Because this is hookersnblow.com, too.

July 21st, 2022

Not news: Air Force scientist persuades one of his contractors to hire a woman he knows.

Also not news: contractor has some concerns about his new hire, like her inability to “use basic word processing and document creation software” and “formulate coherent inter-office emails”.

News: she was actually a hooker.

News: not only was she involved professionally with the scientist, but she was also plying her trade with other scientists at Wright-Patterson AFB.

News: when the contractor told the scientist this was unethical, the scientist “stated he would come to Building 5 with one of his many guns to ‘end it all’”.

News:

When AFOSI investigators raided [the scientist’s] office, they seized electronic devices along with a box of condoms, women’s underwear and an empty bottle of Viagra.
A forensic review of his phone found texts between [the scientist] and 27 sex workers in different cities, many of whom were “foreign nationals from countries considered US National Security concerns,” the warrant said.

News: the scientist passed away in September of last year from “unspecified causes”.

The warrant, unsealed on Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, seeks access to [the scientist’s] and the woman’s email accounts for evidence of false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims, embezzlement/misuse of government property, extortion of officers or employees of the United States, ethnic intimidation, and aggravated menacing, the Daily Beast reported.
She is reportedly being investigated on charges of prostitution near military and naval establishments, and false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims.

That’s quite a catalog of crimes, some of which I’m unfamiliar with. “ethnic intimidation”? “aggravated menacing”? Is there non-aggravated menacing?

Posted in Law, Stupid | 1 Comment »

Murdaugh watch.

July 21st, 2022

Russell Laffitte has been charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, and the ever popular “conspiracy”.

Mr. Laffitte used to be the CEO of Palmetto State Bank: he got canned back in January.

The whole thing centers around two sisters who got a settlement back in 2005. Mr. Laffitte was their conservator, Alex Murdaugh was their lawyer, and…

Laffitte allegedly schemed with the disgraced lawyer to pillage the girls’ accounts and steal $355,000 for himself and $990,000 for Murdaugh, court documents said.
He also misused bank funds to give Murdaugh an unauthorized $750,000 loan for “beach house renovations and expenses” and sent $680,000 of the bank’s money to pay back a debt Murdaugh had illegally transferred to him, according to the grand jury.
In addition, Laffitte earned nearly $400,000 for supposedly safeguarding the Plyler sister’s money, according to the document. He had allegedly been in cahoots with Murdaugh to steal from the girls since 2011 and faces 30 years in prison if convicted.

(Sorry about using the NYPost for this, but I actually could not find coverage of this story in the South Carolina newspapers.)

Posted in Law, Murdaugh | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 21, 2022.

July 21st, 2022

Rebecca Balding, actress.

Other credits include “Supertrain”, “The Rockford Files” (“Dwarf in a Helium Hat“), “Lou Grant”, and “MacGruder and Loud”.

Posted in 1970s, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Tweet of the day.

July 20th, 2022

Yeah. I hadn’t thought about it, but it absolutely makes sense that if you need a bunch of movie armor, there are places you can go for that. It sort of surprises me that the places are in India, and it apparently involves “Blacksmiths followed by cargo containers” rather than local rental houses, but that’s the global economy, I guess.

Bonus:

Posted in Bagatelle | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 20, 2022.

July 20th, 2022

Dr. Robert F. Curl Jr., professor of chemistry at Rice University and a good Texas boy.

Dr. Curl shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996 (with Dr. Richard E. Smalley and Dr. Harold W. Kroto) for the discovery of buckyballs.

“If Mother Nature is trying to tell you something, you have to listen,” Dr. Curl recalled in a 2016 Rice University interview celebrating the 20th anniversary of his Nobel.
While Dr. Kroto and Dr. Smalley pursued further buckyball research, Dr. Curl soon moved on to other areas of interest. In the 2016 interview, he recalled going to Dr. Smalley’s office and finding his colleague filling up binders with papers about buckyballs.
“I don’t want to be in any field for a full-time job keeping up with the literature,” Dr. Curl said. “That’s why I abandoned that area.”

…

After Dr. Curl won the Nobel, Malcolm Gillis, then the president of Rice, asked him what he wanted, perhaps worried that bigger-name institutions would be looking to hire him away from the university.
Dr. Curl asked for a bicycle rack near his office.

