Archive for April, 2022

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Rhode Island content.

Friday, April 29th, 2022

Because we haven’t had any in a minute.

[Don] Winslow: My strong feelings about clams—and I do have very strong feelings about clams—have more to do with the chowder. You ask me about steamers and all that, no, I eat my little necks raw, thank you very much. But I am a fanatic on the subject of clam chowder. The only proper clam chowder is with clear clam broth, not cream like that baby food many of them serve and for God’s sake not with tomato juice as in the ultra vile Manhattan clam chowder. All those variations are abominations on the Lord.

I had clear broth chowder a couple of times when I was in RI, and I like it. Now that Mr. Winslow has brought up the subject, I’m halfway tempted to whip up a batch of my own, since you can’t get it around these parts. (I’m okay with a good white broth chowder.)

What I really miss is stuffies.

And I hope you guys are enjoying those $10 lobster rolls: my favorite local Connecticut roll is $22.

(I bet Winslow would probably hate me, but I’m a Connecticut guy. Mayonnaise is vile, and that’s pretty much what the Maine roll is: you’re paying $10 for flavored mayo.)

(I can’t figure out if McDonald’s in New England still sell lobster rolls. There are a lot of references to McD’s lobster rolls on the Internet, but they’re all several years old.)

Murphy: I caught that chowder detail in City on Fire. The moment I knew I was in a Don Winslow book was the characters started passionately discussing chowder.

Yeah…might have to pick up a copy of that.

Edited to add: meant to add a link, for reference: Rhode Island Clear Broth Clam Chowder.

Posted in Books, Food, Lobsters, Rhode Island | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: April 29, 2022.

Friday, April 29th, 2022

Harold Livingston, screenwriter. It doesn’t seem like he was terribly prolific (21 writing credits in IMDB) but there’s some gold.

His biggest credit seems to be the screenplay for the first movie based on a minor SF TV show from the 1960s. Other credits include “Run For Your Life”, nine episodes of “Mission: Impossible”, “The Bold Ones: The Protectors”, “The Name of the Game”, “Banacek”, “Archer” (the 1975 “Archer”), “Barbary Coast”…

…and “Mannix”. (“The Girl from Nowhere“, season 7, episode 19. “A Small Favor for an Old Friend“, season 8, episode 7, one of the “old Army buddy” episodes.)

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: April 28, 2022.

Thursday, April 28th, 2022

NYT obit for Cynthia Albritton.

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, noted Texas novelist who wrote about the Rio Grande Valley.

Kenneth Tsang, Hong Kong actor. Credits include “A Better Tomorrow”, “Die Another Day”, and “The Replacement Killers”.

Posted in Books, Obits | Comments Closed

Department of Dumber Than a Bag of Hair.

Wednesday, April 27th, 2022

Oh, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Don’t ever change.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday that his department was targeting a Times journalist in a criminal leak investigation for her reporting on a departmental cover-up, but after a barrage of criticism from politicians, the newspaper and press freedom groups, he backed off his announcement and denied that he considered the reporter a suspect.

…

Detailing an ongoing criminal probe of the leak, Villanueva displayed a poster with large photographs of Tchekmedyian, his political rival Eli Vera and sheriff’s Inspector General Max Huntsman with arrows pointing from the two men to the reporter.
“The three individuals that we want to know a lot about,” Villanueva said. “These three people have some important questions to answer.”
Villanueva exhibited a list of possible felonies under investigation, including conspiracy, burglary and unauthorized use of a database. When pressed by reporters on whether he was investigating Tchekmedyian specifically, the sheriff replied, “All parties to the act are subjects of the investigation.”

…

At 6:46 p.m., Villanueva issued a statement reacting to what he called an “incredible frenzy of misinformation being circulated.”
“I must clarify at no time today did I state an L.A. Times reporter was a suspect in a criminal investigation,” he said. “We have no interest in pursuing, nor are we pursuing, criminal charges against any reporters.”

All of this is over a video that got leaked, showing a deputy kneeling on an inmate’s head for three minutes.

Posted in California Über Alles, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 25, 2022.

