LaTroy Lewis fired as “assistant defensive line coach” of the Atlanta Falcons.
What makes this mildly interesting is: he was hired February 10th.
Mr. Lewis is accused of assaulting a woman while he was working for Michigan.
Archive for February, 2026
Firings watch.
Friday, February 27th, 2026Obit watch: February 27, 2026.
Friday, February 27th, 2026Dan Simmons passed away last Saturday. My source for this is a tweet Lawrence forwarded me from David Morrell: Lawrence has also posted his own obit, which is much better than anything I could post.
He was a pretty swell writer. I haven’t read everything he wrote, but I’ve read quite a bit. I liked Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion quite a bit. He also did some pretty good suspense books: I’m very fond of Darwin’s Blade and the first two Joe Kurtz books (I haven’t read the third). He also wrote The Terror, which was turned into a TV series.
FotB RoadRich sent over two obits: Dan McGrath, writer for “The Simpsons”. (He co-wrote the “Time and Punishment” segment of “Treehouse of Horror V”, the one where Homer turns his toaster into a time machine.)
Also by way of RoadRich, Elizabeth Snead, former THR writer. I missed this, but she sounds fun:
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Snead often brought her poodle Mina on assignment. She found the abandoned dog, dingy gray and with chipped nail polish, on a street near Dupont Circle in Washington. Once she bathed the pooch, she discovered Mina had snow-white fur.
She retired from journalism in the mid-2010s and returned to Florida, where she turned her attention to animal activities, such as showing her pack of Maltese dogs competitively and breeding Napoleon cats.
Bobby J. Brown, actor. He played “Officer Bobby Brown” on “The Wire”, a character based on a real police officer named “Bob Brown”. I think RoadRich rolled his eyes a little when he told me this.
Other credits include “Law & Order: SVU”, “We Own This City”, and “From Within”.
Obit watch: February 25, 2026.
Wednesday, February 25th, 2026Lauren Chapin, actress. Other credits include “School Bus Diaries”, “The Amorous Adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza”, and “Scout’s Honor”.
Sondra Lee, actress. Noted:
Robert Carradine. Other credits include “Jackson County Jail” (Lawrence, I have this, if you want me to bring it over Saturday), “Django Unchained”, and “Timecop: The Berlin Decision”.
Nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force…
Saturday, February 21st, 2026…except a good firing.
Joe Scott out as men’s basketball coach.
The Falcons failed to finish better than 10th place in the Mountain West in any of his six seasons at the helm, including last-place finishes in each of the past two seasons. They were 3-14 (0-6 MWC) when Scott was suspended and haven’t won a game since.
In five-plus seasons, Scott went 15-78 in league play.
Mr. Scott was “indefinitely suspended” in January as a result of accusations that he “mistreated” his player. He was previously with Air Force from 1999 to 2004, and actually had a successful run there:
Two short notes on film.
Friday, February 20th, 2026The short film “They’re Made Out Of Meat” is available on the ‘Tube. According to the notes, this was the maker’s final project at the New York Film Academy.
(Previously on “They’re Made Out Of Meat”, the Terry Bisson story.)
Also available on the ‘Tube: “Tomorrow”, starring Robert Duvall.
I feel like I have written about this movie before. I watched it for my literature and film class at St. Ed’s, and I very much like it. I saw “Slingblade” first, but Duvall’s performance in this reminds me a lot of that movie. I commend it to your attention, especially with it being available online. (When I saw it, I had to trek down to Waterloo Video and rent a DVD.)
Obit watch: February 20, 2026.
Friday, February 20th, 2026Eric Dane, for the record.
I am not a big fan of that TV show, but ALS is a horrible disease, and he was only 53.
Obit watch: Februrary 19, 2026.
Thursday, February 19th, 2026Tom Noonan, who I think was an underappreciated actor.
