George Carlin, an extraordinary standup comedian whose dark social satire won him multigenerational popularity and a starring role in the most famous broadcast obscenity case of modern times, died Sunday of heart failure in Los Angeles. He was 71.
The Manhattan-born comedian, who always said his often-cynical satire simply reflected his real-life disdain for mankind’s greed, stupidity and inconsideration, had a history of heart problems. He also did a stint in rehab in 2003 for drug dependency.
Two days after his dramatic victory at the United States Open, Tiger Woods announced he would miss the rest of the 2008 season following reconstructive surgery to repair damage to the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
Woods said in a news release on his Web site Wednesday that he ruptured the ligament last summer while running near his home in Florida. Rather than have reconstructive surgery at the time, he decided to manage the pain and his schedule to continue playing. But the pain continued, and Woods had an arthroscopic procedure two days after the Masters in April. While recovering from that operation, the release said, Woods sustained a double stress fracture of his left tibia.
read more
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Mets announced early Tuesday morning that they have fired Willie Randolph and replaced him with the bench coach Jerry Manuel. They also fired two of Randolph’s coaches, the pitching coach Rick Peterson and the first-base coach Tom Nieto, and have promoted three coaches from the minor league level.
Dan Warthen, the Class AAA New Orleans pitching coach, will replace Peterson. Ken Oberkfell, New Orleans’s manager, and Luis Aguayo, the team’s field coordinator, will also join the major league staff but their responsibilities are unclear.
Bo Diddley, a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself, died Monday at his home in Archer, Fla . He was 79.
The cause was heart failure, a spokeswoman, Susan Clary, said. Mr. Diddley had a heart attack last August, only months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa.In the 1950s, Mr. Diddley — along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and a few others — helped reshape the sound of popular music worldwide, building it on the templates of blues, southern gospel and rhythm and blues. His original style of R&B influenced generations of musicians. And his Bo Diddley syncopated beat — three strokes/rest/two strokes — became a stock rhythm of rock ’n’ roll.