Monday, April 25th, 2022

For the historical record: Orrin Hatch.

Jim Hartz, NBC news guy and former “Today” host.

Sarah Shulze. She was 21 years old and ran track for the University of Wisconsin.

She earned academic all-Big Ten honors in 2020 and 2021 for cross country and in 2021 while running at Wisconsin.

According to her family, her death was a suicide.

The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside of the United States or are looking for other help, TVTropes has a good page of additional resources.

Laura Hales. I am not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nor had I heard of Ms. Hales previously. However, I have a lot of respect for people who explore the difficult parts of their religion.

Ms. Hales was a writer and podcaster.

The Haleses maintained a website, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, devoted to examining that contentious aspect of the history of the church and its 19th-century founder. In 2015 they co-wrote a book on the subject, “Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding.” In 2016 Ms. Hales compiled and edited “A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS History and Doctrine,” a book of essays by church scholars whose chapters include “Race, the Priesthood and Temples,” “Joseph Smith’s Practice of Plural Marriage” and “Homosexuality and the Gospel.”
But Ms. Hales found an even bigger audience when, in 2017, she created the podcast “Latter-day Saint Perspectives,” which she recorded, edited and hosted. In 130 episodes, before she closed it out last year, the podcast brought on experts to talk about aspects of church history and doctrine.
Some of the episodes were light, like one on Joseph Smith’s dog. But most took a serious look at topics that might be confusing or troubling to church members. “Homosexuality and the Gospel,” “The L.D.S. Church and the Sugar Industry” and “A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism” were among the episode titles.
The church has long been criticized by outsiders and former members for aspects of its history, doctrine and culture. But Ms. Hales, a lifelong church member, approached the subjects from “a faithful but not necessarily devotional perspective,” as she put it in the podcast’s final episode, last May.

…

Ms. Hales took up many topics in her writing and on her podcast, but she dealt with polygamy so often that in 2015 she wrote an essay for The Millennial Star, a blog maintained by church members, entitled “Why I Write About Polygamy.” In the essay, she mentioned that she and her husband had given a number of presentations on the subject.
“The most unanticipated question I have fielded in these forums is why I feel a need to defend polygamy,” she wrote. “Perhaps it is because I don’t see my work as a defense of polygamy so much as an effort to help more people better understand the history of polygamy.”

She was only 54. Pancreatic cancer got her.

The Lustgarten Foundation.

Posted in Obits, Politics, Religion, Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: April 23, 2022.

Saturday, April 23rd, 2022

Over at his place, Murray Newman has put up a really nice obit for his friend and mentor Gil Schultz. I encourage you to click over and read it.

David Carter, chief of police for the University of Texas Police Department. Before that, he was with APD for 28 years, reaching the rank of chief of staff.

Mikhail Vasenkov, Commie.

When they were arrested, Mr. Vasenkov and his wife, Vicky Pelaez, a journalist, had been living undercover in a Soviet-owned two-story brick and stucco house in suburban Yonkers, N.Y., since immigrating from her native Peru in 1985.
They and eight others, part of a network of so-called illegals, were rounded up in a multiyear F.B.I. investigation, called Operation Ghost Stories, and pleaded guilty to failing to register as agents of a foreign government. They were then deported, flown to Europe on July 9, 2010, and swapped for four Russians who had been imprisoned in Moscow on charges of spying for the United States and Britain.

…

When the spies were rounded up, the F.B.I. said that while “their intent from the start was serious, well-funded by the S.V.R.” — the Soviet intelligence service — “and far-ranging,” they “never got their hands on any classified documents.”
Whether for the benefit of eavesdroppers or because he was getting paid regardless, Mr. Vasenkov was recorded by federal agents telling his wife matter-of-factly that his Soviet handlers “say my information is of no value,” adding, “If they don’t like what I tell them, too bad.”

Cynthia Albritton. She was better known as “Plaster Caster”, and that’s all I’m going to say. Those of you unfamiliar with the whole “plaster caster” thing can click over to the obit for the details.

Posted in Law, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Stung.

Friday, April 22nd, 2022

James Borrego out as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets. ESPN.

138-163 in four seasons.

