Former Speaker of the House and noted author (“Reflections of a Public Man”) Jim Wright.
Obit watch: May 6, 2015.
May 6th, 2015Ironic or not?
May 6th, 2015“Ironic or not?” is a game I used to play with one of my cow orkers at Four Letter Computer Corporation.
During the Great Bobblehead Scandal of 2012, I bought a John Wilkes Booth bobblehead.
I had it on my desk at work until this morning, when I accidentally knocked it onto the floor and…
Yes, Booth broke his ankles. Much like the actual John Wilkes Booth did when he got his foot tangled in the bunting while leaping out of the presidential box at Ford’s Theater.
(Or maybe he broke his leg. Or maybe he didn’t break anything at all in the leap, but his horse injured him later. I’m a little dubious about that story; the evidence for that seems to be “he didn’t run like he had a broken leg”. Well, maybe, but given that he’d just killed the president and was fleeing the scene, adrenaline may have done a great job of hiding a broken leg.)
What really kind of totes my goat is that Booth fell maybe three feet (if that) onto a carpeted office floor. Note to self: don’t buy stuff from “The Bobblehead LLC”.
Ironic or not? Before you answer…
What? What?
May 6th, 2015This is not an Onion article.
“The Masonic Fraternal Police Department”. You know what the difference between fiction and the real world is? Fiction has to be believable.
In other news…
Odd that these places with “looser” gun laws have lower crime rates. Also odd that this is tied to the death of NYPD officer Brian Moore, because…
Early one October morning in 2011, two masked men with gloved hands smashed their way into a roadside pawnshop in rural Georgia, fleeing with 23 handguns.
Four years later, on a street in Queens on Saturday, a man raised one of those guns — a silver, five-shot Taurus revolver — and fired three times at New York police officers. A bullet struck Officer Brian Moore in the face; he died on Monday.
Yes. The gun was stolen, so of course Georgia’s looser restrictions on gun purchases are at fault.
Obit watch: May 4, 2015.
May 4th, 2015Frank Olivo died last Thursday at the age of 66.
Mr. Olivo’s claim to fame? He was the Santa Claus who got booed and hit with snowballs at an Eagles game in 1968.
(Hattip: Jimbo.)
I haven’t found an obit that I like yet, but various reliable sources are reporting the death of Grace Lee Whitney, also known as Yeoman Janice Rand on the original Star Trek.
(Edited to add: A/V Club. NYT.)
Finally, and most personally upsetting to me, Ruth Rendell passed away over the weekend.
I got into a conversation with Lawrence a while back about who I would put into the first rank of mystery writers: I need to write up that conversation at some point. Honestly, there are large gaps in my knowledge of Rendell – I haven’t read very much of Inspector Wexford, for example. But the Rendell I have read has made a huge impression on me: I think I would put her into that first rank, even with the gaps.
I want to specifically mention one book of Rendell’s that just blew me away when I read it, and which seems undeservedly obscure: A Judgement in Stone
Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.
That is the first line of the novel. Rendell has just told you who the murderer was, who was killed, and even why the crime took place. What else is there to tell? She has literally spoiled the entire novel in the very first sentence.
Except she hasn’t. The rest of the novel explains how Eunice Parchman’s illiteracy and ignorance inevitably leads her to shotgun a happy family to death. It is like a train that you see coming, but can’t get out of the way of.
The world is a lesser place for Ms. Rendell’s passing.
Well. Well well well. Well.
April 30th, 2015Robert Conquest, call your office, please.
April 30th, 2015
from Amazon.)A poor substitute for content…
April 28th, 2015…some random crap. I don’t really have anything to say about the riots, except: “It’s Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save you.”
The Carnegie Deli is temporarily closed. Rent dispute? Insect infestation? Nope.
Obit watch: Jayne Meadows, noted actress, sister of Audrey “Alice Kramden” Meadows, and Steve Allen’s wife.
Edited to add: Crap! And I completely forgot the original reason for this post. My friend Erin Palette goes to the Taurus booth at the NRA Convention, and gets treated like something scraped off the bottom of a shoe. Hilarity ensues.
Bonds. Barry Bonds.
April 22nd, 2015Holy crap!
…
I’m writing this in haste, on my coffee break at work, so I haven’t had time to digest this. Possibly more later.
Random notes: April 22, 2015.
April 22nd, 2015You know, I’m a little tired of this geocentric crud. Why just “Earth Day”? Why not a day for each of the other eight planets as well? I’d try to organize “Pluto Day” on March 13th, but that’s too close to Pi Day. Maybe Neptune Day on September 23rd?
Edited to add: Mike the Musicologist responds.
It’s not Earth as in the planet. It’s earth as in dirt. Or the element.
We need Fire Day, Wind and Waters Days.
Or maybe just an Earth, Wind and Fire Day. But then people would call for a Kool & The Gang Day. Imagine the furor when Average White Band Day is celebrated.
As I told Mike, I’m not sure I can get into Earth, Wind, and Fire Day. But Parliament Funkadelic Day? I’m there.
Serdar Argic, call your office, please.
Stolen bourbon. And anabolic steroids. That seems like an odd mix.
Happy Patriot’s Day!
April 20th, 2015Enjoy your day off, folks in Massachusetts and Maine. (Hi, Weer’d!)
In other news, it seems that I am now 50 years old. I’m trying to make some time to work on a longer post about childhood memories, nostalgia, and the gun I bought in Tulsa, but things are so busy (gun show this past weekend, followed by dinner, followed by more kicking around on Sunday, etc.) that I’m not sure when that’s going to go up. I’m hoping that I’ll have more time this week to blog in general, but that post is going to require some photography…
Your loser update: April 17, 2015.
April 17th, 2015The end of the NBA regular season has snuck up on us.
Early in the season, it seemed like Philadelphia was the favorite to go 0-82, or at least set a record for futility.
How did that work out for them? Well, they finished 18-64. Which is bad.
But it isn’t as bad as the New York Knicks, who finished 17-65. Philadelphia didn’t even lose their own division. Which I think says something about the team, but I’m not sure what.
But, surprisingly, the Knicks weren’t the worst NBA team this year. That honor goes to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who finished the season at 16-66, for a winning percentage of 0.195. ESPN has a very nice list of the worst NBA teams, which currently includes the Timberwolves, and lets you do side-by-side comparisons with the legendary 72-73 Philadelphia team.
By the way, the Lakers finished 21-61. Just saying.
Norts spews.
April 14th, 2015Lawrence Phillips, former NFL running back who is serving out a 31-year prison sentence, may have killed his cellmate.
Nigalidze is suspected of stashing an iPhone in a men’s room stall and using it to cheat during games.
Obit watch: April 14, 2015.
April 14th, 2015Günter Grass, noted German writer.
Somehow, I managed to miss his admission that he was an SS member during the war.
(Sorry for the radio silence the past few days. I’ve been on the road and just got home last night. More about this later.)
Obit watch: play Freberg!
April 8th, 2015Take me out to the ball game…
April 6th, 2015It appears that opening day has snuck up on me again.
It also looks like the Cubs will be unable to sell beer at Wrigley Field this year.*
However, I still have faith; that’s one game out of 162. And, yes, I’ve bet Lawrence $5 that the Cubs will win the World Series this year.
* Because they lost the home opener.
Edited to add: Giggle. Snort.