Posted in Obits, Science | Comments Closed

A horse is a horse, of course, of course…

July 19th, 2022

…and no one should flee from a horse, of course,
Especially (of course) if the NYPD owns that horse.

Somebody in the thread responded with a still, but what the heck, let’s go to the ‘Tube:

(Jessica Walter! Damn!)

Posted in 1970s, Horses, Law, NYPD, TV | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: July 19, 2022.

July 19th, 2022

Mickey Rooney Jr.

Not a whole lot of credits in IMDB. I’m wondering if “Beyond the Bermuda Triangle” counts as genre. (Fred MacMurray? On a totally unrelated note, I just picked up the 4K/UHD package of “Double Indemnity” during the Criterion 50% off sale, and am looking forward to watching it soon. I’ve never seen it, but I keep hearing it is one of the great noir films.)

Michael Swanwick posted a nice tribute to Claes Oldenburg on his blog.

Posted in Art, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Random gun crankery.

July 18th, 2022

Remember in my NRAAM coverage I threw in a photo, “At the weird intersection of SF geekery and gun geekery”?

Here’s some more deets for you.

Perhaps the most iconic surplus firearms used as props in the movie however was the Mauser C96 pistol or “Broomhandle” Mauser, which would not only become the Merr-Sonn Munitions, Inc. Model 44 blaster carried by many Imperial officers, but also the iconic BlasTech DL-44 heavy blaster pistol carried by the stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking, Nerf-herder himself, Han Solo.

RIA estimates $300,000 to $500,000 for this one. I’m not sure how this compares with Indy’s S&W revolver, as I can’t find any information on what that went for (or even if it was ever sold).

The Firearm Blog also has a story.

Posted in Guns, Movies | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 18, 2022.

July 18th, 2022

It was a bad weekend for SF writers. Lawrence sent me two obits:

Herbert W. Franke.

…not only studied physics, mathematics, chemistry, psychology and philosophy at the University of Vienna, was the author of numerous science fiction novels and an avid cave explorer.

Eric Flint. I’ve heard good things about his “1632” books, but haven’t read any of them.

Claes Oldenburg, visual artist. His thing seems to have been making huge versions of everyday objects.

One of his most famous installations, erected in 1976 — the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence — is “Clothespin,” a 45-foot-high, 10-ton black steel sculpture of precisely what the title indicates, complete with a metal spring that appropriately evokes the number 76. The work stands in stark contrast to conventional public sculpture, which Mr. Oldenburg, impersonating a municipal official, said was supposed to involve “bulls and Greeks and lots of nekkid broads.”

Gerald Shargel, criminal lawyer. He defended a lot of Mob guys, including Gotti.

The lanky, bearded lawyer got so close to some Mafia clients that a federal district judge, I. Leo Glasser, removed him from representing one mob figure after prosecutors accused him of serving as “house counsel” to an organized crime family, an allegation he denied.
Mr. Gotti himself also got upset with Mr. Shargel, for being too talkative to reporters. The mob boss was caught on a wiretap warning his lawyer: “I’m gonna show him a better way than the elevator out of his office” (which was on the 32nd floor).

…

When one witness explained that the accessories required for a mob induction included not only a needle to draw blood for the ritual oath, but a bottle of alcohol to sterilize the pinprick, Mr. Shargel asked mordantly: “In other words you were going to get into the Mafia, but you didn’t want to infect your finger?”

Lily Safra. I probably wouldn’t have said anything about this at all, were it not for all the stuff in the obit about the death of husband number four, Edmond J. Safra. (Archive.is link for those who can’t read it otherwise.)

Posted in Art, Books, History, Law, Obits | Comments Closed

Quick book note.

July 15th, 2022

Just got an email from The Mysterious Bookshop.

Sherlock Holmes In 221 Objects: From the Collection of Glen S. Miranker is back in stock. At least for now: they claim to have a very limited number of “first edition, signed, limited copies” at $60. They also state “The Grolier Club will be printing a second, more expensive edition soon…”

So if you were interested, but gave up hope, now’s your chance.

Posted in Books | Comments Closed

Camel bites Kan be pretti nasti.

July 15th, 2022

A worker at a central Minnesota zoo was flown to St. Cloud Hospital on Wednesday after a camel got the man’s head in its mouth and bit down.
A second man who helped free the first also was bitten.

