Evan Wright, journalist and author. (Generation Kill)
The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You can also dial 988 to reach the Lifeline.
Obit watch: July 16, 2024.
July 16th, 2024You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#122 in a series)
July 16th, 2024This just in: Senator Robert “Gold Bar Bob” Menendez convicted on all counts. (Previously.)
The NYT coverage is probably better, but it is also being constantly updated and is paywalled. I may possibly throw up a link to their story later today or tomorrow.
Edited to add 7/17: here’s the second day NYT story.
That seems relatively short.
Your loser update: All-Star time.
July 15th, 2024Looks like the All-Star Game is tomorrow, and we’re at the break. So it is probably a good time to check on a few MLB teams.
The Chicago White Sox seem to have gained a hap or two. They are currently at 27-71, with a .276 winning percentage. That works out to about 117 losses if my math is right. I think that’s good enough to qualify for the MLB historical list, but perhaps not as bad as I was hoping for. Then again, I was hoping for “1899 Cleveland Spiders” bad. And you know, that projection might be off. 120 losses is still in play.
The Marlins are at 33-63, .344. That works out to 106 losses, which I don’t think is quite record worthy. After Miami, Colorado is 34-63, .351, projecting out to 105 losses. Also probably just out of record contention.
Obit watch: July 15, 2024.
July 15th, 2024James B. Sikking, great character actor, has passed away at 90.
Yes, yes, “Howard Hunter” on “Hill Street Blues” and Doogie Howser’s dad. But he had a pretty substantial resume beyond those. 159 acting credits in IMDB, including one of the movies based on a minor SF TV show from the 1960s, “Cop Rock” (an unaccredited appearance as “Howard Hunter”: I just had to get that in), “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo”, the good “Hawaii Five-0”, “The Rockford Files”, “Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy”, “The F.B.I.”, “Perry Mason”, “Von Ryan’s Express”…seriously, man was in every darn thing.
Including “Mannix”. (“One For the Lady”, season 4, episode 2. He was “Mark Langdon”. “Desert Run”, season 7, episode 6. He was “Sketchley”.)
Obit watch: July 14, 2024.
July 14th, 2024Wow. It has been a weekend, hasn’t it?
Happy Bastille Day to all my readers, since I don’t expect to do a second post today.
The only thing I have to say about Trump is: in my opinion, 130 yards is not a sniper shot. It really isn’t even a very long shot for the average person. I believe most people zero their rifles so they’re on target at 100 to 150 yards. Calling this guy a “sniper” is an insult to actual snipers.
With all that out of the way:
Shannen Doherty. NYT (archived). IMDB.
And finally, speaking of snipers, Dr. Ruth Westheimer. NYT (archived).
I’m sorry if it seems like I’m shorting these three people on coverage, but I feel like they all are getting a tremendous amount of coverage already (modulo the ongoing news coverage) and I just don’t have anything to add.
And speaking of holidays…
July 12th, 2024…happy 45th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night!
For those of my readers who may be unfamiliar with what is (in my humble opinion) one of the three great events in sports history, here’s a “game story” from SABR.
You know, I’m not sure I would consider a bat to be a good trade for a silver belt buckle. Also, how do you steal a belt buckle? Unless you’re Apollo Robbins…
Here’s a 25th anniversary documentary that I don’t think I’ve linked to before:
And a more recent 45th anniversary compilation:
Finally, Steve Dahl’s “Do You Think I’m Disco?”:
As someone with no musical talent at all, I will leave it to my loyal readers to judge the quality of this song.
Brief sports notes.
July 11th, 2024I feel like I have to say something about the firing of Gregg Berhalter, since this is SportsFirings.com. Even though I hate soccer.
On a happier note, here’s a fun article from The Society for American Baseball Research: “You’re Out of Here: A History of Umpire Ejections”.
Yes, I don’t like baseball either. But I dislike it less than I do soccer, and a history of baseball ejections is the kind of weird thing that appeals to me. Much like Disco Demolition Night…
Obit watch: July 11, 2024.
July 11th, 2024Shelley Duvall. This is breaking, and the NYT is in “full obit to come” mode. I’ll link to that later.
Edited to add: NYT obit.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. As noted, they own Redbox. They also own the Crackle streaming service.
Fun fact:
They had filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition (which would have allowed them to re-organize) but yesterday it was converted into a Chapter 7 petition, which is total liquidation. And it sounds like there was some sleazy stuff going on.
I have seen reports that they were pocketing employee health insurance premiums, but not actually paying the insurers. Those are just reports, and the executives are entitled to the presumption of innocence. But if it is true that they weren’t paying employees, and weren’t paying employee health insurance…the kind side of me thinks those people should be in jail. The unkind side of me thinks that rope and lampposts are in order.
Edited to add: more from THR, concentrating on the RedBox part of the business, but including the accusations of financial mismanagement.
Benji Gregory. Other credits include “Amazing Stories”, “The Twilight Zone” (the 1985-1986 revival), and “T.J. Hooker”.
Playing catch-up:
Joe Bonsall, of the Oak Ridge Boys.
James M. Inhofe, Republican senator from Oklahoma and former mayor of Tulsa.
