Yes, there is pie: a bunch for work, and a bunch more to take down to the CPA class tonight.
Happy Pi Day!
March 14th, 2019Obit watch: March 14, 2019.
March 14th, 2019This literally just in, hot off the virtual press: Birch Bayh, former Senator from Indiana. Possibly more later.
Going out to great and good friend of the blog Borepatch: Hal Blaine, noted session drummer.
Mr. Blaine was part of a loosely affiliated group of session musicians who in the early 1960s began dominating rock ’n’ roll recording in Los Angeles. Along with guitarists like Glen Campbell and Tommy Tedesco, bassists like Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn, and keyboardists like Leon Russell and Don Randi, Mr. Blaine played on thousands of recordings through the mid-1970s.
He famously said he gave the group its name, the Wrecking Crew, although Ms. Kaye has insisted that he did not start using that term until years after the musicians had stopped working together.
He substituted for Dennis Wilson on many of the Beach Boys studio recordings:
Asked if Mr. Wilson was angry that he was replaced in the studio, Mr. Blaine said he was not.
“He was thrilled,” he said, “because while I was making Beach Boy records, he was out surfing or riding his motorcycle. During the day, when I was making $35 or $40, that night he was making $35,000” performing live.
Mr. Blaine’s other studio credits include Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” the 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Ms. Streisand’s “The Way We Were,” the Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron” and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’s “A Taste of Honey.”
The NYT has an interesting way of presenting the obit for former UT president Bill Powers:
Francesco Cali passed away last night. He was shot six time outside his home, and (according to one report Lawrence sent me) run over by a pickup truck.
Mr. Cali was the current reputed boss of the Gambino family, John Gotti’s old outfit.
NYT on the Cammarano acquittal. Previously on Carmine “The Snake” Persico.
Edda Goering, Herman’s daughter, passed away. She was 80.
Does this count as a tax-fattened hyena watch?
March 12th, 2019Lawrence is all over the Felicity Huffman/Lori Loughlin bribery case, which apparently also involves a UT tennis coach. Additional coverage from ESPN. NYT coverage.
The story is developing, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to keep on top of it, and I don’t want to tread on Lawrence’s turf (although it doesn’t look like anyone was taking bribes to admit giant spiders to Yale. Yet.), so I’d recommend keeping an eye on the three sites above for updates.
Obit watch: March 12, 2019.
March 12th, 2019Kelly Catlin passed away last week.
You probably were not familiar with her: she was part of the women’s pursuit cycling team that won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She was 23 years old.
Catlin’s father, Mark Catlin, broke the news in a letter sent to VeloNews Sunday morning. Mark Catlin said that Kelly had died Friday around 12 a.m. at her residence in California. Mark Catlin said that Kelly died by suicide.
“There isn’t a minute that goes by that we don’t think of her and think of the wonderful life she could have lived,” Mark Catlin wrote. “There isn’t a second in which we wouldn’t freely give our lives in exchange for hers. The hurt is unbelievable.”
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 surprisingly good page of additional resources.
We often hear from those who have attempted suicide but survived that they believed the world would be better off without them. While sharing suicide-prevention hotline numbers can help a great deal, sharing the perspectives and grief of those left behind can as well. Because those still in this world but contemplating an exit must know that their feelings of self-worthlessness are not shared by those who love them.
If someone is contemplating suicide, they should know the utter devastation that will be left in their wake. While those who have died may have thought the world a better place without them, we survivors are living witness to the fact that it is not, that our worlds will not ever be whole without them in it.
Edited to add: sometimes there’s just nothing else you can say.
Obit watch: March 11, 2019.
March 11th, 2019Bill Powers, former University of Texas president.
Quoting Lawrence:
Powers is probably most famous to BattleSwarm readers for his central role in the UT admissions scandal, in which well-connected students were admitted to the University of Texas despite not having the necessary grade averages or test scores. Powers eventually resigned over the scandal.
The UT admissions scandal was not only real, but several of the state’s most powerful politicians (including then-speaker Joe Straus) and media outlets conspired to bury the story.
I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to see how the Statesman addressed this in their obituary. Hint: you will need a (metaphorical) shovel.
Sidney Sheinberg, film executive best known as an early and influential supporter of Steven Spielberg.
Just being a celebrity’s kid doesn’t automatically get you an obit watch. But if the child had an interesting life outside of, or in relation to, their famous parent: absolutely, I’ll mention it here.
