Obit watch: April 15, 2021.

April 15th, 2021

Frank Jacobs, one of the old time “Mad” magazine guys.

Working with artists like Mort Drucker (who died last year), George Woodbridge and Gerry Gersten, Mr. Jacobs parodied movie musicals like “Fiddler on the Roof” (which he turned into a sendup of suburbia in “Antenna on the Roof”); critiqued the policies of President Ronald Reagan in a line-by-line satire of Poe’s “The Raven”; wrote obituaries of comic-strip characters like the hapless office worker Dilbert (who suffocated from a lack of ventilation in his cubicle) and the working-class layabout Andy Capp (whose death was caused by a drunken driver); and devised Christmas carols for dysfunctional families.

…

A fan of musical theater, Mr. Jacobs teamed with Mr. Drucker to turn “West Side Story” into “East Side Story,” a musical battle at the United Nations between gangs led by the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet premier (and gang leader) Nikita Khrushchev sang:

When you’re a Red
You’re a Red all the way
From your first Party purge
To your last power play!
When you’re a Red,
You’ve got agents galore;
You give prizes for peace
While they stir up a war.

John Naisbitt, Megatrends guy.

Finally, Burt Pugach died on Christmas Eve last year, though his death was not widely reported until now.

I wrote a little about this case when his wife died, but that was a long time ago. In brief: Mr. Pugach was married, and carrying on an affair with Linda Riss. She found out he was married and broke it off. He wasn’t having any of that and continued to pursue her.

Finally, he hired thugs – he claims to “beat her up”. The thugs threw lye in her face and left her blind. Mr. Pugach was disbarred, his wife divorced him, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, released after 14 years…

…and after being released, he married Linda Riss, and they stayed married until her death in 2013.

Mr. Pugach left a legacy of recriminations and legal challenges over changes in his will that left a majority of his $18 million in assets to his caregiver. The latest version of the will disinherited several friends and reduced a planned bequest to the foundation for the visually impaired that he had established to honor his wife, Linda Riss Pugach, who died in 2013.
His assets have been frozen while the challenges are adjudicated, said Peter S. Thomas, a lawyer for the foundation, and Peter Gordon, who had drafted earlier versions of Mr. Pugach’s will. Those earlier versions had provided about $10 million for the foundation and roughly $5 million for Shamin Frawley, the 52-year-old caregiver with whom Mr. Pugach (pronounced POO-gash) had been living in Flushing since last year.

Posted in Books, Law, Obits | 1 Comment »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 379

April 14th, 2021

Two quasi-general aviation themed videos today.

First up, from AVWeb: “Why Aircraft Engines Quit”.

Spoiler: I may just be naive, or not terribly smart, but I was frankly surprised that 29% of the time, the answer is “Dunno”.

This one is longer, but I wanted to put it up for two reasons: both McThag and I wrote about the Snowbirds accident when it happened, so I wanted to follow up here.

The second reason is, while the accident report has been released, the full report is apparently not available on the Internet: only the “Epilogue” to the report, which I am linking here.

For a copy of the full report, media are asked to contact Media Relations at the Department of National Defence.

C.W. Lemoine posted his analysis of the report, which is about 45 minutes long, and which I have not had a chance to watch all the way through yet. He did manage to get a copy of the full report.

If you want to skip to his summary of the findings, it starts at about 33:16.

Posted in Planes | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 14, 2021.

April 14th, 2021

Ray Lambert, another Amercian badass, has passed away at 100.

