GA Russell

I'm a Canadian league fan, but no favorite team there. I root for former CFL players in the NFL, so I root for their teams too: Jeff Garcia, Jon Ryan, Lawrence Tynes, Kenton Keith and Mike Sellars. My favorite teams when I was a boy were the Boston teams because my family is from there: Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics. The Bruins have had a long history of jerks in management, so I have never rooted for them. However, I will admit that I met Don Cherry in 1979 and he was a very nice guy (unlike his reputation!). My favorite team when I was a boy in DC was the local baseball team, the Washington Senators. My family moved to Seattle the same time the Senators moved to Minnesota, so I continued to root for them. But I stopped rooting for the Twins when Harmon Killebrew and Camilo Pascual moved on and everybody else retired. In 1972 I was a season ticket holder of the New England Whalers, who are today reincarnated, coincidentally, as my local team the Carolina Hurricanes. I have a friend who is an employee of the Ottawa Senators, so I root for them too. I consider New Orleans to be my home town, but the Saints' first year was not until my last year there (senior year of high school). So I root for the Saints, but not ahead of the Patriots. And as I think I have said before, the Patriots haven't been quite the same for me since they changed their name to New England; and they lost a lot of appeal to me when they changed their uniform colors and logo. I was an AFL fan when I was a boy, so I root for all of the 1963 AFL teams which still exist. My first year of collecting bubble gum cards was 1959, so I root for the 1959 NFL teams that still exist too. If the team relocates, I don't root for them! I feel the same way about the 1959 MLB teams. My favorite college teams are Georgetown and Pitt. I always look for their football scores. I can't say that I was ever much of a basketball fan, although naturally I enjoyed it when Georgetown won the national championship. The only team I have ever disliked is the New York Yankees.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dcb_1200881104

I suppose you all noticed that tonight's NFC Championship Game featured ex-Ottawa Renegade Lawrence Tynes of the Giants against ex-Winnipeg Blue Bomber Jon Ryan of the Packers.

Don't know the album, but I heard a track from it this morning on Gary Burton's Sirius show. I enjoyed it!

Here's another fond remembrance of Don Wittman: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/New...783503-sun.html What I remember him most for are his broadcasts with Ron Lancaster and Leo Cahill.

