Well, okay, just one Giant.
Jason Garrett, who you may remember for his time coaching the Dallas Cowboys, out as offensive coordinator of the New York Football Giants.
The Giants Have Fallen.
November 23rd, 2021Obit watch: November 22, 2021.
November 22nd, 2021Bob Bondurant, legendary racer and founder of The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving.
Mr. Bondurant began attracting attention in the racing world in 1959, when he won 18 of the 20 races he entered behind the wheel of a Corvette.
“I am an original California hot rodder turned white hot when I started winning everything in my Corvettes,” he was quoted as saying by the National Corvette Museum, which inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2016.
He continued to win races regularly in Corvettes in the 1960s, but he also began to race successfully in other sports cars and open-wheeled Formula 1 machines, including for the elite Ferrari team from 1965 to 1966.
“He was top of the line,” said Peter Brock, who designed the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe that Mr. Bondurant raced with Dan Gurney to first place in the GT, or Grand Touring, class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 1964.
…
Even before opening the school, Mr. Bondurant had some well-known students. He had coached James Garner and Yves Montand in driving Formula 1 cars for John Frankenheimer’s 1966 film, “Grand Prix.” Mr. Bondurant, who was a stunt man and technical adviser to the film, wore 16-millimeter cameras on the sides of his helmet to record racing action on the track while moving at 150 miles per hour.
Soon after Mr. Bondurant opened the school, Mr. Newman and Robert Wagner signed up as students. They had been cast as racecar drivers in the film “Winning” (1969), in which Mr. Newman’s character dreams of winning the Indianapolis 500.
“Paul has a knack of knowing how to learn,” Mr. Bondurant told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1988. “He’s like most actors — they know how to listen. He would move at his own pace, and wouldn’t go too quick. He took it step by step, and it came naturally to him.”
One of my lifetime ambitions has been to attend the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, though apparently it went bankrupt in 2018 and is now known as the Radford Racing School.
Robert Bly, the Iron John guy. Anyone else remember when Iron John was a thing? I do, though I never actually read it: I just remember a time when people talked about books, instead of what the Kardasians were doing yesterday.
Carolyn Watjen, aka “Caroline Todd“. You wouldn’t know her under that name: she and her son, David Watjen, write (wrote?) mystery novels under the pseudonym “Charles Todd”. I haven’t read any of them yet, but the Ian Rutledge novels sound interesting.
Jay Last. He was an early semi-conductor pioneer: specifically, he was one of the “traitorous eight” who left William Shockley and founded Fairchild Semiconductor. His death leaves Gordon Moore (yes, that Moore) as the last surviving member of the group.
Lawrence sent over an obit for Mick Rock, photographer of musicians.
Peter Aykroyd, Dan’s brother and “Saturday Night Live” cast member.
Art LaFleur, actor. Other than “The Sandlot”, his credits include episodes of “The John Larroquette Show”, two different remakes of television series that should never have been remade and which failed miserably (not due to Mr. LaFleur, they were just bad ideas), “Matlock”, “Field of Dreams”, and “Wizards and Warriors”.
Programming note.
November 22nd, 2021KXAN has thoughtfully informed us that “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” will be airing tonight on CBS at 7 PM Central (8 PM Eastern).
That soft wet sound you heard is the sound of Gregg Easterbrook’s head exploding, as, once again, “Rudolph” airs before Thanksgiving.
In case you were wondering, “Frosty the Snowman” will be on Friday night at 7 Central (8 Eastern) immediately followed by “Frosty Returns”, also on CBS.
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” will supposedly be on PBS Sunday, December 19th, at 6:30 Central (7:30 Eastern).
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (the real one) will be on NBC Friday night at 7 Central (8 Eastern).
“Annie Live!” will be on NBC Thursday, December 2nd, at 7 Central (8 Eastern). Unfortunately, I have other plans that evening that involve stabbing myself in the thigh repeatedly with a titanium spork.
And, finally, “It’s a Wonderful Life” will be on December 4th at 7 Central (8 Eastern) and will repeat Christmas Eve at 7 Central (8 Eastern).
Here’s what purports to be a complete list of holiday films on broadcast, streaming, and cable. No, don’t thank me: I run a full service blog here.
Your loser update: week 11, 2021 (with bonus firings).
November 22nd, 2021Sorry. I’m running a little behind, as I was tied up much of yesterday with various things, including going to see “Dune”.
(Random thought: it is refreshing to know that, thousands of years in the future, even on desert planets, there will be coffee.)
Anyway, NFL teams that still have a chance of going without a win this season:
Detroit.
