The hockey world lost one of its most colourful personalities as Hall of Fame official Red Storey passed away on Wednesday.

He was 88.

"Red Storey brought passion, dedication and enthusiasm to each and every game as an NHL referee," said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

"Long after his retirement as an on-ice official, he continued to serve as one of the truly great ambassadors for the game in his travels around North America officiating charitable games. On behalf of the NHL family, we extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Bunny and sons Bob and Doug."

A multi-sport athlete who played baseball, football, lacrosse, and hockey in his youth, Storey played with the Toronto Argonauts, winning the Grey Cup in 1937 and 1938.

A serious knee injury in 1941 ended his playing days on the field, and he switched his focus to hockey.

After a brief stint with the Montreal Royals, he was hired as an official in 1950 by the NHL.

He was quickly regarded as one of the game's finest, a colourful but fair adjudicator. In addition to working 480 regular-season games, Storey worked in seven consecutive Stanley Cup Final series from 1952 through 1958.

All that changed the night of April 8, 1959. In a Montreal-Chicago playoff game at the Stadium, the crowd threw all sorts of debris onto the ice in disgust over what fans felt were a string of non-calls of Canadiens' infractions.

The day after, NHL president Clarence Campbell conceded that Storey had "choked." Storey resigned the next day.

Although Storey never returned as a referee, he remained active in the game for many years, doing radio and television work, playing old-timers' games and providing commentary on games and players.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1967, and was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1991.

SF writer Ronald Anthony Cross, born 1937, died last week apparently of a stroke, in Sherman Oaks, California. Cross published dozens of stories and several novels beginning in the early 1970s; novels included Prisoners of Paradise (1988) and the "Eternal Guardians" series with fourth volume The First Guardian forthcoming from Tor. (Locus)

Ray Meyer has died

Ray Meyer Led Blue Demons To 21 Post-Season Appearances

(CBS) Ray Meyer, the legendary DePaul University basketball coach, has died.

Meyer guided the Blue Demons to 21 post-season appearances in 42 seasons of coaching at the school and led the school to its only post-season title in 1945.

Meyer was born in Chicago on Dec. 18, 1913. He graduated from St. Patrick’s High School in 1933 and Notre Dame University in 1938. He played two years in high school and won the National Catholic High School Basketball championship. In college, he played three years and was a two-time team captain.

He began coaching at DePaul University in 1941 as an assistant coach. He became head coach in 1942, a position in which he remained until retiring in 1984. When he retired, he was the fifth winningest coach in NCAA Division I history, recording 37 winning seasons and twelve 20-win seasons.

Upon his retirement, he passed the reigns onto his long-time assistant coach, Joey, who coached for 13 years.

NEW YORK - Oleg Cassini, the designer who created the dresses that helped make Jacqueline Kennedy the most glamorous first lady in history, died Friday. He was 92.


Cassini died on Long Island, said Senada Ivackovic, marketing director for Oleg Cassini Inc. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Kennedy, only 31 years old when her husband was elected president, was the pinnacle of style in the White House years from 1961 to 1963. Her simple, geometric dresses in sumptuous fabrics, her pillbox hats and her elegant coiffure were copied by women from ages 18 to 80.

Cassini said that shortly after John F. Kennedy was elected, he persuaded Jacqueline Kennedy to use him as the creator of her total look, rather than as one of many designers.

The one-time Hollywood costume designer turned couturier had been friendly with the Kennedy family for years.

"We are on the threshold of a new American elegance thanks to Mrs. Kennedy's beauty, naturalness, understatement, exposure and symbolism," Cassini said when his selection was announced

The last two entries, Oleg Cassini and Ray Meyer, wre both 92 when they died. Does not mean that much but I find it odd and amusing.
Cheers,
Janine

The Rev. Earl Stallings, a white clergyman who was praised by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail," has died. He was 89.

Stallings, former pastor of First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., died Feb. 23 at a retirement home in Lakeland, Fla., the Associated Baptist Press reported.
In 1963, Stallings was part of the so-called "Reconciliation Committee," a group of eight prominent Birmingham clergymen -- including a Jewish rabbi; Catholic, Methodist and Episcopal bishops; and a Presbyterian pastor -- that called King's efforts to integrate Birmingham, soon after municipal voting that had elected a new white mayor, as "unwise and untimely."

The group wrote a public statement asking King and other civil-rights leaders to back off on their protests because they believed the actions would be counterproductive to the greater goal of integration.

PARIS - Bernard Lacoste, who spent more than 40 years at the helm of the Lacoste clothing empire best known for its crocodile-embossed polo shirts, has died, the company said Wednesday. He was 74.


Lacoste, who is widely credited with turning the family sportswear business into a major apparel company, died Tuesday in a Paris hospital, said company spokesman Philippe Lacoste, nephew of Bernard Lacoste.

The family did not provide the cause of death, but said Bernard Lacoste had been suffering from a "serious illness" for more than a year. He stepped down last year as president.

Bernard Lacoste succeeded his father, tennis player Rene Lacoste, as president of the Paris-based clothing manufacturer in 1963.

The Lacoste polo shirts adorned with the little crocodile have for generations been the company's staple. The famous insignia comes from the father, whose nickname was "Le Crocodile."

The nickname apparently originated when Rene Lacoste admired a crocodile suitcase in a store window, and his Davis Cup captain promised to buy it for him if he won an important upcoming match. He never got the bag, but U.S. sports writers took up the name because it described his style on the court.

The company was founded in 1933. Bernard Lacoste presided over its international expansion and added women's and accessory lines to the company's sporty look.

Bernard Lacoste, born in Paris on June 22, 1931, handed over the reins of the company to his younger brother Michel in September but remained "honorary president."

He is survived by his wife, Sachiko, and three children from a first marriage.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Pio Leyva, a singer and composer in the Buena Vista
Social Club band of veteran Cuban musicians, died on Thursday of a
heart attack. He was 88.

Leyva, who won a bongo contest at the age of six and made his singing
debut in 1932, had suffered a stroke on Sunday and died early Thursday
morning in hospital, his daughter Rosalia said.

The colorful improviser of traditional Cuban "son" music was the latest
of the famed band's stars to pass away.

Its oldest member, guitarist Compay Segundo, and pianist Ruben Gonzalez
died in 2003, aged 95 and 84. Singer Ibrahim Ferrer died last year at
the age of 78.

The largely forgotten musicians saw their careers suddenly relaunched
when they recorded a jam session with guitarist Ry Cooder in 1996
that became the award-winning Buena Vista Social Club album.

The recording rekindled world interest in traditional Cuban music.
Buena Vista was the name of a seniors-only social club in a western
Havana neighborhood.

The touching story of their late-life rise to international fame was
told in the Oscar-nominated documentary of the same name by German
director Wim Wenders.

Leyva, born in 1917 in Moron in central Cuba, had a deep, country voice
and was well known by the 1950s for singing in the bands of Cuban
greats Benny More and Bebo Valdez.

"Music was his life. He almost sang yesterday," daughter Rosalia said
at his wake on Thursday.

FORMER player and tournament director Gene Scott has died from heart disease. He was 68.

Scott died on Tuesday (AEDT) at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the US Tennis Association (USTA) said on its official website today.

Scott was an accomplished serve-and-volleyer in the 1960s and founded the Tennis Week magazine in 1974.

