NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Jacksonville
Tampa Bay
Your loser update: week 8, 2013.
October 27th, 2013Obit watch: October 25, 2013.
October 25th, 2013I nearly missed this one. The only coverage I’ve seen has been on the A/V Club.
William Harrison, novelist and screenwriter, died on Tuesday.
I was unfamiliar with much of Harrison’s work. Apparently, he wrote a lot of novels set in Africa. But perhaps his biggest claim to fame is a short story, “Roller Ball Murder”, which was published in Esquire in 1973.
Norman Jewison hired Harrison to do a screenplay based on the story. The result:
Quote of the day (also, discussion question)
October 24th, 2013Okay. So it sounds like the hierarchy may run something like this:
- Sidekick.
- Henchman. (Or “henchperson”. Or should it be “person of hench”?)
- Peon.
- Lackey.
- Flunky.
- Pawn.
- Toady.
- Minion.
That sound about right to everyone? Discuss in comments. I guess the way I see it, “minion” is the term for both the super-set covering the entire sidekick-henchman-lackey-flunky hierarchy, and the title for the “entry level” position. “Honey, good news! I just got promoted from ‘minion’ to ‘lackey’! Now we can afford premium beer!”
Edited to add: a friend of WCD points out that we left out “toady”, so I’ve added it to the list above. I’m tentatively placing it one step above “minion”.
Also: “pawn” and “peon”. List revised, but the positions given are just starting points for discussion.
Notes from the legal beat.
October 24th, 2013The courts are busy. Here’s a couple of quick things:
- Fred Yazdi has been convicted of murder. I touched on this story briefly back when it was fresh, but mostly ignored the trial: a drunk guy crashed his car, walked away from the wreck, and wound up in Yazdi’s front yard. Yazdi confronted him, and ended up shooting him – according to Yazdi, in self-defense. I have a feeling this is not over yet. In any case, it gives me an opportunity to repeat the point I made at the time (and which has been made better by other people): “Use your gun defensively, and even if it is a good shoot, your life is going to change; probably not for the better.”
- Michael Skakel is getting a new trial in the Martha Moxley murder. Oh, I do love me a circus. More seriously, it seemed to me like there were enough questionable aspects to the original trial that a new one is justified, though I’m not sure I would have ruled that way based on “ineffective assistance of council”. If Michael Sherman was good enough for Skakel at the time (and I don’t recall hearing Skakel, or anyone else, suggest he wasn’t), how was he not good enough in hindsight? (I also have qualms about this because it puts me in the position of agreeing with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: if RFKJ said the sun was going to rise in the morning, I’d start gathering firewood and sweaters.)
- The trial of Angela Spaccia, former assistant city manager of Bell, who served under Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, and who Rizzo is blaming for much of Bell’s corruption, started yesterday. So far, we’re just in the opening arguments stage. But I did want to make note of this:
That would be Randy Adams, the former police chief of Bell, who was making $470,000 a year. I thought I’d quoted those emails before, but I can’t find them now. Here’s the LAT‘s quotes:
In an email to Spaccia, Adams wrote: “I am looking forward to seeing you and taking all of Bell’s money?! Okay … just a share of it!!”
She responded: “LOL … well you can take your share of the pie … just like us!!! We will all get fat together … [Robert Rizzo] has an expression he likes to use on occasion. Pigs get Fat … Hogs get slaughtered!!!! So as long as we’re not Hogs … All is well!”Yes, those are out of context, but I find it hard to see any context in which those quotes are not damming, or indicate that Spaccia was trying to get Adams to lower his demands.
- Sigh. Remember “Baby Hope”? Guess what the NYPD taped: yes, the confession. Guess what they didn’t tape? Yes: the twelve-hour long interrogation. Guess who now says their confession was coerced?
Guys, taping interrogations from start to finish doesn’t just protect the suspect: it also protects you. Or would you rather spend your retirement answering questions from NYT reporters?
Annals of law. (#8 in a series)
October 23rd, 2013On September 22, 1985, Roy McCaleb was shot and killed in his Houston home. He was sleeping at the time, and was heavily sedated due to recent back surgery and a heart attack.
McCaleb’s wife, Carolyn Sue Krizan-Wilson (as she is now known) stated that the shooter was a man who had car-jacked and raped her 10 days previously, then broke into her home that night…
Krizan-Wilson went on to claim that, while the intruder was fleeing the scene, he dropped the gun; she said she picked it up and fired a couple of shots at him.
Why am I bringing up this cold case now?
Krizan-Wilson confessed that this whole story was a lie, and pled guilty to killing her husband.
But that’s not why I bring it up.
But that’s not why I bring it up, either.
