Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category

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Five down and glory.

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Obit watch: Lt. Colonel Lee A. Archer (USAF, ret.).

Lt. Colonel Archer was one of the Tuskegee Airmen, and is believed to be the only black ace.

Archer was acknowledged to have shot down four planes, and he and another pilot both claimed victory for shooting down a fifth plane. An investigation revealed Archer had inflicted the damage that destroyed the plane, said Brown, and the Air Force eventually proclaimed him an ace pilot.

(Title hattip: here.)

Edited to add 2/4/2010: See here for notes on an important correction.

For those expecting more thoughts on Salinger: here’s the LAT obit. Beyond that, I have nothing to say; I’ve never read The Catcher in the Rye, for reasons other than censorship. My parents were very proud of the fact that they never censored my reading, and it was Huck Finn, not Salinger, that became the subject of censorship battles when I was in school. I basically just missed reading Catcher when I was the right age to be caught by it; any desire I might have had to read it now has been killed by listening to Lawrence talk about it. (I’m trying to talk him into posting his thoughts on Catcher, but he hasn’t. Yet. When he does, I’ll throw up a link.)

Edited to add: Lawrence’s thoughts on Salinger are now up.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Obits, Planes | 1 Comment »

Uncaught.

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

The NYT is reporting the death of J.D. Salinger. More on this as it develops.

Edited to add: Link here. I’m sure the paper has had this one in the can for a while.

Posted in Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed

Murder was the case.

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

And Raynella Leath has been convicted of killing her second husband.

So why do I care about a murder trial in Knoxville? Because it has some rather strange aspects; I was going to blog this NYT article on Sunday, but got distracted by shiny objects.

There was a fatal car crash, a love child, a missing will and, strangest of all, the 1992 death, officially by cattle stampede, of the Knox County prosecutor, Ed Dossett, who happened to be Ms. Dossett Leath’s first husband at the time.

Dossett’s death was ruled an “agricultural accident” by the medical examiner.

Mr. Dossett had been in the late stages of terminal cancer, and Ms. Dossett Leath told the authorities that she had helped him out to the barn to feed the cattle at his request.

The medical examiner who made that ruling

lost his medical license after being convicted of sedating and sexually molesting minors in 1995.

The current medical examiner found

Mr. Dossett’s morphine level was “so extraordinarily high it is unlikely that any human could function in an ambulatory manner or continue to live.”

Les Jones, as I recall, was covering this case for a while.

Posted in Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

Ah, Austin.

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

More than 200 people gathered outside Austin Police Department headquarters Monday to protest what they said was heavy-handed enforcement at a gun show held Jan. 16 and 17.

I didn’t find out about this until 6:30 PM last night, or I would have gone and covered the event for my loyal readers (all three of them; and I’m counting the guy with the tapeworm twice).

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | 2 Comments »

Obit watch.

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Pernell Roberts, star of Bonanza and Trapper John, M.D.

Interestingly, at the SDC we were discussing M*A*S*H spinoffs and Trapper John, M.D. came up. (When was the last time you thought about that show? And many people remember AfterMASH, but did you know about W*A*L*T*E*R, the bizarre failed spinoff?)

Also interestingly, Trapper John, M.D. is officially not a M*A*S*H spinoff:

Legally, the show is considered a spin-off of the original motion picture, MASH, rather than the M*A*S*H television series. This is due to a court case in which the producers of the television series sought royalty payments on the grounds that Trapper John, M.D. was a spin-off of their series. The court found, however, that the series was a spin-off of the original movie – itself an adaptation of H. Richard Hornberger’s MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors (published under the nom de plume, Richard Hooker). As a result, the series producers did not receive any royalties from Trapper John, M.D.

[Citation needed.] Seriously, if anyone knows more about the court case, I’d love to hear about it.

And I want to mention one of Pernell Roberts’ lesser works; yes, it was cheesy, and, yes, I have no taste, but I enjoyed FBI: The Unheard Music The Untold Stories.

