Eric on The Road

Journeys into the offbeat, off the beaten path, overlooked and forgotten - by Eric Model

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

2010's Last Farewells

As a year and decade pass, we pause to remember and pay homage one last time to some of those folks (and things) who mattered to us and who passed this year.

A Happy New Year to all. May it be a year of health, happiness and prosperity:

* Bill Powell, African American Glofing Pioneer
* Curtis Allina, Put Heads on Pez
* Art Clokey, Gumby Creator
* Kate McGarrigle
* George Jellinek, Classical Music Radio Voice
* John Halligan
* Jane Jarvis
* Tom Brookshier
* Shirley Bell Cole,Voice of Little Orphan Annie
* Dick McGuire, NY Knick
* Northwest Airlines
* John Babcock, Last Canadian WWI Veteran
* Fess Parker, "Davy Crockett"
* John Forsythe
* Ernie Harwell
* Art Linkletter
* Mercury (Car)
* John Wooden
* Bob Sheppard
* Daniel Schorr
* Ralph Houk
* Mitch Miller
* Morrie Yahim, Creator of Cheese Doodles
* Bernie West, TV Writer best remembered for "All in the Family"
* Booby Thompson
* Allen Dale June, Navjao Code Talker
* Eddie Fisher
* Barbara Billingsley, "June Cleaver"
* Sparky Anderson
* Fred Foy, Lone Ranger Announcer
* Bob Feller
* Vic Lynn, Played for all 6 "original six" NHL teams

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas

All the best to you and those dear to you.


Two of our favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxv-Y1JVjpc (Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Dave Seville & the Chipmunks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M0dzWuSmGQ (I'll Be Home For Christmas - Frank Sinatra)

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Passing: Fred Foy, 'Lone Ranger' Announcer (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

By MARGALIT FOX
Published: December 23, 2010


A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo, Silver! ...

Three times a week on the radio, those words, juxtaposed with the galloping strains of Rossini’s “William Tell” overture, captivated generations of midcentury Americans.

For a decade, first on the radio and later on television, Fred Foy was the man who intoned those gallant lines, among the most evocative in American broadcasting.

Mr. Foy died on Wednesday (December 22), at 89, at his home in Woburn, Mass. The death, of natural causes.

On the radio, Mr. Foy was also the announcer for “The Green Hornet” and “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon.” On television, he became a staff announcer for ABC in New York, where his duties included “The Dick Cavett Show.”

A frequent speaker at old-time radio conventions, Mr. Foy was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/arts/television/23foy.html?hpw

Popularity of Juniors Tournament Crosses Border (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

by JEFF Z. KLEIN
Published: December 22, 2010

On Sunday, the world juniors will begin again, this time in Buffalo and on the campus of Niagara University in Lewiston, N.Y.

The world juniors are a Canadian tradition, wildly popular north of the border. The last final drew a peak audience of 7.5 million viewers in a country of 33 million, until the Vancouver Olympics the largest audience in Canada for any telecast of any kind since 2005.

“In Canada, it’s a unique part of their culture,” said Keith Allain, coach of the United States team at this year’s tournament and the coach of Yale, the nation’s No. 1 college team. “Whole families get together to watch the day after Christmas the way American families watch football on Thanksgiving.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/sports/hockey/23juniors.html?ref=hockey

Monday, December 20, 2010

Custer’s Last Stand Was Only the Beginning (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

By Dan Forsch

Golden, CO - Debate persists over battle monument.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/us/19custer.html?scp=1&sq=custer's%20last%20stand&st=cse

Finding Simon And Garfunkel's 'America' In Saginaw, Mich. (NPR)

From NPR News:


In 1968, Simon and Garfunkel released the bittersweet song "America" — a tune about a man leaving Saginaw, Mich., to seek his fortunes elsewhere. This past week, a reporter at The Saginaw News noticed lyrics from that song spray-painted on vacant buildings all over town.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/19/132168299/finding-simon-garfunkels-america-in-saginaw-mich

Friday, December 17, 2010

Snowman Gone Wild (Smithsonian.com)

By Bob Eckstein


Before the age of Frosty, the snowman was abused by children and exploited by advertisers


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Snowman-Gone-Wild-The-Winter-Icon-as-an-Alcohol-Pitchman.html#ixzz18Ne4qWY6

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Passing: Bob Feller

From The Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Bob Dolgan / Special to The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Bob Feller, the brilliant pitcher who is the only Cleveland pro athlete to be immortalized with a statue, died Wednesday (December 15) of complications from leukemia at age 92.

The Hall of Famer hurled 266 victories, most in Indians history, from 1936 to 1956, despite losing almost four years at the peak of his powers after enlisting in the Navy during World War II.

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2010/12/the_greatest_cleveland_indian.html


Baseball in Cleveland will never be the same without Bob Feller: Paul Hoynes commentary
http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2010/12/baseball_in_cleveland_will_nev.html

See more about Bob Feller @ cleveland.com


NY Times Obituary:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/sports/baseball/16feller.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bob%20feller&st=cse

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Quebec Fans Take Quest for a Team to Long Island (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

“This is not a demonstration,” said Vincent Cauchon, a radio sports show host and a founder of Nordiques Nation, the fan group that is organizing the trip. “We just want to show the N.H.L. that Quebec needs a team and is a better market; maybe a third of the markets in the N.H.L. aren’t doing so well right now.”

