NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cincinnati
Not much more to say than that, really.
Your loser update: week 10, 2019.
November 11th, 2019Obit watch: November 8, 2019.
November 8th, 2019Louis Eppolito is burning in Hell.
Some of you probably remember that name, either because you’re true crime buffs or else you’re regular readers of this blog.
For those who don’t recall the name, Eppolito was one of the “Mafia Cops“: two NYPD officers who made deals with the Mob to provide confidential information and even whack guys.
Nineteen eighty-five was also the year Mr. Eppolito and Mr. Caracappa began their relationship with Mr. Casso’s circle. A career criminal with ties to Mr. Casso hired them that year to kill a Long Island jeweler to keep him from testifying in an F.B.I. inquiry.
The detectives used a confidential police database to find the jeweler’s home address, the type of car he drove and his license plate number. They pulled him over and asked him to come to the precinct station house.
Instead, they took him to a building in Brooklyn, where Mr. Caracappa and another man killed him. Mr. Eppolito acted as a lookout.
It was the first of the eight killings they would participate in over the next several years on Mr. Casso’s orders. They received $4,000 a month and up to $65,000 for individual murders, prosecutors said.
The other victims included a Brooklyn man gunned down mistakenly because he had the same name as a rival of Mr. Casso’s; a Luchese gangster; two Gambino soldiers; and two F.B.I. informers.
Stephen Caracappa, Mr. Eppolito’s partner in crime, died in 2017: somehow I missed hearing about this.
The good book on this case is The Good Rat by the late great Jimmy Breslin. I’m not recommending or endorsing it, but Eppolito’s Mafia Cop is still widely available: you can even purchase a Kindle edition. (Yeah, that is an affiliate link: it’s not like Eppolito is going to benefit from sales now, and I’m pretty sure anything he earned while alive went towards compensating the families of his victims.)
I’m done.
November 6th, 2019The Catholic Church has more compassion for people who have committed suicide than science fiction fandom.
If you think that’s a strong statement, well…
James Tiptree, Jr. was the pseudonym of Alice Sheldon. Born Alice Bradley in 1915, she travelled the world with her parents as a young child. In 1940, after a brief unhappy marriage, she joined the women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and worked in intelligence. She married Huntington “Ting” Sheldon in 1945, and in 1952 they both joined the CIA. She later earned her doctorate and took up writing. She wrote short stories and novels, but it is the former that stand out as truly remarkable. With prose as subtle and precise as the most refined literary fiction, she penned imaginative tales like “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” and “The Girl Who was Plugged In,” which became classics of science fiction and also important works of feminist fiction. Later in her life, she suffered from heart troubles and depression. Her husband went blind. She recorded in her diary in 1979 that she and her husband had agreed to a suicide pact if their health worsened. In 1987, she shot her husband, called her lawyer and told him that they had agreed to suicide, and then shot herself.
The award is being renamed because of this suicide. Although the prize was founded to recognize fiction “exploring gender,” the current board of the award see their expanded mission to be to “make the world listen to voices that they would rather ignore.” The issue is that some of these voices have decided that Sheldon killed her husband because she was ableist (that is, bigoted toward the disabled). Sheldon’s biographer, Julie Phillips, has tweeted in response: “The question has come up whether Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr) and her husband Ting died by suicide or murder-suicide. I regret not saying clearly in the bio that those closest to the Sheldons all told me that they had a pact and that Ting’s health was failing.” Phillips has also changed her Twitter profile to include the sentence, “Biographer of Ursula K. Le Guin and of James Tiptree, Jr., who was not a murderer.”
From Catholic Answers:
Yes, for many centuries the Church taught that those who took their own lives could not be given a Christian funeral or buried in consecrated ground. Nonetheless, in so doing the Church wasn’t passing judgment on the salvation of the individual soul; rather, the deprivation of Christian funeral rites was a pastoral discipline intended to teach Catholics the gravity of suicide.
Although the Church no longer requires that Christian funeral rites be denied to people who commit suicide, the Church does still recognize the objective gravity of the act…
As it does for all grave acts, the Church also teaches that both full knowledge and deliberate consent must be present for the grave act of suicide to become a mortal sin:
(For those unfamiliar, CCC is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Those numbers are paragraph references: you can find the whole thing online here.)
Happy Guy Fawkes Day, folks!
November 5th, 2019Tweet of the day:
Guy Fawkes’s signature before and after torture. #BonfireNight pic.twitter.com/d9L7Hn3iWZ
— Helen Dale #BOBPTD (@_HelenDale) November 4, 2019
Obit watch: November 5, 2019.