He was also director of more than 200 tournaments in his long career, including the Kremlin Cup and the season-ending event now known as the Tennis Masters Cup.

A member of the US Davis Cup team from 1963-65, Scott rose as high as No,11 in the rankings.

In 1973, he served as a TV analyst for the "Battle of the Sexes" match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

"A tennis icon, he touched the game in every possible way, as a player, an advocate and as the publisher and founder of Tennis Week," the USTA said in a statement.

Long Live Addwaita: Tortoise Dies at 250

Friday, March 24, 2006

(03-24) 08:29 PST CALCUTTA, India (AP) --

One of the world's oldest creatures, a giant tortoise believed to have been about 250 years old, has died in the Calcutta zoo where it spent more than half its long life.

Addwaita, which means "the one and only" in the local Bengali language, was one of four Aldabra tortoises brought to India by British sailors in the 18th century.

Zoo officials say he was a gift for Lord Robert Clive of the East India Company, who was instrumental in establishing British colonial rule in India, before he returned to England in 1767.

Long after the other three tortoises died, Addwaita continued to thrive, living in Clive's garden before being moved to the zoo in 1875.

"According to records in the zoo, the age of the giant tortoise, Addwaita, who died on Wednesday, would be 250 years approximately," said zoo director Subir Chowdhury.

That would have made him much older than the world's oldest documented living animal: Harriet, a 176-year-old Galapagos tortoise who lives at the Australia Zoo north of Brisbane, according to the zoo's Web site. She was taken from the island of Isla Santa Cruz by Charles Darwin in the 19th century.

Aldabra tortoises come from the Aldabra atoll in the Seychelle islands in the Indian Ocean, and often live to more than 100 years of age. Males can weigh up to 550 pounds.

Addwaita, the zoo's biggest attraction, had been unwell for the last few days, said local Forest Minister Jogesh Burman,

"We were keeping a watch on him. When the zoo keepers went to his enclosure on Wednesday they found him dead," Burman said.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Gov. Robert Ehrlich says former U.S. Sen. Glenn Beall Jr. has died.

Details of Beall's death were not immediately known, but Beall had suffered from cancer. Beall was 78.

"J. Glenn Beall, Jr. was an extraordinary Marylander, serving his state and country as a naval officer, state lawmaker, congressman and U.S. Senator," the governor said in a statement Friday.

"He will be remembered as a devoted son of Western Maryland and an accomplished advocate for the State of Maryland. Kendel and I extend our deepest condolences to the Beall family."

Beall, of Frostburg, was a Republican who served 14 years in state and federal elected offices

somewhere Gimmick is greiving

"He was old enough. Had his time... Now he's gone. Somebody's having turtle soup tonite, eh?"


If I had to put up with this. I'd want to die too...

Paul Flaherty, AltaVista online search engine creator, dies at 42

By JORDAN ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer

Paul A. Flaherty, a computer engineer who helped create the pioneering AltaVista online search engine, has died. He was 42.

Flaherty died March 16 of a heart attack at his home in Belmont, Calif., about 20 miles south of San Francisco, family members said Friday.

Flaherty came up with the idea of indexing Web pages that made the AltaVista search engine one of the most popular Internet search tools in the mid-1990s.

"He was such a warm and loving man, and he was exceptionally smart," his brother, Michael, said Friday. "It's just uncanny to find someone with that much intellectual power but that much warmth, too."

Flaherty was working as a research engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation in Palo Alto when he teamed up with two other staff researchers in 1995 to develop AltaVista's technology.

The Web site was made public in December 1995 and within weeks was processing several million searches a day. It was spun off from Digital Equipment as a private company in 1999.

Flaherty served as director for technical strategy at AltaVista until leaving in 2000 to work in management consulting. Before his death, he was vice president for product development at TalkPlus, a telecommunications software company in Menlo Park.

Born in Milwaukee and raised in Minnesota, Flaherty earned a doctorate in electrical engineering in 1994 from Stanford University and never quite shook his Midwest roots despite his success in Silicon Valley, Michael Flaherty said.

"I never saw him taking to the more cutthroat lifestyle in Silicon Valley," his brother said.

He is survived by his wife, Natasha Flaherty of Belmont; his parents, James Sr. and Ruth Flaherty of Fargo, N.D.; and four brothers.

A funeral mass and burial is scheduled for Tuesday in Fargo.

Buck Ownes Died

Hee Haw' Co-Host Buck Owens, 76, Dies

By GREG RISLING, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Singer
Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died Saturday. He was 76.
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Owens died at his home, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997.

His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

They were recorded with a honky-tonk twang that came to be known throughout California as the "Bakersfield Sound," named for the town 100 miles north of Los Angeles that Owens called home.

"I think the reason he was so well known and respected by a younger generation of country musicians was because he was an innovator and rebel," said Shaw, who played keyboards in Owens' band, the Buckaroos. "He did it out of the Nashville establishment. He had a raw edge."

Owens was modest when describing his aspirations.

"I'd like to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs and had a hell of a time," he said in 1992.

An indefatigable performer, Owens played a red, white and blue guitar with fireball fervor. He and the Buckaroos wore flashy rhinestone suits in an era when flash was as important to country music as fiddles.

Among his biggest hits were "Together Again" (also recorded by Emmylous Harris), "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," "Love's Gonna Live Here," "My Heart Skips a Beat" and "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line."

And he was the answer to this music trivia question: What country star had a hit record that was later done by the Beatles?

"Those guys were phenomenal," Owens once said.

Ringo Starr recorded "Act Naturally" twice, singing lead on the Beatles' 1965 version and recording it as a duet with Owens in 1989.

In addition to music, Owens had a highly visible TV career as co-host of "Hee Haw" from 1969 to 1986. With guitarist
Roy Clark, he led viewers through a potpourri of country music and hayseed humor.

"It's an honest show," Owens told The Associated Press in 1995. "There's no social message — no crusade. It's fun and simple."

Owens himself could be rebellious, choosing among other things to label what he did "American music" rather than country.

"I took a little heat," he once said. "People asked me, `Isn't country music good enough for you?' "

He also criticized the syrupy arrangements of some country singers, saying "assembly-line, robot music turns me off."

After his string of hits, Owens stayed away from the recording scene for a decade, returning in 1988 to record another No. 1 record, "Streets of Bakersfield," with
Dwight Yoakam.

He spent much of his time away concentrating on his business interests, which included a Bakersfield TV station and radio stations in Bakersfield and Phoenix.

"I never wanted to hang around like the punch-drunk fighter," he told The Associated Press in 1992.

He had moved to Bakersfield in 1951, hoping to find work in the thriving juke joints of what in the years before suburban sprawl was a truck-stop town on Highway 99, between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area.

"We played rhumbas and tangos and sambas, and we played Bob Wills music, lots of Bob Wills music," he said, referring to the bandleader who was the king of Western swing.

"And lots of rock 'n' roll," he added.

Owens started recording in the mid-1950s, but gained little success until 1963 with "Act Naturally," his first No. 1 single.

Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. was born in 1929 outside Sherman, Texas, the son of a sharecropper. With opportunities scarce during the Depression, the family moved to Arizona when he was 8.

He dropped out of school at age 13 to haul produce and harvest crops, and by 16 he was playing music in taverns.