Other credits include the short film “They’re Made Out of Meat” (wait, what?), “12 Monkeys” (the series), “Roadside Picnic” (the series, wait, what?), “Heaven’s Gate”, and “F/X”.
David Hays, theater designer. He also co-founded the National Theater of the Deaf. I wanted to call this one out because there’s a pretty good “Mannix” episode (“The Silent Cry“, season 2, episode 1) that features actors from the NTD, and (as I recall) was filmed with their cooperation and support.
I’ve been holding this one for a few days, looking for a place for it: Bob Croft, pioneering free diver.
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Once he passed 200 feet, he continued to 212.7 feet — the deepest point of his descent — where he activated the sled’s hand brake and fastened an alligator clip to the rope. He then climbed the rope, hand-over-hand, to the surface.
In all, he had spent 2 minutes 6 seconds underwater.
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Mr. Croft, a brawny 5-foot-8, raised his record to 217.5 feet in late 1967 and then to a remarkable 240 feet in August 1968, breaking a record of 231 feet that had been set by Mr. Mayol that January.
Mr. Croft retired from free diving after the 240-foot dive, still believing he could have gone deeper. He left his goal of 250 feet to others. It has long since been exceeded: In 2023, Alexey Molchanov of Russia set the current record of nearly 512 feet.
Noted, less briefly.
Tuesday, February 17th, 2026LawDog put up a good post yesterday about his “pocket litter”. I was thinking about writing a comment there, but then I decided: I have a perfectly good blog of my own, why bogart his?
To be clear, I don’t have any issue with what LawDog says. I just thought I’d provide a different perspective. LawDog and I are two different people, with different use cases and different life experiences. What works for him may not work for me, and vice versa.
I’m a two knife man. For a long time, I’ve carried a Swiss Army Champ in my left front pants pocket with my keys. Still do, six days out of seven. I like the utility of it, but I wouldn’t use it for defense except in an extreme case. (When I’m wearing my Sunday clothes, I carry a smaller Swiss Army knife. If I’m wearing a suit and tie, I have a Benchmade (I think) penknife that I bought at a fun show because I liked the way it looked. It seemed suitably dressy.)
I’ve dabbled with various larger knives for “defense”. For a while, I carried a Spyderco Civilian for that purpose. But I came close to losing it a few times, and I don’t want to lose a $400 knife. I’m the kind of person who loses things, so I like my stuff to work and not break the bank. I have another Spyderco locking blade that I picked up for $20 at the Texas State Surplus Store, and I sometimes pack that in my checked bag when I fly. (My other choice for a disposable travel folder is a Buck 110.)
For some reason, though, pocket clips don’t work for me. What I have found is the KA-BAR TDI Law Enforcement Knife. It is a fixed blade, so I don’t have to worry about deploying it under stress (as LawDog says in the comments, “Grab, yank, shank”), it is small enough not to be intimidating (I don’t think most people even notice I’m carrying unless I whip it out) but it is large enough to be useful. I pull mine out at least once a day, sometimes five or six times, to open packages, break down boxes for the trash, and do everything else you’d do with a knife.
I bought this at the recommendation of Greg Ellifritz, and I don’t regret it. For my use case, this is just about perfect. (The price has gone up considerably since I bought mine. Alas.) I still accumulate knives (and will continue to do so), but the KA-BAR is the most useful one I have.
For flashlights, I’ve kind of touched on this before. I carry a Streamlight Pocket Mate on my keychain. It is always with me, doesn’t take up a lot of space, is surprisingly bright for the size, and doesn’t go through batteries.
I get LawDog’s point about rechargeables being down until you can recharge them. I have multiple AAA and AA pocket flashlights (and, like knives, will accumulate more). I even deploy them sometimes. (My AAA Olight is handy to slip in a suit pocket, when I don’t want to carry my keys because they spoil the clean lines of my suit.) For my use case, though, I top up the Pocket Mate when I think about it, and it generally gives me some warning that I need to plug it in before it goes dead. If I was really worried, I’d buy a second one and rotate them: they are that cheap.
