Obit watch: January 8, 2018.

January 8th, 2018

A roundup of obits from the past couple of days:

John Young, Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle astronaut. NASA.

Jerry Van Dyke, noted television actor (“My Mother the Car”).

Peggy Cummins. She’s mostly forgotten now – she stopped acting in the 1960s – but she was the female lead opposite John Dall in the famous 1950 noir film “Gun Crazy”.

Start with a badass, end with a badass: Ulrich Wegener, founder of the German Border Protection Group 9 (aka Grenzschutzgruppe 9):

The unit, also known as GSG-9, was created after the September 1972 attack on the Summer Olympics in Munich, when Palestinian militants kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. Ill prepared for terrorism, and lacking a tactical sniper team, the German police botched an attempt to rescue the athletes, who were killed, along with one police officer and five of the eight kidnappers.

One of his first accomplishments: Lufthansa Flight 181.

Around 2 a.m. on Oct. 18, Somali soldiers lit a fire 65 yards in front of the jet, creating a diversion. As the hostage takers entered the cockpit to see what was going on, Colonel Wegener and his commandos stormed the aircraft. Over the next seven minutes, three militants were killed and the fourth was wounded. Three passengers, a flight attendant and a commando were injured. But all 86 passengers, along with the four surviving crew members, were saved.

…

Later that night, three members of the Red Army Faction — Gudrun Ensslin, Jan-Carl Raspe and Andreas Baader — were found dead in their cells, having committed suicide, and Mr. Schleyer, the abducted executive, was murdered.

…

Briefly held by American troops as a prisoner of war, he returned home, to what became East Germany, to finish his schooling.
Caught handing out leaflets critical of the Communist government, he was jailed for 18 months. Upon his release in 1952, he fled to West Berlin, where he went on to join the police.

(I haven’t found a source I consider completely trustworthy for this, but there are reports that Colonel (at the time) Wegener also participated with the Israeli Sayeret Matkal in the raid on Entebbe.)

Posted in Geek, History, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

An embarrassment of Rich.

January 3rd, 2018

Rich Rodriguez fired last night as head coach of the University of Arizona.

Why? Would you believe…sexual harassment?

The former employee on Thursday filed a $7.5 million notice of claim with the state’s attorney general’s office alleging Rodriguez ran a hostile workplace, according to the Arizona Daily Star. A notice of claim is a legal document that signals a lawsuit will be filed.

Arizona Daily Star (really obnoxious about ad blockers). NYT. ESPN.

Part of what makes this interesting is that RichRod was fired, but the university admits it wasn’t “for cause”: this means that they have to pay his contract buyout ($6 million) plus whatever the plaintiff wins (or settles for) in their pending claim against the university. So this could add up quick. And, as the Daily Star notes, this isn’t the only sports related problem the university has.

(Also: why does a university football coach need representation from CAA?)

Rodriguez’s contract was set to run through May 31, 2020. His buyout as of Dec. 1 was $6.45 million, according to USA Today’s annual survey of NCAA football coaches’ salaries. Because he was let go before March 15, Rodriguez will miss out on approximately $3.2 million from a master-limited-partnership provision in his contract. That pay came via publicly traded units on the so-called “Longevity Fund.” Rodriguez was set to receive 25 percent of the value on March 15. If he had been fired any time after that, he would have been entitled to the full value of the fund.

“publicly traded units on the so-called ‘Longevity Fund'”? Have I just not had enough coffee this morning? Or did RichRod have some sort of weirdly structured deal?

Posted in Firings, Sports | 1 Comment »

TMQ Watch: January 2, 2018.

January 2nd, 2018

Yeah, we can’t believe it, either. We want to try on our best Don LaFontaine voice. “In the future world of 2018…”

And that’s as far as we’ve gotten. “…you will believe that a famous chef sends out an apology for sexual harassment that includes his recipe for cinnamon buns“? Nobody would believe that.

“You will believe that Gregg Easterbrook watched football on New Year’s Eve”? That might work.