He once told an audience, "When I was a little bitty kid, I used to dream about playing the guitar and singing like some of those great people that we had the old, thick records of."

Owens' first wife,
Bonnie Owens, sometimes performed with him and went on to become a leading backup singer after their divorce in 1955. She had occasional solo hits in the '60s, as well as successful duets with her second husband,
Merle Haggard.

One of her two sons with Owens also became a singer, using the name Buddy Alan. He had a Top 10 hit in 1968, "Let the World Keep on a-Turnin'," and recorded a number of duets with his father.

In addition to Buddy, he is survived by two other sons, Michael and John.

___

On the Net:

http://www.buckowens.com

Richard Fleischer, son of animation pioneer Max Fleischer, passed away in his sleep last evening [24 March]. He was 89.

Mr. Fleischer, who had just released his telling of his father's career
in "Out of the Inkwell: Max Fleischer and the Animation Revolution" in
June, had been in failing health for the better part of a year.

He leaves behind a most impressive body of work in films including "20,000
Leagues Under the Sea," "Barabbas," "Fantastic Voyage," "Dr.
Doolittle," "Tora, Tora, Tora," "Soylent Green," "The Jazz Singer"
(with Neil Diamond), "Conan the Destroyer," and "Red Sonja."

Two-head girl dies of infection



An Egyptian girl who survived an operation to remove a second head has died from a brain infection.

Manar Maged suffered from a rare condition that occurs when an embryo splits in the womb but does not develop fully into a twin.

Her second head could smile and blink, but could not survive independently.

Doctors in Cairo operated on Manar in February 2005, when she was aged just 10 months. She died, aged two, after being rushed to hospital with a fever.

"She was admitted to hospital in a very bad way," said Abla el-Alfy, a consultant paediatrician involved in her care.

"She had a very severe infection in the brain and she wasn't able to fight it."

Doctors at the Benha Children's Hospital had regarded the fact that Manar survived the initial 13-hour operation as a success.

Her condition improved after the surgery, but she continued to suffer regular infections, Mr Alfy told Reuters news agency.

The second head contained eyes, a nose and a mouth, but was not connected to any internal organs and was not capable of independent thought.

Known as craniopagus parasiticus, the condition is one of the rarest forms of birth defects.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/4848164.stm

Damn, now I'm hungry!

A Second World War hero who claimed to be the inspiration behind Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape has died aged 102.

Squadron Leader Eric Foster, who escaped seven times from prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War, died peacefully at home.

As a Flight Lieutenant with 38 Bomber Squadron, Mr Foster was shot down in 1940. He made repeated escapes over the following four years and later wrote about his exploits in his autobiography, Life Hangs by a Silken Thread, published in 1992.

Mr Foster claimed that some of his wartime activities were depicted on the big screen by McQueen, who played Captain Virgil Hilts in the 1963 film.

Hilts, nicknamed "The Cooler King", was a fictional character but is believed to have been based on several real escapees.

His friend Mike Beresford, 74, said: "Eric lived an extremely active life. Before the war he was a keen mountaineer and set up a travel company organising tours to the Alps.

"After he was shot down he escaped seven times, but was recaptured. Some of his exploits were depicted by Steve McQueen. He had quite a lot of press cuttings about the film and his part in it."

Mr Foster died at his home in Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire.

Science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem dies at 84

WARSAW (AP) — Stanislaw Lem, a popular science fiction writer whose novel Solaris was filmed twice, died Monday in his native Poland, his secretary said. He was 84.

Lem died in Krakow, Wojciech Zemek told The Associated Press. Zemek did not give other details or the cause of death, citing only Lem's advanced age.

Lem was one of the most popular science fiction authors of recent decades to write in a language other than English, and his works were translated from Polish into more than 40 other languages. His books have sold 27 million copies.

His best-known work, Solaris, was adapted into films by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and by Steven Soderbergh in 2002. The latter starred George Clooney and Natascha McElhone.

His first important novel, Hospital of the Transfiguration, was censored by communist authorities for eight years before its release in 1956 amid a thaw following the death of Josef Stalin.

Lem's other works include The Invincible,The Cyberiad,His Master's Voice,The Star Diaries,The Futurological Congress and Tales of Prix the Pilot.

Swell Maps frontman Nikki Sudden died Saturday after a show at New York's Knitting Factory. He was 49. No cause of death has been made public yet, according to Secretly Canadian label head Chris Swanson, whose company reissued 10 of Sudden's albums in recent years.

Always a prolific artist, Sudden has just completed a new solo album, "The Truth Doesn't Matter," and has a gig booked in London on Wednesday (March 29) with his band the Jacobites. According to a post from longtime group member Dave Kusworth on Sudden's MySpace.com page, the show will go off as planned in memoriam to Sudden.

"Nikki Sudden believed in rock'n'roll -- and how hard was that in this cold new millennium?," Kusworth wrote.

Sudden rose to fame with his brother Epic Soundtracks in Swell Maps, a late 1970s rock combo that has remained influential despite its brief lifespan. Soundtracks died of unknown causes in 1997.

According to Secretly Canadian, Sudden was nearing completion on his autobiography, "The Last Bandit."

ah shit... my wife loved this guy. she's gonna be crushed.

At least now he has an ending for the book.

LOS ANGELES -- Dan Curtis, a producer and director who brought the epic
miniseries "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" to television and
created the offbeat soap opera "Dark Shadows," died Monday. He was 78.

Curtis, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor four months ago, died at his
Brentwood area home, said Jim Pierson, a spokesman for Curtis' family and
for Dan Curtis Productions.


Norma Mae Klein, Curtis' wife of 54 years, died March 7 of heart failure,
Pierson said.


Curtis' varied, five-decade TV career included the 1960s show "Challenge
Golf" featuring Gary Player and Arnold Palmer and continued through 2005
with two made-for-TV movies, "Saving Milly" and "Our Fathers."


CBS' "Saving Milly" was based on political pundit Mort Kondracke's memoir
detailing his late wife's struggle with Parkinson's disease. Showtime's "Our
Fathers" examined the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal.


Curtis, born Daniel Mayer Cherkoss in Bridgeport, Conn., graduated from
Syracuse University in 1950 and became a salesman for NBC and then MCA,
where he sold syndicated programs.


After creating "Challenge Golf" for ABC in 1962, the golfing enthusiast
formed his own company and in 1963 started "The CBS Match Play Golf
Classic," which ran for a decade and received an Emmy for achievement in
sports.


Curtis' pitch to ABC for a Gothic-flavored soap opera led to the creation of
the 1966 series "Dark Shadows," about odd, supernatural goings-on at a
family estate in Maine. The popular heroic vampire character, Barnabas
Collins (Jonathan Frid), was added in 1967.


The show, which ended production in 1971, became a cult favorite that
counted young viewers among its fans. It spawned two feature films, "House
of Dark Shadows" (1970) and "Night of Dark Shadows" (1971), both directed by
Curtis, and a 1991 NBC prime-time series starring Ben Cross.


Curtis reached a career high as producer, director and co-writer of 1983's
sweeping "The Winds of War," based on Herman Wouk's novel. The 16-hour drama
for ABC, starring Robert Mitchum and Ali McGraw, remains among TV's
high-rated miniseries.