Brief historical note, suitable for use in schools.
July 11th, 2024Today is the 220th anniversary of the Burr-Hamilton duel.
Here’s a fairly good article about the pistols.
Fun fact that I did not know until a few days ago, when I went looking for the video online: Michael Bay directed this commercial.
Breaking the law, breaking the law…
July 10th, 2024I think this is a rare example of a headline that does not comply with Betteridge’s law of headlines.
Obviously, the answer to that question is, “Yes, and you should ignore the joyless fun suckers who want to suck all the fun out of life.”
It must be fun to tell people at parties, “I’m a sloth inspector.”
Obit watch: July 8, 2024.
July 8th, 2024Yoshihiro Uchida. I had not heard of him previously, but he sounds like a fascinating guy.
Mr. Uchida brought judo to the United States.
The son of Japanese immigrants, Uchida, who went by the nickname Yosh, began coaching judo at San Jose State in the 1940s, while he was still a student there.
It was a pivotal moment for the sport, which had been created in 1882 in Japan as a means of self-defense, built around a series of throws and holds that use opponents’ weight and movement against them. Americans had long incorporated elements of judo into other combat sports, and returning soldiers from the Pacific Theater brought a new level of interest in martial arts to the country.
Uchida, who had been practicing judo since he was 10, despaired over the quality of the training available, especially at the higher levels. Working with a judo coach at the University of California, Berkeley, he established standards for competition, including weight classes, and in 1953 won approval from the Amateur Athletic Union.
The first national amateur championships took place at San Jose State that same year. The first collegiate championships took place in 1962, and Mr. Uchida’s team won.
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On the side, Uchida obtained a loan to buy a run-down medical laboratory. He renovated it and within a few years was doing extensive business for San Jose doctors. He eventually owned a chain of 40 laboratories across Northern California, which he sold for $30 million in 1989.
He used the proceeds to partner with a group of investors to build an $80 million complex of affordable housing and commercial space in San Jose’s Japantown neighborhood.
He was 104 when he passed.
Paal Enger, the man who stole “The Scream”. (Well, one of them, anyway.)
Joan Benedict, actress. Other credits include “The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington”, “T.J. Hooker”, and “The Incredible Hulk”.
Doug Sheehan, actor. Other credits include “Columbo”, “In the Line of Duty: The F.B.I. Murders”, and “MacGyver” (original recipe).
Buster Keaton, call your office, please.
July 4th, 2024Private Philip G. Shadrach (US Army) and Private George D. Wilson (US Army) were awarded the Medal of Honor on Wednesday.
The awards were posthumous, as the action they were involved in took place about 162 years ago.
Private Shadrach and Private Wilson were involved in the Great Locomotive Chase.
In the spring of 1862, a small group of Union Army saboteurs came up with a daring idea to cut off Confederate supply lines near Chattanooga by stealing a train, tearing up railroad tracks, burning bridges and cutting down telegraph wires — which would have denied means of travel and communication to enemy forces in the area.
Dressed in plain clothes, they launched their mission in April, sneaking behind enemy lines in Georgia, taking over a locomotive near Marietta and wreaking havoc for seven hours along miles of railway in an effort to help take the battle deep into Tennessee.But the stolen train, called “the General,” ran out of fuel 18 miles from Chattanooga, according to a U.S. Army account of the heist, which became known as the Great Locomotive Chase. The Union soldiers and civilians who took part in the mission fled, but all were captured after less than two weeks on the run.
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In 1863, six survivors of the raid were the first American soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor in combat, which had been authorized by President Abraham Lincoln the year before.
In all, 19 of the men received the Medal of Honor in the years that followed. But two soldiers who were executed by Confederates soon after the mission were never recognized.
Private Shadrach and Private Wilson were those two soldiers.
Private Shadrach’s page at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. The citation is listed as “coming soon”.
Private Wilson’s page at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. Ditto on the citation.
Wordplay.
July 4th, 2024As Mike the Musicologist likes to point out, this is a local crime story that doesn’t deserve or need national coverage.
I agree with him, but I do want to note: it is wonderful to see “canoodling” in a headline. “Canoodle” is a delightful word that deserves to be used more often.
I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy…
July 3rd, 2024…and what could be more patriotic than guns and gun books?
This isn’t quite as patriotic as it could be, since the first two of these are about Africa. And the second two are duplicates of existing books in my collection, so I’m not going to spend as much time on them as I usually do.
El jumperino here…
Obit watch: July 2, 2024.
July 2nd, 2024Robert Towne. NYT. IMDB.
A couple of quibbles:
I think all of these are fine writers, but I would also add William Goldman. I don’t think I’d put him ahead of Wilder, but I think I would put him ahead of the Coen brothers (maybe, and just by a nose) and possibly ahead of Towne. And I suspect Goldman would tell me it isn’t a competition and I shouldn’t worry about it.
Interesting, since “8 Million Ways to Die” seems to be thought of as a piece of s–t: not just by Block/Scudder fans, but by almost everyone. (To be fair, there was a lot of studio interference with the movie.)
Michael Corcoran, local music journalist and historian.