November 5th, 2019The part of me that doesn’t really want to acknowledge reality TV stars is outweighed by the part of me that thinks Rudy Boesch deserves acknowledgement for honorable service to his country.
He joined the merchant marine in 1944 and enlisted in the Navy the next year, training in underwater demolition and serving on ships over the next 17 years.
In 1962 he was among the first SEALs, given charge of setting physical fitness and other standards for Team 2.
“Rudy Boesch had a special understanding of his men,” Mr. Watson wrote, “what they did, and why they did it. That is very rare. There was never a man more devoted to the Navy and the SEALs.”
Mr. Boesch served two tours in Vietnam, though he never talked much about what specifically he did in the service. Between the tours he worked and competed with the Navy bobsled team. He retired from the Navy in 1990 as a master chief petty officer.
Also worth noting: the Wikipedia entry on his military career. I don’t want to quote it here because it has a lot of citations, but suffice it to say that are a lot of Boesch stories.
William Gibson, call your office, please.
November 4th, 2019The street finds its own uses for things.
The paper of record would like for you to know that “drones are increasingly being used by criminals across the country“.
Their first example is a guy who was using drones to drop IEDs on his ex-girlfriend’s property.
And they all moved away from him on the Group W bench.
Other examples are more in line with what you’d expect: drug smuggling and voyeurism. Buried in the article is a decent point: the question of who has jurisdiction over drones in flight and what can be done about them is kind of up in the air.
Where have we heard something like this before?
Your loser update; week 9, 2019 (with bonus firings).
November 3rd, 2019NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cincinnati (bye week)
NBA teams that still have a chance to go 0-82:
None.
As I expected, the hapless Dolphins apparently acquired at least one hap on the open market during the week, and managed to beat the Jets in Miami. This may screw up their shot at the top draft pick: currently, we have
- The Bengals at 0-8
- Miami at 1-7
- The Jets at 1-7
- Washington at 1-8
- and Atlanta at 1-7
As I said last week, I think Miami has a good chance of at least one more win against the Bengals at home, and maybe wins against the Jets and Giants on the road.
Stat:
“Since Marino’s exit, 21 quarterbacks have started for Miami.”
In firings news, Willie Taggart out as head coach of Florida State after about two seasons. To be exact, 21 games, in which he was 9-12.
According to ESPN:
FSU raised about $20 million in private donations to buy out what was left of Taggart’s contract, sources told ESPN’s Mark Schlabach. However, an FSU official denied that the money was raised for Taggart’s buyout.
Under the terms of Taggart’s six-year, $30 million contract, FSU’s athletic department will owe him 85% of his remaining compensation through Jan. 31, 2024, which is between $17 million and $18 million. The Seminoles also paid Oregon a $3 million buyout when it hired him away from the Ducks in December 2017, as well as the remaining $1.3 million buyout Oregon owed South Florida when it hired him in December 2016.
Also by way of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network:
If you feel like you’re having a stroke, you’re probably not: this is just German soccer news. (But do remember the FAST mnemonic for strokes: Face, Arms, Speech, Time.)
And now here’s something we hope you really like…
October 30th, 2019A little late on this one, but: Ken Whisenhunt out as offensive coordinator of the worthless Los Angeles Chargers.
The Arena Football League (also apparently known as Arena Football One) has “shut down all local business operations and services for all six of its teams“. I think I speak for everyone here when I say: they were still in business?
The paper of record asks the musical question:
Summary: pretty bad.
And something non-sports related for my people: the Squibb Park Bridge, a pedestrian bridge in Brooklyn, is being demolished and replaced.
Why? Well, the old bridge was designed to be bouncy. Turns out, it was a little too bouncy.
It also was moving in unintended directions. Hilarity (and lawsuits) ensued. And then it turned out the wood was rotting…
Obit watch: October 29, 2019.
October 29th, 2019For the historical record (and as a general matter of policy): Kay Hagan, former Senator from North Carolina.
This is scary:
Robert Evans, noted Hollywood producer and figure. THR. Variety.
He was convicted of cocaine trafficking in 1980, though that conviction was later expunged.
I mentioned this in passing a few weeks ago at movie night, and it didn’t ring any bells with anyone: the “Cotton Club” murder.
Paul Barrere, of Little Feat.
Mr. Barrere wrote or co-wrote some of Little Feat’s best-known songs, including “All That You Dream,” “Time Loves a Hero” and “Old Folks Boogie.” He occasionally sang lead, although Mr. George remained the band’s focal point. Mr. George died in 1979, and Little Feat broke up that year.
Mr. Barrere went on to work with the group the Bluesbusters and recorded two albums as a leader, but he was largely inactive until Little Feat reunited in 1987. To fill the gap left by Mr. George’s death, the band added two members, and Mr. Barrere began doing more of the lead singing and songwriting, as well as taking more of the guitar solos.
