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The Dixie Swim Club: A Bittersweet Comedy About Best Friends
Barn Theatre, At Marin Art and Garden Center ( 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd Ross, CA 94957 )
Full Price
Our Price
Jamie Wooten, co-writer of The Dixie Swim Club, was a writer and producer for many seasons of the TV show The Golden Girls. This heartwarming comedy has a similar feeling and tone. It's a look at four weekends over 33 years in the lives of five Southern women who became friends years back on the college swim team. The ladies reunite annually at a North Carolina beach cottage to catch up and provide colorful commentary on each others' kids, careers and marriages. But when one of the friends faces an unexpected challenge, the ladies must rediscover their love and strength as a team to triumph over adversity.
* Additional fees apply. No coupon or promo codes necessary to enjoy the displayed discount price.
All offers for The Dixie Swim Club have expired.
The last date listed for The Dixie Swim Club was Saturday August 17, 2013 / 2:00pm.
Currently at Barn Theatre
The Ladies of the Camellias: Divas Duel in Hilarious Farce
- Full Price:
- $29.00
- Our Price:
- $14.50
Before Nicki, before Mariah, before Bette, before Babs even -- real divas roamed the Earth, women of… More
Venue Details
Parking lot is down the hill from the the theatre, so anyone who can't walk uphill for 5-7 minutes should be driven up to the door. Dress is relatively casual.star this tip starred
Try Trattoria Fresco close by in Ross for moderately priced pasta, large salads. The $1 per chocolate chip cookies were great!star this tip starred
Reviews & Ratings
Featured review from Goldstar Member
view more less of this review
A great cast, no week link with any of the characters. Kept us laughing, was poignant and sweet. 15 of us went and we all loved it - including the men! Not sure how much longer it's running but not to be missed.
More Information
Written by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten
Directed by Linda Dunn
Production Manager: Maureen O'Donoghue


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November 27, 2015
HOUSTON (AP) - A convicted drunken driver has been suspended from serving his public punishment at the site of the Houston crash that killed a man.
After the fatal crash last summer, 39-year-old Michael Giacona spent 90 days in jail. And a judge ordered him to stand at the intersection on four Saturdays with a sign reading, "I killed Aaron Pennywell." He's the 20-year-old victim whose car was hit.
The Houston Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/JTd6de) that passers-by were hostile to Giacona last weekend, his first time at the site with the sign.
The judge Friday said he will re-evaluate the sentence and ordered Giacona to stop the public punishment for his safety.
On Saturday, Pennywell's relatives and friends gathered at the intersection. They held signs warning of the dangers of drinking and driving.
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subset: commoncrawl


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FTM: anything you'll do differently next time?
A(28) & C(30) Married 08-12-11
Noah Gabriel Born 9-27-12
Yay Bronze Boobies!
Marra(24) & Justin(24)
Blake Sept 2012
Love my DH, Love my DD, Love life.
Isla Brooke 10.01.12
Glitter boobies! ( . Y . )
I will NOT let anyone come stay at my house to "help" out with LO. Cause all they caused was stress. I will try bf longer before giving up.
DS- Henrik (September 2012)
( . Y . ) Gold!
Make dinners ahead of time or buy a lot of premade meals (like frozen dinners, or canned family size soup). I didn't realize just how bad it was going to be at first. It was about 2 weeks before I felt up to making dinner at all, and then I didn't do it again for almost another week. We lived on frozen food from the store.
I'll put him in outfits I like instead of outfits I felt bad not to use. I got a lot of hand-me-downs and I put lo in stuff I didn't like cause I felt bad not to use it. And now he's outgrown some of the outfits I really loved and I didn't put them on him as much as I could have.


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|(4.97/5) - 29 votes
|(3.42/5) - 31 votes
|yes we do, its the timeline thats arguable
|Christians don't believe in dinosaurs
|after that rocket blows there'll be plenty of radioactive dino's they could ride
|Yeah, raptor5 if I'm not mistaken
|(4.89/5) - 57 votes
|Got my vote for a t-5hirt.
|Where is the sweater puppies lobe?
|Where is the 'Ability to drive a stick-shift' lobe?
|If it had a Military Weapons Knowledge section it would have been better.
|I'm gonna file 'Beer' and 'Bacon' in the 5cience 5ection.
the social skills portion is way too large.
|join the club, we got T-5hirts
|(4.89/5) - 64 votes
|wow... without words
|Excellent. I'd love to know where this is, though.
|Very nice.
|oh, I seriously need me one of those
|Apart from the re5t
|Nice work SD. Fiver.
|(4.19/5) - 16 votes
Misc info


text:
Re-rank the list of top news stories of 1997
Find out more about:
Princess Diana's death stuns the world
Weld steps out -
Mother Teresa is laid
Chinese rule returns
Supreme Court strikes
UPS strike disrupts thousands of firms
Heaven's Gate cult commits mass suicide
Mars Pathfinder explores Red Planet
Ellen comes out, marking a first in TV
For the first time, a mammal is cloned
Customers welcome back UPS drivers with exuberance
ROOKLINE - Nearly everywhere she went yesterday, UPS driver Joyce Williams received the kind of effusive welcome generally accorded a long-lost relative.
As Williams rolled a cart stacked with packages into Boston IVF at One Brookline Place, a group of employees near the reception desk applauded.
''It's great to be back, but where's the roses, where's the roses?'' quipped the 40-year-old Williams.
At Thiel, Rubin, Wang Inc., office manager Kathy Wood cheered and greeted Williams with: ''She's here! Yea! Oh, I'm psyched.''
Joyce Williams is no celebrity. But after a 15-day Teamsters strike that left thousands of businesses stranded, customers of United Parcel Service of America Inc. seemed delighted yesterday to see her stride into their offices dressed in the company's brown shirt and shorts.
Across the country, 185,000 Teamsters who load, sort, deliver, and pick up packages for UPS returned to work, after the company hammered out a five-year agreement with the union late Monday night.
Yesterday, Williams and about 140 other drivers from the UPS plant in Norwood delivered 19,000 packages, down from the normal load of 34,000, said human resources manager Al Dimick.
The package shortfall stemmed from the walkout, but it also meant that only 20 percent of the plant's full-time drivers and 50 percent of its part timers returned to work yesterday. Because of decreased volume, 1,200 part-timers were laid off in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
''There really wasn't enough work for the drivers to do just eight hours of delivery and pickup in Norwood,'' said Dimick. ''So we had them come in and load, too. But as the pickup volume increases, and that should occur in three or four days, they'll be doing a full eight hours, and we'll be bringing people back.''
UPS estimates it lost about 5 percent of its business because of the strike, though it will not be able to fully assess the impact until the end of the month. In all, daily volume at UPS plunged from 12 million packages to about 1.2 million during the work stoppage.
During her 15 days of absence, Williams gardened when she wasn't on the picket line.. ''I did a little bit of yard work,'' she said, adding, ''My mother always said, `Save for a rainy day.' So I put away some funds for a few rainy days, though I don't know what I would have done if the strike had gone on for three or four months.''
Shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday, inside UPS's vast, dimly lit Norwood distribution center, managers dressed in suit and tie urged Williams and her coworkers to do their best to help regain customer confidence and recoup any lost sales.
''Our one objective, our main objective, is to get volume back and get our customers back,'' operations manager John Fleming told a group of serious-faced drivers.
An hour earlier, Williams had loaded more than 100 packages into her truck after spot-checking the vehicle to make sure there were no defects.
Then, after boarding truck No. 60297, the self-described ''jock'' swung the vehicle into line and joined the procession of familiar brown trucks as they rumbled out of the UPS parking lot onto University Avenue.
By lunchtime, Williams was standing in the lobby of New England Surgicare delivering packages, among them a manila folder for Marie H. Prevost, a surgical scheduler and building coordinator.
''Oh, you've been missed. Really missed,'' said Prevost as she took the package from Williams and exclaimed, ''My business cards. Yes!''
One of only a handful of female drivers at UPS's Norwood plant, Williams acknowledged the job is demanding and physicially taxing. Injuries are high, though the company holds health and safety classes, and workers are expected to meet strict deadlines.
''It takes a certain type of person to do this job,'' Williams said as she hoisted a package off the truck and loaded it onto a two-wheeled steel cart. ''All through the strike, there were people saying that all we do is deliver packages. They don't know the whole picture. ''
Still, Williams said, working as a full-time UPS driver for the last five years has given her more job security, something her former job as a construction foreman couldn't provide.
''I wanted a future - pension, health benefits, good pay.... UPS, for 90 years, has been the number one carrier. I figured I couldn't go wrong.''
Extending our newspaper services to the web
Return to the home page
New Century Network


text:
|Gentianaceae (jen-shun-AY-see-ee) (Info)
|Gentianella (jen-shee-an-EL-luh) (Info)
|tenella (ten-ELL-uh) (Info)
Alpines and Rock Gardens
This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds
Requires consistently moist soil; do not let dry out between waterings
Very high moisture needs; suitable for bogs and water gardens
under 6 in. (15 cm)
9-12 in. (22-30 cm)
USDA Zone 4a: to -34.4 �C (-30 �F)
USDA Zone 4b: to -31.6 �C (-25 �F)
USDA Zone 5a: to -28.8 �C (-20 �F)
USDA Zone 5b: to -26.1 �C (-15 �F)
USDA Zone 6a: to -23.3 �C (-10 �F)
USDA Zone 6b: to -20.5 �C (-5 �F)
USDA Zone 7a: to -17.7 �C (0 �F)
USDA Zone 7b: to -14.9 �C (5 �F)
USDA Zone 8a: to -12.2 �C (10 �F)
USDA Zone 8b: to -9.4 �C (15 �F)
Full Sun
Sun to Partial Shade
Mid Summer
Late Summer/Early Fall
5.6 to 6.0 (acidic)
6.1 to 6.5 (mildly acidic)
6.6 to 7.5 (neutral)
7.6 to 7.8 (mildly alkaline)
7.9 to 8.5 (alkaline)
From seed; direct sow outdoors in fall
From seed; winter sow in vented containers, coldframe or unheated greenhouse
From seed; stratify if sowing indoors
Allow pods to dry on plant; break open to collect seeds
No details have been posted.


