First time for everything

Living in Humboldt Park for 2-3 years now, and for the first time I heard a man die

Murder, Porno, and Politics

Phil Spector killed a broad and someone found a dead porn star. Coincidence?

All Hail Senator Franken!

Time for your pictures of Hollywood Office Holders (all Republican, by the way)

Intergalactic Evanston Internet Shout Out!

So now that the election is over, wonkette is having some rough times finding things to post. So they are reduced to posting shit from the Skokie Review (5th one-liner) about an old lady in Evanston who kept dead bodies in her house for a couple decades. The good people at the Skokie Review probably had a good time this morning trying to figure out why there were so many hits to their website. And apparently none of the commenters, except one, like Evanston.

By the way, didn't Actor used to live pretty close to there?

Ivor Cutler

Lemme pile on some more youtube clips:

Harmonium
Happy
Gimme some more

Ivor Cutler, we hardly knew ye

Blind Injustice

Jeanette Sliwinski, convicted of killing three local musicians in a suicide attempt car crash, will be released from prison next week three years after receiving an eight-year sentence. Judge Howard said, "I believe the defendant was being truthful when she said she only intended to hurt herself and not anyone else."

Meanwhile a dood gets 7 years for killing one person in a DUI.

What's the difference? Besides they guy killed only 1 compared to her 3? Perhaps it's cause she worked as a "trade-show model" (as the Tribune says) or as a stripper as the Sun Times reported.

Either way, it's a questionable decision by Judge Garritt Howard to let her out and he isn't up for re-election until 2012. We can only wait.

CNN Hates (Loves?) Abe Vigoda

The #4 most popular article on cnn.com this morning is: Abe Vigoda is Still Alive. I can't tell if it's a "Let's Celebrate Vigoda Living!" article or a "Damn, can you believe he's still alive?" article.

That being said, the article is more popular than news of a dead german zookeeper and a dead cat. It's not as popular as 9 dead Finnish kids.

Oh yeah, I think I also heard something about how the government is going to dump a bunch of cash into our economy and cause inflation to skyrocket, but I, like most CNN readers, were more concerned with Abe Vigoda still being alive.

RIP Tim Russert

I don't know what I'll do Sunday mornings anymore (Church, I guess)

Seriously, Tim Russert was a fantastic journalist. This is a huge loss, especially considering the current state of the media. I do not think there is someone right now who can fill his shoes as a fair, inquisitive, and nonpartisan person who can ask our political leaders the questions that Americans want to ask and get the candid answers that only a man of his honest demeanor and stature of respect can ascertain. I am going to miss him and his contribution to America's perspective of politics.

mer ferndins fer yer fundlin bergs

hey, this is pretty cool ...
graffiti archaeology from otherthings.com ... sgonna take a minute to load, but you can watch a wall being tagged on for a couple years straight ...

hey, this is pretty creepy ...
museum of the dead
from cabinet magazine online ... by now we've all seen those chapels built of skeletons and human bones, but in Palermo, they like to play dress up with the corpses and mount em on walls!

In Palermo, however, corpses are treated as characters in a play. Perhaps Walt Disney and Madame Tussaud were inspired by places like this, but the Capuchin crypt will not remind you of their worlds, for in spite of all the talk about the great lengths the monks have gone to in order to create lifelike effects, it feels like somewhere that fell into disuse long ago.

... those lazy italians, put the wine and your beautiful women down for a minute and go tend to yer fuckin' corpses!

so that article makes mention of "The Sedlec Ossuary" located in a secluded little mountain area of the Czech Republic ... i had never heard of this one ...

The ossuary contains approximately 40,000-70,000 human skeletons which have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel.

... yeah, fuck making the chapel out of skeletons, lets just make home furnishings out of em ... here's some great pictures ... here's a sweet 360 of the joint ...

and ashton kutcher mourned

i bet he didn't see THAT coming.

From His Cold Dead Hands

Charlton Heston is finally ready to give up his guns.

Quick, before rigor mortis kicks in!

The Ape can take your chair, hippy!