A native of Alabama, Staff Sgt. Lambert was leading a unit of medics with the Second Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, part of the Army’s First Division. He had taken part in the invasions of North Africa and Sicily and had already earned three Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars before his war came to an end on the morning of June 6, 1944, on Omaha Beach.
He was in the first wave of Allied forces as they crossed the English Channel and stormed German defenses strung along the coast of northern France, beginning the long offensive that would culminate in Germany’s defeat. His brother Bill, also a medic, was with him.
In heavy surf, Ray Lambert was helping a wounded soldier when a landing craft’s ramp dropped on him, pushing him to the bottom. The water was deep as the medics scrambled off the craft.
“When we went under the water, they had barbed wire and you had to try to get through that,” Mr. Lambert said in an interview in 2019 with the American Homefront Project, a public radio effort, “and there were mines tied to that. So we had a lot of guys get tangled up. A lot of the underwater mines went off and killed some guys.”
But he made his way to the beach to tend to the wounded, amid withering fire from German bunkers above.
At one point he scanned the beach for something behind which he could safely treat the wounded. He spotted a lump of leftover German concrete, about eight feet wide and four feet high.
“It was my salvation,” he said. (A plaque installed in 2018 recognizes the concrete as “Ray’s Rock.”)
“Again and again, Ray ran back into the water,” President Trump told a crowd gathered for the ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery, on a bluff overlooking the beach. “He dragged out one man after another. He was shot through the arm. His leg was ripped open by shrapnel. His back was broken. He nearly drowned.”
As Mr. Trump spoke, Mr. Lambert sat behind him wearing a purple “D-Day Survivor” cap. At the end of his speech, the president turned to him and said, “Ray, the free world salutes you.”
Only seven of the 31 soldiers on Mr. Lambert’s landing craft survived. He and his brother, who was also badly wounded, were hospitalized in England.

Mary Ellen Moylan, early and influential ballet dancer who worked with George Balanchine. Noted here because this is one of those odd ones: she actually died almost a year ago, but her passing went unnoticed until recently.

Lee Aaker. This is a sad one. He was a child actor: he played “Rusty” on “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin”, and appeared in “Hondo” and “The Atomic City”, among other credits. His last one in IMDB was an episode of “The Lucy Show” in 1963, when he was 20.

Aaker had suffered a stroke and died April 1 near Mesa, Arizona, Paul Petersen, the former Donna Reed Show star who serves as an advocate for former child actors, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Aaker had battled drug and alcohol abuse during this life and was alone with one “surviving relative that could not help him,” Petersen said, adding that Aaker’s death certificate lists him as an “indigent decedent.”
For Petersen, it marked another sad end to the life of a Hollywood child actor. “You are around just to please everyone,” he said, “and when there’s nothing left, they are done with you.”

Lawrence sent over an obit from ZeroHedge, and the NYT now has it as breaking news: Bernie Madoff is burning in Hell.

Posted in History, Law, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Bad boys, bad boys…

April 13th, 2021

I’ve written a lot previously about the LA County Sheriff’s Department (motto: “dumber than a bag of hair“). But not in a while: I haven’t been following the LAT as much, as it is basically unreadable unless you pay for it.

This came across Hacker News, however, and is a Justice Department press release, so I can cover it here.

Marc Antrim, who used to be a LACSD deputy, was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison on Monday.

Why? He conspired to rob a marijuana warehouse.

Antrim pleaded guilty in March 2019 to a five-count information charging him with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to deprive rights under color of law, deprivation of rights under color of law, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

I love “conspiracy to deprive rights under color of law” and “deprivation of rights under color of law”. Those are two of my favorite charges in the Federal system.

More details:

During the early morning hours of October 29, 2018, Antrim and his co-conspirators dressed as armed LASD deputies and approached the warehouse in an LASD Ford Explorer. Upon arrival, Antrim flashed his LASD badge and a fake search warrant to the security guards to gain entry to the warehouse. To perpetuate the ruse that they were legitimate law enforcement officers, Antrim and two fake deputies sported LASD clothing, wore duty belts, and carried firearms. One fake deputy also visibly carried a long gun to further intimidate the guards into submission.
At the beginning of the two-hour robbery, Antrim and his co-conspirators detained the three warehouse security guards in the cage of the LASD Ford Explorer. Soon after the guards were detained, a fourth man arrived at the warehouse in a large rental truck, and all four men began loading marijuana into the truck.
When Los Angeles Police Department officers legitimately responded to a call for service at the warehouse during the robbery, Antrim falsely told the LAPD officers that he was an LASD narcotics deputy conducting a legitimate search. To facilitate the sham, Antrim handed his phone to one of the LAPD officers so that the police officer could speak to someone on the phone claiming to be Antrim’s LASD sergeant. The individual on the phone was not Antrim’s sergeant, and Antrim did not have a legitimate search warrant for the warehouse.

…

At the time of the robbery, Antrim was a patrol deputy assigned to the Temple City station, but he was not on duty, was not assigned to the department’s narcotics unit, was not a detective, and would not have had a legitimate reason to search a marijuana distribution warehouse in the City of Los Angeles.

Six other people have been convicted and sentenced, including the ever-popular “disgruntled warehouse employee” who is serving 14 years. Former deputy Antrim testified at his trial, which is one reason why he only got seven years.