It was successfully followed by the Emmy-winning, 29-hour sequel, "War and
Remembrance," which cost about $140 million to produce, Pierson said. It
aired in 1988-89 and included Jane Seymour and John Gielgud among its stars.


A prolific TV movie producer, Curtis drew heavily from mystery and horror
genres and often collaborated with Richard Matheson (who wrote for the
classic "Twilight Zone" series). Among their projects were "The Night
Stalker" in 1972 and a 1973 sequel, "The Night Strangler."


Curtis did not participate in "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," a short-lived
1970s series starring Darren McGavin but was a consultant-producer on the
2005 ABC remake, "Night Stalker," Pierson said.


Curtis is survived by his daughters, Cathy and Tracy.

Pete Wells Dies Age 58



by Eve Jenkin

March 28 2006

Rose Tattoo guitarist and Australian music icon Peter Wells lost his ongoing battle with prostate cancer last night, age 58.

The rock legend had been in hospital for the past 5 weeks and was apparently in pain before his peaceful passing at 10pm on the 27th of March.

In a 2005 interview with “60 Minutes,” Wells spoke about his fight against cancer. “…The trick is to get it early,” he said. “I mean, they can fix this damned thing.” “That's the point about the bloody thing is that if I got it early - a year or six months earlier or something - it would have saved an awful lot of inconvenience, I can tell you - pain and misery and the rest of it.”

Wells was renowned for his outstanding musical contributions to the local scene, which included not only his most famous outfit Rose Tattoo but also Buffalo, Hillbilly Moon, The Lucy DeSoto Band and Rocks Push. He also released several albums as a solo artist.




Rose Tattoo were the real deal.

WASHINGTON -- Caspar Weinberger, who played key roles in the shaping of the so-called Star Wars missile defense program and the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan administration, has died. He was 88 years old.

Weinberger is best known as United States se cretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 through 1987, and for his related roles in the Strategic Defense Initiative program, known as Star Wars, and in the Iran-Contra Affair.

Eugene Landy, Brian Wilson therapist, dead

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Eugene Landy, the psychologist who gained notoriety for his controversial treatment of and control over Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, died March 22 of respiratory complications from lung cancer in Honolulu, said his longtime colleague, William Flaxman. He was 71.

Landy pioneered what he called "24-hour therapy," in which he worked with patients for long, uninterrupted periods. His show business clientele included rock musician Alice Cooper and actors Richard Harris and Rod Steiger.

He was best known, however, for his treatment of Wilson, the troubled founding member of the iconic California surf band.

Wilson's wife hired Landy in 1975 at a time when the musician had withdrawn socially to an alarming degree. Landy took control of Wilson's life, constantly monitoring him to keep him away from drugs and junk food.

Under Landy's care, Wilson's physical and mental health improved enough that he performed at the Beach Boys' 15th anniversary concert on New Year's Eve 1976. Despite his success, Landy was fired around that time by the band's manager, largely over a fee dispute.

Six years later, after Wilson had regressed to drugs and obesity, Landy was rehired. The psychologist said he was paid $35,000 a month for conducting 24-hour therapy from 1983 to 1986.

The California Board of Medical Quality Assurance later accused Landy of "grossly negligent conduct," alleging that his business dealings with Wilson had caused the singer "severe emotional damage, psychological dependence and financial exploitation."

Landy denied the charges and Wilson defended him, attributing his new solo career to Landy's therapy. "Dr. Landy saved my life," Wilson said in a statement at the time.

In 1989, Landy admitted to a single charge of unlawfully prescribing drugs and surrendered his license to practice psychology in California for at least two years.

McGahern, chronicler of Irish life, dies aged 71
Paul Cullen



John McGahern, whose death has robbed Ireland of one of its finest and most-revered writers, is to be buried in his beloved Co Leitrim tomorrow.

McGahern, who chronicled the minutiae of traditional Irish rural life in his books, plays and a hugely successful memoir, died suddenly in the Mater hospital in Dublin yesterday afternoon. He was 71 and suffering from cancer.


In a career spanning four decades, he knew both notoriety and celebrity. In the 1960s, his second novel, The Dark, was banned and he was dismissed from his teaching post but, by the end of his career, he was an enormous critical and popular success. In bare, beautiful prose, McGahern's books record the complex relations of rural society and the interplay between men and women.

Memories of his violent father inform his best-known work, Amongst Women, which was shortlisted for the Booker prize and won The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Fiction prize.

The President, Mary McAleese, yesterday led the tributes to McGahern. With his passing, Ireland had lost "an outstanding literary talent", she said.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern praised the writer's "beautiful use of language" in telling and retelling the stories of his time and place. "John McGahern faithfully lived out his vocation as a writer. The early sacrifice he paid for his work strengthened his resolve."

McGahern was also "a great wit and talker", the Taoiseach pointed out.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte, referring to the censorship controversy, said he was "a fearless opponent of the hypocrisy and cant of which he, himself, was a victim in the 1960s".

Born in Dublin in 1934, McGahern grew up in Co Leitrim and Co Roscommon. Having trained as a primary school teacher, he taught in Clontarf, Dublin, until the parish priest who managed the school fired him.

He opted not to contest the banning of The Dark - an event that quickened the end of harsh censorship - and went into exile.

In the early 1970s, he returned to Ireland and Co Leitrim to live. From his farm near Mohill, he produced a succession of acclaimed novels, from The Leavetaking and The Pornographer in the 1970s to That They May Face the Rising Sun in 2001.

John McGahern, who is survived by his second wife, Madeline, will be buried at Aughawillan church in Co Leitrim tomorrow.

Shotgun formation inventor Red Hickey dies
March 30, 2006

APTOS, Calif. (AP) -- Howard "Red" Hickey, the NFL coach who invented the shotgun offensive formation with the 49ers, died Thursday, his son said. He was 89.

Jeffrey Hickey didn't disclose the cause of his father's death.

Hickey coached San Francisco from 1959-63, going 27-27-1 before resigning three games into the 1963 season. He also played on the Cleveland Rams' 1945 championship team, was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Rams' title club in 1951 and spent two decades as an assistant and scout for the Dallas Cowboys.

He made history in 1960 when he combined elements of a punt formation, a spread passing attack and a double-wing formation invented by Stanford's Pop Warner into the shotgun -- so named by Hickey because it sprayed receivers around the field.

Before a game against Baltimore in November 1960, Hickey instructed quarterbacks John Brodie and Bob Waters to stand several yards behind the center to receive snaps, giving them more time to survive the Colts' formidable pass rush.

The formation spurred the 49ers to a late-season winning surge, and Hickey combined the shotgun with a three-quarterback rotation in 1961, sending Brodie, Waters and rookie Bill Kilmer into the game on alternating plays.

San Francisco dropped the formation before the next season, but it was revived by coach Tom Landry and the Cowboys several years later, and the shotgun eventually spread throughout football.

The Arkansas native was a two-sport star at the University of Arkansas, earning all-decade honors with the Razorbacks' football team and reaching the 1941 Final Four with the basketball team.

Cecelia Surina Hickey, his wife of 50 years, died in 1995. Hickey, a World War II veteran, is survived by his brother, Bailey; sons Michael, Patrick and Jeffrey; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

His family and friends will hold a private memorial service.