His Greatest Role Ever

More Dead People

Dith Pran, Photojournalist and Survivor of the Killing Fields, Dies at 65

He's the dood from the Killing Fields. Good movie, highly recommended by the Scarlett Pimpernel. And it's got Sam Waterston in it.

(Really struggled to try to make my 4 tag minimum on this one)

Fast Food Conspiracy

The Thomas Edison of breakfast sandwiches has died. Notice the Chi-town connection. Woot!

Fitting that I spent Easter morning buying Popeye's. Maybe this was the reason for the 25 minute wait in the drive-thru line.

And by the way, Copeland's got a real restaurant in New Orleans that is pretty good.

A Sad Day for Nerdom

Gary Gygax, you will be mourned from the islands of Ergoth to the Blood Sea of Istar
(Read the comment section of the article for extra laughs)

Driznastic: He should've rolled a savings throw vs. death

doin it to death

The man who wrote the McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" jingle has committed suicide at the age of 40.

i was searching for suicides in the google news as i have the day off today because of one. i work in the historic flatiron building in chicago's wicker park, which is mostly occupied by artists who rent the spaces as studios (although the vast majority of artists in the building are the most hackneyed "artists" you will ever meet). the last couple days there were complaints from coworkers about it smelling like sewage in the building. this morning, before our gallery was even open, cops were on our floor "cleaning up" the remains of an apparent suicide. i have no idea who it is, but i'm sure it was one of the artists in the building as it was inside one of the walled off studios. homeless guys do get into the building at nite to stay warm, but i woulda noticed a rotting corpse in the hallway on my way to work (they'd have to literally break through a door to get out of the hallway and into a private studio). no news yet in the online papers, but i'm keeping an eye out.

MORTALEM UITAM MORS IMMORTALIS ADEMIT

Bernie Barker, we hardly knew ye
Careful of this link if you're at work or not confident in your male sexuality)

Bernie Barker, July, 31 1940 - March 21, 2007

who's dead ?

Sam the Butcher
Allan Melvin, best known for his role as Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch, died of Thursday night (January 17). Melvin died of cancer in his Brentwood home in Los Angeles. He was 84 years old.

Melvin even played the voice of Magilla Gorilla for the Hanna Barbera cartoon as well as several guest appearances on The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle: USMC and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Is Sam enjoying a last glass of Champale in this photo? The world will never know.



Hydrox the Cookie
In 2003, without warning or announcement, Kellogg Co. killed off the cookie -- by then rechristened Droxies -- after failing to gain ground against the dominant Oreo, one of the country's best-selling snack foods.

While aware that Hydrox cookies were becoming harder to find, many of their fans are learning only now they are gone.

How would Hydrox stand up when dunked in Champale? The world will never know.



Gaikwad the Teacher
It can be an illustrative case of lapse in administrative functioning. The Chandrapur zilla parishad's school education department issued an order on January 1, 2008, regarding promotion and appointment of an official as block education officer (BEO) in Nagbhid panchayat samiti.

Nothing wrong with it, except that the official - former education extension officer Natthu Dashrath Gaikwad - passed away about six months ago

Would Gaikwad have enjoyed a glass of Champale? The world will never know.



Ike the Musician
The late rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner died of a cocaine overdose, the San Diego County medical examiner said on Wednesday.

Turner, 76, was found dead on December 12 at his home in San Marcos near San Diego. He had a history of cocaine addiction stretching back more than 30 years.

Is it safe to say that Ike enjoyed the Champale? The world will never know.





Aussie the Smuggler
Three young Australians on death row in Bali say their Indonesian lawyer's instructions to "play dumb" with Indonesian police and judges may have cruelled their chances of evading the firing squad.

Tan Duch Tanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen were sentenced to life in prison by Denpasar District Court in 2005, but their sentences were upgraded to death in 2006 by Indonesia's Supreme Court.

Would these three have gone on to reinvigorate Champale with a new marketing blitz? The world will never know.


Oak the Tree
Sudden oak death syndrome has arrived in force in San Mateo County, and local, state and federal officials will hold a public meeting next month to inform residents about its impact.

The Sudden Oak Death Mortality Task Force ... yeah The SODMTF is on the case!


oh, and this