Goodbye Hef (1926-2017)
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Posted:Sep 27, 2017 8:40 pm
Last Updated:Oct 17, 2017 3:38 am
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Another sad goodbye this year, this time to Playboy founder Hugh Marston Hefner, at age 91.
He forever changed print media with his gentleman's magazine and lifestyle.
His like shall not pass this way again, and he shall be greatly missed. 
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Don't ya just love June Foray's voices?
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Posted:Jul 27, 2017 11:18 pm
Last Updated:Oct 17, 2017 3:30 am
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... or "Goodbye Rocket J. Squirrel".
So long to animation's leading voiceover actress, June Lucille Forer (with her stage name Foray reflecting the correct pronunciation of her last name), who died July 27 at age 99, less than two months short of 100.
If you saw an animated short or feature in the last 60 years, chances are good June Foray provided voices for them. From Broom Hilda and Granny in the WB Looney Toons shorts, to The Jetsons and The Smurfs for H-B, and even appearing on The Simpsons, she did so many voices. She even provided the original voice for the Chatty Cathy doll.
Foray Also fought to create the Annie Awards for recognizing animation voice actors as well as establishing a separate Academy Award category for "Best.animated.Feature", something long-overlooked by the Oscars since the heyday of Walt Disney.
But the show she will always be remembered for is, of course, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, aka Rocky and his friends from 1959-61 on ABC and The Bullwinkle Show from 1961-64 on NBC, and rerun almost perpetually ever since. (And Nell from sister show Dudley Do-Right as well.)
Foray did all the female voices (including über-baddie Natasha Fatale), as well as that of our favorite flying (or lying as Joe Piscopo called him) rodent, Rocket J. Squirrel. Foray provided Rocky's voice in various commercials and guest spots over the next 5 decades, including a reunion with Bill "Bullwinkle" Scott for Joe Piscopo's only comedy album in 1985, New Jersey (just before Scott's sudden death from a heart attack that year).
Her voices shall be greatly missed.
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We hold these truths to be self-evident: 241 years and counting...
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Posted:Jul 4, 2017 6:35 am
Last Updated:May 29, 2019 2:26 pm
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Happy 241st Birthday to the United States of America! 
Entering year 242 of our Independence from Great Britain, we still hold these truths to be self-evident:
1.) That all men are created equal;
2.) That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness;
3.) That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;
4.) That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Wise words from Thomas Jefferson, and a reminder to all about the perils of concentrating too much Power in any form of Government not directly controlled by the People.
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1-5-0h Canada Day, eh? Happy Birthday!
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Posted:Jul 1, 2017 7:45 am
Last Updated:Oct 17, 2017 3:27 am
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Happy 150th to our favorite northern neighbors!!!
Today is Canada's Sesquicentennial. Do you Americans have your free Discovery Pass yet? Bring it and your passport and go parking.
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Don't ya just love a good J. Geils song?
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Posted:Apr 14, 2017 2:39 am
Last Updated:May 26, 2019 1:33 am
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Another sad day for music fans Tuesday, as word spread that John Warren Geils Jr., the handsome guitarist and leader of that party blues band from Boston had been found dead at his Groton, MA home at age 71.
"Love Stinks", "Centerfold", and "Freeze-Frame" were their biggest singles.
Our blood runs cold, our memories have just been sold, our angel is the Centerfold, and...
(Double percussion beat)
Death stinks!
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Final Fab Four, 2017 edition. :)
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Posted:Mar 26, 2017 11:07 pm
Last Updated:Apr 15, 2017 12:12 am
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Finally, the Pacific Northwest has something to celebrate in the NCAA Division I Men's College Basketball Tournament... Make that two somethings to celebrate... 
The Oregon Ducks have reached the Final Four for the first time since... 1939. That's right. 1939, The very first NCAA tournament, which was hosted by Northwestern University (the Big 10 school that never even made the tournament until... this season), had the Oregon Webfoots (as they were then known) winning the championship over The Ohio State University.
And after many years of no respect in scheduling and bracketing, Spokane, Washington's Gonzaga Bulldogs have made it to their first ever Final Four. . The last team from the West Coast Conference to make the Final Four: the U. of San Francisco (1955, 1956, 1957) with future NBA star Bill Russell.
Gonzaga, the West Region's top seed, faces East Region 7th seed South Carolina, another first time Final Four school.
