Raw live feed from Houston’s KHOU of a tank farm fire in Deer Park, Texas.
Multiple storage tanks containing naphtha and xylene are involved. The fire’s been burning since yesterday.
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
Something you don’t see every day.
March 18th, 2019Bibilohoplophilia.
March 17th, 2019Or is it hoplobibilophilia? What do you call it when you have a fondness for gun books?
Whatever it is, I have the fever. And the only cure is…more cowbell, er, buying more books. Now it’s your turn to suffer for my -phila.
Seriously, I’ve picked up a couple of books lately that I want to endorse and document Lawrence style. (Please do not confuse “Lawrence style” with “Gangnam style“.) Half-Price Books has been having another coupon sale, but the first two books here I actually ordered new from the publishers.
Obit watch: March 17, 2019.
March 17th, 2019Johnny “Lam” Jones, former UT football player and track star.
He was an Olympic gold medalist in 1976 and a star football player for UT, but did not have an entirely successful pro career.
W. S. Merwin, noted poet. While I like me some poetry, and have heard of Merwin, I confess to not knowing his work very well. But:
Anyone who’s a fellow member of the Alexander Graham Bell Was a Meddling SOB Society is okay in my book.
I shouted out “Who killed the Kennedys?”
March 16th, 2019Billy Kennedy out as head coach of Texas A&M men’s basketball.
151-116 over eight seasons, two Sweet 16 appearances, but 14-18 this season.
Edited to add: with a rebel yell, he cried more more more.
Marvin Menzies out at University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Three years, 17-14 this season, 48-48 overall.
Mike Dunleavy Sr. out at Tulane (Green Wave!).
Dunleavy’s .258 winning percentage (24-69) is the second-poorest among all coaches in school history. The only coach with a poorer winning percentage is Ted Lendhardt, whose 1963-64 team lost the first 22 games before beating LSU in the final game for a 1-22 record (.043).
They were 4-27 this year, lost their last 21 games in a row and went 0-18 in conference.
NZ.
March 15th, 2019I feel a moral obligation to say something about the New Zealand massacre.
Problem is, I don’t have anything to say right now that won’t make me feel like I’m waving the bloody shirt around. (The NYT coverage has some interesting points that I may come back to in a day or two.)
So this is perhaps worth spreading around.
One of my twins was born with multiple heart and esophageal defects. Had open-heart surgery at 47 hours old, weighing only 4.5 lbs. When the surgeon described the procedure, it sounded impossible. But the surgery went well. He has more to go, but we let our guard down.
— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) March 5, 2019
I heartily endorse this event or product. (#16 in a series)
March 14th, 2019Great and good friend of the blog Karl Rehn (official trainer to WCD) has a new book out, co-written with John Daub.
Strategies and Standards for Defensive Handgun Training is available in paperback and Kindle form. Quoting Amazon’s summary:
I haven’t read (or ordered) this book yet. But as you know, Bob, I’ve known Karl for a while and taken classes from him, so I don’t have any qualms endorsing this. I plan to order my copy soon, and will report back once I’ve read it.
Besides, if you can’t pimp your friend’s products, whose products can you pimp?
Florida Mayor, Florida Mayor…
March 14th, 2019I missed out on the first and second parts of this story when they ran originally, but I got tipped off to part three by way of Peter Bonilla on the twitters.
So, part one: a few weeks ago, the police went to serve a warrant on the mayor of Port Richey, Florida. Dale Massad was charged with practicing medicine without a license.
The Florida Department Law Enforcement says the Port Richey Mayor was treating people at his home even though he lost his medical license in 1992.
…
In December of 2017, Massad removed a fish hook from a “patient” who returned to him in April of 2018 to get a shot of cortizone, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by ABC Action News. On August 24, 2018, another “patient” came to Massad for a “surgical procedure” to close a laceration on his left ankle. During that procedure, Massad administered a local anesthetic and gave the “patient” stitches.
Apparently, they sent a SWAT team to arrest the mayor for practicing medicine without a license. That seems a little excessive to me, but it leads us to part two of the story:
The mayor shot at the SWAT team, and has been charged with attempted murder.
But wait! The story gets even better!
So with the mayor in jail and facing attempted murder charges, someone has to fill in, right?
The acting Port Richey mayor is out of jail after being arrested by FDLE agents on obstruction charges Wednesday.
Agents received information that 64-year-old Terrence Rowe, the vice-mayor of Port Richey, was conspiring to interfere with an active criminal investigation.
And what active criminal investigation was he conspiring to interfere with? Go on, guess.
An arrest report says Massad contacted Rowe earlier this month on a recorded jail phone line. During the call, deputies say Massad told Rowe, “I believe (Officer) Howard was hired illegally, fired legally and re-hired illegally.”
According to the arrest report, Massad then added “I don’t know why but he is in on everything,” referring to his arrest.
