Archive for October, 2022

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Pop culture programming note.

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

I usually don’t do this, but I’m making an exception today. I know that there are some readers of this blog (including one prominent blogger) who are “Perry Mason” fans.

Tomorrow morning’s re-run on MeTV is “The Case of the Prudent Prosecutor“, which is my personal favorite from the run.

Why?

  1. The episode is set at a hunting and fishing club. “Perry Mason” is pretty good about guns in general (for reasons) and it is nice to see gun usage (not just hunting, but defensive carry) treated as perfectly normal and reasonable.
  2. The plot of the episode boils down to: a friend of Hamilton Burger is charged with murder, and Burger asks Perry to defend him. Which is a twist…
  3. …but it’s a good twist. This is one of the episodes that attempts to humanize Hamilton, and more or less succeeds. There’s a nice scene between Hamilton and Perry, where Hamilton explains why the accused is so important to him. It’s a good character moment: I wish the writers had been a little more consistent about Burger through the rest of the series.

If you happen to be in a position to watch this episode, and haven’t, I encourage you to do so.

Posted in Guns, TV | 1 Comment »

And yet another dose of hoplobibliophilia.

Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

A while back, great and good FotB (and official trainer to WCD) Karl Rehn introduced me to the work of the Snub Gun Study Group. From there, I learned about Stephen A. Camp.

(more…)

Posted in Books, Guns, Hoplobibilophilia, Smith and Wesson | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 4, 2022.

Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

Loretta Lynn. Alt link. THR.

Her voice was unmistakable, with its Kentucky drawl, its tensely coiled vibrato and its deep reserves of power. “She’s louder than most, and she’s gonna sing higher than you think she will,” said John Carter Cash, who produced Ms. Lynn’s final recordings. “With Loretta you just turn on the mic, stand back and hold on.”

…

In “Hey Loretta,” a wry 1973 hit about walking out on rural drudgery written by the cartoonist Shel Silverstein, she sang, “You can feed the chickens and you can milk the cow/This woman’s liberation, honey, is gonna start right now.” Silverstein also wrote the beleaguered housewife’s lament “One’s on the Way,” a No. 1 country hit for Ms. Lynn in 1971.

…

Survivors include a younger sister, the country singer Crystal Gayle; her daughters Patsy Lynn Russell, Peggy Lynn, Clara (Cissie) Marie Lynn; and her son Ernest; as well as 17 grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; and a number of great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Betty Sue Lynn, and another son, Jack, died before her.
She also leaves legions of admirers, women as well as men, who draw strength and encouragement from her irrepressible, down-to-earth music and spirit.
“I’m proud I’ve got my own ideas, but I ain’t no better than nobody else,” she was quoted as saying in “Finding Her Voice” (1993), Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann’s comprehensive history of women in country music. “I’ve often wondered why I became so popular, and maybe that’s the reason. I think I reach people because I’m with ’em, not apart from ’em.”

Joan Hotchkis. A lot of theater work, and a fair number of TV credits. “The F.B.I.”, “My World and Welcome to It” (somebody needs to release that on home video), “Medical Center”, “Marcus Welby, M.D.”…

…and “Mannix”. (“To Draw the Lightning”, season 5, episode 22. “With Intent to Kill”, season 4, episode 17.)

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Movies, Music, Obits, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

On, Wisconsin!

Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

Missed this yesterday: Paul Chryst out as head coach of the Badgers.

Chryst, 56, who was born in Madison, finishes 67-26 in seven-plus seasons at Wisconsin, his alma mater. He won 10 games or more in four of his first five seasons with the Badgers, winning a Cotton Bowl, an Orange Bowl and three Big Ten West Division titles. But the program fell off beginning in 2020, going 4-3, before a slow start to the 2021 season, in which the Badgers finished 9-4.

The team is 2-3 this season.

Posted in Firings, Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: October 3, 2022.

Monday, October 3rd, 2022

Sacheen Littlefeather. Alt link. THR.

Ms. Littlefeather was most famous as Marlon Brando’s stand-in at the 1973 Academy Awards. She read part of his prepared speech refusing the award. (The speech was eight pages long, but “but telecast producer Howard Koch informed her she had no more than 60 seconds”.

Robert Brown. Other credits include an episode of a minor 1960s SF TV series, “Primus”, “Run for Your Life”, “Perry Mason”…

…and “Mannix” (“The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress”, season 7, episode 1.)

Posted in 1970s, History, Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 4, 2022.

Monday, October 3rd, 2022

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

None.

Didn’t watch any of the games, again: I’ve been feeling kind of puny and spent most of yesterday sleeping. But the Raiders won, and that ends the loser update for 2022.

We’ll see you again in 2023, assuming we’re all still here.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

Random acts of hoplobibliophilia.

Sunday, October 2nd, 2022

I did manage to make it to the post office yesterday, and picked up some packages that had been waiting for me. All of which contained gun books.

So, continuing our ongoing epic…

(more…)

Posted in Books, Guns, Hoplobibilophilia | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 1, 2022.

Saturday, October 1st, 2022

Joe Bussard. No, you’ve probably never heard of him (unless you read the same books I do): he was an “obsessive collector” of 78 RPM records.

From his home near the Blue Ridge Mountains, Mr. Bussard (pronounced boo-SARD) drove the country roads of the South seeking 78s that had been languishing in people’s homes. He was selective about what he brought back to his basement. He loved jazz but detested any jazz recorded after the early 1930s. He loved country music but decreed that nothing good came after 1955. Nashville? He called it “Trashville.” Rock ’n’ roll? A cancer.
“How can you listen to Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw when you’ve listened to Jelly Roll Morton?” he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2001. “It’s like coming out of a mansion and living in a chicken coop.”

…

Mr. Bussard not only collected 78s; he also built a basement studio in his parents’ house in the 1950s to make his own. Under his Fonotone label, he recorded artists like the Possum Holler Boys, a country and rockabilly band, and the Tennessee Mess Arounders, a blues group (he was a member of both), as well as the influential fingerstyle guitarist John Fahey. (He later moved his collection and his studio to the house he shared with his wife and daughter.)

Mr. Bussard was one of the “characters” (so to speak) profiled in Amanda Petrusich’s Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records (affiliate link), a book that I both liked and found depressing.

Lawrence emailed an obit for Drew Ford, of It’s Alive Comics.

A graphic novel publisher that specialised in bringing out-of-print indie comic books back into print, as well as continuing and concluding stories where it could, and generating brand new ones, It’s Alive Press recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to revive the eighties black-and-white comic book series, Fish Police. Drew Ford had struggled with fulfilment issues of late, but there is no doubt he was a major contributor to the American comics industry in honouring its past heroes and bringing deserved attention to projects and people that time had forgotten – or at least not thought about for some time.

Edited to add: I forgot I wanted to include this one. Antonio Inoki.

Inoki entered politics in 1989 after winning a seat in the upper house, one of Japan’s two chambers of parliament, and headed the Sports and Peace Party. He traveled to Iraq in 1990 to win the release of Japanese citizens who were held hostage there.

He was also a professional wrestler.

Inoki brought Japanese pro-wrestling to fame and pioneered mixed martial arts matches between top wrestlers and champions from other combat sports like judo, karate and boxing.

Perhaps most famously, he fought Muhammad Ali in a MMA match in 1976.

The result of the fight, a draw, has long been debated by the press and fans.

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

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