February 13, 2011
— Open Blogger Omer Baumgartner's obituary -- written, I am positive, by Omer himself -- makes me wish for an afternoon with this man before he passed on. (Here's a link where you can leave your own tribute to him.)
...Born on a dairy farm in Walnut, Ill., Baumgartner was prodigious with the movement of manure from an early age, and exercising these and other talents, earned recognition for his National 4-H Grand Champion Dairy Heifer, Clementine's Ramona, in 1930 at the age of 10. After this debut, and as the Depression raged, Baumgartner cut his teeth in the livestock industry while attending hundreds of county and state fairs, showing and selling cattle, frying oysters, skinning rabbits, and drinking whiskey. While still a freshman at the University of Illinois, he successfully quelled the great dairy upraising of 1938, averting a desperate ice cream shortage in Chicago, and was immediately recruited, without finishing college, by the state's Guernsey Breeders Association as a field agent.Despite never learning to cook anything other than fried oysters, Baumgartner attained the rank of captain during World War II for running mess halls feeding over 5,000 in Tennessee and Alabama for the Army Air Corps. He was wildly popular with the troops for his mess hours bongo drum performances accompanied by dancing girls. Baumgartner notably worked for L.S. Heath and Company, running the dairy division and inventing Heath Bar ice cream in 1951. He also co-ran Wilkinson's Office Supplies with his wife Jattie Wilkinson Baumgartner, serving one-third of the state of Illinois and parts of Iowa. Baumgartner disliked vegetables his whole life. Despite consuming more than 2,000 pounds of butter, he never suffered from any kind of heart disease. His last meal was ice cream....
God bless you, Omer, wherever you are. Hat tip to Dave Barry. ..fritz..
Posted by: Open Blogger at
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Posted by: In Exile at February 13, 2011 06:19 AM (F/rf1)
Posted by: Moi at February 13, 2011 06:26 AM (Ez4Ql)
Posted by: Moi at February 13, 2011 06:27 AM (Ez4Ql)
Posted by: Drew in MO at February 13, 2011 06:27 AM (ltqwL)
Modern typesetters and their enablers have become the moral equivalent of the guy Holden Caulfield said would climb up on your gravestone and scratch "Fuck you." BTW, think CeeLo's got a shot at the grammy?
My local fishwrapper seems to take a special glee in repeating a disturbed and distracted relative's misspellings and errant military citations. Around here, we think of it as just one more kick in the ass on your way out the door.
Think writing your own, in advance, will save you from this? You haven't seen what they do with letters to the editor they think are too bitter and clingy.
Posted by: comatus at February 13, 2011 06:31 AM (W5ilH)
Posted by: In Exile at February 13, 2011 06:33 AM (F/rf1)
Posted by: fluffy at February 13, 2011 06:35 AM (4Kl5M)
Slinging shit, eating and drinking....dude could have been a politician, guess he didn't want to sully his reputation.
RIP Baumgartner
Posted by: SJR2 at February 13, 2011 06:39 AM (oCbCP)
Good choice. Hope it had hot fudge and caramel and nutst. Rest well, oh faithful bullshitter.
Posted by: huerfano at February 13, 2011 06:49 AM (2pEj7)
He lived life like a real man, enjoying life up to its end.
That is the thing liberals want to rob us of - the ability to live well and enjoy it in the process!
Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at February 13, 2011 06:52 AM (9hSKh)
Posted by: nickless: I'm with the banned (99.174.64.43) at February 13, 2011 06:54 AM (qdtoY)
Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at February 13, 2011 06:55 AM (9hSKh)
Doesn't matter. He wouldn't get in the front door without a college education.
Posted by: Shannow at February 13, 2011 07:03 AM (dCWWZ)
he successfully quelled the great dairy uprising of 1938...
Forget State Fairs, we needed this guy in the State Department!
Posted by: mark c at February 13, 2011 07:04 AM (SBIko)
Posted by: A Balrog of Morgoth at February 13, 2011 07:06 AM (0IPsJ)
Well....the army in Egypt has just suspended the constitution and dissolved Parliament
...is Jug Ears McFuckstick going to take credit for this??
Posted by: beedubya at February 13, 2011 07:12 AM (AnTyA)
To paraphrase Don Mclean "the day the blog died."
Dead weekend around here.
Must be a LOT of dead hoboes somewhere.
Posted by: kinlaw at February 13, 2011 07:13 AM (3r2UF)
Posted by: eman:The People's Front of Logprof at February 13, 2011 07:14 AM (gZVTR)
Posted by: Cicero at February 13, 2011 07:16 AM (4XGZN)
Posted by: eman:The People's Front of Logprof at February 13, 2011 07:17 AM (gZVTR)
If the Egyptian military squashes the MB this year
Not gonna happen.
How's the Islamic Republic of Egypt sound?
Posted by: beedubya at February 13, 2011 07:20 AM (AnTyA)
Posted by: eman:The People's Front of Logprof at February 13, 2011 07:27 AM (gZVTR)
Super Awesome!!!