There are recommendations for the Streamlight Wedge and Wedge XT in the article and comments. I have a Wedge as well, but I use it as either my bedside “things that go bump in the night” light, or as my hotel/motel/Holiday Inn “things that etc.” light.
I have carried a Zippo, off and on (“carry something to make light and something to make fire”), but I’m not doing so right now. I don’t smoke, but I will slip the Zippo into my pocket if I’m doing stuff outside.
So that’s my current practice. Feel free to drop yours (and your recommendations) in the comments.
Briefly noted.
Tuesday, February 17th, 2026By way of CrimeReads, “The Three Lives of William Conrad: More Than Just the ‘Heavy’” by Keith Roysdon.
I think most people, if they think of William Conrad at all, think of “Cannon” or “Jake and the Fatman”. More sophisticated folks might be aware that he had a substantial radio career, including Matt Dillon in the radio version of “Gunsmoke”.
I didn’t know that he also had a short but apparently successful career as a film director. (Lawrence, I ordered “Two on a Guillotine” for Halloween viewing.)
Obit watch: February 17, 2026.
Tuesday, February 17th, 2026Another one of those “it got busy up in here all of the sudden” days.
Other credits include “T.H.E. Cat”, “The F.B.I.”, and he was the original Frank Burns in “M*A*S*H.”.
Mike the Musicologist tipped me off to this tweet. I can’t find the “embed” function on X, but here’s the long version of the video.
Frederick Wiseman, documentary filmmaker.
This may just be a personal reaction, but “Titicut Follies” is the most frightening film I have ever seen in my life. (I actually saw it in a screening at the old Dobie Theater.)
Mr. Wiseman’s approach to his films — shot in what he wryly referred to as “wobblyscope,” thanks to his hand-held camera — was perhaps never better expressed than during a face-off with his fellow documentarian Werner Herzog, onstage at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.
Mr. Herzog, who had been espousing a theory of “ecstatic truth” and a willingness to manipulate his nonfiction films to achieve something sublime, confided to the audience that a shot apparently made through a dewdrop in his film “The White Diamond” had actually been made through a leaf to which glycerin had been applied. Asked whether he had ever done anything similar, or would, Mr. Wiseman said he had not, but admitted that he might change a lightbulb if a room seemed too dark.
Yes, I know.
Monday, February 16th, 2026Robert Duvall obits tomorrow, in keeping with the official policy of this blog. This will give some time for the errors and omissions to shake out.
Firings watch.
Monday, February 16th, 2026Jerome Tang out as head coach of the Kansas State men’s basketball team.
Even better, the firing is “for cause”, which means they don’t have to pay his $18.7 million buyout.
It seems like the precipitating incident is a rant Tang went on last week:
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Tang was 71-57 in “nearly four seasons” as coach.
Obit watch: February 12, 2026.
Thursday, February 12th, 2026Bud Cort, actor. THR. Other credits include “Midnight Caller”, “The Chocolate War”, and “Sledge Hammer!”.
Lory Patrick, actress. She doesn’t have that long a list of credits, but this is interesting:
She later married Dean Jones, and they stayed married for 42 years (until Mr. Jones died).
Andrew Ranken, drummer for The Pogues.
Among other contributions, the Pogues credited him with coming up with the title “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash,” based on a quotation attributed to Winston Churchill: “Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.”
“It seemed to sum up life in our band,” Mr. Ranken once said.
Fred Smith, musician. Interesting story: he started out with Blondie, and then defected to Television. After he left, Blondie blew up into a huge success, while Television broke up after two albums.
James Van Der Beek. NYT (archived). Other credits include “CSI: Cyber”, “Law and Order: SVU”, “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”, and “Walker” (not “Walker, Texas Ranger”, but the reboot).
Obit watch: February 11, 2026.
Wednesday, February 11th, 2026I had not previously heard of Hudson Talbott, but I find his obituary touching.
