quote:

---

A neighbor says the Yankovics were a nice couple who were proud of their son.

---

Caron Keating.

This generation remembers her fondly from Blue Peter.

McDonald's CEO dies of apparent heart attack

Probably because he ate his own stuff.

muahahaha!

Nick Joaquin, National Artist and my namesake, died yesterday.

Nick Joaqu Nick Joaquin (b. 1917)
>> Nick Joaquin
>> born 1917, died 2004
>>
>> Philippine novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist writing in
>> English, the National Artist for Literature. Joaquin is widely
>> considered the best postwar author in his country. He has written
>> largely about the Spanish colonial period and the diverse heritage of
>> the Filipino people. Often he deals with the coexistence of
>> 'primitive' and 'civilized' dimensions inside the human psyche. In his
>> short story 'The Summer Solstice,' set in the 1850s, Joaquin portrayed
>> the collision between instincts and refined culture. Doña Lupeng first
>> rejects ancient beliefs, but under the spell of the moon, she becomes
>> possessed by the spirit of the Tadtarin cult - she does not want to be
>> loved and respected anymore but adored as the embodiment of the
>> matriarchal powers.
>>
>> "He lifted his dripping face and touched his bruised lips to her toes;
>> lifted his hands and grasped the white foot and kissed it savagely -
>> kissed the step, the sole, the frail ankle - while she bit her lips
>> and clutched in pain at the windowsill, her body distended and wracked
>> by horrible shivers, her head flung back and her loose hair streaming
>> out of the window - streaming fluid and black in the white night where
>> the huge moon glowed like a sun and the dry air flamed into lightning
>> and the pure heat burned with the immense intense fever of noon."
>> (from 'The Summer Solstice' in Tropical Gothic, 1972)
>>
>> Nick Joaquin was born in Paco on Calle Herran, as the the son of
>> Leocadio Y. Joaquin, a lawyer and a colonel of the Philippine
>> Revolution, and Salome Marquez, a schoolteacher. After three years of
>> secondary education at the Mapa High School, Joaquin dropped out of
>> school to work on Manila's waterfront and in odd jobs. On his spare
>> time he read widely at the National Library and on his father's
>> library. English had became the official medium of instruction in 1898
>> after the Spanish-American war. Especially through the work of short
>> story writers English became the most developed literary genre and
>> virtually all Spanish literature ceased.
>>
>> Starting as a proofreader at the Philippines Free Press, Joaquin rose
>> to contributing editor and essayist under the pen name 'Quijano de
>> Manila' (Manila Old Timer). After World War II Joaquin worked as a
>> journalist, gaining fame as a reporter for the Free Press. In 1970 he
>> left the Philippines Free Press and went on to edit Asia-Philippine
>> Leader. During the reign of Ferdinand Marcos, who had won presidency
>> in 1965, corruption started to fuel opposition to his administration.
>> When martial law was declared in 1972 Joaquin was subsequently
>> suspended. He then became the editor of the Philippine Graphic
>> magazine and publisher of the Women's Weekly.
>>
>> Joaquin started to write short stories, poems, and essays in 1934. One
>> year later his first work appeared in the Tribune in 1935. In 1947 his
>> essay on the defeat of a Dutch fleet by the Spaniards off the
>> Philippines in 1646 earned him a scholarship to study in Hong Kong at
>> the Albert College, founded by the Dominicans. Joaquin's studies for
>> priesthood explains part the Christian setting of his stories and
>> constant attention to the practices and superstitions of his
>> characters. However, he left the seminary in 1950, finding it
>> impossible for him to adjust to rigid rules. Prose and Poems (1952)
>> was followed by the Barangay Theatre Guild's production of his play, A
>> Portrait of the Artist as Filipino. The title refers to James Joyce's
>> famous book, not without ironic tone. A Portrait is considered the
>> most important Filipino play in English. In it Joaquin focused on a
>> family conflict, in which old cultural models are reconciled with
>> modern values. The descendants of the declining Don Lorenzo refuse to
>> sell the masterpiece which he has painted for them. With Stevan
>> Javellana, N.V.M. Gonzalez, Celso Al. Carunungan, and Kerima Polotan
>> Tuvera he influenced the development of the Philippine novel and short
>> story. He writing also build a bridge from modern literature to the
>> religious themes of Spanish heritage and primitive beliefs. When the
>> young Guido in 'The Summer Solstice' had returned from Europe to his
>> home, he tells Doña Lupeng: "Ah, I also learned to open my eyes over
>> there - to see the holiness and the mystery of what is vulgar."
>>
>> The prize-novel The Woman Who Had Two Navels (1961) examined the
>> pressures of the past upon the present. Monson, the ex-revolutionary,
>> hides in Hong Kong, afraid to face the trials of postwar independence.
>> Again Joaquin dealt with the tensions between illusion and reality.
>> The novel won the first Harry Stonehill Award, an yearly grant. The
>> Aquinos of Tarlac (1983) was a biography of the assassinated
>> presidential candidate Benigno Aquino. He led the opposition to
>> President Ferdinand Marcos and was shot dead in the airport when he
>> returned from exile. Three years after his death his widow Corazon
>> Aquino became President of the Philippines. Cave and Shadows (1983)
>> occurs in the period of martial law under Marcos.
>>
>> For his work Joaquin received several awards. His essay 'La Naval de
>> Manila' (1943) won in a contest sponsored by the Dominicans; 'Guardia
>> de Honor' was declared the best story of the year in 1949, he received
>> in 1963 the Araw ng Maynila Award, and in 1966 he was conferred the
>> Ramon Magsaysay Award for Literature, Broadcast and Journalism. In
>> 1976 Joaquin was declared a National Artist. He is the most
>> anthologized of all Philippine authorsin