Oregon, the Midwest Region #3 seed, faces North Carolina, the South Region's top seed (and lucky to get a buzzer beater to stave off Kentucky), narrowly earning their 20th Final Four berth.
Of this year's Final Four, only Gonzaga won its conference's tournament.
Enjoy folks. We have an interesting trio of games Saturday and Monday. 
APRIL 1 UPDATE: Gonzaga holds off a ref-enabled 16-0 rally by SC to win 77-73. And in the other game, UNC gets refs to ignore two obvious contact fouls as they prevent Oregon from rebounding missed UNC free throws TWICE in the final 12 seconds, UNC 77-Oregon 76.
Time for the Bulldogs to seal the deal Monday night.
APRIL 3 UPDATE: In one of the most obvious cases of the refs throwing a game in the second half, Gonzaga 65-UNC 71. Look at that crucial last minute jump ball that went to UNC... the UNC player was reaching for the ball with his left hand BUT HIS RIGHT HAND WAS CLEARLY ON THE OUT-OF-BOUNDS LINE!!! Should have been Gonzaga ball with a chance to tie or take the lead. How the F can the refs miss that call and then claim they can't review it?!?!?!?!? WTF?!?!?!?!?!?
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U.S. Tax dollars at work: Is a Snuggie a blanket or clothing?
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Posted:Feb 19, 2017 10:15 pm
Last Updated:Jun 12, 2017 6:57 pm
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Thank goodness American voters cast out Democratic control of the U.S. Government.
Here's an example of Obama wasting taxpayer dollars. He had the Department of Justice fighting to classify the Snuggie as clothing! I you not.
Why? Money to fund their corruption of the republic.
Blankets have an import duty of 8.5%. Clothing has an import duty of 14.9%.
The judges on the U.S. Court of International Trade sided with the Snuggie. 
In the decision, they stated, “The key inquiry… is whether the addition of sleeves transforms what may have been a blanket, into something that is not a blanket.”
Since the Snuggie does not have closures like other clothing the DoJ was comparing it to (priest robes and the like), it does not qualify as clothing.
I wonder how much Money they wasted on this case...
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R.I.P. ASIA's John Wetton (1949-2017)
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Posted:Jan 31, 2017 9:47 pm
Last Updated:Apr 14, 2017 3:04 am
13165 Views
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Another sad day for the music world, as the death of John Wetton was announced.
An incredibly talented, singer, songwriter and bass player, Wetton first made his mark as part of King Crimson, but no doubt is best remembered by the MTV generation for his 1981-1991 work as co-founder and frontman of Prog Rock supergroup Asia, with classics like "Heat Of The Moment", "Only Time Will Tell", "Sole Survivor", "Don't Cry", "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes", "Go", "Voice of America" and "Days Like These".
Wetton rejoined Asia in 2006 and remained until his death after a long battle with colon cancer at age 67.
His unique voice, songwriting style and bass shall be greatly missed.
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A question of balance
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Posted:Jan 28, 2017 1:41 am
Last Updated:Oct 17, 2017 3:35 am
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In these times, there are so many issues on which people are split, usually as in you're either for or against something.
But what about a third alternative, perhaps a better way the either/or people are too blinded by their zeal to see?
Ardent environmentalists seek to preserve nature, such as forests, as is.
Ardent developers and miners look to extract mineral and timber resources and build.
Neither extreme is sustainable.
How many serious or fatal accidents does it take to convince ardent environmentalists that a narrow two-lane or even more dangerous three-lane road is not acceptable?
How many environmental disasters does it take to convince developers that irresponsible management of projects and their waste products is unacceptable? Or exhausting renewable resources such as trees before the new saplings have a chance to replenish.
It is a question of balance.
Here is an example close to home.
The American and Canadian foresters of the early 20th century were all about ensuring massive stands of timber without thinning out dead trees and by fighting fires within.
This created a serious problem in August of 1910, when a three consecutive drought summers and sparks from locomotives caused many small fires in southern British Columbia, northeastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana. A massive cold front came in from Canada, and whipped them into two massive fires with embers carrying hundreds of miles, and smoke so intense, it could be seen as far east as Watertown, New York and as far south as Denver, and so thick that celestial navigation on the Pacific Ocean was impossible. It took a second cold front with rain and late August snows to help extinguish the fires.
The young U.S. Forest Service did not learn its lessons well. They decided to fight all fires tooth and nail. Others followed their lead.
