – 77 – Producer  Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy – July 13

Sally Ride – 61 – First Woman in space – July 23

Chad Everett – 75 – Actor  Medical Center – July 24

Sherman Hemsley – 74 – George Jefferson – July 24

Norman Alden – 87 – Actor – July 27

Gore Vidal – 86 – Playwright and novelist – July 31

A Day Late And A Heartbeat Short

One would think that my blog has died a slow painful death with the lack of posts lately, however, only celebrity deaths make it to my blog. Two under two is a lot of work, and I am realizing how tired Mrs. Voices and I are at the end of a day. It is a good thing I haven’t been working the last 2 months because it has been tough. I do have some good news that I will share soon as well.  I know I am a day late with the death list for April but hey, let’s just get to it shall we?

 

Chief Jay Strongbow – 83 – Wrestler – April 3

James S. Herr – 87 – Founder of Herr’s Snacks – April 5

Mike Wallace – 83 – News correspondent – April 7

Carol Adams – 94 – Actress, Our Gang – April 9

Richie Teeter – 61 – Drummer, Twisted Sister – April 10

Jonathan Frid – 87 – Actor, Dark Shadows – April 13

Dick Clark – 82 – Cyborg and New Year’s Eve host – April 18

Levon Helm – 71 – Musician,  The Band – April 19

Greg Ham – 58 – Musician, Men at Work – April 19

Ray Easterling – 62 – Football Player – April 19

Bill Granger – 70 – Author and columnist – April 22

Bill “Moose” Skowron – 81 – Baseball Player – April 27

Amarillo Slim – 83 – Professional Gambler – April 29

Joel Goldsmith – 54 – Film & Television composer Stargate – April 29

 

I feel like I am missing someone but, I went through my notes for the month and I don’t see what I am missing. I may have forgotten to write it down when it happened.  Let me know if I missed someone major!

I Am Not Dead Yet

Unlike the folks in our list this month. This was either a very good month for celebs staying alive, or I have been distracted with the whole not working thing and didn’t pay close enough attention this month. I am going to put bets on the latter since it is April 4^th and I am just getting around to posting the monthly list. Well, for what it is worth, here it is.

Andrew Breitbart – 43 – Political commentator – March 1

Leonardo Cimino – 94 – Actor Dune, Hudson Hawk – March 3

Robert Sherman – 86 – Songwriter – March 5

Jimmy Ellis – 74 – Singer The Trammps – March 8

Harry Wendelstedt – 73 – Baseball umpire – March 9

Dennis Bowen – 61 – Actor Welcome Back Kotter – March 9

Michael Hossack – 65 – Drummer The Doobie Bros. – March 12

Samual Glazer – 89 – Founder of Mr. Coffee – March 22

Warren Stevens – 92 – Actor Forbidden Planet – March 27

Earl Scruggs – 88 – bluegrass musician, banjo theme for  Beverly Hillbillies – March 28

Have You Ever Wondered?

Monsters Inc. was on TV tonight and I thought Tori might like to watch it. Ok, I thought it would be visually appealing enough that Tori would sit in her high chair so I could get some work done. It worked. Something that came to me for some reason was, if this took place over a day or two or three, don’t you think that when they went to put the child back in the room that there would be cops all over the place? I mean, the kid was missing for at least 2 days. Just curious if I am the only person that has ever thought of that.

I was watching our recorded episode of The Soup and caught the last few second of the show After Lately. I am not really sure what was going on but, apparently one of the characters got to meet Dave Grohl and now is stalking him. I looked up the episode but couldn’t find the whole episode, just one part of it. After watching the part of the episode, I found out Dave was ON the episode and this girl was like a major stalker. I am not sure why, but it kind of reminded me of someone. I am not sure who though. If any of you could watch the below and see if you can help me out. It starts around the 1:57 mark so feel free to skip ahead. I tried to get it to start there but it doesn’t seem to want to work properly. I know some of you will have no clue but others will. I know inside jokes are in poor taste but I couldn’t resist on this one. Sorry.

Commercials Suck

I am 3 work days (2 more this week and then next Monday) away from vacation and I am already getting antsy and crabby. I also work in advertising for retail and I am more than aware of the trend of the retail industry giving a big ole middle finger to Thanksgiving and saying F*** You to family and opening their stores on Thursday night. Thankfully I don’t actually have to work in the actual stores but I still have to be on-call during the holidays.

To top it all off, I have heard a few commercials the last couple of days that really make me say “WHAT?!” Walmart has a black Friday commercial featuring Back in Black by AC/DC. Let me tell you, when I think Christmas I think AC/DC. The other commercial is a Kohl’s commercial where they use that insipid song by Rebecca Black and change the words to Black Friday. I am ashamed to work in the industry when there are commercials like that. It is sad.I am sad.

I haven’t forgotten or given up on the White Castle stuffing. It has just been a busy weekend and this week may not be much better. It will happen though. It just may be after Thanksgiving.