Runners-up: multiple tragedies, including Kim Jong Il (again)
Runners-up for top story of the month:
North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, inflating his ego by snubbing his nose at a far more powerful adversary, shooting off a Taepodong-2 along with several lesser missiles on the 4th of July and within minutes of the launch of the Space Shuttle. For more on Kim, see our occasional new feature below entitled, “Co-Dependents of the Month.”
Pit bull owner Pam McKee, 52, arrested in San Bernardino, Ca. on suspicion of being under the influence of methamphetamine, after 27-year-old Shaun McCafferty, of Anaheim, Ca. was mauled to death by a pack of her pit bulls. It’s not clear why McCafferty was staying at the desert compound, which was littered with 50 junked cars and other refuse, but I would suggest that birds of an alcoholic feather often flock together. While pit bulls can be gentle, because of their powerful jaws they are often trained to be attack animals. Such “pets,”as well as more exotic breeds including tigers and alligators, are a signal symptom in the owner of a need to wield power and, hence, alcoholism.
Paul Flores, the only suspect in the disappearance of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart ten years ago after a college party, in court for his third DUI arrest. Campus police (Smart lived in an on-campus dorm) refused to take a missing persons report two days after the party, even though she’d left her ID and prescription medicine in her dorm room. The delay in starting the investigation of Smart’s disappearance may have resulted in disappearing evidence, leading to California state legislation requiring prompt reports of missing students by campus police departments. The investigation is still open, but police have basically admitted they need Flores’ testimony to close in on him. Flores, who lawyered up near the outset, refused a polygraph test and took the fifth before a grand jury.
Golfer John Daly who, in what may go down as the best euphoric recall-induced quip-of-the-year claimed, “I’m not an alcoholic. I can still drink”but only beer.”Let’s see…he’s been in rehab three times, lost over $50 million gambling, was married four times before age 35 and has engaged in front-page epic drunken binges and sexual misadventures. The world will be watching you, Mr. Daly, for proof that the alcohol in beer is truly different from that in Jack Daniels.
Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, Dem. R.I., the subject of last month’s Top Story, quickly pleading guilty to driving under the influence of prescription drugs, ordered to attend weekly meetings of AA and submit to random drug tests under a probation agreement. Congressman Jim Ramstad, Rep. MN., standing by Kennedy’s side on the courthouse steps after the plea, announced, “As a grateful recovering alcoholic of 25 years, I’m pleased to be his sponsor.”Ramstad endorsed my fourth book, Alcoholism Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society’s Most Destructive Disease, saying “Every policymaker in America needs to read your book exposing the myths of chemical addiction…Hopefully, your book will help educate those who write the laws so we, as a nation, can do what works”prevention and treatment!”Let’s hope that Ramstad’s sobriety rubs off on Kennedy.
Keyboardist Billy Preston, dead from kidney failure at age 59. Preston had several No. 1 solo hits, but is perhaps best-known for his afternoon spent on a London rooftop with the Beatles in what became their last concert, filmed for “Let It Be.”Little Richard hired him for a European tour in 1962; the Beatles were Little Richard’s opening act. Preston was the musical guest on the first-ever “Saturday Night Live”and appeared as Sgt. Pepper in the 1978 film, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”His long-time drug problem surfaced in 1992, when he spent nine months in rehab. Unfortunately, it didn’t take and he was sentenced to three years in prison for violating probation. Apparently unable to remain sober for extended periods, he pleaded guilty in 1998 to insurance fraud.
The daughter of Duane “Dog”Chapman, star of A & E’s “Dog, The Bounty Hunter,”Barbara Chapman, dead after a crash in a stolen vehicle near Fairbanks, Alaska just hours before her father Duane married his co-star, Beth Smith. Barbara was with a male friend, who lost control of the vehicle at 90 mph. The initiated among us might take the vehicle theft and their speed as clues to methamphetamine addiction. Indeed, a meth pipe was found in the wreckage. Barbara, who was 23, leaves behind a 4-year-old son.
Duane has apparently been a clean born-again Christian for 27 years after having been arrested 18 times, the consequences of which included time in prison. He is a classic addict turnaround, having been responsible for some 6,000 captures of mostly practicing addicts acting badly. After consulting their surviving children and their minister, Duane and Beth decided to go ahead with the wedding, his fifth and her second, as a celebration of Barbara’s life who, like almost all other addicts, was probably a decent human being during periods of clarity.