Big Daddy's Blurty

Subject:	Sweet or Cheesey, you be the Judge...
Time:	5:51 am.
Mood:	amused.

Okay, two of my friends from work, Amanda and Tatianna were feeding me shit yesterday for doing this. When I showed them the texts I sent Vanessa, like they were twins or something, they both had the same reactions, which was "I just threw up in my mouth a lil bit..."

I do what I want, I'm like that, but I don't mind listening to my friends opinions so I decided to expand the opinion base, hehe. So here goes:

Yesterday was Vanessa's Birthday, so I texted her.

Me: "Happy Birthday, Vanessa!"

Vanessa: "Thank you, you remembered."

And here is the part that Tatianna and Amanda didn't like, and found cheesey and gag-worthy:

Me: "Of course. A beautiful girl should always be made to feel special, especially on your birthday..."

Vanessa: "Awww, thanks, you are sweet."

And that's all it was. But they were like, she is a gold digger, she is not worthy. Tatianna was even like, "She's not beautiful," which is completely besides the point, no matter what side of the opinion line you fall on regarding Vanessa.

Needless to say, I was amused by the entire thing, because even if Vanessa WAS a golddigger, trust me, she would be tapping a DRY well here, because I have no money LOL. Anyways, I guess they are trying to make sure I don't fall into her "clutches" or whatever, but Puh-leeze, sending a complimentary text doesn't cost me a thing.

So, anyone who wishes to offer an opinion, have at it!

Comments: 1 Pop - Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	Pat Hingle (1924-2009) - R.I.P.
Time:	5:46 am.
Mood:	sad.

Pat Hingle, the veteran actor with more than half a century of impressive work in theater, film and television who was perhaps best known to a generation of movie fans as Commissioner James Gordon in the first four "Batman" films, has died. He was 84.

Hingle died Saturday night of myelodysplasia, a type of blood cancer, at his home in Carolina Beach, N.C., according to Lynn Heritage, a cousin who was acting as a spokesperson for the family.
He wasn't a household name, but his solid, broad, hang-dog screen face became a household image. On film, he worked with stars ranging from Clint Eastwood to the Muppets. He was Sally Field's father in "Norma Rae" and Warren Beatty's in "Splendor in the Grass." He played the bartender who needles Marlon Brando about his former prize-fight style in "On the Waterfront," and he was the sadistic crime boss who terrorizes Anjelica Huston with a bag of oranges in "The Grifters."

Hingle had an illustrious Broadway career and was in the original casts of some of the great plays in American theater, including "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" and "J.B."

James Morrison, the actor who is best known now for his role as Bill Buchanan in the television series "24," was a friend of Hingle's and worked with him in a 1983 production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum.

"Only a chosen few had the body of work that he had," Morrison told The Times on Sunday. "The reason he stands out is that he had the humility and ease that made acting look easy."

Hingle was born Martin Patterson Hingle in Miami on July 19, 1924. He'd had one semester at the University of Texas when World War II broke out. He entered the Navy and served as an enlisted man on a destroyer in the Pacific. After the war, he returned to college but switched majors after observing that every pretty girl he saw was headed toward the university's theater department.

Over the next three years, he did 35 plays and found himself more comfortable in the theater than anywhere else.

He said two actors were responsible for his deciding to become a professional actor.

"There were the Gary Coopers and the Clark Gables, but they didn't really appeal to me," he told the Washington Post some years ago. "But in three weeks' time, I saw Walter Huston (Anjelica Huston's grandfather) and Hume Cronyn in about 10 movies and I saw that it was possible to play a wide variety of roles where there was no connections between one or the other; they weren't put in a slot . . . I saw what was possible."

After graduating in 1949, Hingle moved to New York and studied acting with Uta Hagen at Herbert Berghof Studios. He later was accepted into the prestigious Actors Studio.

His break came in 1955 when Elia Kazan, one of the co-founders of the Actors Studio, cast him as the scheming son Gooper in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

Two years later, Kazan cast him in William Inge's "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," which became a major Broadway hit and earned Hingle a Tony Award nomination. A year later, Kazan once again helped him land a role as the title character in "J.B.," the Archibald MacLeish play about the life of Job that won both a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize in 1958. Hingle was also in Arthur Miller's "The Price" in 1968.

