Archive for October, 2022

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Obit watch: October 18, 2022.

Tuesday, October 18th, 2022

General James A. McDivitt (USAF – ret.), Gemini 4 and Apollo 9 astronaut.

When he joined the Air Force in 1951 as an aviation cadet after attending junior college, Mr. McDivitt had “never been in an airplane, never been off the ground,” as he recalled in an interview for NASA’s Johnson Space Center Oral History Project.
He went on to fly 145 fighter missions during the Korean War, became an Air Force test pilot, then was selected by NASA in September 1962 as one of nine astronauts for the Gemini program, the bridge between the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the Apollo missions leading to the moon landings.
Mr. McDivitt was in command of the Gemini 4 capsule, which orbited the earth for nearly 98 hours over four days in June 1965, a record for a two-person spaceflight.

…

Mr. McDivitt’s second and last space mission came in March 1969, when he commanded the Apollo 9 flight, a 10-day orbiting of the earth by a three-person crew. Mr. McDivitt flew with Russell L. Schweickart in a pioneering test of the lunar module, the prototype of the space vehicle that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon four months later. With David R. Scott piloting the Apollo 9 craft, the lunar module disengaged from it, orbited more than 100 miles away and then returned to it.

Official statement from NASA.

His numerous awards included two NASA Distinguished Service Medals and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. For his service in the U.S. Air Force, he also was awarded two Air Force Distinguished Service Medals, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, five Air Medals, and U.S. Air Force Astronaut Wings. McDivitt also received the Chong Moo Medal from South Korea, the U.S. Air Force Systems Command Aerospace Primus Award, the Arnold Air Society JFK Trophy, the Sword of Loyola, and the Michigan Wolverine Frontiersman Award.

Mike Schank, from “American Movie”. (Hattip: Lawrence.)

Posted in Movies, Obits, Science | 2 Comments »

Memo from the police beat.

Monday, October 17th, 2022

Two really weird crime stories from the past few days.

1. Four bicyclists went missing in Oklahoma last week.

Later in the week, police pulled human remains out of a river.

Police on Monday confirmed that the bodies pulled from an Oklahoma river last week were the four missing bicyclists — and revealed that the men had been shot and dismembered while on their way to commit a crime.

…

“We believe the men planned to commit some kind of criminal act when they left the resident on West 6th Street,” Prentice told reporters.
“That belief is based on information supplied by a witness who reports they were invited to go with the men to ‘hit a lick’ big enough for all of them,” he said, using slang for obtaining money illegally.

It is a shame that Big Don Westlake is dead, as this sounds like something out of a Parker novel.

2. The Mad Midnight Bomber What Bombed at Midnight was a cosplayer. And a sex offender.

An Ohio cosplayer pleaded guilty Wednesday to planting a bomb at a perceived romantic rival’s house in Maryland, which nearly killed the recipient and caused more than $45,000 in damage to the home.

…

The victim, identified in court documents as NK, suffered serious injuries. He and his girlfriend, identified as SB, were members of the “Dagorhir” gaming community along with McCoy.
The game is described as “a live-action roleplaying (LARP) battle game” involving medieval costumes and mock combat with prop weapons.
McCoy approached SB over Discord and confessed his romantic feelings for her. She turned him down, reminding him she was dating NK. So McCoy built a homemade bomb, gift-wrapped it and dropped it off at NK’s doorstep, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.
He researched how to build it, bought materials in cash from multiple stores to conceal his efforts, and ultimately built a package bomb that he placed inside a shipping box, which he drove to the victim’s house himself, according to prosecutors.

The bomber seems fairly clever. But not clever enough: they got DNA, they got location data from his cellphone, and they got video from a neighbor’s doorbell camera.

McCoy faces up to 20 years in prison for transporting explosives with intent to injure and 10 years for possession of an unregistered explosive device at his sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.

Posted in Explosives, Law | 1 Comment »

Firings watch.

Monday, October 17th, 2022

Executive vice president of football operations Jack Easterby out in Houston.

More from Pro Football Network by way of Lawrence.

Not much more to add to this, really: nobody seems unhappy with Easterby’s performance in the role. There’s a lot of “it was just time”.

The Texas are 1-3-1 and had a bye this past week.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: October 14, 2022.

Friday, October 14th, 2022

Robbie Coltrane. THR.

He wasn’t someone whose work I have a lot of familiarity with, though I’ve heard good things about “Cracker”. Other credits included some “Blackadder”s, “The Pope Must Diet”, Falstaff in “Henry V”, and “Frasier”.

Dr. Vincent DiMaio, forensic pathologist. He was the chief medical examiner of Bexar County (which covers San Antonio) from 1981 to 2006. In that capacity, he testified for the prosecution against Genene Jones, who was convicted of killing a 15-month-old baby, and may have killed up to 60 other children.

