Archive for December, 2019

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Obit watch: December 12, 2019.

Thursday, December 12th, 2019

Philip McKeon, who you may remember as Alice’s son Tommy on “Alice”. I had no idea he lived in Wimberly (which is a short drive from where I live), or that he was doing a radio show. (Hattip: RoadRich.)

Leonard Goldberg, noted television producer. He collaborated with Aaron Spelling on “Fantasy Island” and “Charlie’s Angels”, and went on to produce “Blue Bloods”.

I don’t watch much TV, especially network TV, but I have a feeling I should start watching “Blue Bloods”.

Lawrence sent over an obit for Tatsuo Umemiya, Japanese actor. I’m not familiar with his work, but he was highly prolific in Japan: 203 credits as an actor between 1959 and 2013.

Posted in 1970s, Obits, Radio, TV | Comments Closed

Random gun crankery, some filler.

Wednesday, December 11th, 2019

Col. Cooper, call your office, please.

Scout rifles. You know, for kids. Seen at Cabela’s over the weekend.

(Okay, technically, it isn’t a true Scout rifle. Beyond the fact that it is a toy gun, it is also lever action, while a true Scout would be a bolt gun. Cooper discussed the possibility of a lever action Scout, but I believe he considered that a pseudo-Scout. Also, I’m not clear what “caliber” it is “chambered” in. On the other hand, it probably does make weight and length for a Scout, and it does have the Scout style “scope” and mount…)

(Semi-related stupid. By way of Mike the Musicologist.)

Speaking of semi-related stupid, I could spend a lot of time and effort, and increase my blood pressure, by going after the latest stupid statement about guns from Art “Dammit” Acevedo.

But I don’t have to, because Lawrence sent me this handy Twitter thread that does the same thing.

But of course Art’s department was busy executing innocent civilians.

Speaking of the elusive MtM:

I wanted to title this “The Hat Squad”, but I got the picture back, and…where’s my hat? Obviously, I had it on in the other photo, but why wasn’t I wearing it in this one? And what did I do with it?

Posted in Christmas, Cops, Guns, Law, Stupid | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Tuesday, December 10th, 2019

Jim Montgomery out as head coach of the Dallas Stars (who are apparently a hockey team).

The wowser here is not that he’s out, but the reason: it wasn’t his won/loss record.

[Stars GM Jim] Nill told reporters at an 11 am news conference that he was made aware of a “material act of unprofessionalism” over the weekend. The incident occurred last week and he received a phone call about it on Sunday.
He said there was an internal investigation into the incident and that it was he made the decision to fire Montgomery after consulting with general counsel.
Nill clarified there was no criminal investigation involved and that the incident didn’t involve any current or past players. But he also reiterated that he won’t discuss specifics of the incident out of respect for everyone involved. Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and John Klingberg all told reporters on Tuesday that Stars players were not told what happened with Montgomery.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Monday, December 9th, 2019

…everywhere you go.

Hattip to Nicholas Vedros (@nicholasvedros) and Sportsman’s Finest (@sportsmansfinest) for the photos. (Yes, there’s more than one. I may post a second one tomorrow, if Mike the Musicologist approves.)

Posted in Christmas | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 9, 2019.

Monday, December 9th, 2019

René Auberjonois, versatile actor. He’s getting a lot of attention for his roles in Altman’s “MASH”, “Benson”, and some minor SF TV show, but he did a lot of movies and TV: “Rockford Files”, “Richie Brockelman, Private Eye”, “Mrs. Columbo” (but oddly not “Columbo”)…the list goes on.

Caroll Spinney is also getting a lot of coverage, but noted here for the record.

Paul Volcker, former chair of the Federal Reserve.

Ron Leibman, another one of those highly versatile actors in movies, television, and theater.

Finally, Winston Lawson. he was the Secret Service agent who did the advance work for Kennedy’s Texas trip, rode in the motorcade, and helped load the president onto the stretcher at Parkland.

Posted in 1970s, History, Obits, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

Fizdale! Fizdale!

Friday, December 6th, 2019

By way of Lawrence, breaking news: David Fizdale out as head coach of the 4-18 New York Knickerbockers. He was 21-83 overall in less than two seasons.

His .201 winning percentage goes down as the worst of any coach in franchise history.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 4, 2019.

Wednesday, December 4th, 2019

Interesting pair of obits from the NYT:

Wayne Merry has passed away at the age of 88. Mr. Merry, Warren Harding, and George Whitmore were rock climbers:

On Nov. 12, 1958, they became the first climbers to reach the top of El Capitan after ascending the Nose, notable for a daunting overhang called the Great Roof. The climb took 45 days, spread out over about a year and a half; in each leg of the climb they would secure fixed ropes to the highest point they had reached so that they could later resume the climb with relative ease.

…

They subsisted on cheese, raisins, canned fruit and sardines. They carried water in an old paint-thinner can, and drank wine. “We trained on red wine, if anything,” Merry told The Yukon News in 2015.
They relied on improvised implements, including pitons that they fashioned from the legs of old wood stoves and tools from a hardware store that they repurposed for climbing.
“I wouldn’t hang a picture from them today, but back then we hung our lives on them,” Merry told Yukon North of Ordinary magazine in 2016.