He earned rave reviews in "J.B." and was offered the title role in the film "Elmer Gantry," but then tragedy struck. Several weeks into the play's run, Hingle became caught in a stalled elevator in his apartment building. He lost his balance while trying to crawl out and fell 54 feet down the shaft. He sustained massive injuries, including a fractured skull, wrist, hip and leg, and several broken ribs. He also lost his little finger on his left hand.

Hingle spent much of the next year relearning how to walk, and the Gantry role went to Burt Lancaster.

"I know that if I had done Elmer Gantry, I would have been more of a movie name. But I'm sure I would not have done as many plays as I've done," he later told the New York Times. "I've had exactly the kind of career I hoped for."

Over the next 50 years, Hingle fashioned a career as a top supporting actor in film, television and theater. His TV credits include "Twilight Zone," "The Untouchables," "Route 66," "Gunsmoke," "The Fugitive," "Mission Impossible" and "Hallmark Hall of Fame." On television he's played J. Edgar Hoover, former House Speaker Sam Rayburn, Col. Tom Parker (Elvis Presley's manager) and, in the miniseries "War and Remembrance," Adm. William F. "Bull" Halsey.

On the big screen, his films include "Hang 'Em High," "Sudden Impact" and "The Gauntlet" with Eastwood, as well as "Muppets From Space." He and Michael Gough, who played Alfred Pennyworth, were the only two actors to appear in the first four "Batman" films.

To the end, Hingle preferred being in the theater.

"The stage is an actors' medium," he told The Times some years ago. "When the curtain goes up, there are those crazy actors. The story comes through them. The director can pull his hair in the back of the house and the producer and the playwright can cry on each other's shoulders. But there go those galloping actors."

Hingle's friend Morrison recalled him Sunday as a "great listener."

"The great actors have this and he taught me this. . . . You were the most important thing when you worked opposite him. He was present, right there, in his life and in his work. He was the most authentic man I've ever met."

Hingle is survived by Julia, his wife of 29 years; five children; 11 grandchildren; and two sisters.

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	Bernie Hamilton (1928-2008) - R.I.P.
Time:	5:40 am.
Mood:	sad.

Bernie Hamilton, an actor best known for playing the no-nonsense police captain on the popular 1970s TV series "Starsky and Hutch," has died. He was 80.

Hamilton, the brother of jazz drummer Chico Hamilton, died of cardiac arrest Tuesday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his son, Raoul.

Beginning with a role as a baseball player in the 1950 movie "The Jackie Robinson Story," Hamilton appeared in more than two dozen films, including "The Young One," "The Devil at 4 O'Clock," "Synanon," "The Swimmer," "Walk the Walk," "The Organization" and "Scream Blacula Scream."

In 1964, he gained notice playing opposite Barbara Barrie in the low-budget movie "One Potato, Two Potato," an interracial love story about a white divorcee who loses legal custody of her young daughter after marrying a black co-worker at a factory.

Hamilton also had guest spots on numerous television series before becoming a regular on “Starsky and Hutch,” the 1975-79 ABC police drama starring Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul as hip plainclothes cops who tooled around in a white-striped tomato-red Ford Gran Torino.

The series, on which Hamilton played the brusque, by-the-book Capt. Harold Dobey, gave him wide recognition "still to this day," his son said.

"At the hospital last night, one of the doctors came by and said, 'Wow, I remember him from 'Starsky and Hutch,' " Raoul Hamilton said Wednesday.

Fred Williamson, the action star of two movies that Hamilton appeared in during the '70s -- the crime dramas "Hammer" and "Bucktown" -- has called Hamilton "an extraordinary actor."

"He's a very versatile actor and never really got the recognition he deserved for his work," Williamson, who played Capt. Dobey in the 2004 movie version of "Starsky and Hutch," told the Oakland Tribune at the time.

Raoul Hamilton said his father's "authoritative" police captain performance hit close to home.

"It was an extension of who he was as a real person," he said. "He was a self-made man. He comes from a family of five brothers and one sister from the east side of Los Angeles; they came from humble beginnings."

Born in Los Angeles on June 12, 1928, Hamilton ran away from home as a teenager and wound up staying in someone's garage and attending Oakland Technical High School, where he played football and got involved in acting.