Dr. DiMaio, who had been a medical examiner in Dallas from 1972 to 1981, was later called on to look into allegations that President Kennedy’s assassin was not Lee Harvey Oswald but a look-alike whom Soviet officials had trained to assume his identify. Michael Eddowes, a British lawyer and restaurateur, had made the allegations in a 1975 book, “Khrushchev Killed Kennedy,” which he published himself.
After the author persuaded Oswald’s wife, Marina, to have his body exhumed in 1981, Dr. DiMaio was recruited to help examine the remains. But his team quickly debunked the theory, confirming through forensic dentistry that the physical characteristics of the man buried as Oswald matched those on Oswald’s passport and his Marine Corps records.

As a private consultant, he also worked with the authors Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh and came to the belief that Vincent van Gogh’s death was murder, not suicide. He also testified for the defense in the George Zimmerman trial.

He also wrote four books: Morgue: A Life in Death (with Ron Franscell) was nominated for a “Best Fact Crime” Edgar award. (The NYT says it won, but the Edgar Awards database says The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer by Kate Summerscale was that year’s winner.)

He could bring firsthand experience to his expertise in gunshot wounds: He himself had survived being shot four times by his second wife in a fit of anger. They divorced.

Bernard McGuirk, Don Imus’s producer.

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

Obit watch: October 13, 2022.

Thursday, October 13th, 2022

Andy Detwiler, YouTuber.

He had a popular channel, “Harmless Farmer“. What distinguished him from other farming YouTubers was that Mr. Detwiler had lost both arms in a farming accident when he was two years old, and did everything with his feet and other body parts.

In one, of him feeding goats, he approaches a stack of feed bags and says, “I don’t advise this to anybody,” then bites one of the bags, lifts it upright, unties the string around the top with his teeth, spits the string out, cranes his neck so that his chin and shoulder surround the bag and grasps it, narrating his technique along the way. He carries the bag to a barrel, drops it inside, picks it up again with his teeth and smoothly pours the contents inside.

…

Because of his disabilities Mr. Detwiler gained a set of skills that other farmers generally lacked. In several videos he uses his legs while lying on his back to lift and maneuver a PTO shaft, a notoriously heavy and unwieldy piece of farming equipment.“Hooking up a PTO and hoses is always a challenge with two hands,” one viewer commented. “You are so good, I am dumbfounded.”

…

At Mr. Detwiler’s funeral, his family displayed his farming equipment. It took four men to hook up the PTO shaft to a tractor.

Posted in Obits | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: October 12, 2022.

Wednesday, October 12th, 2022

Angela Lansbury. THR. Appreciation. Variety.

Everybody has something to say about this, and I don’t have anything profound to add.

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

Headline of the day.

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

Alleged love child of Spain’s ex-King Juan Carlos dies suddenly in bar

…

Albert Sola, 66, collapsed Saturday evening after ordering a glass of red wine at the Pa i Trago bar in La Bisbal d’Empordà, El Pais reported.
“He didn’t even have time to try [the wine],” a witness said.

Posted in Obits | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: October 11, 2022.

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

Austin Stoker, actor. Other credits include “Riding with Death” (“Dimwitted, meaty guy foils criminals by turning invisible.”), “Airwolf”, “Lou Grant”, “Chopper One”, “McCloud”, and “Airport 1975”.

Lawrence sent over an obit from Publisher’s Weekly for Jill Pinkwater, author, illustrator, and spouse of Daniel Pinkwater.

Eileen Ryan. Credits include “Eight Legged Freaks”, “The Twilight Zone”, “Cannon”, and “Marcus Welby, M.D.”.

NYT obit for Nikki Finke, just for the record.

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

Firings watch.

Monday, October 10th, 2022

Matt Rhule deposed as head coach of the Carolina Panthers, in the first NFL coach firing this season.

Rhule posted an 11-27 record during his tenure in Carolina, winning 10 total games during his first two seasons, before getting off to a miserable 1-4 start this season.

…

As with the offensive coordinator dilemma, Rhule never identified a long-term, efficient quarterback. The team signed journeyman Teddy Bridgewater to lead the offense in 2020, but he was traded to the Denver Broncos following a 5-11 debut season under Rhule.
The Panthers traded three draft picks to the New York Jets for former first-round pick Sam Darnold last offseason. Darnold faltered as the franchise QB in Carolina, as he did in New York, and the Panthers remained on the hook for his salary through this season after picking up his fifth-year option following the trade to acquire him.
This summer, the Panthers tried to upgrade the QB spot by trading for former first overall pick Baker Mayfield. Through five games, Mayfield has struggled mightily, completing just 54.9% of his passes for 962 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 10, 2022.

Monday, October 10th, 2022

Anton Fier, noted drummer.

His career rose to new heights in the mid-1980s: He toured with the jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock following Mr. Hancock’s 1984 pop-funk crossover hit “Rockit,” and played on Laurie Anderson’s acclaimed 1984 album, “Mister Heartbreak.”
By that point his musical ambitions could not be contained behind the drum kit, so Mr. Fier formed the Golden Palominos, an ever-evolving indie-rock supergroup that attracted a parade of guest stars, including Michael Stipe, John Lydon and Richard Thompson, through the rest of the 1980s and into the ’90s.

Peter Robinson, crime writer. (“…DCI Alan Banks, hero of a series of Yorkshire-set novels that spanned 35 years and sold more than 10 million copies.”)

Douglas Kirkland, celebrity photographer.

