Death by X-Spot
For whatever reason, when I wrote academic papers, or parts of the dissertation, some of the people featured in those pages croaked within a few months or so. I chalked it up to coincidence. But now, the phenomenon seems to have followed me into cyberspace. Some of the people I’ve mentioned here were alive when I posted about them, but have since passed away.
From the descriptions below, can you identify the lucky decedents who at least lived long enough to see their names in The X-Spot? A point for each one. No fair Googling.
1. Actress and songwriter for Elvis Presley; co-starred in Glen/Glenda; played by Sarah Jessica Parker in the film Ed Wood.
2. Singer/songwriter known for her advertising jingles and the song “Poetry Man”; claimed to have had an encounter with an extraterrestrial.
3. Controversial Los Angeles Police Chief.
4. Attorney, former JFK advisor and speechwriter; advisor to Ted Kennedy; he represented an early nemesis of Ralph Nader.
5. Singer, actor, and sausage maker; best known for the song “Big, Bad John” and for his role in Diamonds Are Forever.
6. Professor and activist; best known for his book A People’s History of the United States.
7. Musician known as the “King of Pop”; former son-in-law of Elvis Presley.
8. Actress; best known for her roles on Maude and The Golden Girls.
9. A 1960s folk singer; the last name mentioned in a famous trio.
10. Musician; last surviving original member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
11. Former baseball player; most famous as a live Las Vegas entertainer.
12. Scion of a wealthy Saudi family; cited as the founder of Al-Qaeda.
13. Actor, political activist, food company founder, and race car driver; won a Best Actor Oscar for The Color of Money/
14. Minister; the oldest of Charles Manson’s followers; the father of one of Manson’s youngest followers.
15. Cuban-American spy; participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion; one of the Watergate burglars.
16. Professor of media studies (University of Western Ontario); friend of Marshall McLuhan; famous for writing the books Subliminal Seduction and The Clam-Plate Orgy.
17. Notorious artist manager; his clients included Sam Cooke, the Beatles, and The Rolling Stones.
18. Musician and actor: famous for such songs as “I’m a Man”; appeared in Trading Places, and Blues Brothers 2000.
19. Former spy, stationed in South America: recruited other spies through a YMCA basketball program; best known for his book Inside the Company: A CIA Diary.
20. Former President of Iraq: someone surreptitiously recorded his execution on a cell phone.
21. Musician; member of The Country Music Hall of Fame; known for such songs as “Gone” and “Wings of a Dove”; appeared in the movie Swamp Girl.
22. Hitman; alleged assassin of JFK; father of a famous actor.
23. Filmmaker: produced such legendary grindhouse fare as Color Me Blood Red, Space Thing, and Blood Feast.
24. Statesman; scion of a political family; two of his brothers were assassinated; walked into a “bear trap” in 1969.
25. Murderess and minister; mentored by Anton LaVey and Charles Manson: terminally ill when I began a series featuring her.
26. Beatles chauffer and road manager; former CEO of Apple Corps; rumored double of Paul McCartney.
27. Former CIA case officer, and ultraconservative political columnist; National Review editor.
28. Actress; best known for numerous roles she played in all five Star Trek series.
29. Reclusive author; best known for his novel Catcher in the Rye.
30. Standup comedian and actor; appeared in Prince of Tides, Dogma, and Car Wash, but best known for seven words.
31. American/British writer; most famous as a contributor to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
32. Highly esteemed television journalist; CBS News anchor succeeded by Dan Rather.
33. Actor and gun activist; best known for such lines as “Solyent Green is People!“ and “Take your hands off of me, you damned dirty ape!“; although politically conservative, he marched in support of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1963.
From the descriptions below, can you identify the lucky decedents who at least lived long enough to see their names in The X-Spot? A point for each one. No fair Googling.
1. Actress and songwriter for Elvis Presley; co-starred in Glen/Glenda; played by Sarah Jessica Parker in the film Ed Wood.
2. Singer/songwriter known for her advertising jingles and the song “Poetry Man”; claimed to have had an encounter with an extraterrestrial.