What they and the others failed to learn is that eliminating excess fuel (e.g. dead and dying trees) is essential to preventing such "Big Burn" events; and also that fire is essential in the natural order. Only fire generates the heat required to open the pine cones, allowing seeds for new trees to take root. Also, fire is essential in controlling predatory insects.
And that brings up the other tragic problem: beetle infestations.
My region of Montana, and the adjoining regions of British Columbia and Alberta, have been subjected to a serious infestation of mountain pine beetles over the past 40 years. Mature and weakened trees allow the beetles to thrive, especially if winter temperatures do not go low enough to kill the larvae.
Parks Canada said this about the infestation in Waterton Lakes National Park (which is about three hours away from me by car):
"In 1979, half of Waterton Lakes National Park was covered with large, mature pine trees. Between 1979 and 1982, half of the pine in that forest succumbed to mountain pine beetle activity because the pine trees were in perfect condition for an outbreak."
Fire keeps the beetles in check, because they are needed to help the natural recycling of dead trees into nutrients for the new ones. However, fire suppression allowed the beetle population to grow unchecked, and caused the pine needles to turn red.
The diversity caused by fires and natural decay is supposed to make huge infestations less likely. We shall see. Many then-immature trees are now approaching the age where they are more attractive to the mountain pine beetle.
The third alternative, though not popular to the extremists on both sides of the debate, is for balance, for sustainability. Controlled development and maintenance keep huge fires from happening. Controlled fires help thin out other areas, also keep huge fires from developing, begin the regeneration process for new trees, and keep natural predators in check.
It is a question of balance.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 UPDATE:. The forestry fire mismanagement has come to an awful head late this summer... Glacier lost one of its two remaining historic backcountry chalets (Sperry), and both Glacier and its Canadian neighbor Waterton Lakes are under mandatory evacuations.
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Apollo 1 Remembered at 50
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Posted:Jan 27, 2017 7:30 pm
Last Updated:Dec 3, 2017 1:15 pm
12516 Views
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Last month, the world remembered the first American to orbit Earth, John H. Glenn Jr., Col (Ret), USMC.
Earlier this month, the world remembered the last man to walk on the Moon, Eugene A. "Gene" Cernan, Capt (Ret), USN.
Today, January 27, 2017, marks a tragic remembrance: the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 accident that claimed Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Lt Col, USAF; Edward H. "Ed" White II, Lt Col, USAF; and Roger B. Chaffee, Lt Cdr, USN.
The Crew
Gus Grissom was an Air Force test pilot and veteran of Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7), the second manned sub-orbital flight of the Mercury capsule. He was NASA's chief liaison between the astronauts and McDonnell Aircraft, prime contractor for the Gemini capsule. He helped design the cockpit of the capsule, and later flew Gemini 3, the first manned Gemini flight and first American multi-person space flight with future Apollo and Space Shuttle astronaut John Young, Capt (Ret), USN. Apollo 1 was to be Grissom's third space flight.
Ed White, and namesake of a famous Army and Air Force Major General, followed in his father's footsteps with a degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1952 (seven years before the USAF Academy opened), was commissioned in the USAF and flew a variety of Air Force jets before becoming a test pilot. White was one of West Point's best athletes, missing an Olympic berth in the 400m hurdles by 0.4 sec. He earned his major claim to fame as America's first space walker on the Gemini 4 flight with James McDivitt, Brig Gen (Ret), USAF. Apollo 1 was to be White's second space flight.
Roger Chaffee was the rookie assigned to the Apollo 1 mission, replacing Donn Eisele, Col (Ret, Dec), USAF who injured his shoulder in a KC-135 zero-gravity training flight. Chaffee was one of only three members of the first three groups of NASA astronauts who was not a test pilot in military service: he was a reconnaissance pilot. (One of the two civilian test pilots was Neil Armstrong, who at the time of his selection in the second group of astronauts worked mainly for NASA on the X-15, and who went on to command Gemini 8 and the first human moon walk on Apollo 11.) Chaffee was one of the youngest pilots ever to fly the A3D-2P jet reconnaissance plane (which he first maintained, very unusual for commissioned officers to do) and the U-2 Dragonlady in the early 1960s. He photographed future launch sites at Cape Canaveral, as well as the Soviet missile sites in Cuba that sparked that infamous missile crisis in October 1962. In a pre-accident interview with CBS News reporter Nelson Benton, aired as part of a CBS News Special Report the night of the accident (and re-aired by CBSN on the 50th anniversary), Chaffee candidly mentions the stories his test pilot fellow astronauts told about taking maiden flights of new aircraft and the fact he had never done so.