DukeCity, that second photo is really something, isn't it?! Here's here LA Times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Suzanne Pleshette, sexy star of 'Bob Newhart Show,' dies at 70 Suzanne Pleshette and Bob Newhart, co-stars in 'The Bob Newhart Show.' Pleshette died in Los Angeles Saturday, January 19. She was 70. By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 20, 2008 Suzanne Pleshette, the dark-haired, smoky-voiced actress who played Bob Newhart's confident and sexy wife, Emily Hartley, for six years on the popular 1970s sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show," has died. She was 70. The widow of comic actor Tom Poston, Pleshette died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, Robert Finkelstein, an entertainment lawyer and family friend, told the Associated Press. Pleshette underwent chemotherapy in 2006 for lung cancer. A stage-trained New York actress who made her movie debut in the 1958 Jerry Lewis comedy "The Geisha Boy," Pleshette appeared in such films as "The Birds," "Nevada Smith," "Youngblood Hawke," "A Rage to Live" and "Fate Is the Hunter." She also appeared with Troy Donahue, to whom she was married for eight months in 1964, in the 1962 romantic drama "Rome Adventure" and the 1964 western "A Distant Trumpet." On Broadway in 1961, Pleshette replaced Anne Bancroft in the role of Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker," opposite Patty Duke as Helen Keller. And on television in 1991, she earned an Emmy Award nomination for the title role in the TV movie "Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean." But she had a flair for comedy. Among her screen credits are "40 Pounds of Trouble," "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium," "Support Your Local Gunfighter," "The Shaggy D.A.," "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin," "The Ugly Dachshund" and "Blackbeard's Ghost." Pleshette, however, is best remembered for playing what New York Times critic Frank Rich once described as "the sensible yet woolly wife" on "The Bob Newhart Show," which ran from 1972 to 1978. Her role as Emily earned her two Emmy nominations. Pleshette retired from acting after marrying her second husband, wealthy businessman Tom Gallagher, in 1968. She told TV Guide in 1972 that after she'd been hanging around the house for six months, "my loving husband said, 'You're getting to be awfully boring. Go back to work.' " After trying to figure out how she could return to work without having to get up at 5 a.m. or go out of town for weeks on movie locations, she recalled, "I said to myself, 'What can you do best?' 'Talk,' I said. 'So what better than the talk shows on TV?' I said. I picked up the phone and asked my agent to try to book me with Johnny Carson." She made a couple of dozen appearances on the Carson show over the next few years, including one with fellow guest Newhart -- a show seen by writers David Davis and Lorenzo Music, the creatorsof the upcoming Newhart show. "Suzanne started talking, and I looked at Lorenzo and Lorenzo looked at me," Davis told TV Guide. "There she was, just what we were looking for. "She was revealing her own frailties, talking freely about being over 30. She was bubble-headed but smart, loving toward her husband but relentless about his imperfections. We were trying to get away from the standard TV wife, and we knew that whoever we picked would have to be offbeat enough and strong enough to carry the show along with Newhart. We didn't dream Suzanne would accept the part." Pleshette told the magazine that "Bob is just like my husband, Tommy, letting me go bumbling and stumbling through life. And the way it's written, the part is me. There's the stream of non sequiturs by which I live. There are fights. I'm allowed to be demonstrative. But the core of the marriage is good." Off-camera, Pleshette was known for being what an Orlando Sentinel reporter once described as "an earthy dame, an Auntie Mame who isn't afraid to tell a dirty story." Or, as TV Guide put it in 1972: "Her conversations -- mostly meandering monologues -- are sprinkled with aphorisms, anecdotes, salty opinions and X-rated expletives." She enjoyed talking so much that during the making of "The Geisha Boy," Lewis took to calling her "Big Mouth." Newhart, according to the TV Guide article, "was finding himself outtalked by Suzanne on the set about 12 to 1 but professed to be unperturbed by the phenomenon." "I don't tangle," Newhart said, "with any lady who didn't give Johnny a chance to exercise his mouth -- even to sneer -- for 10 whole minutes." Although Newhart got a new TV wife, played by Mary Frann, for his 1982-90 situation comedy "Newhart," Pleshette had the last laugh -- making a memorable surprise guest appearance as Newhart's previous TV wife, Emily, at the end of the series' final episode. In it, Dick Loudon, the Vermont innkeeper Newhart played on "Newhart," is knocked out by a stray golf ball. Then the show cuts to a darkened bedroom as he wakes up and turns on the light to reveal Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley's bedroom from "The Bob Newhart Show." The Vermont-set "Newhart" and its colorful characters, it turns out, had only been a dream, and Pleshette's Emily tells Bob he should watch what he eats before going to bed. In a 1990 interview with "CBS This Morning," Pleshette recalled that when the "Newhart" studio audience first saw the familiar bedroom set from the old series, she heard gasps. "And then they heard this mumble under the covers, and nobody does my octave, you know," she recalled. "And I think they suspected it might be me, but when that dark hair came up from under the covers, they stood and screamed." For her and Newhart "to be together again with the old rhythms, looking into each other's eyes, was just wonderful," she said. And, she said, it was "very touching and so dear" that the studio audience "remembered us with such affection." Pleshette was born Jan. 31, 1937, in New York City. Her mother had been a dancer, and her father was the manager of the New York and Brooklyn Paramount theaters during their big-band days. After attending the New York High School of the Performing Arts -- "I found myself there," Pleshette later said -- she spent a semester at Syracuse University and a semester at Finch College before moving on to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre and acting teacher Sanford Meisner. Pleshette also starred in the short-lived sitcoms "Suzanne Pleshette Is Maggie Briggs" (1984) and "The Boys Are Back" (1994-95) and the dramatic series "Bridges to Cross" (1986) and "Nightingales" (1989). More recently, she played the lusty grandmother in the sitcom "Good Morning, Miami" (2002-03). Pleshette was married to Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000. She first met -- and dated -- Poston when they appeared together in the 1959 Broadway comedy "Golden Fleecing." They were both dealing with the deaths of their spouses in 2000 when they got back together. They were married the next year. "They are a romantic duo," actor Tim Conway, a friend of Poston's, told People magazine in 2001. "It's almost embarrassing. You have to put cold water on them." Poston died in April at age 85 after a brief illness. Details on survivors were not immediately available.