3. Controversial Los Angeles Police Chief.
4. Attorney, former JFK advisor and speechwriter; advisor to Ted Kennedy; he represented an early nemesis of Ralph Nader.
5. Singer, actor, and sausage maker; best known for the song “Big, Bad John” and for his role in Diamonds Are Forever.
6. Professor and activist; best known for his book A People’s History of the United States.
7. Musician known as the “King of Pop”; former son-in-law of Elvis Presley.
8. Actress; best known for her roles on Maude and The Golden Girls.
9. A 1960s folk singer; the last name mentioned in a famous trio.
10. Musician; last surviving original member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
11. Former baseball player; most famous as a live Las Vegas entertainer.
12. Scion of a wealthy Saudi family; cited as the founder of Al-Qaeda.
13. Actor, political activist, food company founder, and race car driver; won a Best Actor Oscar for The Color of Money/
14. Minister; the oldest of Charles Manson’s followers; the father of one of Manson’s youngest followers.
15. Cuban-American spy; participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion; one of the Watergate burglars.
16. Professor of media studies (University of Western Ontario); friend of Marshall McLuhan; famous for writing the books Subliminal Seduction and The Clam-Plate Orgy.
17. Notorious artist manager; his clients included Sam Cooke, the Beatles, and The Rolling Stones.
18. Musician and actor: famous for such songs as “I’m a Man”; appeared in Trading Places, and Blues Brothers 2000.
19. Former spy, stationed in South America: recruited other spies through a YMCA basketball program; best known for his book Inside the Company: A CIA Diary.
20. Former President of Iraq: someone surreptitiously recorded his execution on a cell phone.
21. Musician; member of The Country Music Hall of Fame; known for such songs as “Gone” and “Wings of a Dove”; appeared in the movie Swamp Girl.
22. Hitman; alleged assassin of JFK; father of a famous actor.
23. Filmmaker: produced such legendary grindhouse fare as Color Me Blood Red, Space Thing, and Blood Feast.
24. Statesman; scion of a political family; two of his brothers were assassinated; walked into a “bear trap” in 1969.
25. Murderess and minister; mentored by Anton LaVey and Charles Manson: terminally ill when I began a series featuring her.
26. Beatles chauffer and road manager; former CEO of Apple Corps; rumored double of Paul McCartney.
27. Former CIA case officer, and ultraconservative political columnist; National Review editor.
28. Actress; best known for numerous roles she played in all five Star Trek series.
29. Reclusive author; best known for his novel Catcher in the Rye.
30. Standup comedian and actor; appeared in Prince of Tides, Dogma, and Car Wash, but best known for seven words.
31. American/British writer; most famous as a contributor to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
32. Highly esteemed television journalist; CBS News anchor succeeded by Dan Rather.
33. Actor and gun activist; best known for such lines as “Solyent Green is People!“ and “Take your hands off of me, you damned dirty ape!“; although politically conservative, he marched in support of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1963.
Labels: gamesd
posted by X. Dell @ 8:25 AM
24 Comments:
At 9:14 AM,
foam said…
6. Howard Zinn
33. Charleton Heston
30. George Carlin
7. Michael Jackson
12. Osama Bin Laden
eh ... i'm having a brain bubble about many of them. it's one of those situations where it's on the tip of my tongue.
At 9:30 AM,
foam said…
answered by pintopswamp ... who went back to work
6. Howard Zimm
33. Charlton Heston
3. Gates
4. Schlesinger
7. Michael Jackson
8. Bee Arthur
9. Mary ........
10. Mitch Mitchel, Noel Redding
12. Osama Bin Laden
13. Paul Newman
17. Brian Epstein
20 Saddam Hussein (I knew that .. overlooked the question)
.......
At 9:40 AM,
foam said…
29.. jd salinger
24. ted kennedy
22. lee harvey oswald
16. somebody Key ... (we have that book around somewhere)
(These were some that I initially overlooked. some that pinetopswamp mentioned filled in my brain bubble moments, but he's always better at trivia)
At 10:06 AM,
X. Dell said…
Let's see, Foam. Counting this up, I see that you've given me sixteen answers, eleven of which are correct (I'll take Mary for Mary Travers, Gates for Daryl Gates, and Key for Brian Wilson Key). Although Arthur Schlesinger passed away after I began The X-Spot, I've never mentioned him, either on the main page or the comments (until now). By the same token, I've never mentioned Bea Arthur (that should narrow it down, though). Lee Oswald and Brian Epstein died four decades before the X-Spot's first post (besides, Epstein was a good manager). And though you've narrowed the list of answers to number 10 down to two, only one of the men you mentioned died after the inaguration of this site.
