I'll be leaving City Pages next Tuesday. I'd like to thank everyone who dropped by the site and those who were moved to add comments. Special thanks to Rex Sorgatz and Yahoo for acknowledging Corpus Obscurum. Maybe this is the end, maybe Corpus Obscurum will continue on without me. Check back once in a while for a resurrection.
Posted by Corey Anderson at August 10, 2007 8:55 AM | Comments (5)

Sources: Associated Press, NYTimes.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at July 27, 2007 9:47 AM | Comments (0)
Longtime major league umpire Henry Charles "Shag" Crawford died Wednesday, July 11, at an assisted living facility in a Philadelphia suburb. He was born in Philly in 1916, and served in World War II. Crawford began as a minor league umpire in 1950. He became a National League umpire in 1956, officiating in 3,082 baseball games, including three World Series, three All-Star Games, and two NL Championships. Crawford retired in 1975. During the 1969 World Series, Crawford ejected Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver during an argument in Game 4. Crawford officiated at the first game at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium, and was a co-founder of the umpire's union. His son Jerry became an umpire in 1976, and another son, Joey, became an NBA official in 1977. Crawford was 90.
Sources: Associated Press, worldumpires.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at July 25, 2007 2:34 PM | Comments (0)

Sources: BBC News, NYTimes.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at July 19, 2007 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

Sources: imdb.com, Associated Press, Variety.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at July 18, 2007 4:20 PM | Comments (0)
Hy Zaret died at his home Monday, July 2, about a month shy of his 100th birthday. "Unchained Melody" was written for the 1955 film called Unchained, and the song earned Zaret and composer Alex North Academy Award nominations for best song. The song has been recorded over 300 times by performers such as Elvis Presley, U2, and Lena Horne. The most famous version is by the Righteous Brothers, who, with Phil Spector producing, recorded the tune in 1965. It hit No. 4 on the Billboard charts, and became a hit again 25 years later when it appeared on the soundtrack to Ghost. According to the American Society of Composers, "Unchained Melody" became one of the 25 most-performed musical works of the 20th century. Zaret was 99.
Sources: Associated Press, oscars.org, IMDB.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at July 13, 2007 8:47 AM | Comments (0)

Sources: Yahoo! News, Wikipedia
Posted by Corey Anderson at July 6, 2007 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
Roy R. Torcaso died Saturday, June 9 at the Himalayan Elderly Care assisted living home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Torcaso, an athiest, was working for a construction company in 1959 when his boss encouraged him to become a notary public. At the courthouse, Torcaso refused to take the state oath given to notaries, part of which included professing the existence of God. He was disqualified and the state barred his commission. In the case of Torcaso vs. Watkins, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Torcaso's favor, declaring the Maryland test for public office unconstitutionally invaded one's freedom of belief and religion guaranteed by the First Amendment and protected by the Fourth Amendment. In a quote from a recent Washington Post obituary, Torcaso stated at the time, "The point at issue is not whether I believe in a Supreme Being, but whether the state has a right to inquire into my beliefs." Torcaso was 96.
Sources: about.com, Washington Post, supremecourtus.gov, law.cornell.edu
Posted by Corey Anderson at July 5, 2007 2:03 PM | Comments (0)
Ralph F. Stayer died Sunday, June 24, in his sleep at a Florida nursing home. Stayer was born in Ely, Minnesota, on March 15, 1915, and moved to Milwaukee as a teenager. He dropped out of school one month before graduation to support his parents and five younger siblings in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Stayer bought a butcher shop in 1945 and drew upon the Austrian and Slovenian heritage of he and his wife, Alice, to create a better-tasting bratwurst. Stayer built his butcher shop into the Johnsonville Sausage Co. Over the next 40 years, Johsonville grew into a multi-million dollar company, selling brats in over 40 countries and seasonally at 4,000 McDonald's restaurants and 16 NFL stadiums. Stayer was 92.
Sources: latimes.com, johnsonville.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at July 2, 2007 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

Sources: theglobeandmail.com, Yahoo! News, thestar.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at June 27, 2007 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
Ernest Hofstetter died at his French chalet on Friday, June 1. In 1952, Hofstetter and his climbing friends, meeting for their weekly gathering in a Geneva square, hatched a plan climb Mt. Everest. With legendary Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the friends made their way 23,620 feet up the mountain. Tenzing and another climber, Raymond Lambert, continued to climb, with Hofstetter and others remaining at camp, ready to attempt the rest of the journey if the pair failed. Tenzing and Lambert camped at 27,560 feet without sleeping bags, and reached 28,380 feet when fatigue and bad weather forced them back down the mountain. They had climbed to within 650 feet of the summit without the use of oxygen, as their Swiss-designed devices had failed. The following year, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay followed the path forged by Hofstetter and his group to successfully reach the 29,035-foot peak. Hillary's telegram to the Swiss friends stated "To you goes half the glory." The same path to the peak is still used today. Hofstetter was 95.
Sources: Associated Press, tenzing-norgay.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at June 26, 2007 5:58 AM | Comments (1)
Iraqi poet Nazek al-Malaika died Wednesday, June 20, of old age at a hospital in Cairo, where she had lived in self-imposed exile since 1990. Al-Malaika was born in Baghdad in 1922 and wrote her first poem at age 10. She graduated from the College of Arts in Baghdad in 1944 and received a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin. Influenced by William Shakespeare and Percy Bysshe Shelley, al-Malaika published her first book of poetry entitled Night's Lover in 1947. Between 1949 and 1968, al-Malaika published three more volumes of her work. After 40 years of teaching Arabic and literature in Iraqi schools and universities, she left Iraq in 1970 after spending two years under Saddam Hussein's oppressive regime. Al-Malaika lived in Kuwait until Saddam's 1990 invasion drove her to Cairo, Egypt. A group of Iraqi intellectuals recently wrote the government, protesting the negligence of "Iraq's greatest surviving symbol of literature." Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has released a statement expressing his condolences to "the family of the late poet, the dear daughter of Iraq, and all Iraqi poets and intellectuals." Al-Malaika was 85.
Sources: gulfnews.com, Associated Press, jehat.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at June 25, 2007 4:14 PM | Comments (0)

sources: Yahoo! News, thommiewalsh.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at June 22, 2007 3:45 PM | Comments (0)

Sources: channel4.com, Associated Press, sirwallyherbert.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at June 21, 2007 2:13 PM | Comments (0)
Wallace McIntosh died Monday, June 4, at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary of lung cancer. McIntosh, born in 1920 at Tarves, Aberdeenshire, flew in the Royal Air Force from February 1943 to June 1944. Initially turned down by the RAF, McIntosh joined the air force in a junior capacity and trained as an air gunner. The Scotsman flew 55 sorties as a rear gunner and is believed to hold the record for most enemy kills (eight confirmed and one "probable"). On June 7, 1944, McIntosh was credited with downing three German fighter planes in his Lancaster bomber during a single D-Day advance mission. For his achievement, McIntosh received one of only three congratulatory telegrams ever sent by Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris. McIntosh was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal after 32 missions and twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the RAF's most vaunted medal for bravery. He was 87.
Sources: Yahoo! News, news.scotsman.com
Posted by Corey Anderson at June 20, 2007 11:04 AM | Comments (0)