She was most famous as Harriet Oleson, Nellie’s mother on “Little House on the Prairie”. But she did have a bit of a career before that: an uncredited role in “On the Waterfront”, guest shots on “Emergency”, “Ironside”…
…and, yes, she was in two episodes of “Mannix”: “The World Between” and “Run Till Dark”.
A few things I’ve stumbled across over the past couple of days:
“I Found the Best Burger Place in America. And Then I Killed It.” In which the author visits 30 cities, eats 330 burgers, names a burger place in Portand as having the best burger in the country…and five months later, the places closes.
I like this story: it’s a good discussion of the impact of criticism on dining establishments, especially smaller ones. But it’s also frustrating: as it turns out, there was more going on with the burger place than just simply being named “best burger in the country”.
Recently retweeted by Popehat:
Okay. History time!
You’ve probably seen photos of Commonwealth war cemeteries, with rows of white graves. They’re heartbreaking images.
What you DON’T see are the thousands of small, tragic stories on each gravestone.
So I’m going to share some with you here. /1 #history #WW1 pic.twitter.com/wr3ucIyMYZ
— John Bull (@garius) October 5, 2018
I don’t like and don’t read the Huffington Post. But this (also by way of Popehat):
Glybera is a drug developed in Canada. It’s a hugely effective treatment for a rare genetic condition, lipoprotein lipase disorder. People with this disorder can’t metabolize fat. Their blood literally turns white from all the suspended fat in their bloodstream.
One round of treatment with Glybera can fix this genetic condition. Only 31 people have ever been treated with the drug, and it is no longer available.
Why? One possible reason: a round of treatment costs one million dollars. (But a round of treatment, as far as anyone’s been able to determine, is a permanent cure. This is a drug that literally edits genes.) And this isn’t a “oh, health care in the US stinks” story: the drug was only used in Canada and Europe, pretty much on an experimental basis, before it was pulled.
On the historic significance of “Hee Haw”:
A few words on Hee Haw, following Roy Clark’s passing…
It is, possibly, one of the most interesting and important shows in American television history.
Really.
I’m not talking about its jokes or production. Many other things made it interesting and important.
Here goes…
— Gabe Bullard (@gbullard) November 16, 2018
In one of those odd historical coincidences, exactly ten years to the day after the Heidi Bowl…
…was the one and only telecast of “The Stars Wars Holiday Special”.
Bernard Bragg, actor.
He graduated from the New York School for the Deaf in 1947 and enrolled at what was then Gallaudet College, studying theater there and acting in school plays. Though he enjoyed performing, there was no obvious career path in show business for a deaf person; instead he took a teaching job at the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, occasionally performing skits and directing small shows at conventions and clubs for the deaf. Then, in 1956, he made a life-changing trip to see Marceau perform in San Francisco.
Marceau’s ability to hold the crowd’s attention without words so struck Mr. Bragg that he sought Marceau out after the show and, with a note, introduced himself and asked where he could study mime. Marceau asked him to return the next day with a sample of his work, which he did: He performed two original sketches, one in which he played Noah and all the animals on the ark, the other in which he depicted all the instruments of an orchestra. Marceau invited him to study with him in France.
He spent the summer of 1956 doing just that, and when he returned to the United States he began performing in nightclubs, schools and universities in the San Francisco area. His routines were generally a mix of set pieces and improvisation.
He went on to become one of the founders of the National Theater of the Deaf.
Paul “Dr. Z” Zimmerman, SI writer. I really didn’t follow his work for the magazine, but I do have a copy of A Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football somewhere. (I’ve heard good things about it.)
James Karen, prolific actor.
I’ve never lived in an area served by Pathmark, but the man appeared on almost everything: “Quincy, M.E.”, “Jake and the Fatman”, “Magnum, P.I.”, “Hardcastle and McCormick”, “The Rockford Files”, the good “Hawaii Five-O”…
…except he never did a spot on “Mannix”.