In that vein: Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s daughter. She was 102. Ruth adopted her when he married Claire Hodgson, his second wife. (He had a daughter, Dorothy, from his first marriage to Helen Woodford. Ms. Woodford died in a house fire in 1929: Ruth married Ms. Hodgson in 1930, she adopted Dorothy, and the family lived together.)
Claire Hodgson Ruth died in 1976 and Mrs. [Dorothy Ruth – DB] Pirone died in 1989. Mrs. Stevens ultimately became the spokeswoman for the Ruth family.
She was at Yankee Stadium in May 1998 for the unveiling of a postage stamp portraying Ruth admiring one of his home run drives. That August, she threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game in Fenway Park at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of Ruth’s death.
She was at Fenway Park in October 1999 to toss the first pitch before the decisive Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. Having lived for many years in Conway, N.H., she had become a Red Sox fan.
“I went to see the Red Sox beat the Yankees tonight,” she said.
…
Freeda Foreman, one of George Foreman’s daughters, passed away over the weekend. She was 42, and had a 5-1 record as a professional boxer.
Edited to add: prompted by the exchange with Lawrence below, here’s a little lagniappe for you.
Obit watch: March 9, 2019.
March 9th, 2019I held back on these yesterday because I wanted to give them 24 hours to shake out.
Dan Jenkins, noted Texas author (Semi-Tough) and sports writer. NYT.
If you want to get a taste of his work, you could do worse than browse through the “SI 60“, especially “The Disciples Of St. Darrell On A Wild Weekend: A Texas football odyssey” and “The Sweet Life Of Swinging Joe: Joe Namath, celebrity and New York City“.
Jan-Michael Vincent, for the historical record.
Carmine “The Snake” Persico, noted Mafia boss.
…
The extent of Mr. Persico’s influence and authority in the Mafia was exposed at a watershed federal trial in 1986 in Manhattan. He and the reputed bosses of the Genovese and Lucchese crime families were convicted of being members of the Commission, the select body that resolved major disputes and set policies for the five New York crime families: the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese factions.
At the trial, Mr. Persico, a high school dropout, decided to represent himself, and he won the praises of lawyers and judges for his acumen in questioning witnesses, writing legal briefs and raising points of law.
His unorthodox trial tactics failed, however, and he was convicted, along with Anthony Corallo, the accused boss of the Lucchese family, and Anthony Salerno, a high-ranking member of the Genovese family. Each man was sentenced to 100 years in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit murders, racketeering and leading a criminal enterprise, the Commission.
Obit watch: March 8, 2019.
March 8th, 2019Ralph Hall, former Republican House rep from Texas.
Mr. Hall was 91 when he left the House after 34 years. He was defeated in a Republican primary runoff in 2014 by John Ratcliffe, a former United States attorney less than half his age.
An avid jogger who began his days with two-mile runs, Mr. Hall celebrated Memorial Day 2012, when he was 89, by skydiving. That Christmas he became the oldest member of the House, breaking the record set by Charles Manly Stedman of North Carolina, who died in office in 1930 at the age of 89 years, seven months and 25 days.
…
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
Jerry Merryman. You’ve probably never heard of him, but to my mind, he was one of the great men of history.
While working at Texas Instruments, Mr. Merryman co-created the first pocket calculator.
…
Years later, when a friend mentioned that Mr. Merryman had designed the calculator’s circuitry in only three days, Mr. Merryman leaned toward him and said, “And three nights.”
He, Mr. Kilby and Mr. Van Tassel initially built a prototype, which spanned an entire room at their Texas Instruments lab. Then, over the next two years, they packed the same circuit design into a hand-held casing using microchips.
The device had 18 keys, and it could handle addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, printing calculations on a tiny spool of paper. It reached the market in 1970 after Texas Instruments licensed the technology to Canon, carrying a $400 price tag. Soon a second partner, Bowmar, introduced a $250 version called the Bowmar Brain.
The first calculator I ever used only supported six digits (not eight) and the basic math operations. I don’t know how much it cost. I think my dad paid around $300 for a Rockwell scientific calculator sometime in the 1970s. It wasn’t that many years later that I got a TI-30 for Christmas: I think by that time they were somewhere around $20 or $30.
Moore’s Law, man.
Totally random stuff: March 6, 2019.
