Want to get this in now, since I don’t know what tomorrow is going to be like: Betty White. THR.
Tiffini Hale. She was a member of the “Mickey Mouse Club” cast from 1989 to 1995, and was only 46.
Archive for December, 2021
Obit watch: December 31, 2021 (supplemental)
Friday, December 31st, 2021What we know that isn’t necessarily so…
Friday, December 31st, 2021Tweet:
Reversals in Psychology: A list of famous psychological findings that are now in doubt. Includes the Stanford prison experiment, implicit bias, Pygmalion effect, stereotype threat, power posing, multiple intelligences, brain training, learning styles, etc. https://t.co/WOES9XsMfs pic.twitter.com/VXGGhkxpCo
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) December 27, 2021
A lot of this probably isn’t news to people who are as geeky as I am. Some high points:
Evidence for a small marshmallow effect, that ability to delay gratification as a 4 year old predicts educational outcomes at 15 or beyond (Mischel).
After controlling for the socioeconomic status of the child’s family, the Marshmallow effect is r=0.05 or d=0.1 one-tenth of a standard deviation for an additional minute delay, with nonsignificant p-values. And since it’s usually easier to get SES data…
“Expertise attained after 10,000 hours practice” (Gladwell). Disowned by the supposed proponents.
(Previously.)
Obit watch: December 31, 2021.
Friday, December 31st, 2021I’ve written before about the NYT‘s ability to do touching obits for people who aren’t famous (outside of, perhaps, a limited cultural circle) but still led interesting lives.
Ben McFall, “the longest-tenured bookseller in the history of the Strand”.
Mr. McFall enjoyed duties and perks not given to any other Strand employee. For much of his tenure, he was the only person in charge of an entire section. Not only that, the fief he governed — the fiction shelves — provides the Strand with the core of its business in used books.
He determined the price of each used hardcover novel and book of stories and then affixed a Strand sticker to the dust jacket. On occasion, he’d assess a book newly purchased by the store and find inside his own handwriting with a price from the 1980s.
Pricing was one of many fields in which Mr. McFall’s experience enabled him to make quick, intuitive pronouncements. Without checking a computer, he would say he knew how many years it had been since he had last seen an obscure old novel, the number of days it had remained in stock, and its current value online.
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Back then, the Strand hardly sold new books. Now, in addition to the latest best-sellers, it gives space to socks, tote bags and mugs. Bibliophilic employees have complained about that evolution while also accusing management of mistreating workers, particularly during the pandemic, which led to mass layoffs and a warning from Ms. Wyden that “our business is unsustainable.”
Mr. McFall gave his blessing to commercialization — “I’m perfectly willing to sell low-end dresses here if it means keeping the Strand in business,” he told The Times — and throughout his tenure he commanded respect both from management and across factions of the rank and file.
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Obit watch: December 29, 2021.
Wednesday, December 29th, 2021Comment I made to Lawrence last night: “Sure,” the NYT reporter said, “I’ll cover the obituary desk between Christmas and New Year’s. Nothing ever happens between Christmas and New Year’s.”
I’m being kind of short with these first two because everyone is on them like a fat man on an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.
John Madden. ESPN. LAT.
“Rabelaisian emissary”. Gotta give that guy credit.
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I wouldn’t say I was ever a big Madden fan. I had nothing against him, it was more a matter of me not being a big football fan in general. But that seems like a good general leadership principle: be yourself, and treat your people like intelligent human beings.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Madden was offered the “Ernie Pantusso” role on “Cheers”, but turned it down.
Harry M. Reid. Las Vegas Review Journal.
Jeff Dickerson, ESPN reporter covering the Chicago Bears. He was only 44.
I wanted to note this, even though he wasn’t as famous as the other guys. The ESPN obit makes Mr. Dickerson sound like a really good guy who was taken too soon:
Even after being placed in hospice last week, he told colleagues he was there merely to humor his doctors. No one around him heard a word of self-pity, and he disarmed those who expressed concern by asking them about their own lives.
