Archive for November 28th, 2020

No! No, not Detroit!

Saturday, November 28th, 2020

Coach Matt Patricia and GM Bob Quinn out in Detroit.

The two were tasked with elevating the Lions from their perpetual state of mediocrity to a perennial playoff contender, and instead brought more despair to a franchise that has not won a playoff game since 1992.
The Lions went 13-29-1 with Quinn and Patricia in charge and are in the midst of their third consecutive losing season. Patricia’s .314 winning percentage was far below that of the man he replaced. Jim Caldwell, who Quinn fired after going 9-7 in 2017, won 54.5% of his games, best among full-time Lions coaches in the expansion era.

I always say: “It’s not Thanksgiving until Detroit loses.” And the final straw seems to have been Detroit losing to Houston, 41-25.

Not exactly firings, but I don’t have any place else to put these:

1) The Denver Broncos have no quarterbacks for their game tomorrow against the Saints.

The Broncos’ three eligible quarterbacks — Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles — were each deemed to be a “high-risk” close contact to quarterback Jeff Driskel, and none of the three can be in uniform for Sunday’s game, sources told ESPN.

Driskel tested as COVID positive on Thursday.

2) Santa Clara County (who you may remember from “iPads for Permits”) has banned all contact sports in the county for the next three weeks, at all levels: San Francisco 49ers hardest hit.

You know, they told me if I looked hard enough, something positive would come out of this. And they were right.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Annals of law (#13 in a series)

Saturday, November 28th, 2020

I have heard stories like this before, but I thought this Twitter thread was worth noting:

I’ve also heard this referred to as “swoop and squat” fraud. It is actually a key plot point in Dan Simmons’s Darwin’s Blade (affiliate link).

Someone in the thread linked to an old Fortune article, which I am re-linking here for your convenience. No need to thank me: full service blog, here.

Posted in Books, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 243

Saturday, November 28th, 2020

This could, maybe, fall under travel, but I thought I’d use these here today instead.

Great and good FotB RoadRich joined us for Thanksgiving dinner, and we spent some time afterwards sitting around, chatting, and watching a few videos on the ‘Tube. Here’s one that came up: Jimmy Stewart talks about flying planes out of LAX…before it was LAX.

In 1928, the Los Angeles City Council selected 640 acres (1.00 sq mi; 260 ha) in the southern part of Westchester for a new airport for the city. The fields of wheat, barley and lima beans were converted into dirt landing strips without any terminal buildings. It was named Mines Field for William W. Mines, the real estate agent who arranged the deal. The first structure, Hangar No. 1, was erected in 1929 and is in the National Register of Historic Places.

Bonus #1: “The Story of Modern Airline Transportation”, from American Airlines. “Modern”, in this case, being 1933.

Bonus #2: RoadRich mentioned this to me, and I couldn’t pass it up. This is actually what got us started down this path. From 1953, “Flying With Arthur Godfrey”, a vintage Eastern Airlines promo film.

Godfrey used his pervasive fame to advocate a strong anti-Communist stance and to pitch for enhanced strategic air power in the Cold War atmosphere. In addition to his advocacy for civil rights, he became a strong promoter of his middle-class fans vacationing in Hawaii and Miami Beach, Florida, formerly enclaves for the wealthy. He made a television movie in 1953, taking the controls of an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Constellation airliner and flying to Miami, thus showing how safe airline travel had become. As a reserve officer, he used his public position to cajole the Navy into qualifying him as a Naval Aviator, and played that against the United States Air Force, who later successfully recruited him into the Air Force Reserve. At one time during the 1950s, Godfrey had flown every active aircraft in the military inventory.

In addition to Godfrey actually flying a Constellation, Eddie Rickenbacker shows up as well.

“I used to sit around up there at 20,000 feet with the sun at my back waiting for the enemy Fokkers to come around.”

“No, no, no – these fokkers were Messerschmitts!”

Posted in History, Planes | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 28, 2020.

Saturday, November 28th, 2020

Tony Hsieh, Zappos guy.

I’ve never bought shoes from Zappos, but as someone who tries to pay a little attention to what’s going on on the Internet, I’d heard about Mr. Hsieh, his leadership of Zappos, and his plans for downtown Las Vegas.

Also, this is shocking: he was only 46. The paper of record says that he died as a result of injuries sustained in a house fire.

If you didn’t check the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors when the time changed, you might go do that now.

Posted in Obits | 1 Comment »