Edited to add: NYT obit. Formal LAT obit.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 25, 2010.

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Our long national nightmare is over. Or just starting. US to lift 21-year ban on haggis. And just in time for Burns Night, too. (Hattip: Overlawyered.)

Philip K. Dick in Orange County. I don’t think there’s much new here for the serious Dick fan, but I do like the Tim Powers story that starts off the piece.

Covered elsewhere, but still worth linking: ESPN Ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer on the network and Mike Leach.

There’s an interesting story at the WP site about Rabbi Menachem Youlus, who specializes in rescuing Torahs lost in Europe during the Holocaust. But the Post article suggests that the stories Youlus tells may be somewhat exaggerated.

Nets watch: current winning percentage 0.070 (3-40).  That projects out to 5.74 wins for the 82 game season.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Food, Law, Loser, PKD | Comments Closed

More Austin gun show notes.

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Lawrence was on me today about doing some reporting of my own on this situation; after all, the Statesman isn’t going to. (And would we really want them to, given their track record on gun issues?)

One of the reasons I haven’t done so is that Howard Nemerov is all over the story like poorly tattooed Asian MySpace dwarf slut Tia Tequila on a camera. He’s posted a followup story today. I’ll pull one key paragraph here (stuff in  [brackets] I’ve added to the quote to clarify who’s who):

According to [APD Detective T.J] Vineyard, the prior tenant, Bill Mitchell, subleased to Saxet Gun Shows. When Mitchell lost his lease, Saxet apparently approached [Andrew] Perkel [of Austin Marketplace, who subleased the space from HEB and who did the booking of events] when he took over the space previously leased by Mitchell.  Perkel, having previously rented another part of the building, said he was aware of the nuisance problem that began with Saxet and refused to lease to them.

There was another arrest at last weekend’s show, of an illegal alien attempting to purchase a firearm from an unlicensed dealer. Nemerov’s article has more details on this arrest as well.

And it looks like that arrest was the final straw for HEB and Austin Marketplace; the TGS website states they are looking for a new Austin location.

One aspect of this that should be explored is; why Austin? As far as I can tell, Saxet hasn’t had this kind of problem in San Antonio. (Saxet did move locations at the first of the year, but I’m not sure if that was just a matter of needing a larger venue; based on their websites, the San Antonio Event Center is larger than Freeman Coliseum.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 21, 2010.

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Was the death of Haing S. Ngor a murder by a group of gangbangers? That’s the official theory of the case, and three men are doing time for his murder. However, there’s still speculation that his murder was actually a revenge hit by the Khmer Rouge.

I remember being angry and upset when I heard about the murder; that a man who had been through so much would be killed on the street by scumbags for a watch and locket enraged me. But there’s a natural human tendency to see patterns and conspiracies even where none are present; we use this as a tool to try and make sense of the world.  (Stingray has a wonderful post on this at the Atomic Nerds site.) As much as I’d like to believe Ngor’s death was part of a conspiracy by the Khmer Rouge, I’d need to see more evidence than what’s in the LAT article.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

I wonder if this is why Saxet stopped doing gun shows in Austin:

Austin police said that last year, while assisting federal agents in combating the sale of guns to undocumented immigrants, they recorded a number of illegal transactions. The repeated offenses at the site — a former Sam’s Club location on North Lamar Boulevard — prompted police to refer the location to the department’s nuisance abatement unit, which works with owners to reduce the number of crimes on their properties.

Police officials said they met last week with representatives from H-E-B, which handles the lease of the property, and with Boedeker, during which they outlined recommendations for reducing crime at the site.

The suggestions included permitting only licensed gun dealers to sell firearms, providing private security to prevent parking lot gun sales and defining a process for people other than licensed dealers who want to sell a gun at the show.

Edited to add 1/21: Say Uncle was kind enough to link to this post along with posts by Howard Nemerov and Sebastian. Nemerov’s post in particular adds considerably more background than was reported in the Statesman. This statement caught my attention:

While TGS was not the promoter during last year’s investigation which led to a possible abatement proceeding

Also, this statement in Sebastian’s comments:

The “multiple arrests” that were the basis for a “nuisance” complaint were 12. Over 12 months. During which 12 gun shows were held.