Score one for the Roadrunner:

Hal, the Central Park Coyote, Dies

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press Writer 14 minutes ago
ALBANY, N.Y. - Hal, the coyote who paid a visit to New York City and was captured as he loped around Central Park, died as he was being tagged for release in the wild, a state official said Friday.

The coyote stopped breathing Thursday night during the routine tagging procedure and biologists could not revive him, said Gabrielle DeMarco, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Pathologists were trying to determine whether the stress of his capture or captivity or something else contributed to the death of the year-old, 35-pound coyote.

The coyote, nicknamed Hal by park workers, led dozens of police officers on foot and in a helicopter on a wild chase through the urban greenery March 21 and 22. He jumped into the water, ducked under a bridge and leaped over an 8-foot fence.

Hal was finally caught when a police officer shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart.

Officials had taken Hal from a wildlife rehabilitation expert in Long Island on Thursday and had planned to release him in a state forest in upstate New York.

How Hal reached Central Park is a mystery. He may have wandered into the city from the suburbs, or perhaps crossed the Hudson River from New Jersey by way of a bridge or a passing truck.

HARTFORD, Connecticut -- Jazz alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, a performer and educator who played with legendary musicians including Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, died Friday. He was 73.

McLean, a contemporary of some of the 20th century's most famed jazz musicians, died at his Hartford home after a long illness, family members told The Hartford Courant.

A quintessential hard bop saxophonist, McLean was one of the few veterans who encouraged the new ideas of the free-jazz movement that followed. McLean was also founder and artistic director of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford's Hartt School. He and his wife, actress Dollie McLean, also founded the Artists Collective, a community center and fine arts school in Hartford's inner city primarily serving troubled youth.

University of Hartford President Walter Harrison said Dollie McLean called him Friday with news of her husband's death.

Harrison said that despite his many musical accomplishments, McLean was a modest man whose connections with his students lasted for decades after they left his classroom.

"He fully understood the way that jazz as an art should be passed down to students," Harrison said. "He saw his role as bringing jazz from the 1950s and '60s and handing it down to artists of today."

McLean, a native of Harlem in New York City, grew up in a musical family, his father playing guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's band. McLean took up the soprano saxophone as a teen and quickly switched to the alto saxophone, inspired by his godfather's performances in a church choir, he told WBGO-FM in Newark, New Jersey, in an interview in 2004.

McLean went on to play with his friend Rollins from 1948-49 in a Harlem neighborhood band under the tutelage of pianist Bud Powell. Through Powell, McLean met bebop pioneer Charlie "Bird" Parker, who became a major influence on the young alto saxophonist.

He made his first recording when he was 19 on Miles Davis' "Dig" album, also featuring Rollins, which heralded the beginning of the hard-bop style.

In the 1950s, McLean also played with Charles Mingus and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, experiences that he credited with helping him find his own style.

"I never really sounded like Bird, but that was my mission," McLean said in the WBGO radio interview. "I didn't care if people said that I copied him; I loved Bird's playing so much. But Mingus was the one that really pushed me away from the idea and forced me into thinking about having an individual sound and concept."

McLean made his first recording as a leader in 1955. He drew wide attention with his 1959 debut on Blue Note Records, "Jackie's Bag," one of dozens of albums he recorded in the hard-bop and free jazz styles for the label over the next eight years. His 1962 album "Let Freedom Ring" found him performing with avant-garde musicians.

In 1959-60, he acted in the off-Broadway play "The Connection," about jazz musicians and drug addiction. McLean, a heroin addict during his early career, later went on to lecture on drug addiction research.

In 1968, after Blue Note terminated his recording contract, McLean began teaching at the University of Hartford. He taught jazz, African-American music, and African-American history and culture, setting up the university's African American Music Department, which later was named in his honor.

He took a break from recording for much of the 1980s to focus on his work as a music educator, but made his recording comeback in 1988 with "Dynasty," and later re-signed with Blue Note. His last Blue Note recordings included "Fire and Love" (1998), featuring his youthful Macband with son Rene McLean on tenor saxophone, and the ballads album "Nature Boy" (2000).

He received an American Jazz Masters fellowship, the nation's highest jazz honor, from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001, and toured the world as an educator and performer.

Gloria Monty, the executive producer of the ABC soap opera "General Hospital" who made the characters Luke and Laura global icons, died Thursday of cancer in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Ms. Monty took over the reins of "General Hospital" in 1978, at a time when the show was struggling. During her 10 years on "GH" she updated the look of the soap opera, added more adventurous, even outrageous, story lines and introduced younger characters, including Luke and Laura Spencer, the first of a series of "super-couples" that helped define the show.

"In the late 1970s, Gloria Monty transformed soap opera viewing from a housewives' pastime to 'the' cool thing to do," veteran "GH" actress Jane Elliot said in a release. "As I was a beneficiary of that transformation, I will be eternally grateful and will miss her terribly. I can't wait to see what she does with heaven."

Is Tony in these pages somewhere?

BERLIN (AP) - Nina von Stauffenberg, widow of the aristocratic Nazi army officer who tried to kill Adolf Hitler with a briefcase bomb, has died, an official said Monday. She was 92.

Peter Kirchner, mayor of Kirchlauter in the southern state of Bavaria where von Stauffenberg lived, said the widow of Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg died Sunday morning, but gave no further details.

Col. von Stauffenberg was one of the best known internal German resistance fighters during the Second World War, leading the failed attempt to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb placed under a conference table on July 20, 1944.

Four people died in the bombing, but Hitler was only superficially wounded after an aide moved the briefcase before it exploded.

Von Stauffenberg, along with other members of the resistance, were shot and their families arrested by the Gestapo.

Nina von Stauffenberg, who was pregnant with their fifth child at the time, was held in a camp in Frankfurt an der Oder, while the four other children were kept in an orphanage in the state of Thuringia under false names. Only after the war were the children reunited with their mother and new sibling.

No immediate information on survivors was available.

A burial is to be held Saturday in Kirchlauter, Kirchner said.

NEW YORK -- Peter Hadhazy, a former general manager of the Cleveland Browns and a longtime NFL official, died Monday after a brief illness, the league said. He was 62.

Hadhazy, who began his career with the NFL as a college student in 1961, left 10 years later to become assistant general manager of the New England Patriots and was hired as general manager of the Browns in 1976.

He returned to the NFL office in 1981, then worked for the USFL from 1982-86. He also served as a general manager in the World League of American Football until rejoining the NFL in 1994.

At the time of his death, he was the NFL's director of game operations.

He is survived by his wife Rita, two daughters, Andrea and Deana, and a son, James.

Henry Farrell, whose gift for writing pulpy melodrama was most famously
realized in the 1962 movie "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?," died on
March 29 at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 85.

Mary Bishop, his executor, confirmed his death.

The "Baby Jane" movie was based on a novel Mr. Farrell wrote in 1960.
He was also a co-writer of the screenplay for the 1964 campy cult
classic "Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte," which was based on one of his
short stories.

In both movies, Mr. Farrell made a bad joke of the command to grow old
gracefully by creating once-glamorous female characters and turning
them into crazy hags acting out evil fantasies.