text:
THE STABLE, pet friendly, character holiday cottage, with hot tub in Milton, Ref 3739
From $364 / week
Description from the manager
Description from the manager
Bedrooms: 1/
Bathrooms: 1/
Sleeps: 2/
Type: House
This romantic terrace cottage in the village of Milton is able to sleep two people, making it the perfect romantic hideaway. This lovely stone-built mid terrace cottage is located on a working livestock farm in the rural hamlet of Milton. Situated just two miles from Brampton, this cottage is a careful renovation of one of the old farm buildings. Retaining original beams and exposed stonework, this welcoming property features a cosy lounge with adjacent summer room, a small modern kitchen, and a pretty main bedroom, making this an ideal romantic retreat. Guests can also enjoy the decked balcony, with its fabulous countryside views.
Amenities: ...Read more
About the manager
About the manager
Sykes Holiday Cottages
Sykes Holiday Cottages
- Response rate: 45%
- Response time: A few hours
- Calendar updated: 3 days ago
Overall rating:


text:
November 27, 2015
OZARK -- The Ozark Boys & Girls Club spent Tuesday evening getting an education on healthy eating habits and the severity of eating disorders.
They watched clips of interviews from students around their ages who have been personally affected by an eating disorder. Fortunately, the girls in the SMART group at the Club said they do not think about losing weight.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association website, the 50% of young females and 33% of young males who are not satisfied with their body image.
This idea stemmed from National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. The week goes from February 23rd through March 1st.
If anyone would like more information regarding serious eating disorders, the following website has information regarding the nationwide effort to create awareness for eating disorders and negative body image.
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text:
Communications & Marketing
UIU and Fareway agree to CAP partnership
Upper Iowa University announces June and August graduatesview all news ›
Two Centers turn 20
UIU's Milwaukee and Fort Riley centers will celebrate their 20th anniversaries this year. Both centers opened in 1992.
The Milwaukee Center serves more than 460 students. It is one of four UIU centers in the area that also includes Elkhorn, Burlington and Racine. Many of the courses are taught by full-time UIU faculty members and others are taught by adjunct faculty who draw on their practical experiences in the field.
The Upper Iowa Center at Fort Riley, Kan., offers classes on post to both military personnel and civilians in the area. It offers bachelor's of science degree in 11 majors. Courses can also be blended with UIU distance learning programs (online and independent study) to complete nine other majors. Certificate programs are also available. UIU offers courses on post during five eight-week terms during the academic year.
Back to Faculty/Staff Newsletter


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Two missing persons were found alive this weekend after a 12 hour search along Drakes Creek in Warren County. Five different rescue teams were called out to an area of Drakes Creek on Dye Ford Road Saturday night.
A man and woman were reported missing after an ATV accident. The couple was attempting to cross the creek when they lost control of the vehicle and floated downstream. Witnesses then called 911 after losing sight of the victims. Police found the couple in the water early Sunday morning. The woman was transported to the Medical Center for treatment.
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text:
Discuss fighters Jones Jr ducked in his prime
View Single Post
Up Top To The Head
East Side VIP
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 14,929
vCash: 1385
Re: Discuss fighters Jones Jr ducked in his prime
Originally Posted by
knockout artist
Still, Jones never crossed over for some reason. He had his rap career but that was hit and miss, he had great skills and an exciting style, but he never seemed to generate the popularity and publicity like Mayweather, Tyson, Pacquiao or ODLH. He wasn't a superstar.
Though it's a good point he never had an ODLH or a Mike Tyson to make a name off
You said Ward-Dawson was a masterpiece - you consider that version of Dawson who killed himself to make 168 a great fighter? Also
Iran Barkley
was NOT a great fighter!
An example of a masterclass between great fighters would be Thomas Hearns-Wilfred Benitez
But Wach is?
I said Wards performance was a technical masterpiece. It was a fighter appliying all of his trade to the best of his ability. A showcase of pure boxing skill. Wlad jabbed Wach for 12 rounds and when he felt safe he threw a right hand. Do into the classic and declare that fight a boxing masterclass. You'd be laughed off the forum.
View Public Profile
Find More Posts by dinovelvet


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Forest View, Venus Apartments
from £43 /night help Price for guests, Nights
4 reviews
from £43 /night help Price for guests, Nights
Estimated nightly price based on a weekly stay. Excludes fees (if applicable). Enter your dates to see the total cost.
Apartment / 2 bedrooms / sleeps 5 Home 85859
Availability Your dates are available
Apartment / 2 bedrooms / sleeps 5
|Key Info
Forest View is an attractive two bedroom, two bathroom apartment. It is situated in a quiet position 10 minutes walk from the village centre with its shops, restaurants and bars. Sarigerme is an area of outstanding natural beauty and the beach area is a car free zone. As a result there is a free transfer service from the village to the beach.
We have another apartment in the block and the apartments can be let individually or together, making them perfect for families (large or small) or for a group of up to 10 friends. They are fully air conditioned and are furnished in a contemporary style in keeping with their modern, clean lines. The large pool (1.5 m depth) is a particular feature with its fabulous views across the golf course and sea. There is also a children's' pool. Internet access can be arranged.
|Sleeps up to 5, 2 bedrooms
|2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms of which 2 Shower rooms
|Nearest beach
|Sarigerme 1 km
|Will consider
|Corporate bookings, Long term lets (over 1 month)
|Car not necessary
|Nearest Amenities
|500 m
|Nearest travel links
|Nearest airport: Dalaman 15 km
|Family friendly
|Great for children of all ages
|Some pets are welcome - please contact the owner, No smoking at this property
Features and Facilities
|DVD player, Sea view
|Shared outdoor pool (unheated), Children's pool
|Central heating, Air conditioning, TV
|Kettle, Hair dryer
|Cooker, Fridge, Freezer
|Double beds (1), Single beds (3), Dining seats for 5, Lounge seats for 5
|Linen provided, Towels provided
|Shared outdoor pool (unheated), Balcony or terrace, Shared garden, BBQ
|Parking, Not suitable for wheelchair users
|Further details indoors
Each apartment has:
Double bedroom with balcony and far reaching views
Twin bedroom with an optional extra bed .
Spacious, modern kitchen with oven and all the necessary kitchen utensils.
Living area with balcony for alfresco dining and spectacular views over the golf course and sea.
Two shower rooms.
|Further details outdoors
Outside there are landscaped gardens and a shared private pool and children's pool (with recliners, umbrellas etc). Views from the pool across the golf course, Sarigerme coast and mountains are breathtaking. There is also a brick built Turkish style BBQ and covered parking spaces.
|Further details
All bedding and towels are provided and the apartments are cleaned and linen changed weekly.
Our agents will meet you on arrival at the villa and are on hand to help you with any queries you may have.
Information about the local area is provided in the apartment.
The pool is open May-October.
Childrens cot and car seat available to hire.
The Turkish Aegean Coast region
The Turquoise Coast (Lycia) is well known for its stunning scenery with clear blue sea, and sandy coves framed by dramatic mountains. The history of Lycia is fascinating, rock tombs are everywhere and there are many sites to visit. The area is great for a holiday at any time of the year. Autumn, Spring and Winter are particularly good for walking, golf (from next year) and visiting places of historical interest with temperatures generally between 15 and 22 degrees, clear sunny days and low rainfall. The summer is hotter with clear sunny days and temperatures in the 30s.
Sarigerme is a quiet, unspoilt resort located in an area of outstanding natural beauty just 15 minutes drive from Dalaman airport. It is a beach lover's paradise with 6km of beautiful sandy beaches, set against a backdrop of pine trees, offering both seclusion and a variety of watersports including sailing, jet skiing, windsurfing, kite surfing, canoes, ringoes, banana boats, paragliding and scuba diving. The beach is home to turtles and other wildlife and as such has protected status. To help protect the environment, cars are not allowed in the beach area and there is a free shuttle train from the car park to the beach.
Sarigerme has also been chosen as Turkey's premier golfing centre; and an 18-hole golf course is due to be completed in 2012. The golf course is designed by the Belgian company JMC Design Studio which has designed many golf courses in Portugal and Spain. This, plus its close proximity to the airport makes Sarigerme an ideal choice for both a summer holiday and a long weekend or short golfing break throughout the year.
The village is located just 25 km from Dalyan with its famous historical sites, rocktombs, and mud baths. Other activities such as white water rafting are close by and boat trips and excursions can be arranged in the village. The village is well connected and dolmus services run to the local town of Ortaca, where buses go to Fethiye and Marmaris.
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10 Jun 2012
"A great location"
Forest View is a lovely, ideally located appartment, perfect for a chiled, relaxing holiday with lots to do nearby if you wish. The pool is fab - never too cold and with cooling mountain breezes interspersed with wall to wall sunshine. the appartment has everythin you need and there are stunning views over the valley. Nearby Sarigerme is small but with enough shops and restaurants to keep you entertained. There are travel agents in the village wih which to book trips if you want. We did the Dalyan River cruise and mudbath which was perfect for all age groups and privately hired a boat to taje us round some of the islands - great especially if you have teenagers. A lovely appartment in a lovely location.
14 Oct 2011
"A Perfect Week"
Thanks Jo for the use of your lovely villa . As seasoned "cruisers " we were a little scepitcle of holidaying in one place again. Sarigerme exceeded our expectations in every way. The beach, the restaurants, the bars,the surrounding area the wonderful Turkish people and last but not least your apartment. Situated at the top of the hill with stunning views over the village and the sea, and a wonderful pool area to enjoy the weather ( 80 -- 90 degrees everyday in October ) !!! We will definately be returning. Thanks again Geoff
2 Oct 2011
"Lovely clean, comfortable apartment with gorgeous views"
We had a lovely holiday here - what a lovely apartment it's beautifully kept. There are stunning views over the sea, mountains and village. It was great to sit on the balcony for breakfast lunch ot dinner. The gardens and are pool is very well kept too – the pool wasn't overly busy when we were there. We enjoyed that it was close to the woods and that we saw the local goat herd and heard their bells ringing. It's only a short walk into Sarigerme, where there are restaurants, shops, and a mosque, there is also a market on Sunday's. The hill to the apartment is steep but when it was too hot to walk up we just got a taxi from the village (10 lira) this was the fixed price for where ever you wanted to go within the village. From the village we took a taxi ride to the public beach but as it wasn't far we walked back, At certain times of year there is a tractor trailer 'train' to take you to the public beach and back. There is a small fee to get to the public beach but we felt it was worth it as it is nicely kept, it has a shaded area with picnic benches and a small 'zoo' at the entrance too. From Sarigerme we took a bus (Dolmus) to nearby towns. Look out for the storks nests on top of all the poles as you head out of Sarigerme! All in all we had a wonderful time.
This advert is created and maintained by the advertiser; we can only publish adverts in good faith as we don't own, manage or inspect any of the properties. We advise you to familiarise yourself with our terms of use.
You're booking with
Jo P.
- 6 Years listed
80% Response rate
Calendar last updated:07 Aug 2015
Based in United Kingdom
- English