After the jump, this week’s TMQ…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Mixology, Movies, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Blood watch.

January 2nd, 2018

The Houston Texas have let several assistants go:

  • special teams coordinator Larry Izzo
  • secondary coach John Butler
  • assistant special teams coordinator Doug Colman

Mr. Izzo’s departure is described as “a mutual parting of the ways” rather than a firing, while Mr. Butler’s and Mr. Colman’s are described as actual firings.

Running backs coach Charles London is leaving the staff on his own without being dismissed. London wants to pursue a quarterback coaching position.
Meanwhile, Texans director of football research Jim Bernhardt is retiring.

Dom Capers out as defensive coordinator for Green Bay. Also inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley and defensive line coach Mike Trgovac. It feels kind of crappy to fire guys after a season disrupted by a quarterback’s injury. But then again, as ESPN points out, the Pack’s defense ranked 22nd out of 32 teams: you can’t blame not having a quarterback for that.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Monday, bloody Monday…

January 1st, 2018

It has begun.

Jim Caldwell fired as head coach of the Detroit Lions.

Caldwell posted the highest regular-season winning percentage (.563) of any full-time Lions coach in the Super Bowl era, but his 36-28 record included just four victories over teams that finished above .500, and he went 0-2 in the playoffs.

Give the man credit though: in four seasons, none of his teams went 0-16.

John Fox gone as coach of da Bears. He was 14-34 over three seasons, and 5-11 this year.

Fox leaves as the second-worst coach in Bears history, behind Abe Gibron, who had a 27.4 winning percentage. His 5-11 mark this season is two wins better than last season, but it marked the Bears’ fourth-straight season mired in last place in the NFC North.

Edited to add: Not a firing, but Bruce Arians has retired as coach of the Arizona Cardinals, ostensibly to spend more time with his family. (Some coverage has also mentioned that Mr. Arians has suffered from various health issues, too.)

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Snoop, call your office, please…

December 31st, 2017

Chuck Pagano out as head coach of the Colts.

Pagano’s tenure in Indianapolis ends with a 53-43 overall record, though nine wins from the 2012 campaign were credited to Pagano while he battled and eventually beat leukemia and Bruce Arians ably filled in as interim coach.

The team was 4-12 this year.

Edited to add: And now, Jack Del Rio out as coach of the Raiders, according to ESPN. Haven’t found a good link for this yet. Rumor for the past couple of days has been that the Raiders really want Jon Gruden and are prepared to offer him everything, including equity in the team.

Gregg Easterbrook is going to be more insufferable than usual.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 17, 2017.

December 31st, 2017

Honorable readers:

As of 3:06 PM Central on December 31st, 2017, the Cleveland Browns became the third team in the modern NFL era to go an entire season without winning a game, and the second to finish an entire season 0-16.

Only the 2008 Detroit Lions match Cleveland’s record for futility: the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished their first season 0-14.

In other news, the New York Football Giants actually won their game, improving to 3-13. This may be good enough for second place in the draft: the Colts beat Houston and finished 4-12.

More later, maybe. There will be a ceremonial toast drunk tonight.

Edited to add: Yep. Looks like it’s going to be Browns-Giants for sure. I think the third and subsequent positions are still up in the air until the late games are over.

ETA2: Cleveland.com coverage.

ETA3: Per NFL.com, it’s going to be:
Browns
Giants
Colts
Browns again (traded with Houston for this pick)

I expect Bloody Monday to be interesting. If there are any “Damn, you didn’t even wait to get him in the house” firings tonight, I’ll try to update.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: December 31, 2017.

December 31st, 2017

It looks like the NYT replaced the incomplete Sue Grafton obituary I linked to on Friday with a full obituary, without changing the link. Okay fine. LAT. WP.

I wish I had more to say about her: I’ve never read any of the books. They are sort of on my list, but I have it in my head that I want to start with “A” and read them in alphabetical order, and I’ve just never gotten around to doing that.