In "Baby Jane," the stars were Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, who had
never appeared together and who were both trying to revive flagging
careers. Davis played a woman who had been a world-famous child actress
but who had lost her popularity as she grew up, until all she had left
were photographs and glorious memories. Crawford played her sister, a
former movie star who had suffered an accident that put her in a
wheelchair at the peak of her career.

Miss Davis's character becomes her sister's vengeance-seeking
custodian. She feeds her sister a dead pet canary and a scalded rat for
"din-din."

Mr. Farrell's press agent, Mitch Douglas, said Davis and Crawford had
been enticed into the movie by the book and the chance to co-star. He
said each actress used exactly the same words about the other: "I'll
wipe the floor with her."

The film received five Academy Award nominations, including best
actress for Davis.

Mr. Farrell and the director Robert Aldrich hoped to reunite the two
stars for "Sweet Charlotte," but Crawford ultimately declined.

In this second film, Davis plays Charlotte, a haunted, desperate and
demented recluse. Olivia de Havilland is Miriam, her cousin who comes
from Europe to help her but who really wants her to pack up and vacate
so she can sell the house. Mad and murderous things ensue.

The second movie received seven Academy Award nominations, and helped
establish a new genre of psychological horror films revolving around
murder, guilt, family and the apparent ghosts of the dead. It and its
predecessor also set the standard for what became known as the Grand
Guignol style of horror movies starring legendary female film stars.

Charles Henry Myers was born on Sept. 27, 1920, somewhere in
California. Ms. Bishop did not know where, or when or why he began
using a pseudonym. Mr. Farrell's other novels included "The Hostage"
(1959), "Death on the Sixth Day: A Novel" (1961), "How Awful About
Allan" (1963) and "Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me" (1967), which François
Truffaut's used as the basis of his 1972 film "Une Belle Fille Comme
Moi." Mr. Farrell also wrote screenplays for "What's the Matter With
Helen?" (1971) and the television movie of "How Awful About Allan"
(1970), among other films. In 2002, a musical of "What Ever Happened to
Baby Jane?," written by Mr. Farrell, was staged in Houston to mixed
reviews.

Mr. Farrell was married to the actress Molly Dodd, who died in 1981. He
is survived by his sister, Wanda Zey Michael, of University Place,
Wash.

He recently finished a novel titled "A Piece of Clarisse." It tells of
a man who regularly gets pieces of a woman's body in his mailbox.

Former The Wonder Stuff drummer Martin Gilks has been killed in a road accident, the band's record label said today.

Mr Gilks was riding the motorbike along with a female passenger at around 7.30pm on Sunday when they were involved in a collision in Putney.

The Wonder Stuff formed in 1986 and were one of the UK's biggest bands in the early 1990s - having the chart-topping single Dizzy with Vic Reeves and three top ten albums.

The group split in 1994, reformed briefly in 2000 for live gigs then emerged again in 2004 with a new lineup, minus Mr Gilks and guitarist Martin Bell.

A spokesman for IRL records said: "Martin has died after a car crash I'm afraid to say."

TOKYO (AP) - Genzo Murakami, a Japanese novelist who became known for popular historical novels in the 1940s, has died of heart failure, Japanese news reports said Tuesday. He was 96.

Murakami died at a hospital in Tokyo on Monday, Kyodo News agency said. Repeated phone calls to Murakami's home went unanswered. Born in 1910, Murakami completed middle school in Tokyo and then studied under noted Japanese playwright Shin Hasegawa before beginning his writing career.

After receiving the prestigious Naoki Prize for Kazusa Fudoki in 1940, he wrote his bestselling novel, Sasaki Kojiro (1949-50) - a story of rivalry between swordsmen Sasaki Kojiro and Miyamoto Musashi.

Murakami's other novels include Mohei - a story about a samurai warrior battling against the Portuguese arsenal of guns and cannons in 17th-century Japan. Many of his novels, including Sakaki Kojiro and Mohei, were converted into films.

Talk about good news bad news...

Set decorator Gretchen Rau, who recently won the Oscar for art direction with production designer John Myhre for "Memoirs of a Geisha," died of a brain tumor March 29 in Northport, New York. She was 66.
Born in New Orleans, she began her career in New York, working in the art department for "Atlantic City" and "Once Upon a Time in America."

She shared an Oscar nom with art director Lilly Kilvert for "The Last Samurai." Rau was set decorator on more than 30 films, including "Crocodile Dundee," "A River Runs Through It," "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "The Horse Whisperer" and "The Life Aquatic."

Her most recent film was "The Good Shepherd," directed by Robert De Niro, set to open at the end of the year.

Production designer Jeannine Oppewal, who worked with Rau on "The Good Shepherd" and "Rooftops," said: "Gretchen was one of the most well respected and beloved set decorators in this country. She always said she 'just loved her work' in the film business, and her enthusiasms kept those around her buoyant in difficult times."

John Myhre, production designer, said, "We had a lovely time on 'Memoirs of a Geisha,' a film we all enjoyed working on, and it was so important to all of us."

She is survived by five children: George Pattison, a director of photography; Taylor Pattison, a propmaster; Anne Pattison, a makeup artist; Jean-Paul Menard, a set dresser and propmaker; and Stephanie Pattison; four grandchildren; a sister and a brother.

Donations may be made to the Visiting Nurse Service & Hospice of Suffolk, 505 Main St., Northport, NY 11768.

Obituary: Gene Pitney

Gene Pitney went from being a successful songwriter for other acts to become a major international pop star in his own right.

He enjoyed more than 20 hits, including songs like 24 Hours from Tulsa and Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart.

With an unmistakeable singing voice, at once plaintive and melodramatic, Gene Pitney had hits on both sides of the Atlantic.

A friend of The Rolling Stones, Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach, Pitney was also a noted songwriter.

He was born on 17 February 1941 in Hartford Connecticut and soon gained a reputation as a musician while studying at the nearby Rockville High School, where he earned the nickname the Rockville Rocket.

But his early flirtation as a performer initially failed to lead to anything bigger. Undaunted, Pitney moved to New York, where he worked as a songwriter at the fabled Brill Building alongside titans like Carole King, Gerry Goffin and Doc Pomus.

Success

Success was not slow to come, and he was soon penning hits like Rubber Ball for Bobby Vee and Ricky Nelson's Hello Mary Lou.

By 1961, when The Crystals' He's a Rebel gave Pitney his first US No 1 hit as a writer, he was a star in his own right.

But Pitney's career was anything if predictable. After his own successful 1961 single, (I Wanna) Hide My Love Away, he was approached by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

They co-wrote three of his best known hits, Only Love Can Break a Heart, (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance and the classic 24 Hours from Tulsa.

Together with songs like Town Without Pity and Half Heaven-Half Heartache, they constituted a formidable range of work.

Pitney also enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with country music legend George Jones, with whom he recorded an album of duets.

And, in 1964, he met The Rolling Stones, whose then manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was his publicist - and recorded the Jagger-Richards composition That Girl Belongs to Yesterday

Always more popular in the UK than America, Pitney also made his mark in Italy, Spain and Germany.

More recently, he could be found duetting with Marc Almond on an 1989 version of Something's Gotten Hold of my Heart which gave him his only UK No 1 hit.

Pitney later reflected: "Musically I got along perfect with Marc. The video in the middle of the desert, with me in the white tux and him in the leather, that was great."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/ente...ent/4879230.stm

More on Pitney:

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Gene Pitney, the singer and songwriter known for 1960s hits such as "Town Without Pity" and "24 Hours from Tulsa," has died while on a UK concern tour, his agent said.