Your loser update: week 8, 2019.
October 29th, 2019NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Miami
Cincinnati
NBA teams that still have a chance to go 0-82:
Indiana
New Orleans
Sacramento
Since Miami lost, there will be a loser update next week, though it may not go up until Monday morning. As previously discussed, the Bengals have a bye in week 9. Miami plays at home against the 1-6 Jets Sunday afternoon: I’m thinking they have a good chance of winning that one.
Looking over the schedule, Miami plays the Jets again (on the road) in week 14, the Giants (also on the road) in week 15, and the Bengals at home in week 16.
Historically. at this point in the season, we’re averaging 1.0 winless teams, so we’re statistically a little bit ahead. But I’m skeptical that we will end up with a winless team this year: I think Miami has a good chance of beating the Jets, the Giants, and the Bengals, and I’m skeptical that the Bengals will be able to run the table the rest of the season.
Quick firings watch.
October 28th, 2019Neal Huntington out as general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Huntington has been the Pirates’ GM since Sept. 25, 2007. He was responsible for rebuilding the club into a playoff contender over three years before struggling the past four seasons.
Many of the recent trades Huntington made were flops. Players went elsewhere and thrived. The magic touch that played a part in producing those three consecutive playoff seasons disappeared.
(In case anyone was wondering: loser update tomorrow, since 0-6 Miami plays 2-4 Pittsburgh in prime time tonight. ESPN is giving Pittsburgh a 90.5% chance of winning.)
Obit watch: October 28, 2019.
October 28th, 2019John Conyers Jr., for the historical record.
Don Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital. This came across the Hacker News Twitter: I wouldn’t have noticed it otherwise.
We all know (and I’ve previously discussed this) that obits tend to try to make the subject look good. It’s very rare to see an obit that basically says, “Christ, what an asshole!” (See also.) Taking that into consideration, though, Mr. Valentine’s obit makes him sound like a really good guy who I would have enjoyed meeting.
(Tweet of the day, though technically this is from yesterday.)
Firings watch.
October 25th, 2019I didn’t get a chance to blog this last night (I was busy down at the cop shop) and it’s been well covered elsewhere, but:
Since this is sportsfirings.com, I do have to make note of Brandon Taubman’s firing as assistant general manager for the Houston Astros. ESPN. Chron.
As Sports Illustrated first reported on Monday night and the Chronicle later confirmed, Taubman yelled toward a group of three female reporters following the team’s American League pennant-clinching victory against the Yankees.
The 34-year-old Taubman yelled “Thank God we got (Roberto) Osuna! I’m so (expletive) glad we got Osuna!”
Osuna, the Astros’ closer, was acquired last July while serving a 75-game suspension for a violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse policy.
One of the women at whom Taubman shouted was wearing a purple domestic violence awareness bracelet. The Chronicle reported on Wednesday that Taubman’s ire was directed specifically at one woman, about whom Taubman had complained in prior conversations.
Worst. Joke. Ever.
October 22nd, 2019Obit watch: October 22, 2019.
October 22nd, 2019Scotty Bowers, alleged pimp to the stars.
If “pimp to the stars” seems harsh, well, that’s what he called himself:
Mr. Bowers’s raunchy best seller, “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,” written with Lionel Friedberg, left out few details as it told of his metamorphosis from gas-station employee to hookup-provider and sex partner to the rich and famous.
Men he knew from his military service during World War II began socializing at the gas station where he worked, and he paired those who were willing with the Hollywood people who found their way to him by word of mouth. Although he described catering to all sorts of sexual combinations, he said he had often surreptitiously provided willing men to male Hollywood figures and willing women to female ones in an era when being gay could ruin a career.
He wrote of funneling women to Katharine Hepburn, of having a sexual encounter himself with Spencer Tracy, of arranging same-sex partners for the duke and duchess of Windsor.
I’m not linking to his book for the same reason I use the term “alleged” above: Mr. Bowers was, most probably, a damn liar. (Speak no ill of the dead? Mr. Bowers had no problem telling stories about people who were dead and couldn’t defend themselves, so I see no reason not to give him the same treatment.)
Larry Harnisch at the “Daily Mirror” blog did a 26 part series on the book back in 2012. Here’s his obit for Mr. Bowers, which contains links to all 26 parts.
Matthew Wong. I had not heard of him, but the NYT calls him a “painter on the cusp of fame”. Some of the pictured artwork is, to me, striking: I really like “Winter’s End”, to take one example.
He was 35 years old.
The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside of the United States or are looking for other help, TVTropes has a surprisingly good page of additional resources.