In the late '60s and early '70s, while continuing to act, Hamilton operated the Citadel d'Haiti, a nightclub-art gallery on Sunset Boulevard.

He phased out of acting after "Starsky and Hutch" and spent the next 20 years in the music business producing R&B and gospel records.

Hamilton also sang, and one of the albums he produced was called "Capt. Dobey Sings the Blues."

His record label was called Chocolate Snowman. And in the early '80s, his son said, he created a children's doll called the Chocolate Snowman that was manufactured in South Korea and sold at Toys "R" Us.

In addition to his son, he is survived by his daughter, Candy Hazarika Hamilton; his brothers Chico and Don; and two grandchildren.

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	Ann Savage (1921-2008) - R.I.P.
Time:	5:37 am.
Mood:	sad.

Ann Savage, who earned a cult following as a femme fatale in such 1940s pulp-fiction movies as "Detour," has died. She was 87.

The actress died in her sleep at a nursing home in Hollywood on Christmas Day from complications after a series of strokes, said her manager, Kent Adamson.

Her Hollywood career had largely been over since the mid-1950s, but she had a resurgence over the last year with a role in Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg."

Starting with her 1943 debut in the crime story "One Dangerous Night," Savage made more than 30 films through the 1950s, including westerns ("Saddles and Sagebrush," "Satan's Cradle"), musicals ("Dancing in Manhattan," "Ever Since Venus") and wartime tales ("Passport to Suez," "Two-Man Submarine").

But Savage was best-known for director Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 B-movie "Detour," in which she played a woman ruthlessly blackmailing a stranger, played by Tom Neal.

"It's actually a showcase role," Adamson said. "Neal and Savage really reversed the traditional male-female roles of the time. She's vicious and predatory . . . and he's very, very passive. It's very unusual for a '40s film to have a woman come on that strong."

She was born Bernice Maxine Lyon in Columbia, S.C., on Feb. 19, 1921. She lived in Dallas until age 9, when her mother and stepfather moved to Los Angeles.

A star-struck moviegoer, she enrolled in German producer Max Reinhardt's acting school. It was there that she met Bert D'Armand, who became her agent and years later her husband.

She was eventually under contract at Columbia Pictures and started a career in a series of B movies, but she had little respect for much of the work.

"They were mindless," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. "The actresses were just scenery. The stories all revolved around the male actors; they really had the choice roles. All the actresses had to do was to look lovely, since the dialogue was ridiculous."

But "Detour," which she made for Producers Releasing Corp., was something different.

The role, at first, gave her pause. "I had just come off a lot that kept me looking absolutely perfect," she said. "But Vera was not a pretty woman: She was maniacal. Edgar objected to my hair looking so neat and had the hairdresser run cold cream through it to make it streaky and stringy. He even made sure my face stayed dirty . . . and shiny."

After the critical acclaim for "Detour," Savage had dreams of a real career as an actress. But it never happened.

She went on to make other bad-girl movies: "The Spider" (in which she was strangled in the end); "Lady Chaser" (she played a blackmailer) and "Pier 23," in which she attempted to divert duty-minded shopkeeper/private eye Hugh Beaumont.

Her career became less important to her, Savage said, after her marriage to D'Armand in 1947.

Savage did some television in the 1950s, including "Death Valley Days" and "The Ford Television Theatre," then left Hollywood for New York City, where she appeared in commercials and industrial films.

After D'Armand died in 1968, Savage returned to Los Angeles and found work as a legal secretary.

Decades after it was filmed, "Detour" and Savage gained a cult audience on television and home video.

In 1986, Savage returned to acting in "Fire With Fire," a drama with Virginia Madsen and D.B. Sweeney.

Adamson said Maddin had been a longtime fan of "Detour" and cast Savage to play his mother in "My Winnipeg," a combination documentary, drama and personal memoir about his native city in Canada.

Los Angeles Times movie critic Kenneth Turan called her appearance a "wonderful turn."

Information on survivors was not immediately available.

Memorial services are pending.

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	"Cold People aren't Born, they're MADE..."
Time:	1:41 pm.
Mood:	indifferent.
Music:	James Brown - "The Big Payback".

One of my core beliefs is in treating people the way they treat me. It's a very simple philosophy, really. If you are nice to me, I'm one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. But if you are an asshole to me, one of the ways I deal with you is to put you into the "deep freeze" and that means, flat out ignore you. If I HAVE to have some interaction with you, I will be ice cold towards you.