Otherwise, everything else is right.
At 10:06 AM,
Holy Cannoli said…
I just wanted to stop by your blog and say hello. Interesting post.
At 11:18 AM,
X. Dell said…
Hey, Cannoli, great to see you. You're always welcome here.
So is your husband, BTW.
At 12:26 PM,
Ray said…
Let me take a crack at what's left unanswered so far.
1. Delores Fuller (known for her angora sweater scene in "Glen Or Glenda?")
5. Jimmy Dean (Portrayed a Howard Hughes type of character in "Diamonds Are Forever.")
23. Herschell Gordon Lewis (Was the inspiration for the name of the hero in the Christian gore movie "Blood Freak.")
27. Williamn F.Buckley (Described "Atlas Shrugged" as "dessicated" but he didn't read it; the book was too long.)
32. Walter Cronkite (LBJ decided the gig was up when Uncle Walter came out against the Vietnam War.)
(Hey, what kind of word verification is this? priest ? C'mon, Blogspot, you can do better than that.)
At 1:48 PM,
X. Dell said…
Ray, perhaps word verification is trying to get you back in mass.
I had to double check Herschell Gordon Lewis to make sure he didn't die in the last twenty-four hours. The good news is he's still alive. The bad news is you missed the question (although you're very, very close).
The rest of your answers are correct, though.
At 6:38 PM,
Charles Gramlich said…
8, 12, 33. That's my guesses.
At 6:47 PM,
X. Dell said…
And they're very good guesses, Charles.
At 3:28 AM,
Ray said…
You're right -- I was wrong on #23. I checked IMDB and came across a name that's unfamiliar to me. I won't say what it is because I "cheated" and someone else might get the correct answer. Once again I've learned something new through this blog.
BTW, in case you didn't know, if you like goodbad movies, check out http://www.archive.org/details/movies . The films are in the public domain and can be legally downloaded. My recommendations: Cat-Women of the Moon; UFO Target Earth; Fiend Without A face; and Teenagers Battle The Thing, remade as Curse of Bigfoot.
Word verification: pectsyot. (That's more like it.) Sounds like some sort of fungus infection in the breast area suffered by sweaty weight lifters.
At 3:33 AM,
Ray said…
And to follow up on Charles' comment:
42
At 6:41 AM,
X. Dell said…
Sorry, Ray. Too early in my morning for a Douglas Addams allusion.
I practically live on archive.org. Not only do they have the wayback machine, and grindhouse flicks, but there are a lot of conspiracy podcasts that wind up there.
At 8:32 PM,
Susan said…
1. Ed Wood's girlfriend--I won't google anything, so I can't remember her name.
2.Phoebe Snow
3. Okay, he was the one when Rodney King was around--don't remember his name--I remember that his name was everywhere and he felt that he did a great job.
4. Arthur (sp) Slesinger
5. Jimmy Dean
6. That isn't Cornell West, and Noam Chomsky is too easy, so I don't know.
7. Michael Jackson, who died a very suspicious death. If you wrote about him, I must not have been blogging or I would have commented tons. I love MJ.
8. Bea Arthur
9. Mary
10. He died not so long ago, not Buddy Miles--don't remember the name. Helped give Hendrix his sound.
11. Well, it can't be Tim McGraw's father! I'll guess: Wayne Newton
12. OBL is what comes to mind, but I bet he isn't who you mean.
13. Paul Newman, who should have won for Cool Hand Luke and Hud
14. Okay, not the dude who went to jail, got married and had tons of offspring--he was Chuck the second, wait--L. Ron Hubbard?
