“Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that.”

— George Carlin

Rest in Peace, George

Michael Klein was the father killed in the terrible small plane crash in the Panamanian jungle earlier this week.  Mr. Klein founded a company called eGroups many years ago, which was later purchased by Yahoo and renamed Yahoo Groups.  Yahoo Groups (and before its purchase, eGroups) hosts the family humor e-mail address, "famille-humor" (I won’t put the full address in, to save everyone some spam).

The definitive ballad singer / songwriter of the 1970’s and ’80’s, Dan Folgelberg, died today.  His emotional songs "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" were chart-toppers that had everyone singing in their cars whenever they played on the radio.  Leader of the Band was actually about his own father, who actually was a bandleader. 

Folgelberg died of prostrate cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2004, at the age of 56. 

Evel Knievel died today, according to his website.  Although he was much more active in the 70’s with all kinds of high-flying stunts, no kid who grew up then can forget the hype around his infamous Snake River jump. 

These were the days when we built ramps out of pieces of plywood, propped them up on bricks, and took our bikes waaaay back and started peddling like mad toward the ramp.  More times than not, it ended badly, but we all survived – and so did Evel.  That was the magic of it, facing down danger and whether you got beat up or not, ultimately living to try again tomorrow. 

Sail On, Evel. 

It was a great year. 

We had a rough start, to be sure.  The first 12 minutes of the season opener were enough to put most Cubs fans in the intensive care unit.  

But it was the year of TheRiot, Alfanso Soriano, Derek Lee, and Carlos Zambrano.  It was the year we forgot about  Sammy Sosa.  Life was good at the Friendly Confines.

And so it ends with another year of "wait ’till next year".   

The vocal talent credited with making "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" a number one hit has died, at the age of 68.  Hank Medress recorded "Lion" with the Tokens in 1961.  The song had been a folk standard (originally performed by The Weavers in the 1950’s) but acheived number one on the Top-40 chart with the Tokens version. 

The Tokens were the second band for Medress, his fisrt was the Linc-Tones with fellow Lincoln High School buddy Neil Sedaka.

Medress moved into music production and was credited for the success of the Chiffons "One Fine Day" and "He’s So Fine" in the 60’s.

After he broke off from the Tokens in the 70’s, his first solo production effort was convincing a record company executive, Tony Orlando, to handle lead vocals for a band called "Dawn", which was recording a new song called "Knock Three Times".  Medress also produced "Candida".

In the 1980’s, he was responsible for re-inventing New York Dolls lead singer David Johansen as "Buster Poindexter" and producing his first hit single "Hot, Hot, Hot".

Rest in Peace, Hank Medress

I was spelunking through the site logs recently and noticed that a lot of people are using the search function to try to find the French version of this site.  I understand their frustration, what with "Famille" being a French word and all, I guess somehow it follows that the entire site should either be in French, or at least have a French translation.  So, to make sure that this post comes up whenever they search, I am putting the following search terms in to ensure that their search efforts get a hit:

en francais

french site

There.  Now that you’re here, here is a message that Google Translator told me to give you:

Here’s a story known by few people, even my family.   In the late ’70’s, a friend in High School (in Seattle, WA) introduced me to Ruppert Jones.  Ruppert was the #4 batter, the clean-up man, for the Seattle Mariner’s.  Ruppert had just recently been picked up by the M’s to help them get some baseballs moving.  Rupe had no family in Seattle, and was friends with my friend from school through a youth program.  So Rupe, who had no family in Seattle at the time, offered me and my friend his free family will-call tickets.  These were primo seats, about five rows back directly behind the plate.  I used to sit amongst the wives and kids of Willie Horton, Larry Cox, Bruce Bochte, Julio Cruz, and Mario Mendoza. 

This is all background to the real story.  So the point is, for about a year or so in about ’79 or ’80 or so, I went to *every* Seattle Mariner’s game, in the Kingdome.   And at every game was a beer vendor by the name of "Bill The Beerman".  Bill had a unique ability to get people cheering.  It started simply enough, with his trademark beer pitch "Freeze Your Teeth and Give Your Tongue A Sleigh Ride".  But soon enough, Bill was a pro-am cheerleader for Seattle sports teams, eventually reaching the point that when he stood up in the middle of a game and did his work, half of the Kiingome would scream "GO!" and the other half would scream "MARINERS!".

This was the stuff of my youth.  Bill Scott, AKA Bill the Beerman died  last Sunday of complications from Colon Cancer. 

GO BEARS!

Denny Doherty, one quarter of the Mamas and Papas, died today at age 66. 

Denny, along with "Mama" Cass Elliot, and Michelle and John Phillips, formed the group in 1966 and broke up in 1968.  Several abortive attempts to re-band the group in 1971 and 1982 failed. 

California Dreamin’ is one of my all-time favorite songs.  But few people know that many children may be mourning Denny’s death as well… he was the harbormaster and voiced all the characters of the popular T.V. series "Theodore Tugboat".  This  show was absolutely Aaron’s favorite during his toddler years (after he outgrew the Teletubbies.)

Mama Cass died in 1974, at 30 years old, of a sudden heart attack.  John Phillips died in 2001.  John and Michelle were also parents of other famous offspring – Mackenzie (One Day At A Time)  and Chynna (Wilson Phillips) Phillips.  The other 2/3 of Wilson Phillips were Carnie and Wendy Wilson, daughters of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.  This connection between the two 1960’s bands famous for their harmonies is not coincidental.

Rest In Peace, Harbormaster Doherty.