I have Frank Sinatra's and Linda Purl's recordings of Nice 'n' Easy, and Mel Torme's recording of That Face. Here's his LA Times obituary. Interesting story, that he introduced Alan and Marilyn Bergman. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Lew Spence, 87; composed songs sung by Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 20, 2008 Lew Spence, a songwriter who composed the Grammy-nominated Frank Sinatra song "Nice 'n' Easy" and "That Face," a standard recorded by Fred Astaire, has died. He was 87. Spence died in his sleep Jan. 9 at his home in Los Angeles, said his niece, Toni M. Schulman. A onetime singer-pianist, Spence began turning his songwriting hobby into a career in the late 1940s when he was nearly 30. He worked with a number of lyricists over the years, including Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Much later in his career -- at 60 -- he began writing lyrics to some of his songs, and he continued songwriting until his death. Among his best-known works are "Half as Lovely (Twice as True)," "If I Had Three Wishes," "Love Looks So Well on You," "Sleep Warm" and "So Long My Love." In addition to Sinatra and Astaire, other artists who sang Spence's songs included Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Bobby Short, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Bing Crosby, Billy Eckstine and Dinah Shore. "I think he was an excellent songwriter, and his work had a lot of charm," said Hugh Martin, a theater and film composer best known for his songs in the 1944 MGM musical "Meet Me in St. Louis." Martin, who had gotten to know Spence in recent years, said his favorite Spence song was "What's Your Name (And Will You Marry Me?)" "It's just delightful, and he was a delightful person," Martin told the Los Angeles Times on Friday. "I enjoyed being with him. He loved life, and every day was exciting to him." Marilyn Bergman said Friday that Spence "was a very talented songwriter. He should have had a bigger career than he did." In 1956, Spence played a significant role in the life of the Bergmans, with whom he collaborated for several years. "Alan was working with Lew in the morning, and I was working with him in the afternoon," Bergman recalled. "One day, he introduced his morning lyric writer to his afternoon lyric writer. Then the three of us started working together." Collaborating with the Bergmans, Spence most notably co-wrote "Nice 'n' Easy," which was nominated for three Grammys in 1960 -- for record, album and song of the year. And with Alan Bergman, he wrote "That Face." Spence later said he was inspired to write "That Face" the morning after meeting actress Phyllis Kirk in a Beverly Hills restaurant. For Alan Bergman, "That Face" had another meaning. "Alan was planning to give the song to me as an engagement present," said Marilyn Bergman, whose favorite singer was Astaire. Although the movie legend told Spence and Alan Bergman that he didn't record songs that weren't in his movies, he said he would listen to it. When they played and sang the song for Astaire, Marilyn Bergman recalled, "He said, 'I like that, and I'll record it next week,' and he did." Singer-pianist Michael Feinstein said "That Face," which Astaire sang on his multi-Emmy Award-winning 1958 NBC special "An Evening With Fred Astaire," has become "one of a small group of songs from that era that has become a standard." "He was a very talented man who was a real melodic craftsman," Feinstein said of Spence, whom he first met in the 1980s. Like Marilyn Bergman, Feinstein believes Spence "deserved more success than he ultimately attained." "He was very gentle and kind and perhaps didn't have the killer instinct needed to really get out there and flog his songs," Feinstein said. "I think he lived comfortably from the royalties of what he had written, because he wrote a lot, and he was always gently offering his songs to singers." Just last year, Feinstein said, "Lew called me and said, 'I've written a song I'd like you to hear.' He said, 'I'd just like to play it for you.' He was as gentle a song plugger as there was." Spence went over to Feinstein's house in Los Feliz and played it on his piano. Feinstein didn't remember the title but said that "it was a beautiful song for which I think he also wrote the lyrics." When Spence finished, Feinstein recalled, "He said, 'OK, now I'm happy,' and off he went." Spence, who was born June 29, 1920, in Cedarhurst, N.Y., is survived by two sisters, Ruth Mindling and Evelyn Dilloff. A private memorial service was held Saturday.