Pitney, 65, was found dead just after 10 a.m. Wednesday (0500 ET) at the Hilton Hotel in Cardiff, Wales.

His agent, Jene Levy, told Reuters Pitney died on Wednesday morning after given a concert in the Welsh capital the previous day.

There was no immediate word on the cause of death. Friends said he was in apparent good health and his death came as a shock.

"We don't have a cause of death at the moment but looks like it was a very peaceful passing," said Pitney's tour manager, James Kelly, according to The Associated Press.

"He was found fully clothed, on his back, as if he had gone for a lie down. It looks as if there was no pain whatsoever."

South Wales police said they had been called to a hotel at 9:50 a.m. on Wednesday morning and that the death was not being treated as suspicious.

Don Alias, 66, Percussionist and Sideman, Is Dead

By NATE CHINEN
Published: April 5, 2006

Don Alias, a percussionist who had a long career as a sought-after sideman, working with an illustrious array of artists in jazz and pop including Nina Simone, Miles Davis and Joni Mitchell, died on March 28 at his home in Manhattan. He was 66.

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Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos
Don Alias in a tribute to Jaco Pastorius at the JVC Jazz Festival in 2005.
His death was announced by Melanie Futorian, his companion, who said the cause was under investigation.

Born Charles Donald Alias to Caribbean parents in New York, Mr. Alias liked to say that he learned percussion on the streets, picking up the techniques of Cuban and Puerto Rican hand drummers.

While in high school, he enlisted as a conga player with the Eartha Kitt Dance Foundation, which offered classes at a Y.M.C.A. Ms. Kitt herself took him along to the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, where he performed with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, his first professional experience.

At the urging of his family, Mr. Alias (pronounced uh-LIE-ess) studied biology at Gannon College in Erie, Pa., and the Carnegie Institute for Biochemistry in Boston. Playing in Boston clubs by night, he met students from the Berklee School of Music, most notably the bassist Gene Perla.

It was Mr. Perla who got Mr. Alias a job as a drummer with Ms. Simone, even though he had no experience with a full drum kit. He handled the challenge and eventually became Ms. Simone's musical director. In 1969, his work in her ensemble caught the attention of Miles Davis, who was then developing the hazy jazz-rock that would suffuse his album "Bitches Brew."

Hired as an auxiliary percussionist for the album, Mr. Alias ended up playing a trap-set part, along with Jack DeJohnette, on the track "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down." His lean and loosely syncopated beat, inspired by New Orleans parade music, is one of the album's most distinctive rhythms.

Mr. Alias played the role of trap drummer again on a 1979 concert tour with Joni Mitchell, in a band that included the saxophonist Michael Brecker, the guitarist Pat Metheny and the bassist Jaco Pastorius. A live recording from the tour, "Shadows and Light," is often cited as a favorite among musicians.

Mr. Alias was the first-call percussionist for a host of other artists as well, including the singer Roberta Flack, the alto saxophonist David Sanborn (with whom he toured as recently as February) and the pianist Herbie Hancock. As a conga player, Mr. Alias could augment a rhythm section in a way that was urgent but never intrusive.

He also had a hand in forming two bands: Stone Alliance, an electric fusion project with Mr. Perla and the saxophonist Steve Grossman, and Kebekwa, a percussion ensemble based in Montreal. Kebekwa was short-lived, but several years ago Stone Alliance reunited after a two-decade hiatus. The group has three recent live albums on the Mambo Maniacs label.

In addition to Ms. Futorian, Mr. Alias is survived by his mother, Violet Richardson Alias; his son, Charles Donald Alias Jr.; his daughter, Kimberlee Marisa Alias; and four grandchildren.

Allan Krapow, who pioneered theatrical "happenings," dies at 78


Allan Krapow, an artist who in the 1950s pioneered an unrehearsed, nonverbal form of theater called a "happening" that was intended to shatter the boundary between art and life, has died. He was 78.

Krapow, who taught for years at the University of California, San Diego, died Wednesday at his home in the San Diego suburb of Encinitas. He had been ill for some time and died of natural causes, said Tamara Bloomberg, a friend and associate.

Kaprow's happenings took place in real-life settings and involved unrelated or bizarre scenes acted out by any willing participant. The audience were people who just happened to be there.

A typical Kaprow happening involved people standing around Times Square in New York, waiting for a signal from a window. When the signal arrives, the are directed to fall down on a spot on the sidewalk. Then they are loaded into a truck and driven away.

"Contemporary artists are not out to supplant recent modern art with a better kind," Kaprow said in 1966. "They wonder what art might be. Art and life are not simply commingled; the identity of each is uncertain."

Born August 23, 1927, in Atlantic City, N.J., Krapow called himself an "un-artist." He was primarily a painter and sculptor working with found objects.

After studying with composer John Cage, he decided to stage events he called happenings, beginning in 1958. He later filled a courtyard with tires, and, in Berlin, constructed a cinderblock wall with bread and jam as mortar and then knocked it down.

He is survived by his wife, Coryl, their son, Bram, and three children from a previous marriage.

Coach Maggie Dixon, who at age 28 led the Army women's basketball team to its first NCAA tournament berth last month, died after suffering heart arrhythmia.

Dixon died Thursday night at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., U.S. Military Academy spokesman Lt. Col. Kent Cassella said. A memorial service was scheduled for Friday afternoon at West Point.

Dixon was hospitalized in critical condition after suffering an "arrhythmic episode to her heart" Wednesday at the U.S. Military Academy, said her older brother, Pittsburgh men's basketball coach Jamie Dixon.

Dixon said his sister collapsed and was taken to the intensive care unit of Westchester Medical Center.

"She ... went to the house of a friend for afternoon tea where she said she wasn't feeling good and she collapsed," said Dixon, who read a prepared statement from the hospital.

He said he had breakfast with his sister earlier Wednesday and that she had apparently been feeling well.



Jim O'Connell, a spokesman for the Westchester County medical examiner's office, said an autopsy was scheduled for Friday.

Army gave Dixon her first head coaching job last October. Six months later, she led the team to its first bid in the women's field. The rookie coach's accomplishment gained extra attention because her brother led the Panthers to the men's tournament at the same time.

The Dixons are believed to be the first brother and sister to coach in the NCAA tournament in the same year. Army lost 102-54 to No. 6 Tennessee in the first round.

"I just loved the energy that Coach brought to practice every day and the way she never gave up on us, always believed in us," guard Cara Enright said. "She would tell us to 'Use what you've learned here at the academy and apply it to basketball."'

Members of her team were with Dixon's family members at her bedside Thursday.

West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. William Lennox Jr. said the entire community was heartbroken by her death.

"From the time Maggie arrived here, her enthusiastic 'no limits' approach earned her the respect and love of everyone," he said.

The North Hollywood, Calif., native had hoped to play in the WNBA after graduating in 1999 from the University of San Diego. But the Los Angeles Sparks cut her after a tryout in May 2000. She went into coaching with encouragement from her brother.

"He said, `If you want to do this coaching thing, do something drastic,"' Dixon told The Associated Press last month. "That's what I did."

