Rest In Peace

[AndyinPA]

RIP.

[slq]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ob ... story.html

Jessica McClintock, a fashion designer who outfitted generations of young women for their homecoming dances and proms, supplied their bridesmaid dresses and bridal gowns and thus evoked for many a lace-draped aura of nostalgia, died Feb. 16 at her home in San Francisco. She was 90.

She had congestive heart failure, said a half sister, Mary Santoro.

For more than half a century, ever since she struck out in California as a divorced mother with an untrained but keen eye for fashion, Ms. McClintock was one of the most popular designers of affordable formal wear for young women.

If a red carpet blazed the way to an average high school dance, and celebrity reporters craned over the velvet rope to pepper arrivals with that time-honored query — “Who are you wearing?” — the name “Jessica McClintock” would surely become a familiar reply.

For brides who did not wish to bankrupt themselves or burden their bridesmaids with the purchase of dresses in the four-digit price range, Ms. McClintock became a go-to label for attractive options. Perhaps the most famous bride to don a Jessica McClintock frock was Hillary Rodham when she married a Yale Law School classmate, Bill Clinton, in 1975. The dress was long-sleeved and lacy, with a ribbon in front — purchased, according to Brides magazine, for $53 at the Fayetteville, Ark., mall.

RIP. My prom dress (and my graduation photo dress) was a Jessica McClintock, though my mom made it from a Jessica McClintock pattern. It was beautiful! I have a photo around here somewhere . . .

[Estiveo]

[Phoenix520]

You had quite a life, Beverly.

In high school, my Central Library job involved reading to the kids at the Thursday night pajama party. Your were the most-often requested.

Goodnight Henry, Beezus, Ramona. Good dog, Ribsy.

[poplove]

The first Beverly Cleary book I read was Ellen Tebbits, probably in third grade. I loved it and went on to read more of her books that were available in the school library. I also bought a lot of her books for my two daughters when they were young and they loved the stories as well.

[Sunrise]

My neighbor has an adorable four-year-old granddaughter named Ramona. The child’s mother, my neighbor’s daughter-in-law, loved the Beverly Cleary books so much she chose the name because of that.

[Luke]

Awwwww. April, you were a sensation! In the giraffe Hall of Fame for sure.

April the giraffe, who went viral with 2017 birth, is dead
The 20-year-old giraffe was euthanized because of arthritis. "The severity of her condition has been outpacing our ability to control April's comfort," veterinary staff said.
April 3, 2021, 1:12 AM UTC By Phil Helsel

April the giraffe, who gave birth in 2017 in an event watched by people all over the world, has died, the New York zoo where she lived said Friday. The giraffe, who was 20, was euthanized because of worsening arthritis that increasingly impacted her quality of life, Animal Adventure Park said in a statement. The veterinary team said it did its best to make April comfortable, but her condition got so bad the team could no longer do so.

"We grieve with her many fans, near and far, as we say goodbye to the giraffe that can be credited with making a foothold for giraffe and giraffe conservation awareness in the 21st century," the zoo in Harpursville said. More than a million people watched on a livestream when April gave birth to a calf — a male named Tajiri but called Taj — in 2017. His arrival followed weeks of waiting; the zoo even launched a text-alert service to keep fans up to date.

In all, more than 232 million views were logged on YouTube during the weeks before and during the birth. At one point on the day of Taj's birth, more than 1.2 million people were watching simultaneously, YouTube has said. At the time, it was in the top five most-watched live events ever on the video platform, it said.

The giraffe's veterinary team said that euthanizing April was the only humane course of action. Last summer the park staff noticed the 15-foot-tall animal was acting differently and she was found to have osteoarthritis, the team said. April was shifting her weight from leg to leg and laying on the ground more often. The vets started treatment and management, but the most recent exam showed advanced osteoarthritis and that the irreversible condition was accelerating at a rapid rate, the zoo said. "The severity of her condition has been outpacing our ability to control April's comfort," the veterinary team said.

Giraffes typically live 20 to 25 years in captivity, about a decade longer than in the wild, and April was 20, it said. "While we knew this day would eventually come, our hearts are hurting," Jordan Patch, owner of Animal Adventure Park, said. April gave birth to another male calf, Aziz, in 2019. Aziz was moved to a Texas zoo, and in 2020, he died of a condition that involved a twisted gut. The zoo said the condition was entirely unexpected and unpreventable.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ap ... d-n1262950

[Lani]

I remember April and her baby boy.

