Damn, the Democrats have been in charge for almost a whole day now, and the haven’t fixed everything that the Republicans have managed to fuck up over the last six years. I knew it I knew it, I knew it. They suck. The sky is falling. It’s all terrible. One more thing I’ll have to straighten out when I’m in DC next week, I guess.

Maron on Seder today. Enjoy.

Oh, if you haven’t seen these Marc dates yet, better enter them in your Palm Pilot:

Things have been kind of frustrating with this web host the last few days (longer than that, really, but the last few days – particularly in the afternoon – have been pretty abysmal).   I apologize for that, but since I can’t physically (or even virtually) get my hands on any of it, there’s not a hell of a lot I can do.  It’s clear that tech support isn’t much help.  Things look fine to them, I guess.  So, I’ve been scoping out some other hosts, and, unless things get a lot better, will probably be making a move one of these days.  I’m reluctant to do much of anything until I get back from DC next week, since I have a fair amount to do to get my shit together.  If and when it happens, though, I’ll have to shut everything down so that I can (hopefully) preserve the database and all the past entries.  That goes for the forums, too (though they don’t get a whole lot of use).  There are a lot of other things I have to putz around with, too, which is why I’m putting this off (plus, I hate to go through all this aggravation, just to find out that the new host isn’t any better).  So, please try and bear with things for a while, and cross your toes that it gets better all by itself.

Happy first day with the new Congress.  See ya.

After watching as many hours as possible of the Twilight Zone Marathon the last few days (OK, I’ll try not to mention that again until next year), we were sufficiently motivated to make a pilgrimage to the Lakeview Cemetery in Interlaken to visit his grave (if nothing else, it was a good excuse to go and drive around the Finger Lakes area – didn’t hit up any wineries, though).

It was a dark and rather bleak-looking day when we started out, but before too long the clouds broke up, and we enjoyed a beautiful view heading down Cayuga Lake. It’s a bit odd to be driving around this time of year with no snow on the ground (sort of like being in, well, the Twilight Zone). It seemed more like late October than it did January (though there was a rather cold, bitter wind once we were outside of the car). We didn’t know exactly where the grave was (except that it was at roughly “two o’clock”), but it’s a fairly small cemetery, and Granny found the grave (where she left an angel – not the first to do so, apparently – as a way of saying thanks) fairly quickly. I saved the location in my GPS, so now we have the latitude and longitude, should we want to come back again. Thanks for the memories, Rod. I just wish you’d laid off the cigarettes.

By the way, if you’d like to learn a little more about Rod Serling – about this 5’4″ boxer, demolition expert, paratrooper, Bronze Star and Purple Heart winner, who was one of – if not the – most prolific writer in American television history, this 1968 speech he gave at Moorpark College might be a good place to start.

I hope y’all had a good first day of 2007.  Damn, 2007 just sounds so “futuristic,” doesn’t it?  Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a Sci-Fi story.  I guess I’ll have to start getting my shit together to go to DC next week.  It’s not something I’m looking forward to, that’s for sure.  I suppose I’d better update the old resume, and maybe wash some underwear.  Although, if it comes down to the underwear, I figure I pretty much got the job.

On behalf of the Eastern Time Zone, I wish you all a Happy New Year. Let’s hope 2007 sees some real – positive – changes in the world.

One positive change here in NY – our long state nightmare is finally over, as Eliot Spitzer is now our Governor. So long, Pataki. Lotsa luck on that presidential run.

What with all of the marathons on today (including Ab Fab on BBC America, and of course the Twilight Zone on Sci Fi – though I wouldn’t mind if they threw in some Outer Limits, too), there’s really no point in paying attention to the Sunday Boobleheads. Let’s face it, you know it’s just gonna be all Saddam, Saddam, Saddam, and how our preznit singlehandedly tracked him down, pulled him out of his hole, and then personally pulled Saddam’s beating heart of his chest and ate it in front of him while he died. And, gee, this will make everything all OK now, if you just give it another six months, and another 40,000 troops. Honest.

