The A/V Club is reporting the death of Denise Matthews. Ms. Matthews was also known as Vanity, Prince’s protege in the early 1980s. (Edited to add: NYT. LAT.)
I’m just going to throw this one out here for all my conspiracy buff friends:
Obit watch: February 16, 2016.
February 16th, 2016Random notes: February 15, 2016.
February 15th, 2016It was a busy weekend; by the time I found out about Scalia, I was out and around and unable to blog. Now it feels like we’ve reached Scalia saturation, and I’m not sure I have anything to say. Except: I would have liked to have met the man. Lawrence has some links up over at his site.
Something that mildly amused me, and that I also didn’t have a chance to blog over the weekend: remember the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Anthem of the Seas? The one that sailed into a storm?
Well, it turns out there was a NYT reporter on board. Not that they were expecting a storm: the reporter was apparently on board to cover the first voyage of Royal Caribbean’s brand new super ship. Instead…
Not exactly the kind of thing your company wants to read in the paper of record.
2016, ladies and gentlemen. Speaking of 2016…
“Who dies at sea anymore?” That was just stupid. Setting aside for the moment the immigrants who die at sea (while their deaths are tragic, and I don’t mean to diminish them, I’m sure the NYT author would argue that’s not the kind of “death at sea” he’s thinking about), ever hear of the Costa Concordia? Where are the paper’s editors?
One more thing that tickled my funny bone: a vaunted feature of the Anthem of the Seas is something called the “Bionic Bar”: “Attended by two robotic arms that mix cocktails amid an array of flashing lights and thumping techno music, patrons sit a few feet away from the bar and order from a menu of available drinks, many of them coming in bright neon colors that evoked thoughts of nuclear waste, on a tablet computer.”
How’s that working for them?
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#26 in a series)
February 11th, 2016I haven’t been paying as much attention to the LA County jail scandal as I used to: things sort of got away from me.
But this is stunning and noteworthy: the former LA County sheriff, Lee Baca, has pled guilty to lying to the feds.
In a plea agreement filed in federal court Wednesday morning, Baca admitted that he lied when he told federal authorities that he was unaware that his subordinates planned to approach the FBI agent leading the jail investigation at her home.
Baca agreed not to contest other allegations leveled by federal prosecutors, including that he directed subordinates to approach the agent, stating that they should “do everything but put handcuffs” on her, the agreement said.
I believe this is the incident in question.
Baca’s plea deal apparently includes a provision that he won’t serve more than six months, and it seems possible that he could get probation. His #2 man, Paul Tanaka, is going to go on trial in March; the plea deal also apparently does not require Baca to testify against Tanaka.
Edited to add: longer article from the LAT about Baca’s plea.
A Bridge Too Far.
February 11th, 2016Obit watch: February 10, 2016.
February 10th, 2016For the record: NYT obit for David Hartwell.
This has a February 3rd dateline on it, but I did not see it on the NYT website until today.
TMQ Watch: February 9, 2016.
February 9th, 2016And so we come to the end of Gregg Easterbrook’s first season writing TMQ for the New York Times. What does he have in store for us this week? Would you believe neuroscience and the evils of the NFL? Well, yes, you probably would believe that.
After the jump, this week’s ultimate TMQ…
Quick Superb Owl reaction.
February 8th, 2016TMQ is going to be particularly insufferable this week.
Obit watch: February 6, 2016.
February 6th, 2016I thought I’d do this one separately, since it didn’t fit in tone with the previous entry:
Edgar D. Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut and the sixth man to walk on the moon.
Random notes: February 6, 2016.
February 6th, 2016Good news, everyone! Our long national nightmare is just beginning!
“Cop Rock” is coming out on DVD.
I never saw an episode of “Cop Rock”, but I am assured it is horrible: therefore, I have to get the DVDs.
I went back and forth about noting this obit yesterday, but in the end, this paragraph pushed me over the edge:
“Girl Gun Runners of Saigon”, one of the greatest titles ever. Right up there with “Weasels Ripped My Flesh” and “Coffin’s Got the Dead Guy On the Inside”.