Such is the case now with a woman whom I referred to as "My biggest fan," (Judy is her real name). Now, she and I have had our lil back and forths, sniping at each other in amusing ways like Fred Sanford and Aunt Esther, heh. She's crazy but I put up with her because I felt sorry for her and I actually didn't think any of her comments/actions came from a truly mean-spirited place.

Ah, but this has now changed for two reasons:

1. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Amanda told me that Judy informed her that if Amanda invited me to their Christmas party, that she wouldn't go. I laughed it off at the time to her just being crazy.

2. Last night, over dinner with Amanda, Judy began spewing her venom towards me to the point that she was saying that I should be fired from my job and one of the other guys on my crew should take my place.

Now, neiher one of these instances hurts my feelings or anything, but to me, they are proof that Judy and I are not friends at all, on any level, so why should I cut her slack for her behavior?

I won't be mean to Judy, I will continue to act professionally around her. However, there will be no more small talk, no more jokes, nothing. She will receive nothing but icy indifference from because as far as I'm concerned, she's not worth anything more.

She is in a bad way with her bf/fiance who treats her like crap and she is one of those people who HAVE to have someone around them, even if they are no good. She doesn't understand a Lone Wolf like myself and that pisses her off. However, all of my empathy for her drained out of me when she talked about saying I need to lose my job.

I'm done with that bitch.

And that's that, with that.

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	Eartha Kitt (1927-2008) - R.I.P.
Time:	2:56 am.
Mood:	sad.

Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died. She was 81.

Kitt, whose saucy rendition of "Santa Baby" became a holiday pop music classic, died in Connecticut on Christmas Day. Family spokesman Andrew Freedman said Kitt was recently treated at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital for colon cancer.

A self-proclaimed "sex kitten," famous for her catlike purr, Kitt was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.

Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television. She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.

Once dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, she spent much of her life single, though brief romances with the rich and famous peppered her younger years.

After garnering notice for singing "Monotonous" in the Broadway revue "New Faces of 1952," Kitt appeared in "Mrs. Patterson" in 1954-55. (Some references say she earned a Tony nomination for "Mrs. Patterson," but only winners were publicly announced at that time.) She also made appearances in "Shinbone Alley" and "The Owl and the Pussycat."

Her first album, "RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt," came out in 1954, featuring such songs as "I Want to Be Evil," "C'est Si Bon" and the gold digger's theme song "Santa Baby," which is revived on radio each Christmas.

The next year, the record company released the follow-up album "That Bad Eartha," which featured "Let's Do It," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."

In 1996, she was nominated for a Grammy in the category of traditional pop vocal performance for her album "Back in Business." She also had been nominated in the children's recording category for the 1969 record "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa."

Kitt also acted in movies, playing the lead female role opposite Nat King Cole in "St. Louis Blues" in 1958 and more recently appearing in "Boomerang" and "Harriet the Spy" in the 1990s.

On television, she was the sexy Catwoman on the popular "Batman" series in 1967-68, replacing Julie Newmar, who originated the role. A guest appearance on an episode of "I Spy" brought Kitt an Emmy nomination in 1966.

Kitt was plain-spoken about causes she believed in. Her antiwar comments at the White House came as she attended a luncheon held by Lady Bird Johnson.

"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," she told the group of about 50 women. "They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas. She was investigated by the FBI and CIA.

"The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth -- in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth -- you get your face slapped and you get put out of work," Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later.

In 1978, Kitt returned to Broadway in the musical "Timbuktu!" -- which brought her a Tony nomination -- and was invited back to the White House by President Carter.

In 2000, Kitt earned another Tony nod for "The Wild Party."

She played the fairy godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" in 2002.

As recently as October 2003, she was on Broadway after replacing Chita Rivera in a revival of "Nine."

She also gained new fans as the voice of Yzma in the 2000 Disney animated feature "The Emperor's New Groove."

For years, Kitt was unsure of her birthplace or birth date. In 1997, a group of students at historically black Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., located her birth certificate, which showed she was born Jan. 17, 1927, in North, S.C.

In one of her three autobiographies, she wrote that her mother was black and Cherokee and her father was white, and she was left to live with relatives after her mother's new husband objected to taking in a mixed-race girl.