I just heard on CBS Radio News that Suzanne Pleshette has died of respiratory failure. She would have been 71 Jan. 31. She was always a good interview on the Carson show! Here's her obit from the San Jose Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci...?nclick_check=1 Suzanne Pleshette, known as 'Newhart's' wife, dies in Los Angeles By BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer Article Launched: 01/19/2008 09:14:37 PM PST LOS ANGELES—Suzanne Pleshette, the beautiful, husky-voiced film and theater star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein. She was 70. Pleshette, who underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006, died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said Finkelstein, who is also a family friend. "The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason. Four years after the show ended in 1978, Newhart went on to the equally successful "Newhart" series in which he was the proprietor of a New England inn populated by more eccentrics. When that show ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role—from the first show—in one of the most clever final episodes in TV history. It had Newhart waking up in the bedroom of his "The Bob Newhart Show" home with Pleshette at his side. He went on to tell her of the crazy dream he'd just had of running an inn filled with eccentrics. "If I'm in Timbuktu, I'll fly home to do that," Pleshette said of her reaction when Newhart told her how he was thinking of ending the show. Born Jan. 31, 1937, in New York City, Pleshette began her career as a stage actress after attending the city's High School of the Performing Arts and studying at its Neighborhood Playhouse. She was often picked for roles because of her beauty and her throaty voice. "When I was 4," she told an interviewer in 1994, "I was answering the phone, and (the callers) thought I was my father. So I often got quirky roles because I was never the conventional ingenue." She met her future husband, Tom Poston, when they appeared together in the 1959 Broadway comedy "The Golden Fleecing," but didn't marry him until more than 40 years later. Although the two had a brief fling, they went on to marry others. By 2000 both were widowed and they got back together, marrying the following year. "He was such a wonderful man. He had fun every day of his life," Pleshette said after Poston died in April 2007. Among her other Broadway roles was replacing Anne Bancroft in "The Miracle Worker," the 1959 drama about Helen Keller, in New York and on the road. Meanwhile, she had launched her film career with Jerry Lewis in 1958 in "The Geisha Boy." She went on to appear in numerous television shows, including "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Playhouse 90" and "Naked City." By the early 1960s, Pleshette attracted a teenage following with her youthful roles in such films as "Rome Adventure," "Fate Is the Hunter," "Youngblood Hawke" and "A Distant Trumpet." She married fellow teen favorite Troy Donahue, her co-star in "Rome Adventure," in 1964 but the union lasted less than a year. She was married to Texas oilman Tim Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000. Pleshette matured in such films as Hitchcock's "The Birds" and the Disney comedies "The Ugly Dachshund," "Blackbeard's Ghost" and "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin." Over the years, she also had a busy career in TV movies, including playing the title role in 1990's "Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean." More recently, she appeared in several episodes of the TV sitcoms "Will & Grace" and "8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter." In a 1999 interview, Pleshette observed that being an actress was more important than being a star. "I'm an actress, and that's why I'm still here," she said. "Anybody who has the illusion that you can have a career as long as I have and be a star is kidding themselves."

I lived in Pittsburgh in the 70s when they were winning their Super Bowls, so of course I remember Ernie Holmes. Even if you don't recall the name, you probably remember the haircut. Here's his LA Times obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries From the Associated Press January 19, 2008 Ernie Holmes, who won two Super Bowls as an anchor of Pittsburgh's famed "Steel Curtain" defense in the 1970s, has died in a car crash in southeast Texas. He was 59. Holmes was driving alone Thursday night when his car left the road and rolled several times near Lumberton, about 80 miles from Houston, a Texas Department of Public Safety dispatcher said Friday. He was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the car and pronounced dead at the scene, the department said. The two-time All-Pro played for the Steelers from 1972 to 1977 and spent part of the 1978 season with New England before retiring. He played on a defensive line with Steel Curtain teammates "Mean" Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White. "Ernie was one of the toughest players to ever wear a Steelers uniform," Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney said in a statement. "He was a key member of our famous Steel Curtain defense, and many people who played against him considered Ernie almost impossible to block. At his best, he was an intimidating player who even the toughest of opponents did not want to play against." Holmes was part of a front four in the 1975 Super Bowl that helped limit Minnesota to 17 yards rushing and 119 total yards. The Steelers won their first Super Bowl, 16-6. They were back a year later, beating Dallas, 21-17, in the title game. Holmes had a reputation for being "stone crazy," he told Time magazine in 1975. That came mostly from a case early in his career when he pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon following a bizarre episode in which he fired a pistol at trucks and a police helicopter. He was sentenced to five years' probation. Holmes was nicknamed "Fats" for most of his life. He also was nicknamed "Arrowhead Holmes" in 1974 when he shaved his head, leaving only an arrow-shaped pattern of hair on his skull. Holmes, who was 6 feet 3 and about 260 pounds during his career, also told Time he was attracted to the violence of football. "I don't mind knocking somebody out," Holmes said. "If I hear a moan and a groan coming from a player I've hit, the adrenaline flows within me. I get more energy and play harder." Earnest Lee Holmes was born July 11, 1948, in Jamestown, Texas, and played football at Texas Southern University. After football, Holmes had minor acting roles. He appeared in an episode of the 1980s TV show "The A-Team" and dabbled in professional wrestling. Holmes tried to live a calmer life in later years, settling on a ranch in Wiergate, Texas, where he had a church and was an ordained minister. He told the Steelers he was a more "spiritual being." Information about survivors was incomplete Friday.

