Michael Feingold, dramaturge and theater critic. I’m not sure I would have noted this otherwise, but the obit does quote some of his funnier lines. (My quoting those here does not indicate that I necessarily agree with his judgments, just that they made me chuckle.)
One of my grail guns (sort of: it’s complicated) is the H&K P7 pistol.
Yes, I know: “H&K: You suck and we hate you.” And I’ve heard the triggers on the P7 are…not great. (I’ve never actually shot one.) But it is such an interesting and cool design. And I could probably put together the money for one.
You’d kind of think remembering to squeeze the lever would make it harder to learn the gun. Perhaps. As I’ve said, I’ve never fired one. But in my experience with other pistols, gripping them hard enough to where I would (probably) depress a (hypothetical) cocking lever has never been a problem. Indeed, I suspect that Karl (official firearms trainer to WCD) would tell anyone who asked that I have a death grip on my guns when shooting, that if you shoved a lump of carbon between me and the gun you’d get diamonds when I’m done, and that I’d shoot better if I relaxed.
(At least, I suspect he’d say that if he could. I also feel like Karl is probably much like a priest, in that confidentiality prevents him from discussing the flaws of his students. At least, not unless there’s a court order.)
My ideal would be the M13 variant, because 13 rounds of 9mm goodness. But I’d settle for a M8. Or the M10, which is the .40 S&W variant.
When I see them in shops or at fun shows, they seem to go for $2,000 and up. “Up” is doing a lot of work here: check GunBroker to see what I mean.
Why is that significant? And what does this have to do with Christmas? (I’m really not expecting a P7 under the tree, thankyouverymuch, though I have been good this year. Mostly.)
The Internet Movie Firearms Database has a write-up on one of the more famous fictional users of the P7. He was originally intended to be carrying some sort of Walther, but I’m guessing the movie armorer suggested the P7M13 and everyone liked the look of it.
He did go on to found the University of North Carolina computer science department and chaired it for 20 years. I would actually say that he’s best known for something else:
As some people may recall, he was married to Phyllis George.
For Christmas one year in the not-to-distant past, Lawrence gave me a copy of The Bluegrass Conspiracy, about Drew Thornton and his drug ring. (Cocaine bear!) John Y. Brown is mentioned quite a bit in that book: while he was never convicted of any crime, he certainly had close and questionable ties to people who were.
Mickey Kuhn. He was a child actor: his most famous role was probably “Beau Wilkes” in “Gone With the Wind”. He was also the last surviving cast member from that movie.
Jason David Frank, “the original green ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”. He was 49.
Nicki Aycox, actress. She was 47. Other credits include “CSI: Original Recipe”, “Law & Order”, and “Cold Case”.
This doesn’t quite qualify as an obit, and I would suggest taking this with more than a grain of salt: Bruce Lee may have died from excessive water consumption. As opposed to a reaction from a prescription painkiller, being poisoned by gangsters, or heat stroke.
Robert Clary, who played “Corporal LeBeau” on “Hogan’s Heroes”. He was “the last surviving member of the show’s original principal cast”. (Kenneth Washington, who joined the show in the final season, is still alive.)
Other credits include “Days of Our Lives” and “The Bold and the Beautiful”.
I can’t find the album anywhere, but the memoir is available from Amazon.
Edited to add: Thanks to Joe D. for his comment, which I greatly appreciate. Also, while I still can’t find the “Hogan’s Heroes” album, Mike the Musicologist pointed out that Robert Clary’s “Meet Robert Clary” (1955) and “Hooray for Love” (1956) are available on Apple Music and Amazon Music.
John Aniston, actor. Other credits include “Airwolf”, “Mission: Impossible”, and a two-part episode of one of the spinoffs of a minor SF TV series from the 1960s.
David Davis, TV guy. (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, “Taxi”, “The Bob Newhart Show”)
I’ve been struggling with where I wanted to go after finishing my ongoing series, and I’ve also been struggling a little with time constraints. It just doesn’t feel like there’s enough time in the days for me to do everything I want to do.
I’ve already covered five of these men (see the first link). It’s interesting to me that the other four men were all MoH recipients during the Civil War.
And for those who complain that Veterans Day is to honor all veterans, while Memorial Day is for those who died in service: all four men survived the war. Three died after 1900: the fourth died in 1899.
It’s also interesting to me how short the Medal of Honor citations are for the Civil War veterans, as opposed to the longer much more detailed ones for the veterans of the 20th Century wars. I feel sure there are historical reasons for that, but I haven’t done enough research on Medal of Honor history to know what those reasons are.
Other credits include “The Longest Day”, “Love on a Branch Line”, and “The Last Detective” TV series.
Susan Tolsky. “Pretty Maids All in a Row” is on my Amazon list: I need to pull the trigger on that and talk the Saturday Movie Group into it. Other credits include “Barney Miller”, “Quincy M.E.”, “Darkwing Duck”, and “Crazy Like a Fox”.
I wasn’t a big enough fan of either Alabama or Nazareth to be able to comment intelligently on either of these deaths. But my readers are welcome to comment if they’d like.
I feel like I am obligated to say something about the Houston Astros winning the World Series.
With that out of the way, I wanted to mention my Theory of Compensatory Suckage.
The Astros won the World Series. The Houston Texans are 1-6-1 so far this season, which gives them the worst record in the NFL at the moment. The Houston Rockets are currently 1-9, which is the worst record in basketball at the moment. Seems like everything balances out.
…I’d put in a bid on this. It does push two of my hot buttons:
Smith and Wessons.
Theodore Roosevelt.
But that might not be enough: the estimate is $800,000 – $1,400,000. That’s a lot of money, but still less than a vintage warbird or car. And it would be cheaper to maintain…
(I don’t know if you can get factory loaded .38 Long Colt ammo. Starline does offer brass, so you could load your own, but they currently list it as “backordered”.)
I think I actually saw this gun earlier this year, but I did not handle it. Nor did I ask to. Further, deponent sayeth not.
What you may not know (and I missed it too) is that the corruption trial is going on right now, and the jury is actively deliberating whether she should be removed from office. Obviously, the fact that she’s resigned sort of takes the air out of the jury deliberations.
It isn’t clear to me: if she resigns and then is found not guilty, can she run again for the same office in the next election? If she is found guilty, is she barred from running for that office again? For any office in California?
As noted above, there’s not a lot of precedent for this. It does seem, based on the article quoted above, that it is very likely she will be found guilty of at least one charge: