joez wrote:Bob Hope's widow died today at the ripe old age of 102.

Wow. I remember her whispering into Bob's ear, telling him what was going on, when I was at the last Tribe game at Cleveland Stadium in '93.

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Dolores Hope, the widow of actor-comedian Bob Hope, died of natural causes at her Los Angeles home Monday, her family said. She was 102.

"I had such a huge admiration for both of them," actress Julie Newmar said. "The quality it takes to get just one year older, says a lot about that fact that she lived to 102. What a glorious woman and life!"

Although she put her singing career on hold after her marriage to Hope, Dolores Hope was active as a philanthropist, involved in her own causes as well as her husband's.

Military troops entertained by her husband's USO shows knew Dolores Hope because she would usually close the shows with a rendition of "Silent Night," according to a biography provided by her family.

"She was the First Lady of the USO," Carol Channing said. "They didn't come any more patriotic, caring or talented than Dolores."

Her last USO show performance came at age 84, when she sang "White Christmas" to Operation Desert Storm troops from the back of a truck in the Saudi desert.

She restarted her singing career at the age of 83 by recording several albums. She performed with Rosemary Clooney at Rainbow and Stars in New York for several weeks.

Born in Harlem in New York on May 27, 1909, Dolores DeFina was a singer at Manhattan's Vogue Club when she met Bob Hope in 1933. It was "love at first song," the biography quotes Bob Hope as saying.

The couple married the next year and later adopted four children.

The couple moved in the late 1930s from New York to California, where he pursued a movie and radio career.

Bob Hope was 100 when he died July 27, 2003.

"Dolores once said that their longevity could be credited to laughter and they certainly had a lot of that in their lives," said actress Alison Arngrim.

The family will hold a private funeral at burial at the Bob Hope Memorial Garden, San Fernando Mission, California, where her husband was interred.

"Dolores once said that their longevity could be credited to laughter and they certainly had a lot of that in their lives," said actress Alison Arngrim.


Funny thing about that statement......I was watching Dr. Oz ( think it was Oz) one evening and he said the same thing. Laughter stimulates some kind of brain cells.

Mehmet Oz (Dr Oz) was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Suna and Mustafa Öz who had emigrated from Konya Province, Turkey. Mustafa Öz was born in Bozkır, a small town in central Turkey. Mustafa Öz earned scholarships that allowed him to emigrate to the United States as a medical resident in 1955. Suna Öz (née Atabay) who comes from a wealthy İstanbul family is the daughter of a pharmacist with Shapsug descent on his mother's side.

Also a wizard.

I saw Bob Hope perform at the Ohio State Fair, just a couple of hours before The Bee Gees later took The Grandstand Stage.

And just before Danny Fleener's Hurricane Hell Drivers and around the time the helicopter ladder acrobat was performing above.

Circa late 60's.


Thanks for the memories.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKgUq5dziEk

Nice video of Bob Hope.

Here's to Delores who hung with him. And here's to my wife who "hangs" with me.

Tom Wilson Sr., the creator of beloved comics icon Ziggy, died Friday in a Cincinnati-area nursing home. He was 80.

Ziggy, which marked 40 years in syndication in June, has been produced by Wilson's son, Tom Wilson Jr. of Loveland, since 1987.


I won a little political election among 26,000 potential voters in the late 1970's.

I knew I had the momentum and support, but knew I had to get all of my (sometimes drunk) supporters to the voting place.

We featured a last few days campaign piece with a "borrowed" cartoon of Ziggy remembering good things happened that he missed while he was taking out the trash.


"Don't forget to vote for Tribe Fan (and his hot VP) while taking out the trash" was the message.

We won in a landslide.

A good year, and a nice and pleasant life note.




Here's to Ziggy.

As some of you know, I had cataract surgery on both eyes this month. I saw the ophthalmologist the other day, and he said every thing looks good, and I will see him again in 2 weeks to get a prescription. But I can see amazingly well now both without glasses, and with a couple of different reading glasses I bought for $10 at the drugstore. The brightness and clarity is amazing. I hadn't realized how much I had lost over the years! One negative, (or positive?) result is that I have to clean my house now, b/c I see dust and dirt I never noticed before! I know JOE Z has had this surgery, but if anyone else needs it, I recommend it highly. It is quick and painless, with great results!

Hope we are all here to discuss stuff tomorrow:

Space Debris Rain Set for Friday: NASA

A defunct NASA satellite is expected to plunge back to earth on Friday, raising concerns that blazing hot debris may shower down on the unsuspecting terrestrial population.


NASA said on Thursday to expect pieces of the satellite to start falling in the afternoon, Easter Daylight Time, but the projection isn't 100 percent accurate.

"It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 hours," NASA said late Thursday.

