'Jefferson's' Ralph the Doorman Passes

Ned Wertimer, who played Ralph the Doorman on all 11 seasons of the CBS sitcom "The Jeffersons," has died.

Wertimer's manager Brad Lemack said Tuesday that the 89-year-old actor died at a Los Angeles-area nursing home on Jan. 2, following a November fall at his home in Burbank.

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., and a Navy pilot during World War II, Wertimer had one-off roles on dozens of TV shows from the early 1960s through the late 1980s, including "Car 54 Where Are You?" and "Mary Tyler Moore."

But he was best known by far as Ralph Hart, the uniformed, mustachioed and quick-witted doorman at the luxury apartment building on "The Jeffersons," the "All In the Family" spinoff that ran from 1975 to 1985.

Ringing a Bell is More Dangerous Than I Thought

Helen Springthorpe is a bell ringer at a church, and ringing those bells almost cost her, her life.

Springthorpe, 58, a bell ringer at St Nicholas Church, in Bathampton, U.K., had to be rescued by firefighters after becoming tangled up and trapped 20 feet above the belfry floor during a practice session earlier this week.

Springthorpe, who had only been on the job for three months before the accident, which, according to The Telegraph in the UK, happened on her first "pull" of the night with six other campanologists -- the fancy term for "bell ringers."

Springthorpe got caught in the ropes and couldn't get out.

"I don’t remember very much at all, I started pulling the bells and the next thing I knew I was looking at a paramedic," Springthorpe, who also works as a typist,

The rescue was difficult.  The staircase to the belfry was too narrow so firefighters had to lift up a section of the floor in order to lower her to the ground in a stretcher, the BBC reported.

Despite the harrowing experience, Springthorpe has made a full recovery, but officials are using the incident as a way to let the public know about the possible hazards of bell-ringing.

Hurricane Sandy Hits Jamaica, Cuba is Next

Hurricane Sandy hit Jamaica today.

The hurricane stranded travelers and downed power lines Wednesday as it roared across Jamaica on a course that would take it on to Cuba and then possibly threaten Florida and the Bahamas.

Sandy's death toll was at least two. An elderly man was killed in Jamaica when he was crushed by a boulder that rolled onto his clapboard house, police reported. Earlier Wednesday, a woman in Haiti was swept away by a rushing river she was trying to cross.

Meningitis Cases on the Rise

The number of people sickened with fungal meningitis from tainted epidural steroid injections has now risen to 91 in nine states.

It's a serious problem.

I recommed you read this Wall Street Journal article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444070104578042860922074782.html

More Coverage of the Fan that Fell to his Death at Georgia Dome

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has been updating the story about the Tennessee football fan that fell to his death from the upper deck on Friday at the Georgia Dome.

I still think alcohol was to blame, and there is some question about how long it too emergancy crews to get to him.