“JD always wants to know how you’re doing,” Waddle said. “I’d ask him how he’s doing and his first response is, ‘How are you doing? How are [Waddle’s daughters]?’ The dignity with which he has carried himself through some of the most difficult times any human being would be asked to go through, what his wife went through and the dignity and strength and grace that he showed at her side throughout all of this … I don’t know anybody I’ve met in my 54 years in life who has handled adversity over the last decade with more grace and strength and dignity than Jeff Dickerson. I know a lot of people go through [stuff]. I do. I’m sympathetic to all of it. But what Jeff Dickerson has had to go through the last decade is cruel.
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“He always carried a care for the subject that he was going to write about,” said Gould, who co-hosted an ESPN 1000 radio show with Dickerson during a portion of his Bears career. “As a player you can appreciate that the wisdom he put on paper was as neutral and correct as it ever was going to be. It was always going to be your words. It was always going to be what the story was. It was never going to be someone filling in the blanks …
“Players definitely noticed. He always wrote a true story. He always wrote what was happening at the moment. He didn’t try to back the bus up over somebody. He tried to get it exactly how the story was. … I think you saw a lot of guys give him a lot of credit because they knew he would write it right.”
Obit watch: December 28, 2021.
Tuesday, December 28th, 2021Relentless advocate for children, and author, Andrew Vachss has died. This is by way of Lawrence from Joe Landsdale, and I don’t have any more information than what’s there at the moment. I’ll follow up as more information is posted.
When guns are outlawed…
Monday, December 27th, 2021Obit watch: December 27, 2021.
Monday, December 27th, 2021Man, you take some time off for Christmas, and Death decides to be even busier than usual.
As an expert on insects, Dr. Wilson studied the evolution of behavior, exploring how natural selection and other forces could produce something as extraordinarily complex as an ant colony. He then championed this kind of research as a way of making sense of all behavior — including our own.
As part of his campaign, Dr. Wilson wrote a string of books that influenced his fellow scientists while also gaining a broad public audience. “On Human Nature” won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1979; “The Ants,” which Dr. Wilson wrote with his longtime colleague Bert Hölldobler, won him his second Pulitzer in 1991.
Dr. Wilson also became a pioneer in the study of biological diversity, developing a mathematical approach to questions about why different places have different numbers of species. Later in his career, Dr. Wilson became one of the world’s leading voices for the protection of endangered wildlife.
Jean-Marc Vallée. THR. Credits include “Dallas Buyers Club” and the “Big Little Lies” series. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
Desmond Tutu, for the historical record.
Sarah Weddington, attorney in the Roe v Wade case. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
Wanda Young, of the Marvelettes.
I’ve read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Rogue Warrior and, believe it or not, Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior and The Real Team: Rogue Warrior (affiliate links). Oddly enough, though, I never met Mr. Marcinko. I say “oddly” because he was actually one of the guests of honor at a convention Lawrence and I went to years back, but I never sought him out. Both of us were busy hanging out with one of the other guests.
Bruce Todd, former Austin mayor.
Todd served two terms as mayor, first elected in June 1991 and retired in June 1997. In his time as mayor, he and the council considered issues such as airport relocation, wilderness preservation and transferring the city-run hospital to Seton. He also helped recruit major employers to the city, like Samsung, AMD and Applied Materials.
He also helped pass the city’s no-smoking law, banning cigars and cigarettes in all restaurants and bars.
Todd also led the effort to get the U.S. Airforce to transfer then-Bergstrom Air Force Base to the city when the base was being decommissioned. He succeeded and also worked to pass a $600 million bond election to transform the base into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
This is a little old, and has been touched on by other folks, but I did not find a good obit until now: Edward D. Shames.
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Entering combat as a sergeant with Easy Company, he was among its many paratroopers who found themselves scattered and lost upon hitting the ground behind Utah Beach before dawn on D-Day.
“I landed in a bunch of cows in a barn,” he recalled in a July 2021 interview with the American Veterans Center. “I had no idea where I was.”
