Author |
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Maris
Member
03-28-2002
| Monday, January 30, 2006 - 3:19 pm
very sad that she died and left a 7 year old daughter.
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Chaplin
Member
01-08-2006
| Monday, January 30, 2006 - 4:04 pm
She wrote some great plays. Very sad loss!
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Mameblanche
Member
04-13-2005
| Monday, January 30, 2006 - 6:56 pm
55 IS SIMPY TOO DARNED YOUNG TO DIE. (My dad passed away at 56...)
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Monday, January 30, 2006 - 8:09 pm
So sad, I heard this on NPR on my way home today.
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Mak1
Member
08-12-2002
| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 4:11 am
Katie Couric on NBC just announced that Coretta Scott King has passed away. She was 78. 
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Vacanick
Member
07-12-2004
| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 6:02 am
ATLANTA - Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died. She was 78.

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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 6:21 am
Very sad.
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Cablejockey
Member
12-27-2001
| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 6:28 am
Two women in diverse roles in life, going so suddenly. Such a loss.
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Maris
Member
03-28-2002
| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 7:18 am
It is sad that she died but I also think it must be a relief for her family and for her. She was unable to communicate but clearly had her faculties. It was a long time to suffer.
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Mamie316
Member
07-08-2003
| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 9:26 am
God bless her family.
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Chaplin
Member
01-08-2006
| Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 4:14 pm
I agree. She will be truly missed. I hope they give her the same State funeral as they gave Rosa Parks not long ago!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Tera
Member
08-10-2000
| Saturday, February 04, 2006 - 12:04 pm
'Grandpa Munster' Al Lewis Dies at 95 NEW YORK (AP) - Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95. Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared. "To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said. Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He was also one of the stars of another classic TV comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on "Car 54, Where Are You?" But Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar to coaching greats like Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach. He operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular presence - chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs. Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent Gov. George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against draconian drug laws and the death penalty, while going to court in a losing battle to have his name appear on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis." He didn't defeat Pataki, but managed to collect more 52,000 votes. Lewis was born Alexander Meister in upstate New York before his family moved to Brooklyn, where the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair with basketball. He later became a vaudeville and circus performer, but his career didn't take off until television did the same. Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in "Car 54, Where Are You?" - a comedy about a Bronx police precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later, the duo appeared together in "The Munsters," taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane. The series, about a family of clueless creatures plunked down in middle America, was a success and ran through 1966. It forever locked Lewis in as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of "Grandpa!" Unlike some television stars, Lewis never complained about getting typecast and made appearances in character for decades. "Why would I mind?" he asked in a 1997 interview. "It pays my mortgage." Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant and hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock jock diving for the delay button by leading an undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission. He also popped up in a number of movies, including the acclaimed "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Married to the Mob." Lewis reprised his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of "Car 54," and appeared as a guest star on television shows such as "Taxi,""Green Acres" and "Lost in Space." But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma. A year later, he was back offering his recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD "Ramones Raw." He is survived by his wife, Karen Ingenthron-Lewis, three sons and four grandchildren.
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Cablejockey
Member
12-27-2001
| Saturday, February 04, 2006 - 1:51 pm
Betty Friedan has died today at the age of 85 of congestive heart failure. Today was also her birthday. She wrote the Feminine Mystique and founded the National Organization for Women. We owe her a lot for getting the ball rolling on women's rights. http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/02/04/friedan.obit.ap/index.html
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Max
Moderator
08-12-2000
| Saturday, February 04, 2006 - 2:08 pm
wow 
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, February 04, 2006 - 2:15 pm

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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, February 04, 2006 - 3:41 pm
Aww I loved the Munsters.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Saturday, February 04, 2006 - 5:04 pm
Dang, I didn't realize Grampa Munster was that old! How sad, though. And Betty Friedan. She was my hero! I owe my long being a feminist to her (I've been a strong feminist since I was 16).
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Wednesday, February 08, 2006 - 10:43 am
'Curious George' author found dead From United Press International February 08, 2006 10:59 AM EST BOYNTON BEACH, Fla., Feb 7, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Boynton Beach, Fla., police are treating the death of "Curious George" co-writer Alan Shalleck as a homicide, it was reported Wednesday. Shalleck's body was discovered Tuesday under garbage bags at his home at a senior citizen retirement village, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. He had been missing for two days. Shalleck co-wrote several books with "Curious George" creator Margret Rey and wrote and directed 105 episodes of the Disney Channel's short cartoons based on the series, the newspaper said. Police have not revealed the case of Shalleck's death but told the newspaper their investigation focused on homicide. His body was found by the maintenance supervisor at the retirement village who discovered the body while picking up trash. "I could see blood all over the place," he said.