NYT “The Lives They Lived”.

They missed one, and I think this is a nice tribute:

Posted in Obits | Comments Closed

Damn it all to Hell and Hong Kong.

December 29th, 2017

The NYT is reporting the death of Sue Grafton, author of the Kinsey Millhone “alphabet” mysteries, at the age of 77.

The paper of record does not have a full obit up yet: I will try to post a follow-up when I can.

Posted in Books, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 29, 2017.

December 29th, 2017

Rose Marie.

Originally known as Baby Rose Marie, she is probably best remembered for her “Dick Van Dyke Show” role as Sally Rogers, one of three comedy writers — the others were Rob Petrie (Mr. Van Dyke) and Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) — who worked for the fictional series-within-a-series, “The Alan Brady Show.”

I’m too young to remember the “Dick Van Dyke Show” (and oddly, never caught it in reruns).

Sally was witty, wisecracking and independent-minded, but she was also perpetually on the hunt for a husband; though tough as nails, she was not immune to romantic misadventures. Her main significance, though, was that she worked as a comedy writer, a rarity for women at the time. (One inspiration for the role was said to be Selma Diamond, who had written for Sid Caesar in the 1950s.)

Yeah, that Selma Diamond. I did not know this.

She was also seen frequently — from the first episode, in 1966, to the last, in 1980 — on the original version of “Hollywood Squares,” the game show on which celebrities answered questions (and made jokes) to help contestants score X’s or O’s on a giant tick-tack-toe board. There, with her trademark bow in her hair, she flaunted the persona she had perfected: a feisty, witty, outspoken spinster (although she was actually a widow) who refused to grow old without a fight.

This is where I remember her from. And here’s a neat piece of trivia:

In this first phase of her career, she performed with Rudy Vallee, Benny Goodman and Milton Berle, among many others. She had at least one famous friend outside show business as well: Through her father she met Al Capone, who took an interest in her career, often driving her to and from shows. She referred to him as “Uncle Al” in her memoir and quoted him saying, “If you ever need me for anything, tell your father to call me.”

Posted in 1970s, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch: December 26, 2017.

December 27th, 2017

Because this year’s schedule meant football on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, TMQ didn’t watch any.

We’re still unclear on why this was the case. Especially on Christmas Day: the first game started at 3:30 PM Central, and was over with enough time left to watch the good “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and promptly flip over to the second game before the bad “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” came on. (Really, whose bright idea was it to show the vastly superior animated special before the feature length movie that should never have been made?)

But how can you miss me when I won’t go away?

So. Many. Possible. Punch. Lines.

My holiday gift to readers is a column-length expansion of Tuesday Morning Quarterback’s A Cosmic Thought item.

Can we return this and get something actually useful? Like socks?

After the jump, this week’s substitute for a TMQ…

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Loser watch.

December 27th, 2017

Two articles from ESPN that amused me:

“The worst teams in NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL history“. I quibble with their NBA team choice, but the rest of the picks seem sound.

“The worst NFL teams ever for all 32 franchises“. The picks for Detroit and Tampa Bay are logical. But were the 1990 Browns worse than the 2016 Browns?

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

De minimis non curat lex.

December 26th, 2017

However, this sounds like an excellent case for small clams court.

Posted in Law | Comments Closed

This gives a new meaning…

December 25th, 2017

…to a “white elephant” gift exchange:

A man was shot overnight on Christmas by what police say may have been a stray bullet while gathering with family for a gift exchange at a home in southwest Houston.

Posted in Christmas, Law | Comments Closed

Merry Christmas, everyone!

December 25th, 2017

I’m having a hard time finding versions of this song on YouTube that I like. I might have to resort to something different next year.

But this year, you’re getting a twofer.

I like this video enough to post it. My quibble is that this is entirely instrumental, and I feel like this song needs vocals.

So I’ll throw this one in as a bone to all my prog-rock friends out there:

Posted in Christmas, Music | Comments Closed

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