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Deweyville Jobs
Looking for jobs in Deweyville? Snagajob has great opportunities with the area's leading companies. And applying for Deweyville jobs has never been easier. Look at the job listings below, click on a job title that interests you and hit the "apply now" button. Part-time jobs, teen jobs, student jobs and summer jobs are now just a click away. Start your job search now.
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Boston, MA (Sports Network) - Mike Napoli went 2-for-4 and stroked a grand slam as part of a five-RBI night, and the Boston Red Sox clubbed their way past the Oakland Athletics, 9-6, in the opener of a three-game set at Fenway Park.
The red-hot Napoli, who was named the American League Co-Player of the Week with teammate Andrew Bailey on Monday, has driven in 17 runs over a nine-game tear and is batting a cool .351 over the stretch.
"He's a very good hitter," Red Sox manager John Farrell said of Napoli. "He's got a long track record of extra-base and RBI production, but what he's done in this ballpark over the course of his career, those things are beacons when you look to select a player, and he's a very good fit here."
The Red Sox were swept in Sunday's doubleheader against Kansas City, but Felix Doubront (2-0) gave them a lift with a solid 6 2/3 innings of work. He struck out eight and gave up three runs on just three hits and five walks.
Overall, Boston starters are a combined 10-3 on the young season.
Will Middlebrooks cranked a three-run homer, Jarrod Saltalamacchia contributed an RBI double and Bailey notched his fourth save of season with a scoreless ninth after Oakland scored three runs in the eighth.
Oakland starter A.J. Griffin (2-1), who hadn't allowed more than two runs in any of his first three starts, was tagged for all nine runs -- seven earned -- on eight hits over four-plus innings.
The Athletics, losers in four straight, managed just five hits. Josh Reddick and Josh Donaldson had two RBI apiece and Chris Young drove in a run in the setback.
Oakland trailed 4-2 going into the fifth and had an excellent opportunity for a big inning, but managed just a single run.
Young pulled Oakland within one with a bases-loaded sac fly, but after Dubront loaded the bases again with a walk to Brandon Moss, Jed Lowrie to flew out to center to end the inning.
Napoli made them pay in the bottom half when he came to the plate with the bases full, smacking Griffin's offering over the Green Monster in left to give Boston an 8-3 advantage.
Griffin was then chased from the game and replaced by Chris Resop after first baseman Moss committed a fielding error on Daniel Nava's chopper. The Red Sox would tack on one more run later in the frame on a Saltalamacchia double before Dustin Pedroia left the bases loaded.
The Athletics were able to plate three runs in the eighth off back-to-back doubles from Donaldson and Reddick, but the rally was stifled when Boston reliever Junichi Tazawa set down both pinch-hitter Eric Sogard and Coco Crisp.
Oakland scored first with two runs in the second. A wild pitch from Doubront with runners on second and third plated the first run, and Reddick made it 2-0 with a base hit up the middle.
Boston got one back in the bottom half of the frame following back-to-back doubles from David Ortiz and Napoli, then jumped in front for good in the fourth on Middlebrooks' three-run homer.
Boston's Jacoby Ellsbury was 1-for-3 and has hit safely in 12 straight games.
He also swiped his ninth base of the season ... Oakland is just 1-6 against
teams not in the AL West ... The A's haven't lost four in a row since a nine-
game slide between May 22-June 1 of last season ... Boston snapped an eight-
game losing streak to Oakland.
Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia in September has altered the date of the Penn-Villanova football game.
Kyle Busch won Sunday's road course race in Sonoma, California, but he still has a long way to go to become eligible for a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
NFL players have a very short shelf life to make significant amounts of money so it's tough to fault anyone who has outperformed a contract when they go knocking on the door to ask for more.
Pete Mackanin will remain interim manager of the Philadelphia Phillies for the remainder of the season, the team announced Tuesday.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have reportedly retained restricted free agent forward Kyle Singler with a five-year contract extension.
The Detroit Red Wings signed veteran forward Brad Richards a one-year contract on Wednesday.