March 6th, 2019I’ve been getting more and more depressed by what seems to be the constant stream of obit watches, so I decided it was time to do another variety post. (Not to be confused with variety meats, although that’s an easy mistake to make.)
Obit watch: King Kong Bundy, pro wrestler.
Legal update #1: sentences in the basketball bribery case.
(Previously.)
Legal update #2: no, the government can’t seize the trademark of the Mongols motorcycle club. Again.
(Previously. I actually saw this over the weekend, but have been waiting for a better link: the LAT has become increasingly obnoxious.)
Obit watch: March 5, 2019.
March 5th, 2019Luke Perry, for the record. I wish I could say more, other than 52 is too young.
Nathaniel Taylor. He was perhaps best known as “Rollo” on “Sanford and Son”.
Last and least, serial killer Juan Corona.
I thought about using the “is burning in Hell” line for the late Mr. Corona. But if you read the NYT obit (and I’ve seen these facts referenced elsewhere), there were some…questionable things that went on during his two trials:
Prosecutors were found to have misplaced or mishandled evidence, and forensic tests that ought to have been done early on were delayed. At one point a prosecutor improperly suggested that Mr. Corona’s refusal to testify suggested that he was guilty.
The judge, who repeatedly expressed dismay at the prosecutors’ performance, reminded the jury that the burden of proof rested totally on the prosecution. Mr. Corona was convicted on Jan. 18, 1973, and sentenced to life in prison. (The California Supreme Court had overturned the state’s death penalty months before the trial.)
…
Even after finding Mr. Corona guilty, some jurors said they were “shocked” and “flabbergasted” that his defense had presented no psychiatric evidence on his behalf. His original public defender had planned to have him plead not guilty by reason of insanity, but the family retained a lawyer who spurned that approach. Later, the lawyer was found to have been angling for a book deal about the case.
In May 1978, a California appeals court overturned the conviction, declaring that Mr. Corona’s defense had been inept and compromised.
During the second trial, Mr. Corona’s new lawyers suggested that the actual killer was his half-brother, Natividad Corona, who had disappeared somewhere in Mexico. Mr. Corona was convicted again. As far as I can tell, he’d been in jail or prison since 1971.
Obit watch: March 2, 2019.
March 2nd, 2019Katherine Helmond. Alzheimer’s got her at 89. THR. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
I didn’t watch “Who’s the Boss?” and my parents wouldn’t let me watch “Soap” first run. But:
Her TV credits go back to 1955, and include “Car 54, Where Are You?”, “Hec Ramsey”, “Harry O”, “Meeting of Minds” (she played Emily Dickinson)…
…and, believe it or not, two episodes of “Mannix”. (“A Fine Day for Dying” and “A Rage to Kill”.)
And she was in three Terry Gilliam movies: “Time Bandits”, “Brazil”, and “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas”.
She sounds like someone I would have enjoyed hanging out with, maybe over a cheeseburger and the amusing house red.
Obit watch: March 1, 2019.
March 1st, 2019Edward C. Nixon, youngest brother of Richard M. Nixon.
By way of Mike the Musicologist, an amusing story from Previn’s memoir:
It surprises me a little that Previn wasn’t an EGOT. He never picked up an Emmy or a Tony (though he was nominated for both).
Obit watch: February 27, 2019.
February 27th, 2019Dick Churchill passed away earlier this month at the age of 99.
…
Mr. Churchill helped dig the three main tunnels, which the prisoners called Tom, Dick and Harry. It was arduous, nerve-racking work, conducted with improvised tools and the constant risk of discovery or a cave-in.
“You didn’t have any air,” Mr. Churchill said, “and you had a little fat lump lamp which was Reich margarine, which spluttered, with a bit of pajama cord or something similar, which sucked up the oil and gave you a little bit of a light. And you hacked away at your sand, pushed it behind you where another fool took it further back.”
The tunnels were cleverly concealed, but Tom was discovered by the Germans in 1943 and Dick proved unusable. On a frigid night in March 1944, Mr. Churchill was one of 76 prisoners to make their way through the tunnel called Harry and out of Stalag III.
…
Mr. Churchill was the last surviving member of the escape party.
She was most famous as the author of The Love Boats (link goes to revised edition on Amazon, and yes, I will get a tiny kickback if you buy the book), about her time as a cruise ship hostess and cruise director. That book inspired three TV movies, and ultimately “The Love Boat” television series.