The big question in my mind: when is the movie coming out, and who’s going to play former deputy Antrim?

Posted in California Über Alles, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Memo from the legal beat.

April 13th, 2021

Two recent stories from the Statesman that I find interesting, but haven’t sorted out yet. So they’re noted here with minimal comment.

1. The Pflugerville Police Department (Pflugerville is a small-ish suburb of Austin) hired a new chief in 2017. She left in February and got a six-figure payout (including unused sick leave and vacation time).

Did she leave because she was a Hispanic lesbian (that’s an actual statement from the article) fighting a “good old boy” system?

As an example, Robledo pointed to complaints by Alicia Fitzpatrick, a patrol officer since 2019, who accused a small group of officers in the Police Department of targeting and undermining her professional credibility to prevent her from being selected for specialized assignments.
Fitzpatrick similarly said that a good ol’ boy network dominated the department and that the network complains that female officers receive preferential treatment for promotions and are not subjected to the same disciplinary consequences as their male counterparts. She said the same “subculture” had an agenda to remove Robledo as chief, according to written reports.
In response, the city manager hired an outside investigator, the Austin Institute, to evaluate the department’s workplace culture. The institute’s December 2020 report was not made public but was recently obtained by the Statesman. The investigation confirmed that the subculture Fitzpatrick described exists within the Police Department.
“Given the voluminous amount of evidence that supports a finding of hostile work environment, gender bias and discrimination by Sgt. (Tyler) Summers, Sgt. (Richard) Thomas, Sgt. (Nathan) Hubel, Cpl. (Mark) Neff and Dispatcher (Alana) Kamp in targeting Officer Alicia Fitzpatrick … comparable misconduct, atrocious judgement, and behavior at such an unacceptable level has serious consequences in all police departments and should not be tolerated from a Sgt. of the Pflugerville Police Department,” the report said.

Or was she forced out because she was a bad leader?

Two former officers, in interviews with the Statesman, dismissed the notion that the department was unkind to anyone other than white men. Instead, they said Robledo caused the hostile work environment with her style of leadership and said she destroyed the careers of some of its longtime employees.
Reiff, who was not involved in either investigative report, said he received a dishonorable discharge after a 22-year career as an officer. In his dealings with the chief, he said, she often belittled officers and behaved with hostility toward them if they questioned policy changes, even if they were only seeking to clarify her new rules.
“I can attest to it personally when I was once working a homicide. She came into the conference room and the investigations division and told us, ‘Don’t f— this up,’” Reiff said. “You’re the chief of police. What do you think saying something like that does to everybody?”
He said the morale in the Police Department was so low and the stress so constant under Robledo that it was common for the officers to discuss how they did not feel comfortable.
“Nobody wanted to come to work. Everybody would have rather been off or was looking to get out,” Reiff said. “When she would get angry, she’d always say it was her passion coming through. But if another officer demonstrated the same type of behavior she did, it was a problem. Someone being afraid isn’t pushing someone to do better. She was a bully, and she hid behind her authority to push people around.”

2. Millie Thompson was elected as a County Court of Law judge in Hays County last fall.

Now she’s suing the other two judges.

Apparently, she wants her own court coordinator, specifically for her court, rather than court coordinators being appointed by (and answering to) the court as a whole.

The employee whom Thompson attempted to fire — Chris Perez — is one of two court administrators who wrote to human resources to report that they were victims of a hostile work environment under Thompson, according to documents the American-Statesman obtained via an open records request.
“I love my job and the people that I work for and with,” Perez wrote in the email to HR. “However, the stress of this situation — and that includes the fact the Judge Thompson’s actions have already led to the resignation of two extremely valuable employees as well as the retirement of a 30+ year veteran employee of this office — is causing me extreme anxiety.”
Closed records on personnel matters make it unclear which employees have resigned since Thompson took office.
Thompson attempted to fire Perez because of a docket scheduling issue, Perez told the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch. Thompson missed a hearing because she was unaware of it. Perez emailed Thompson about the hearing, and it was listed on the judges’ calendar.
However, Thompson’s attorney, George Lobb, said Perez didn’t make enough attempts to communicate that schedule to her.

For what it may be worth (I’m trying to be objective and honest here) Judge Thompson is a Democrat, and the other two judges are Republican.

