Paul Stanley: I Am Finally Ready to Embrace ‘Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park’
Headline of the day.
February 25th, 2022Obit watch: February 25, 2022.
February 25th, 2022Joe Wanenmacher, founder and owner of the Tulsa Arms Show, one of (if not the) largest gun shows in the world.
Mike the Musicologist and I have been lucky enough to attend a few of the Tulsa shows. The obit says that Mr. Wanenmacher had mostly handed off operational responsibilities to his other family members, but he still built the show into what it is today. Our hat is off to him.
(Hattip on this to our great and good friend David Carroll.)
Sandy Nelson, drummer and subject of one of the most interesting obits I’ve read in the NYT recently.
He had a big hit in 1959 with “Teen Beat”, which was based on a drum riff he heard in a strip club:
“While they were looking at these pretty girls in G-strings, guess what I was doing?” he told The Las Vegas Weekly in 2015. “I was looking at the drummer in the orchestra pit.”
“He was doing kind of a ‘Caravan’ beat,” he added, referring to a jazz standard. “‘Bum ta da da dum’ — small toms, big toms. That’s what gave me the idea for ‘Teen Beat.’”
He had a second big hit with “Let There Be Drums” in 1961. In 1963, he had a motorcycle accident and lost part of his right leg: he retrained himself to play the bass with his left leg.
He did a bunch of instrumental albums in the 1960s and 1970s, many of which featured covers:
But he also continued to do experimental work:
His friend and fellow musician Jack Evan Johnson said that Mr. Nelson was especially proud of “The Veebles,” a whimsical five-track concept album released on cassette in 2016 that had an extraterrestrial sound and theme.
“It’s about a race of people from another planet,” he told The Las Vegas Sun in 1996, when the long-gestating project was just beginning to take shape. “They’re gonna take over the Earth and make us do nothing but dance, sing and tell dumb jokes.”
(I checked: there was a CD version of this, but it is out of print. Amazon and Apple Music do not show a digital version, though some of Mr. Nelson’s other work is available from both.)
Mr. Nelson acknowledged that he had not handled his early success well.
“I spent most of the money on women and whiskey, and the rest I just wasted,” he told The Review-Journal.
…
Yes. He dug a cave in his backyard.
The project took him 12 years.
“I got a ‘cave tour’ once,” Mr. Johnson said by email, “and it was quite something, precarious even — dug down at a very steep angle into the hard desert soil, with no kind of support structure whatsoever and just enough room to scoot down into it for a ways until the room opened up at the bottom.”
“He had an electric keyboard down there,” he added.
Kenny Burrough, wide receiver for the Houston Oilers during the 1970s.
Other than the original “Hot Lips”, credits include a guest spot on an early episode of a minor 1960s SF TV series, “Back to School”, “T.H.E. Cat”, “Coronet Blue”, the legendary “Delgo“, and a whole bunch of other stuff…
…including “Mannix”. (“The Solid Gold Web“, season 2, episode 23. She plays a former love interest of Mannix.)
Market report.
February 24th, 2022Last year, Mike the Musicologist and I were talking about stuff. MtM suggested it might be interesting to take the money from our stimulus checks and invest it…in gun related stocks.
Thus was born what I refer to as “the gun hedge fund”, even though it technically isn’t a hedge fund. It is more just a collection of gun related stocks that I think have good growth potential. I have one (or in some cases, two) shares in each of the following companies:
- American Outdoor Brands (AOUT)
- Big 5 Sporting Goods (BGFV)
- Olin Corporation (OLN)
- Smith and Wesson Brands International (SWBI)
- Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings (SPWH)
- Sturm Ruger and Company Inc. (RGR)
- Vista Outdoor Inc. (VSTO) (Fark REI.)
I haven’t really been “trading”, per se. I’ve bought these stocks to hold, and any dividends I’ve reinvested in more stocks. This is just for fun, and experimental purposes. It’s also a way to use money that I’d otherwise probably have spent on whisky and women, or just wasted.