text:
Meet the Stars of the NHRA Mello Yello Series
Read full bios on all the series regulars, including major accomplishments, best runs, hobbies, and more, plus team and driver Twitter account info on the social media page.
NitroMall is your one-stop spot for official NHRA merchandise, products from some of the teams of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, and more. The NHRA Store is the place to join NHRA and purchase specialty items and DVDs, and the NHRA Museum Store has items to satisfy history buffs, from vintage T-shirts to historical books.
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Last week's column about Funny Car elapsed times and the number of class-best passes that were recorded on the quarter-mile at Ontario Motor Speedway, along with what we have learned over the years about the track's ability to dish out big numbers in Top Fuel, like Mike Snively's barrier-breaking 5.97, Don Moody's 5.91 in 1972, Don Garlits' otherworldly 5.63, 250-mph pass, and the first all-five-second Top Fuel field in 1975, got me to wanting to learn more about the track and its history, so I delved into the history books and archives to find out some nuggets about what became a very hallowed quarter-mile. I'll talk about the history of the track itself this week, then look back at the incredible NHRA events at the facility next week.
The idea of a Southern California superspeedway was proposed as early as 1956, with the thought being not only to create "the Indianapolis of the West," as it was hyped, but to create the crown jewel of racetracks with a supporting infrastructure and motorsports-driven economy. Developers envisioned a surrounding complex of race shops and specialty fabricators, plus restaurants and hotels.
Although the 2.5-mile oval track itself was modeled after the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it was one lane wider and had banked short chutes between turns 1-2 and 3-4, which would make OMS slightly faster. And to live up to the "motor speedway" name, developers also planned for a 3.2-mile infield road course and a dragstrip that ran down the oval track's pit lane.
After a few failed starts, a location was chosen that seemed perfect: Ontario, just 50 miles from Los Angeles, with an 800-acre plot right on Interstate 10 (one of the nation's main east-thoroughfares), and just across the highway from Ontario International Airport.
Ontario city fathers sold more than $25 million (that's about $165 million in 2015 dollars) in municipal bonds to raise the capital for construction. The facility would then be leased to a group of operators who would run it on a day-to-day basis. A key factor that helped secure the green flag on construction was a signaled interest by the four major motorsports players — Formula 1, NASCAR, USAC, and, of course, NHRA — in holding events at the venue should it ever be built.
Ground was broken in late September 1968, and the track opened less than two years later, in August 1970, hosting a Celebrity Pro-Am Race, which featured stars from the entertainment industry paired with professional drivers. The race was later aired as a TV special on NBC.
The place lived up to its plush billing, especially in spectator amenities, the most obvious of which was the five-story suite complex that overlooked the start-finish line. (The original layout for the dragstrip was actually a few hundred feet further down pit road than it ended up, but a late decision was made to have the quarter-mile finish line match the win stripe of the oval course, which lined it up exactly in front of the huge concourse.)
On its first floor was a full restaurant, bar, and banquet hall, and the second floor featured VIP suites. Spectator seating took up where the third floor was, while above that was a deluxe, air-conditioned media center with the latest electronic gizmos (telecopiers and fax machines — oh my!). The fifth floor was dedicated to race control and also housed the 33 IBM computers that would track the 33 individual "Indy" cars that made up the starting field for the track's first big race, the USAC California 500 event, and showed their positions on the track to spectators in real time during the race via a tall vertical scoreboard. This timing and scoring system was subsequently adopted by the Formula 1 circuit and ultimately by Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In the pits, 50 enclosed garages were built to accommodate teams, and permanent facilities also were incorporated for tire manufacturers. Racers also had their own restaurant and meeting room in the pits. For the drag racers, roller starters were added to light the nitro cars.
The first six months of operation did indeed feature racing from all four major sanctioning bodies, hosting the California 500 (Sept. 6, 1970), Mattel Hot Wheels NHRA Supernationals (Nov. 21-22, 1970), Miller High Life 500 NASCAR race (Feb. 28, 1971), and Questor Grand Prix (March 28, 1971), and each of them drew attendance second only to their established counterparts: the Indianapolis 500, U.S. Nationals, Daytona 500, and U.S. Formula 1 race at Watkins Glen. The 178,000 in paid attendance and $3.3 million gross from the inaugural California 500 remained the largest crowd and highest gross in inflation-adjusted dollars of any single-day sporting event other than the Indianapolis 500 for nearly three decades.
Although the NHRA events — the Supernationals and the World Finals (when it was moved there in 1974) — always drew well (because their action was limited to the home straightaway, seat-selling options were limited), later editions of the oval-course events never came close to filling the 155,000 spectator seats, or even the 100,000 necessary to break even. In its first six years of operation, the place was shut down twice because the track operators couldn't pay out the $1 million in bond interest each year.
Then the track operators got creative, opening their doors for other spectacles. On the day before the February 1971 NASCAR race, they booked in Evel Knievel to jump over 19 cars — the jump was filmed as the climactic scene for the eponymous movie starring George Hamilton — and 50,000 people showed up. (Knievel successfully landed the jump and set a record that stood for 27 years until Bubba Blackwell jumped 20 cars in 1998.)
The California Jam rock festival concert was held April 6, 1974, and drew a crowd of 300,000-400,000 fans — at the time the largest paid attendance for a rock concert — to see the Eagles; Deep Purple; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Rare Earth; Earth, Wind & Fire; Seals and Crofts; Black Oak Arkansas; and Black Sabbath. Portions of the concert were televised live on ABC. California Jam II was held March 18, 1978, and drew almost 300,000 to see Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Santana, Dave Mason, Foreigner, Heart, Bob Welch, Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood, Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, and Rubicon.
In 1974, Parnelli Jones and the Hulman family, which owned Indianapolis Motor Speedway, were brought in and restored some semblance of order to the racing side of business, but the track always seemed to be living on borrowed time.
That time ran out in late 1980, just after the running of 1980 NHRA World Finals. Land values had soared — from an average price of $7,500 per acre in 1969 to $150,000 per acre — and Chevron Land Company, a division of Chevron Oil, seized the opportunity to take advantage of the speedway's failing fortunes. They purchased the facility for approximately $10 million (the estimated commercial real estate development value was $120 million) and demolished the track the following year at a cost of $3 million.
The property remained vacant for several years before Hilton built a hotel on about where Turn 4 was, and development has slowly grown over the years to take up over half of the speedway's footprint with condominiums, business offices, retail stores, and the Citizens Business Bank Arena, home to the AHL Ontario Reign (minor-league team to the L.A. Kings), which was built in the general area of Turn 3. Contrary to speculation, the Ontario Mills Mall is not built on part of the old racetrack; it's on the east side of Milliken Avenue, which was the eastern border of the track.
The legacy of the track does live on in several places, most notably the automotive-themed street names: Jaguar Way, Corvette Drive, Triumph Lane, Shelby Street, Concours Street, Lotus Avenue, Porsche Way, Mercedes Lane, Duesenberg Drive, and Ferrari Lane.
The City of Ontario built racing-themed Ontario Motor Speedway Park a few blocks west of the racetrack site (near the intersection of North Center Avenue and Concours Street), and in 1990 the Ontario Center School, located on what was once the west parking lot for the racetrack, was dedicated to the premise of "Winning Through Education." A circular central hall, similar to the racetrack, was built, and speedway graphics, including the familiar OMS logo, were used in the classrooms. The kindergarten area has green flags on its walls, signifying the start of the educational race. And the sixth-grade area is adorned with checkered flags, the finish line. Three flagpoles in front of the school were from the speedway.
In a way, the dragstrip continues to live on just down the freeway in Pomona. The iconic dragstrip timing tower that manned the starting line at OMS was saved and transplanted to Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, where it was placed behind the starting line and served as race control for a number of years until the current tower was built. Today, the tower stands sentinel in the parking lot and serves as a command post and lookout for facility security.
Ontario Motor Speedway may be gone, but it's remembered by the city, and especially by hard-core race fans like us who remember its dragstrip as the place where records were set, history was made, and the nationals were truly super.
If you are a fan of the Funny Car class – and hey, who isn't? – the 2015 season was a spectacular one, not just for its dramatic finish on the final day of the schedule last Sunday in Pomona, but also for scoreboard watchers.
Consider this: The quickest run in Funny Car entering 2015 was 3.959, recorded by Cruz Pedregon at the 2014 Englishtown event. We finished this season with Matt Hagan's 3.879 as the all-time quickest pass. That's a drop of eight-hundredths of a second. And Pedregon's run was bettered not just once or twice, or a dozen times, but – get this – 82 times during this season. I was there when Pedregon ran that .95, and believe me, we all about fell out of our chairs. Today, people don't exactly yawn at a 3.95, but the grading has gotten pretty steep, and 245 threes have been recorded since Hagan's barrier-busting run in Charlotte in the fall of 2011.
Consider also that the national record entering 2015 was set at the 2014 Circle K NHRA Winternationals and survived that entire season and half of this season, then was reset an amazing seven times in the second half of the year and ended up with Jack Beckman at 3.884. That's another drop of eight-hundredths.
It was Beckman, of course, who got the whole performance binge started in Sonoma in late July, when crew chief Jimmy Prock adjusted the header angle (and a few other magic things) to turn the Infinite Hero Dodge into a rocket ship with a 3.921 blast followed by a 3.912 in Seattle and a 3.901 in Brainerd – remember, all of this took place in the span of three races in four weekends – and then Hagan broke another barrier with a 3.879, also in Brainerd (amazing in itself because it's an altitude track, albeit with tremendous conditions that weekend).
What makes all of this really impressive to me is that, as you can imagine, the quicker you go, the exponentially harder it is to go even quicker. Picking up eight-hundredths when you run in the sixes is a whole lot easier than picking up six-hundredths when you run in the threes.
But you don't come here to read about the current season; that's what you have National Dragster for. As always here, I like to look at things through rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. So, just as all of this performance rush was really taking off – and would get more incredible as the season progressed – I chatted in Indy with Dave Fletcher, Don Schumacher Racing's track specialist, to marvel at the quick progression we had been seeing. "Can you remember another time when this happened?" he asked me, and at the time, I couldn't come up with the examples, but now I can.
Here are some interesting stats to mull over.
It took just two years and a few months to get eight drivers into the threes. By comparison, it took more than twice that long -- five and a half years (Don Prudhomme, Oct. 12, 1975, to Tripp Shumake, April 25, 1981) -- for eight drivers to run in the fives. Heck, it took almost three years for Raymond Beadle to be the second driver in the fives. What does that say about today's parity? Or about how badass "the Snake" was back then?
More recently, it took three and a half years (Chuck Etchells, Oct. 1, 1993, to Whit Bazemore March 22, 1997) to get eight drivers into the four-second zone.
I went back to look at other seasons to see when great performance strides had taken place, and there were quite a few. Consider 1971. Entering the season, the best official Funny Car pass (and the national record) was 6.83, run by Leroy Goldstein in the Ramchargers Challenger in Indy 1970, just a few months after becoming the first in the sixes. Early the next season, Goldstein bettered his own mark by more than a tenth with a 6.71 at the Gatornationals. Goldstein couldn't back up that number for a new record but did later that year with a 6.80 after moving into the Candies & Hughes machine. Low e.t. of the season was credited to Bill Leavitt, who stunned everyone with a 6.48 at Lions in December of that year and also ran 6.51 and 6.53 the same weekend to dispel any doubters. So, that's a drop of three-and-a-half-tenths in one year; pretty impressive.
(A quick caveat: All of the e.t.s that I am citing (and will cite) are considered legit by the Funny Car cognoscenti and dismiss some pretty outrageous "popcorn" times dished out at match race tracks with either inaccurate timing systems or overzealous race promoters and track operators.)
Although racers chipped away at Goldstein's 6.80 record throughout 1972 -- Gary Burgin (6.72, Lions), Leroy Chadderton (6.66, Seattle), Kenney Goodell (6.58, Spokane), Larry Fullerton (6.56, Warner Robins, Ga.), and Sush Matsubara (6.49, Lions) -- Leavitt's stunning number was not bettered until Bobby Rowe ran 6.38 at Maryland's Capitol Raceway that summer. Pat Foster capped the season with a 6.29 in the Barry Setzer Vega at the Supernationals at Ontario Motor Speedway. So, there's nearly two-tenths.
It was a full year before Foster's 6.29 was bettered, and that didn't happen until the final race of the 1973 season, the Supernationals, where Prudhomme fired off a where-did-that-come-from 6.16 with his trusty Barracuda that wasn't matched for a whole season until Dale Pulde powered Mickey Thompson's Revelleader Grand Am to a matching number at the World Finals, although Pulde backed up his .16 for the national record, bettering the 6.19 mark that Billy Meyer had established in Indy. And of course, at the next year's World Finals, Prudhomme broke into the fives with his 5.98.
So, two more thoughts here: Funny Car racers chip nearly seven-tenths of a second off the class-best run from 1971 to 1973 yet don't improve it by even a hundredth in 1974, then pick up eight-hundredths in 1975? How weird is that? Dear 1974: What happened?
Second, the back-to-back-to-back best of the season all happened at OMS, further cementing its legacy as one of the best performance-coaxing dragstrips – if not the best – in history.
As mentioned, it took nearly three years before Beadle was even the second racer in the fives, and from the end of 1975 until the end of 1979, only Prudhomme was able to better his barrier-breaking (but not backed-up) 5.98, running 5.97 (the first sub-six national record) in Indy in 1976 and 5.95 at the 1979 U.S. Nationals.
So, again, we have four seasons, from 1971 through 1974, when the record books are substantially rewritten, then a performance drought that lasts four years? Weird, right?
The 1980 season opened promisingly, with Prudhomme and the Army Arrow setting the national record in Gainesville with a 5.93 in the semifinals (backed up by a second-round 5.94), but it was newly crowned world champ Beadle who blew everyone away that summer with a spellbinding 5.86 from the Blue Max Arrow at the Summernationals.
So, four seasons with no significant improvement and then a drop of nearly a tenth in 1980? Then, oddly enough, no one bettered Beadle's .86 in 1981, though Beadle did match that number, weirdly enough, again at the Summernationals.
Are you with me so far? OK, here's where it gets really weird. Two words: Indy 1982.
Beadle's 5.86 was not bettered until 1982, when Meyer nudged it down to 5.82 (again in E-town; remember, at the time, only the Summernationals held night qualifying sessions), but those marks got destroyed in Indy, where Tom Anderson ran 5.79 and Prudhomme 5.73, and then, of course, Prudhomme dropped jaws across the world with a staggering 5.63. Boom! An improvement of more than two-tenths in one year. (I wrote a whole column on that race and that run three years ago; read it here.)
Prudhomme's 5.63 was not bettered for two and half years, until the 1985 Winternationals, when Rick Johnson shoed Roland Leong's wind-tunnel-refined Dodge to a 5.58, which was one-upped later that year by Kenny Bernstein's 5.56 in his aero-slick Bud King Tempo in the incredible air at the inaugural NHRA Keystone Nationals in Reading.
The 1986 season introduced the lockup clutch to the sport, cloaked in secrecy inside the Bud King until a solo pass at the U.S. Nationals revealed the telltale downtrack engine-pitch change that allowed Bernstein and crew chief Dale Armstrong to run a devastating 5.50 and, a few weeks later, a bombshell 5.42 at Texas Motorplex.
So, if you're keeping score, Funny Cars went from a 5.63 best entering the 1985 season to a 5.42 best two seasons later. Two-tenths in two years.
By the end of 1987, Ed McCulloch had the best number, a 5.36, again recorded at the Motorplex (the new OMS, it seems), and "the Ace" also made the best run of 1988, a 5.25 in Houston. Prudhomme broke into the five-teens in Indy in 1989 (5.17), a number that was not bettered until Jim White punched Leong's Dodge through the Motorplex timers with a 5.14 a year later, a run that was not bettered for two years, until Pedregon and Larry Minor's McDonald's Olds ran 5.10 in Houston in 1992 and 5.07 in Reading later that year.
The 1992 season is well-remembered for the leap in cylinder-head and ignition technology led by Bernstein and Armstrong that resulted in their 300-mph Top Fuel run in Gainesville. And before long, others were catching on. In 1993, Chuck Etchells broke into the fours in Topeka with a 4.98. By 1996, John Force had set the record at 4.88 and three years later set it again at 4.79. It took until 2004 for the record to reach the 4.60s (Force again, in Chicago, with a 4.66), but the record didn't budge much from there before quarter-mile racing ended following the loss of Scott Kalitta.
Intrigued by all of this, I called Austin Coil, the architect of Force's glory years – and the guy who inadvertently gave Armstrong the idea for a lockup clutch – who has retired from tuning but still avidly watches the action, for his historic overview of the seismic shifts in performance, beginning with this season.
"The reason behind this year's performance increase – laying the headers back -- is so obvious that we all are just looking at each other going, 'How the [heck] could we not have tried that?' " he mused. "Cruz Pedregon had them tilted back like that for years, and occasionally he would run really quick on slippery tracks, and we didn't really understand how he could be ridiculously good under those conditions. We had no clue."
What's really interesting about this header design is that it goes against everything that most teams thought. For years, everyone considered the massive downward thrust (3,000 to 5,000 pounds, according to Coil) coming out of the headers as a way to help plant the cars for better traction, but what the teams have newly discovered is that the forward thrust offered by the laid-back headers is more effective in getting the cars going than the better traction offered by the upturned headers, especially on a slippery track. This also means that teams no longer need to max out their rear wings for the launch, a setting that slows the cars at the other end of the track.
The sheer number of performance innovations throughout the years – from wrinkle-wall tires to improved transmissions (and then direct-drive) and clutches, high-flow (and multiple) fuel pumps, programmable ignition timing, improved magnetos, high-flow cylinder heads, setback blowers, better aero packages, slip-tube chassis, et al – have pushed the performances to where they are, but it wasn't always a bandwagon jump like we've seen with the headers craze of this year, probably because of the relative low cost to make the change.
Some things, like the iridium points in Bernstein's magnetos that reportedly cost $10,000 per set, were financially out of reach for many teams. When Coil hatched the idea for the lockup clutch, Force's team didn't have the money to develop it ("We didn't even have the money to pay for our diesel fuel back then," he said), but Bernstein did, and they had one months before anyone else did.
While Coil has seen it all come and go throughout the years, when I asked him for the most memorable and forehead-slapping change he remembers seeing, it had nothing to do with performance.
"In the early 1970s, we were at a match race with the Ramchargers, and they had put a pipe from the [valve-cover] breathers that ran out the back of their car to keep the oil off of the engine," he recalled. "The first thing I thought of is, 'Why the [heck] didn't we think of that?' It was so obvious. How many years had we been silver-taping rags over the breathers and front-motor dragster guys were wiping oil off of their goggles going down the racetrack?
"If you look back in history, kings used to warm their castles with a huge bonfire in the middle of the room, and they would cut big holes in the ceiling to let the smoke out. It took them 300 years to come up with the idea of a fireplace and a chimney.
"Just like in racing, sometimes some things just don't seem so obvious until they are."
Fred Mooneyham's brief mention last week about dirt-bike riding with his nitro peers in the 1970s and motocross racing against fellow 1970s Top Fuel driver Don Moody at Irwindale sent me scurrying through old emails and saved snippets of tales from days gone by to dig up correspondence I'd had with Moody on the subject a half-dozen years ago.
After a few minutes, I found my notes and enjoyed the tone and liked the thought of those bygone days, so I thought it would make an interesting column, another of those nostalgic "How cool were the '70s?" vibes with an off-track twist.
As I dug deeper and expanded the scope of my interviews to include fellow riders Don Prudhomme and Tommy Ivo and more long-distance chats with Moody, I tapped into a vein of wonderful memories and camaraderie that these guys and their peers shared on the desert excursions. Prudhomme and Ivo very generously dug through their scrapbooks for photos, and I made up for the lack of images for certain stories by enlisting the talented pen and fertile mind of ND's own John Jodauga to "re-create" the scenes with cartoons. Good stuff.
