Rebecca Balding, actress.
Other credits include “Supertrain”, “The Rockford Files” (“Dwarf in a Helium Hat“), “Lou Grant”, and “MacGruder and Loud”.
Obit watch: July 21, 2022.
July 21st, 2022Tweet of the day.
July 20th, 2022Favorite recent thing I learned about global markets in everything: if you are a Hollywood/etc company and need a lot of suits of medieval armor in a hurry there are a variety of businesses in India which very much want to make your acquaintance.
— Patrick McKenzie (@patio11) July 20, 2022
Yeah. I hadn’t thought about it, but it absolutely makes sense that if you need a bunch of movie armor, there are places you can go for that. It sort of surprises me that the places are in India, and it apparently involves “Blacksmiths followed by cargo containers” rather than local rental houses, but that’s the global economy, I guess.
Bonus:
What series of fascinating events in the world caused an entrepreneur in Sri Lanka to say "Space orks yes, vampires yes, Millenium Falcon yes, imperial Japanese navy destroyer no problem, Duke of Wellington, no, #%I# that guy and #*%(#% his 28mm scale horse."
— Patrick McKenzie (@patio11) July 20, 2022
Obit watch: July 20, 2022.
July 20th, 2022Dr. Robert F. Curl Jr., professor of chemistry at Rice University and a good Texas boy.
Dr. Curl shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996 (with Dr. Richard E. Smalley and Dr. Harold W. Kroto) for the discovery of buckyballs.
“If Mother Nature is trying to tell you something, you have to listen,” Dr. Curl recalled in a 2016 Rice University interview celebrating the 20th anniversary of his Nobel.
While Dr. Kroto and Dr. Smalley pursued further buckyball research, Dr. Curl soon moved on to other areas of interest. In the 2016 interview, he recalled going to Dr. Smalley’s office and finding his colleague filling up binders with papers about buckyballs.
“I don’t want to be in any field for a full-time job keeping up with the literature,” Dr. Curl said. “That’s why I abandoned that area.”
…
After Dr. Curl won the Nobel, Malcolm Gillis, then the president of Rice, asked him what he wanted, perhaps worried that bigger-name institutions would be looking to hire him away from the university.
Dr. Curl asked for a bicycle rack near his office.
A horse is a horse, of course, of course…
July 19th, 2022…and no one should flee from a horse, of course,
Especially (of course) if the NYPD owns that horse.
All of your NYPD officers are involved in crime reduction, even the four-legged ones.
Saturday evening, a male robbed a sunglass vendor in Times Square, but a @NYPDSpecialops Mounted officer was hot on his trail. With assistance from nearby officers an arrest was quickly made. pic.twitter.com/5ANbLKdYSI
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 19, 2022
Somebody in the thread responded with a still, but what the heck, let’s go to the ‘Tube:
(Jessica Walter! Damn!)
Obit watch: July 19, 2022.
July 19th, 2022Not a whole lot of credits in IMDB. I’m wondering if “Beyond the Bermuda Triangle” counts as genre. (Fred MacMurray? On a totally unrelated note, I just picked up the 4K/UHD package of “Double Indemnity” during the Criterion 50% off sale, and am looking forward to watching it soon. I’ve never seen it, but I keep hearing it is one of the great noir films.)
Michael Swanwick posted a nice tribute to Claes Oldenburg on his blog.
Random gun crankery.
July 18th, 2022Remember in my NRAAM coverage I threw in a photo, “At the weird intersection of SF geekery and gun geekery”?
Here’s some more deets for you.
RIA estimates $300,000 to $500,000 for this one. I’m not sure how this compares with Indy’s S&W revolver, as I can’t find any information on what that went for (or even if it was ever sold).
Obit watch: July 18, 2022.
July 18th, 2022It was a bad weekend for SF writers. Lawrence sent me two obits:
Eric Flint. I’ve heard good things about his “1632” books, but haven’t read any of them.
Claes Oldenburg, visual artist. His thing seems to have been making huge versions of everyday objects.
Gerald Shargel, criminal lawyer. He defended a lot of Mob guys, including Gotti.
The lanky, bearded lawyer got so close to some Mafia clients that a federal district judge, I. Leo Glasser, removed him from representing one mob figure after prosecutors accused him of serving as “house counsel” to an organized crime family, an allegation he denied.
Mr. Gotti himself also got upset with Mr. Shargel, for being too talkative to reporters. The mob boss was caught on a wiretap warning his lawyer: “I’m gonna show him a better way than the elevator out of his office” (which was on the 32nd floor).
…
Lily Safra. I probably wouldn’t have said anything about this at all, were it not for all the stuff in the obit about the death of husband number four, Edmond J. Safra. (Archive.is link for those who can’t read it otherwise.)