The courts in the state of Texas are taking pleas from people who suffer from dementia? I realize that there’s not a good alternative (how can a person with dementia effectively assist in their own defense at trial?) but there’s something about taking a plea under these circumstances that make me go “What?”
Norts spews.
October 23rd, 2013- Jackson State is apparently considering suing Grambling. Good luck with that.
- Missed this until Lawrence mentioned it, but: the suspension of the Grambling college paper’s opinion editor has been overturned. And the termination of the online editor has been changed to a suspension, but he’s resigning.
- Miami loses scholarships, but does not get a postseason ban. I mention this here for one sentence in the ESPN story: “But about 20 percent of information that was obtained was thrown out because it was improperly obtained.” What ESPN is glossing over here is that the NCAA made a huge mess of the investigation, and that’s probably why Miami got off light compared to USC. (Edited to add: better story from the NYT.
- TMQ tends to hammer on teams that “run up the score” against weaker opponents. In that light (and because it’s a good post) I want to highlight Ken’s “What Does Mercy Look Like?” over at Popehat. (To be fair to TMQ, in the specific case that motivated Ken’s post, Easterbrook has not complained about the conduct of the team and coach.)
The bishop!
October 23rd, 2013I wanted to highlight this because of the illustration attached to the article:
What the FRACK is this? I don’t think it is a photograph: is it supposed to be an artist’s conception of the new residence? It looks like someone used a fisheye lens to take a photo of a Thomas Kinkade painting.
TMQ Watch: October 22, 2013.
October 22nd, 2013We were vaguely hoping TMQ would address the Grambling State situation this week. We know that sounds weird, but we were hoping he might have an original or interesting take on it. Or, failing that, something we could mock.
We also thought maybe he’d have something to say about Bum Phillips. Or Bud Adams. He’s usually pretty good about doing tributes to significant NFL figures who have passed away.
Nope.
So what does TMQ write about this week? After the jump…
Grambling thoughts.
October 22nd, 2013ESPN reports that the Grambling State football team returned to practice on Monday. (Previously.)
It also looks like the team may be getting some financial help:
Also:
That’s great, and good on the Cytosport folks. (I’ve never used Muscle Milk, but I know people who do.)
I have to wonder, though: how sustainable is this?
And per SI, “In recent years, Grambling’s football program has run a deficit of between $1.2 and $1.8 million.”
In other news, Grambling State fired the online editor of the school newspaper and suspended the opinions section editor.
David Lankster, the online editor, claims his firing is in retaliation for photos he tweeted of the conditions the football team deals with. (Some of those photos are reproduced in the linked article.) The person who fired Lankster claims he did so over concerns about the use of anonymous sources:
The linked article doesn’t go into more detail on those concerns, and the complaint strikes me as odd. Is there material that Lankster published that was not confirmed by other sources? Is there material that Lankster published that turned out to be false? If either of these was actually the case, you’d think it would be mentioned somewhere.
On the other hand, the opinions editor was suspended “for organizing and participating in a ‘State of Emergency’ student rally calling out the school’s perceived flaws including ‘crumbling buildings and the student-teacher ratio.’” She admits to organizing the rally, but says “it grew into a media spectacle beyond her control or simple goals once football players decided to participate.”
It looks bad, especially in light of the Lankster firing, but I’m on the side of the school when it comes to the suspension. You’re supposed to cover the story, not be the story.
(Hattip on this: Jimbo.)
Your loser update: week 7, 2013.
October 22nd, 2013NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Jacksonville
Tampa Bay
1,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.
October 21st, 2013Bud Adams, owner of the Tennessee Titans, previously known as the Houston Oilers, and the man who fired Bum Philips and traded Earl Campbell for a “sack of doorknobs” (to steal Lawrence‘s phrase), has passed away at 90.
Wow. What timing. I’ll wait until tomorrow and see if there’s anything amusing in the HouChron.
(Required link for any mention of “Ironic”.)
Edited to add: Oh, why wait?
Edited to add 2:
I realize he didn’t die under a doctor’s care, and protocol must be followed, but that’s just oddly phrased to me. I guess they just want to make sure he wasn’t whacked by a disgruntled Oilers fan? Speaking of which…
Adams lived alone and was found in the office at his River Oaks home. He had not been seen since Saturday, Houston police at the home said.
Which is mildly interesting, since the HouChron published a tribute to Bum from “Tennessee Titans owner K.S. ‘Bud’ Adams Jr. and the Titans organization” on Saturday morning. It seems like they were posting tributes to Bum as quickly as they got them and could edit them. Wouldn’t it be even more deeply “ironic” if Bud’s last act in life was writing a tribute to the man he fired?