[Sunrise]

That, in retrospect, seems so long ago, when people were intently focused on a happy, heartwarming event. RIP April.

[sad-cafe]

This makes me so sad.


Elephants are so graceful and beautiful.




does anyone remember that mother elephant that gave birth and worked for 10 minutes to get her baby breathing?

[Volkonski]

Speaking of 1950s TV housewives-



The New York Times
@nytimes
The actress Gloria Henry, best known as the sunny, preternaturally patient mom on the TV series “Dennis the Menace,” died on Saturday. She was 98.

[sad-cafe]

Wow what a good memory


RIP

[Volkonski]

Scott Wong
@scottwongDC
Longtime Rep. Alcee Hastings, dean of the Florida delegation, dead at 84

[PaulG]

One of my favorite actors. He was in the HBO series Chernobyl.



Paul Ritter: Friday Night Dinner star dies of brain tumour at 54
Ritter, who also appeared in films including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, died at home alongside is wife and two sons

[Luke]

A huge figure, Prince Phillip, 99.

BBC Breaking News @BBCBreaking 2m
Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband, has died aged 99, Buckingham Palace has announced

The prince married Princess Elizabeth in 1947, five years before she became Queen, and was the longest-serving royal consort in British history.

The couple had four children, eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

[AndyinPA]

RIP

[Dr. Ken]

[poplove]

Anne Beatts, comedy pioneer and original 'SNL' writer, dead at 74

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/ ... 4-n1263583

[AndyinPA]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/p ... -dead.html

Ramsey Clark, who championed civil rights and liberties as attorney general in the Johnson administration, then devoted much of the rest of his life to defending unpopular causes and infamous people, including Saddam Hussein and others accused of war crimes, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan He was 93. His niece Sharon Welch announced the death.

In becoming the nation’s top law enforcement official, Mr. Clark was part of an extraordinary father-and-son trade-off in the federal halls of power. His appointment prompted his father, Justice Tom C. Clark, to resign from the United States Supreme Court to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest involving cases in which the federal government might come before that bench.

[Volkonski]

Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff-

[Frater I*I]

Good riddance...

[Volkonski]

Frank Jacobs, Mad Magazine Writer With a Lyrical Touch, Dies at 91
He deftly mocked pop culture, politics and more for 57 years. He also wrote new lyrics for familiar songs, which led to a lawsuit from Irving Berlin and others.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/arts ... -dead.html

Frank Jacobs, an inventive satirist who in his 57 years at Mad magazine mocked popular culture and politics, often in pitch-perfect verse and lyrics, died on April 5 in Tarzana, Calif. He was 91. His son, Alex, confirmed the death.

Mr. Jacobs brought a quick wit, a deep well of ideas and a love of rhyming to Mad in 1957, becoming one of that smart-alecky humor magazine’s most prolific contributors, especially during the 1960s and ’70s, when it was at the peak of its irreverence and its cultural influence.

“He was the ultimate craftsman,” said John Ficarra, a former Mad editor. “He could be persnickety, for sure, but you had to respect him: He was in an endless search for the perfect word, the perfect phrase and the perfect rhyme.”

Working with artists like Mort Drucker (who died last year), George Woodbridge and Gerry Gersten, Mr. Jacobs parodied movie musicals like “Fiddler on the Roof” (which he turned into a sendup of suburbia in “Antenna on the Roof”); critiqued the policies of President Ronald Reagan in a line-by-line satire of Poe’s “The Raven”; wrote obituaries of comic-strip characters like the hapless office worker Dilbert (who suffocated from a lack of ventilation in his cubicle) and the working-class layabout Andy Capp (whose death was caused by a drunken driver); and devised Christmas carols for dysfunctional families.

[Fortinbras]

Felix Silla, dwarf who played Tweekie on Buck Rogers and Cousin Itt on The Addams Family, died of pancreatic cancer in Las Vegas, age 84.

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/felix- ... 234953729/

[pipistrelle]

Felix Silla, dwarf who played Tweekie on Buck Rogers and Cousin Itt on The Addams Family, died of pancreatic cancer in Las Vegas, age 84.

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/felix- ... 234953729/

The preferred term is “little person.” That’s what he used too.

There's not much work left in California. As a matter of fact, not too much work now, because little people, there's so many little people and not enough work for everybody.

[sad-cafe]

Rusty Young of POCO