Posted in Cops, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 13, 2021.

April 13th, 2021

Richard Rush, film director.

He doesn’t have a lot of IMDB credits, but two significant ones: “Freebie and the Bean”, which I’ve seen described as “the first buddy cop movie” (citation needed), and “The Stunt Man” (which I remember as being a very good movie I’d love to watch again).

He also directed “Color of Night”, which I have heard is a completely ridiculous film with Bruce Wills full frontal nudity.

Posted in Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 378

April 13th, 2021

I started out doing police training videos, but those have become thin on the ground. So when a new one shows up in my feed it is a cause for celebration.

Especially this one. I believe it is called “Out Numbered” and dates to 1968 according to the notes. Those same notes also point out that it features “Martin Milner of Adam 12 Fame”.

I want to point out that, while a lot of people knew Mr. Milner best from “Adam-12” (and I include myself in that category) he had a much broader and more interesting career beyond one cop show: “Route 66”, “Sweet Smell of Success”, both “Dragnet”s (the 1950s one and the late 1960s-early 1970s one)…

Bonus #1: totally unrelated to police work, but something I found kind of cool. This is a vintage (1969, maybe) promo film by Canadair for their CL-215 water bomber.

Bonus #2: “Testing a $600 survival tool”.

$600? At that price, not only should it include a tent, but it had better be setting up that tent for me automatically. And making me breakfast in the morning and dinner at night.

Posted in 1970s, Cops, History, Law, Planes, TV | Comments Closed

Just for fun…

April 13th, 2021

I kind of enjoy watching pro bowling, when I can catch it on TV. I feel like I can sit down in front of it, and just completely turn off all my higher brain function. Sometimes you just need that.

Posted in Bagatelle, Sports | 1 Comment »

Noted.

April 13th, 2021

Hattip to Lawrence on this Twitter thread:

One thing that’s missing from that thread: he wrote this.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

[Emphasis added.]

Posted in History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 377

April 12th, 2021

I thought today, for Military History Monday, I’d do a couple of videos at the intersection of survival and military history. For reasons.

Short-ish: Have you ever asked yourself, “Self, how do I escape from a sinking submarine?”

If so:

  1. You’re weird. (Unless you served on subs in the Navy.)
  2. I want to hang out with you.

“Submarine Escape” from 1953.

Long: there are actually two versions of this on the ‘Tube. I’m picking the longer one because the shorter one seems to be cut off. The longer one seems to be a little chopped as well, but not as dramatically.

“Survival in the Arctic Tundra”. In which the crew of a C-119 bails out and has to survive…in the Arctic tundra.

The Saturday Night Movie Group recently watched “Island in the Sky“, one of William Wellman’s two great John Wayne aviation films. (The other is “The High and the Mighty“.) “Island” is in large part about the crew of a downed aircraft trying to survive in the Arctic, and in equally large part about the interpersonal relationships between transport pilots, and how everyone unites when a crew is in trouble.

Both movies get my thumbs-up seal of approval.

Also, I kind of like the C-119.

Posted in Boats, History, Movies, Planes | Comments Closed

Random thought.

April 12th, 2021

In the previous post, valued commenter “Jimmy McNulty” made the observation:

Tourniquets are simple, not dangerous!

This is absolutely true, and I have no argument with Mr. McNulty.

But it did get me thinking.

It has been (mumble mumble) years (soon to be mumble mumble plus one) since I was a Boy Scout. But my recollection of Boy Scout first aid training at the time (as well as the Red Cross first aid training I went through) was that: you should never ever ever use a tourniquet to stop bleeding.

Am I misremembering? Is there anyone else who was a Boy Scout back in the day, or took Red Cross first aid training, and remembers being told tourniquet = bad?

I know medical knowledge grows and changes. I remember the wisdom on snakebite treatment has changed over time as well. I’m just wondering when and why this changed.

This might be one of those discussions I need to have with some authority like Ambulance Driver over a couple-three beers if we’re ever in the same place at the same time.

Posted in History, Safety | 7 Comments »

Obit watch: April 11, 2021.

April 11th, 2021

John Clabburn, television director in Australia. He was 52.

I note this here to make a point: not a political one, but a safety one.

Stop. The. Bleed.

