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Obit watch: October 6, 2026.

Tuesday, October 6th, 2026

Jim Bakker. NYT (share link, may require).

By any measure, he and his wife enjoyed a life of opulence, which he defended by saying that they needed “good bait” to be effective “fishers of men.” Their bait included six-figure salaries and bonuses for themselves, a 55-foot houseboat, a mini-fleet of Mercedes-Benzes and Rolls-Royces, diamonds and gold jewelry, gold-plated bathroom fixtures, an air-conditioned dog kennel, and homes and apartments in South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Palm Springs, Calif. The spending was so lavish, and the appeal for contributions so insistent, that some critics recast PTL as standing for Pass the Loot.

No offense intended, but I honestly thought he had died several years ago.

Jeffrey Archer, writer and convicted perjurer.

His jail term had its roots in a case in 1987, when Mr. Archer filed a libel suit against the tabloid Daily Star after it reported that he had slept with a prostitute, Monica Coghlan. The judge, Bernard Caulfield, described Mr. Archer’s wife, Mary, as having “elegance” and “fragrance” and asked whether the writer would have needed “cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel room.” Mr. Archer won the case and was awarded £500,000 in damages.

Sometimes, it seems like the judges in sketches on “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” are uncomfortably close to reality. “Fragrance”?

…another newspaper, The News of the World, reported allegations that Mr. Archer had committed perjury at the original libel trial in 1987, forcing him to withdraw from the mayoral race.
Those charges came to trial in September 2000, and in July 2001, he was given a four-year jail term for perjury and perverting the course of justice. After two years in a variety of correctional institutions, he was released, resuming his career as a prolific writer. He kept his title and retired from the House of Lords in 2024.

Posted in Books, Law, Obits, Politics, Religion | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: October 5, 2026.

Monday, October 5th, 2026

Marjoe Gortner, who had one of the oddest career arcs in entertainment history.

He spoke eloquently as a child, so his parents, Vernon, a Christian evangelical minister, and mother, Marge, had him ordained as a preacher at age 4, when he performed a marriage ceremony for a Paramount newsreel.
Now a celebrity, the long-haired Gortner delivered gyrating, dramatic sermons at revival meetings across the U.S. as his family amassed a fortune estimated to be worth $3 million, but he said his father took off with the money shortly before Gortner turned 16.
He rejoined the ministry as a way to earn a living and in 1971 granted a film crew access to him during his final revival tour. The resulting 1972 documentary, Marjoe, produced and directed by Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan, debuted at Cannes and won the Oscar for best feature documentary. (The poster called it “a real story millions of people refuse to believe.”)

He went on to become an actor. Other credits include “Starcrash”, “Acapulco Gold“, and “American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt”.

Burning in Hell watch: Dennis Hastert (R-pedo).

Posted in 1970s, Movies, Obits, Politics, TV | No Comments »

Drink!

Friday, October 2nd, 2026

Shot:

A Texas lawmaker pulled out a pistol during a legislative hearing while accusing prosecutors of failing to act on a threat to chop up his body and force the pieces down his throat, adding fuel to a broader fight over Travis County District Attorney José Garza’s handling of violent crime.

Chaser:

(I would really like to know what that gun is. It looks like a small 1911-style .380, like maybe a Colt Mustang or one of those SIG Sauer .380s?)

Posted in Austin, Bagatelle, Guns, Politics, Travis County | 1 Comment »

Brief trip report: DFW.

Thursday, October 1st, 2026

As previously noted, Mike the Musicologist and I took a short trip up to the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the Gun Rights Policy Conference.

After we got back on Monday, I went down hard with con crud. This is the first day I’ve felt like trying to blog.