An aunt eventually brought her to live in New York, where she attended the High School of Performing Arts, later dropping out to take various odd jobs.

By chance, she dropped by an audition for the dance group run by Dunham, a pioneering African American dancer. In 1946, Kitt was one of the Sans-Souci Singers in Dunham's Broadway production "Bal Negre."

Kitt's travels with the Dunham troupe landed her a gig in a Paris nightclub in the early 1950s. She was spotted by Welles, who cast her in his Paris stage production of "Faust."

That led to a role in "New Faces of 1952," which featured such stars-to-be as Carol Lawrence, Paul Lynde and, as a writer, Mel Brooks.

Over the years, Kitt had liaisons with wealthy men, including Revlon founder Charles Revson, who showered her with lavish gifts.

In 1960, she married Bill McDonald but divorced him after the birth of their daughter. Her daughter, Kitt Shapiro, and two grandchildren survive her.

While on stage, Kitt was daringly sexy and always flirtatious. Offstage, however, she described herself as shy and almost reclusive, remnants of feeling unwanted and unloved as a child. She referred to herself as "that little urchin cotton-picker from the South, Eartha Mae."

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	The building where I work...
Time:	4:55 am.
Mood:	surprised.

My friend told me about this movie that was filmed, in part, at the building where I work. The movie is called "Sex and Death, 101" and it stars Simon Baker, Winona Ryder and Mindy Cohn (From 'Facts of Life' fame).

Right at the start of the movie, the place where Simon Baker's character is supposed to work is MY building, hehe. You see the walkway bridge, the unusual design of the building and there is even a security guard standing outside! LOL. Damn, I should have gotten that role, bastards! Hehe. Guy was black, too. Sheesh!

Anyways, the movie is cute and the premise is that Simon's character is about to be married, and then mysteriously receives this e-mail of all the women he has slept with in his life. His fiance is the 29th woman he has slept with, and what he finds is that the list goes all the way to 101 women. He doesn't understand, but soon it becomes clear that he will eventually sleep with the entire list. That fact is bad, because number 101 is Winona Ryder's charrie "Death Nell," and she is called that because she is a serial killer who takes out men who are crude assholes.

It's a quirky movie and pretty funny, so if you get a chance, check it out.

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	Say Goodbye to some of the 2008 Dumb Asses...
Time:	8:58 pm.
Mood:	amused.

*Number One Idiot of 2008*

I am a medical student currently doing a rotation in toxicology at
the poison control center. Today, this woman called in very upset
because she caught her little daughter eating ants. I quickly
reassured her that the ants are not harmful and there would be no
need to bring her daughter into the hospital. She calmed down and
at the end of the conversation happened to mention that she gave
her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to kill the ants. I
told her that she better bring her daughter in to the emergency
room right away.

Here's your sign, lady. Wear it with pride.

*Number Two Idiot of 2008*

Early this year, some Boeing employees on the airfield decided to
steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in
getting it out of the plane and home. Shortly after they took it
for a float on the river, they noticed a Coast Guard helicopter
coming toward them. It turned out that the chopper was homing in
on the emergency locater beacon that activated when the raft was
inflated. They are no longer employed at Boeing.

20 Here's your sign, guys. Don't get it wet; the paint might run.

*Number Three Idiot of 2008*

A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the
Branch and wrote this, 'Put all your muny in this bag.' While
standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began
to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call
the police before he reached the teller's window. So he left the
Bank of America and crossed the street to the Wells Fargo Bank.

After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the
Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from his spelling
errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the harbor, told him
that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written
on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to
fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America.

Looking somewhat defeated, the man said, 'OK' and left. He was
arrested a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at
Bank of America.
Don't bother with this guy's sign. He probably couldn't read it
anyway.

N*umber Four Idiot of 2008*

A guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and
demanded all of the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier
put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he
wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to
put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused and said,
'Because I don't believe you are over 21.' The robber said he
was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because she
didn't believe him.

At this point, the robber took his driver's license out of his
wallet and gave it to the clerk. The clerk looked it over and
agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and she put the Scotch in
the bag. The robber then ran from the store with his loot. The
cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address
of the robber that he got off the license. They arrested the
robber two hours later.

This guy definitely needs a sign.