…led them to the NBA’s play-in tournament the past two years as the No. 10 seed. They were blown out in both play-in games, however, and never made the playoffs in Borrego’s four seasons.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 22, 2022.

Friday, April 22nd, 2022

Daryle Lamonica, quarterback for the Oakland Raiders.

He started out playing for the Buffalo Bills in the AFL, behind Jack Kemp. But he couldn’t replace Kemp as the starter, and the Bills traded him to Oakland, where he was pretty successful.

He led the 1967 Raiders to a 13-1 regular-season record and the A.F.L. championship, throwing for 30 touchdowns and 3,228 yards. He passed for two touchdowns in the Super Bowl, which the Raiders lost to the Packers, 33-14.
Lamonica was part of an offense that emphasized precise timing between the quarterback and a receiver running his route. It was designed to create open space in the defense’s secondary, making it especially vulnerable to deep passing plays.

…

Lamonica was selected for the Pro Bowl once with the Bills and four times with the Raiders.

…

The Raiders were 12-1-1 in 1969 with Lamonica throwing for 34 touchdowns, including six in the first half of an October game against the Bills. He threw for another six touchdowns when the Raiders trounced the Houston Oilers, 56-7, in a playoff game, while Namath struggled in the Jets’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the other first-round matchup.

Worth noting, because that’s just the kind of hairball I am:

A sturdy 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, Lamonica threw for 25 touchdowns and averaged nearly 250 passing yards per game in 1968. Perhaps his finest moment that season was seen by few: He threw the winning touchdown pass with 42 seconds left in the mid-November Raiders-Jets matchup at the Oakland Coliseum that became infamous as the “Heidi game.”

(Previously.)

Guy Lafleur, of the Montreal Canadiens. I’m not a huge hockey fan, but even I’ve heard of Guy Lafleur.

The winger affectionately known as “The Flower” and “The Blonde Demon” played 14 seasons with Montreal (1971-85) and was a cornerstone of five Stanley Cup-winning teams, including in 1977, when he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Lafleur was electric on the ice, becoming the first player in league history to produce six consecutive seasons with 50-plus goals and 100-plus points (1974-80).
During the height of his career in the 1970s, Lafleur was a three-time Art Ross Trophy winner as the NHL’s points leader, a two-time Hart Trophy winner as league MVP and a three-time winner of the Lester B. Pearson Award (now known as the Ted Lindsay) as most outstanding player according to the NHL Players’ Association.

Posted in NFL, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 21, 2022.

Thursday, April 21st, 2022

Robert Morse, actor. THR. Other credits include “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (both the Broadway musical and the film version), “Night Gallery”, “Trapper John, M.D.”, “Wild Palms”, the 1985 “Twilight Zone” revival, and a short called “Why I Live at the P.O.” based on the Eudora Welty story.

Dede Robertson, Pat Robertson’s wife.

CNN+. NYT

Posted in Media, Movies, Obits, Religion, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

Administrative note.

Wednesday, April 20th, 2022

Today’s my birthday.

Blogging is likely to be spotty, since I intend to spend as much time as I can messing around.

“Normal” schedule will probably resume tomorrow.

Posted in Admin | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: April 20, 2022.

Wednesday, April 20th, 2022

Catherine Spaak, Italian actress. Credits include “Hotel” and “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium”.

Rio Hackford. Other than “Treme” and “Swingers”, credits include motion capture work on “The Mandalorian”, “Jonah Hex”, and “Exit to Eden”.

Posted in Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 18, 2022.

Monday, April 18th, 2022

Lawrence sent over a nice story about Rachel Schrey, volunteer firefighter…and volunteer Easter Bunny.

Kevin Lippert. I had not heard of him before, but he sounds like a really interesting guy. He founded Princeton Architectural Press, which started out reprinting old books on architecture and grew from there.