The spacecraft and the accident
The crew was conducting a systems test on launch pad 34, in anticipation of a planned February 21 launch for low Earth orbital testing of the "Block I" Apollo Command Module (CM) and Service Module (SM). (Block I CMs, developed before the lunar orbit rendezvous configuration was chosen for lunar landings, did not have the lunar module (LM) modifications such as the docking mechanism and top hatch that the Block II CMs used for Apollo 8-17, Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) would have.) The systems test was referred to as "plugs out", meaning the spacecraft would run on its own power rather than ground power.
During construction of the first CM, the crew raised many issues with management and the contractor that were not adequately addressed. Grissom placed a lemon on the CM simulator to express the crew's lack of faith in the manufacturing, and the crew was photographed praying with a model of the CM, as if they knew something dreadful was due to happen.
During the pad test, there were problems with electrical systems and the ECS, the environmental control system controlling the CM's interior climate. Communications between the spacecraft, the block house (the launch control center) and another building with technicians were spotty, often receiving stray air traffic control transmissions. Grissom remarks how can they get to the Moon if they can't communicate between two or three buildings... Then, all of a sudden, came word of a fire in the spacecraft. In less than 30 seconds, the crew was dead of asphyxiation.
Why did the accident happen?
In the rush to meet JFK's deadline of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the decade, many things were overlooked:
- NASA failed to listen to the concerns of the astronauts who would be operating the spacecraft. Tom Stafford, Lt Gen (Ret), USAF, veteran of Gemini 6A, Gemini 9A, Apollo 10 and ASTP, added insight during remarks opening the new Apollo 1 exhibit described in the last section of this post. He reminded the audience that Gus Grissom spent two years living and working out at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis to ensure the Gemini capsules were flight ready when they left the production line. This attention to detail was overlooked by NASA when they selected North American Aviation of Downey, California (best known for building aircraft like the P-51 Mustang and X-15) to build the Apollo CM and SM. Most of NASA's liaisons were test pilots from the second and third groups of astronauts with no space flight experience. They did not yet have the skills to communicate to NAA's designers and builders what Grissom relayed from Florida, and when Grissom did visit Downey, the NAA engineers still didn't get it. Had an experienced astronaut been living and working at the NAA plant, the problems with the Apollo CM would have been noticed and corrected long before a faulty product put astronauts in peril.
- Many flammable materials had escaped quality control checks, not to mention moving parts such as the flap in the ECS air duct which had an edge sharp enough to breach wiring insulation and spark a fire (the believed source of the spark by those who knew the CM). Such was the rush to get the capsule done that many parts included in the CM did not have complete tracking, as McDonnell's Mercury/Gemini capsules before had (and every CM built by NAA/Rockwell after would).
- The 16 psi (higher than normal atmospheric 14.5 psi) pressure pure oxygen atmosphere, taken for granted during Mercury and Gemini, fueled the fire and left no oxygen for the crew to breathe. The pressurized capsule was designed to exert pressure to help seal the inward opening internal hatch, and made it impossible to open the hatch quickly until the vent was fully open to equalize capsule and outside air pressure. The vent control was on Grissom's side of the capsule, where the fire is believed to have started. (The heat of the fire caused the capsule to crack open, which finally allowed the hatch to be opened to extract the bodies.)
- And last but not least, the accidental opening of Liberty Bell 7's hatch at the end of Grissom's first flight would ultimately kill him. NASA had NAA design a much more complex three-layer hatch for Apollo that could not be easily or accidentally opened, and this prevented pad technicians from rescuing the crew; many had burns and inhaled thick smoke through faulty gas masks in the five minutes it took to open the hatch. As flight director Gene Kranz would say, nobody had the courage to say "STOP!" when these problems arose, because everyone in the Apollo program had "go fever".
It would be nearly 21 months before a thoroughly redesigned and tested manned CM launched from pad 34 on Apollo 7, with Eisele as part of the crew in October 1968, the only flight launched from that pad. The Saturn I-B rocket intended to launch Apollo 1 was used on Apollo 5, the first unmanned flight of the LM in January 1968.
Grissom, White and Chaffee were the first (and only) American astronauts to die in a ground spacecraft accident.
What can/did we learn from this?