(Hattip on the previous two to Lawrence.)

Nikki Finke, founder of Deadline.com.

At L.A. Weekly, Finke headed its Deadline Hollywood Daily column from 2002-09. In 2006, she launched Deadline Hollywood Daily, an around-the-clock online version, and became a key source of news surrounding the 2007 WGA strike.
That year, The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter wrote that Finke’s blog had “become a critical forum for Hollywood news and gossip, known for analyzing (in sometimes insulting terms) the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of moguls,” with her reporting on the strike ultimately solidifying “her position as a Hollywood power broker.”

She went on to sell the site to Penske Media for $100 million in 2009.

Speaking to her legacy and that of Deadline‘s in a 10-year anniversary post for the publication, she wrote that the concept behind her original blog — using a URL purchased for “14 bucks and change” — was to get breaking news out faster than she could with her column.
“I didn’t set out to be a disruptor,” she wrote. “Or an internet journalist who created something out of nothing that put the Hollywood trades back on their heels, and today, under Penske Media ownership, is a website worth $100+ million. Or a woman with brass balls, attitude and ruthless hustle who told hard truths about the moguls and who accurately reported scoops first.”

Obit from Deadline.com.

Posted in Books, Media, Music, Obits, Photography | Comments Closed

Hoplobibliophilia, finishing the catch-up (for now).

Friday, October 7th, 2022

What was that some jerk said about “you know you have a problem when you start buying bibliographies“?

About that…

(more…)

Posted in Books, Guns, Hoplobibilophilia | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Friday, October 7th, 2022

Mike Matheny out as general manager of the Kansas City Royals.

Also out: pitching coach Cal Eldred.

While they avoided a 100-loss season, the Royals (65-97) finished in last place in the AL Central and recorded the fifth-worst record of any club in the majors. They went an MLB-worst 26-55 on the road.
Matheny inherited a 103-loss team in 2019. In his first season, the Royals went 26-34 playing a pandemic-shortened 2020 schedule.
The Royals went 74-88 last season after adding veteran pitcher Mike Minor, first baseman Carlos Santana and left fielder Andrew Benintendi.

ESPN:

Matheny finished 165-219 during his time with the Royals, though the number that perhaps is more important to the future of the club is 29 — the number of players who made their major league debut during his tenure.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 7, 2022.

Friday, October 7th, 2022

Judy Tenuta. THR.

Charles Fuller, playwright. He won a Pulitzer in 1982 for “A Soldier’s Play” (which was later adapted for film as “A Soldier’s Story”).

Günter Lamprecht, German actor.

Before “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” Mr. Lamprecht appeared in a number of Mr. Fassbinder’s films and television series, starting with the 1973 science fiction epic “The World on a Wire.” Mr. Lamprecht returned for the director’s breakthrough international hit, “The Marriage of Maria Braun,” but it was his herculean performance in “Berlin Alexanderplatz” that won Mr. Lamprecht the greatest praise of his career.

IMDB. For the record, he was in “Das Boot”.

Posted in Obits, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Gun book post tomorrow.

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

Just ran out of time today to get it up. I’m sure some of my readers will be happy I’m skipping a day, but I have a really nice one I want to document…

Posted in Books, Guns | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 6, 2022.

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

Kitten Natividad, Russ Meyer star. (Alt link.)

Mr. Meyer also fell for Ms. Natividad, who was married at the time, and they began a relationship that lasted for the rest of the 1970s. And he made her the star of his next movie, which would be his final feature film: “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” (1979).
The movie is often described as Mr. Meyer’s riff on “Our Town” — for instance, it employed an onscreen narrator named “The Man From Small Town U.S.A.” Ms. Natividad plays a woman whose husband’s preoccupation with anal sex leaves her sexually frustrated.
Critics didn’t have much good to say about the movie, which Mr. Meyer wrote with Mr. Ebert.
Gene Siskel of The Chicago Tribune, Mr. Ebert’s television partner on the film review show then known as “Sneak Previews,” wrote that Mr. Meyer’s “Vixen,” released in 1968, had been “an enjoyable nudie film because it featured the first joyfully aggressive woman we’d seen in a skin flick.” But he added, “Meyer hasn’t grown up in 10 years; if anything, he’s deteriorated.”

…

In 1973 she won the Miss Nude Universe title in San Bernardino, Calif.
She was dancing at the Classic Cat, a club in Hollywood, when a fellow dancer, Shari Eubank, who had starred in the 1975 Meyer film “Supervixens,” suggested she introduce herself to the director. She is said to have done so by poking him in the back with her bare breasts.

…

After Mr. Meyer’s career died out, Ms. Natividad appeared in numerous other movies, including some hard-core pornography, and had small parts in “Airplane!” (1980), “My Tutor” (1983) and a few other mainstream films.

IMDB, probably not safe for work. (In case you were wondering: “Bouncy Topless Woman on Plane (uncredited)”. Also “Airplane II” as “Woman in ‘Moral Majority’ Shirt (uncredited)”.)

Laurence Silberman, noted judge and legal scholar. Lawrence sent over a nice obit from the Volokh Conspiracy.

Posted in Law, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

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