Allan Melvin was the guy from You'll Never Get Rich who popped up twenty years later on All in the Family. For some reason, I found him the most memorable actor of the Phil Silvers cast. It must have been his face, which you can see with this link. He always sounded like a dopey guy, so I am surprised that he graduated from Columbia. Here is his LA Times obituary: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Allan Melvin, 84; popular character actor By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 19, 2008 Allan Melvin, a popular character actor who played Cpl. Henshaw on the classic 1950s sitcom "The Phil Silvers Show" and later portrayed Archie Bunker's neighbor and friend Barney on "All in the Family," has died. He was 84. Melvin, who was in the original Broadway cast of "Stalag 17" in the early 1950s, died of cancer Thursday at his home in Brentwood, said his wife of 64 years, Amalia. During his five-decade career, Melvin made guest appearances on numerous TV shows, including playing different roles on at least eight episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show" and playing Dick Van Dyke's old Army buddy on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." He also played Sgt. Charlie Hacker on "Gomer Pyle: U.S.M.C."; portrayed butcher Sam Franklin -- Alice the housekeeper's boyfriend -- on "The Brady Bunch"; and continued playing Barney when the hit "All in the Family" became "Archie Bunker's Place." Melvin, who appeared in only one movie -- the 1968 Doris Day comedy "With Six You Get Eggroll" -- also did voice-over work in cartoons, including providing the voices of Magilla Gorilla and Bluto on "Popeye." He worked on numerous TV commercials as well, including playing Al the Plumber in the Liquid-Plumr commercials for 15 years. After launching his show business career in the sound effects department of NBC radio in New York in 1944, Melvin began acting on radio soap operas and then moved into live television. At the same time, he did movie star impressions in Manhattan in a nightclub act written by his friend Richard Condon, who later wrote "The Manchurian Candidate." Melvin's stand-up act led to his winning "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" radio show in the late 1940s. He was playing Reed in "Stalag 17," the hit 1951-52 Broadway play set in a German POW camp during World War II, when he first caught Silvers' attention. "The Phil Silvers Show," originally titled "You'll Never Get Rich," was set on an Army base in Kansas and ran from 1955 to 1959. As Cpl. Henshaw, Melvin was the right-hand man to Silvers' con-man extraordinaire, Sgt. Ernie Bilko. "He was brilliant" as Henshaw, Mickey Freeman, who played Pvt. Zimmerman on the show, told The Times on Friday. In recent years, when fans would ask Freeman how many surviving cast members were left, he would reply, "Allan Melvin and me -- that's a high mortality rate for a noncombatant unit." Noting that Melvin "was a great mimic of voices," Freeman recalled an episode in which an officer arrived at Ft. Baxter to stop the men from gambling. One of the ways the officer did that, Freeman said, was to make them listen to his wife lecture on art. But the woman had an unusual twitch -- pulling on her skirt -- and Bilko and the other soldiers placed bets on how many times she would do that during her lecture. Freeman recalled that Melvin, as Henshaw, was positioned outside the lecture hall with a microphone, broadcasting to the other soldiers on the base -- " 'She's up to 42 now . . . 43 . . . 44, and she's not even breathing heavy.' He made a whole racetrack thing out of it," Freeman said. "He was wonderful." Melvin was born Feb. 18, 1923, in Kansas City, Mo. His family soon moved to New York City, where he graduated from Columbia University as a journalism major. Melvin retired from acting about 10 years ago -- long after becoming a household face who was used to people spotting him in public and saying, "Hey, Henshaw" or "Hey, Sam the Butcher." "I've enjoyed the stuff I've done," he told People magazine in 1996, "but the one you're getting paid for, that's what you enjoy most." In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Jennifer Hanson; and a grandson. Services will be private.