Mark Bramble, who wrote the book for the musical “Barnum” and co-wrote the book for “42nd Street”. Oddly, when I was in my late teens, I saw “Barnum” with Stacy Keach in the title role. But I don’t remember very much about the music or the book…
I’ve avoided writing about Brody Stevens because:
- I wasn’t familiar with his work. I’ve seen him described, mostly on Twitter, as “a comedian’s comedian”.
- Everything I’ve seen before now has been on Twitter. Yesterday’s NYT was the first reliable report I’ve seen.
- I find his death at 48 depressing, and don’t know what else I can say about it.
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 surprisingly good page of additional resources.
Obit watch: February 24, 2019.
February 24th, 2019Stanley Donen, who I have seen described as “one of the last Golden Age directors”, and certainly one of the greats. THR.
“On the Town”, “Singin’ in the Rain”, “Charade”, “Funny Face”, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”, “Damn Yankees”, “Bedazzled”. What a life.
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
Also by way of THR: Morgan Woodward. Interesting career: he did a lot of stuff. Oddly, not “Mannix”, but 19 episodes of “Gunsmoke”, “Hill Street Blues”, “Bonanza”, “Bearcats!”, two episodes of “Star Trek: Original Recipe” (“on which he was the first victim of Mr. Spock’s telepathic ‘Vulcan mind meld.'”), “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp”…
…and “Boss Godfrey” (the guy with the mirrored sunglasses) in “Cool Hand Luke”.
Speaking of “Star Trek”, we caught the last three or so minutes of “The Naked Time” last night while waiting for “Kolchak”. Now, I’m not a big “Trek” fan, but for some reason, I got to wondering what John D.F. Black (who wrote that episode) was up to.
Turns out he passed away in late November without my noticing. Google does not turn up an obit in the NYT or any of the papers I usually frequent, though it looks like THR ran one that I (and everyone I know) missed.
I knew that he was one of the more highly regarded “Trek” writers. I did not know that he’d co-written the screenplay for the original “Shaft” with Ernest Tidyman. He also did TV work for, among other shows, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, “Hawaii Five-O”…and, yes, he wrote an episode of “Mannix” (“A Day Filled with Shadows”: he shares the writing credit with Cliff Gould).
Obit watch: February 23, 2019.
February 23rd, 2019Yesterday was a busy day for the NYT: the obit writers were apparently playing catch-up. One of these I knew about, but was waiting for a reliable source on, while the others I had not heard about.
William E. Butterworth III, noted and bestselling author.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell with you, that’s because he wrote mostly under pseudonyms. His best known pen name was W.E.B. Griffin.
(Also: awesome photo, NYT.)
Ken Nordine, poet and “word jazz” guy.
I used to fall asleep with the radio on and wake up to it in the morning. As I recall, early on Sunday mornings, in that twilight zone when I was half-awake and half-asleep, our local public radio station aired re-runs of “Word Jazz”.
I had not heard of Ethel Ennis, but this is an interesting story: Playboy jazz poll winner for best female singer,
And then she mostly walked away from it all and became Baltimore’s unofficial “First Lady of Jazz”.
“They had it all planned out for me,” she told The Washington Post in 1979, referring to the music executives in charge of her career. “I’d ask, ‘When do I sing?’ and they’d say, ‘Shut up and have a drink. You should sit like this and look like that and play the game of bed partners.’ You really had to do things that go against your grain for gain. I wouldn’t.”
She added: “I want to do it my way. I have no regrets.”
Finally, David Horowitz, newscaster and consumer reporter. I remember watching the syndicated version of “Fight Back!” on one of the Houston TV stations (though I don’t recall which one) back when I was young…
Quick follow ups.
February 23rd, 2019You may recall the Schlitterbahn case from last year, where a 10-year old boy was decapitated on a water slide and the owner and designers were charged with various crimes, including second degree murder.
Well.
Here’s the coverage from the KC Star, which clarifies things a bit for me:
…
Interesting side note:
One of Grits For Breakfast’s round ups this week contained a little more information on that Lubbock medical examiner mess I mentioned previously. This situation is even weirder than I initially thought it was. You have Dr. Andrews saying “the previous ME was a drunk, he used county facilities for private business, and he took bribes to change results”. But then you have the guy who supposedly made these claims to Dr. Andrews saying, “No, I never said any such thing.” Keep an eye on this one.