A while back, I noted the death of Kelly Catlin, Olympic cyclist.
There’s a follow up article in today’s NYT.
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.
Seymour Cassel, character actor.
As the obit notes, he did a lot of work with John Cassavetes and Wes Anderson. But his list of credits goes beyond that. He did a guest shot on “Convoy” (the TV series) and was in “Convoy” (the movie). He did several episodes of “12 O’Clock High” and “The F.B.I.”, was in two “Batman” episodes, guested on “Matlock”, and was even in one “ST:TNG” episode.
Never did a “Mannix”, though, as far as I can tell.
(Noted: “Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight”. Just read the summary.)
Vonda N. McIntyre, noted SF writer, passed away on Monday, but I did not know about this until Lawrence mentioned it last night. The NYT obit is datelined Friday, but I’m thinking it must have been posted late in the day.
Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, for the historical record.
Ly Tong. He was a pilot with the South Vietnamese Air Force.
So, in 1992, he…
…hijacked a commercial airliner after takeoff from Bangkok, ordered the pilot to fly low over Ho Chi Minh City — known as Saigon, South Vietnam’s capital, before the Communist victory — and dumped thousands of leaflets calling for a popular uprising.
He then strapped on a parachute and followed the leaflets down to certain capture. He was released six years later in an amnesty and returned to the United States, where he had become a citizen after the war.
That takes us to 1998. In 2000…
Later that year…
He spent another six years in a Thai prison for that. The paper of record states he was unarmed and nobody was hurt during either of his hijackings, which makes me wonder about the definition of “hijacking”. But I digress.
Kind of a brief one, but I didn’t get to use this trope last night, so what the heck:
The Baltimore Sun has a good summary of the “Healthy Holly” scandal that’s threatening to take down Mayor (and former state Senator) Catherine Pugh.
There’s also a “special section” that collects links to their other stories. My personal favorite so far:
How the rise of the self-publishing industry contributed to the problems for Baltimore’s mayor
I’m not kidding. That’s an actual headline from an actual article.
Come on. It’s Baltimore, gentlemen: if it wasn’t this, it would have been something else. Grifters gonna grift, and technology doesn’t change that.
If I was a book collector and had $100,000 to spend, what should I spend it on?
Let’s see. For that money, I could maybe get two copies of the UK first of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Or maybe just one.
Or I could be like this guy, who paid $100,000 for one book from “Healthy Holly LLC”.
Should I even mention that this guy does business with the city of Baltimore? And that “Healthy Holly LLC” is the mayor’s publishing company?
It doesn’t sound as interesting as Harry Potter, but it may be equally rare:
Bonus: the mayor has an “upscale second hand boutique” that’s been selling Groupons. (Groupons? Those are still a thing?) But when a reporter bought one and went to visit yesterday afternoon…
Getting back to the books, it’s a shame nobody can find them: Lawrence has a birthday coming up, and he’s a connoisseur of books published by political hacks to get money under the table.
David Fechheimer, private investigator. Noted here because this is one of the better NYT obits for a not-so-famous person I’ve read in a while.
Ron “The Ghoul” Sweed, late night TV host in Cleveland during the 70s.
Sweed broke into Cleveland TV in 1971 on WKBF Channel 61. He wore a lab coat and was armed with an assortment of low-rent props, from Cheez Whiz to firecrackers to flying pierogis, kielbasa and slime. He quickly was syndicated in six other markets — Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
He got his start working as an assistant for another late-night TV legend, Ernie “Ghoulardi” Anderson. He received Anderson’s permission to appear as the Ghoul in 1971.
(Previously. Hattip: Lawrence.)
Following up on a few things:
The Waco biker trials turned into a huge nothingburger.
All charges have been dropped against Chauna Thompson. You may remember her as the Harris County Sheriff’s deputy who was fired and indicted after her husband choked a man to death during an altercation outside a Denny’s. Her husband has been sentenced to 25 years. (Previously. Previously. Previously.)
From the Department of Well, That Will Show Them: The Texas Department of Corrections has banned all chaplains, regardless of religion, from the death chamber. (Previously. More from Reason.)
The Alliance of American Football.
I actually feel sort of sorry for Johnny Manziel. Out of the NFL, banned from the CFL (not just cut, banned from the league), and now his latest gig has folded underneath him.
Maybe he can get a new gig with the revived XFL next year.
By way of Lawrence: Tania Mallet, Tilly Masterson in “Goldfinger”.