The tunnels are already there!
Wipe 'em out! Wipe 'em out!
Posted by: Anti-Semites Everywhere (but especially in the U.S.) at February 13, 2011 07:27 AM (Jb3+B)
Moi at February 13, 2011 10:26 AM
Re: Day of rage
I can volunteer to make up rhyming slogans in honor of Logprof and Nickless and if necessary inflate my scrotum and paint it Carolina Blue.
Posted by: Truck Monkey at February 13, 2011 07:30 AM (yQWNf)
You left out this good part from the full obit.
He was 90 years old. Mr. Baumgartner had lived a long and passionate life
dedicated to rambunctious performances and dairy products.
" lived a long and passionate life
dedicated to rambunctious performances and dairy products."
Now that's funny.
Posted by: PoconoJoe at February 13, 2011 07:34 AM (Lpgnc)
Posted by: Cicero at February 13, 2011 07:34 AM (4XGZN)
Posted by: Optimizer at February 13, 2011 07:36 AM (2lTU+)
Per Mark Steyn:
Whenever I give a speech on Islam, some or other complacenik always says, “Oh, but they haven’t had time to Westernize. Just you wait and see. Give it another 20 years, and the siren song of Westernization will work its magic.” This argument isn’t merely speculative, it’s already been proved wrong by what’s happened over the last 20 years. Compare the Cairo University class of 1959 with those of the 21st century, and then see if you can recite your inevitablist theories of social evolution with a straight face. The idea that social progress is like the wheel or the internal combustion engine — once invented, it can never be uninvented — is one of the laziest assumptions of the Western Left.
Click on this link and scroll down to see the pictures of bareheaded female students at Cairo University classes 1959, 1978, 1995, and 2004. Note the progression and proliferation of female head-coverings.
Posted by: Deety at February 13, 2011 07:39 AM (Jb3+B)
Posted by: Cicero at February 13, 2011 07:40 AM (4XGZN)
From Lucianne: "Joshua Goldberg, son of Lucianne, brother of Jonah, and husband of Chantal, died long before his time, following injuries resulting from a fall."
Jonah Goldberg had some brief comments yesterday.
RIP, Mr. Goldberg.
Posted by: Miss'80sBaby at February 13, 2011 07:44 AM (iMgAa)
What happened to Joshua Goldberg?
He passed away a few days after an accident. I read that he fell, but there weren't any other details that I saw.
Posted by: Annabelle at February 13, 2011 07:45 AM (4kxCX)
Come to Daddy Kirsty. Come. To. Daddy.
Posted by: Uncle Frank at February 13, 2011 07:45 AM (3ftMt)
I still have two cases of Valu Rite that I got for Ace at the election, but I have been unable to deliver.
Will that help?
BTW, WTF did happen?
Posted by: Kemp at February 13, 2011 07:49 AM (+nt6P)
No Valu rite, no justice. Free the forgotten!
Hey, hey, hey ho, we got hobos and we won't go!!
Posted by: Kemp at February 13, 2011 07:53 AM (+nt6P)
Eh, they still consider the Yom Kippur war a "victory" because they weren't totally annihilated.
Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at February 13, 2011 07:56 AM (9hSKh)
Posted by: Moi at February 13, 2011 07:58 AM (Ez4Ql)
Posted by: Frank G at February 13, 2011 08:00 AM (4X0aT)
Posted by: Moi at February 13, 2011 08:01 AM (Ez4Ql)
I can't imagine that the Egyptian military is champing at the bit to attack Israel again
Israel has tactical nukes...Egypt has the Aswan dam
...the math is pretty easy on that one
Posted by: beedubya at February 13, 2011 08:03 AM (AnTyA)
Posted by: blaster at February 13, 2011 08:04 AM (9iNGM)
Posted by: Omer Baumgartner at February 13, 2011 09:01 AM (TXKVh)
Posted by: Omer Baumgartner at February 13, 2011 09:03 AM (TXKVh)
Posted by: Brian at February 13, 2011 09:10 AM (sYrWB)
. . . was prodigious with the movement of manure from an early age, and exercising these and other talents,
Well, growing up on a dirt farm, I can relate to that. But it gave me great incentive to learn to excercise other talents - such as how to clear core which I learned back in 1965.
Posted by: 2SoonOld2LateSmart at February 13, 2011 09:33 AM (h/OxL)
Posted by: Krazy Kat at February 13, 2011 09:47 AM (oNphh)
While I was a freshman at the University of Illinois, I had ice cream for every meal, yet still managed to only put on 22 pounds. God bless you, Omer! Hail to the Orange, Hail to the Blue, Hail Alma Mater! I just hope they don't cream-ate the body!
Posted by: Big Fat Meanie at February 13, 2011 10:26 AM (DPM1U)
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My extensive research on heart disease leads me to believe that it has a lot more to do with heredity than diet. Also, cholesterol levels are controlled in a large part by exercise.
Posted by: Vic at February 13, 2011 06:04 AM (M9Ie6)