The Quebec fans, many of whom clad in the sweaters of the Nordiques, will took the 550-mile trip in 22 buses. They crossed the border at Champlain, N.Y., the organizers having sent each passenger’s passport number ahead to speed the crossing through United States Customs.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/sports/hockey/10islanders.html?scp=1&sq=nordiques%20nation&st=cse

An estimated 1,100 fans of the old Nordiques came here from Quebec City for Saturday night’s game between the Islanders and the Atlanta Thrashers, about 10 percent of the announced crowd of 10,056. The Thrashers won, 5-4.

With five minutes to play in the game, all the Quebec fans walked down to the lower bowl behind the Atlanta net and stood and cheered and waved provincial flags through the rest of regulation in an impressive display of passion.


http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/at-last-a-bit-of-passion-at-nassau-coliseum/?scp=2&sq=nordiques%20nation&st=cse

Whether Famous Or Forgotten, They All Sang Standards (NPR)

It used to be that singers had to tackle the so-called Great American Songbook if they wanted to prove they had chops.

The range, the pacing, the inflection, the restraint: Singers defined themselves by how they interpreted a lyric and how they made the listener feel it. The songs they sung were often covered by many other vocalists of different styles.


Some 210 of the greatest singers of the recorded era are profiled in a mammoth new book. Will Friedwald is the author of A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers. In an interview with NPR's Audie Cornish, he says that all the artists he chose to profile deal with the Great American Songbook — the standard repertoire of pop.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/12/131972175/whether-famous-or-forgotten-they-all-sang-standards

Friday, December 10, 2010

Passing: Vic Lynn, played on all original six NHL teams (CP)

From Canadian Press through The Hockey News:

SASKATOON - Vic Lynn, the three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Toronto Maple Leafs who played for all of the NHL's Original Six teams, has died. He was 85.

Lynn died Monday in his hometown of Saskatoon.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/36941-Vic-Lynn-who-played-on-all-original-six-NHL-teams-dies-in-Saskatoon-at-85.html

Thursday, December 09, 2010

A Bypassed Small Town Makes a Visual Statement: Here We Are (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

By DAN BARRY
Published: December 7, 2010

The highway now bypasses the people of Hooper, Neb. – population 827, more or less – but they refuse to be missed, raising a collective hand with a new sign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/us/08land.html?_r=1

Also see accompanying slide show: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/07/us/HOOPER.html

The Importance of Po' Boys (CBS News)

From CBS News:

CBS Sunday Morning
November 21, 2010

The people of New Orleans take their food seriously and no food is taken more seriously than the Po-Boy sandwich. Sunday Morning's Bill Geist went to New Orleans to taste and find out for himself why the Po-Boy sandwich, that has survived challenges like hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill, is so important to the people of New Orleans.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7076082n&tag=cbsnewsSectionsArea.5

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Passing: Don Meredith

From The New York Times:

Cowboys Quarterback and Cosell’s Broadcast Foil.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/sports/football/07meredith.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries

Also see a slideshow Remembering Don Meredith @ http://ww.dallas.com

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Passing: Gil McDougald, Yankee of the 1950's (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: November 29, 2010

Gil McDougald, the Yankees’ versatile All-Star infielder who played on five World Series championship teams died Sunday November 28, 2010 at his home in Wall Township, N.J. He was 82.

Playing with the Yankees for 10 seasons, McDougald was a five-time All-Star and a gifted fielder, appearing mostly at second and third but also at shortstop.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/sports/baseball/30mcdougald.html?scp=1&sq=gil%20mcdougald&st=cse

Critics Accuse Group of a Serious Texas Sin: Forgetting the Alamo (NY Times)

From The New York Times:

By JAMES McKINLEY
Published: December 4, 2010

For 105 years, a private organization of women descended from Texas pioneers has been taking care of the Alamo with very little oversight by the state.

But in the last year members of the group, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, have found themselves besieged and divided. Dissidents have accused the leaders of caring more about building a $36 million library and theater nearby than about preserving the site’s old church and priest’s quarters, the only buildings remaining at the Spanish mission where at least 189 Texan rebels died fighting the Mexican Army in 1836.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05alamo.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=alamo&st=cse

Friday, December 03, 2010

Passing: Ron Santo, Chicago Cubs icon (Chicago Tribune)

From the Chicago Tribune:

By Paul Sullivan
Tribune reporter

Legendary Chicago Cubs player and broadcaster Ron Santo died Thursday night in Arizona. He was 70.

Friends of Santo's family said the North Side icon lapsed into a coma on Wednesday before dying Thursday. Santo died of complications from bladder cancer, WGN-AM 720 reported.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-ron-santo-chicago-cubs-obit,0,1699814.story

Also see a remembrance by NPR's Scott Simon, a Chicago guy and Cubs fan:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/12/03/131779247/the-cubs-ron-santo-an-inspiring-figure-has-died

Finally, this column, also from the Chi. Tribune: http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/12/rogers-remembering-santo.html