So, instead of the Sunday lineups, I’ll continue running down the deaths of 2006.

July

Frequent Hollywood Square Jan Murray died on July 2nd at the age of 89. On the 3rd, 89-yr old former basketball player Dick Dickey died (never heard of him, to tell you the truth, but “Dick Dickey died” is kind of fun to say – no offense to Dick’s wife or any little Dickeys running around out there). Social Worker and pioneer in bringing hospice care to the United States, Zelda Foster, passed away at home at the age of 71 on the 4th of July. She introduced end-of-life care to VA hospitals, and was the co-founder of the first Hospice Association, in NY. On the 6th, Kasey Rogers – the second actress to play Larry Tate’s wife, Louise, on Bewitched – died of a stroke at the age of 80.

Syd Barret, age 60, ended his troubled life on July 7th, as did Frank P. Zeidler, 93, who, as mayor of Milwaukee from 1948-1960, was the last Socialist Party candidate to be elected mayor of a major city. On the ninth, Milan Williams – keyboard player and founding member of the Commodores, died at the age of 58, from cancer. Also on that day, former Black Panther Michael Zinzun – only 57 years old – died in his sleep. Actor Barnard Hughes – my favorite was his grandpa character in the Lost Boys – passed away at the age of 90 on July 11th (which is also my anniversary). On the 13th, 87 year old Red Buttons died from vascular disease, and two days after that, Robert H. Brooks, chairman of Hooters, died – happily, no doubt – at the somewhat ironic age of 69. Mickey Spillane bought it from the Big “C” on July 17th, no doubt surrounded by dames, and a hard-boiled dick or two. He was 88. Jack Warden – one of many dead people who will show up during today’s Twilight Zone Marathon (he’s in the one where he’s convicted of murder, and sentenced to 40 years on an asteroid, but they give him a female android to keep him company) – passed away from heart and kidney failure at the age of 85 on July 19th. The very next day, the co-inventor of the Philly cheesesteak and co-founder of Pat’s King of Steaks cheesesteak emporium, Harry Olivieri, died at the age of 90.

August

Space physicist James Van Allen – for whom the Van Allen radiation belt is named – passed away at the age of 91 on August 9th. Talk show host and former singer with the Kay Kyser band (Kay was apparently a dude, but that was way before my time), Mike Douglas, died on August 11th. He was 81. Actor Bruno Kirby (my favorite was his portrayal of Lt. Hauk in Good Morning, Vietnam) died from leukemia at the age of 57 on August 14th. Jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson died on August 23rd, age 78, from kidney and liver failure. Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Psycho and was co-creator of The Outer Limits, died on the 25th at the age of 84. On the 28th, Mary Lee Robb Cline, who played Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve’s niece Marjorie on The Great Gildersleeve, died at the age of 80 from heart failure. 90-yr old actor Glenn Ford died on August 30th.

September

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin pissed off one animal too many (and this one rather unintentionally) on September 4th, getting nailed by a stingray at the age of 44. Pat Corley, the proprietor of Phil’s on Murphy Brown, died from CHF at the age of 76. On September 13th, Kimveer Gill opened fire outside the entrance to Dawson College in Montreal, shooting 20 people before killing himself. 18 year old student Anastasia De Souza died at the scene. That same day, former Texas Governor Ann Richards, 73, died of esophageal cancer. On September 14th, former Mr. Universe, ex-husband of Jayne Mansfield, and father of Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: SVU), Mickey Hargitay, passed away at the age of 80. JFK’s sister (and ex-wife of Peter Lawford), Patricia Kennedy Lawford, died from pneumonia at the age of 82. Golfer Byron Nelson passed away at the age of 94 on September 26th.

