Tony Hsieh, Zappos guy.
I’ve never bought shoes from Zappos, but as someone who tries to pay a little attention to what’s going on on the Internet, I’d heard about Mr. Hsieh, his leadership of Zappos, and his plans for downtown Las Vegas.
Also, this is shocking: he was only 46. The paper of record says that he died as a result of injuries sustained in a house fire.
If you didn’t check the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors when the time changed, you might go do that now.
Great and good FotB (and official firearms trainer of WCD) Karl Rehn sent over a fascinating page from the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum a few days ago.
There’s a whole bunch of great stuff there: much of it I haven’t had a chance to watch fully yet, but it pushes my buttons. The “Heros On Zoom” series is fairly short. I thought I’d single out “The Battle of New Orleans” for this one:
Mostly as a sleezy and transparent excuse to use this:
Bonus: I know this is long, but today is Black Friday. I hope most of you aren’t working, and it isn’t like you’re waiting in line outside Best Buy at 3 AM peeing on each other to keep warm while you wait for a PS5.
“Leadership Lessons from Fredericksburg”. I have complicated feelings about the Civil War, but (as you know, Bob) I’m a student of leadership, and Civil War leadership is one of the aspects of the war that does intrigue me. I’d really like to find good copies of Douglas Southall Freeman’s books in unabridged editions. (I have his collection of essays on leadership, but nothing else by him.)
Geoffrey Palmer. He did a lot of film and TV work: his most famous role may have been Lionel Hardcastle in “As Time Goes By”, which shows up on PBS a lot.
Daria Nicolodi, Italian horror actress and co-author of the screenplay for the 1977 “Suspiria”. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
This is a noteworthy Twitter thread:
Short threead on Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde, who died this week. He was a doctor in Michoacan, MX, when the Caballeros Templarios cartel controlled the state. pic.twitter.com/ZHwIcg0duB
— NS (@elaphos_) November 26, 2020
…I can post this.
There’s a new Lame Excuse Books catalog out. Books from Lame Excuse Books make fine presents for the SF and/or fantasy fan in your circle of family and friends.
I feel like I got an early Christmas present this year. Maybe. I haven’t decided if I’m going to go see this in a theater, or wait for the home video release.
David Fincher has a new movie coming out. Apparently it will be released to Netflix on December 4th, but there is a theatrical run already at the Alamo Drafthouses in Austin.
I think Fincher is an interesting director. But: he has scientifically designed this movie to get me to put money on the table for it.
Travel Thursday! And happy Thanksgiving!
I was hoping that Pan Am would have done “Wings to Turkey”, or something similar. But, alas, no. So how about a tour of a turkey farm with Temple Grandin, from the National Turkey Federation?
Bonus #1: “To Mount Lowe With Love”, a documentary about the Mount Lowe Railway. Because I feel like putting the “fun” back into “funicular”.
Bonus #2: Stretching the definition of “travel” a bit here, but I wanted to do something appropriate for Spaghetti Carbonara Day.
There are an awful lot of spaghetti carbonara videos on YouTube, many of which seem to be responses or complaints about Gordon Ramsey’s version. I thought I’d use this one, since I believe Lidia Bastianich is pretty trustworthy when it comes to Italian food. If you’re cooking for my mother, though, please leave the onions out. (She loves Lidia, but she hates onions. I actually don’t think onions are part of a traditional carbonara, but I welcome being proved wrong.)
She had a strong TV career, and an interesting theater one:
What would have been her Broadway debut — “The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake” (1967), a generation-gap comedy — closed in previews, reportedly because its Hollywood star, Jean Arthur, was ill. Ms. Dietrich’s first official Broadway appearance was also brief: “Here’s Where I Belong,” a musical based on John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden,” opened and closed on March 3, 1968.
Then her luck changed. Ms. Dietrich played a sensible older sister in Mike Nichols’s Broadway production of Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” (1971). The play, starring Peter Falk and Lee Grant as Manhattanites struggling through a bad economy, ran for almost two years and won two Tony Awards.
She was most famous, though, as “Mother Nature” in those 1970s commercials for a margarine company. (“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”)
Ian Finkel, the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest xylophonist”.
Mr. Finkel’s path took him from the borscht belt resorts in the Catskills to playing with the New York Philharmonic. He also worked as a composer and musical arranger for stars like Sid Caesar, Tito Puente and Ginger Rogers, his brother, Elliot Finkel, said.