In my personal opinion, the two best talks at AMM-CON (Alternative Mass Media Con, the prelude to GRPC) were:

Mark Smith’s presentation was the one I wanted to follow up on, but I can’t find any contact information for him. But the link above goes to YouTube video of his talk, which has a transcript, which gives me what I was looking for: his list of the best and worst appellate courts. “The Supreme Court is very good.” After that:

  • The next two best: the Fifth Circuit which covers Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. And the Third Circuit that covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
  • “reasonably okay. They’re not great, but they’re not terrible”: The Eighth Circuit out of Missouri, the Sixth Circuit, which is “Kentucky-ish” and Michigan, and the 11th Circuit out of Florida.
  • “the bad stuff”: “The 10th Circuit is generally bad, but occasionally you will get a good panel.” After that, the Fourth Circuit out of Virginia (“terrible”), the Ninth Circuit out of California (“terrible”), and the Second Circuit out of New York City (“generally terrible”).
  • “And the worst court in America by far is the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit out of Boston. There is no combination of three judges that you can get that will uphold the constitution in any respect.”

Here’s a map of the courts for easy visualization.

I can’t find video of Mr. Yumul’s talk on AI, but I did take notes, and may try to post those tomorrow. One thing he did provide us was a very interesting prompt that will take a piece of writing (such as a blog post) and analyze it as if the AI was a hostile fact checker. I intend to ask him if he would mind me sharing that here.

I also want to make note of his four principles, which I think are a good general approach to AI:

  • Is it TRUE?
  • Is it MINE?
  • Is it HONEST?
  • If it’s wrong, did I FIX it?

I may want to write more about GRPC tomorrow and over the weekend, though I do think the window is closing. Two things I do want to squeeze in:

  • The director of BATFE spoke at GRPC. Let me repeat that: the freaking DIRECTOR of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, an organization that most firearms owners consider a “wretched hive of scum and villainy”, spoke to a room full of gun people. Along with the agency’s chief council. That link will take you to video.
  • The freshly pardoned Patrick “Tate” Adamiak also spoke at GRPC and at AMM-CON, along with Lee Williams (who did much to draw attention to his case). If you’re not familiar with Mr. Adamiak: he was a US Navy sailor, who’d been selected to try out for the SEALs. Then BATFE raided his house over his collection of firearms. He was convicted and sentenced to twenty years in prison for allegedly selling “machine guns” in an egregious example of BATFE conduct under the Biden administration. (One of the “machine guns” was a toy STEN that you can buy off the Internet today. The BATFE also took a de-milled RPG, completely rebuilt it in their lab so it could fire a single round of 7.62 ammo, and then claimed it was a destructive device.)

(One of my compatriots noted that a lot of Secret Service types were nervously fingering their sidearms during the BATFE talk. There were also more than a few people in the room who were open carrying, and who knows how many that were carrying concealed.)

(Seriously, the “Tate” Adamiak case should outrage anyone who gives a flying flip at a rolling doughnut about justice. I had vaguely heard about it, but wasn’t following it very closely. MtM gave me a briefing in the car on the way up.)

Obligatory:

Posted in Guns, Politics, Travel | No Comments »

So…

Friday, September 25th, 2026

Mike the Musicologist and I are in the DFW area for the 2nd Amendment Foundation‘s Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC).

If you would like to play along at home, the agenda is here.

And they are livestreaming the conference.

Saturday livestream.
Sunday livestream.

Today was AMM-CON. “AMM” in this case stands for “Alternative Mass Media”, and was targeted at podcasters, YouTubers, bloggers, and other “content creators”.

As a side note, I hate the term “content creator”.

I took a lot of notes during the sessions, but I’m not sure if and when I will have time to type all of them up here. I also need to follow up with one of the more interesting presenters. That is, if I can. I’m having trouble finding an email address for him right now…

Posted in Guns, Politics, Travel | 1 Comment »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyenas! (#162 and #163 in a series)

Wednesday, September 16th, 2026

By way of Lawrence: the city of Fulshear, Texas fired their chief of police, Kenny Seymour. (Fulshear is a suburb of Houston.)

Why?

It seems like he was in a relationship with a police captain. Sleeping with your subordinates is generally what we call “bad”.

According to the investigator, sworn interrogatory responses from Seymour’s divorce case showed a prolonged sexual relationship with the subordinate. The investigator also said Seymour had a financial entanglement with the captain, including providing money for rent, plane tickets, and other expenses.

