Cleaning out the inbox

Still a little rundown,so I haven't been posting much.

I have not been able to watch Pirate games and since the Devils playoff hopes have faded,I haven't been as vigilant on my writing,although I have seen them.
I have made a decision on my current overtime (rather a special someone has "helped" me make it :) )and I hope to be a little more normal in a week or two.

We start with quite a few goodbyes.

Goodbye to Annette Funicello at the age of 70.
Funicello was best known as the female teen idol of the 50's from her days on the Mickey Mouse Club and for her 60's beach movies with Frankie Avalon,but to my generation,she was better known as "America's Mom" for her commercials for Skippy Peanut Butter.
Funicello had battled Multiple Sclerosis for the past twenty years that left her largely out of the public eye.
My most memorable memory of her was her parody of her own films in the 80's with Avalon in "Back to the Beach.
Ryan loved the film when he was younger and I bet I've seen it a hundred times from back in the VCR age.
Campy,but amusing.

Goodbye to the NFL play by play voice of my generation as Pat Summerall passed away at the age of 82. 
Summerall was best known for his teams with first Tom Brookshire and then John Madden on NFL broadcasts,but was first a player with the Giants and Cardinals.
Summerall is the rarest of all announcers-the former player that became a play by play man,not a color analyst.
Summerall was also an excellent announcer on CBS golf telecasts and was well suited for golf with his quiet and low toned voice.
Pat Summerall also will be remembered as someone that admitted a problem with alcohol and for his eventual liver transplant that he spent much of his time after the transplant as a crusader against the hard living of his earlier years.

Roger Ebert,film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-host of "At the Movies" with several hosts,most notably the late Gene Siskel died at the age of 70.
Ebert had battled cancer that cost him a jaw and the ability to eat,drink and speak in recent years,but had still continued his work with rating films.

Jonathan Winters passed at the age of 87.
Winters was a comedian and occasional TV guest star from the early stages of television and was held in high regard by comedians of his time,but never seemed to hit mainstream stardom.
Robin Williams especially seemed taken with Winters act and casted Winters as his "son" Mearth in Mork and Mindy,when the show was in its down years...

I have always been a Bob Costas fan and Grantland takes a look at his recent work in advocating positions beyond sports.
I have an issue doing that during games as a play by play or color man,but in a hosting role,my issues are not as large..

Ryan sends me this blog from former soft rock star Richard Marx's apparent crackup in his dealings with another blogger.
Why Marx cares about various opinions is beyond me,but I give him credit for at least being honest instead of the PR softsell.
A very funny read on different levels....

Apparently,a meteorite from Mercury has been found that may be the first ever from the planet.
It appears to be either from Mercury or a similar planet and is thought to be well over four billion years old.

More from Florida,which is being terrorized by the Giant African Land Snail.
The snail can eat its way through plastic and stucco and its shells are sharp enough to puncture tires when vehicles run over them.
For now,it has been isolated to the Miami area,but the snails breed and multiply rapidly-as in 1.200 eggs per year and it gets better as they carry a parasite that can develop Meningitis.
That is a pretty ecologically and biologically dangerous animal.