She held a number of positions under DePaul coach Doug Bruno after walking into his office and introducing herself. She eventually became his top assistant in May 2004.

CHICAGO (AP) Herman Spertus, one of two brothers who gave generously
to the downtown Jewish institute that bears their name, died of cancer.
He was 105.

Spertus was a well-known patron of Jewish organizations, helping to
found the Council for Jewish Elderly, as well as North Shore
Congregation Israel, according to the Spertus Institute of Jewish
Studies.

The 82-year-old institute was renamed in 1970 to honor the contributions
made by Spertus and his brother Maurice. Maurice Spertus died in 1986.
The Spertus brothers emigrated to America from Russia in 1923, fleeing
Soviet rule. In 1933, they founded a company that eventually became
Intercraft Industries, the largest manufacturer of low-cost picture
frames in the world.

He was also an artist who in the 1950s frequented the same New York City
bars as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

Psychiatrist who helped define stress disorder dies at 80

LOS ANGELES - Leonard Neff, who worked with Vietnam War veterans and
helped diagnose what became known as post-traumatic stress disorder,
has died. He was 80.

Neff died March 26 at his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his
daughter Jane Nee Rollins. He had battled lung and prostate cancer and
recently learned that he had pancreatic cancer, which was thought to be
the cause of death, his daughter said.


Neff was born in Peoria, Ill., and was attending the University of
Illinois during World War II when he was drafted into the Army. He
served in the Pacific but did not see combat.


In 1974, he was working at what is now the Veterans Affairs psychiatric
hospital in West Los Angeles when a Vietnam veteran wearing combat gear
took three men hostage in Griffith Park. The 22-year-old veteran,
Johnny Gabron, asked to talk to Neff, who arrived a short time later.
The two talked for about three hours and Gabron was persuaded to
release the hostages and surrender.


The incident focused attention on the needs of Vietnam veterans, many
of whom returned home with mental health issues. Neff joined a
nationwide effort to accurately define the disorder afflicting veterans
that had previously been described as "combat fatigue" or
"shell-shocked."


"Neff wanted to shift the paradigm," said psychologist Charles Bigly,
who heads the Traumatology Institute at Florida State University. "He
said no matter who you are under this kind of circumstance that being
war it will leave a mark, and that mark is predictable and
understandable, and we need to do something about it."


Neff said some veterans suffered from the disorder, stemming from a
traumatic experience that caused stress but surfaced later. He urged
better services for Vietnam veterans upon their return to the United
States, and the need for appropriate diagnoses.


In 1976, Neff and others presented a working definition of the
phenomenon at the annual meeting of the American Orthopsychiatric
Association.


"His influence and his work and his testimonial about the real world,
especially war veterans, was instrumental in making sure
(post-traumatic stress disorder) became an actual diagnosis in 1980,"
Figley said.


Neff entered into private practice after working at the veterans
hospital. He also was an adjunct assistant professor at the UCLA
Neuropsychiatric Institute. In 1995, Neff and his wife helped found the
Child Development Institute in Woodland Hills.


He is survived by his wife, Essie; three daughters, Jane Neff Rollins,
Laurie Schlichter and Rachel E. Schooler; a son, Jack Neff; and four
grandchildren.

Swedish director and screenwriter Vilgot Sjoman, whose provocative and sexually explicit films stirred controversy in the 1960s, has died, an organization representing artists said Monday. He was 81.

Sjoman died Sunday at a Stockholm hospital of complications from a brain hemorrhage, the Swedish Joint Committee for Artistic and Literary Professionals said.

Many of Sjoman's films were socially critical and sexually explicit, such as his 1967 release I Am Curious Yellow, which was banned in the U.S. for two years, and its sequel, I Am Curious Blue.

Sjoman also worked with renowned Swedish director Ingmar Bergman on the film Winter Light, released in 1962.

He made his debut as a director the following year with The Mistress and directed a total of 15 films. His last film was Alfred in 1995, about the life of Alfred Nobel, founder of the prestigious Nobel Prizes. Sjoman also wrote more than 20 books.

In his final years, Sjoman was embroiled in a legal battle against a TV station in Sweden. The film maker sued the TV4 channel saying it violated his artistic integrity by interrupting his movies with commercial breaks.

A district court ruled in his favour, but TV4 appealed the decision to a higher court, where it is still pending.

Former member of the Beat Farmers and San Diego musical stalwart Buddy Blue dead at the age of 48:

A prominent member of Detroit's hip-hop community was killed in a shooting at a Detroit night club early Tuesday morning.

Rapper and producer Proof, whose real name is DeShaun Holton, was one of two shooting victims at the CCC Club on east Eight Mile Road, near Gratiot Avenue, according to Detroit police.

Police and his record label said he was 32 years old.

WDIV reported that the second victim, a 35-year-old man, remained hospitalized in critical condition at St. John Hospital Tuesday, according to police. His name was not released.

The rapper is a long-time friend and protege of rap star Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers. Proof appeared in Eminem's movie "Eight Mile" as Li'l Tic, the station learned. He was the best man at Eminem's January wedding and often appeared with him at concerts and elsewhere, The Associated Press reported.

Police are searching for a gunman. A description was not available. The shooting remains under investigation.

A witness was being questioned by police.

LOS ANGELES Apr 12, 2006 (AP)— June Pointer, the youngest of the singing Pointer Sisters known for the 1970s and 1980s hits "I'm So Excited," "Fire," and "Slow Hand," has died, her family said Wednesday. She was 52.

Pointer died of cancer Tuesday at Santa Monica University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, the family said in a statement. She had been hospitalized since late February and the type of cancer wasn't disclosed.

She died "in the arms of her sisters, Ruth and Anita and her brothers, Aaron and Fritz, by her side," the family statement read. "Although her sister, Bonnie, was unable to be present, she was with her in spirit."

The Pointer Sisters began as a quartet in the early 1970s with sisters Ruth, Anita, Bonnie and June. The group became a trio when Bonnie embarked on a solo career.

The group's hits also included "He's So Shy," "Automatic" and "Jump (For My Love)."

The sisters, along with their two older brothers, grew up singing in the choir of an Oakland church where their parents were ministers.

Bonnie and June formed a singing duo and began performing in clubs around the San Francisco Bay area. Anita and Ruth later joined the group and together, they sang backup for Taj Mahal, Boz Scaggs and Elvin Bishop, among others.

Their first, self-titled album, "The Pointer Sisters," debuted in 1973 and the song "Yes We Can Can" became their first hit. They followed up with the album "That's A Plenty," which featured an eclectic mix of musical styles ranging from jazz to country and pop. They won the first of their three Grammy awards in 1974 for best country vocal performance by a group for the song "Fairytale."

Bonnie left the group in 1977, and the sisters recorded several more albums, scoring several hit songs that became identified as the soundtrack of the 1980s.

The successful 1984 album "Break Out" earned two Grammy awards for the songs "Automatic" and "Jump (For My Love)." The album's other hit song, "Neutron Dance," was prominently featured in the movie "Beverly Hills Cop."

June recorded two solo albums, and later left the trio.

Anita and Ruth still perform under the group's name. Ruth's daughter, Issa Pointer, is the trio's newest member.

Two years ago, June Pointer was charged with felony cocaine possession and misdemeanor possession of a smoking device. She was ordered to a rehabilitation facility.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.