He wrote children’s books.
Mr. Talbott’s collaboration on “Into the Woods,” published in 1988, was a happier experience. The musical, which opened on Broadway a year earlier, is for adults — although it is based in part on folk tales by the Brothers Grimm, and features characters like Cinderella that are familiar to children. Mr. Talbott adapted it for a younger audience.
James Lapine, the musical’s Tony Award-winning librettist, said in an email that the book “honors our show rather than reinvents it.”
Mr. Talbott used a lush visual style, which he described as “more or less 18th-century French,” for illustrations like the depiction of Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother inside the wolf’s open mouth, and he rewrote the story with help from Mr. Sondheim’s notes.
“Both Steve and I loved what he did,” Mr. Lapine said. “And the book remains my favorite gift to anyone who has a child.”
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As a child, he showed artistic talent, but he had difficulty reading; he discovered later in life that he had dyslexia. In his semi-autobiographical book “A Walk in the Words” (2021), he wrote that drawing allowed him to disappear into a safe world all his own.
“I was the slowest reader in my class,” he wrote. “When everybody was turning to the next page, I was still on the first sentence. Nobody knew. But the books knew! And they were coming for me!”
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Nancy Paulsen, the president and publisher of an imprint at Penguin Young Readers, who edited over a dozen of Mr. Talbott’s books, said that he was more confident in his artwork than in his writing. In painting, he employed various styles and was inspired by work from the Renaissance and the Hudson River School.
“He was very sophisticated about what he showed kids, but it was very easy to understand,” Ms. Paulsen said in an interview. “In ‘A Walk in the Words,’ when you see the wall of words, a kid knows what he’s doing there.”
In one part of the book, the boy cowers before the wall of words; in another, he tears down a wall of shame.
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In 2022, Mr. Talbott spoke by Zoom to dyslexic students at a school in Richmond, Va., telling them that, as a child, he had dealt with his own challenges by spending too much time alone — “and nobody was there to help me, and it wasn’t their fault because I was hiding it.”
“If I could go back in time,” he added, “I would try to say to me, as a little boy, ‘Don’t be ashamed. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. You are who you are, and you read the way you read.’”
Relevant to my interests.
Wednesday, February 11th, 2026I have my share of issues with The Firearm Blog. But one thing they’ve been doing that I do like is “Small Business Spotlight”. Yesterday’s entry pushed my buttons:
As everyone knows, Bob, I already have my own official trainer. But Rick Barrett looks interesting as heck, and it seems like he’s up near Waco, which isn’t too far for me. I think I’d like to spend some time hanging out and talking with him.
And there’s a lot of good resources on his site about how Catholic social teaching interacts with the idea of self-defense. I think this site is worth a bookmark.
Going fishing.
Saturday, February 7th, 2026I started the post months ago, but couldn’t do anything with it before now because of image uploading issues and Bluehost’s refusal to assist with those.
Bluehost upgraded my WordPress instance for this blog a few days ago, and image uploading seems to be working slightly better, so I think I can post this now and see what happens.
My intent when I started this was to dangle some stinky old bait in the water to see if a specific person took the bait.
Jump goes here.
Gun news.
Friday, February 6th, 2026I think this is big news, but I’m having trouble finding any coverage of it outside of one news story, and a linked article in that story.
Big Rock Sports, LLC has filed for bankruptcy.
Big Rock is a major distributor of firearms and other outdoor gear. And the bankruptcy filing is a Chapter 7 – total liquidation – not a more common Chapter 11 reorganization.
According to the articles, Big Rock has over $100 million in outstanding liabilities, and assets “between $10 million and $50 million”.
I registered for a PACER account in an attempt to find the filing, but they say it takes seven to ten days after registration to activate my search privileges. Plus I’ll have to pay a fee to get a copy of the filing once I can search for it. If I am able to find it somewhere, I’ll link it here.