The Apollo 1 accident reminded us that every worthwhile endeavor in life comes with risks, and that not properly accounting for and managing those risks is a recipe for disaster.
The redesign of the CM ensured that not even days of condensation in deep space would cause short circuits if a CM was shut down and then restarted in flight, as happened on Apollo 13 in April 1970. The atmosphere would be a normal pressure 40% oxygen/60% nitrogen mix until the spacecraft was in space, where a much lower pressure pure oxygen one took over. The three-layer hatch was replaced with a robust outward-opening one that could be opened in five seconds in an emergency.
The fact that the CM's flaws were found on the ground was also a huge blessing in disguise, as Stafford pointed out. If the accident had happened in flight, there would be no way to fully know what went wrong.
What do we still have to learn?
Apollo 13 was categorized as NASA's most successful failure, but it could have been avoided. Even with NASA's attention to detail in the wake of Apollo 1, three things were overlooked in the SM to be used on that flight. First was the liquid oxygen tank #2, which still had its original 28 volt thermostat long after NASA and NAA had updated ground power to 65 volts. Second was damage to the tank shelf assembly when it was dropped while loading it into the SM, which damaged internal piping crucial to proper operation of the system. Third was ground technicians using an unapproved shortcut to boil off excess pressure by turning on the tank heaters. The damaged piping prompted the boil off, and when tank #2's heaters were turned on, 65 volts fused the 28 volt thermostat, causing longer than normal to get the tank pressure down, and heating the tank to many hundreds of degrees. This burned insulation of the wiring to that tank's cryogenic stir fans. As the first 55 hours 54 minutes (approx.) of the mission went by, two cryo stirs did not explode since there was not yet enough gaseous oxygen in the tank. The third cryo stir did the trick, exploding the top of LOX tank #2 which expanded and took out its fuel cell and the quarter panel on its way out into space. The damaged piping also prevented the crew from isolating LOX tank #1 and its fuel cell, a problem fixed on future Apollo SMs. And before I leave the Apollo program behind, what kind of bureaucracy specifies different types of Lithium Hydroxide filters (the CO2 air scrubbers) for the CM (square cube) and the LM (round cylinder)? We were extremely lucky to get the crew home safe.
Unfortunately, "go fever" afflicted NASA management again in January 1986, trying to keep space shuttles launching on a routine schedule, and ignoring Morton Thiokol's SRB experts' recommendation not to launch shuttle Challenger on January 28, when launch temperatures were expected to be at or slightly below freezing (32F/0C), and their own normal redline was 39F.
They ignored the fact that rubber o-rings in the solid rocket booster's field expansion joints shrink when exposed to temperatures below 53F, allowing hot exhaust to erode past the seal as the joints flex or rotate in flight, and could not properly expand to fill them at 30F, a fact demonstrated during the accident review board by physicist Richard Feynman soaking a piece of the o-ring in a glass of ice water to show how rigid the cold made it. Several times before, the o-rings had come close to the same erosion failure that claimed Challenger. A system with a projected 1-in-30 failure rate failed on flight 25.
The joints were redesigned to contain three o-rings instead of two, and the NASA and Thiokol administrators who green-lighted the launch lost their jobs. Once again, a case of not properly managing risks.
And who knew styrofoam could puncture a shuttle wing? That's what doomed Columbia on January 16, 2003, as a 2 pound piece of foam from the shuttle's huge external tank (covering the front support where the shuttle attached to the ET) broke loose and struck reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel 8 on the left wing. This 25 cm hole in the RCC panel, which provided only heat protection on reentry and no structural integrity to the craft, would be fatal to Columbia and her crew. As with Challenger's o-ring problems, there had been previous foam hits from the ET to the other shuttles in the fleet. The video of launch was reviewed the day after, and NASA overlooked it. They communicated the launch review to the mission commander and their lack of concern. NASA was also under pressure to keep its schedule of ISS building flights on track before a penny-pinching Congress cut the purse strings.
Without adequate repair options, the shuttle disintegrated on reentry February 1 as the hole in the wing allowed the extra-hot gases of reentry to cause sensors to fail before heating and causing the internal left wing structure to fail, and the shuttle broke apart as the thrusters automatically tried to compensate for the imbalance. Another case of not properly accounting for and managing that risk.