Mr. Lippert made his name as a publisher, but he was more than that. He was a classical pianist who first performed at 6 and first composed music at 8. He started at Princeton as a pre-med student, until he was captivated by the history and philosophy of science and switched majors. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, he earned his master’s degree from Princeton’s School of Architecture. He was a computer whiz and ran a tech services company, selling hardware and software to design businesses.
On the side, he cooked, biked, hiked, built furniture, gardened and fueled himself with innumerable cups of espresso. He was also a historian and wrote a book, “War Plan Red” (2015), about secret plans by the United States and Canada to invade each other in the 1920s and ’30s.
“He was a genuine polymath,” Mark Lamster, who worked for him at Princeton Architectural Press and is now the architecture critic at The Dallas Morning News, wrote in a tribute after his death.

Paul Siebel. He was one of the old time Village folkies, and got compared to Dylan. Except he had one problem…

…crippling stage fright.

Linda Ronstadt, in her book “Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir” (2013), recalled seeing Mr. Siebel at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village in 1969.
“We saw the last part of his very impressive show made rich with his cowboy falsetto and a song about a poignant, sad girl of a certain reputation named Louise,” Ms. Ronstadt wrote.
She recorded “Louise” and included it on her album “Silk Purse” (1970). It was subsequently covered by Bonnie Raitt, Leo Kottke and at least 20 other artists. Another of Mr. Siebel’s songs, “Spanish Johnny,” was recorded by Emmylou Harris and Waylon Jennings and by Mr. Bromberg.

He did two studio albums, neither of which sold very well (though the first did get some critical praise), and one live album. Then he quit music.

“He was very critical of himself,” Mr. Bromberg said. “After those two albums, he wrote another bunch of songs, but he destroyed them. He said they weren’t as good as the ones on the albums.”

Posted in Books, Music, Obits | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: April 16, 2022.

Saturday, April 16th, 2022

Liz Sheridan. THR.

Other credits include a recurring role on one of the worst TV series ever, “Riptide”, “Kojack”, “Herman’s Head”, and “Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan”.

Posted in Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Happy (belated) BAG Day!

Saturday, April 16th, 2022

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday. I had time to post in the morning, but honestly, BAG Day got past me, and things got hectic in the afternoon.

As you know, Bob, I generally give folks a couple of days on either side as a fudge factor, especially if BAG Day falls on a holiday or a Sunday, so as far as I’m concerned, you’ve still got time to make your purchase.

I’ve got something to do this morning, but after I get done with that, my plan is to go by my local gun shop and have a chat with them about something I’ve got my eye on. We’ll see what they have to say.

Edited to add: My LGS is going to call on Monday and get back to me on availability, lead time, and price. This is a special order item, not something they have in stock. I’m hopeful they’ll be able to get it, since:

  • It is a Smith and Wesson that’s in the current catalog.
  • They generally don’t seem to have any problem getting their hands on the M&Ps and the smaller revolvers.

If they can’t get it, I may have to call around to the larger dealers, or I might have to settle. Ruger has something very much like what I’m looking for, at a little cheaper price.

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

Those Glorious ’70s…

Friday, April 15th, 2022

There’s a high bar that has to be cleared for me to link to something on ESPN.

The story of the [World Football League] is one that includes a mortally wounded NFL dynasty, Elvis Presley, Arnold Palmer, the guy who played Sloth in “The Goonies,” an enraged Canadian Parliament, sheriff raids on locker rooms, and a member of the witness protection program trying to buy a team. It’s a story of a remarkable dumpster fire that damn near kneecapped the NFL.

Bonus: the Canadian Football Act (which isn’t really an act, as it has never been signed into law).

Posted in 1970s, Bagatelle, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

Important safety tip (#25 in a series)

Friday, April 15th, 2022

I admit: I am not a NRA certified firearms instructor. Perhaps I should consult Karl of KR Training (official firearms trainer of WCD) before posting this.

Then again, this just seems like common sense to me.

When you’re teaching classes, a little humor is good. It keeps the students alert.

But you might want to avoid the racial jokes. Doesn’t matter if you are a minority, doesn’t matter if you’re an equal opportunity roaster, somebody’s going to run with this and try to make you (and people of the gun in general) look bad.

Again, nothing wrong with jokes: I’m just saying, steer clear of the racial ones. Probably ought to stay clear of sexist ones, too.

Posted in Guns, Safety | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 15, 2022.