Clabburn was trimming hedges with a new power saw at his home when he cut his hand. He fell ten feet from his ladder and was soon discovered by his wife. He had just bought the chain saw that day.
His death was attributed to cardiac arrest from the blood loss from his slashed hand.
“When I went out to the back garden, he was crawling on the ground on his stomach, said Clabburn’s wife, Melissa, speaking to the Daily Telegraph. “There was so much blood, he was clutching his torso.
“I kept getting towels to stem the flow, but the blood wouldn’t stop.”
“All he said was, ‘Call an ambulance now,’” she said. “One minute we were admiring how straight the hedge was looking and what a great job he had done — he was so meticulous, he had a great eye for detail — the next, John was in an ambulance. He kept it together for me, but I know he would have been in incredible pain.”

Stop the Bleed Australia.

Real Response.

Posted in Obits, Safety, TV | 1 Comment »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 376

April 11th, 2021

Science Sunday!

I’ve got another NASA film lined up today, but this isn’t space science.

“Flight to Tomorrow” is a 1967 film about NASA’s supersonic aircraft research, including the SST, hypersonic transports, and noise abatement.

Bonus #1: I thought it might be interesting to post this: “The M2-F2 Crash” from the Dark Footage folks.

Why? Well, some of you may recognize the M2-F2. Some more of you may recognize some of the footage in this documentary. Otherwise, stay to the end, when all will be revealed.

Bonus #2 and #3: The history of the M2-F2 and the NASA lifting bodies led me to this.

“Today, Tomorrow and Titan III”, part one of “Man In Space”. I know I’m sort of fudging here, but I really do view lifting bodies and supersonic/hypersonic transport as being a different category of science than the manned space missions.

Part 2: This also covers Bill Dana and the X-15.

Bonus #4: Just one more, because it is short. The Martin Marietta X-24B lifting body.

Posted in 1970s, Geek, History, Planes, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 10, 2021.

April 10th, 2021

James Hampton. He was “Hannibal Dobbs”, the bugler on “F-Troop” and knocked around movies and TV quite a bit: “The Rockford Files”, “Sling Blade”, “The Longest Yard” (the original)…

…and, yes, “Mannix”. (“Hardball”, season 8, episode 24, the very last episode.)

Ramsey Clark, attorney general under LBJ.

He went beyond lawyering. In 1972, with the war in Vietnam dragging on, Mr. Clark met with Communist officials in Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and publicly criticized American conduct of the war. That began a pattern: In 1980, months after Iranian revolutionaries had attacked the United States Embassy in Tehran and taken Americans hostage, he went to that city with nine other Americans, in violation of a travel ban, to help resolve the crisis and participate in a conference in which he criticized the United States for having supported Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi before he was deposed.
Six years later he met with Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya and denounced United States airstrikes against that country.
In November 1990, as the United States prepared for the Persian Gulf war, Mr. Clark, who had criticized the American deployment of forces in the gulf, consulted with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The next year he filed a complaint with the International War Crimes Tribunal accusing President George Bush of war crimes.
In 2011, he condemned NATO’s bombing campaign against Qaddafi’s government. In 2013, he said Iran had no intention of building a nuclear bomb and denounced sanctions against that country. Later, he protested lethal attacks by unmanned American drone aircraft on other nations.

Martina Batan, NYC contemporary art dealer. But there’s a bit more to the story than that.

Her brother was murdered at 14. His death devastated Ms. Batan: the case has never been solved.

When she was 53, Ms. Batan decided to kick up the dust of her past and hired a private detective to look into the 1978 murder case. The events that transpired were documented in “Missing People,” directed by David Shapiro, who followed Ms. Batan for four years. The investigation uncovered vital new information about the murder, but it also added to her despair.

Posted in 1970s, Law, Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 375

April 10th, 2021

Does anybody remember “Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?” George Segal? Jacqueline Bisset? Death by duck press?

“Diego Masciaga of Waterside Inn Restaurant Prepares Canard a la Presse”.

(Wow. Ted Kotcheff, the same guy who directed “Chefs” also directed “First Blood”. And “Weekend at Bernie’s”.)

Bonus #1: Made from the best stuff on Earth.

No, not Snapple. Scrapple. “Old fashioned scrapple making! A Pennsylvania Dutch specialty!”

Bonus #2: Okay, you were turned off by the scrapple, and you weren’t wild about the duck. How about “Beef en Croute with Sauce Bearnaise”?

Posted in Food, History, Movies | 2 Comments »

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