Legacy
Because of poor risk management, NASA has lost 14 astronauts and two spacecraft in flight, plus the three astronauts and the CM from Apollo 1. (And came very close to losing Apollo 13.) When it comes to crew safety, failure is NOT an option with a tough and competent staff, the two words Kranz demanded all his flight controllers write on their blackboards and principles they would live by until JFK's goal was accomplished.
And we still need to learn/remember that flying into space will always be risky. Always. SpaceX and Boeing (who bought NAA/Rockwell) need to keep that in mind as they bring the first private American crew capsules online, and NASA must keep that in mind for the Orion MPCV and Constellation program, assuming President Trump revives it as a first step towards longer range exploration of space.
The KSC Tribute Exhibit
As part of the commemoration, NASA's Kennedy Space Center has added a new exhibit about Apollo 1 and its crew. It is called "Ad Astra Per Aspera -- A Rough Road Leads to the Stars", a phrase from one of the commerative plaques attached to pad 34. In addition to personal momentos of the crew, NASA has finally allowed one part of the Apollo 1 spacecraft to be publicly displayed: the charred CM hatch. Alongside the three layers of the hatch is also displayed the easy-open hatch NAA/Rockwell designed to replace it, a design that flew on every CM built over the next eight years.
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Grim Reapings: a 2016 MEGA edition. :((
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Posted:Dec 19, 2016 1:02 am
Last Updated:May 26, 2017 10:49 am
11866 Views
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What is up with 2016? This year seems to be on a record pace for celebrity deaths.
2014 and 2015 had some but well spaced out.
2016's already long roster of memorials just added Dr. Henry Heimlich at 96, and Zsa Zsa Gabor at 99. Too bad she missed Kirk Douglas' 100th birthday party December 17. LOL
These two came just days after Alan Thicke died suddenly at 69.
What a year. The Grim Reaper has been working overtime.
A highlight list of the 200+ The GR took in 2016... (Updates as of May 26, 2017)
- Dr. Henry Heimlich, medical genius and "maneuver" namesake for saving choking victims
- Sari "Zsa Zsa" Gabor, middle of the great Hungarian sister actresses and great aunt of Paris Hilton
- TV star, host and musician Alan Thicke (Robin's father) from a ruptured aorta
- George S. Irving, Broadway actor also remembered for narrating Underdog and voicing Running Board on its included segment series Go Go Gophers
- Louise O'Brien, Miss Oklahoma 1950 and frequent singer for Pat Boone, Jack Paar and Mitch Miller on early TV variety/talk shows
- Patty Duke, her TV boyfriend Eddie Applegate, and her TV dad (and Trek vet) William Schallert
- Actors Alan Rickman (Harry Potter series) and Peter Vaughan (Game of Thrones)
- David Bowie Goodbye to the OTHER David Jones Bowie 19472016
- Vanity (Vanity 6)
- Prince Prince39s Purple Reign is over
- Authors Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird and its prequel Go Set A Watchman), Elie Wiesel (Night), W.P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe/Field of Dreams) and Richard Adams (Watership Down)
- Keith Emerson (suicide) and Greg Lake (cancer) from Emerson, Lake & Palmer
- Bernard Fox (Dr. Bombay from Bewitched, among his many roles)
- Glenn Frey of the Eagles
- Tom Whedon, prolific TV writer whose career spanned genres and 40 years from the first decade of Captain Kangaroo and The Electric Company to Benson and The Golden Girls (father of film and TV screenwriter Joss Whedon)
- Pat Harrington Jr. (Schneider from One Day at a Time, among his many roles)
- The mayor (David Marguiles) and librarian (Alice Drummond) from the original Ghostbusters film
- Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams)
- Ken Adam, production designer for Dr. Strangelove and the classic Bond films
- Barney Miller alums Abe Vigoda, Ron Glass and frequent guest Don Calfa
- Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane/Starship)
- Maurice White (Earth, Wind and Fire)
- Frank Sinatra Jr.