*Idiot Number Five of 2008*

A pair of Michigan robbers en tered a record shop nervously waving
revolvers. The first one shouted, 'Nobody move!' When his
partner moved, the startled first bandit shot him.

This guy doesn't even deserve a sign.

*Idiot Number Six of 2008*

Arkansas: Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He
decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store
window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block
and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block
bounced back knocking him unconscious. It seems the liquor store
window was made of Plexi-Glass. The whole event was caught on
videotape.

*Idiot Number Seven of 2008*

I live in a semi-rural area ( Weyauwega , Wisconsin ). We
recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative
office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our
road. The reason: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here!
- I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'

*STAY ALERT!* *They walk among us... and they REPRODUCE...!!!

~

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	Dream Time...
Time:	10:44 am.
Mood:	curious.

Hmmm, had another one of those "I'm nakie in public" dreams last night. This time, it was broad daylight and I was on the street, the main one, south of where I live. I just suddenly became aware that I was there and that I was butt naked. Just like last time, I had the feeling that this wasn't an unusual occurrence for me, either, hehe.

My only thoughts were trying to get home and get some clothes on, which, is ironic, considering that in real life, as soon as I get home, the clothes come off. Well, they do when it's not very cold weather, hehe. In the summer, I am THE large black man, running around the house naked at all times... ::blinks, looks around:: Um, where was I going with this again? Oh, oh, yeah. The dream. I need to get me a dream analysis book so I can see what this naked dream is trying to tell me. I figure it involves fear and anxiety and this is my way of expressing it, but I'd still like more info.

Oh, and also in that dream, I had a dog who had a taste for blood, too. That's all that he would eat/drink, too. Blood.

Heh, yeah, Big Daddy's subconscious is a VERY weird, scary place. Hey, it was one of those deep sleep, tired weekend dreams, that's all I'm saying, hehe.

Then again, I had a dream during the week where I came upon Erin nakie on a fur rug. There was quickly a lil ebony and ivory action there, but at least that kind of dream is straight forward. It's my subconscious tapping me on the shoulder saying, "Hey Dumb Ass, we're HORNY!!!" LOL

Um, where was I going with this post again? ::scratches rather pointy head::

Comments: 2 Pops - Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	Dock Ellis (1945-2008) - R.I.P.
Time:	12:23 pm.
Mood:	sad.

Dock Ellis, who infamously claimed he pitched a no-hitter for Pittsburgh under the influence of LSD and later fiercely spoke out against drug and alcohol addiction, died Friday. He was 63.

Ellis died in California from a liver ailment, former agent Tom Reich said.

"I've been in this business for 40 years and there was never a more standup guy," Reich said.

Ellis' death was first reported by ESPN.com.

Ellis went 138-119 with a 3.46 ERA from 1968-79, spending most of his career with the Pirates. He went 19-9 in 1971 when Pittsburgh won the World Series, and made his only All-Star appearance that summer - and what a show it was. Ellis was tagged for one of the most memorable home runs in All-Star history, Reggie Jackson's monster shot off the light tower at Tiger Stadium.

In 1970, Ellis overcame eight walks to pitch a no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader at San Diego. Several years after he retired, the right-hander said he was high on LSD during the victory.

At a time when drugs, race and other issues in American society were colliding with baseball, Ellis often was at the forefront. He spoke his mind and stood by what he said while playing with the likes of Willie Stargell, Dave Parker and Roberto Clemente.

"He didn't take nothing from nobody," Reich said. "He was very much ahead of his time."

Ellis played on four Pirates teams that won the NL East and also pitched for the New York Yankees, Oakland, Texas and the New York Mets.

Ellis was traded with Willie Randolph and Ken Brett from the Pirates to the Yankees for Doc Medich after the 1975 season. He was 17-8 in 1976 for the Yankees and won a game in the AL championship series against Kansas City.

The Yankees hired Ellis in 1986 to offer guidance to their minor leaguers on drug and alcohol abuse.

"I hope to make these young players aware of the stress involved in being a professional baseball player and drive home the point that drug and alcohol abuse is not the way to relieve that stress," Ellis said at the time.

Ellis kept up his campaign against addiction for the rest of his life, and frequently joined former teammates to support them on their charity work.