Don Wittman has died. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a CFL ballgame in 1996. He was a favorite of mine, and I always thought that it was a mistake to move him off the Grey Cup in favor of the next generation. Here's his Canadian Press obituary: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...lobeSports/home

My mother was a big Don Shirley fan, and bought two or three of his Cadence albums with virtually identical covers. My mother was not a jazz fan. I remember that Leonard Feather in his Encyclopedia said that whatever it was that Shirley played, it was not jazz. I haven't heard my mother's albums in over forty years. I don't think that anyone in the family still has them, although maybe my sister does. I don't know what I would think of them today. I do recall thinking that he had a nice touch on the keyboard, but I didn't know much then.

I bet some of you remember this guy. Here is his obit from the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...news-obituaries Jack Eagle Comedian acted in TV commercials Jack Eagle, 81, a roly-poly comedian and actor who appeared in commercials, most notably as Brother Dominic in a Xerox ad that first aired during the 1977 Super Bowl, died Jan. 10 in New York, Newsday reported. The cause of death was not given. The 5-foot-4, 210-pound Jewish comedian had a stand-up act in the Catskills before landing the role that gave him international recognition. Playing a medieval monk, he was able to quickly reproduce 500 illuminated manuscripts, to which his abbot exclaimed, "It's a miracle!" "A general call had gone out for a cherubic type," Eagle told a Times reporter in 1977. "Of course, I've never thought of myself that way. I've always seen myself as more of a Gregory Peck type." In 1978, Eagle said in an interview with the Associated Press that he earned more from his commercial work in the previous two years than he had in all his prior work in show business. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Jan. 15, 1926, Eagle played the trumpet during the big-band era. He began doing commercials in the early 1960s. Among his other notable parts was Mr. Cholesterol in commercials for Fleischmann's margarine in the 1970s.

Herschel Walker has written a book in which he admits to having multiple personalities disorder. This comes as a surprise to former teammates. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,323927,00.html

Georgia Frontiere died today. I remember after she took over the Rams she wrote a poem with some sorry-ass sexual inuendo which she read on the air during the CBS pre-game show. Irv Cross had a look on his face I still remember when they went from her to him. It was kind of like "Yecchh" times twelve! Here's her AP Obituary: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home Rams owner Frontiere dies Associated Press January 18, 2008 at 8:28 PM EST LOS ANGELES — Georgia Frontiere, the St. Louis native who became a hometown hero when she brought the NFL's Rams from Los Angeles in 1995, died Friday. She was 80. Frontiere had been hospitalized for breast cancer for several months, the Rams said in a statement posted on their website. "Our mom was dedicated to being more than the owner of a football team," daughter Lucia Rodriguez and son Chip Rosenbloom said in the statement. "She loved the Rams' players, coaches, and staff. The warmth and generosity she exuded will never be forgotten." The one-time nightclub singer was married seven times, starting at age 15. Her sixth husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, owned the Los Angeles Rams at the time of his drowning death in 1979. The Rams moved twice under Frontiere's leadership, first relocating from the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1980 to Anaheim, 55 kilometres away. St. Louis' original NFL franchise, the Cardinals, had left for Arizona in 1988. After the city failed to land an expansion team, civic leaders built a US$260 million, taxpayer-financed domed stadium anyway, in hopes of luring another team. Frontiere, born in St. Louis, agreed in January 1995 to move, causing her to be demonized in Southern California but heralded in her hometown. At a downtown rally soon after the move was announced, thousands chanted "Georgia! Georgia!" "You take my breath away," Frontiere told the crowd. "It's so good to be back in St. Louis, my hometown." The Rams won the Super Bowl in 2000. John Shaw, president of the Rams, said Frontiere was a "loyal, generous, and supportive owner who was totally committed" to the team. "This is an enormous loss for me and for the Rams' organization. All of our prayers and sympathy go out to her family," Shaw said. The Rams were the first major sports team to arrive in California when then they moved from Cleveland in 1946. They became the first football or baseball team to leave the state with the move to St. Louis. Frontiere was a fixture at Rams games during the heyday of the "Greatest Show on Turf" teams that made the playoffs five out of six seasons from 1999 through 2004. Led by quarterback Kurt Warner, running back Marshall Faulk and receivers Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt, the Rams won the 2000 Super Bowl 23-16 and lost the Super Bowl two seasons later on a last-second field goal. Frontiere was born Georgia Irwin on Nov. 21, 1927, and attended Soldan High School before moving to California at age 15. She wed that year, though the marriage was eventually annulled, according to published reports. Her second husband was killed when hit by a bus. She left her third husband to try to make it as a showgirl in Las Vegas. Her fourth marriage — to a stage manager of the Sacramento Music Circus — ended in divorce after three years. Husband No. 5 was a Miami television producer. She married Rosenbloom in 1966, shortly after he took over the Baltimore Colts. He eventually swapped that franchise for the Rams, which his wife took control of after he drowned. Frontiere remarried again after Rosenbloom's death. Her seventh husband, Dominic Frontiere, was an award-winning composer. They divorced in 1988 upon his release from prison after serving time on tax charges related to the scalping of more than 2,500 tickets to the 1980 Super Bowl in Pasadena. Frontiere left day-to-day operation of her team to Shaw, both when the franchise was in Southern California and after the move to St. Louis. Shaw continues to run the team from Los Angeles. The team has missed the playoffs in each of the last three seasons. Frontiere became involved in several philanthropic efforts in St. Louis after moving the team, including the creation in 1997 of the St. Louis Rams Foundation. According to the team's website, the Rams and the foundation have contributed more than $5 million to charities in the St. Louis area. Frontiere also committed $1 million to the Fulfillment Fund, an organization that helps needy high school students pay for college. She has served as a member of several boards, including the United Way of Greater St. Louis, Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club, Saint Louis Symphony, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America and the American Foundation for AIDS Research. In addition to her two children, she is survived by six grandchildren, and Earle Weatherwax, her companion of 19 years.

