10. Dom DeLuise
I’ll always remember him from The Muppet Movie and All Dogs Go To Heaven – that, and growing up I always confused him with Paul Prudhomme.
9. Bea Arthur
The world lost at least 25% of its sass that day.
8. Patrick Swayze
His inclusion is more for Karyn, though his struggle with pancreatic cancer was quite admirable.
7. Soupy Sales
I’ll admit it – I’m a game show addict, and his appearances on the Match Game were some of the best. My parents remember his innovation in television comedy, and I’ll never look at a cream pie the same way ever again.
6. Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein
Let’s face it – the guy survives a near-fatal plane crash only to be killed by an overdose less than a year later. Admirable? Not so much, but his memory will live on.
5. James Owen “The Rev” Sullivan
Drummer for Avenged Sevenfold, The Rev passed away in late December – one of the last to make the cut. He was 28 years old…too young to die. (But then again, who isn’t?)
4. Edward Kennedy
The Liberal Lion. Without his efforts, perhaps the health care debate wouldn’t have reached the point it has. (I’m still keeping my fingers crossed.)
3. John Hughes
In my senior year of high school, I did a presentation about The Breakfast Club. The movie has become one of my ultimate favorites, and I’ll never forget what Hughes did for the genre – he made it slightly more realistic.
2. Les Paul
Music as we know it would not be the same without the innovations of Les Paul.
1. Billy Mays
Okay, I’m going to try and elaborate a little bit on this one, since Mr. Mays is a strange choice. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been fascinated by infomercials. I’ll stay up late or wake up early to catch a bit of the Showtime Rotisserie Grill, the Magic Bullet, hell, anything presented in long-form informercial form is something that will catch my attention. And then the world gave us Billy Mays, and everything was changed. He was able to compress the energy and urgency of a regular infomercial into a few sweet minutes. He got your attention, and he kept it. He wouldn’t advertise anything that didn’t work, which is why to this day my family still uses Oxi-Clean and Kaboom. He was taken from us far too early in life – June 28, 2009 – and the world will never be the same.
So to you, Mr. Mays, I raise a toast. It’s hot chocolate, but it’s heartfelt nonetheless. May you be pitching wherever you are now, and I hope that whoever you’re with has a lifetime supply of Mighty Putty and Hercules Hooks, because they’ll absolutely need them.
This year, I was evicted from my little box and moved into a bigger, larger office! With computers! And windows! (Not to mention some of the best people I’ve ever met.)
What has me the most nervous, though, is that I’ve never done any geologic work of this caliber before. The most I’ve ever mapped is a tiny square on campus, not anywhere near this large. Also, the fact that I’ll be away for nearly a month and don’t know much about how I’ll be able to be in touch with my family and friends is a big worry. What if something happens at home? A dear friend recently took a European vacation, and the day she landed she found out that her father passed away. Third biggest worry? I’m one of three girls going. There are thirteen guys. That’s more than a little unbalanced…I just hope I get along with them.
Kabuto are the Pokémon equivalent of my favorite little prehistoric sea creatures, trilobites! Unlike the real thing, these can be reanimated and can be your little in game pixel friends.
True story #485: I’m hopelessly in love with the third dimension.
My friend Misty lives in the small town of Gillespie, IL. It’s approximately an hour north of St. Louis, and is smack dab in the middle of a formerly mining county. Reports say that mine subsidence, or sinking and shifting of the earth’s surface due to an underground mine collapse, is common in the area. On Saturday, the principal of the school noticed cracks all through the foundation of the school – and declared that it had to be closed indefinitely, and can potentially never be reopened. Now, officials are panicing because nobody knows what to do with the students now that their $7.5 million, 7 year old school is unusable.
Melissa, on the other hand, lives a bit further north, just outside of Fargo, ND on the Minnesota side. Her husband, Z, has been tracking the flooding in his own blog, 