Friday, April 15th, 2022

Jack Newton, noted golfer.

Newton turned professional in 1971 on the European Tour and won his first event, the Dutch Open, the following year. A week later, he won another tournament at Fulford, England and, in 1974, the tour’s match play championship.
The Australian’s playoff loss in the 1975 British Open at Carnoustie came after Watson had a few rather fortuitous shots. A wire fence kept Watson’s ball in bounds on the eighth hole and the American chipped for eagle at the 14th to claim the Claret Jug by a shot over Newton.

Then, on July 24, 1983, he walked into an aircraft propeller.

His right arm was severed, he lost sight in his right eye and also sustained severe injuries to his abdomen. Doctors gave him only a 50-50 chance of surviving, and he spent nearly two months in intensive care and required lengthy rehabilitation from his injuries.
“Things weren’t looking too good for me. I knew that from the priest walking around my (hospital) bed,” Newton said later. He was 33 at the time of the accident.

…

Not to be denied from playing the game he loved, he taught himself to play golf one-handed, swinging the club with his left hand in a right-handed stance. He regularly had scores in the mid-80s for 18 holes. That translates to a handicap of about 12 or 14, one that most able-bodied amateur players would aspire to.

Mike Bossy, of the New York Islanders.

Bossy played the entirety of his 10-year career on Long Island, earning a place as both a franchise great and one of the best goal scorers the sport has ever seen, before retiring with a chronic back injury. He finished his career with 573 goals, scoring over 50 in nine straight seasons, an all-time record. Famously, he scored 50 goals in 50 games during the 1980-81 season, matching Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s record.

Franz Mohr, who the paper of record describes as the “piano tuner to the stars”. He was Steinway’s chief concert technician for 24 years.

For years, he went where the pianists went. When Vladimir Horowitz went to Russia in the 1980s, Mr. Mohr traveled with him, as did Horowitz’s favorite Steinway. Mr. Mohr made house calls at the White House when Van Cliburn played for President Gerald R. Ford in 1975, and again in 1987, when Mikhail S. Gorbachev was in Washington for arms-control talks with President Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Gorbachev’s wife, Raisa, wanted Cliburn to play one of the pieces that had made him famous — Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 — but there was no orchestra. Instead, Cliburn played some Chopin and, as an encore, played and sang the Russian melody “Moscow Nights.”
“I was amazed that Van Cliburn, on the spur of the moment, remembered not only the music but all the words,” Mr. Mohr recalled in his memoir, “My Life with the Great Pianists,” written with Edith Schaeffer (1992). “The Russians just melted.”

He was also Glenn Gould’s New York piano tuner.

Mr. Mohr not only worked on the piano at the recording studio, he also rode around New York with Gould. “He loved Lincoln Town cars,” Mr. Mohr wrote in his memoir. “That is all he would drive. He once said to me: ‘Franz, I found out that next year’s model will be two inches shorter. So, you know what I did? I bought two Town Cars this year.”

And (as noted in the obit) he wrote a book, My Life with the Great Pianists (affiliate link).

He also attended to performers’ personal pianos. The pianist Gary Graffman, whose apartment is less than a block from the old location of Steinway’s Manhattan showroom, and Mr. Mohr’s home base, on West 57th Street, recalled that Mr. Mohr would come right over when a problem presented itself.
“If he came because I broke strings, he would replace the strings,” Mr. Graffman said in an interview. But if more extensive work was needed — if Mr. Graffman’s almost constant practicing had worn down the hammers and new hammers had to be installed, for example — “he would take out the insides of the piano and carry it half a block to the Steinway basement. He would work on it and carry it back.” (The unit Mr. Mohr lifted out and took down the street is known as the key and action assembly, a bewildering combination of all 88 keys and the parts that respond to a pianist’s touch, driving the hammers to the strings.)

Mr. Mohr was 94 when he passed.

Posted in Music, Obits, Planes, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 13, 2022.

Wednesday, April 13th, 2022

Your Gilbert Gottfried roundup, as promised: NYT (Note the correction. What did I tell you?). Variety. THR 1. THR 2.