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Bandit
Member
07-29-2001
| Wednesday, February 08, 2006 - 3:16 pm
How awful!
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Ladytex
Member
09-27-2001
| Wednesday, February 08, 2006 - 8:48 pm
that is sad ... and the timing really stinks ...
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, February 08, 2006 - 10:32 pm
I know, just when the Curious George promos are showing on tv..
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Karen
Member
09-07-2004
| Wednesday, February 08, 2006 - 10:42 pm
That's awful!! Gotta wonder if someone didn't want to split the royalties from the movie... OK, bad joke. I apologize. This is very sad news.
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Eeyoreslament
Member
07-20-2003
| Wednesday, February 08, 2006 - 11:36 pm
Maybe the Man In The Yellow Suit did it....
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Thursday, February 09, 2006 - 7:17 am
Woa.
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Chaplin
Member
01-08-2006
| Thursday, February 09, 2006 - 5:19 pm
Shalleck was the illustrator of the books of Curious George. H.A Rey and Margaret Rey were the authors. H.A and Margaret Rey were actually a husband and wife team who co-wrote the books together. They had a really interesting life including escaping from the Nazi's by bicycle literally hours before they entered France. I teach children's literature as part of the course on Early Childhood Education I teach so I just wanted to set eveyone straight on the facts. Here is what I found about them on the official Curious George web site. Hans Augusto Rey was born on September 16, 1898, in Hamburg, Germany. He grew up there near the world-famous Hagenbeck Zoo, and developed a lifelong love for animals and drawing. Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein (who would be known to most of the world as Margret Rey) was also born in Hamburg on May 16, 1906. The two met briefly when Margret was a young girl, before she left Hamburg to study art. They were reunited in 1935 in Rio de Janeiro, where Hans was selling bathtubs as part of a family business and Margret was escaping the political climate in Germany. Margret convinced Hans to leave the family business, and soon they were working together on a variety of projects. Hans and Margret were married in Brazil on August 16, 1935, and they moved to Paris after falling in love with the city during their European honeymoon. It was there that Hans published his first children's book, after a French publisher saw his newspaper cartoons of a giraffe and asked him to expand upon them. Raffy and the Nine Monkeys (Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys in the British and American editions) was the result, and it marked the debut of a mischievous monkey named Curious George. After Raffy and the Nine Monkeys was published, the Reys decided that Curious George deserved a book of his own, so they began work on a manuscript that featured the lovable and exceedingly curious little monkey. But the late 1930s and early '40s were a tumultuous time in Europe, and before the new manuscript could be published, the Reys—both German Jews—found themselves in a horrible situation. Hitler and his Nazi party were tearing through Europe, and they were poised to take control of Paris. Knowing that they must escape before the Nazis took power, Hans cobbled together two bicycles out of spare parts. Early in the morning of June 14, 1940, the Reys set off on their bicycles. They brought very little with them on their predawn flight — only warm coats, a bit of food, and five manuscripts, one of which was Curious George. The Nazis entered Paris just hours later, but the Reys were already on their way out. They rode their makeshift bicycles for four long days until reaching the French-Spanish border, where they sold them for train fare to Lisbon. From there they made their way to Brazil and on to New York City, beginning a whole new life as children's book authors. Curious George was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941, and for sixty years these books have been capturing the hearts and minds of readers throughout the world. All the Curious George books, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans, have sold more than twenty-five million copies. So popular that his original story has never been out of print, George has become one of the most beloved and recognizable characters in children's literature. His adventures have been translated into many languages, including Japanese, French, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Chinese, Danish, and Norwegian. Although both of the Reys have passed away — Hans in 1977 and Margret in 1996—George lives on in the Curious George Foundation. Established in 1989, this foundation funds programs for children that share Curious George's irresistible qualities—ingenuity, opportunity, determination, and curiosity in learning and exploring. Much consideration is given to programs that benefit animals, through preservation as well as the prevention of cruelty to animals. The foundation supports community outreach programs that emphasize the importance of family, from counseling to peer support groups.
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