He rounded up his men and found a farmhouse. The farmer didn’t speak English and he didn’t speak French, but he took out his maps and, through the farmer’s gestures, found that he was in the town of Carentan, some five miles from a bridge where he was supposed to have touched down. When he got there with his men, he received a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant for his resourcefulness.
Mr. Shames was the last surviving officer of Easy Company.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Saturday, December 25th, 2021I’m not sure that Annie Lennox gets enough credit for her musical talent. I think many people still associate her with the Eurythmics, but she’s gone on to do really interesting solo work. And there’s something about her voice that I find…well, I’m not sure “compelling” is the word for it, but maybe that will do.
I set this to start at the four minute mark because, but this is the whole album for your listening pleasure.
Tradition:
More tradition. This one makes me smile.
Not traditional, but I like it:
Further adventures in hoplobibilophilia, plus random gun crankery.
Friday, December 24th, 2021One of the problems joys of being a hoplobibliophile (as opposed to being a normal person, or even a normal book collector): you buy a book on a particular gun for some reason. It might be well put together and illustrated, or it might just be cheap. Whatever. Next thing you know…you’re wanting the gun to go with the book.
’twas the night before Christmas…
Friday, December 24th, 2021Chartwell Booksellers sent this over, and I thought I’d share it with everyone:
Winston Churchill’s Christmas Eve message, December 24, 1941.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
(Ugly Christmas Beanie from Magpul (affiliate link). I don’t know that you’ll be able to get one on or before the 25th: but as all people of goodwill know, the Christmas season runs through January 6th, the Feast of Epiphany, and thus your ugly Christmas beanie (or sweater, if you live someplace that cold) is appropriate wear at least through then.)
Obit watch: December 24, 2021.
Friday, December 24th, 2021Joan Didion. LAT. THR.
We tell ourselves stories in order to live…We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the “ideas” with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.
By way of Lawrence: a selection of her writing from National Review.
Bad ideas ‘R’ us.
Thursday, December 23rd, 2021Setup for this: Someone Who Isn’t Me (SWIM) may have received one or more of the Brownells Gunsmith Kinks books for Christmas. SWIM may have texted me a message about “books about kinky gunsmiths”.
Which got me thinking…we have romance novels in just about every other area, including cop romances and SWAT romances (that’s “Special Werewolf Alpha Team“).
Why not…gunsmith romances?
John Brown is one of the best gunsmiths in the country. He can make a 1911 shoot cloverleafs at 50 yards. But he knows nothing about women.
Carrie Green is a Beverly Hills liberal who knows nothing about guns. But increasing crime has her worried. So she decides to buy a gun.
When Carrie walks into John’s shop, bullets won’t be the only thing in the air…
Nicole Cross is looking for someone to complete her father’s last firearms design. But when she meets hunky gunsmith Alex Middlemarch, her gas piston won’t be the only thing moving.
Police armorer Michelle Block lost her cop husband in a line of duty accident. She’s been immersed in her work for the past five years. But can she find love, and a father for her daughter, with macho SWAT cop Patrick Westlake?
A cinematographer is killed on the set of a Western, and movie armorer Lauren Hughes is blamed for her death. Can former SEAL and special investigator Donald Thomas prove she was framed…and find the real killer before he takes Lauren out of the picture?
Okay, that last one may cut a little too close to current events…
Notes on money. And other things.
Thursday, December 23rd, 2021I suspect that, politically, there’s a lot of stuff we’d disagree about. But Patrick McKenzie of Stripe has been writing a lot of smart stuff: both on his Twitter (for example, this thread on buying new glasses, or this one about tax filing) and his newsletter.
The quote above is from a recent issue of his newsletter about “The secondary market in gift cards“. There’s a lot of stuff in here that I didn’t know, or hadn’t thought about:
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Totally unrelated, but I don’t have another good place to stick this:
— The deadly river Neva (@pipandbaby) December 23, 2021
I am amused by this because: a while back (it may have been Christmas 2019) a group of Saturday Dining Conspirators got into a discussion of the Hallmark Christmas Movie Cinematic Universe (HCMCU). If any of us had drawing talent (and could get past the copyright issues) we’d start doing HCMCU graphic novels.