As a percussionist, he worked in orchestras that accompanied the likes of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross and Tony Bennett.
Today, music.
To start with, something short-ish. I think this dates to 2011, and was produced by the Oklahoma History Center as part of an exhibit: “Pickin’ and Grinnin’: Roy Clark, ‘Hee Haw’ & Country Humor”.
And a longer bonus that I think is really cool: a 1969 documentary for Granada Television, “Johnny Cash In San Quentin”.
For the historical record: Diego Maradona. ESPN.
Techmoan is kind of a fun channel, but one that I try to avoid overusing. I’m using it today because this video popped up, and it answers a question that’s been in the back of my mind.
Whatever happened to portable televisions? Remember the Sony Watchman?
Obviously, the digital transition killed off the old analog portables. But why don’t we have portable digital televisions?
Short answer: we do, but not from any major manufacturers, and they’re pretty much crap as televisions. (Some of them may be decent portable media players, but do they do anything you can’t do with a small laptop or tablet?)
When I’m out shopping in thrift stores and other odd places, and see one of those cool looking old portable devices with a TV built in, I think about picking it up and hooking up a converter box, just for the lulz.
Bonus: “Prison Tech”. Not really the kind of thing people in prison improvise, but rather what kind of tech you’re allowed to have (and can purchase) for prison use.
This is another one of those weird intersections.
Apple’s head of security, Thomas Moyer, was indicted last week along with three other people. The others were Harpreet Chadha (an insurance broker), Santa Clara Undersheriff Rick Sung and Captain James Jensen.
Why is this weird? Because it is also a gun thing, and you don’t often see “Apple” and “guns” together.
Specifically:
…
In another incident, Sung “extracted” a promise from Chadha for $6,000 worth of luxury box suites at a San Jose Sharks game on Valentine’s Day, 2019, before issuing Chadha a CCW permit, [DA Jeff] Rosen said.
“Sheriff Laurie Smith’s family members and some of her biggest supporters held a celebration of her reelection as sheriff in Chadha’s suite,” Rosen said.
All of this is part of an ongoing investigation into Sheriff Smith’s office. Captain Jensen was previously indicted in August:
An obit roundup, because I’m a little behind.
Jan Morris, British writer and historian. I haven’t read any of Morris’s work, yet. But John Crowley in his beautiful novella “Great Work of Time” cites Morris’s history of the British empire as a major source, and I’ve been hunting for reasonably priced copies. (Like I need three more volumes of history to read, in addition to Gibbon and the two volume history of the Canadian transcontinental railroad.)
Ken Spears, co-creator of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”. The other creator, Joe Ruby, passed away in September.
Daniel Cordier, one of the legendary figures of the French Resistance. He was 100.
David Dinkins, former mayor of New York City.
Since I’ve done copper mining, I thought it might be fun to do another element.
Lead. Sweet, sweet, lead.
From 1972, “The Lead Matrix”, brought to you by the Lead Industries Association.
And as a bonus: “A Story Of Lead”, from the Department of the Interior Bureau of Mines circa 1948.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
New York Jets
Next week: the 6-3 Miami Dolphins.
Science Sunday!
It seems like it has been a while since I’ve done any computer science, so today I thought I’d focus on someone I find interesting, and who died far too young: John von Neumann.
Short: an explanation of Von Neumann architecture from Computerphile.
Long: a documentary about John von Neumann from the Mathematical Association of America.
I should probably mention that von Neumann wasn’t just an early computer scientist: he was also a brilliant mathematician and theoretical physicist, which I think comes out in this video.
I guess technically this could fall under travel. But I decided I wanted to treat this separately, because:
“What Owning a Love Hotel in Japan is Like”, from the “Abroad In Japan” channel.
I don’t think this is a business opportunity for FotB RoadRich, as I have another much better opportunity for him that does not involve moving to Japan.
Bonus #1: since I’ve touched on the Mongols before (in the context of the Feds trying to seize their trademark) and since I received some positive feedback on my last biker war post: a documentary about the Mongols from “Hidden In America”.
Bonus #2: This is another one of those people who is right on the edge of annoying me, but: I’ve posted about copper mining before, and, frankly, if I’m ever up near Butte, I’d absolutely pay the $3 to see the giant toxic waste pit that used to be the world’s largest open pit copper mine.
Gift shop? I’m sold!