This has been going on for exactly a year today. What have the results been so far? Well, I funded the account with $408.10. As of the close of the markets today, my positions (and accumulated cash) are worth…
…$417.82. So I’ve made $9.72 on gun stocks over the past year, or roughly 2.3% on my initial investment. That includes the dividends I’ve received and reinvested over the past 12 months ($21.38), so, on the whole, I’ve probably lost money.
Better than what I would have made if I put the money in a savings account. I’m not too stressed, since I’m mostly doing this for fun.
Who did the best? As far as I can tell, Olin (bought at $32.78, closed today at $48.82) and Vista Outdoor (bought at $33.38, closed today at $34.39).
I can’t find a way in the Schwab app to graph the entire history of this account over the past 12 months, but looking at the history of all of my accounts, I was actually doing pretty well right up until February 21st. Then my accounts fell off a cliff. I blame the Ukraine and the vertical integration of the broiler industry for that.
Two side notes:
1) For all the complaints I have about work, this job has let me personally own stock for the first time in my life. I already had a Schwab account because I’ve been buying company stock on the employee purchase plan, so it was easy to open a second account for the gun hedge fund independent of that. The hardest part was moving the money from my bank to Schawb. (I think I also had to send them an ID.)
2) My employee stock purchase plan had $205 cash in it that I couldn’t do anything with: I couldn’t buy more company stock, and if there’s a way to reinvest dividends, I haven’t found it yet. So yesterday I opened a second personal account, because I wanted to keep the gun hedge fund as a thing by itself, and bought…one share of Apple.
Apple closed today at $162.74. I bought this morning at $152.42, so I’m already up $10.32 on that one share of AAPL, or more than the gun hedge fund made in the past 12 months.
Red Boat, Red Boat, Red Boat…
February 24th, 2022Yes, it is a tongue twister.
It is also the fish sauce I ordered and which arrived yesterday. (Previously.) Please note that this is not cheap. Please also note that I paid for this out of my own pocket: it was not a trade or barter deal for advertising.
My regular lunch during the work week is dried noodle soup, generally jacked up with some additional low-sodium chicken broth and another condiment. Sometimes I use one of the Tabasco flavors (either the regular or the scorpion pepper), but I’ve also used Angostura Bitters. Both of those work pretty well, but I thought I’d give the Red Boat a try.
When I opened the bottle, the smell was really strong. It didn’t bother me, but it might be borderline offensive for people who aren’t big fans of fishy things. I added about a half-teaspoon to my noodles before I cooked them.
After cooking, you could tell there was something there, but it was very slight. I suspect a lot of the fish sauce volatilized off during the cooking: something like this happens with Angostura as well, but the bitters leave enough behind to give it a much more pronounced flavor.
Next time, I may try adding the sauce after cooking, and, depending on those results, may go up to a full teaspoon. Also, since I have the fish sauce, I do want to try making Parthian Chicken now. (However, I need to get lovage and asafoetida. Both are readily available from Amazon, and might even be at my local Whole Paycheck or Central Markup.)
Obit watch: February 24, 2022.
February 24th, 2022Followup NYT obits for Bob Beckel, Gary Brooker, and The Amazing Johnathan.
William Kuenzel has passed away from cancer at the age of 60. I’m noting his obit because this is a bizarre and troubling case, that got Robert M. Morgenthau (NYC’s liberal DA) and Edwin C. Meese III on the same side.
Mr. Kuenzel was arrested in November of 1987 and charged with killing a convenience store clerk. His roommate, Harvey Venn, initially told police Mr. Kuenzel was probably asleep at home, but later changed his story and claimed Mr. Kuenzel pulled the trigger. Mr. Venn got a reduced sentence for testifying against Mr. Kuenzel. Mr. Kuenzel refused to plead out.
It gets worse.
Mr. Kuenzel met with more than 20 years of resistance to his hope for a new trial because of a late filing of an appeal in 1993 — a procedural issue that he could never overcome in state and federal courts even after Alabama’s state assistant attorney general in 2010 turned over evidence that had been withheld at the original trial. It included handwritten notes from Mr. Venn’s police interview in which he said that Mr. Kuenzel had been in bed at the time of the shooting.