Geezers on geezers on geezers. Wheel in the sky keep on turning.
After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
He played Richard Hickock (opposite Robert Blake’s Perry Smith) in the 1967 adaptation of “In Cold Blood”. He was also in “In the Heat of the Night”.
Mr. Wilson appeared in several dozen more films, including “The Great Gatsby” (1974), “The Right Stuff” (1983), “Dead Man Walking” (1995), “The Last Samurai” (2003) and “Monster” (2003).
He played a cruel dog-owner in three movies based on Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s “Shiloh” novels, and Saint Albert Chmielowski in “Our God’s Brother” (1997), a film adaptation, by the Polish director Krzysztof Zanussiof, of a play written by Pope John Paul II.
Mr. Wilson also had recurring parts on the CBS police procedural “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and Netflix’s science fiction drama “The OA.”
Oddly, it doesn’t seem that he ever did a guest shot on “Mannix”.
Some from the past day or two:
David Yallop, author and journalist. He was perhaps most famous for In God’s Name: An Investigation Into the Murder of Pope John Paul I which argued that the Pope “had been poisoned by a cabal connected to a secret Masonic lodge that had infiltrated the church and the Vatican Bank.”
Peter Donat, character actor. He was Mulder’s father on “The X-Files”, but he also did a lot of theater: “Over the years he played Cyrano de Bergerac, Prospero, Shylock, King Lear and Hadrian VII.”
Also:
Walter Mischel, of “marshmallow test” fame.
In a series of experiments at Stanford University beginning in the 1960s, he led a research team that presented preschool-age children with treats — pretzels, cookies, a marshmallow — and instructed them to wait before indulging themselves. Some of the children received strategies from the researchers, like covering their eyes or reimagining the treat as something else; others were left to their own devices.
The studies found that in all conditions, some youngsters were far better than others at deploying the strategies — or devising their own — and that this ability seemed to persist at later ages. And context mattered: Children given reason to distrust the researchers tended to grab the treats earlier.
…
In the late 1980s, decades after the first experiments were done, Dr. Mischel and two co-authors followed up with about 100 parents whose children had participated in the original studies. They found a striking, if preliminary, correlation: The preschoolers who could put off eating the treat tended to have higher SAT scores, and were better adjusted emotionally on some measures, than those who had given in quickly to temptation.
The paper was cautious in its conclusions, and acknowledged numerous flaws, including a small sample size. No matter. It was widely reported, and a staple of popular psychology writing was born: If Junior can hold off eating a marshmallow for 15 minutes in preschool, then he or she is headed for the dean’s list.
Bill Daily, noted second banana. He was Major Healey on “I Dream of Jeannie” and Howard Borden on “The Bob Newhart Show”.
Our favorite zany astronaut, Bill Daily has passed. Billy was wonderful to work with. He was a funny, sweet man that kept us all on our toes. I'm so thankful to have known and worked with that rascal. Until we meet again Billy, xo -B #RIPBillDaily pic.twitter.com/OVZjaWB9CP
— Barbara Eden (@Barbara_Eden) September 8, 2018
Bill Daily & I go back to Chicago in the 50's. He and I were both trying to get into standup. Later, he joined the Bob Newhart Show. He was our bullpen guy – you could always go to him. He was one of the most positive people I've ever known. I will miss him dearly
— Bob Newhart (@BobNewhart) September 8, 2018
Pour out a 40 of Coors for the man.
Burt Reynolds: NYT. LAT. THR. WP.
Also among the dead: Richard DeVos, co-founder of Amway.
Ed Brandon, long time weatherman for Channel 13 in Houston.
Like those truck stop enchiladas you had for dinner last night, Tuesday Morning Quarterback is back on The Weekly Standard.
And like the Genesee Cream Ale you washed those enchiladas down with, so is TMQ Watch: albeit a little late this week.
After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
Edited to add: NYT obit now up.