Wait! I think it went: Double your pleasure, Double your fun, With double good double fresh Doublemint gum! Something like that.

7/4, that was Certs! Certs is a candy mint. No, Certs is a breath mint. Certs is two, two, two mints in one! Doublemint was, Double your pleasure, Double your fun, Double your (something, taste?) with Doublemint gum!

In September ECM released a 2 CD set of Keith Jarrett's performance at Montreux from a couple of years ago called My Foolish Heart. Equal billing is given to Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. All of the songs are standards. I've had it since October and have been playing Disc 1 quite a bit. I really like it. It is much more joyous than the other Jarrett ECMs I have, which were from the 70s and early 80s. Yesterday I played Disc 2 for the first time. I like it too, but not quite as much as Disc 1. I think Disc 1's improvisations are more closely aligned with the melodies than Disc 2's. I noticed last month that this made a number of people's Top Ten lists for the year. I don't think I could quickly name ten records from the year that I like more, but I wouldn't say that it is such an obviously superior performance that the set deserves to be considered in a year's top ten. But I would give it a very solid four stars. I'm not the world's biggest Keith Jarrett fan, although I like all of his that I have. (FWIW, my least favorite is The Koln Concert.) I think he kept the flame for standards alive between 1970 and 1990; and I think he deserves more credit for that than what any particular record calls for. If you like Keith Jarrett, I can definitely recommend this. CD Universe has it for $21.99. By the way, four of the songs are in a ragtime style that I find particularly appealling - light, bouncy, and as I said joyous. And the moaning doesn't bother me anymore. I kind of like it now!

jmjk, I've played this record more than any other this month, and I'm really digging it. Without a doubt my favorite new record in many months.

Following the new regime taking over at EMI, The Rolling Stones are, for their new album, letting Universal release it rather than EMI, which continues to be their record company for the time being, whatever that means. Inasmuch as the Stones have their own record company, Rolling Stones Records, I don't understand what difference it will make; but I have to think that EMI is not pleased. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17b24080-c487-11...00779fd2ac.html

Here's a surprise: Jason Maas has signed with the Eskimos to back up Ricky Ray. This article says that they are now admitting that Maas had two arm surgeries and two back surgeries. No wonder he hasn't been any good since he left Edmonton two years ago! Personally, I'll be a little surprised if he makes the team. I think he's through. The article says that Montreal cut him, and I don't think they would have if he had anything left. Edmonton has Stefan LeFors as their backup QB, and I don't see them paying three guys who can start, unlike BC. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Happy Birthday HBJ!

Wow! Kent Austin has resigned as head coach of the Roughriders to become the offensive coordinator of Ole Miss. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/sto...169&k=78303

I have cdrs much older than five years old with no sign of any deterioration at all. Great news, Lon! But I'm not making it up. Don't CDRs go bad sooner than professionally made CDs?

Happy Birthday Clunky!