I don’t have a lot I want to say about the late Mr. Gottfried. My close friends know how I felt about his work, and for everyone else: “any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in all mankind” and “De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est.”

I will say:

1.

…the actor succumbed to a heart abnormality called recurrent ventricular tachycardia, an arrhythmia caused by myotonic dystrophy Type 2.
Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a genetic disorder marked by progressive muscle wasting and weakness which predominantly affects the limbs and face but can create increasingly dire complications for respiratory, skeletal and cardiac muscles.
People with DM are at a higher risk of irregular heartbeat, including ventricular tachycardia, an arrhythmia in the lower chambers of the heart (ventricles) that causes the heart to beat faster. A sustained sped-up rhythm can cause a fatal drop in blood pressure.

I’ve never heard of this disorder before, but damn, what a sucky way to go.

2. It surprised me, but Mr. Gottfried’s version of the joke in “The Aristocrats” documentary was, to me, the best of them all. Apparently, I’m not the only person who felt this way.

In other news: Michel Bouquet, French actor.

Mr. Bouquet appeared in more than 100 films, and won a new generation of admirers with his performance in 1991 as the older incarnation of the title character in “Toto the Hero.” His two best actor Césars, the French equivalent of the Oscar, came when he was in his 70s. The first was for his understatedly menacing performance in “How I Killed My Father” (2001), as a feckless parent who sows emotional chaos when he re-enters his sons’ lives.

…

Mr. Bouquet won a second César for his tour de force as François Mitterrand, the ailing French president, in “The Last Mitterrand” (2005).

Posted in Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#88 in a series)

Wednesday, April 13th, 2022

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was impeached yesterday.

That doesn’t mean he’s out of office, just that he’s going to an impeachment trial in the state Senate.

The impeachment is tied to a traffic accident in 2020.

…he initially told authorities he thought he had struck a deer or another large animal.

He actually hit a man, Joseph Boever, who died.

Ravnsborg, who took office in 2019, initially told aides and a 911 dispatcher he did not know what he hit on a rural highway as he was returning home from a Republican dinner in September 2020. He went back to the scene the next day and found the body of 55-year-old Boever, who had been walking on the highway’s shoulder.
The Highway Patrol concluded that Ravnsborg’s car crossed completely onto the highway shoulder before hitting Boever, and criminal investigators said later that they didn’t believe some of Ravnsborg’s statements.

Ravnsborg pled to two traffic related misdemeanors in the accident, but apparently there are a lot of people who don’t believe his story. Including Governor Kristi Noem, who is also a Republican: Ravnsborg claims she’s out to get him because he’s been investigating her.

In its 36-31 vote, the House rejected the recommendation of a GOP-backed majority report from a special investigative committee and sided with Noem, who has argued that Ravnsborg lied to investigators. Democrats also had pushed for impeachment, arguing that he was not “forthcoming” to law enforcement officers and had abused the power of his office.

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Administrative note, for those sent this way by Borepatch.

Tuesday, April 12th, 2022

I’m going to wait until tomorrow to post the Gilbert Gottfried obit roundup.

Generally, I like to wait at least a little bit after the passing is reported before I post an obit watch. The early obits are often just that: early, and incomplete. And sometimes (I’m looking at you, New York Times) they contain errors that are corrected later.

Posted in Admin, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 12, 2022.

Tuesday, April 12th, 2022

Patricia MacLachlan, author. (Sarah, Plain and Tall)

Kathy Lamkin, actress. Other credits include “My Name Is Earl”, “Boston Legal”, and “Bones”.

Posted in Books, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#87 in a series)

Tuesday, April 12th, 2022

Brian A. Benjamin, the lieutenant governor of the state of New York, has been indicted on federal bribery charges.

The indictment, the result of an investigation by the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, accused Mr. Benjamin of conspiring to direct state funds to a Harlem real estate investor in exchange for orchestrating thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Mr. Benjamin’s unsuccessful 2021 campaign for New York City comptroller, the people said. The investor was arrested on federal charges in November.