15. G. Gordon Liddy and that is a guess.
16. no idea
17. Klein, Allen, I believe is his first name. Not only did I read about him in your series on Sam Cooke, but he also was a key part of You Never Give Me Your Money--a book about life after the Beatles breakup.
18. I want to say Eddie Murphy as he does sing, but I thought it was "Party All the Time." It isn't Nick Nolte. I never saw BB 2000--just couldn't do it.
19. no idea
20. Saddam is the only President of Iraq I know of, and he was killed when cell phones would record such things.
22. I can only think of Lee Harvey Oswalt--don't know anything about his offspring, but I doubt he was the shooter in the JFK murder.
21. C and W singers that act: Dwight Yoakem, Tim McGraw, Kris K, Clint Black (it isn't any of them as far as I know) it isn't Waylon, Johnny or Merle. No idea.
23. No idea. Ed Wood did porn when his B career fell apart.
24. Teddy Kennedy?
25. I read that series too. I remember that she petitioned for parole and was denied. Leslie Van Horte?
26. Oh, on the tip of my tongue--not Klein, a longtime Beatle associate--I don't remember the Paul thing, but I remember reading about the disbandment of Apple.
27. Buckley, yes?
28. Oh, John mentions her a lot--Maeve Baring or something--she played the nurse and the computer voice, she played Troi's mother--I don't remember her other roles
29. J.D. Salinger--that was easy
30. Richard Pryor
31. no idea
32. God, I was just talking about him--Walter Cronkite
33. Chuck Heston RIP
I'll wait for your reply, then I will check them and kick myself in the rear.
At 8:40 PM,
Susan said…
William Buckley, btw. I almost wrote Tim Buckley and caught myself.
That Beatles one is ticking me off; it's not George Martin as he was a producer. Here's a guess: Linda Eastman's father got involved in the Beatles as a counterpower to Klein, but he didn't found Apple. Damn--I'm dying to look it up, but I'll be good.
Susan again--too lazy to sign in.
At 9:27 PM,
X. Dell said…
Well, Susan, you're the first to get numbers 2 and 17. You also got 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 20, 24, 27, 29, 32 and 33 correct, but either Foam or Ray beat you to the answer. Your descriptions of 3 and 28 are accurate, even though you don't have the name.
At 2:33 AM,
SJ said…
Since all the answers I could have guessed without El Goog are already taken I wont be chiming in with my awesome intelligence.
And you might consider writing about people who aren't 90 years old sometimes.
At 7:49 AM,
X. Dell said…
SJ, I've written about you. You're not 90 yet.
At 11:22 AM,
Susan said…
Yeah, I'm not 90 either. If I were, I wouldn't remember any of these.
Okay, I shall now Google--that police chief is on the tip of my tongue--I can even see his face; he was largely responsible for OJ getting off as he had racist cops along with incompetent ones. Even if OJ were guilty as all get out, the evidence was tainted and someone wanted to make sure OJ was convicted.
Foam, Ray-- I swear didn't look at your stuff.
At 11:30 AM,
Susan said…
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry--I didn't know she was married to the MAN! But I remember her in the first 2, so it stands to reason that she was in the others. BTW, the actor who played Worf was also in one of the Star Trek movies; he defended Kirk and McCoy when the Klingon Empire accused them of killing their ambassador. He wasn't Worf then.
Daryl Gates--I knew there was a D in there.
If it isn't Bea Arthur, then I'm not sure.
So 30 is Carlin? I thought it was Pryor.
At 11:39 AM,
Susan said…
Susan Atkins died of cancer.
Was it Neil Aspinall who ran Apple? He was buddies with Paul as a kid--I don't know if he was a double for Paul.
I still have no idea for the others. The ones I put up just now I had checked out as I knew I was barking up the right tree.
This one was easier than the usual ones you give. No complaints!
At 5:06 PM,
X. Dell said…
Susan, you got Majel Barrett, Susan Atklins and Neil Aspinall first. Daryl Gates and George Carlin are also correct.
You're also right that it was Michael Dorn who played the attorney (actually, the grandfather of TNG character Worf).
At 5:52 AM,
Susan said…
Being a Trekkie and an all around sci-fi geek has merits.
At 4:44 PM,
X. Dell said…
I suppose:-)
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