Making book.
October 21st, 2013Not much going on today, so here’s a few links I found interesting.
- Jim Sherman at the HouChron‘s “Bookish” blog did a very nice tribute to George V. Higgins back in August. You may remember the late Mr. Higgins for The Friends of Eddie Coyle and other crime novels….
- I don’t much like talking about religion, or my religious beliefs, here. But my brother forwarded me an article over the weekend that I’m going to make something of an exception for: “‘Mr. Spock goes to church’: How one Christian copes with Asperger’s syndrome“. I’m a little verklempt, so feel free to talk about this one in the comments.
- Not bookmark fodder, but I did want to point this one out: this year is the 100th anniversary of the introduction of Camel cigarettes, which inspires one LAT writer to invective. I don’t smoke cigarettes. I do smoke a very occasional cigar. But every time I read an article like this one, or see one of those TheTruth commercials, I’m tempted to start smoking just to spite these people.
Robert N. Proctor is a professor of the history of science at Stanford University and the author of “Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition.”
“the case for abolition”? We’ve seen how well prohibition worked for alcohol. We see how well it works for marijuana. If you outlaw cigarettes, I promise you: the resulting chaos will make Prohibition and the War on (Some) Drugs look like a Sunday School picnic.
Loser update notes.
October 19th, 2013The NFL loser update will return Tuesday. (The Giants play Monday night.)
In the meantime, I wanted to take note of a story that’s been on the FARK sports tab, but is too strange to ignore here.
The Grambling State athletic program, as I like to say, does not have “issues”: they have a lifetime subscription and a complete run of bound volumes. You may recall that the men’s basketball team went 0-28 this past season. You may also recall that the football team lost the first two games of the season, and fired coach Doug Williams.
Things have not gotten better for the football team. They’re now 0-7 and 0-4 in conference. And the players are unhappy. It seems there’s some concern over Williams being fired, and over “poor facility conditions”.
The players are also unhappy about travel policies. Money’s tight, so the team travels by bus.
Grambling was scheduled to play Jackson State tonight. The game is Jackson State’s homecoming game, so it is kind of a big deal for the school (in terms of both spirit and money).
Note the use of the word “was”: the Grambling State players refused to get on the team buses Friday afternoon, and the game has been cancelled.
Yes, you understand that correctly; the football team is in open revolt.
The conference has ruled the game a forfeit, which I guess makes Grambling State 0-8 now. I can’t remember the last time there was a forfeit of this kind in college football; this list at SportsReference.com appears to include games that were retroactively forfeited due to NCAA enforcement actions, and (oddly enough) Wikipedia does not have a “forfeited college football games” entry.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. There’s already some detail coming out about the Williams firing that makes the school look bad. And the school is clearly struggling financially: ESPN has a good backgrounder from Tim Keown.
I have a lot of respect for the Grambling players for standing up and saying “We’re not gonna take it anymore”, and I would hate to see them punished for expressing legitimate concerns. At the same time, though, given the university’s financial troubles and athletic struggles, I have to wonder if maybe the best solution is to shut down the athletic program completely. That certainly seems like a better option than Grambling renting itself out as a cupcake opponent or players spending 15 hours on buses.
(To be fair, ESPN says it is only 160 miles to Jackson State. That’s about the distance between Houston and Austin, or roughly three hours travel time. I wonder if the protest would have been more effective if they’d refused to get on the buses for Indy? Then again, 15 hours each way on a bus gives you a lot of time to think. And plan.)
Edited to add: Totally forgot that I wanted to note this bit from the horribly written TampaBay.com article FARK linked:
“…has won a record 14 mythical national championships”? Say what?
Edited to add 2: By way of the FARK discussion thread, here’s a really good article from SI that goes into more detail on Grambling’s issues, including the whole weight room floor issue and the money problems.
Obit watch: October 19, 2013.
October 19th, 2013O.A. “Bum” Phillips, legendary head coach of the Houston Oilers (and later the New Orleans Saints).
Edited to add: More.
Tiny. Violins.
October 18th, 2013Awww. She’s suffered enough already. Be gentle with her.
Isn’t that a shame?
I wonder: how many of the people who went to prison based on her tests had spouses that left them?
How many of the people who went to prison based on her tests were separated from disabled children of their own, do you suppose?
Dookhan faces charges including eight counts of tampering with evidence, 17 counts of obstruction of justice, one count of perjury and one count of falsely claiming to hold a degree.
Massachusetts law allows a maximum sentence of 10 years for tampering with evidence and 20 years for perjury.
The prosecution is seeking five to seven years. The defense is asking for one year.
