He was the teen idol that made Marcia Brady swoon.

Davy Jones, lead singer for the pop group The Monkees, died at the age of 66 due to a heart attack in Indiantown, Florida on Thursday. This news isn’t quite as big as the unexpected passing of Whitney Houston, but any time a celebrity from your past passes away it catches you off guard.

I watched The Monkees in reruns as a little kid (telling my age there) and will admit that I loved the lunacy of the show. It didn’t have to make sense, and most often it didn’t. However, the energy and the music made it must-see TV for me back then. And of course, Jones’ British accent and his tiny little body were adorable. It wasn’t that I had a crush on him. I was too young, but the star power was unmistakable. You know if he attracted the attention of the most fabulous Brady Bunch daughter he had to be hot stuff. Marcia and I weren’t the only ones who loved them. The Monkees pulled off the rare feat of topping both the US and the UK charts simultaneously back in 1967. A trick only The Beatles and Susan Boyle have pulled off since then.

The songs were catchy and three of the four members of the band have been riding that “Hey Hey We’re The Monkees” gravy train for decades now. Only Mike Nesmith has avoided being stuck in that golden oldies time warp. To be fair, Jones did release a solo album in 2009 and actually performed as recently as February 19.

Image

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]