…

Deputies were told an employee was escorting a camel through an alleyway to prepare it for transport when the animal got the employee’s head in its mouth and bit down. The camel then dragged him about 15 feet.
A second employee, a 32-year-old Texas man, placed a plastic board into the camel’s mouth to release its bite from the first man, who was able to run to safety. The camel then charged at the second man and bit his head. He was able to get away on his own and declined medical treatment at the scene.

Posted in Camels, Mammals | 1 Comment »

Norts spews.

July 15th, 2022

There are many, many reasons why I hate the Olympics and the International Olympic Committee.

I have one less reason to hate them now.

Jim Thorpe, stripped of his 1912 gold medals because he’d been paid to play minor league baseball, was reinstated Thursday as the sole winner of that year’s Olympic decathlon and pentathlon by the International Olympic Committee.

…

“We are so grateful his nearly 110-year-old injustice has finally been corrected, and there is no confusion about the most remarkable athlete in history,” said Nedra Darling, the co-founder of Bright Path Strong, a group created to share Native American voices and a leading organization that fought for Thorpe — who died in 1953 — to regain his medals. She is also a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
“Jim Thorpe is a hero across Indian Country, and he is an American hero,” she said. “He represented this country before it even recognized Native Americans as citizens, and he did so with humility and grace. Even after he was wronged by his coach, the American Athletic Union, and many others, he never gave in to bitterness and led with a spirit of generosity and kindness. I pray that Jim, his family, and our ancestors are celebrating that the truth has been respoken today, on this 110th anniversary of Jim being awarded his Olympic gold medals.”

Posted in Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 15, 2022.

July 15th, 2022

Ivana Trump.

Mark Fleischman, owner of Studio 54.

Owning Studio 54, Fleischman partied with the likes of Andy Warhol, Calvin Klein, Halston, Liza Minelli and Cher. The lifestyle may have taken a toll on the business owner.
“I liked to be high. So I would do drugs and drink. Possibly, this [health condition] is because I drank a lot and did drugs,” he told The Post.

He was 82 years old, and died from assisted suicide in Switzerland.

For the record: Monty Norman, composer of the James Bond theme.

John R. Froines, one of the Chicago Seven.

This isn’t quite an obit, but: according to news reports, the 988 number for access to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will go into effect this weekend. The old 1-800-273-8255 number will continue to work as well.

Posted in History, Obits | Comments Closed

Sniper! No sniping!

July 14th, 2022

I thought I mentioned this in my NRA Show coverage this year, but apparently not. Mike the Musicologist and I went to a talk by Maj. John L. Plaster, U.S. Army (Ret.), noted sniping expert, on “Sniping in the Ukraine”.

If you were not able to go this year, Maj. Plaster has an article in the new American Rifleman.

Days before the invasion, Bilozerska spoke with Nick Craven of the London Mail newspaper about her feelings on taking enemy lives. “When the enemy crawls toward our position to kill me, does he think if I have a husband, parents or kids? Of course not. And I don’t bother myself with stupid things either. That stuff is for books and movies.”

…

Interestingly, the FSB snipers had British-made Accuracy International AZ rifles chambered in .338 Lapua Mag.

Interesting indeed. From what I’ve read in the two Swift and Bold sniping books, AI keeps very tight control on who their guns go to. Perhaps these went to the FSB back in the good old days?

Individual foreign volunteers, too, have appeared in Donbas, the most notable being a Serbian sniper nicknamed “Deki.” Armed with a quality Russian T-5000 rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Mag., Deki was the focus of a 2018 Russian documentary, “A Sniper’s War.” His sniping ability, however, was questionable, due to his jerking the trigger and carelessly exposing himself at windows.

Posted in Guns, History | 2 Comments »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#93 in a series)

July 14th, 2022

Jason Lary, the ex-mayor of Stonecrest, Georgia, was sentenced to 57 months in prison yesterday.

Former Mayor Lary pled guitly in January to wire fraud, conspiracy, and theft of federal funds. He took COVID relief funds granted by DeKalb County and used them to pay off his mortgage and back taxes. Some of the money also went to pay his bookkeeper’s son’s college expenses. (She’s also pled guilty to conspiracy, but hasn’t been sentenced yet.)

In addition to the prison time, Mr. Lary will have to pay $120,000 in restitution, and serve three years of supervised release.

Apologies for linking to the NYT on this. I can’t get the story from the Atlanta paper to go through archive.is, and the AJC is very obnoxious about subscribing/adblocking.

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

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