Variations in solar activity -- which influence to orbit of the satellite -- have made pinpointing the precise trajectory difficult. In the days leading up to Friday officials have changed their estimates a number of times.

"We're really never confident," said Nick Johnson, Chief Scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program on Saturday. "Even at the last message, T minus 2 hours, there will be a lot of uncertainty, plus or minus 10,0000 kilometers."


The 6.5 ton satellite, known as the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) was originally expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere either late September or early October, NASA said.

"It's a little bit unpredictable, and as a result, it's coming in a little faster than we originally anticipated." said Dr. Mark Mateny of the Orbital Debris Program at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Most of the vessel is expected to burn up in the atmosphere, but the agency said there was still some potential for problems.

"The risk to public safety or property is extremely small, and safety is NASA's top priority," the space agency wrote in an advisory.

NASA estimates a 1-in-3,200 chance that a satellite part could hit someone, though 1,200 pounds should survive the re-entry.

"Things have been re-entering ever since the dawn of the Space Age; to date nobody has been injured by anything that's re-entered," said NASA orbital debris chief Gene Stansbery. "That doesn't mean we're not concerned."

The satellite ran out of fuel in 2005. As of Sept. 8, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 152 miles by 171 miles (245 km by 275 km) with an inclination of 57 degrees.

Because the satellite's orbit is inclined 57 degrees to the equator, any surviving components of UARS will land within a zone between 57 degrees north latitude and 57 degrees south latitude . This translates to anywhere in the six inhabited continents in a worldwide swath from south of Juneau, Alaska, to just north of the tip of South America.

UARS was a $750 million mission deployed from the shuttle Discovery in 1991 to study the Earth's atmosphere and its interactions with the sun.

It measure important ozone depletion related to climate change. According to NASA reading from UARS gave evidence that Chorine in the atmosphere is at the root of the polar ozone hole.

In August researchers recommended that NASA and the U.S. State Department coordinate with other nations to work on plans to remove space junk from Earth's orbit, warning debris was reaching a "tipping point."

J.R. wrote:As some of you know, I had cataract surgery on both eyes this month. I saw the ophthalmologist the other day, and he said every thing looks good, and I will see him again in 2 weeks to get a prescription. But I can see amazingly well now both without glasses, and with a couple of different reading glasses I bought for $10 at the drugstore. The brightness and clarity is amazing.

My Dad had cataract surgery out here with me at the age 0f 81, and now at 84 he says "no mas" to needing glasses.

Good tip, J.R.

"The risk to public safety or property is extremely small, and safety is NASA's top priority," the space agency wrote in an advisory.

NASA estimates a 1-in-3,200 chance that a satellite part could hit someone, though 1,200 pounds should survive the re-entry.


Hey, I've watched every episode of Northern Exposure.

Everyone knows that Maggie's boyfriend Rick was taken out by a falling satellite. The necessary post hit casket was a hoot.

I'll be looking up a lot if out tomorrow.

We have our house on the sometimes resilient California Bay Area market. We've worked hard to get it from a family packed place to a "staged" place of a couple of "empty nesters" like my wife and I.

When it sells, we have our eyes on a small place with a boat dock on the San Francisco Bay delta for a stay of limited duration before we head all the way East in not many moons future..... Southeast.

Carolinas, Alabama, Coastal Georgia, or Florida.


Our realtor had an open house for brokers today, and I needed to get the dog out.

She was the "belle of the ball" at our local "dog friendly" pub and restaurant on their outside patio.

A real chick magnet today.....but I didn't need her help!

Not bad for over age 100 in dog years.....

14 1/2 in human years.

She had a good day, and so did I.

We had another open house today and my wife joined Dusty and I at the local "dog friendly" pub/patio.


Both were hits. Dusty is always impressive, and my wife is a fit smart girl who wears short skirts often and well.


Nod to Jimmy Buffett!

I'll be very happy with Browns and Indians wins tomorrow.


(Well, tomorrow for those of you back at least a little east)


If anyone sees me at a bar during The Browns game tomorrow, I'll be the guy asking for the NASCAR race on some available TV while I watch Miami get squished by The Browns.

http://www.nps.gov/wamo/washington-monu ... update.htm

This is a link to three videos released by the National Park Service. They show the shaking and falling debris from inside the Washington Monument during the recent 5.8 mag earthquake.

The poor female ranger is probably not thrilled to realized she was picking her ear and scratching her hair and was captured on film in the moments before the strike.

I'm watching a great Biography Channel show on the life and times of Jimi Hendrix.


I didn't appreciate him real time....in Junior High School.......and I still don't.

I do give a respectful nod to his era counter part.....Janis Joplin.

To me, Hendix just f'd around on his guitar and like Picasso, hoped someone might find it interesting.


But hey, that's just me.