Could be worse, though. The city of Trinidad, Texas (which looks to be roughly between Corsicana and Athens) had their license to have a police department revoked.

According to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE), investigators from the commission conducted a law enforcement agency inspection of the police department on Aug. 5. The findings from their inspection revealed that Trinidad PD failed to meet the minimum standards law enforcement agencies are required to follow by state law.

Everyone who has a license from TCOLE has to “separate” from the department.

I prefer to use local or semi-local sources when I can, but the NYPost has a longer article. Part of this seems to be related to the arrest of Jennifer Combs. Ms. Combs made a post on Facebook “alleging that bacteria in Trinidad’s water pipes had hospitalized residents”. She was arrested for “felony false alarm or report”.

Police defended the arrest, claiming Combs’ post had created “fear, panic, or unnecessary emergency response within a community” — despite the city itself posting a notice urging residents to boil their water to “avoid harmful bacteria” on April 21, weeks before her arrest.

The police also arrested another person:

Police also arrested a supporter of Combs, citizen journalist Winston Noles, for misdemeanor disorderly conduct after he displayed a “f–k bad cops” sign outside city hall, FOX 4 reported.

The police chief, Charles Gregory, resigned in June.

After his resignation, the judge who approved Combs’ search warrant wrote a scathing letter questioning “the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of information” two Trinidad officers had presented to him and Gregory’s leadership.
The Henderson County District Attorney’s Office announced in August it would stop taking cases from the department following the state’s investigation.
Separately, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found issues with Trinidad’s water supply — the very concern Combs had raised — which city officials have since promised to address.

There were some other issues.

The action followed an Aug. 5 investigation in which the department was found “unable to provide evidence that the agency provides public benefit to the community” and lacked 18 required policies, including ones on use of force, vehicle pursuit, professional conduct and active shooters, the commission said.

According to another story, the department had five full-time and “several” part-time officers. The population of Trinidad was 860 in 2020.

Posted in Cops, Law, Politics, Texas | No Comments »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#161 in a series)

Friday, August 21st, 2026

Before I begin this latest entry, I want to give folks a brief peek behind the scenes of how the sausage is made.

Every once in a while, I run across a story that might be blog worthy, but that I won’t blog because I think the details are just too much for my readers, even with a warning. There was a flaming hyena I saw the other day, but didn’t blog for exactly that reason. I realize my readers are all adults (well, I hope so anyway), but there’s just some things that I don’t feel like I need to blog.

This story is right on the edge, for what that’s worth.

A San Francisco official who’s already in trouble for antisemitic online rantings and allegedly abusive relationships with women faces even more explosive allegations that he gave drugs to a vulnerable woman and had sex with her.

William Monroe Palmer is the president of the “San Francisco Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board”.

In the latest incident, a young woman, 26, told the San Francisco Chronicle that she left her family’s home on June 30 with no money or cell phone after a dispute about her job at a strip club.

Allegedly, he picked up the young woman two days later, (allegedly) got her into his car, (allegedly) took her back to his place, and (allegedly) spent the next five days smoking drugs and having sex with her.

At one point, she was told she had to be resuscitated from an overdose. The drug use made her unsure in her decision-making, she said.
“I felt hesitant, but I took my clothes off because he told me to take my clothes off,” she said. “I felt very messed up, I couldn’t tell if I wanted to have sex or not.”

…

Meanwhile, her mother reported her missing on July 3, panicking about her daughter’s whereabouts. Four days later, an unidentified man called the mother and said her daughter was at an art studio near Market Street.
The mom called the police, who found both her daughter and Palmer together. Officers handcuffed Palmer and placed the woman in a mental health hold, but he was eventually released.

But wait, there’s more.

Palmer later tried to visit the woman at San Francisco General Hospital using his official position, but was turned away. He reportedly even emailed the district attorney’s office that he was “deeply” concerned about how police had ended his “trauma-informed intervention” in the woman’s life.
According to Palmer, he said he took care of the woman. He spotted her and got her out of a situation she didn’t belong in, he said. He allegedly took her to acupuncture sessions, and Palmer said he gave her a drink that he claimed turned people into a “total different person.”
“I’m her life coach,” Palmer told the Chronicle. “I talked to her and told her the things that she needed to hear to snap out of the lifestyle she was in and to get into the life that she wants to be in.”
He refused to confirm whether he had sex or did drugs with her.