As we're all aware, the 1970s was a different time for drag racing, and not just because the nitro cars had transmissions and the drivers wore breather masks and open-face helmets. There was a genuine sense of community and Band of Brothers mentality that only is forged in the fires of all-night tows to match race tracks and seeing each other not just every other weekend but sometimes three or four nights a week. Some of the racers today, of course, are friends off the track and do things together – thanks to the centralized hub of the drag racing world in Brownsburg, Ind. – but it's a different world. That's not a knock on today's professionals. After all, compared to their 1970s counterparts, the pressures are different, the schedule is different, the political climate is different, and the obligations are different.
In the 1970s, NHRA could get away with not only dreaming up the somewhat hokey idea of a pre-Winternationals roller-skating party, but also having all of the sport's big guns actually show up and skate. Can you picture that today? Me either. There was no media opportunity (other than National Dragster), yet everyone was there, and the proverbial good time was had by all. Different times, different world.
The dirt-biking phenomenon had hit pretty big then, and the first stadium motocross events created heroes like Roger DeCoster, Jim Pomeroy, Brad Lackey, and Bob "Hurricane" Hannah. Drag racing's heroes were all over it.
Southern California-based guys like Moody and Mooneyham, along with Prudhomme, Kenny Safford and partner Don Gaide, Ed Janke, Ivo (all five friends from their days as members of the Burbank Road Kings), and a wild and varied assortment that included Funny Car racer Sush Matsubara, chassis builder Lil John Buttera, engine ace Ed Pink, Don and Bob Spar (of B&M fame), National Dragster's own Leslie Lovett, and many others would load up their Husqvarnas, Bultacos, Montesas, Maicos, Yamahas, and CZs and head out to the hinterlands so tantalizingly close to LA: the high desert just north of Pomona, Jawbone Canyon, Holiday Mountain, Hi Vista, Red Rock Canyon, publishing magnate Robert E. Petersen's ranch in Tehachapi, or even the man-made motocross mecca at Indian Dunes near Valencia. Whenever there was a spare weekend, they'd ride together, laugh, and try not to get hurt.
"Man, those were the days," Prudhomme reflected, warming to the recollection when we spoke earlier this week. "If we weren't drag racing, we were riding. The guys would come by my house and pick me up, or we'd all meet somewhere. We'd go out there, get it on, then lay under a tree and smoke a cigarette and shoot the [breeze]. We were all great friends, and we rode the hell out of our bikes. We'd ride hard, and by the time we got home, we were sore and beat up; we were pouring people into the bathtubs for a hot soak."
"Those were great times in life with great friends; I had just as much fun dirt biking as drag racing," Moody enthused via email, from his home in Thailand. "Throughout life (if you live long enough) you compile endless memories, but dirt biking in the desert is indelible in my head. There's not many times do you get to spend time with great friends on the edge of disaster, whether it was on the dragstrip or tearing across the desert."
And the stories … oh, man. Here's a sampling of some of the great and wild times that they experienced.
While many of his peers were riding 360cc CZs, Huskys, or Bultacos, Moody, in typical drag racer style, had hot-rodded his Montesa to run straight alcohol. "Jack Engle calculated all the necessary jetting for the alcohol versus the gasoline, and the air-cooled engine loved the alcohol," recalled Moody, who then worked at Engle Cams with longtime partner Wes Cerny. "I had a new steel tank (it melted the fiberglass one), a new 36mm Bing carburetor, nice new fenders; it looked like new money, but it burned fuel like a dragster. The first day in the desert, I remember Prudhomme kept badgering me to let him ride it. Well, he rolled out on a fire road, shifted to 2nd gear, and proceeded to roll right over backwards. It didn't even hurt the 'slithering Snake' but ruined both of my new fenders and dented my steel tank. All he could say was how impressed he was with the power. Huh!
"At one of our early get-togethers in the Holiday area, Safford, Gaide, Janke, Prudhomme, myself, and some others were more or less in line and following too close and way too fast. Safford went into a washout with all of us right behind. Prudhomme passed me in the raw desert and crossed in front, right over Safford's right shoulder. The reason I remember this so vividly is that Safford was wearing a new bright yellow Engle Racing Cams jacket; when we got back to camp, Prudhomme tried to say he had clearly missed everyone, but Safford had a giant knobby track across his right shoulder on his new jacket! The word 'Lift' was just not in our vocabulary, and 'the Snake' was going for the finish line."
I asked Prudhomme – who, by the way, had always been the king of those roller-skating parties, having raced on skates at the Rainbow Roller Rink in the San Fernando Valley as a teen, before his drag racing days – if he had been as good on two wheels as he was on four.
"Yeah, I could hold my own, but everyone was good, except 'the Mongoose,' " he said, unable to resist the chance to once again poke fun at his old buddy Tom McEwen. "He would show up and look like a drugstore cowboy – the best motorcycle you could buy, the best pair of leathers, the best jacket – but he just couldn't ride to save his life.
"Moody was awfully good," he added. "You knew who was good when you'd be riding hard, look back, and see who was still with you, and Moody was always there."
Moody, too, had a good "Snake" and "Mongoose" story to tell.
"I can remember when McEwen came to the desert with us for the first time (he should have stayed home)," recalled Moody. "The bike he had borrowed (from Don Gaide) quit in the middle of nowhere. 'The Snake' and I made our way back to the truck and proceeded to go back for 'the 'Goose.' It started raining like the devil, and it was already dark, and what road we had looked like a river. Prudhomme kept saying, 'Turn around; he's not going to be out here; let's get out of here before we're stuck,' but I kept going to the spot where I thought he was. I was losing confidence fast, and Prudhomme was yelling, 'We gotta get outta here!' and finally, here's the 'Drowned 'Goose,' huddled under the same mesquite bush, right where we had left him. History would surely have changed that rainy Sunday had we left him in the desert."
As with all things mechanical, trouble usually reared its ugly head.
"If we had seven guys, it would take two hours to get 'em all lit," Moody recalled. "It was always a feat in itself to be able to get seven or eight two-strokes fired up anywhere near the same time. Ed Janke had a 175cc Bultaco Sherpa that wouldn't start with the kick-starter. We had to tow him all over the desert to get it to light, then, after it warmed up, he had to change the spark plug to a cooler one or it would burn up the engine on the ride. I remember John Buttera was too light to start his Husky; he had to take the plug out and squirt fire starter in the cylinder to start the bike."
It may have taken a while to kick-start some of those bikes, but my prodding email to Ivo proved he didn't need any warm-up time to start reminiscing about those desert days.
"Going to the desert to ride bikes with a bunch of lop-eared fuel dragster drivers was my first mistake," he wrote with his typical flourish. "They don't call them 'murder-cycles' for nothing, you know. And then putting them in the hands of a bunch of 'accidents looking for a place to happen'-type guys like that was a volatile combination at best.
"On one Saturday night at Lions, Prudhomme walked up to me and said they'd just found something to do that was like being able to drive your dragster for miles on end, and it doesn't even kick the rods out when you stand on it, either. Hmmmmm … sounded good to me I thought, and the hook was set! I ran right out and bought myself a brandy-new, badass, top-of-the-line Husqvarna that I was told was the gold standard of dirt bikes at the time. And I wasn't going to have anyone kicking sand in my face if I went out with them!
"The first barrier that I had to overcome was that those Looney Toons-ers were up and at 'em on the way to the desert just as the sun was starting to come up. Talk about a huge culture shock, between world time and Ivo time, because that was my normal 'vampire time' for going to bed. They said it was cooler out there in the morning time. Yee gods, man! It was in the middle of winter, and it was so cold out there that my nose turned white.
"We were getting the bikes unloaded, and I donned my many layers of sweaters and a fleece-lined, heavy-duty leather jacket. When you're 120 pounds, you don't have much insulation to ward off the frosty winter desert air. I always had a tenth of a second on anyone driving the same dragster because of my jockey size, so I theorized that it would become even more of an advantage on a smaller vehicle like a bike, and I was all set to kick ass and take names.
So, while they were all finishing getting things ready, I rode out away from where we parked the trucks to get a feel of the bike. And I noticed Kenny Safford making a big circle swing around on the flat area and was coming right at me. So I thought, 'OK, he's going to drive up next to me and have a little drag race.' WRONG! For some strange unknown reason, he just kept on coming at me and plowed right into the side of me! Didn't he realize a motorcycle's front wheel loses in a confrontation with the side of another bike in a collision?
"After everyone got done running around in circles like a Chinese fire drill for a few minutes, we all decided Kenny was going to live, and we were off and at 'em once again. Then Prudhomme came up with the bright idea of climbing up the side of the hill that was running along next to us and says to me, 'Follow me!' Now, I'd not realized yet that he was trying to kill me one way or another and followed along like an obedient little puppy dog on a leash. BUT -- and here comes that 'but' again -- halfway up the hill, I stalled my bike -- Great! Just to add insult to injury, I almost didn't have enough lard in my ass to kick-start the bike on flat ground, let alone on the side of a hill. When that two-stroke motor kicked back while starting it, it would throw me right over the handlebars.
"So the 'evil Snake' (remember how much trouble an evil snake got us all into in Garden of Eden?) says to me, as he reeled me in, 'Point the bike downhill, and I'll give you a little shove off and just pop the clutch to get it started.' Right! And I bought it hook, line, and sinker. When I popped the clutch and the engine came to life, can you imagine how fast that damn thing accelerated downhill? And off I went, full-tilt boogie down the hill doing cartwheels -- front wheel, back wheel, front wheel, back wheel -- yelling 'Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch' every time I ended up on the bottom side as it rolled over and over all the way to the bottom of the hill.
"I went home and sold the bike the next day!"
As Ivo alluded, injuries were inevitable. The most notorious of the casualties was Matsubara, who broke an arm and a leg in a crash just days before the 1975 Winternationals and had to turn the seat of Joe Pisano's Funny Car over to a replacement driver. Famed car owner Roland Leong, one of Matsubara's good friends, told me earlier this week that Matsubara knew he was in trouble when his left leg was over his right shoulder. "They had to drive the truck a little ways into the desert and use the ramps they used to load the bike to put him in the back of the truck to take him to the hospital," he recalled. "He never raced again."
According to Moody, that wasn't the first brush with two-wheel wounds for Matsubara, who often rode with longtime friend Glen Okazaki (who had been partners on a Funny Car with Leroy Chadderton and worked on both the Pisano car and the famed Mondello & Matsubara Fiat), Okazaki's brother, Richie, and Mikio Yoshika, who worked with Chadderton at Precision Products in Pomona, then one of the premier machine shops in the nitro world.
"I remember when I first coaxed Sush to buy a dirt bike and come to the desert," Moody recalled. "He must have had six or eight friends. On our first ride at Holiday, I was trying to show them the trail. I climbed to a 'razorback ridge' and stopped. When I looked back, there was nothing but a cloud of dust approaching me like a tornado. Over the ridge was blind and a big drop-off. I got off my bike and started waving my arms and shouting, 'Stop! Stop!' as loud as I could; what a joke! First it was Sush, who didn't pay any attention to me. Crash, bang, boom down into the chasm over the ridge. I'm still waving my arms trying to get the rest to stop; just a waste of time. When the dust cleared, there was nothing but Japanese piled in the gulley.
"I'm yelling at Sush, asking why he didn't stop. Through his bloody lips, covered with sand and dirt, he very calmly says, 'You don't expect us to take orders from a "Yankee Running Dog," do you?' Sush was the commander, and they didn't listen to anyone else. We had a good time together, and we were best friends, but from that day forward, I didn't try to tell his guys anything."
For all of his tales of everyone else's woes, Moody was not immune to injuries himself.
"I was riding with Safford, Gaide, Prudhomme, and a couple of others," he shared. "All the guys were on a fire road, and I was out in the desert zipping along. I sailed over a berm, and my front wheel left the fork tubes -- not good. I somersaulted in the air and landed flat on my butt. I had a bruised tailbone and had to sit on a rubber-cushioned donut for over a year at work."
(Nor is Moody out of harm's way these days. He has traded in motorized two-wheelers for high-dollar road bicycles and flirted with disaster about a month ago when he ran head-on into another rider on a blind corner. "I did what we call a 'Flying W' over the handlebars," he related. "I managed to fracture some ribs, tore a piece in an oblique muscle, and knocked down my shoulder. It's taken about six weeks to recover some rhythm and breathing, and still have considerable pain at times, but at 75, I don't heal as quickly as when I was 25. The only consolation to the mishap was my nice Klein [bicycle] hardly got a scratch.")
Bangs and bruises notwithstanding, everyone seemed game each time the call of the wild was sounded, and no one was more eager than Moody, even if it meant a little cajoling of his pal Prudhomme.
"Prudhomme's words still ring in my ears: 'Moody! This is the last time I'm going to let you drag me out here; you've led me astray the last time,' then I'd wait until Wednesday evening or Thursday the next week, give him a call; he'd say, 'Well, OK,' and we would be out doing the same thing again," Moody recalled with a laugh. "With me in Santa Monica and him in Granada Hills, [his house] was on the way to the desert. I look back at those times, and though they were glimpses of memories, at the time, the experiences were all-consuming, just like the look on Prudhomme's wife's face as we drove out of his driveway -- her with a frown and hands on hips -- she looked like I was taking him to storm the beaches of Normandy. I don't think I was real popular with Lynn.
"Twenty years ago or so, Wes Cerny mentioned to Prudhomme that I might come back to America and would he like to test the desert one more time? I understand that 'the Snake's' reaction was, 'Hell no, and I don't even want to see his picture.' I loved the guy, and I can't remember in my life having more fun than drag racing unless it was dirt biking in the desert with all those yahoos."
Descending from quarter-mile royalty, Fred Mooneyham had drag racing in his DNA, so it's probably no surprise that he followed his famous father, Gene, onto the dragstrip; it's maybe just surprising that he did it at such a young age.
The early part of Mooneyham's career was more off the radar than that of his California peers, but he believes that he may have licensed ahead of Randy Allison, Jeb Allen, and John Stewart. He was just 16 years old and in high school when he licensed in the family's front-engine Mooneyham & Sons Top Fueler at LaPlace Dragway in Louisiana, where the family had moved when the patriarch, then employed by Keith Black, took a job there. After years in California, they packed up and headed east, where young Mooneyham completed high school and got in his first runs at the dragstrip.
The senior Mooneyham, who came into prominence with the famed Mooneyham & Sharp 554 coupe, had progressed to Top Fuel in the 1960s as part of the Jungle Four/Mooneyham-Jackson-Ferguson-Faust team, and it was actually the Mooneyhams' car -- with Robert Anderson's name on the side -- that Dave Chenevert drove to victory at the inaugural Gatornationals in 1970, with the young Mooneyham as part of the crew.
"I was surrounded by Top Fuelers growing up, so I guess it's not surprising that I wanted to drive one," he said. "Growing up, I was just passionate about being out there in the garage with the car until my mom finally would make me come in and go to bed."
A self-admitted troublemaker as a teen ("I was a straight-D student and just as likely to get into a fight after school than anything else"), Mooneyham channeled that energy into his racing efforts, and his parents were more than happy to give him an outlet – briefly in drag boats, then in motocross before he settled on Top Fuel – to calm his restless nature. And when the family's latest Top Fuel driver was dismissed for poor performance, young Mooneyham finally got his chance and didn't waste it.
"I borrowed a firesuit and got my license pretty quickly, in just a couple of weekends," he remembers. "We raced all over the place: Florida, Bristol, Dallas, Oklahoma City, and all over Division 4 for a couple of years before we went back to California."
Mooneyham's brother, Gene Jr., a year his senior and also mechanically gifted, spent time working with a number of nitro teams and was on the crew with Steve Carbone when he upset Don Garlits in the great final-round burndown at the 1971 U.S. Nationals. Both brothers were so mechanically sharp from a young age that they once challenged their high-school small-engines-class teacher's technical explanation of how a carburetor venturi works. The teacher and administration were so impressed that they got the brothers enrolled for advanced mechanical classes at Delgado Trade School. Between racing and the trade-school classes, Mooneyham wasn't in high school much, which was just fine with him, and he squeaked through to graduate.
When the family returned to California, Mooneyham came up with the catchy California Cajun name for its now rear-engine dragster and ran regularly throughout the region. One of the family's biggest victories came at Orange County Int'l Raceway's anniversary Race of Winners in 1972. Former Jungle Four team member and driver Larry Faust was part of the team, as was family friend and future national event Top Fuel winner Stan Shiroma, who handled clutch duties.
"Funny story from those times," Mooneyham mused. "It was at the March Meet in 1973. Don Garlits had just won the Winternationals, beating Dennis Baca in the final, and stayed out in California for the March Meet. We qualified fairly well but drew Dennis Baca in the first round, and we beat him, which was a surprise to all of us, then we drew Garlits in the second round. What are the odds of that? Now remember, [teenage] John Stewart had just beaten Garlits at Irwindale earlier that year [at the Grand Premiere], and I was there and saw that Garlits was just beyond pissed for getting beaten, and I remember the announcer saying there was no way Don was going to let another teenager beat him. He had lane choice, and we smoked the tires in the bad lane."
(Mooneyham was good friends with teen peers Allen and Allison and recalls that Allen at one time hatched an idea for the three of them to form a loose alliance with "California Wiz Kids" painted on their cars, though it never came to fruition.)
Mooneyham was also the proud winner of a special, post-season race staged by Steve Evans on Irwindale's motocross track in November 1973. Dirt-bike riding was a popular pastime for Southern California nitro racers, with guys like Don Moody, Don Prudhomme, Sush Matsubara, and Shiroma making excursions to the desert for a little two-wheel fun. Mooneyham and Moody dueled throughout, with Moody faster on the straights and Mooneyham's Husqvarna better in the turns and whoop-de-dos, and the youngster outlasted the veteran and, in fact, won all three heats.
In 1974, Gene Mooneyham started the supercharger business that bore his name – and still does today, more than a decade after he sold it – and eventually, the needs of running the business overcame the needs of running a race car, and the dragster was parked.
"We just didn't have the time to dedicate to the race car, and I was working at the business building blowers with my dad," he said. "Then I met a girl – to whom I'm still married – and decided to try to move on with my life and become successful in something else."
The Mooneyhams were neighbors in Downey, Calif., with the Beaver brothers, Richard and Gene, and John Force and the Condit brothers lived close by, so it's no surprise that young Mooneyham fell into league with them, which led to an offer to drive the L.A. Hooker Vega on a months-long tour of Australia in 1975 when Dave Condit was unable to get time off of work.
Although he had never driven a Funny Car, "Fearless Fred" -- as he had been named by Faust not just for racing, but also for his wild, bar-fighter mentality – agreed to do it. Shakedown runs were scheduled for Irwindale Raceway; the only problem was that no emergency crew or ambulance was available.
"My dad begged me not to do it, but I was fearless and said, 'Let's go.' Sure enough, on the first run, it caught fire. I discharged the fire extinguishers – which really pissed off Gene, because they were expensive to refill – and I got out OK, but we couldn't run again, so that was my training – three-quarters of a run – and off we went to Australia, but we ended up winning the series and setting track records."
When they returned Stateside, Mooneyham began to frequent Steve Plueger's S&R Race Cars shop, which led to an invitation to drive the Plueger & Gyger Mustang (previously driven by Condit).
Mooneyham went back to school at nights and earned a business degree ("Even though it took me 14 years," he chuckles) and went on to help found the world's largest waterjet cutting systems business, Flow International Corp., which for years was a sponsor of former neighbor Force's Funny Car team.
Gene Mooneyham died of pneumonia Jan. 17, 2006, at age 75, and left behind a living legacy with his kids. Mooneyham credits the strong work ethic and morals inspired by his father, a former Oklahoma farmer, for their success in life.
"I was very blessed to be raised by Gene Mooneyham," he said. "He was the finest man that I have ever met, and I was blessed to be in his company and learn the lessons of life from such a great man."


