Phyllis Diller Passes Away

Phyllis Diller, a very rare lady passes away.  Joe Lizura, August 20, 2012.  One of my favorite entertainers has passed away, but I will always remember here fondly.  When I was a child growing up on the 60s and 70s, Phyllis Diller was always a comedic fixture.  You could find her on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at least 3 or 4 times a year, as well as on any special Bob Hope was performing on as well.  She led a wonderful life and was a Vegas regular entertaining hundreds of thousands of people a year. 

Here is the story from Yahoo:  Legendary comedienne Phyllis Diller, who blazed a trail for a generation of female comics with her self-deprecating stand-up routines, has died at age 95, according to TMZ.

Diller had been suffering health problems as of late: She recently hurt her hip and wrist in a fall and has been living under hospice care at her home. She passed away there, surrounded by family.

FAMOUS QUOTES FROM PHYLLIS DILLERThe wild-haired comedienne enjoyed a six-decade-long career: She started out in stand-up in 1952, and first rose to fame on TV with a series of TV specials alongside Bob Hope in the 1960s. She starred in several TV shows based around her act ("The Phyllis Diller Show," "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show") and often appeared on the seminal '60s variety show "Laugh-In."

In recent years, Diller reveled in her role as an elder statesman of comedy, outdoing much younger comedians in the 2005 documentary "The Aristocrats" and even performing a routine on "The Tonight Show" in 2007, at the tender age of 90.

She is an entertainer I will very much miss, RIP - Joe Lizura

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William Shatner is Back!

August 15, 2012.  Priceline has done it again!  First they killed of William Shatner as the negotiator and now they've brought him back from the dead!  Check it out, here is some of the story -

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Priceline is bringing back popular pitchman William Shatner in a new television ad, seven months after "killing" his character in a bus crash spot.

The online travel site has seen its own high-flying stock plunge in the past week on bad news out of its European unit, although shares were up 1.5% in midday trading Wednesday on the news.

The new spot, which is now available online and will start airing on TV on Thursday, doesn't explain how Shatner's "Priceline Negotiator" character survived the fiery bus crash shown in the January ad.

The ad shows Shatner on a beach, wearing a business suit with the legs rolled up and holding a surfboard. An executive comes up to him and says, "You've been busy for a dead man. After you jumped ship in Bangkok, I thought I'd lost you." Shatner replies, "Surfing is my life now."
He then launches into his spiel about Priceline saving customers money. The executive says, "You still have it," and Shatner responds, "I'll always have it."

Shatner, best known for his role as death-defying James Kirk in "Star Trek," remained under contract with Priceline even while he was missing from its ads. His contract runs through early next year, and while it hasn't been extended, he said Wednesday that he expects it will be, especially given the new campaign. He has been the company's spokesman for more than 14 years, almost from its start.

Gotta love "The Negotiator" - Joe Lizura

Bear with a Beer problem

What a funny story!  Check out this story about a family of bears who break into a cabin and drink over 100 beers! Here is the story -

A family of bears has broken into a holiday cabin in Norway and consumed more than 100 cans of beer.

A mother bear and her three cubs broke into the wooden lodge in the north of the country by ripping off a wall, according to Norway's Finnmarken newspaper, and went on to eat and drink nearly all its contents.

The cabin’s owner, Even Borthen Nilsen, told reporters that over 100 cans of Norwegian beer - stored in the hut in preparation for the autumn hunting season - had disappeared.
Bear excrement and footprints – and an awful stench – left him in no doubt that it was the animals that had trashed the place during a night of revelry.

The carnage was discovered by Mr Borthen Nilsen’s mother and grandmother when they returned to the family-owned 26-square foot hut in Jarfjord in Finnmarken.
The bears had also polished off their store of marshmallows, chocolate spread and honey.
Mr Borthen Nilsen, who has studied natural resource management and bears, said: "They had a hell of a party in there.

"The entire cabin was destroyed. The beds and all kitchen appliances, stove, oven and cupboards and shelves were all smashed to pieces.
"They have bitten into the cans and drunk the beer.
"It's almost like taken out of Goldilocks and the three bears."

He added that now that the mother had shown her cubs how to get into the cabin and given them a taste for beer, he feared they might come back for more.

Definitely something to watch out for!

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The 2 Year Old Future Olympic Diver

August 9, 2012.  This morning on Good Morning America, there was the cutes story (along with video) of the 2 year toddler who had been watching the Olympics and decided that she wanted to try Diving!  Here is the link:  http://news.yahoo.com/video/entertainment-959800/diving-toddler-s-father-i-figured-she-had-been-watching-the-olympics-30231291.html#crsl=%252Fvideo%252Fentertainment-959800%252Fdiving-toddler-s-father-i-figured-she-had-been-watching-the-olympics-30231291.html

The video is very cute!  And, I hope she goes for her dreams and becomes an Olympic diver one day!

Joe_Lizura - Lochness Monster Story

August 8, 2012 Joe Lizura San Diego, CA.  So I stumbled upon this interesting story about the latest sighting of the "Nessie" more formally known as the Lochness Monster.  Here is a link to the story from the MSN homepage.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48496067/ns/technology_and_science-science/

What's interesting about the story is not so much the fact that there is another claim of a sighting of the Lochness Monster itself - it's interesting, but because of its distance from the shoreline and lack of other objects to be used as a reference point to the size of the "hump" thought to have been photographed, it's more likely not the monster at all.

But that wasn't what was of interest to me.  What really caught my eye was the Castle in the background of the picture, which doesn't look too spectacular in the photo.  I saw the name of the castle was the Urqhart Castle.  Just for fun, if you want to read a great story about the castle, click here on the Urqhart Castle link - it turns out that in it's day it was one of the largest castles in all of Scotland!  It's history is also well documented, so in a kind of nerdy way, it's a fun little read - check it out!  Oh, and as for the photo of the monster in the lake - is it just me or is there nothing in the water to see at all???

Have a great weekend!

Joe Lizura
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