The Lions play the semi-hapless (3-7) Bears on Thanksgiving Day. I’m thinking this is a toss-up, though ESPN seems to favor the Bears.
In firings news: Dan Mullen out at Florida. 34-15 in four seasons and they were in the national championship game last year, but (as Easterbrook often says) “what have you done for me lately?” (Answer: gone 5-6 this year and 2-6 in conference.)
Chip Lindsey out at Troy. 15-19 in three seasons, and 5-6 this one. Sensing a trend?
Noted.
November 19th, 2021Obit watch: November 19, 2021.
November 19th, 2021Wilbur Smith, author. He was another one of those guys whose books I often see in racks at the grocery store, which is a pretty good sign.
“I wrote about hunting and gold mining and carousing and women,” Mr. Smith said.
…
…
Mr. Smith had his detractors, who saw some of his writing as glorifying colonialism and furthering racial and gender stereotypes. And he was not always a favorite of critics.
He maintained, as he told the Australian publication The Age, that he paid little attention. “The snootiness of critics is so silly,” he said. “They’re judging Great Danes against Pekingese. I’m not writing that literature — I’ve never set out to write it. I’m writing stories.”
Lawrence sent over Ann Althouse’s obit for Justus Rosenberg yesterday. I can’t really do the man the justice she did, so I’ll just point you over there.
I shot an arrow into the air…
November 19th, 2021…how far did it go?
This is something I hadn’t really thought about until this Smithsonian article came across Hacker News: how far can you shoot an arrow? The current record is apparently 2,028 yards.
“The Quest to Shoot an Arrow Farther Than Anyone Has Before“.
Travel notes.
November 19th, 2021As you might have picked up from previous posts, Mike the Musicologist, myself, and some other friends who shall remain anonymous went up to Tulsa this past weekend for Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show. We generally try to go to every third one, but what with the Wuhan Flu et al, this is the first one we’ve been to since November of 2018.
I’m working on a longer post about some of the things I picked up during the show and around Tulsa, but I have to wait until one item arrives at my FFL. (On a related note, I am thinking more seriously about getting a C&R license. The problem is: I am already supposed to get one colonoscopy a year. I don’t need BATFE giving me a second one.)
A few things I noticed:
- It didn’t take us as long to go through the show as it usually did. I felt like I had seen all the tables by about 2 PM on Sunday.
- The reason is that it seemed there were fewer vendors. I think Wannemacher’s still sells all their tables, but it seemed like a lot of vendors may have purchased tables and then backed out for this round. Additionally, it seemed like a lot of vendors who were there decided to pack up their tables and close early: either they sold everything they’d brought, or just wanted to get on the road.
- There were a lot of people selling AR pattern rifles and parts at the show. But as usual, almost all the ones I saw were not mass-production platforms (Bushmaster, S&W, etc.) but were from small builders. I really didn’t pay much attention to prices, because I wasn’t looking for a new AR pattern rifle. (I am kind of looking for a cheapish AR upper for my own personal Behind Every Blade of Grass gun (hattip: McThag), but it wasn’t a priority for me at this show.) Someone Who Isn’t Me did purchase an upper in .224 Valkyrie, but I didn’t note the price.
- There were, as always, a lot of ammo vendors at the show. Which means ammo prices were competitive. I didn’t buy any ammo at the show. (I did pick up a box of .221 Fireball from Sports World and a box of 10mm Hornady Critical Duty from Dong’s Guns while we were roaming the city.) My Friends Who Are Not Me keep close track of ammo prices and did pick up some at the show for what they thought were good prices: 280 rounds of M-1 Garand specific .30-06 ammo for $1.25 a round (with ammo can and enbloc clips), 1000 rounds of .45 Auto for $.44 a round, 1000 rounds of 9mm for $.34 a round, and 1000 rounds of .380 for $.37 a round.
- I saw a lot (relatively speaking) of older Smith and Wesson Model 48 revolvers for sale. It wasn’t like every other table had one, but I saw far more than I expected to see, even given the size of the show. The Model 48 is a K-frame revolver chambered in .22 Magnum. They are nice guns, especially the older ones. I was just surprised at how many I saw for sale. (No, I didn’t buy one: I already have one in 6″. It’s very nice.)
- Pretty much all of our meals were good. We had the traditional German food at Siegi’s Sausage Factory, Thai food at Lanna Thai (“Lana!“), pretty good barbecue at Oklahoma Joe’s, excellent bulgogi at a hole in the wall called Gogi Gui Korean Grill, and a nice higher-end meal at Smoke Woodfire Grill. (Our usual higher end Sunday night meal place, The Chalkboard, is now only serving Sunday brunch.) We also had an excellent breakfast Monday morning at Bramble Breakfast and Bar in the Pearl District. (I recommend the Monte Carlo Benedict.) Also an excellent breakfast: Toast and Franklin’s on Main in Broken Arrow.