October

Buck O’Neil, 94-yr old player and manager in the Negro baseball leagues, died of heart failure and bone marrow cancer on October 6th, having been denied entrance to the Baseball Hall of Fame. On October 14th, a pair of 69-yr olds died: musician Freddy “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” Fender died of lung cancer, and Gerry Studds, the first openly gay U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts (where else, right?), died of a pulmonary embolism. On the 20th, Jane Wyatt, one of the most famous TV mothers of all time (I refer to her being Mr. Spock’s mother, of course, though some may also remember her from Father Knows Best), passed away at the age of 96. Pitcher Joe Niekro died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 61 on October 27th. The next day, 89-yr old Red Auerbach of Boston Celtics fame died of a heart attack, and former heavyweight champ Trevor Berbick was murdered at the age of 51. And, on Halloween, Pittsburgh mob boss Michael Genovese died at the age of 87, while 90-yr old PW Botha – former Prime Minister of South Africa – died of a heart attack.

November

On November 1st, William Styron – author of Sophie’s Choice, among other things – died of pneumonia at the age of 81. Ed Bradley, 65, died of leukemia on November 9th, and 87-yr old Jack Palance died the next day. Mick Jagger’s dad Basil died on November 11th (he was 93). Mr. Free Market, Milton Friedman, died of heart failure at the age of 94 on November 16th. 78-yr old blues singer Ruth Brown died the following day, as did former football coach, Bo Schembechler, who was 77. On November 17th, the career of Michael Richards – such as it was – died a sudden, ugly death during a standup “performance” at the Laugh Factory (my advice, claim you suffer from Turretts). The King of the Hobos, Maurice W. Graham, died on the 18th, at the age of 89.

On November 20th, director Robert Altman, 81, passed away, from leukemia, Chris Hayward (also 81) – the creator of Dudley Do-Right and co-creator of The Munsters – also died, and former NFL star Andre Waters committed suicide, at the age of 44. That clown Emmett Kelly Jr (and son of that clown Emmett Kelly) died of pneumonia at the age of 83 on November 29th.

December (so far)

Unless any new candidates came in (or, rather, went out) during the night, here’s who’s died this month. On the first, Sid Raymond – the voice of Baby Huey – died at the age of 97, as did Ali Khan Samsudin, the so-called “Snake King” of Malaysia. He died from, um, a venomous snakebite. On December 4th, 35-yr old James Kim died, trying to get help for his family. Rather fittingly, on December 7th Frank Tremaine, the reporter who broke news of the attack on Pearl Harbor, died at the age of 92 from pulmonary illness. Also that day, J. B. Hunt, Sr., 79, – founder of, well, J.B. Hunt, died from head injuries due to a fall, and former U.N. ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick died of CHF at the age of 80. On the 10th, Augusto Pinochet, 91, died of a heart attack, and John Mohawk, Seneca historian and Director of the University at Buffalo Indigenous Studies Program, died at the age of 61, of cancer. On December 11th, Elizabeth Bolden, the oldest person in the world (with a birth certificate, anyway) died at the age of 116. Peter Boyle died from multiple myeloma on 12/12. He was 71. On December 14th, Mike Evans – who played Lionel Jefferson on All in the Family and on the Jeffersons – died of throat cancer, at the age of 57. On the 18th animator Joe Barbera passed away at the age of 95, and British talkSPORT radio host Mike Dickin (whose show was on after George Galloway on Saturday and Sunday) was killed in a car accident at the age of 63. The hardest working man in show business, James Brown, passed away at the age of 73 on Christmas Day. The US’s oldest living former president – Gerry Ford – died at the age of 93 the following day. And, of course, 69-yr old Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30th (Baghdad time).

December was also the deadliest month of the year for US troops, with 108 killed as of yesterday afternoon, and who knows how many more to come by the end of the day today.  More Americans have been killed in Bush’s war in Iraq (and we’ll never know how many Iraqis) than were killed on 9/11. I’m sure Bush thinks Saddam’s hanging was more than worth that, and whatever else is to come. Certainly he, Saint McCain and Honest Joe Lieberman are more than happy sacrifice a few thousand more of our kids before declaring victory – whatever that means.

Well, that’s a quick roundup of some of those who died this year. If you lost somebody near and dear to you this year, our hearts go out to them, you, and your/their families.