…

In a grand jury indictment last November, prosecutors said that Mr. Migdol began to steer thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent contributions to Mr. Benjamin in October 2019, just a month after the state senator filed to run for comptroller. They accused him of making straw donations in the name of individuals, including his 2-year-old grandchild, who did not consent to them, and of reimbursing others for the cost of their contributions.
At the time, the prosecutors did not comment on Mr. Migdol’s motive, or explicitly name Mr. Benjamin. But they said his scheme was designed to help the candidate tap into New York City’s generous public campaign matching funds program and secure him tens of thousands of dollars in additional campaign cash.

Edited to add: Well, that was fast. Mr. Benjamin is now the former lieutenant governor.

Despite his resignation, Mr. Benjamin is likely to remain on the Democratic primary ballot in June, along with two main challengers. Because Mr. Benjamin was designated as the Democratic Party’s nominee for lieutenant governor, his name could only be removed at this point if he were to move out of the state, die or seek another office.

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

How about those Lakers?

Monday, April 11th, 2022

Answer: they missed the playoffs.

And Frank Vogel is out as coach.

I saw reports this morning: apparently, everybody but Vogel knew yesterday he was going to be fired.

In three seasons with the team, Vogel went 127-98. In 11 seasons of professional coaching, he’s 431-289.

…

The Lakers were officially eliminated from postseason contention Tuesday, when they lost in Phoenix and the San Antonio Spurs won in Denver.
The Lakers would lose eight games in a row before winning against Oklahoma City in the home finale at [I’m not going to give them free advertising – DB] Arena.

Posted in Firings, Sports | 1 Comment »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#86 in a series)

Monday, April 11th, 2022

In haste, for two reasons. One is that I have other things to blog.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s chief of staff and two former staff members are facing felony criminal indictments in connection to a controversial contract awarded last year.

The three people charged are Chief of Staff Alex Triantaphyllis, Wallis Nader, and Aaron Dunn. The charges are related to a “COVID-19 communication contract” which…

…went to a one-person company, Elevate Strategies, run by a political strategist with a limited track record that did not receive the highest scores in the bidding process.

My second reason for blogging in haste is: Lawrence is on this story like flies on a severed cow’s head in a Damien Hirst installation. You should really go over to his site for coverage on this, especially since he’s linking to more local sources.

Posted in Law, Politics, Texas | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 10, 2022.

Sunday, April 10th, 2022

Henry Patterson has passed away at the age of 92.

You probably know him better as the guy who wrote under the pseudonym “Jack Higgins”. (He had others as well, but I think that was his best known.)

“I’m not pretending I’m Charles Dickens or anything,” he said in the 2000 interview with the Belfast newspaper. “But whatever I do, whatever it is that makes up a ‘Jack Higgins’ book, it’s not like what anyone else does.”

Arthur D. Riggs, big damn hero.

He is probably best known for his role in the invention of artificial insulin. Working alongside Keiichi Itakura and Herbert Boyer, he developed a way to use recombinant DNA technology — essentially, the ability to splice together strands of DNA — to turn E. coli into microscopic factories for the production of humanized hormones.

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Dr. Boyer and another researcher, Stanley Cohen, had already developed the basic technology behind recombinant DNA. Dr. Riggs’s insight was to see how that technology could be used to tweak bacteria to produce artificial hormones for human use.
“We chose insulin because it looked doable, and there was a need,” he told The Los Angeles Business Journal in 2021. “At the time, diabetics were being treated with cow insulin because there was no source of human insulin. And cow insulin resulted in a high rate of allergic reactions.”

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The discovery made Genentech, and Dr. Riggs, rich. But unlike many of his fellow biotech pioneers, he declined the opportunity to make even more money working in the for-profit sector; he was under contract to Genentech, but after that arrangement ended in 1984, he returned to City of Hope full time.
He lived in the same house for 50 years and rarely sat for interviews. He gave most of his money away in the form of anonymous donations to City of Hope. His beneficence, to the tune of $210 million, was finally revealed last year, when he made an additional $100 million donation to the hospital.

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Dr. Riggs later developed the foundations for monoclonal antibodies, again using recombinant DNA technology to trick bacteria into producing proteins that mimic human antibodies. That development has led to major advances in treating cancer and other diseases.

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