Stephen Hunter, call your office, please.
November 18th, 2021Spotted at a grocery store in Tulsa:
“…the man who holds the complete works of Aristotle in one hand, and a delicious sandwich in the other”. Well, who doesn’t love a delicious sandwich? But I think the Swagger I’m familiar with is more likely to have a .38 Super in the other hand.
(Swagger explained, for those who are unfamiliar with the works of Stephen Hunter. Those people should fix that soon: I’m personally fond of Pale Horse Coming, for reasons.)
Also spotted: Old Spice Krakengard. Which actually makes sense to me: if I can get a body wash that protects me from kraken, I am there, man.
Obit watch: November 18, 2021.
November 18th, 2021…
Philip Margo and some of the others in the group didn’t have a lot of confidence in the resulting recording.
“We were embarrassed by it and tried to convince Hugo and Luigi not to release it,” he said in an interview quoted in “The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits” by Fred Bronson. “They said it would be a big record and it was going out.”
They were right. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in December 1961, remained there for three weeks and became a cultural touchstone. A whole new generation was introduced to it in 1994 when a version turned up in the Disney movie “The Lion King.”
“Now that it’s current, we’re current,” Mr. Margo said at the time. “I am thrilled.”
Mr. Frishberg, who also played piano and sang, was an anomaly, if not an anachronism, in American popular music: an accomplished, unregenerate jazz pianist who managed to outrun the eras of rock, soul, disco, punk and hip-hop by writing hyper-literate songs that harked back to Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer, by way of Stephen Sondheim.
His songwriting wit was for grown-ups, yet he reached his widest audience with sharpshooting ditties for kids as a regular musical contributor to ABC-TV’s long-running Saturday morning animated show “Schoolhouse Rock!”
Among his credits: “I’m Just a Bill”.
Lawrence sent over an obit from Slam Wrestling for Joe Cornelius. In addition to his wrestling work, he helped with fight coordinating on “The Avengers” and also made some uncredited movie appearances. Perhaps his best known work was as the titular character in “Trog”.
Heath Freeman. He had some roles on “Bones” and “NCIS”. According to THR, he was only 41.
Obit watch: November 17, 2021.
November 17th, 2021Still playing catch up on obits. Please to excuse the shortness here.
Terence Wilson, of UB40.
Graeme Edge, of the Moody Blues.
Clifford Rose, noted actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also did some movie and TV work, including “Doctor Who”.
Geir Vegar Hoel, Norwegian actor. Lawrence and I knew him from “Dead Snow“, a fun little horror movie about Nazi zombies.
More firings.
November 16th, 2021I’m back home, but playing catch-up. In the meantime, Justin Fuente out as Virginia Tech head coach.
43-31 overall and 28-20 in the ACC over six seasons.
Firings watch.
November 15th, 2021Riding shotgun on the way home. In haste: Butch Davis out at Florida International.
Even better: it’s sabotage!
Travel day.
November 15th, 2021Heading home. Light blogging ahead. Some patchy fog. Otherwise clear and cold.
Obit watch: November 14, 2021.
November 14th, 2021Another quick obit roundup while I’m still on the road.
Sam Huff, linebacker for the New York Football Giants.
Playing for the Giants in their glory years of the late 1950s and early ’60s, Huff came out of the West Virginia coal country to anchor a defense that gained the kind of renown that had previously been reserved for strong-armed quarterbacks and elusive runners.
He played in six N.F.L. championship games in his eight seasons with the Giants. He was named to the all-league team three times and played in five Pro Bowls.
Huff was remembered for his head-on duels with two of the game’s greatest fullbacks — the Cleveland Browns’ Jim Brown and the Green Bay Packers’ Jim Taylor — but he also had 30 career interceptions. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.
Jonathan Reynolds. He was a playwright and wrote a food column for the NYT. I wanted to note his passing because he was also a screenwriter. His first script was “Micki + Maude”, a Blake Edwards/Dudley Moore movie that I was unfamiliar with, but which was apparently well received. But…
He also did “Switching Channels”, “My Stepmother Is An Alien”, and “The Distinguished Gentleman”.
Gavan O’Herlihy. He had a fair number of credits, including “Willow” and “Lonesome Dove”, but seems to be most famous for playing “Chuck Cunningham” in nine episodes of “Happy Days”.