Whatever you do today and tonight, be sure to stay safe, and stay away from crazy drunk people driving vehicles. As for those of us here at my house, since, for some reason, you can’t buy champagne in a box, I think we’ll get a box or two of white wine and a case of Alka-Seltzer, and make our own whilst enjoying the TZ Marathon. Have a good day, a safe night, and we’ll see y’all again in 2007.

As we ring out the old year, and ring in the new, it’s always fun to look back and see who died. I certainly can’t do justice to death the way that Mort Mortenson can, so you may want to stop by thesnotgreensea.com and poke about through the archives there. And if you appreciate the great job he’s done over there (there would be no Sedition Radio without it), you may want to help him out with a donation to pay for his hosting costs.

Aside from the US Military people and Iraqi civilians who died needlessly in 2006 (there are, sadly, too many to mention), there were – as always – quite a few “celebrity” deaths throughout the year. Today, I’ll list a few of the deaths from the first six months of the year This is by no means a comprehensive list (it’s much too long as it is), so if I’ve missed your favorite dead guy (or gal), feel free to chastise me severely in the comments. It would be a nice contrast to all of that sucking up you were accused of doing.

January

Way back on January 2nd, the rather inept bisexual bank robber, John Wojtowicz (played by Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon) died of cancer. The $7,500 he earned by selling the rights to his story helped to finally transform his partner in crime (among other things) Ernest Aron into Elizabeth Debbie Eden. Alas, Ms. Eden passed away from AIDS-related pneumonia back in 1987.

Also in January, Ramona Bell, the 47 year old wife of radio host Art Bell, passed away, allegedly from an asthma attack (smoking and asthma – not a good combination). It didn’t take Art long to jump back into the saddle, though, as he married his third wife – Airyn Ruiz – just three months later. They say empowerment is the final stage of grief, and it must be true, since the Bells are expecting their first child in June.

Lou Rawls passed away at the age of 72 (from lung and brain cancer, which doesn’t sound good, does it?) on January 6th, which is the same day that they pulled the plug on Hugh Thompson, Jr., a chopper pilot in Vietnam who (along with his crew members Glenn Andreotta – who died just three weeks later – and Lawrence Colburn) was instrumental in putting a stop to the My Lai massacre.

Chris Penn – Sean’s brother – died on January 24th at the age of 40, from a combination of cardiomyopathy and multiple medication intake. Henry Zapruder (son of possibly the world’s most famous amateur film maker, Abraham Zapruder) died the same day, from brain cancer.

On January 30, Coretta Scott King went to join her husband Martin, at the age of 78, and Yippies co-founder Stew Albert passed away form liver cancer.

February

On February 3rd, America lost its Grandpa – longtime lefty rabble rouser, actor, restaurateur, Green Party candidate for NY Governor, and College Basketball Scout (among many, many other things), Al Lewis. And on the 8th, Akira Ifukube – composer of the musical scores for the Godzilla movies – passed away at the age of 91. Three days later, the author of Jaws – Peter Benchley – died from pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 65.

Andreas Katsulas – who played G’Kar in Babylon 5, Commander Tomalak in Star Trek: TNG, and the one-armed man in the movie version of the Fugitive, among other things – passed away from lung cancer at the age of 59 on February 13th.

Sportscaster Curt Gowdy died on February 20th from leukemia, at the age of 86. My favorite memory of him came during a Buffalo Bills game. After OJ Simspon ran for a touchdown, Gowdy excitedly exclaimed, “OJ’s been picking his hole clean all day!”

Two TV legends passed away on February 24th. Don Knotts – who will forever be remembered as Barney Fife, not to mention Mr. Limpett, and possibly as the illegitimate father of Mick Jagger – passed away at the age of 81, as did Dennis Weaver (who played Chester on Gunsmoke, among other things – also 81). The next day, we lost Darren McGavin – who played Kolchak in The Night Stalker, as well as the much beleaguered father in A Christmas Story). He was 83.