Speaking of bad ideas…
Obit watch: December 23, 2021.
Thursday, December 23rd, 2021He was “Enrico Rossi” in 113 episodes of “The Untouchables”. Other credits include two episodes of “Get Smart”, the good “Hawaii 5-0”, “Mission: Impossible”, “The Rockford Files”, four episodes of “Quincy M.E.”, the Andy Sidaris film “Picasso Trigger”…
…and “Mannix”. (“Deadfall”, season 1, episodes 17 and 18. We have not seen this yet, as we are saving season 1 until after we’ve watched seasons 2 through 8. But this is kind of a legendary episode: Joe Mannix gets into a bloody fight with his boss at Intertect.)
Robbie Roper. He was a high school quarterback in Georgia and one of the top recruits in this year’s class.
He was only 18 years old, and passed away after a routine surgery.
Bowl watch.
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021Doesn’t count as a firing, but still kind of interesting. Lawrence tipped me off to this earlier today, but it was just a rumor at the time: now it seems to be confirmed.
Texas A&M is out of the Gator Bowl.
Is it the Wuhan Flu? Sort of.
But they’ve also got “as many as ten upperclassmen” who are eligible for the draft and have said they don’t want to play. They’ve got two more players in the transfer portal, and “as many as 12 players” who are out because of injuries.
ESPN:
Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork told ESPN that the program was down to 38 scholarship position players, of which 20 were offensive and defensive linemen.
In addition to the outbreak and the injuries, Texas A&M also had tight end Jalen Wydermyer and running back Isaiah Spiller declare for the NFL draft. Quarterback Zach Calzada, who started 10 games this season, entered the transfer portal.
“So if you take running backs, receivers, quarterbacks and defensive backs, we had 13 of those guys and only 13 scholarship players on defense,” Bjork told ESPN. “We had over 40 guys out between COVID, season-ending injuries, transfers and opt-outs.
The Gator Bowl people, the NCAA, Wake Forest (the other team) and the ACC are all supposedly working to find another team to play. At this date, though, it seems to me like a long shot: the game is scheduled for December 31st. I imagine many teams have already released their players to go home (Texas A&M was supposed to release theirs Tuesday, and have them come back after Christmas) and I doubt a lot of teams that aren’t already scheduled for bowls are going to want to scramble and take risks just to compete in a lower tier bowl game.
On a completely related note:
The national championship game could be pushed to January 14th (it is scheduled for January 10th) but:
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Not that I am hoping for anyone to come down with the Chinese Rabies, but man, a national championship by forfeit would be a sight to see.
Obit watch: December 22, 2021.
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021She was most famous as “Truly Scrumptious” in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. She did some TV work, including “Mission: Impossible” and “Run For Your Life”.
She also did a fair amount of theater:
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You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#78 in a series)
Tuesday, December 21st, 2021This is a couple of days old, but I’ve been busy. I’ve also been going back and forth on posting this one, for reasons that I’ll get into directly.
Brian Downey, the deputy mayor of Airmont, New York (in Rockland County, population 8,628 in 2010) has been indicted.
But: most of these charges are gun charges, and the sort of gun charges that I’m not sure should be a crime in a free country, much less New York state.
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There’s a semi-meme in the gun community about people ordering “fuel filters” from Chinese vendors…and getting a knock on the door from the Feds. I wonder if that’s what happened in this case. (The only online reference I could find to this was on a site that I have a policy of not linking to or acknowledging in any way.)
Downey acknowledged that weapons were not licensed in an interview with federal agents, according to the complaint filed in federal court.
“He stated that he lacked any registration or authorization for controlled firearms, such as the short-barrel rifle or the sawed-off shotgun,” said Daniel Suden, a special agent with the US Department of Homeland Security.
Really, seriously, just shut the f–k up.
It sounds like he may have been planning on using an “only ones” exemption. Except…he wasn’t one of the “only ones”.
So I can’t gloat too much over the gun charges: after all, if I believe that silencers, modern sporting rifles, and normal capacity magazines should be legal, I can’t throw stones at this guy.