- Garry Shandling
- Merle Haggard
- Morley Safer, CBC and CBS journalist
- Alan Young, the human foil of Mister Ed
- Bluegrass pioneer Ralph Stanley
- Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore
- Director Michael Cimino (of Heaven's Gate infamy)
- Noel Neill, modern media's first Lois Lane
- Garry Marshall, who kept Paramount TV rolling in cash in the 1970s before making films like Pretty Woman
- Miss Cleo ( She should have seen that coming LOL )
- Kenny Baker, R2D2 and Ewok extraordinaire
- Toots Thielemans, the Belgian harmonica player heard on the original Sesame Street theme (and Billy Joel's "Leave A Tender Moment Alone")
- Morton Schindel, founder of legendary Weston Woods Studios (I bet a lot of from my generation and slightly earlier saw a few Weston Woods filmstrips and movies in school )
- Ice Road Truckers star Darrell Ward and Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernández Famous people and small craft accidents Why
- Gene Wilder
- Pete Burns, lead singer of the band Dead or Alive ("You Spin Me 'Round (Like a Record)")
- Bobby Vee, whose band filled in for Buddy Holly after he died (see the famous people and small craft post link).
- Robert Vaughn (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.)
- Sir George Martin, legendary record producer
- Leonard Cohen
- Pete Sumner ("TK-421, why aren't you at your post?" of Star Wars fame)
- Florence Henderson (no Christmas miracle for Carol Brady this year  )
- Journalist Gwen Ifill
- Grant Tinker (ex-hubby and TV exec of Mary Tyler Moore)
- Van Williams (The Green Hornet on TV)
- Margaret Whitton (Auntie Vera in The Secret of My Success, and the Indians owner in the Major League films)
- Leon Russell
- Marni Nixon, singer and sometime actress (Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music)
- Playwrights Peter Shaffer (Amadeus) and Edward Albee (Virginia Woolf)
- Cassius Clay The Greatest Ali, 19422016
- Sportscasters John Saunders, Craig Sager and Bud Collins
- Former NFL players Joe McKnight, Will Smith and Robert Eddins, by gun violence
- Aubrey McClendon, the thief and former Chesapeake Energy CEO who stole the Seattle SuperSonics and moved them to Oklahoma City despite his promise not to move the team.
- Former Baseball players Tony Phillips, Ralph Branca and Milt Pappas, among many others
- Former NBA players Nate Thurmond and Dwayne "Pearl" Washington
- Army sophomore cornerback Brandon Jackson in a car wreck
- Nebraska punter Sam Foltz and former Michigan State punter Mike Sadler in a car wreck coming from a football camp
- X Games icon Dave Mirra
- The last surviving Mercury 7 astronaut and former Ohio Senator, John H. Glenn Jr., Col (RET), USMC
- Former Ohio Governor and Senator George Voinovich
- Anton Yelchin, Chekov from the JJ Abrams Trek movies, in a very freak out-of-car car accident
- Phyllis Schafly, the conservative lawyer, author and activist whose efforts kept the Equal Rights Amendment from being ratified
- 1994 Heisman Trophy winner for Colorado, running back Rashaan Salaam, suicide at age 42 in a Boulder park
- Jean Shepard, the "Grand Lady" of the Grand Old Opry, the first female to clock 50 years as a member of country music's grand chapel
- Most of one of Brazil's soccer teams in a horrific plane crash
- Golf legend Arnold Palmer
- Longtime Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt
- Former NFL coaches Buddy Ryan, Dennis Green and Ted Marchibroda
- NHL hockey legend Gordie Howe
- Dayton sophomore basketball player Steve McElvene
- WWE wrestler Chyna (Joan Laurer) from an accidental drug/alcohol overdose
- Nancy Reagan
- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
- Clinton's Attorney General Janet Reno
- Former Israeli leader Shimon Peres and former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro
- Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt
- Wham! singer George Michael
- Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds (see below)
- The Chicago Cubs' 108 year baseball championship drought
- Cleveland, Ohio's pro sports championship drought (thanks to the Cavaliers)
- Legendary BYU football coach LaVell Edwards, complications from a Christmas Eve broken hip at 86
- Robert Hulseman, inventor of the most ubiquitous party and tailgate accessory: the Solo red plastic cup
- William Christopher, TV's Father Mulcahy on MASH and AfterMASH, on Dec 31.
- Urban Meyer's streak of never being shut out. G.D. referees...
Let's hope 2017 gives us a reprieve. The Grim Reaper has earned some vacation time.
DECEMBER 28 UPDATE: Many actors mention enough already or as if 2016 couldn't get any worse... The GR has also taken Princess Leia and her mother. Carrie Fisher suffered a massive heart attack December 23 en route from London to LAX, 15 minutes before the flight landed, and was reportedly not breathing for about 10 minutes. And apparently never recovered. She died December 27, and sadly, her mother died the very next day, apparently from a stroke while planning Carrie's funeral.
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