But wait, there’s more.

The latest allegations add to what is already a troubling string of accusations against Palmer. The Post reported that he freely ranted about Jews on social media while serving on multiple City Hall boards. He has also been accused by four women of abuse, and he claimed homelessness to get out of 97 parking tickets with fines of $9,743.

But wait, there’s more. He was appointed to the board because they were looking “to include people with ‘lived experience’ to shape the jail system.” What was his “lived experience”? If you said “doing time”, take two gold stars and advance to the next blue square.

He had served 31 years of a life sentence in prison for a crime he committed as a teenager.

There’s an effort underway to remove him, but (quel fromage!) that’s not an easy thing for the SF Board of Supervisors to do.

The city Board of Supervisors has the power to remove him through a process that requires multiple votes and a hearing. Supervisor Stephen Sherrill requested an investigation into whether Palmer committed misconduct and said the removal process must begin soon.

…

However, he said the city requires an “absurd” process and he is in conversations about moving the investigation more quickly. He told The California Post in an interview that the removal process is hopefully “weeks away.” Sherrill called attention to a measure on the November ballot that would enable quicker removals without cause.

Posted in Admin, California Über Alles, Law, Politics | 1 Comment »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#160 in a series)

Wednesday, August 12th, 2026

Gina LaPlaca is the former mayor of Lumberton Township in New Jersey.

In March of last year, she was arrested for DUI and child endangerment.

LaPlaca is currently serving a three-year supervision sentence for the March 17, 2025, arrest where she had a Blood Alcohol Concentration of .30%, nearly four times the legal limit in the Garden State.

But that’s not why she’s going down in flames.

Ms. LaPlaca and her husband, Jason Carty, are charged with forging signatures to get her on the primary ballot this year.

The troublesome couple, who both “collected signatures,” allegedly put people’s names on a nominating petition supporting LaPlaca and signed for them without their consent ahead of the June 3 primary vote.
Multiple individuals who appeared to support the controversial politician told investigators they did not sign or authorize anyone to endorse LaPlaca’s run on their behalf, officials said.
LaPlaca signed the petition swearing she “personally circulated the petition [and] that such petition was signed by each of the signers thereof in his/her own handwriting.”

…

Officials did not reveal how many signatures the couple forged, but specified LaPlaca wouldn’t have made the ballot without them.
“Without the fraudulent signatures, the investigation revealed, LaPlaca’s petition would have lacked the requisite number of signatures required to be a candidate for the primary,” the county prosecutor’s office said.

…

LaPlaca was charged by summons with Making a False Statement Under Oath, Knowingly Filing a False Petition, two counts of Tampering with Public Records or Information and Falsifying or Tampering with Records.
Carty was charged with Knowingly Filing a False Petition, two counts of Tampering with Public Records or Information and Falsifying or Tampering with Records.

By the way, the alleged forgery accomplished exactly nothing. Ms. LaPlaca finished third, with 323 votes.

She was effortlessly defeated by current Mayor Terrance Benson and former committeewoman Kendra Hatfield, who received 1,100 and 1,052 votes, respectively.

Posted in Law, Politics | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: August 11, 2026.

Monday, August 10th, 2026

Former Representative Ben Jones (D-Georgia). THR.

Most people would know him as “Cooter Davenport” on “The Dukes of Hazzard”. Other credits include “Movin’ On”, “Smokey and the Bandit”, and “The Lincoln Conspiracy”.

Tedde Moore, actress. Other credits include “Police Surgeon”, “Torso: The Evelyn Dick Story”, and “Odyssey 5”.

It has been a bad few days for people of the gun. One of my book buddies in the Association has been sending me obits.

Tom Marx passed away in February, but his death was announced only recently.