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In an ideal world, men would know exactly what women want. Just think, never again would you have to hint to your man that you would really like ...On May 17, 2010 / By BrS
Huge congratulations to our Deux Lux Drawstring Piper Giveaway winner! The giveaway was running over on our new facebook BagBliss page, where all you had to do to ...On May 7, 2010 / By Jenni Moreno
A good friend of mine swears every time she takes her Speedy out with her, she runs into fabulous deals and sales. I'm not sure if I necessarily ...On May 3, 2010 / By Deysa Diaz
The Rebecca Minkoff Best Friends Leather Pouch Set was first brought to my attention about a month ago by fellow TBFer FedUp. And I must admit, the idea ...On April 21, 2010 / By BrS
Muratori Bags is the new eco-sensitive handbag line, fresh out of the works by Julie and husband Todd Berard. What's in the name? Muratori, pronounced muir-a-tour-ee is Julie's ...On April 20, 2010 / By Jenni Moreno
The Artisan Corner is a new unique event that brings the craftsmanship of Gucci's Florentine leather goods factory directly to its clientele. And this month the House's most ...On April 13, 2010 / By Jenni Moreno
Goyard fans, if in the New York area this Thursday or Friday, don't forget to stop in at Bergdorf Goodman for the Goyard Purse Monogramming Event. B.G. flew ...On April 12, 2010 / By Jenni Moreno
Here's an example of old meets new. If you look into the history of the handbag, you'll discover that the first noted handbag-like accessories arrived in a pouch-like ...On April 5, 2010 / By Deysa Diaz
When I think of handbags that are composed of natural materials, I normally think of those chunky straw beach totes. You remember those, right? I think they were ...On April 1, 2010 / By BrS
For those of you that don't know me, I have a "minor" turtle obsession. What can I say? Box turtles, sea turtles… I love them all! But lately ...On March 30, 2010 / By BrS
At this moment there are a few handbag sample sales going on, that you're not going to want to pass. So take a break from whatever your doing ...On March 25, 2010 / By Jenni Moreno
Joy Gryson is a talent in the handbag industry that has worked for Coach, Marc Jacobs and started her own line in 2006. She gained a great deal ...On March 22, 2010 / By Kimberly Marney
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Heads up! Score discounted tickets for December to @phillyfromtop with this #CyberMonday deal. https://t.co/pzXWjXkKsO
Here's a chance to win tickets to One Liberty Observation Deck, courtesy of @PHLVisitorCntr and @phillyfromtop! https://t.co/2NtDNyEI5w
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March 5, 2014
Posted by Kristina Jenkins
Posted on March 5, 2014 | Kristina Jenkins
Filed in:
Attractions, Events
March is the month for honoring the legacy of history's most incredible women, and it's easy to join in the celebration in Philadelphia. With International Women's Day approaching on Saturday, March 8, now is the time to mark Women's History Month in the City of Brotherly Love by checking out everything from one-night-only special events […]
January 14, 2014
Posted by Jillian Wilson
Posted on January 14, 2014 | Jillian Wilson
Filed in:
Attractions, Events, Weekend
Spend your day off at the National Constitution Center as it celebrates Martin Luther King Day with $5 admission, courtesy of The Macy's Foundation, and a slew of themed family-friendly programming. On Monday, January 20, visit the National Constitution Center and take part in a variety of events honoring Dr. King and learn how to […]
August 26, 2013
Posted on August 26, 2013 | Jillian Wilson
Filed in:
Arts, Attractions, Events
This fall, feast your eyes on some of the most influential photographs in history at Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs at the National Constitution Center. The traveling exhibition is made up of more than 150 photographs that hold spots in textbooks, museums and on the covers of magazines. The National Constitution Center invites […]
June 12, 2013
Posted on June 12, 2013 | Jillian Wilson
Filed in:
Attractions, Events, Nightlife
To kick off its new marquee display The 1968 Exhibit, the National Constitution Center hosts a '60s-centric party, Retro-Rama, this Thursday, June 13. All things '60s come together at this evening soiree. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., walk the (ahem) shag carpet in your best decade fashion. Don those bell bottoms, tie dye tees and […]
April 22, 2013
Posted on April 22, 2013 | Jillian Wilson
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Don't miss the opportunity to check out the National Constitution Center's marquee exhibition American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition while it's still in town. The super-popular exhibit, which has received press from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, ends its six-month run this Sunday, April 28. Next stops include St. […]
February 26, 2013
Posted on February 26, 2013 | Jillian Wilson
For the entire month of March, the National Constitution Center is celebrating the women who helped make America what it is today. Every day during the month of March, guests will be invited to explore the world of women's history along with the National Constitution Center's regular offerings. And in honor of the lovely ladies […]
February 11, 2013
Posted on February 11, 2013 | Jillian Wilson
From Saturday, February 16-Monday, February 18, the National Constitution Center is celebrating the Presidents of our county in honor of Presidents' Day weekend. The museum will even be opening early on Sunday, February 17 in honor of the holiday. Doors will open at 9:30 a.m. All weekend long guests will have the chance to make […]
February 8, 2012
Posted by James Zale
Posted on February 8, 2012 | James Zale
The sure-to-be epic Bruce Springsteen exhibition — From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen — opens next Friday at the National Constitution Center. Yesterday, one of the signature pieces from the exhibition — Springsteen's 1960 Chevrolet Corvette — arrived at the NCC. Bruce Springsteen purchased this Corvette in […]
December 14, 2010
Posted by Allison Stadd
Posted on December 14, 2010 | Allison Stadd
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Celebrate Bill of Rights Day tomorrow, Wednesday, December 15th, online with a 15-minute webcast from the National Constitution Center: Constitution Hall Pass. The video will be available all day online. And from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., constitutional experts and members of the Center's education staff will blog live online to answer questions and offer […]
October 25, 2010
Posted by Aaron Horton
Posted on October 25, 2010 | Aaron Horton
Filed in:
Events, Weekend
All weekend-long, the National Constitution Center is hosting a spooky two-day Halloween celebration in conjunction with the Center's Art of the American Soldier exhibition. On Saturday from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. visitors of all ages are invited and encouraged to dress up in costumes and hear […]