March

On the first day of March, Johnny Jackson (drummer for the Jackson 5, but, interestingly enough, not actually one of those Jacksons) was stabbed to death at the age of 54. Dana Reeve (Christopher Reeve’s widow) and Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett – both 45 – died on March 6th. Slobodan Milosevic died on March 11th (they say heart attack, but of course we all know he was murdered, and that Wes Clark and Bill Clinton are the real war criminals). Maureen Stapleton (who did not play Edith on All in the Family) passed away from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the age of 80, on March 13th. On March 25th, Buck Owens, known best (to me, anyway) from Hee-Haw, died of a heart attack, at the age of 76.

March 27th saw the deaths of Dan Curtis (who produced Dark Shadows) and Ronnie Reagan’s press secreatry, Lyn Nofziger (which I think is Nils Lofgren spelled sideways). Speaking of dead Republicans, Caspar Weinberger (HEW secretary under Nixon and Ford, which apparently qualified him to be Sec Def under Reagan) died the next day.

April

Gene Pitney (who wrote such songs as Town Without Pity, and Hello Mary Lou) died on April 5th at the age of 66, from a broken heart (no, seriously, he had heart disease). William Sloane Coffin died from CHF on the 12th, as did Puggy Pearson, Kazuo Kuroki, William Woo, and Mushin Musa Matwalli Atwah (all of whom I include for alliterative purposes only).

May

Earl Woods, who taught his son Tiger to play golf (much like my dad taught me to play golf, though I obviously lack Tiger’s talent), passed away at the age of 74 (which is the same age as my dad was when he died), of prostate cancer (which is sort of what my dad died of, except what he really died of was the torture they put him through in order to “cure” it). On May 8th, George Lutz – who moved into the infamous house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, just thirteen months after Ronald DeFeo, Jr. shot and killed six members of his family there (the Lutz’s got a real “deal” on the house, though they only stayed there for 28 days) – passed away at the age of 59.

Former heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson died on May 11th at the age of 71, from Alzheimer’s disease and prostate cancer. On the 14th, the second Clarabell the Crossdressing Clown, Lew Anderson, died of prostate cancer, at the age of 84.

On May 23rd, 85 year old Lloyd Bentsen (who pointed out that Dan Quayle was “no Jack Kennedy,” and later served as Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretary), passed away.

On the 29th, CBS News sound man James Brolan (42) and cameraman Paul Douglas (48), died from injuries sustained in a car bombing while reporting with the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division in Baghdad. Billiards champ Steve Mizerak died that day as well.

June

On June 2nd, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and former Tubes member Vince Welnick became yet another Grateful Dead keyboard player to meet a tragic end, after committing suicide. We lost another keyboard player four days later, as Billy Preston died of kidney failure at the age of 59. On June 7th, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US military strike, finally bringing an end to the violence in Iraq.

On the 23rd, Aaron Spellings – who brought us such classics as Charlie’s Angels, Beverly Hills 0U812, and Tori – passed away at the age of 83. A day later, Patsy Ramsey, mother of, well, you know who, died of ovarian cancer, as did 38 year old homeless advocate David Owen, who was murdered.

Tomorrow, I’ll list deaths that occurred in the second half of the year (including any more last minute additions).

Another week, shot to hell.  I wonder if we’ll have any more celebrity deaths for 2006, or if we’re about done?  It’s starting to sound like Saddam won’t be seeing 2007 (if they didn’t off him overnight; I haven’t checked the news just yet).  Maybe we should get a pool going.

If you’re reading these words, it means I couldn’t come up with much of anything to say.  So, I guess it’s up to you guys.

It’s Wednesday, but it feels more like Tuesday.  Not much else to say, except that there’s apparently a low-tech (and rather obvious) way to disable that always-on RFID chip in your shiny new passport: hit it with a hammer.  Hey, what’s the worst that can happen?  Well, besides 25 years in Federal prison, or having some customs agent up to his elbow in your ass doing a cavity search?  Maybe I’ll just keep mine in my EZ Pass bag.  One more chance to catch Maron tonight at Cobb’s in SF.