Tom was one of the true “industry insiders.” He began as a Chicago cop and then focused on the gun world, working at various times for Smith & Wesson, Ruger, and Blackhawk among others. His consulting encompassed design, engineering, and marketing. Marx specialized in handguns and particularly defensive handguns.

From the same obit (by Massad Ayoob in Backwoods Home), Greg Moats.

Greg had been at the legendary Columbia Conference held at world combat pistol champion Ray Chapman’s Chapman Academy in Columbia, Missouri in 1976 at which the International Practical Shooting Confederation was founded under the leadership of the legendary Jeff Cooper.

And Steven Dodd Hughes, gunsmith, author, and photographer.

I think I actually bought a gun from him about 14 years ago. I remember him being a pretty darn good guy and a pleasure to do business with.

Posted in 1970s, Guns, Movies, Obits, Politics, Smith and Wesson, TV | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: August 4, 2026.

Tuesday, August 4th, 2026

Kay Granger, former Congresswoman from Texas.

Ms. Granger left Washington in 2024, during her final year in the House, and moved into an independent living facility in Fort Worth — an arrangement that her office did not disclose for months.
When a conservative website broke the news in December 2024, Ms. Granger’s son Brandon told The Dallas Morning News that she had been experiencing “dementia issues.” In a statement at the time, Ms. Granger said she had been navigating “unforeseen health challenges that have progressed since September and made travel to D.C. difficult.”
The news caused a stir in Washington, coming as several older members of Congress also faced health issues and the Republican majority in the House was razor-thin.

Monty Roberts, horse trainer. I remember vaguely hearing about him around the time the “Horse Whisperer” was big, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to do an obit watch. Then I read the article:

“You have to give him credit. He was one of the first people to get away from the rough stuff, tying a horse to a pole and sacking it out,” Temple Grandin, the noted animal behaviorist and proponent of the humane treatment of livestock, said. “He was really observant out in the field and got to thinking about what a horse really has to say to you. A lot of people are good at reading horses, but he was a pioneer in telling people there were better ways to train horses.”
And unlike some trainers, she said, he demonstrated his methods.

…

When he was just 7, he showed his father how effective it was to treat a young stallion with kindness to instill trust.
His father, he said, flew into a rage and beat him so severely with a chain that he had to be hospitalized. He vowed never to share his unconventional ideas with his father again. But he remained convinced that there was a better way to work with horses.

…

Among his admirers was Queen Elizabeth II, who had read articles in equestrian magazines about Mr. Roberts’s methods and had longed to find a less violent method for training horses.
In April 1989, she invited Mr. Roberts to visit her and demonstrate his unconventional ideas. She was so impressed that she brought him into her royal equestrian orbit as an adviser, and he became a friend.
“She believed that no one should ever say to any human being or animal, ‘You do what I tell you to do or I’ll hurt you,’” Mr. Roberts told The New York Times in 2022.

Scott Hylands. You know, I’d never actually even heard of “Night Heat”, which surprises me: I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of cop shows. Other credits include “Blue Thunder” (the series), “Today’s F.B.I.”, “Harry O”, and “The Magician”.

For the record: Vincent Pastore, of “The Sopranos” fame. IMDB. You know, I might actually watch “Wu-Tang: An American Saga”, if I can find it.

Posted in Horses, Obits, Politics, TV | 2 Comments »

I, NOT the jury.

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026

Jurors in the state of Texas are paid $20 for their first day of service, and $58 for every subsequent day. This is mandated by state law.

Travis County is going to pay 14 jurors (including two alternates) $26,700 each, or $373,800 total.

Why?

The answer seems to be that they served 460 days on a jury, from August 12, 2024 to July 13, 2026. (Weekends and holidays don’t count.)

But that, by itself, is an unsatisfying answer. The deeper answer goes into a case that I have been covering in the past, but I missed some recent developments.

When last we heard about former Williamson County sheriff Robert Chody and his trial for evidence tampering, the case had been placed “on hold” while the prosecution appealed an unfavorable ruling by the judge that completely borked their case.