Deputies say Rowe replied that he was “on it” and Massad told him, “anything you can do is good.” Rowe then said, “You know this doesn’t go down without somebody answering for it,” the arrest report says.
By the way, Massad (who is still in jail on the attempted murder charge) is also now charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and “use of a two-way communication device to facilitate the commission of a crime”.
You’re not the only one, brother.
Happy Pi Day!
March 14th, 2019Yes, there is pie: a bunch for work, and a bunch more to take down to the CPA class tonight.
Obit watch: March 14, 2019.
March 14th, 2019This literally just in, hot off the virtual press: Birch Bayh, former Senator from Indiana. Possibly more later.
Going out to great and good friend of the blog Borepatch: Hal Blaine, noted session drummer.
Mr. Blaine was part of a loosely affiliated group of session musicians who in the early 1960s began dominating rock ’n’ roll recording in Los Angeles. Along with guitarists like Glen Campbell and Tommy Tedesco, bassists like Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn, and keyboardists like Leon Russell and Don Randi, Mr. Blaine played on thousands of recordings through the mid-1970s.
He famously said he gave the group its name, the Wrecking Crew, although Ms. Kaye has insisted that he did not start using that term until years after the musicians had stopped working together.
He substituted for Dennis Wilson on many of the Beach Boys studio recordings:
Asked if Mr. Wilson was angry that he was replaced in the studio, Mr. Blaine said he was not.
“He was thrilled,” he said, “because while I was making Beach Boy records, he was out surfing or riding his motorcycle. During the day, when I was making $35 or $40, that night he was making $35,000” performing live.
Mr. Blaine’s other studio credits include Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” the 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Ms. Streisand’s “The Way We Were,” the Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron” and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’s “A Taste of Honey.”
The NYT has an interesting way of presenting the obit for former UT president Bill Powers:
Francesco Cali passed away last night. He was shot six time outside his home, and (according to one report Lawrence sent me) run over by a pickup truck.
Mr. Cali was the current reputed boss of the Gambino family, John Gotti’s old outfit.
NYT on the Cammarano acquittal. Previously on Carmine “The Snake” Persico.
Edda Goering, Herman’s daughter, passed away. She was 80.
Does this count as a tax-fattened hyena watch?
March 12th, 2019Lawrence is all over the Felicity Huffman/Lori Loughlin bribery case, which apparently also involves a UT tennis coach. Additional coverage from ESPN. NYT coverage.
The story is developing, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to keep on top of it, and I don’t want to tread on Lawrence’s turf (although it doesn’t look like anyone was taking bribes to admit giant spiders to Yale. Yet.), so I’d recommend keeping an eye on the three sites above for updates.
Obit watch: March 12, 2019.
March 12th, 2019Kelly Catlin passed away last week.
You probably were not familiar with her: she was part of the women’s pursuit cycling team that won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She was 23 years old.
Catlin’s father, Mark Catlin, broke the news in a letter sent to VeloNews Sunday morning. Mark Catlin said that Kelly had died Friday around 12 a.m. at her residence in California. Mark Catlin said that Kelly died by suicide.
“There isn’t a minute that goes by that we don’t think of her and think of the wonderful life she could have lived,” Mark Catlin wrote. “There isn’t a second in which we wouldn’t freely give our lives in exchange for hers. The hurt is unbelievable.”
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.
We often hear from those who have attempted suicide but survived that they believed the world would be better off without them. While sharing suicide-prevention hotline numbers can help a great deal, sharing the perspectives and grief of those left behind can as well. Because those still in this world but contemplating an exit must know that their feelings of self-worthlessness are not shared by those who love them.
If someone is contemplating suicide, they should know the utter devastation that will be left in their wake. While those who have died may have thought the world a better place without them, we survivors are living witness to the fact that it is not, that our worlds will not ever be whole without them in it.
Edited to add: sometimes there’s just nothing else you can say.
Obit watch: March 11, 2019.
March 11th, 2019Bill Powers, former University of Texas president.
Quoting Lawrence:
Powers is probably most famous to BattleSwarm readers for his central role in the UT admissions scandal, in which well-connected students were admitted to the University of Texas despite not having the necessary grade averages or test scores. Powers eventually resigned over the scandal.
The UT admissions scandal was not only real, but several of the state’s most powerful politicians (including then-speaker Joe Straus) and media outlets conspired to bury the story.
I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to see how the Statesman addressed this in their obituary. Hint: you will need a (metaphorical) shovel.
Sidney Sheinberg, film executive best known as an early and influential supporter of Steven Spielberg.
Just being a celebrity’s kid doesn’t automatically get you an obit watch. But if the child had an interesting life outside of, or in relation to, their famous parent: absolutely, I’ll mention it here.