The cache of new evidence also included a transcript of the grand jury testimony of a witness who had been equivocal about seeing Mr. Kuenzel and Mr. Venn in the store as she drove by in a car, but who testified with more certainty at the trial. Her testimony provided critical corroboration of Mr. Venn’s assertion that Mr. Kuenzel had been an accomplice.
The Supreme Court refused to review his case in 2013, and again in 2016.
Had he not died, he would have eventually been scheduled for execution.
Geopolitics.
February 24th, 2022Obit watch: February 23, 2022.
February 23rd, 2022Mark Lanegan, singer. (Queens of the Stone Age, Screaming Trees)
The Amazing Johnathan (John Edward Szeles).
…
Gary Brooker, of Procol Harum.
Arthur Feuerstein. He’s probably one of those people you’ve never heard of, but the obit fascinates me (for reasons that will become apparent shortly).
Mr. Feuerstein was a chess player. A really good chess player. How good?
Over his career, Mr. Feuerstein had a record of one win, one loss and three draws with Mr. Fischer.
More:
At the 1956 United States Junior Championship, he took third, behind Mr. Fischer. He then edged Mr. Fischer for the United States Junior Blitz Championship, in which each player had five minutes for the entire game.
The third Rosenwald tournament, played in October 1956 at the Manhattan Chess Club, is usually remembered because of Mr. Fischer’s remarkable win against Donald Byrne, Robert’s younger brother. But Mr. Fischer finished in a tie for eighth, while Mr. Feuerstein was third — just behind Arthur Bisguier, another New York prodigy, who had won the United States Championship two years earlier.
Then, in the 1957-58 championship, Mr. Feuerstein tied for sixth with Arnold Denker, a former champion, and Edmar Mednis, a future grandmaster. Mr. Fischer, who was then only 14, won the championship, beating Mr. Feuerstein in the process for the first and only time…
The NYT obit describes the 1950s as being “a golden age for the game in the United States, particularly in New York City”. It would probably have a limited audience, but I’d read a book about this time in the chess world.
Anyway, Mr. Feuerstein didn’t want to turn pro. He thought professional chess was “too unstable and too poorly paid”, so he went into the corporate world. But he continued to play as an amateur.
Then, one day in 1973, Mr. Feuerstein, his wife, and their dog were driving to their vacation home. They got hit by a semi.
The dog was killed. Mrs. Feuerstein broke her back and spent six weeks in a cast.
Mr. Feuerstein suffered a horrible head injury. The doctors on his case gave his wife an extremely negative prognosis.
Then one day Mr. Feuerstein woke up, pulled the breathing tube out and began trying to talk. A nurse called Alice, who rushed to the hospital. She found him playing chess with the neurosurgeon, who had also been called.
Years later, in a profile that appeared in 2012 in Chess Life, the magazine of the United States Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, Alice Feuerstein said her husband, after waking, did not even know what a toothbrush was. But, Mr. Feuerstein recalled, “I remembered everything about chess, even my openings.” He also recalled that he had won that game with the doctor.
This isn’t a miracle story. According to the obit, Mr. Feuerstein was never able to work full-time again.
But he did return to competition at something approaching his pre-accident ability, sometimes beating grandmasters, and he remained a master-level player into his late 70s.
He played his last tournament in October 2015, when he was nearly 80, and scored 50 percent, with one win, one loss and a draw.
Cancer got him at 86.
Obit watch: February 22, 2022.
February 22nd, 2022A mega sized roundup today, mostly due to FotB RoadRich.
Frank Pesce. Among his credits (other than the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies and “Top Gun”) are guest spots on “Jake and the Fatman”, “Miami Vice”, “Airwolf”, “Blue Thunder” (the series), and “The Master”.
Lindsey Pearlman. She appeared on “Vicious”, “Chicago Justice”, and “General Hospital”, among other credits. She was 43.