The SGB article lists some of the creditors. I don’t see any of the major gun companies listed there, but the stories don’t provide a complete list of creditors.
Interesting fact: Big Rock had a Canadian subsidiary. “Had” is the operative word, as that was liquidated in December of 2025.
Obit watch: February 4, 2026.
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026Chuck Negron, of Three Dog Night.
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The band splintered in 1976, and Mr. Negron sank further into the abyss, in large part because of heroin addiction. His millions in savings vanished and, before long, he was living in a Skid Row drug den in Los Angeles. The police often raided crack dealer neighbors but “never bothered us,” he recalled in a 1998 interview with The Las Vegas Sun. “That’s how pathetic we were.”
He hit a particular low one day when he was zonked out on a curb and noticed people gawking. “It’s really embarrassing,” he remembered telling a companion next to him, “these people want an autograph.”
“Chuck, you just peed in the street,” the friend responded. “They don’t know who you are.”
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Virginia Oliver. I’m not exactly sure she qualifies as “notable”, outside of a small circle. But the obit is fun, she led a good life, and it lets me use a tag I don’t get to use as often as I’d like.
On the frigid and crustacean-filled waters of Penobscot Bay, Mrs. Oliver was known as the Lobster Lady. She was a folk hero to Mainers — an enduring, if fading, emblem of the state’s hardy, matter-of-fact work ethic.
“She represented that no-nonsense Mainer who just got up every day and did what they had to do,” Barbara A. Walsh, the author of a children’s book about Mrs. Oliver, said in an interview. “It’s grit and determination.”
During lobster season — from June to December — Mrs. Oliver would wake up at 2:45 a.m., put on overalls and drive her four-wheel-drive pickup truck to the dock. After loading her boat, the Virginia, with bait and gas, she would head to sea before sunrise, hauling lobster pots until lunchtime.
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Mrs. Oliver fished for more than 60 years with her husband, Maxwell Oliver Sr., known as Bill. After he died in 2006, Max Jr. took his spot. “I’m the boss,” she would occasionally remind both of them.
As a general rule, her authority was not to be questioned on land or at sea.
“She was a hard worker, a lovely lady, but you definitely didn’t mess around with her,” Dave Cousens, a lobsterman who knew Mrs. Oliver for several decades, said in an interview. “She had a mouth like a sailor. A lot of things she said you couldn’t print in a newspaper.”
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A few years back, she needed stitches after a particularly obstreperous lobster sliced her finger.
“What are you out there lobstering for?” the doctor asked.
“Because I want to,” she replied.
She was 103 when a fall forced her to give up lobstering. She was 105 when she passed away.
Mickey Lolich, of the Detroit Tigers.
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The Tigers finished 12 games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles as they won the 1968 American League pennant, led by the right-hander Denny McLain, who won 31 games and lost only 6 that season in becoming the first pitcher to reach the 30-game milestone in 34 years, a feat that hasn’t been matched since. Lolich, meanwhile, compiled a laudable 17-9 record.
McClain was bested by the future Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in the World Series opener, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Despite battling a groin infection that had developed overnight, Lolich pitched the Tigers to an 8-1 victory in Game 2 and hit the only home run of his career, a drive down the left-field line off the Cardinal starter, Nelson Briles.
The Tigers lost the next two games at home and were facing elimination when Lolich took the mound again, once more against Briles, but this time at Tiger Stadium. Lolich yielded three runs in the first inning, but the Tigers managed to rally for a 5-3 victory.
They won again in Game 6, in St. Louis, behind solid pitching by McLain and a 10-run third inning.
The durable Lolich was called on again for Game 7, when he faced Gibson.
With the game scoreless in the seventh inning, the Tiger outfielder Jim Northrup connected on a liner over the head of Curt Flood, the Cardinals’ center fielder, for a two-run, two-out triple. Detroit went on to a 4-1 victory, giving the Tigers their first World Series championship since they defeated the Chicago Cubs in seven games in 1945.
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