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

Subject:	Mike "Mad Dog" Bell (1971-2008) - R.I.P.
Time:	12:19 pm.
Mood:	sad.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – Mike "Mad Dog" Bell, a former professional wrestler whose struggle with substance abuse was featured in the documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster," has died. He was 37.

Bell was found Sunday at a Costa Mesa live-in rehabilitation facility, his family said.

An autopsy was conducted but investigators couldn't immediately determine the cause of death, said Dan Akin, a supervising deputy at the Orange County coroner's division. The coroner is awaiting the results of toxicology tests, he said.

Chris Bell, whose 2008 documentary examines the steroid use of his two brothers, said Mike Bell had long battled with his addictions to prescription painkillers and alcohol.

"He was always wrestling, he was a personal trainer, he was always pushing his body to the max," Chris Bell told the Orange County Register.

"You can't really blame wrestling, but it's kind of the lifestyle," he said. "You have a couple of painkillers to get to the next match, have a couple drinks night to night and it gets out of hand."

Bell wrestled on World Wrestling Entertainment's "Monday Night Raw" as a "jobber," a fighter who takes falls to promote others.

"Although Mr. Bell was never under a WWE contract, WWE extends its deepest condolences to the Bell family," the organization said.

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Subject:	Majel Barrett Roddenberry (1932-2008) - R.I.P.
Time:	3:44 am.
Mood:	sad.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and an actress whose longtime association with the "Star Trek" franchise included playing Nurse Christine Chapel in the original series, died early Thursday morning. She was 76.

Roddenberry died at her home in Bel-Air after a battle with leukemia, said family spokesman Sean Rossall.

"She was a valiant lady," Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock on "Star Trek," told The Times. "She worked hard, she was straightforward, she was dedicated to 'Star Trek' and Gene, and a lot of people thought very highly of her."

Once dubbed "The First Lady of 'Trek' " by the Chicago Tribune, Majel (sounds like Mabel) Barrett Roddenberry was associated with "Star Trek" from the beginning.

In the first TV pilot, she played a leading role as Number One, the first officer who was second in command.

But at the request of various executives, changes were made, and she did not reprise her role in the second TV pilot. Instead, she played the minor role of Nurse Chapel when the series began airing on NBC in September 1966. Roddenberry had another distinction: Beginning with the original series, she supplied the coolly detached voice of the USS Enterprise's computer -- something she did on the various "Star Trek" series.

She also was the voice of the Starship Enterprise for six of the 10 "Star Trek" movies that have been released, as well as the 11th, which is due out next year.

Roddenberry also played Dr. Christina Chapel in two of the "Star Trek" movies, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "Star Trek: The Voyage Home."

And she played the recurring role of the flamboyant Lwaxana Troi on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

Roddenberry, whose pre-"Star Trek" acting career included guest appearances on series such as "The Untouchables" and "The Lucy Show," had no idea she was establishing a career path in science fiction when she took her first "Star Trek" role.

"Not at all," she said in a 2002 interview with the Tulsa World. "I certainly didn't have any idea that I'd be doing it this long, for so many different shows and films -- especially as a product of a series that was a flop. The original was only on for three years. It wasn't considered a success by anyone's standards."

The show took off as a pop-culture phenomenon after it went into syndication, however, and Roddenberry, who was married to Gene Roddenberry from 1969 until his death in 1991, attended her first "Star Trek" convention in 1972.

"You know, when the conventions started out, I'd attend four or five a month," she said in the 2002 interview. "But after a while, it got where there was no time for anything else. You'd just travel from city to city, making the same speech, answering the same questions."

Rossall said both Gene and Majel Roddenberry maintained warm relationships with "Star Trek" fans. And as late as August, he said, Majel Roddenberry attended a "Star Trek" convention in Las Vegas.

As she told the Buffalo City News in 1998, "It's been a hell of a ride."

Born Majel Hudec in Columbus, Ohio, on Feb. 23, 1932, she attended the University of Miami and acted in regional theater before heading to Hollywood in the late '50s.

Several years after her husband's death, Roddenberry discovered a pilot script and notes he had written for a series in the '70s.

And in 1997, with Majel Barrett Roddenberry as an executive producer and playing a recurring role, "Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict" began airing in syndication. She later was an executive producer of the syndicated "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda."

She is survived by her son, Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry Jr.

Comments: Drop The Hammer.

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