Apropos of nothing in particular:
Musical interlude.
June 1st, 2016Historical note, suitable for use in schools.
May 31st, 2016Today is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland.
I confess, this would have gotten completely past me. Except Weaponsman has an excellent post up at his blog, keying off this Vimeo animation of the battle. (I haven’t had time to watch the latter yet, but it sounds right up my alley.)
Yes, this is sort of half-assed history, but Weaponsman writes much better than I do, so I’m really doing a public service here by pointing you his way.
(Not historical, but this is also a swell Weaponsman post, and the one that finally got me to add him to my blogroll.)
Things I did not know until now.
May 30th, 2016Robert “Simply Irresistible” Palmer’s favorite author was Jack Vance, at least if Wikipedia is to be believed.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that: I just have a little bit of trouble reconciling a fondness for Jack Vance with Mister “Addicted to Love”. But people are a funny old lot; they’ll surprise you sometimes…
Firings watch.
May 30th, 2016University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido has been “reassigned to a role as special assistant to the athletic director”. Which basically seems to me like a nice way to fire him without actually firing him.
At UT, his teams won two national championships (in 2002 and 2005) and went to the College World Series eight times.
Obit watch: May 27, 2016.
May 29th, 2016Angela Paton, character actress who played Mrs. Lancaster (the innkeepr) in “Groundhog Day”.
Obit watch: May 27, 2016.
May 28th, 2016Angela Paton, character actress who played Mrs. Lancaster (the innkeepr) in “Groundhog Day”.
Obit watch: May 27, 2016.
May 27th, 2016Angela Paton, character actress who played Mrs. Lancaster (the innkeepr) in “Groundhog Day”.
You know what Germany needs?
May 27th, 2016Strict anti-tank rocket launcher control.
I hate to be all WP all the time, but I did want to make note of this too, if for no other reason than: the Baader-Meinhof Gang is back, baby!
Hey hey hey, it’s Fat…Leonard?
May 27th, 2016Leonard Glenn Francis ran Glenn Defense Marine Asia. His company specialized in providing services to US Navy warships (things like fuel, food, water, and sewage disposal) and was quite successful at it.
How did he do this?
…
…
There are claims that over 200 other people are “subjects” of the ongoing investigation.
In December, Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, summoned about 200 admirals to a special gathering in Washington.
Without naming names, he revealed that about 30 of them were under criminal investigation by the Justice Department or ethical scrutiny by the Navy for their connections to Francis, according to two senior Navy officials with direct knowledge of the meeting.
…
Strippers. Always with the strippers. The only thing missing from this story is blow:
“Can u set up some clean, disease free wome[n]when I am there?” Simpkins emailed. A few days later, he added: “Whats the plan to meet up and maybe do some honeys?”
“Honeys and bunnys,” Francis replied, confirming the date.
There’s even a rogue NCIS agent.
Random thought.
May 27th, 2016Is there a use case for a shot timer app for an Apple Watch?
I’m aware of existing ones for the iPhone; I’m just wondering if having the same information, or a subset, available on your wrist – probably linked to your phone – is something that people would find useful?
On the dropping of shoes.
May 26th, 2016I have avoided writing about this for the past few days because there were a lot of rumors and “unconfirmed reports” floating around that claimed to be true, but were denied by the university.
Now I feel like I can write about this, because we finally have an official statement from Baylor University:
Art Briles out as football coach.
Ken Starr out as university president:
Both ESPN and the Statesman report that while Starr is staying on, he will have “no operational duties at the university”.
All of this is fallout from a major scandal: basically, several people, including one Baylor athlete, stated they were sexually assaulted by other athletes (mostly football players, though “a former tennis player is the lone suspect in a sexual assault case that has been active for more than eight months”), and that the university responded badly:
Obit watch: May 26, 2016.
May 26th, 2016Mell Lazarus, noted cartoonist. (“Momma”, “Miss Peach”)
Edited to add: really good tribute to Lazarus in the WP‘s “Comic Riffs” blog.
Not strictly an obit, but there’s a good article in the NYT explaining the circumstances surrounding their obit of Donald W. Duncan, previously noted in this space.
Obit watch: May 25, 2016.
May 25th, 2016Beth Howland passed away December 31st of last year, but her death was not announced until yesterday, in keeping with the wishes of her family.
She played Amy in the original Broadway production of Sondheim’s “Company”, and had a slew of other roles. Ms. Howland was perhaps most famous as Vera on “Alice”.
I kind of wonder if she was typecast after “Alice”: the obit says she worked “sporadically”.
Also:
(Wouldn’t “After Alice” be a great idea for a new TV series? Linda Lavin is still alive: she could have taken over the diner from Mel. Polly Holliday is still alive, too: she could be working the counter, and then you cast someone to play Vera’s daughter, who works as a waitress…Hollywood types, you know where to reach me.)
The AV Club is reporting the passing of Burt Kwouk, who sounds like a very cool and interesting guy. He was in three Bond films, but is perhaps best known as Cato in the Peter Sellers “Pink Panther” movies. (Edited to add: NYT obit.)
Not exactly obits, but worth noting in my opnion: both Bubba Smith and Dave Mirra have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Inverted Jenny watch.
May 24th, 2016Missed this over the weekend, but Mom caught it: thanks, Mom!
Inverted Jenny #76 may appear at the World Stamp Show 2016, which starts next Saturday.
Or it may not.
#76 is significant because it was part of a block of four Inverted Jennies that were stolen from a stamp show in 1955. It appears that the block was split up: one of the stamps was found in 1958, a second one in 1982, and #76 showed up recently at an auction house. The American Philatelic Research Library wants to display it at the show (they claim ownership) but since the stamp is stolen property, there’s complicated legal wrangling involved.
In case you are interested, there’s another Inverted Jenny (#58) coming up for auction May 31st.
The estimates for No. 58 range from $525,000 to $1.6 million.
Historical note, of questionable suitability for use in schools.
May 23rd, 2016Today is the anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde’s death.
I would otherwise have missed it, were it not for this (Warning! Slideshow!) article in the HouChron (Warning! Slideshow!).
While the photos are worthwhile, I’m kind of annoyed by the captions: some them, and the article, refer to the ambush taking place today, while other captions refer to it taking place May 24th. Wikipedia (I know, I know) backs up the May 23rd date, as does Jeff Guinn (from what I’m able to tell).
There’s one photo in particular that I like in that slideshow: the one of Alcorn, Hinton, Gault, and Hamer (number 19).
And I was hoping that I could visit the shooting site when I’m in Louisiana in a few weeks, but I sat down and did the math: sadly, it’s over three hours each way from Baton Rouge to Gibsland, and that’s just not going to work this trip.
(I know I’ve mentioned it before, but Go Down Together still gets an unqualified endorsement from me.)