Quick book note.
July 15th, 2022Just got an email from The Mysterious Bookshop.
Sherlock Holmes In 221 Objects: From the Collection of Glen S. Miranker is back in stock. At least for now: they claim to have a very limited number of “first edition, signed, limited copies” at $60. They also state “The Grolier Club will be printing a second, more expensive edition soon…”
So if you were interested, but gave up hope, now’s your chance.
Camel bites Kan be pretti nasti.
July 15th, 2022A worker at a central Minnesota zoo was flown to St. Cloud Hospital on Wednesday after a camel got the man’s head in its mouth and bit down.
A second man who helped free the first also was bitten.
…
Deputies were told an employee was escorting a camel through an alleyway to prepare it for transport when the animal got the employee’s head in its mouth and bit down. The camel then dragged him about 15 feet.
A second employee, a 32-year-old Texas man, placed a plastic board into the camel’s mouth to release its bite from the first man, who was able to run to safety. The camel then charged at the second man and bit his head. He was able to get away on his own and declined medical treatment at the scene.
Norts spews.
July 15th, 2022There are many, many reasons why I hate the Olympics and the International Olympic Committee.
I have one less reason to hate them now.
…
“We are so grateful his nearly 110-year-old injustice has finally been corrected, and there is no confusion about the most remarkable athlete in history,” said Nedra Darling, the co-founder of Bright Path Strong, a group created to share Native American voices and a leading organization that fought for Thorpe — who died in 1953 — to regain his medals. She is also a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
“Jim Thorpe is a hero across Indian Country, and he is an American hero,” she said. “He represented this country before it even recognized Native Americans as citizens, and he did so with humility and grace. Even after he was wronged by his coach, the American Athletic Union, and many others, he never gave in to bitterness and led with a spirit of generosity and kindness. I pray that Jim, his family, and our ancestors are celebrating that the truth has been respoken today, on this 110th anniversary of Jim being awarded his Olympic gold medals.”
Obit watch: July 15, 2022.
July 15th, 2022Mark Fleischman, owner of Studio 54.
Owning Studio 54, Fleischman partied with the likes of Andy Warhol, Calvin Klein, Halston, Liza Minelli and Cher. The lifestyle may have taken a toll on the business owner.
“I liked to be high. So I would do drugs and drink. Possibly, this [health condition] is because I drank a lot and did drugs,” he told The Post.
He was 82 years old, and died from assisted suicide in Switzerland.
For the record: Monty Norman, composer of the James Bond theme.
John R. Froines, one of the Chicago Seven.
This isn’t quite an obit, but: according to news reports, the 988 number for access to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will go into effect this weekend. The old 1-800-273-8255 number will continue to work as well.
Sniper! No sniping!
July 14th, 2022I thought I mentioned this in my NRA Show coverage this year, but apparently not. Mike the Musicologist and I went to a talk by Maj. John L. Plaster, U.S. Army (Ret.), noted sniping expert, on “Sniping in the Ukraine”.
If you were not able to go this year, Maj. Plaster has an article in the new American Rifleman.
…
Interesting indeed. From what I’ve read in the two Swift and Bold sniping books, AI keeps very tight control on who their guns go to. Perhaps these went to the FSB back in the good old days?
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#93 in a series)
July 14th, 2022Jason Lary, the ex-mayor of Stonecrest, Georgia, was sentenced to 57 months in prison yesterday.
Former Mayor Lary pled guitly in January to wire fraud, conspiracy, and theft of federal funds. He took COVID relief funds granted by DeKalb County and used them to pay off his mortgage and back taxes. Some of the money also went to pay his bookkeeper’s son’s college expenses. (She’s also pled guilty to conspiracy, but hasn’t been sentenced yet.)
In addition to the prison time, Mr. Lary will have to pay $120,000 in restitution, and serve three years of supervised release.
Apologies for linking to the NYT on this. I can’t get the story from the Atlanta paper to go through archive.is, and the AJC is very obnoxious about subscribing/adblocking.
Murdaugh watch.
July 13th, 2022Alex Murdaugh has been officially disbarred.
There are also reports circulating that he’s going to be charged with killing his wife and son, but so far those are just “reports”. I’ll try to update if and when an actual indictment is returned.
Update 7/14: The indictment is official.
Blues, Blues, Blues…
July 13th, 2022Charlie Montoyo out as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Toronto is currently 46-42 and is 15 1/2 games out of first place.
More from ESPN. As you know, I don’t like using ESPN that much, but in this case, the other Toronto media outlets either had no story, required a subscription, or would not load.
Bench coach John Schneider has been named interim manager for the rest of the season.
Does this mean those Duke boys are at it again?
