Comedian Richard Jeni Found Dead

Posted and filed under Los Angeles, News.

One of the all-time best stand-up comedians, Richard Jeni (official page, currently down), apparently committed suicide this weekend. My girlfriend and I read about his death on Perez last night as we were getting ready to watch Rome. Just the night before, while celebrating a friend’s birthday at the Dresden, a few of us were… Read more »

How is this a mystery?

Posted and filed under College Football, Los Angeles, News.

You have to get out of bed pretty early to pull one over on the local coroner in Los Angeles. Southern California kicker Mario Danelo was drunk when he plunged over a cliff to his death, but the cause of his death was “undetermined,” according to a coroner’s report released Monday. He’s a football player… Read more »

49ers lineman dies at 23

Posted and filed under sports.

“Herrion was 6-foot-3, 310 pounds — fairly average for an NFL lineman, but considered obese within standards routinely accepted by the medical community.”

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Posted and filed under books, media, movies.

This weekend I finally finished Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything”. It was a terrific read, truly wonderful. Bryson managed to make even the most esoteric, incredibly — for lack of a better word — boring details about life on this planet inconceivably fascinating. I mean really, it takes a brilliant author to… Read more »

Death by Snowball

Posted and filed under News.

What could be more wholesome than a good old-fashioned snowball fight? In Scotland, however, a romp in the snow turned lethal when a 10-year-old boy died after being crushed by a giant ball of snow that rolled down a hill and engulfed him. Said a local minister, “It seems there was a giant snowball the… Read more »

Curious Deaths of Some Burmese Kings

Posted and filed under books, comedy.

Theinhko: killed by a farmer whose cucumbers he ate without permission. Theinkho’s Queen, fearing civil disorder, smuggled the farmer into the royal palace and dressed him in royal robes. He was proclaimed King Nyaung-U Sawrhan, and was known as the ‘Cucumber King’. He later transformed his cucumber plantation into a spacious and pleasant royal garden…. Read more »

Traffic Sadness

Posted and filed under Los Angeles.

From the “I Guess It Depends on Your Point of View Department”:This morning a dj on KROQ said, “And there’s some good news to report on traffic: The fatal accident that was blocking the 210 has been cleared from lanes.”

1st Burial Funeral Insurance

Posted and filed under WebLinks.

Mock funerals are another practice that happen more often than you would imagine. This is where a service is held for family and friends and then when it’s over the cemetery buries the casket wherever it wants. Horrific, but it does happen. Make sure you receive everything in writing and appoint someone to check if… Read more »

Alice in Chains

Posted and filed under media.

SEATTLE, Washington (AP): A body was found at the home of Layne Staley, lead singer and guitarist for the Seattle grunge band Alice in Chains. The King County medical examiner’s office scheduled an autopsy Saturday but investigator[s] … could not immediately confirm the identity of the deceased late Friday night. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quoted unidentified… Read more »

Flaming Showgirls

Posted and filed under comedy.

“My grandmother was 81, she died at home in her bed, with her daughter holding her hand. It wasn’t a prolonged illness, but at the same time we had enough warning that we were all able to say our goodbyes. Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to go. Well, maybe some sort of… Read more »

Got Sleep?

Posted and filed under News.

Sleep hogs beware. A new study suggests that individuals who sleep eight hours or more a night actually have an increased death rate compared to those who average fewer hours. Study subjects who slept seven hours a night had the best survival rates. Those sleeping eight hours a night were 12 percent more likely to… Read more »

Tony Kornheiser

Posted and filed under media.

Doh! I tossed an airball this morning. I was listening to The Tony Kornheiser Show on ESPN radio on my way to work. Tony was asking if one of the actors from the old TV show Gunsmoke was still alive. I remembered that one of my previous bosses, Kelly, created a site where you could… Read more »