Robert Jenkins, county co-worker, killed in action last Sunday in Fallujah.

olive osmond


and

alan king

tony randall!!!

Tony Randall ??? Oh no! He was sort of immortal-seeming, he just got wry-er and wry-er.

Didn't he just father a child or two very recently? I remember being amazed at the time .... yes, here, I found it on a fan site:

"... on April 11, 1997 Tony and Heather become first time parents to lovely Julia Laurette Randall. On June 15, 1998, Tony and Heather became parents again with young Jefferson Salvini Randall making his debut."

So that's pretty sad - the kids are only 7 and not-quite-6.

- Cho

Jazz Drummer Elvin Ray Jones Dies at 76
May 19, 6:58 AM EST

Elvin Ray Jones, a renowned jazz drummer and member of John Coltrane's
quartet who also played alongside Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Miles
Davis, died Tuesday. He was 76. Jones died of heart failure in an Englewood,
N.J., hospital, said his wife of 38 years, Keiko Jones.

"He's happy. No more suffering," said Keiko Jones. "He's been fighting for
so long."

Jones, called by Life magazine "the world's greatest rhythmic drummer," was
born in Pontiac, Mich., one of ten children.

He had two musician brothers: Hank, a jazz pianist, and Thad, a trumpet and
flugelhorn player.

Jones entered the Detroit jazz scene in the late 1940s after touring as a
stagehand with the Army Special Services show Operation Happiness.

After a brief gig at the Detroit club Grand River Street, he went to work at
another club, backing up such jazz greats as Parker, Davis and Wardell Grey.

Jones came to New York in 1955 for an unsuccessful audition for the Benny
Goodman band but stayed in the city, joining Charlie Mingus' band and making
a record called "J is Jazz." In 1960, he became a member of John Coltrane's
quartet.

Jones, with his rhythmic, innovative style, became one of jazz's most famous
drummers under Coltrane. He can be heard on Coltrane's "A love Supreme" and
"Coltrane Live at the Village Vanguard."

After leaving the Coltrane quartet, Jones briefly played with Duke Ellington
and formed the Elvin Jones' Jazz Machine. He put out several solo albums and
continued to tour, including last month in Oakland, Calif., Keiko Jones
said.

Besides his wife, Jones is survived by a son and a daughter.

richard biggs from babylon 5

shit, that makes me nearly as sad as when I heard about the death of Kevin Smith (Ares from Xena).



smaug sad now

dude...Ronald Reagan...is dead

what, when, how?

Are you gonna post a link or do I need to go looking?

okay, going to the bbc page now.

here

Wow....I just.....wow. I'm glad his suffering is over, but it's odd to think of him not being around....

Now my rage against the conservative, get rich and f-em', polo wearin', yuppie BS attitude that he inspired in the 80's, seems so, so hollow.

The 80's punk band, Reagan Youth, is gonna see a boost in sales of their catalogue of albums.

Iran/Contra...
That scamp .

"Tear down the wall, Mr. Gorbachev!"
Ha. You Roger Water lyric stealing goof!

.....


Three women have been found strangled to death about three miles from my place. Two in the past week, one nine weeks ago.

.....


One of them was found in a former co-worker's backyard. Literally.

.....

Be careful Amy. Make sure your windows are locked at night. That's scary.

*hopes they catch the bastard*