Obit watch: February 5, 2016.
February 5th, 2016Maurice White, founding member of Earth, Wind, and Fire. NYT. A/V Club.
Dave Mirra, prominent BMX racer.
The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Obit watch: February 3, 2016.
February 3rd, 2016Bob Elliott, of Bob and Ray fame. NYT. A/V Club.
Bob & Ray Present the CBS Radio Network.
And now I really want the DVDs of Get A Life
TMQ Watch: February 2, 2016.
February 3rd, 2016How did TMQ spend the most boring week in sports? Let’s find out. This week’s TMQ, after the jump…
Obit watch: special all UKOGBNI edition.
February 3rd, 2016Gordon Goody, one of the Great Train Robbers.
While Mr. Goody was always considered one of the masterminds of the plot, he resented the fact that Mr. Reynolds was most often identified as the gang’s chief architect. (Mr. Reynolds died in 2013.)
“I do take exception to being referred to, as I have been from time to time, as Bruce’s number two,” Mr. Goody wrote. “I wasn’t number two to anybody.”
Richard John Bingham, the seventh Earl of Lucan, also known as Lord Lucan.
Okay, so, technically, he’s been dead since 1999, but this time he’s really most sincerely dead.
Something lighter.
January 29th, 2016Good for a few chuckles, at least. For example, the entry on “Eastern Caribbean University”: “…master’s degrees were offered in “Classical Studies” which actually was the study of any ‘classic’ TV or movies series such as ‘I Love Lucy’ or the James Bond movies. Closed by action of the CB.”
I also like “Irish International University”: “The Irish government has requested that Malaysia close this entity on grounds that it is neither Irish nor a university.”
(“The Partridge Family were neither partridges, nor a family. Discuss.”)
Buddy.
January 29th, 2016In another life, I used to travel between Austin and Rhode Island regularly (once a year or so).
The first time I went, I stayed downtown, at the Biltmore. This was 1995, I think, and it seemed that downtown was dead.
But I kept going back (this was the business I had chosen) and downtown Providence got better. They built a big new mall within walking distance of the Biltmore. They started Waterfire. The last time I was in Providence, it was a fun, exciting place to be. I miss it.
Buddy Cianci was responsible for a lot of this.
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He wasn’t a hero of mine, and I never really “met” him. I did encounter him a couple of times.
It was a running joke among my coworkers (and the folks we worked with in Rhode Island) that you should eat at Joe Marzilli’s Old Canteen at least once; not only was the food good, but if you got lucky, you might see Buddy.
Well, one night I was in there with some of my coworkers and some of our Rhode Island contacts. So was Buddy. He actually came over to our table and commented on how cute and well-behaved the young child who was with us was. (As I recall, he was accompanied by a stunning, and very young, woman.)
Later on that trip, I shared an elevator ride with him. I didn’t say anything to him; didn’t seem like the time or place. I kind of wish I had said something nice to him now.
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The Prince of Providence
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Buddy reminds me some of Robert Moses. Both were examples of The Man Who Got Things Done. And it seems that both were also examples of the “rude to the waiter” rule. (I watched him get kind of snippy once with a desk clerk at the Biltmore who didn’t recognize him. To be fair, though, he was actually living in the Biltmore at the time…)
I was always conflicted by him. As a Libertarian, he represented a lot of what I hate about big government. As a connoisseur of politicians, especially crooked ones, he was one of the last examples of a type we probably won’t see again.
And I always thought his second conviction was questionable. He was charged on 27 counts, and was acquitted on 26. The one thing he was found guilty of was “racketeering conspiracy”. What the hell does that even mean? What “racket” was he “conspiring” in, if he wasn’t guilty of the other 26 charges?
Then again, I Am Not A Lawyer, and maybe I’m inclined to make excuses for someone I kind of liked.
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He may have been a crook. But he was my crook, damn it.