Garza’s office appealed the trial court’s ruling. The case then went through multiple court reviews. Ultimately, the Court of Criminal Appeals declined to review the issue on May 14, 2026, which prompted Garza’s office to move to dismiss the cases.

DA Garza’s office filed to dismiss the charges on July 6th, and apparently the case was dismissed on July 13th.

Court records show jurors physically attended five days of court: Jury selection (Aug. 12, 2024), three trial days (Aug. 13-15, 2024) and the July 13 dismissal hearing.

But: even though the trial was “on hold” while the appeals made their way through the system, the jurors were still considered to be sworn jurors.

Beyond the five court days, the jurors’ “public service” appears to have been checking for a call or text, and “maintain[ing] their impartiality” on non-trial days. They were prohibited from discussing the case, learning about those involved, and reading or watching news reports about it; such an instruction doesn’t vanish on weekends and holidays.

So they were “free” to go on with their lives, subject to the usual general restrictions on jurors. But since they were sworn as jurors, and continued to have that obligation, the judge (rightly, I think) ruled that they deserve their daily pay.

By the way…

According to page 61 of Travis County’s fiscal year 2026 budget, the county set aside $698,605 for legally mandated trial jury fees for the fiscal year. It also budgeted $156,749 for grand jury fees.
The jurors’ payout in this case will exhaust more than half of the county’s trial jury budget and exceed prior years’ expenses. The county reported it expended $253,700 for jury fees in FY25 and $246,627 in FY24 for jury fees.

The county can request reimbursement for a substantial portion (but not all) of that money, but it doesn’t sound like that reimbursement is automatic.

I can’t blame the jurors here, or the judge (though KXAN suggests “A plain language reading of the statute suggests jurors are only compensated for going to the courthouse.”) The only person I can see blaming here is DA Garza, who brought a case that was so unsupportable, he got blown out of the water on the third day of trial, and then dragged the case out for close to two years, leaving the defendants in legal limbo.

Edited to add 7/23: DA Garza is moving to have the compensation order set aside. His motion makes two arguments:

1) When the court dismissed the cases, the court’s jurisdiction ended, and thus the court didn’t have the authority to set jury compensation.

2) The second prong of the argument is the one I would have expected: compensation is only paid for days the jurors “report to and attend court in person”.

Fox 7 Austin quotes a response by the attorney for Jason Nassour, the other defendant.

Edited to add 7/24: The judge has reascended the payment order. It looks like that decision was based on the whole “in court” question:

“We thank the jurors for being on call for the two years that they were waiting for this matter to be resolved,” Price, the district clerk, told the Statesman. “The law says we have to pay them for being in attendance, in court, and we are following the law.”

So instead of $26,700 each, the jurors will get…about $175.

Posted in Cops, Law, Politics, TCDA, Travis County, WillCo | No Comments »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#159 in a series)

Monday, July 20th, 2026

Elaine Forbes was named the city manager of Sausalito, California three weeks ago.

Last week, she was placed on administrative leave for unspecified reasons.

On Saturday, she was arrested. She was on what is described as a “75-foot yacht” blowing the horn at 5:30 AM.

The yacht was not hers, and according to the owner, she did not have permission to be on board.

She allegedly explained to authorities she was having “a bad morning” and insisted they leave what she claimed was her boat.

…

Forbes’ family has since said she has been experiencing a “mental health crisis” and urged the public not to “rush to judgment” as more details emerge about the stunning incident.

Also:

…Aubrey said he later discovered a large bottle of Grey Goose vodka and a bottle of tequila, full the previous night, were empty.

I hope she gets the help she needs.

Posted in Boats, California Über Alles, Law, Politics | 3 Comments »

Random notes: July 12, 2026.

Sunday, July 12th, 2026

A catch-all for several things:

Happy 46th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night! I think I may have used this before, but it has been a minute I believe:

Obit watch: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina). NYT. WP (archived). Lawrence.