Shane Rimmer has also passed away. He was in a whole bunch of stuff, including “The Spy Who Loved Me” and uncredited parts in “You Only Live Twice”, “Diamonds Are Forever”, “Live and Let Die”, and “Star Wars”. He was the B-52 copilot in “Dr. Strangelove” and Rusty in “Rollerball”.
He was perhaps most famous to some people as the voice of Scott Tracy on the “Thunderbirds” TV series.
I’m no military aviation expert, but I’ve read a fair amount on the subject. Much to my chagrin, I had not heard of Commander Joe “Hoser” Satrapa (USN – ret.) until McThag linked to his obit.
What a guy. He was one of the leading advocates of fighters carrying guns, instead of relying on missiles. He was also famous as something of a “swashbuckling, authority-challenging maverick”. This obit is full of great stories and quotes:
Among other highpoints:
How have I never heard of this guy before? And thanks, McThag, for the heads-up.
Also among the dead:
Agnès Varda, French film maker. I’ve never seen anything of hers, though I think I have the Criterion “Cléo from 5 to 7” somewhere, and I remember Roger Ebert extravagantly praising “The Gleaners and I”.
Victoria Ruvolo. Her story is kind of interesting: she was driving home one night with a friend, from her niece’s recital, when a 18-year old man threw a frozen turkey through the windshield of her car:
…
In spite of this, she forgave the young man, and lobbied for him to receive a light sentence. The prosecution wanted him to serve 25 years: thanks to Ms. Ruvolo’s advocacy, he served six months in prison and five years of probation.
After Ms. Ruvolo’s recovery, she spoke about empathy and forgiveness at schools and programs like Taste (Thinking Errors, Anger Management, Social Skills and Talking Empathy), which holds criminals accountable for their actions.
As part of his rehabilitation, [the turkey thrower – DB] also spoke to Taste, Robert Goldman, its founder, said by phone.
“[The turkey thrower – DB] has a job and is a productive member of society,” said Mr. Goldman, who collaborated with Ms. Ruvolo and Lisa Pulitzer on a book, “No Room for Vengeance …” (2011). “He did everything Victoria challenged him to do and spoke to kids about the mistakes he made.
“That’s her legacy: She’s an example of forgiveness in a vengeful world.”
Lawrence emailed me about this yesterday: while I think some other people have picked up on this, it still seems to be worth covering.
Paterson, New Jersey police officer (in uniform) slaps the s–t out of a hospital patient lying in a bed. The same officer also previously punched the same man while he was in a wheelchair.
How do we know this happened? One of his fellow officers took cell phone video.
Earlier this month, the Columbus (Ohio) police department disbanded their vice unit. This is the same vice unit that arrested Stormy Daniels, an arrest that Internal Affairs deemed “improper”.
Three out of ten officers in the unit had been suspended, and one – Andrew Mitchell – is under indictment:
Last August, Mitchell shot and killed a woman during a prostitution arrest. He was already being investigated by the department.
On the side, former officer Mitchell (he retired after the indictment) is a landlord. Arguably, he’s a slumlord:
Mitchell is said to own fifteen properties. Assuming he’s owned all of those since 1996, that’s over one eviction per year per property. That seems rather high to me, but this might explain it:
Sometimes, I just don’t know what to say.
Unrelated to bad police side note that I don’t have anyplace else for: the Supreme Court granted Patrick Murphy a stay of execution.
I think this is a swell NYT obit for Michel Bacos. (Previously.)
His death was announced by Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, where Mr. Bacos lived.
“Michel bravely refused to surrender to anti-Semitism and barbarism and brought honor to France,” Mayor Estrosi said. “Michel was a hero.”
…
“There was no way we were going to leave — we were staying with the passengers to the end,” Mr. Bacos (pronounced bah-COSE) told the Israeli website Ynetnews.com in 2016. “This was a matter of conscience, professionalism and morality. As a former officer in the Free French Forces, I couldn’t imagine leaving behind not even a single passenger.”
As he recounted to the BBC that year, “I told my crew that we must stay until the end, because that was our tradition, so we cannot accept being freed. All my crew agreed without exception.”
…
[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu tweeted this week that Mr. Bacos had “stayed with the hostages through all their hardships, until I.D.F. soldiers — led by my brother Yoni — freed him in a daring operation.”
“I bow my head in his memory,” he added, “and salute Michel’s bravery.”
