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The 2012 Off Topic Celebrity Dead Pool

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  • Boxing writer Bert Sugar dead at 75

    MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. (AP) -- Bert Sugar, an iconic boxing writer and sports historian who was known for his trademark fedora and ever-present cigar, died Sunday of cardiac arrest. He was 75.

    Jennifer Frawley, Sugar's daughter, said his wife, Suzanne, was by his side when he died at Northern Westchester Hospital. Sugar also had been battling lung cancer.

    "Just his intelligence and his wit and his sense of humor," Frawley said when asked what she will remember about her father. "He was always worried about people. He was always helping people."

    Sugar was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. According to the hall's website, Sugar wrote more than 80 books, including "The 100 Greatest Boxers Of All Time." He also appeared in a handful of films, including "The Great White Hype" starring Samuel Jackson.

    "Around ringside, it's not going to be the same with Bert not there," said Jack Hirsch, the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

    Sugar was born in Washington, D.C., in 1936. He graduated from Maryland and went to law school at Michigan. He passed the bar in his hometown and worked in advertising in New York City before he got into writing in the 1970s.

    "Bert was obviously a showman in the way he did things outwardly, very flamboyant, but in quiet moments I found him to be an extremely modest individual," Hirsch said.

    Frawley said arrangements for a memorial service are still pending and anyone wishing to honor Sugar should make a donation to the boxing hall.

    "He was really a brilliant man," she said.



    Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mma...#ixzz1qBRxyhox

    Hi, I'm RAH and I'm a Benaholic.-rah

    Comment


    • Do we need to draw up new teams?
      "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
      "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

      Comment


      • http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...baS_story.html

        Abdullahi Yusuf, a former guerrilla warrior who became president of Somalia only to see his administration crumble under a ferocious Islamic insurgency, died March 23. He was 78.

        Abdirahman Omar Osman, a government spokesman, said Mr. Yusuf died at a hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The cause was complications from pneumonia, Mr. Yusuf’s family announced.

        Mr. Yusuf served as president of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia from 2004 to 2008. He had battled chronic health problems for years and had a liver transplant in 1996. He survived several assassination attempts, including a suicide car bombing in 2006 that killed his brother and several bodyguards.

        Mr. Yusuf’s administration struggled to assert control in Somalia after assuming power in 2004, when the country’s first government in 13 years was formed with the help of the United Nations. At his inauguration — held in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi because of security concerns — Mr. Yusuf pronounced himself “a man of peace” and urged Somalis to begin to forgive one another.

        After an Islamic alliance took control of the Somali capital in 2006, Mr. Yusuf invited Ethiopian troops into the country. The Ethiopian advance quickly routed the Islamist forces, but the memories of previous Somali-Ethiopian wars and the presence of soldiers from a majority Christian nation in a mainly Muslim country made the Mr. Yusuf’s government unpopular.

        The situation also encouraged Ethiopia’s archenemy, Eritrea, to offer the Islamists assistance, making Somalia a proxy war zone. The Islamists quickly launched an Iraq-style insurgency.

        Mr. Yusuf’s government also was weakened by internal struggles. Mr. Yusuf was operating far from his power base in the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland. Clan squabbles and public disagreements with his prime minister over foreign aid led many Somalis to see the government as divided, corrupt and ineffective.

        Somalia has not had a fully functioning government since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown. Barre and Mr. Yusuf had been military colleagues, but Barre imprisoned Mr. Yusuf after he refused to take part in the coup that bought Barre to power in 1969.

        While in prison, he became friends with warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed, whose battle with U.S. soldiers in the early 1990s inspired the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.”

        Three years after his release in 1975, Mr. Yusuf tried to overthrow Barre but failed and fled to Kenya, where he recruited members for his guerrilla movement.

        Mr. Yusuf, who had studied in Italy and the former Soviet Union, was backed by the socialist government of Ethi*o*pia. But Mr. Yusuf later quarreled with the Ethiopians over their claims to Somali territory. Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam imprisoned Mr. Yusuf in 1985, and he was released only when the Mengistu regime fell in 1991.

        Mr. Yusuf spent much of the 1990s in his native Puntland, where he sought semiautonomous status in an effort to save the region from the chaos engulfing the rest of the nation. Aides described his style as ruthless, and many of his opponents were jailed or killed. There also were sporadic clashes over territory with the neighboring region of Somaliland, and he was deposed for a year over his attempts to increase his term of office in 2001.

        Mr. Yusuf regained control of Puntland in 2002 with Ethiopian help, forging an alliance with the new Ethio*pian government. Mr. Yusuf was elected Somalia’s president in 2004, having systematically undermined several other attempts at forming a government.
        There's nothing wrong with the dream, my friend, the problem lies with the dreamer.

        Comment


        • Originally posted by SlowwHand View Post
          2) Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh

          Ahem!
          We gots a whole bunch of aged aristos over here. Yoorops got plenty o' dukes, marquises and barons too. Even Japan still has some royalty. Get hunting those 90 yrs + royals and nobles now....
          Vive la liberte. Noor Inayat Khan, Dachau.

          ...patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone. Edith Cavell, 1915

          Comment


          • Can I hire you to do research next season Molly?

            My team (and everyone's apparently) needs serious help.
            "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
            "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

            Comment


            • Another great pioneering musician has left us... RIP Earl Scruggs, age 88.



              Apolyton's Grim Reaper 2008, 2010 & 2011
              RIP lest we forget... SG (2) and LaFayette -- Civ2 Succession Games Brothers-in-Arms

              Comment


              • Robin Gibb's recovery from health problems has encountered a setback as the Bee Gees singer underwent emergency intestinal surgery.

                "Robin underwent the operation successfully, he is awake and has been talking to his doctors," reads a statement on his website. "He is currently being monitored and resting in the hospital and his family are hoping for his full recovery."

                Gibb, 62, underwent the surgery Monday to remove a blood clot in his colon that had caused a perforation. This followed earlier surgery for a twisted intestine.

                Gibb canceled promotional appearances for the release of The Titanic Requiem album, a classical work marking the 100th anniversary of the ocean liner's sinking. But he does hope to attend the work's live premiere in London on April 10.
                "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
                "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

                Comment


                • RIP scruggs
                  If there is no sound in space, how come you can hear the lasers?
                  ){ :|:& };:

                  Comment


                  • This dry streak just won't end. No one on my list is dying.
                    Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

                    Comment


                    • Down, boy.
                      Apolyton's Grim Reaper 2008, 2010 & 2011
                      RIP lest we forget... SG (2) and LaFayette -- Civ2 Succession Games Brothers-in-Arms

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by Dinner View Post
                        This dry streak just won't end. No one on my list is dying.
                        43 days as of today. Still not close to the record dry spell of '08. [/old fogie]
                        "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
                        "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by Wezil View Post
                          43 days as of today. Still not close to the record dry spell of '08. [/old fogie]
                          For me... it's over two years
                          Keep on Civin'
                          RIP rah, Tony Bogey & Baron O

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by Ming View Post
                            For me... it's over two years
                            Way to make yourself look good.

                            According to the official records you have now gone 1192 days without a hit (Harold Pinter - 24Dec08).

                            You're pushing 3.5 years.
                            "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
                            "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

                            Comment


                            • DAMN!
                              Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
                              "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
                              He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by Wezil View Post
                                Way to make yourself look good.

                                According to the official records you have now gone 1192 days without a hit (Harold Pinter - 24Dec08).

                                You're pushing 3.5 years.
                                Yep... over two years, just like I said
                                Keep on Civin'
                                RIP rah, Tony Bogey & Baron O

                                Comment

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