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No it didn't. If that were true, the financial crisis would have occurred long before it actually did.<quoted text>
Not talking about subprime loans. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 forced banks to lower the requirements by which people could qualify to get a home loan. In other words, the banks were forced to give home loans to people even though they might not be able to repay it. When I bought my first house in 1995, I qualified for MUCH more house than I could ever possibly afford.
CRA effectively said banks couldn't do business in a given community if all they did was take in money to loan out to other communities... what they considered better risk areas. No one lowered the standards.
When GLB passed and Glass-Stegall was repealed, part of what gave banks, insurance and financial companies to "merge" was the need to enforce CRA and for banks to prove they weren't discriminating against people.
Not all banks were or are required to follow CRA. Banks under a certain capitalization or banks that had no desire to merge or grow were not required to follow CRA guidelines.
And again, there was no requirement to make any loans.
If you were lucky to get your house and keep it, good for you. Where I have a problem is when people say it's the BUYER'S fault for taking on a loan bigger than they can afford.
I blame realtors and mortgage brokers for making people BELIEVE they could afford more. Their job is to sell. And sell they did.


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Rock legend Lou Reed has died aged 71.
The cause of his death was not released but he underwent a liver transplant in May.
The American musician, whose biggest hits include Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side, also celebrated a solo career.
News of his death was first reported by Rolling Stone tonight (Sunday October 27).
Here we pay tribute to the Velvet Underground legend with millions of others who idolised his genius.
A number of celebrities have already posted their memories of Reed, with most of them referencing this iconic song...
Memories, musings and tales of rock'n'roll - the tributes are pouring in from celebrities.
Mick Hucknall wrote: "RIP Lou Reed 71. You defined New York City. Too f****** young. Wayy too young. Berlin one of my most loved albums."
While a post on behalf of The Who poetically said: "R.I.P. Lou Reed. Walk on the peaceful side."
Danny Baker reflected: "Curiously perhaps, I never cared for the Velvet Underground. But I really, really liked a lot of Lou Reed."
On September 3, Reed was presented the GQ Inspiration of the Year award by Ronnie Wood.
In his acceptance speech, he said: "Theres only one great occupation that can change the world, that's real rock and roll.
"I believe, to the bottom of my heart, the last cell, that rock and roll can change everything.
"And I'm a graduate from Warhol University.
"I believe in a power of punk. And to this day, I want to blow it up."
The American musician was born on March 2, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York.
The singer and guitarist shaped rock and roll in the 1960s with his distinctive voice and deep lyrics.
He's most known for hits Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side, but also celebrated a solo career.
Reed's career spanned for more than five decades.
We are currently compiling the most popular Lou Reed songs in tribute to the late rocker.
Get in touch on Twitter via @DailyMirror with your suggestions and why you found the song inspiring.
We'll try not to pick most of them from his classic 1972 album Transformer.
The outspoken star was never short of a memorable soundbite - or two.
He once said...
- "I tried to give up drugs by drinking."
- "I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it."
And of course...
- "One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz."
Read more: 14 of the Velvet Underground legend's best quotes
The cause of death was a liver-related ailment, it was reported tonight.
It was already known Reed underwent a liver transplant in May.
Not every person was a fan, however. Political journalist and self-diagnosed Rolling Stones obsessive, Iain Martin, wasn't that fussed.
He wrote on Twitter: "Never liked Lou Reed's records. And the Velvet Underground were massively overrated."
Still, here's hoping Iain found some joy from Reed's Freeport High School yearbook photo from 1959.
Lou Reed's Freeport High School yearbook photo from 1959: pic.twitter.com/t0yeyRNfMk— Meredith Frost (@MeredithFrost) October 27, 2013
Though the Velvet Underground were a commercial failure in the late 1960s, the group has gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era.
Look back at one of their more popular hits, Sunday Morning, in the video below.
This picture was shared on Reed's official Facebook and Twitter pages just six hours before news of his death broke.
The caption was simply:"The Door"
It has been shared thousands of times and fans have been leaving their emotional tributes in the comments box.
Detlef Happel commented: R.I.P. dear great musician, never forget your life performance at Radio City Music Hall in 1993 and thanks for many great songs accompanying my life."
Gary Heffern added: "Linger on your pale blue eyes...thanks for the music."
Nothing was off-limits for Lou, especially when he was was putting pen to paper.
He wrote songs about transvestites and transsexuals, prostitution, and drug addiction. It was punk poetry.
TV host Graham Norton said: "And so it goes . . . Goodbye Lou Reed. Thanks for Transformer one of the best albums EVER! Might listen to Perfect Day and have a little weep."
Musician Darren Hayman added: "It's a long rough haul being a Lou Reed fan. Many troughs, beautiful peaks. Push comes to shove though, he was my favourite. Never boring."
More developments from the cause of death.
NBC News report Reed died from complications following a liver transplant in May this year.
Meanwhile his literary agent Andrew Wylie says the legendary musician died in Southampton this morning [Sunday, October 27].
In April this year, Reed was forced to cancel five scheduled California concert dates.
He then underwent a liver transplant and posted on his website on June 1: "I am a triumph of modern medicine."
We've compiled a list of some of his greatest ever songs.
From the predictable Perfect Day to Some Kind of Nature and I'm Waiting For The Man.
Click here to see the full Top 10or settle down with a couple of our picks below.
Rock 'n' Roll
Satellite of Love
The Aches And Pains of Touring - diary by Lou Reed.
An article written by Reed for The New Yorker has been published 17 years after first going to print.
It has been made available to read for free and is utterly brilliant.
He said it himself. pic.twitter.com/XQSQ3fM03x— A SCARY BOY (@GuyWoodward89) October 27, 2013
Julian Stockton, a high-profile music PR who has worked with the most iconic stars, has been recalling recent Reed encounters.
He tells Caitlin Moran: "When we worked on Lou and Mick Rock's book a couple of months ago loads of people said no to interviews 'life's too short' etc"
While adding to author John Niven: "Worked with him only a few weeks ago, whilst clearly unwell he was still terrifying."
Stockton beautifully reflected: "He was a gent when the mics were off, kind, nice, funny and very acerbic."
A true giant has left the stage
Like many rock giants, Lou Reed was actually a small man but no artist can have cast such a giant shadow over his chosen medium, says Gavin Martin.
The Velvet Underground may have sold few records during their lifespan but Lou's songs with them became a potent inspiration.