But fake law enforcement credentials? He deserves whatever he gets for that.
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#77 in a series)
Friday, December 17th, 2021This is a couple days old, but I missed it. Hattip to Mike the Musicologist.
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Six involve ongoing criminal indictments alleging Smith engaged in political favoritism and traded favors by leveraging her control over issuing concealed-carry weapons permits.
The seventh accuses her of failing to cooperate with the county law-enforcement auditor in an investigation into negligence allegations stemming from a 2018 jail inmate’s injury that led to a $10 million county settlement, the Mercury News reported.
The articles I’ve read don’t say, but I’m 99 44/100ths percent sure that this is related to the Apple scandal that I wrote about a while back.
Now, I am not a lawyer, I am not a California lawyer, and I am especially not Perry Mason. (They renewed that crap for a second season? What is wrong with people?)
But, as I understand it, the “civil grand jury” indictments are not criminal. The “civil grand jury” in California is chartered to investigate “actions or performance of city, county agencies or public officials.”
The jurisdiction of the Civil Grand Jury is limited by statute and includes the following:
- Consideration of evidence of misconduct against public officials to determine whether to present formal accusations requesting their removal from office
- Inquiry into the condition and management of public prisons within the county
- Investigation and report on the operations, accounts, and records of the officers, departments, or functions of the county including those operations, accounts, and records of any special legislative district or other district in the county pursuant to state law for which the officers of the county are serving in their ex officio capacity as officers of the districts
- May investigate the books and records of any incorporated city or joint powers agency located in the county
So this isn’t the equivalent of criminal charges, but it is a grand jury saying “We think you’re corrupt as fark”.
Count 1: Illegally issuing concealed carry weapon permits (CCW) to VIP’s
Count 2: Failing to properly investigate whether non-VIP’s should receive CCW permits
Count 3: Keeping non-VIP CCW applications pending indefinitely
Count 4: Illegally accepting suite tickets, food, and drinks at Sharks game
Count 5: Failing to report Sharks game gifts on financial documents
Count 6: Committing perjury by failing to disclose Sharks game gifts
Count 7: Failing to cooperate with internal affairs investigation surrounding treatment of Andrew Hogan
Where do we get such men?
Friday, December 17th, 2021I briefly touched the other day on the story of Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, who was awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday.
Sgt. Cashe was one of three soldiers who received the Medal of Honor that day. Task and Purpose has a good profile of all three men.
The other two are Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz (who received the medal posthumously, along with Sgt. Cashe), and Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee (who is still alive, and currently serving with the US Army).
Obit watch: December 17, 2021.
Friday, December 17th, 2021John Mueller, one of the great Texas barbecue guys. He was only 52.
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Mueller built his reputation on sturdy but supple brisket cooked hot and fast, gargantuan beef ribs with a soft side that belied their imposing stature, and a mercurial personality that often burned with the same intensity as his off-set smoker.
Franklin Barbecue owner Aaron Franklin worked briefly for Mueller in 2006, cutting onions and helping with other prep work, and says that the Taylor native had a talent that could not be taught.
“He spent all those years hanging out in Taylor learning from his dad. The guy really just had such a natural gift for cooking barbecue,” Franklin said. “I’d be surprised if there was anyone else in the world who has cooked more briskets than that guy.”
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Mueller would play up the caricature of “the dark prince of Texas barbecue,” a moniker bestowed on him by Texas Monthly, later in life, blending barbs with banter that made him an unpredictable if entertaining presence at his businesses.
But despite his love for giving people grief and straddling the line between famous and infamous, Mueller at his heart was a classic Central Texas barbecue man who took the lessons from his father and then burned his own path through the barbecue scene.
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John Lewis worked briefly for Mueller at his South First trailer before going to serve as pit boss at La Barbecue. Lewis, who now runs the lauded Lewis Barbecue in Charleston, S.C., says that despite his reputation as an ornery cuss, Mueller could be an affable guy who loved to share a laugh.
“He was a really, really kind guy. He had a huge heart and I didn’t really get to know that until we worked side by side,” Lewis said. “He would act really tough but the next second he is goofing on you. He had a great sense of humor.”