In that vein: Julia Ruth Stevens, Babe Ruth’s daughter. She was 102. Ruth adopted her when he married Claire Hodgson, his second wife. (He had a daughter, Dorothy, from his first marriage to Helen Woodford. Ms. Woodford died in a house fire in 1929: Ruth married Ms. Hodgson in 1930, she adopted Dorothy, and the family lived together.)
Claire Hodgson Ruth died in 1976 and Mrs. [Dorothy Ruth – DB] Pirone died in 1989. Mrs. Stevens ultimately became the spokeswoman for the Ruth family.
She was at Yankee Stadium in May 1998 for the unveiling of a postage stamp portraying Ruth admiring one of his home run drives. That August, she threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game in Fenway Park at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of Ruth’s death.
She was at Fenway Park in October 1999 to toss the first pitch before the decisive Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. Having lived for many years in Conway, N.H., she had become a Red Sox fan.
“I went to see the Red Sox beat the Yankees tonight,” she said.
…
Freeda Foreman, one of George Foreman’s daughters, passed away over the weekend. She was 42, and had a 5-1 record as a professional boxer.
Edited to add: prompted by the exchange with Lawrence below, here’s a little lagniappe for you.
Obit watch: March 9, 2019.
March 9th, 2019I held back on these yesterday because I wanted to give them 24 hours to shake out.
Dan Jenkins, noted Texas author (Semi-Tough) and sports writer. NYT.
If you want to get a taste of his work, you could do worse than browse through the “SI 60“, especially “The Disciples Of St. Darrell On A Wild Weekend: A Texas football odyssey” and “The Sweet Life Of Swinging Joe: Joe Namath, celebrity and New York City“.
Jan-Michael Vincent, for the historical record.
Carmine “The Snake” Persico, noted Mafia boss.
…
The extent of Mr. Persico’s influence and authority in the Mafia was exposed at a watershed federal trial in 1986 in Manhattan. He and the reputed bosses of the Genovese and Lucchese crime families were convicted of being members of the Commission, the select body that resolved major disputes and set policies for the five New York crime families: the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese factions.
At the trial, Mr. Persico, a high school dropout, decided to represent himself, and he won the praises of lawyers and judges for his acumen in questioning witnesses, writing legal briefs and raising points of law.
His unorthodox trial tactics failed, however, and he was convicted, along with Anthony Corallo, the accused boss of the Lucchese family, and Anthony Salerno, a high-ranking member of the Genovese family. Each man was sentenced to 100 years in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit murders, racketeering and leading a criminal enterprise, the Commission.
Obit watch: March 8, 2019.
March 8th, 2019Ralph Hall, former Republican House rep from Texas.
Mr. Hall was 91 when he left the House after 34 years. He was defeated in a Republican primary runoff in 2014 by John Ratcliffe, a former United States attorney less than half his age.
An avid jogger who began his days with two-mile runs, Mr. Hall celebrated Memorial Day 2012, when he was 89, by skydiving. That Christmas he became the oldest member of the House, breaking the record set by Charles Manly Stedman of North Carolina, who died in office in 1930 at the age of 89 years, seven months and 25 days.
…
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
Jerry Merryman. You’ve probably never heard of him, but to my mind, he was one of the great men of history.
While working at Texas Instruments, Mr. Merryman co-created the first pocket calculator.
…
Years later, when a friend mentioned that Mr. Merryman had designed the calculator’s circuitry in only three days, Mr. Merryman leaned toward him and said, “And three nights.”
He, Mr. Kilby and Mr. Van Tassel initially built a prototype, which spanned an entire room at their Texas Instruments lab. Then, over the next two years, they packed the same circuit design into a hand-held casing using microchips.
The device had 18 keys, and it could handle addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, printing calculations on a tiny spool of paper. It reached the market in 1970 after Texas Instruments licensed the technology to Canon, carrying a $400 price tag. Soon a second partner, Bowmar, introduced a $250 version called the Bowmar Brain.
The first calculator I ever used only supported six digits (not eight) and the basic math operations. I don’t know how much it cost. I think my dad paid around $300 for a Rockwell scientific calculator sometime in the 1970s. It wasn’t that many years later that I got a TI-30 for Christmas: I think by that time they were somewhere around $20 or $30.
Moore’s Law, man.
Totally random stuff: March 6, 2019.
March 6th, 2019I’ve been getting more and more depressed by what seems to be the constant stream of obit watches, so I decided it was time to do another variety post. (Not to be confused with variety meats, although that’s an easy mistake to make.)
Obit watch: King Kong Bundy, pro wrestler.
Legal update #1: sentences in the basketball bribery case.
(Previously.)
Legal update #2: no, the government can’t seize the trademark of the Mongols motorcycle club. Again.
(Previously. I actually saw this over the weekend, but have been waiting for a better link: the LAT has become increasingly obnoxious.)