(For those unfamiliar with the Entebbe raid: Yonatan Netanyahu was the leader of the assault force, and was killed during the attack.)
…
Michel joined the Free French Forces as a teenager during World War II and was stationed in Morocco as a naval aviation officer.
“I fought the Nazis,” he said. “I knew precisely what fascism was all about. The genocide is a horror that none of us had forgotten.”
…
Awful lot of dust in the air this morning.
Edited to add 3/30:
"Mensch" is a Yiddish word meaning "person of great courage and integrity." It also means "Man" in the best sense.
Michel Bacos was a mensch in every sense of the word.https://t.co/pI4zbgB2gS
— Patrick Nonwhite (@NonWhiteHat) March 29, 2019
Chron Eye For The Killer Guy:
What did Mr. Murphy do? He’s one of the Texas 7, who broke out of prison in December of 2000, went on the run, and killed Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins while stealing guns from an Oshman’s.
Part of the argument is that Mr. Murphy didn’t actually pull a trigger: he was just a lookout, and it was five other guys who shot Officer Hawkins. But he was still convicted and sentenced to death based on…yes, the law of parties. (Still want to do that podcast some day.)
Pull the other one, guys: it has bells.
(The execution is currently delayed while the Supreme Court evaluates Mr. Murphy’s claim that he’s entitled to a Buddhist spiritual advisor in the death chamber.)
On a much happier note: up yours, Andrew Cuomo. Up yours, Bill de Blasio.
I’m sure Nicholas Cumberland’s family is disappointed, too. Disappointed that they won’t see him again in this life.
…
…
…
Oh, what a relief. The hazing didn’t kill him, and they dumped all the hazers anyway.
Enough said.
A mistrial was declared yesterday in the murder case against Charles Reedy.
Mr. Reedy was accused of stabbing his roommate to death. However…
I believe that is what lawyers call a “Brady violation”, also known as “bad move, space cadet”. But that’s not why this story is interesting.
You see, Mr. Reedy has been convicted of murder before:
In 2001, a jury found him guilty of killing John Teller in a wooded area near St. Edward’s University and Interstate 35. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
But in 2006, the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin overturned the conviction. Chief Justice W. Kenneth Law wrote an opinion saying, “The jury’s verdict is unsupported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Kind of makes you go “Hmmmmmmmm”, doesn’t it?
Larry Cohen, noted film director and writer.
I actually rented “Q” at one point when I was younger, and wouldn’t mind watching it again. As I recall, it was kind of silly, but I like Quetzalcoatls and Michael Moriarty.
I haven’t been able to find a reliable source for this, but Mike the Musicologist forwarded me a Wikipedia link: Michel Bacos apparently passed away yesterday. Mr. Bacos was the pilot of Air France 139 when it was hijacked on June 27, 1976. As you know, Bob, the plane eventually ended up in Uganda at the Entebbe Airport, and things proceeded from there.
Tim Miles out as men’s basketball coach at Nebraska.
Seven seasons, 116-114 overall, 19-17 (6-14 in conference) this season.
Mike Anderson gone at Arkansas after eight seasons. 18-16 this season (8-10 in conference), 169-102 overall.
You may very well have seen this elsewhere, but: the folks at BulkMunitions sent me a nice personal email and suggested the two of you who read my blog might be interested in their giveaway.
They’re offering a .50 caliber ammo can with foam inserts for two pistols and a 25 pack of dessicant.
I’m not going to be entering, because I don’t think it’s fair to my loyal readers. Also, I haven’t had any dealings with BulkMunitions, so this is not an endorsement: as I said, they sent me a nice email, personalized so it didn’t come across as spam, so I’m willing to give them some space here.
Contest ends April 13th, two days before Buy a Gun Day. So if you win the contest, you have a built-in excuse to go buy something to keep in your ammo can.
TMQ, October 30, 2018:
…
He’ll be a force in the 2019 NBA postseason with the Lakers. Why isn’t this obvious?
ESPN, March 23, 2019:
Yes, yes, “all predictions wrong or your money back”, but: obvious?
Richard Erdman, noted character actor. He was on “Community”, which I never watched. But before that, he seems to have done guest shots on many TV shows of the 1970s and 1960s (except “Mannix”). Like everyone else in Hollywood, he was also in “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, and played Hoffman in “Stalag 17”.
Al Silverman passed away on Sunday. He worked in publishing, spending 16 years with Book of the Month Club and later becoming an editor with Viking Books.
