When "Oobi" was still being played on TV, it had a of Muppets fans and small filmmakers who made their own "Oobi" puppets. In 2003, the "Boston Herald" newspaper said that "Oobi" was "already very popular" with "those of the Muppet generation." A worker for Noggin, Tom Ascheim, said in the same article that Oobi "gets fan mail," and he thought it was an interesting idea for a show because "everybody has an Oobi in their hand." In 2004, the magazine "The Melbourne Age" said that "the show - the work of various "Sesame Street" alumni - is developing a strong cult following; the real Uma [Thurman] is said to be a fan of hand Uma." An internet catalog of "Oobi" puppets and eyes, OobiEyes.com, was online from 2006 to 2013. A small group of YouTube.com users who made fan films with "Oobi" puppets existed during the early years of the website, and OobiEyes.com held an advertising campaign with YouTube in 2008.
Tim Lagasse
Timothy "Tim" Lagasse (born February 20, 1969) is an American actor who uses puppets. He is known for playing Oobi on "Oobi" and Crash on "Crash & Bernstein". He works on "The Muppets" and "Sesame Street".
Tim Lagasse was born in the town Milford, Connecticut. He went to St. Mary's School and Notre Dame High School in West Haven, Connecticut. He graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1992 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Puppetry.
Lagasse teaches people how to use and make puppets at the Lincoln Center Foundation. He also teaches about modern ways of puppetry at the University of Connecticut's Puppet Arts Program. In 2011, he worked at the University of Central Arkansas as part of Heather Henson's "Handmade Puppet Dreams" Film Festival. In 2012, he went to Haiti as a puppet workshop trainer.
Otto von Guericke
Otto von Guericke (; originally spelled Gericke, ; November 20, 1602 – May 11, 1686 (Julian calendar); November 30, 1602 – May 21, 1686 (Gregorian calendar)) was a German scientist, inventor, and politician. He was known for his work about the physics of vacuums.
Hamlet chicken processing plant fire
The Hamlet chicken processing plant fire was an industrial accident which occurred on September 3, 1991 at the Imperial Foods Chicken Processing Plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. In the center of the plant, a hydraulic line failed and ignited the cooking oil in a long frying vat. An automatic fire extinguisher, which was state of the art at the time, had been installed over the cooking vat, but it failed to put the fire out. The fire spread quickly and many workers were unable to escape due to locked fire exits. 25 workers died and 54 were injured in the fire. The plant never reopened and was demolished in 2001. The fire was the worst industrial accident in North Carolina's history and led to new safety requirements for industrial facilities in the United States.
Madiha Yousri
Madiha Yousri (), (née Ghanima Habib Khalil (); 3 December 1921 – 30 May 2018) was an Egyptian movie and television actress. She was born to a Turkish father and Sudanese mother in Cairo. She was known for her role as Siham in "Immortal Song" (1952). In 1969 she was a member of the jury at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival.
On 30 May 2018, Madiha died at a Cairo hospital from heart disease at the age of 96.
Jürgen Marcus
Jürgen Marcus (born Jürgen Beumer, 6 June 1948 – May 2018) was a German schlager singer. He was born in Herne, Germany. He was successful during the 1970s, when he had 14 chart hits in Germany. He was also known for his participation on behalf of Luxembourg in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest. He retired in 2017.
On May 29, 2018, it was announced by his manager that Marcus died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the middle of May 2018 in Munich, a few weeks before his 70th birthday.
Yoseph Imry
Yoseph Imry (Hebrew: יוסף אמרי; born 23 February 1939 – 29 May 2018) was an Israeli physicist. He was best known for taking part in the discovery of mesoscopic physics. In 2016, Imry won the Wolf Prize. In 1996, Imry received the Rothschild Prize in physics. In 2001, Imry was awarded the Israel Prize in physics.
He was a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg), the European Academy of Sciences, Sciences and Humanities (Paris) and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Imry died in Tel Aviv on 29 May 2018 at the age of 79.
Semavi Eyice
Semavi Eyice (December 9, 1922 in Istanbul, Turkey – May 28, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey) was a Turkish art historian and archaeologist. He worked in the study of Byzantine and Ottoman art in Istanbul. Professor Eyice was thought as the pioneer of Byzantine studies in Turkey.
Arkady Babchenko
Arkady Arkadyevich Babchenko (; born 18 March 1977) is a Russian journalist and war correspondent. He was a critic of President Vladimir Putin. He was born in Moscow. He temporarily left journalism and worked as a taxi driver for several years, but in January 2009 started working in Russian newspaper "Novaya Gazeta". As a military correspondent, he followed the South Ossetia war in 2008.
From October 2017 until his death Babchenko worked in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, for the TV channel ATR.
Babchenko faked his own assassination at his Kiev apartment on 29 May 2018 to arrest Russian spies who were plotting his assassination. However, the next day, he appeared alive at a press conference with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). According to the SBU the 'murder' had been staged to arrest his assassins, who were operating on orders by Russian security services.
Joseph Lombardo
Joseph Patrick "Joey the Clown" Lombardo Sr. (born Giuseppe Lombardi; January 1, 1929 – October 19, 2019), also known as "Joe Padula," "Lumbo," and "Lumpy", was an imprisoned American mafioso and a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit crime organization. He was alleged to be the Consigliere of the Outfit.
In February 2009, Lombardo was sentenced to life in prison. He died on October 19, 2019 at the age of 90.
Joseph Andriacchi
Joseph "the Builder" Andriacchi (born October 20, 1932) is an American mobster. He has been reported by Chicago newspapers to be a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit criminal organization. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. Andriacchi was identified in a 1995 "Chicago Tribune" article as being an underboss for day-to-day operations for the Chicago Outfit.
On September 30, 2007, the Chicago Tribune reported that law enforcement sources indicated that Andriacchi controls Chicago's north side and north suburbs, and that he leads the Elmwood Park crew.
Peter DiFronzo
Peter DiFronzo (May 13, 1933 – December 4, 2020) was an American mobster. He was the brother of John DiFronzo (former leader of the Chicago Outfit) and Joseph DiFronzo.
DiFronzo was supposedly a made man, and stands at 5'8 and weighs 185 pounds.
In 1965, he was arrested for interstate stolen property and served ten years in prison. He was featured in William F. Roemer Jr's "War of the Godfathers: The Bloody Confrontation Between the Chicago and New York Families for Control of Las Vegas" in 1990. His wife, Josephine, is part owner of D&P Trucking, located in Chicago, Illinois, though authorities believe it is Peter and his brothers Joe and John that actually run the enterprise. Peter is also supposedly active in some of the Outfit's racketeering schemes.
He has a conviction for transporting stolen goods and served time in Leavenworth.
DiFronzo died on December 4, 2020 in North Barrington, Illinois from pneumonia caused by COVID-19, aged 87.
John DiFronzo
John DiFronzo (December 13, 1928 – May 27, 2018), nicknamed "No Nose", was an American mobster. He was the boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1997 until his death in 2018. His brother, Peter DiFronzo, a made-man, was convicted of warehouse burglary in 1963.
In 2009, John DiFronzo, Rudy Fratto, and several others were named in a civil lawsuit by Joseph Fosco, the son of late Teamsters treasurer Armando Fosco, alleged to have tried to extort $400,000 from Fosco.