Brad Gobright passed away last week at 31.

Mr. Gobright, a native of California, was hailed as one of the world’s best free solo climbers, a technique that uses no ropes. He set a speed record in 2017 — 2 hours 19 minutes 44 seconds — at the popular climbing route called the Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. It has since been surpassed.

Mr. Gobright died in a fall while rappelling with a climbing partner in Mexico.

In non-rock climbing related news, this is a nice tribute to Tim George. Dr. George was a pediatric neurosurgeon at Dell Children’s Hospital:

In 2006, Bill Dollahite’s son Scott was badly hurt playing football for Cedar Park High School in Waco. Doctors told him Scott was paralyzed. The family decided to move him closer to home.
“We took about a three-hour ride in the worst weather in the world … following an ambulance,” Dollahite said. In the middle of the night, the ambulance pulled into what was Brackenridge Hospital, “and here comes Dr. George.”
George was still new to Austin; Dollahite is not sure if he even had an office. Dell Children’s was under construction.
“Dr. George looked at him and goes, ‘You know, let’s not give up everything just yet. Let me take a look at this, because everything looks too perfect,’” Dollahite said. “Long story short, Scott went into Brackenridge quadriplegic. A couple of days later, he walked out. No ill effects after that. By the miracles that Dr. George did, he gave him his life back.”

Dr. George went on to take up racing as a hobby. He was competing in an endurance race at Sebring in Florida last month (as part of a team with Scott Dollahite) when he suddenly became ill, pulled into pit row, and collapsed.

I never watched “Will and Grace”, but Shelley Morrison had a long career before that show: “Laredo”, “The Flying Nun”, “240-Robert”…

NYT obit for D.C. Fontana.

Posted in 1970s, Obits, Sports, TV | 1 Comment »

Da do Ron Ron, da do Ron Ron…

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019

Ron Rivera fired as head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

76-63-1 in regular season games, 3-4 post season.

I’m approaching the end of my work day and am about to leave. I might have more to say later, but I kind of doubt it.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 3, 2019.

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019

Robert K. Massie, author, historian, and Pulitzer Prize winner.

Mr. Massie said his literary odyssey was set in motion by research he did at the New York Public Library during lunch breaks from his job as a young journalist. It was purely personal research at first: He wanted to know more about the bleeding disease of hemophilia and how he and his wife at the time, Suzanne Massie, who became a noted Russian scholar, could help their hemophiliac son, Bob.
During his research he became fascinated with perhaps the most famous childhood case of hemophilia, that of Alexei, a son of Nicholas and Alexandra. It was to help Alexei that Alexandra had summoned Grigory Rasputin, the notorious faith-healing monk who gained influence over the imperial court. Public disdain of Rasputin contributed to the Russian people’s turn against the monarchy, helping to pave the way for the revolution of 1917.
Mr. Massie wound up writing an article on hemophilia for The Saturday Evening Post, where he had taken a job in 1962. He wrote an accompanying article about Alexei and his parents, but The Post did not print it. Still, he found himself unable to abandon the family drama of the Romanovs, as the Russian dynasty was known, and he eventually quit his job to pursue the subject full time.
A decade later, “Nicholas and Alexandra” was published to acclaim. Though nearly 1,000 pages long, it sold more than 4.5 million copies and is regarded as one of the most popular historical studies ever published.

When I was a little kid, we had a Reader’s Digest Condensed book that had Nicholas and Alexandra in it. I remember being both fascinated by it and incapable of understanding it, because I was a little kid, and Russian history was just a little above my level. Not too long ago (back when I was at St. Ed’s) I read – and loved – the actual, non-condensed book.

Lawrence tipped me off to this, but I don’t have an obit to link: Dorothy Catherine Fontana, aka D.C. Fontana. She did a lot of writing for television, including “The Waltons”, “Land of the Lost”, something called “Captain Simian & The Space Monkeys”, “Babylon 5”, “Dallas”, “Logan’s Run”, “Lancer”…

…and she was also heavily involved with a minor series called “Star Trek”, as well as some of the sequels: “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Star Trek: The Animated Series”, and various spin-off products.

Edited to add: THR obit. (Hattip: RoadRich.)

Posted in 1970s, Books, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Firings watch.

Monday, December 2nd, 2019

Matt Luke fired as head coach of Ole Miss. They went 4-8 this year, and 15-21 over three seasons.

Steve Addazio gone at Boston College.

44-44 over seven seasons.

UT fired and reassigned a bunch of folks. Fired: defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and outside receivers coach Drew Mehringer. Reassigned: offensive coordinator Tim Beck (now quarterback coach) and inside receivers coach Corby Meekin (reassigned to “an administrative role”).

Frankly, I expected Herman to be fired last week. Looks like I was wrong about that. (I also expected Jason Garrett to get canned.)

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 13, 2019.

Sunday, December 1st, 2019

Apparently, 4-8 does not accurately reflect how bad the Jets are.

There’s “bad” and then there’s “lose to the Bengals” bad. But on the bright side, we don’t have to worry about the Miami game on the 22nd any longer.

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

None.

That’s a wrap for 2019, folks. We plan to be back next year.

Posted in Firings, Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

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