Additional coverage from the Dallas Morning News (by way of archive.is).
Edited to add 12/18: Texas Monthly tribute.
(Crossposted to The Logbook of the Saturday Dining Conspiracy.)
Obit watch: December 16, 2021.
Thursday, December 16th, 2021Elfrida von Nardroff, historical footnote.
She kept a low public profile for much of her life, but back in the 1950s, she was on television. Specifically, the quiz show “Twenty-One”.
Of course, you know where this is going, right?
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Mr. Stone delved into Ms. von Nardroff’s claims of deep research and found them dubious. He saw little evidence for her claim that she had analyzed “Twenty-One” topics so extensively that she had filled numerous notebooks.
He sent investigators to the main branch of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street, where they showed her picture to see if anyone recognized her from all the time she said she had spent there. They did not. (Ms. von Nardroff said she had taken out books but did not do research at the library, Mr. Stone recounted.) She admitted that the article in This Week was only “impressionistically true.”
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For the historical record: bell hooks.
Shad don’t like it…
Thursday, December 16th, 2021Urban Meyer out as Jacksonville Jaguars coach after 13 regular season games.
His record was 2-11.
The final straw seems to have been yesterday’s report that Meyer kicked Josh Lambo, a former kicker with the Jaguars. I’m just gonna go out on a limb here and say physically assaulting your employees is not a good idea.
Meyer couldn’t deliver as speculation persisted that he treated players like kids instead of grown men. He appeared to be too caught up in having control and power instead of having the right answers to win football games.
This past weekend NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported, citing sources, that Meyer had multiple run-ins with players and coaches that had developed into an ongoing tension at the Jaguars facility for months.
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And Shad Khan is looking for tax money to upgrade the stadium and improve “the fan experience”.
To quote a comment at Field of Schemes:
You know what would “fundamentally change the fan experience” for Jags fans?
Not losing 10+ games each and every year.
Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#AI of a series)
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021CNN had an opening, now that they’ve canned Fredo. So who better to hire?
Excited to join @CNN team to continue being part of the discussion on law enforcement and criminal justice. #RelationalPolicing pic.twitter.com/BNsnRSDepF
— Chief Art Acevedo (@ArtAcevedo) December 15, 2021
I missed this, probably because I don’t pay much attention to that network. Thank you to Gun Free Zone for tipping me off.
Responsible use of category tags.
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021I hate to link to Crimereads two days in a row, but this is another one of those articles I feel like I have to link. Especially since it lets me tick off multiple categories from my list:
“Fireworks at Graceland: How Elvis Spent His Last Christmas Before Boot Camp“.
I’m not going to add it to my wish list yet, but Christmas with Elvis (affiliate link) sounds like it could be a fun book.
Obit watch: December 15, 2021.
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021Frank “Frankie” Little Jr., a guitarist and songwriter with the O’Jays.
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Little was only with the band for a short time, The O’Jays said in a statement to Rolling Stone. He worked with Levert on a handful of songs, including 1964’s “Do the Jerk” and 1966’s “Pretty Words.”
“He came out with us when we first ventured out of Cleveland and traveled to Los Angeles, but was also in love with a woman in Cleveland that he missed so much that he soon returned back to Cleveland after a short amount of time,” the band said.
Mr. Little died sometime around or prior to February of 1982, but his death was not announced until recently, when his remains were identified.
The partial remains — first discovered in February 1982 in a garbage bag behind a now-shuttered business in Twinsburg, Ohio — were identified as Little’s using DNA provided by a close relative, police said in a statement Tuesday.
“In October 2021, the DNA Doe Project provided the names of potential living relatives, who were able to provide Frank’s name,” Twinsburg police said, adding that Little’s identity was later confirmed by a medical examiner who ruled his death a homicide.
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Cara Williams, actress. 55 credits in IMDB.
High points include “The Defiant Ones”, “We Go to Monte Carlo”, “The Man From the Diners’ Club”, and the wife of Harry Morgan’s character in “Pete and Gladys”.