Before that, he was a freelance sportswriter and later editor in chief of “Sport” magazine. While he was editing “Sport”, he met and wrote about Gayle Sayers, who was recovering from a knee injury. Ultimately, Mr. Silverman and Mr. Sayers collaborated on Mr. Sayers’s autobiography, I Am Third. And, in turn, a chapter from that book became the basis for “Brian’s Song”.
Another great story:
When the running back Paul Hornung was celebrated for leading the Green Bay Packers to the 1961 National Football League championship, Sport awarded him a 1962 Corvette. Mr. Hornung soon after sold the car and got into a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service in United States Tax Court after he failed to disclose the full market value of the car as part of his gross income for 1962.
“My father testified to Hornung’s defense that he should not pay income tax on the car,” Brian Silverman said. His father argued that the car was an unsolicited reward for Mr. Hornung’s talents and thus should be tax-exempt — “the same as a Nobel Prize, because football was Hornung’s art and he performed it to an award-winning degree.” Mr. Hornung lost the case.
Mildly interesting, though the Statesman is short on details (perhaps because law enforcement is not giving those out):
The bars were shut down “after a months-long investigation into human trafficking, narcotics and drink solicitation” involving both TABC and the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.
More interesting: APD fired officers Donald Petraitis and Robert Pfaff yesterday.
Why? February of last year, the two officers arrested a man named Quentin Perkins:
Petraitis and Pfaff filed reports that said Perkins had tried to walk away from them and glanced back as if he were planning to run. However, video footage from the incident presented during the officers’ trial showed that Pfaff used a stun gun on Perkins despite Perkins being on his knees with his hands raised.
Parts of the officers’ reports are “simply not true,” Police Chief Brian Manley wrote in their disciplinary memos, which were released Monday.
…
Manley also accused Pfaff and Petraitis of coordinating a false story.
“I find it improbable that both officers came up with a similar version of events, which included things that did not happen … as well as not recalling what actually did happen. … I have serious concerns that Officer Pfaff and Petraitis got their stories straight before they spoke with (a supervisor) and prepared their reports and the probable cause affidavit,” he wrote.
…
Even more interesting: the two officers were charged criminally as a result of this incident…and were acquitted of all the charges. Which is an additional illustration of something they tell the students in our Citizen’s Police Academy classes: you can do everything within the bounds of the law…and still get fired for violating APD policy, if that’s the way the chief wants to go. (And if you actually violated policy. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell the Taser story.)
Edited to add: I was going to include a link to the chief’s memo, but the city of Austin has reorganized the website and made the disciplinary memos extremely hard to find. DuckDuckGo to the rescue, but: the most recent one posted is from January 10th.
Edited to add 2: How bad does a jail have to be before even the people who run it quit? This bad.
Reason has a nice obit up for Dick Dale.
“…We’re like Johnny Appleseed, crossing the country and sowing the seeds of survival.”
Johnny Thompson, aka “The Great Tomsoni”,
He was more than a magician, though: he was a consultant and advisor to other magicians (including Penn and Teller, who he worked extensively with) and an expert magic historian.
“Johnny had a profound way of taking an idea and creating an illusion that worked,” he said by email. “When I called him and asked, ‘How do I make a guarded car vanish from inside of a dealership?,’ without missing a beat he said, ‘We don’t, we vanish it from a tent outside, just like the vanishing elephant illusion,’ ” a reference to a classic trick performed by Houdini and others.
Mr. Jillette said that this knowledge of history had also come into play in a less visible role that Mr. Thompson filled: that of informal mediator when one magician thought another might be stealing material.
“If two people felt they were doing material that was too close, Johnny knew the provenance of everything,” Mr. Jillette said. “He could adjudicate that.”
You should read all the way to the end of this obit: there’s a story involving Mr. Jillette that I won’t spoil for you here.
In mourning for Dick Dale & his fabulous surf guitar until further notice. Grew up rockin’ out to Dick Dale. Even as a clueless little kid, I recognised his amazing skill
— Pat Cadigan (@Cadigan) March 18, 2019
I missed the surf guitar era – I was too young. But Mr. Dale was an interesting guy: one of the other online obits I’ve seen (and can’t find now) states he practiced martial arts for 30 years. Not only that, but he used his martial arts practice as a tool to deal with the pain he suffered from multiple chronic illnesses.
How about a musical interlude?
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.)
Or 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.