RIP

[Nomad]

Death Penalty Opponent and Philosopher Hugo Bedau Dies

excerpt from obit: ' Professor Bedau (pronounced beh-DOUGH) took up the issue as well in “The Case Against the Death Penalty,” a pamphlet distributed widely for many years by the American Civil Liberties Union. Written with the help of Henry Schwarzschild, a former director of the group’s Capital Punishment Project, the publication brought together a number of arguments against the death penalty: that it failed to deter crime (using supporting data); that it was fraught with racial bias, wrongful convictions and excessive financial costs; and that it was ultimately an act of “barbarity.”

“The history of capital punishment in American society clearly shows the desire to mitigate the harshness of this penalty by narrowing its scope,” the pamphlet said in a section titled “Unfairness.” “Discretion, whether authorized by statutes or by their silence, has been the main vehicle to this end. But when discretion is used, as it always has been, to mark for death the poor, the friendless, the uneducated, the members of racial minorities and the despised, then discretion becomes injustice. Thoughtful citizens, who in contemplating capital punishment in the abstract might support it, must condemn it in actual practice". '

[Kobi]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Phyllis Diller, the housewife turned humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with her trademark cackle, died Monday morning in her Los Angeles home at age 95.

She was a staple of nightclubs and television from the 1950s — when female comics were rare indeed — until her retirement in 2002. Diller built her stand-up act around the persona of the corner-cutting housewife ("I bury a lot of my ironing in the back yard") with bizarre looks, a wardrobe to match (by "Omar of Omaha") and a husband named "Fang."

She didn't get into comedy until she was nearly 40, after her first husband, Sherwood Diller, prodded her for two years to give up a successful career as an advertising and radio writer. Through it all, she was also a busy mother.

She also appeared in movies, including "Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number" and "Eight on the Lam" with Bob Hope.

In 1966-67, she was the star of an ABC sitcom about a society family trying to stave off bankruptcy, "The Pruitts of Southampton." Gypsy Rose Lee played a nosy neighbor. In 1968, she was host of a short-lived variety series, "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show."

But standup comedy was her first love, and when she broke into the business in 1956 it was a field she had largely to herself because female comics weren't widely accepted then.

After retiring from standup, Diller continued to take occasional small parts in movies and TV shows ("Family Guy") and pursued painting as a serious hobby. She published her autobiography, "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse," in 2005. The 2006 film "Goodnight, We Love You" documented her career.

Her other books included "Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints" and "Phyllis Diller's Marriage Manual."

http://news.yahoo.com/humorist-phyll...192854743.html

[Kobi]

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - William Windom, a 1970 Emmy Award winner for his show "My World and Welcome to It," died on Thursday at home in Woodacre, Calif. He was 88.

He may have been at least as well known for his numerous guest appearances on several TV shows, including "Star Trek," "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery." He co-starred with Inger Stevens from 1963-1966 on "The Farmer's Daughter."

But it was a recurring role that began in 1998 and lasted for a decade on the CBS mystery "Murder, She Wrote" that may have brought him the most fame.

He played a doctor, Seth Hazlitt, n the imaginary town of Cabot Cove, Me., who was best friends with Jessica Fletcher, the show's star played by Angela Lansbury.

While Windom made his mark in TV, he played the prosecutor in 1962's Academy Award-winning film "To Kill a Mockingbird," and in 1968 starred in "The Detective" with Frank Sinatra.Sci-fi fans would remember Windom as Commodore Decker in the "Star Trek" TV episode "The Doomsday Machine." He reprised the role four decades later for "Star Trek New Voyages."

http://news.yahoo.com/william-windom...174633851.html

[Kobi]

SEATTLE (AP) — George Hickman, one of the original Tuskegee airmen and a longtime usher at University of Washington and Seattle Seahawks games, has died at age 88.

Hickman was one of the country's first black military pilots and ground crew members who fought in World War II.

In 2007, he and other Tuskegee airmen traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor that Congress can give. In 2009, he attended President Barack Obama's inauguration as a special guest.

Hickman was a beloved figure at Seattle sporting events. Hickman worked a number of posts, including usher and press box attendant, at Huskies games for several decades. He also served as a press box greeter at Seahawks games. He raised the 12th Man flag before the Seahawks game against the Baltimore Ravens last

The grandson of slaves, Hickman nurtured an interest in aviation as a curious boy gazing up at the sky above St. Louis.

That passion evolved from buying model airplanes to joining the segregated pilot training program in Tuskegee, Ala., and later to a nearly three-decade long career at Boeing in Seattle where he was a B-52 engineering training instructor and executive in the aerospace division.

He served in the Army Air Corps from 1943-45, which trained African Americans to fly and maintain combat aircraft, and was part of the graduating class of 1944, according to a 2012 Army profile.

He was initially eliminated from pilot training in 1943. As a cadet captain, he was effectively blocked from flying when he called out white superior officers for the mistreatment of a fellow black cadet. "I felt like I had really been mistreated," he told the AP in 2009. But undeterred, he graduated from the program as a crewman.

http://news.yahoo.com/tuskegee-airma...pageNumber%3D1

[Kobi]

Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer known for playing the instructional Count von Count on Sesame Street, died Thursday. He was 78.

Besides the non-threatening vampire, Nelson, a Tulsa native who grew up in Washington, D.C., also performed Gobo Fraggle on Fraggle Rock and The Muppet Show's Sgt. Floyd Pepper of the Electric Mayhem band; "Pigs in Space" stalwart Dr. Julius Strangepork; Kermit the Frog's nephew Robin; and Gonzo's girlfriend Camilla the Chicken, among other roles, says the site.

He first trained with American puppeteer Bil Baird, who was responsible for the lively "Lonely Goatherd" marionette sequence in the 1965 movie blockbuster The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews.

That same year, Nelson worked with Muppet creator Jim Henson on TV's The Jimmy Dean Show, a variety program on which Kermit and the gang first became popular with American audiences.

Nelson's Sesame Street stint began in the '70s, and he continued to be the Count until his retirement in 2004.

http://www.people.com/people/article...ntent=My+Yahoo

[Kobi]

Neil Armstrong was a soft-spoken engineer who became a global hero when as a steely-nerved pilot he made "one giant leap for mankind" with a small step onto the moon. The modest man, who had people on Earth entranced and awed from almost a quarter-million miles away, but credited others for the feat.

Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969, capping the most daring of the 20th century's scientific expeditions. His first words after becoming the first person to set foot on the surface are etched in history books and the memories of those who heard them in a live broadcast.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said.

In those first few moments on the moon, during the climax of a heated space race with the then-Soviet Union, Armstrong stopped in what he called "a tender moment" and left a patch to commemorate NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action.

Although he had been a Navy fighter pilot, a test pilot for NASA's forerunner and an astronaut, Armstrong never allowed himself to be caught up in the celebrity and glamour of the space program.

"I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer," he said in February 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. "And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."

http://news.yahoo.com/neil-armstrong...--finance.html

[princessbelle]

Kobi, i can't thank you enough for keeping this thread going. I think i told you this in a rep but you are like my CNN. I don't watch the news and i get real updates here.

However, when i see you've posted something new and this thread comes up on the front page, i sorta cringe and am afraid to look and see who passed.

I want to know though. It's just so sad the older *we* get more and more peeps that had tremendous impact on our lives, or those that remind us of a time in our lives, have left us.

Such is life i suppose.

When Armstrong landed on the moon, i believe i was about 6 or 7. Such an amazing televised event. One i will never forget. The whole family gathered around the TV in utter amazement.

Thank you Neil Armstrong for changing our world, our universe and our lives.