You know, for a movie that is often called one of the worst movies to win the Academy Award for Best Picture1…”The Greatest Show On Earth” is actually pretty swell. Is it better than “High Noon”? I don’t know that you can make a head-to-head comparison, but I thought “Show” was much more fun. And sometimes that’s what you want out of a movie: fun. (And I say this as a person with conflicted views about circuses.)

While we were watching it, I mentioned that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus had gone out of business in 2017. I went to double-check my dates…and ran into an interesting philosophical question.

While RB&BB closed in 2017, they restarted in 2023 according to Wikipedia. But: the new shows do not have clowns, animals, or a ringmaster.

Which raises the question: if you don’t have animals, clowns, or a ringmaster, are you still Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus? Heck, are you even still a circus at all?

The long version of the Lucille Ball story from IMDB.

We all know that Jimmy Stewart was one of the greats, but he’s brilliant in this. Especially since he spends the entire film in clown makeup, for reasons.

And how many movies can you think of that have a love…pentagon? Brad is in love with Holly, who loves him. But she takes up with The Great Sebastian, who returns her affections (though, honestly, it seems like The Great Sebastian would return the affections of anything female). He also has a past with Angel, who also falls for Brad, but is claimed by the pathologically jealous elephant trainer Klaus. (I wonder if this is patient zero for the evil elephant trainer in fiction. See also.)

This film is listed among The 100 Most Amusingly Bad Moves Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson’s book “The Official Razzie® Movie Guide.”

John Wilson should go eat a bowl of something disgusting.

(more…)

Posted in History, Movies, Obits, Politics, Sports | 4 Comments »

Obit watch: June 7, 2026.

Sunday, June 7th, 2026

Bob Packwood, former Senator from Oregon. WP (archived).

He resigned in 1995, before he could get thrown out, due to a sexual harassment scandal.

The case against Mr. Packwood, who had spent nearly half his life in the Senate, unfolded long before the #MeToo movement spurred society to take more seriously allegations of sexual misconduct against high-profile men. An inquiry by the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Ethics dragged on for more than three years before the committee recommended unanimously that he be expelled.
That recommendation was based in part on Mr. Packwood’s diary, in which he detailed his predatory behavior, including toward women he supervised. “Twenty-two staff members I made love to,” he boasted, “and probably 75 others I’ve had a passionate relationship with.”

…

Shortly after his re-election to a fifth term, The Washington Post reported that he had made uninvited advances toward 10 women, many of whom were on his staff.
“Several said he was abrupt, grabbing them without warning, kissing them forcefully and persisting until they made clear that they were not interested or had pushed him away,” The Post reported.
Before the article was published, Mr. Packwood denied the allegations and refused to cooperate with The Post. Instead, he gave the newspaper embarrassing information about some of the women’s sexual histories to undermine their credibility.

…

But the Ethics Committee’s investigation continued.
As it expanded to include accusations of corruption, Mr. Packwood stonewalled it with legal challenges. In May 1995, though, the committee issued a damning bill of particulars, saying it had “substantial credible evidence” that Mr. Packwood had committed at least 18 sexual assaults between 1969 and 1990.
It also said that he had tampered with evidence by destroying parts of his diary, an incriminating document replete with scenes out of a bodice-ripper.
“If she didn’t want me to feather her nest, why did she come into the Xerox room?” he wrote at one point. “She knew I was copying stuff in there. I had my jacket off and my sleeves rolled up, revealing the well-defined musculature of my sinewy arms, which were always bulging with desire. I know what she wanted.”

Posted in History, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 20, 2026.

Wednesday, May 20th, 2026

Barney Frank. WP (archived).

The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas.

The restaurant blamed major casinos and “corporate greed” for pricing average Americans out of the “quintessential American experience of affordable indulgence” in Las Vegas, it said.
“Our core value, ‘Eat big and laugh loud,’ no longer fits a city peddling $40 ‘artisanal avocado toast,’” the restaurant said.
“The honest, heavy-duty calories that built our reputation are now considered gauche by a city that has excluded the middle class and lost its swagger in the process.”

Lawrence sent over a report from Fox Las Vegas:

Posted in Food, Obits, Politics | 1 Comment »

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