(I’m aware of one arrest that got a lot of publicity at the time; a local boxer was arrested for having his girlfriend purchase a gun for him. I’ll see if I can dig out a link later. Edit: link here.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | 2 Comments »

Clippings: January 20, 2010.

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Parker obits: NYT. LAT. LAT appreciation by Sarah Weinman. WP. Boston Globe. Boston Herald appreciation. WSJ appreciation. And Sarah Weinman has the best overall roundup at her site.

Also among the dead: Erich “Love Story” Segal.

Posted in Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 18, 2010.

Monday, January 18th, 2010

The New Jersey Nets are on a pace to win a grand total of six games this season. The NBA record for futility is the 1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers, who went 9-73. Could the Nets beat the record? The NYT speculates.

I note this only because it will fill Lawrence’s heart with delight: Frank Gehry has withdrawn from the project to design a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem.

Saturday’s Statesman has a longish article recapping the Triton Financial story, highlighting the firm’s ties to the Mormon church.

Church members and others describe the concentration of Triton executives and investors from the Mormon church as a possible example of “affinity fraud,” in which people looking for money often go first to those they know, either personally or through social organizations.

A $1,000 iPhone app that’s not I Am Rich.

Non story of the day: U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, so; I’m back in school one night a week (and not even meeting every night on the schedule). So blogging is either going to be light or heavy as I avoid schoolwork.

Posted in Apple, Art, Cars, Clippings, Guns, Loser, School | Comments Closed

Pop quiz, hotshot.

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Texas State University down in San Marcos has been running a hostage negotiation competition.

Now, I was not aware hostage negotiation was a competitive sport. My first question was, “How do you judge this? Number of ‘dead’ bodies at the end?”

During the competition, which continues today , each team works to resolve the same hostage scenario, and judges grade each team using the same criteria, which include composure while negotiating and ability to get terrorists talking during phone calls.

So this is like Olympic gymnastics without the Chinese judges. Good to know.

I’m waiting for next year’s event to show up on ESPN 8, “The Ocho”.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Elvis est mort.

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Not that I want to become the LAT clipping service, but:

You know that iconic photo of Elvis and Nixon shaking hands?

Yeah, that one.

Anyway, the LAT has an interesting article on how this photo came about.

Copies of that photo — the president in his charcoal suit, the king of rock ‘n’ roll in his purple velvet cape — are requested more than just about any of the archives’ treasures, including the Constitution.

You can request copies of the Constitution from the National Archives? Can I request copies and have them sent to other people?

There’s also a section devoted to this photo on the NARA website.

Posted in Clippings, Music, Nixon | Comments Closed

The Burmese beneath.

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

5 African rock pythons, which in their homeland are known to eat goats, are seen during a 3-day search in Miami-Dade County.

In addition, state environmental officials worry that the rock python could breed with the Burmese python, which already has an established foothold in the Everglades. That could lead to a new “super snake,” said George Horne, the water district’s deputy executive director.

I have no joke here, I just like saying “super snake”. For some reason, that made me think of “Fer-de-Lance” (aka “Snakes on a Sub”).  Which, apparently, is available on DVD (in a double feature with something called “Medusa”, which looks like a real piece of crap; then again, “Fer-de-Lance” probably isn’t as good as I remember it being, either.)

Posted in Clippings, Snakes | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 11th, 2010.

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Obit watch: French New Wave director Eric Rohmer. I’ll update this space with the NYT obit and anything Roger Ebert has to say, once those are posted.

Edited to add: NYT obit. Ebert appreciation.

Jayson Williams has apparently decided to plead out to an aggravated assault charge, instead of going through a retrial for killing Costas Christofi.

his personal life in shambles

I’ll have to contact some of my friends at IBM and see how that project to build a tiny violin out of xenon atoms is going.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law, Loser, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

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