Zoe Sozo Bethel, Miss Alabama 2021.
Bob Beckel. He used to host “The Five” on the Fox News Channel.
Beckel was campaign manager during Democratic Party nominee Walter Mondale’s ill-fated run for the presidency in 1984.
He also served in the State Department during the Carter administration.
Peter Earnest. He used to work for the CIA…and went on to become the first executive director of the International Spy Museum. I’ve never been there, but my beloved and indulgent sister and her family have. One of these days, I have to make it back to DC.
Just in case you were wondering. Also:
Obit watch: February 18, 2022.
February 18th, 2022Jim Hagedorn, House member from Minnesota.
Gail Halvorsen, the original “Candy Bomber” from the Berlin Airlift. Instead of writing a fuller obit here, I’m going to point you to the much better one Borepatch wrote.
For the historical record: NYT obit for Ian McDonald.
New Yorkers Discover Fire.
February 18th, 2022Obit watch: February 16, 2022.
February 16th, 2022A long time ago, I wrote about reading Car and Driver when I was in high school.
“Ferrari Reinvents Manifest Destiny” was one of those pieces of writing that hit me right between the eyes at exactly the right time.
…
…
P.J. O’Rourke wrote an awful lot of other great stuff, but this is what I’ll remember him for.
NYT. John Podhoretz. National Review. (Edited to add: Reason.)
I’m going to miss him.
Kathryn Kates, actress. She was most famous as the bakery counterwoman on two episodes of “Seinfeld”, and also appeared several times on “Law and Order: SVU”, “Orange Is the New Black”, and other TV shows.
Down a dusty rabbit hole.
February 15th, 2022I’ve been reading Admiral Cloudberg on Medium for the past couple of days. What got me started was his writeup of the Überlingen disaster: what really hooked me was the one before that, on Ameristar Charters flight 9363.
I think a lot, if not all, of these accidents have been covered on “Mayday”, but I have trouble getting “Mayday”. Complete episodes are spotty on YouTube: I think Prime Video has some episodes, but not all.
And I can read a Medium article a lot faster than I can watch an episode of “Mayday”. It helps too that Admiral Cloudberg’s a pretty good writer, so these summaries are also more interesting than reading the Wikipedia entry.
If you read a bunch of these back to back, you can see certain recurring themes. Sometimes, it’s poor crew resource management (or, in rare cases, really good CRM). Sometimes it’s fly-by-night operations cutting corners. Sometimes it’s known problems (like wind shear, or controlled flight into terrain) that take years and technological advances to mitigate. And sometimes it’s just plain bad luck.
I remember hearing about the Lokomotiv disaster, as it was pretty big news worldwide when it happened. I didn’t keep up with the investigation or the aftermath, so this was kind of a surprising thing to find in an article about a air crash:
Damn allergies, you know?
Wonko the Sane had the right idea.
February 14th, 2022Shot:
It seemed to me that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to need to include a set of detailed instructions for use in a package of toothpicks, was no longer a civilization in which I could live and stay sane.
—Wonko the Sane, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Chaser:
Do not eat soap.
— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) February 14, 2022
Obit watch: February 14, 2022.
February 14th, 2022IMDB. Everybody plays up “Ghostbusters”, but he also did “Stripes”, produced “Animal House”…and let’s not forget “Cannibal Girls”. (Never seen it, but it sounds like it could be fun.)
Obit watch: February 13, 2022.
February 13th, 2022Ian McDonald, co-founder of King Crimson and Foreigner.
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
Lars Eighner. I’m not sure how many people outside of Austin recognize that name. For those long time Austinites, this should be a blast from the past.
Mr. Eighner lost his job and spent three years homeless on the streets of Austin with his dog. He wrote periodically for the “Austin Chronicle”, and eventually published Travels With Lizbeth about that experience. He published two other books after that, but those were less successful.
I’m going to put this last obit behind a jump. I’m noting it because it’s a sad sundae with chopped sad and a sad cherry on top.