As seen at Blood Bath and Beyond yesterday:
That’s volume III of the “Presidents of the United States” Pez dispenser collection. They also had volume II, but I did not see volume I.
I note volume III specifically because this is the one that includes Millard Fillmore. Yes: a Millard Fillmore Pez dispenser is a real thing that you can buy and not the punchline of a David Letterman joke.
(You can get the Pez Presidents Collector Set Vol III
Lyndon Johnson’s birth certificate is on display at his presidential library. Insert your own Barack Obama joke here.
For the record, your General Norman Schwarzkopf obits: NYT. LAT. WP.
I saw this a few days ago and intended to make note of it, but the holidays interfered. Donnie Andrews has also died.
Andrews was a legendary Baltimore stick-up man and all-around crook, who reformed later in life. Omar Little (of “The Wire”) was based on Andrews:
The NYT would like for you to be concerned about the poor show ponies, who are frequently drugged to make them easier to handle. What makes this interesting, to me, is that yesterday the NYT ran an article praising Tattler’s Jet and his trainer; Tattler’s Jet was running his 460th and final harness race, in spite of an inflamed hoof. So. Running a horse for 14 years and 460 races, good; sedating show horses, bad.
He’s tanned. He’s rested. He’s ready.
He’s the newly redone animatronic LBJ from the (also recently remodeled) LBJ Presidential Library.
And if you think he looks just a little overly tan, well, you’re not the only one.
Nathan Weaver is a student at Clemson University. He decided that he wanted to help turtles cross the road.
More:
Sounds a lot like Weer’d Beard and ducks.
(Even though it turns out this was on FARK, I wanted to post it anyway to provoke an emotional response from my younger brother, who should update his blog, damnit. Seriously. He loves that scene from “Blade Runner”.)
The Statesman is reporting the death of Houston McCoy.
Mr. McCoy never got the fame he probably deserved, because that’s the way the media works. He was an officer with the Austin Police Department on August 1, 1966. Mr. McCoy and his fellow officer Ramiro Martinez fired the shots that killed Charles Whitman.
There’s always been some controversy over who actually killed Whitman, and that’s touched on briefly in Mr. McCoy’s obit. I expect to see this rehashed some more in the coming days. Gary Lavergne’s A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders
Brad Corbett. (NYT. Fort Worth Startlegram.)
Mr. Corbett founded, and made his money with, a plastic pipe manufacturing company. But he’s noteworthy here because he owned the Texas Rangers from 1974 to 1980, part of the Seasons in Hell
Also:
One story about Corbett, recounted in the obit, involves him making a trade with another owner while they were both standing at the urinal in a Fort Worth restaurant. Corbett is also one of the men who fired Billy Martin.
The NYT was running a little behind yesterday, and didn’t post their Charles Durning obit until later in the day. (Also, thanks to Lawrence and Guffaw for their comments yesterday.)
Likewise, the A/V Club is operating on holiday time: they did publish a nice obit for Jack Klugman, but have not gotten around to Charles Durning yet. (Edited to add: the A/V Club’s obit for Durning is up now.)
19 people were killed when one of the buses crashed. 16 of them were teenagers. This is one of those bits of Austin history that I was previously unaware of; I commend the Statesman story (and the sidebar about how horrible the highway bridge was) to your attention.
Having engaged in the annual Christmas “bringing everybody down” with dead people and concussions, I figure folks could use a chuckle:
The true meaning of Christmas is STOP CHASING THE DOG WITH YOUR HELICOPTER
— Popehat (@Popehat) December 25, 2012
(I can honestly say that those words were never said in my house on Christmas. Of course, that’s because my childhood predates cheap R/C helicopters.)
Today’s NYT has a nice retrospective article tied to the playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs 41 years ago today.
The Dolphins won, 27-24. In double overtime. To this day, that game remains the longest game in NFL history.
Continuing with the “Merry freakin’ Christmas” theme, Ryan Freel has passed away.
Freel was apparently a “b—s to the wall” player:
And over the course of his career, he suffered an estimated 10 concussions. He missed 30 games in 2007 because of a concussion after he collided with a teammate.
Freel was 36. According to the NYT obit, law enforcement believes he killed himself. I wanted to mention this as a reminder: people have talked a lot about concussions in football, and to a lesser extent in hockey (they’d probably be talking more about hockey if we actually had a hockey season). I think it is worth keeping in mind that those aren’t the only sports worth worrying about.
Charles Durning, war hero and noted character actor.
They don’t make them like that anymore.
I’m just a little too young to remember “The Odd Couple” well (except for the theme), but “Quincy, M.E.” was right in my wheelhouse for the first several seasons. At some point, I’d like to do a longer post about the “NBC Sunday Mystery Movie” and all the great stuff that came out of it, but for now, let me say that I was an avid Quincy fan when I was a kid; at least, until the series turned into Jack Klugman’s cause of the week.
I did sort of keep up with Klugman after the series went off the air, and was sad when he came down with throat cancer. That’s the sort of thing I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, and I can’t imagine what it was like for an actor. Happily, he was able to do some acting after that. (It brings a smile to my face to see that he did a guest stint on “Crossing Jordan”, the “Quincy” of the 2000 era except that it sucked.)
(And I have, but have not watched, the Criterion “12 Angry Men
I previously noted the strange case of Carolyn Barnes, the local lawyer who was accused of shooting at a census worker, found incompetent to stand trial, sent to the state hospital in Kerrville, and yet retains her license to practice law and is representing at least one client.
Yes. Well. There’s an update to the story:
The judge’s position actually kind of makes sense to me:
Meanwhile, the whole issue may become moot, as the Statesman also reports Ms. Barnes is moving closer to being declared competent to stand trial.
Larry L. King, author of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, has passed away at 83.
I was not aware of this, but King is also alleged to have coined the saying, “The only way you can lose this election, Joe, is to get caught in bed with a live man or a dead woman.”
And:
I have been critical of the HouChron in the past, but I have to give them credit for this headline:
(Click to embiggen.)
If only they’d added “Women, minorities hardest hit” as a subhed, it would have been a classic.
Heh. “a beer in a paper bag”. Bunny Colvin, call your office, please.
Black truffles are selling in Paris for around $1,200 a pound.