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Updated 03/10/2015
The boats anchored just off the pier, the telltale dive log, and the guests with mask imprints on their foreheads give it all away—this is the best dive lodge in Dominica. Located 1 mile (1½ km) south of Roseau, it offers good packages with top-notch diving and family-style dining. Nondivers who don't want or need fancy amenities will find the rooms adequate and can enjoy the plunge pool, a bar that serves tropical drinks, and whale-watching cruises. The hotel also has a gift shop and two rooms that are wheelchair accessible.
Castle Comfort, St. George, Dominica
767-448–2188; 646-502–6800-in U.S.; 888-414–7626-in U.S.
Website: www.castlecomfortdivelodge.com
Hotel Details:
Updated 03/10/2015
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Ugh, I don't know what to do! I hardly am ever able to eat, and when I do it's not very much. And even then, most of the time I can't keep it down. It terrifies me to think of what this lack of nutrients is doing to my baby, but there is just nothing I can do about it. I can't take my prenatal vitamin either, if I do I get sick immediately after, which completely defeats the purpose.
I am open to ANY suggestions!


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This property allows you to book online with a credit card. After submitting a reservation request, the owner or manager has 24 hours to accept, at which time your card will be charged and you will receive an email confirmation
Recent Endless Mountains reviews
"My family has stayed in this cabin twice now. We absolutely love staying here and will continue to stay here every time we come up this way. The place is beautiful and very peaceful and the owners are really friendly and helpful. We love sitting on the porch enjoying our morning coffee while enjoying the serenity and wildlife."Guest: Anonymous Date of Stay: June 2015 Review Submitted: June 21, 2015View listing
"We just stayed at the Spencer House for a long ski weekend and had a wonderful time! We were having a hard time finding lodging to accommodate our group of 14 adults. We needed to be close enough to ski Elk Mtn, but have enough room so we aren't on top of each other! The Spencer House was the perfect fit. The home is absolutely beautiful and obviously well cared for. Each couple had their own private room plus we had a TON of space on the main level for relaxing, cooking and dining. By the way our group LOVES to cook, the kitchen went well beyond our expectations. Plenty of pots/pans/utensils- you name it! The home truly has everything you need to feel right at home. I'd also like to mention the homeowners, Agnes & Alfred, were simply lovely to work with. You really can tell that they love this home and were happy to share it with us. I would highly recommend the Spencer House to anyone looking in the area, it is truly a amazing property."Guest: lolo Date of Stay: February 2015 Review Submitted: February 11, 2015View listing
"We spent a week in this cabin and absolutely enjoyed ourselves! The beds were comfortable and the cabin was extremely clean. The owners were wonderful and very accommodating, even allowing us to check in early with less then 24 hours notice and allowing us to extend our stay for an extra 3 days. The cabin is in the middle of nowhere with a big lake on the property. It was the middle of winter so we didn't get to take advantage of the fishing but our dog loved running around on the land surrounding the property. A cabin this nice is a rare find and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a comfortable place to stay near Dushore!"Guest: AshleyC Date of Stay: January 2015 Review Submitted: February 10, 2015View listing
"I think this was the fourth year our family has spent the days after Christmas relaxing at the Mountain View chalet. The place is spotless and very roomy. The view of the mountain is beautiful, especially at night. There is horseback riding right on the grounds which we discovered this year. All around great time and would recommend the place to anyone."Guest: Donna G. Date of Stay: December 2014 Review Submitted: January 5, 2015View listing
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