Obit watch: November 27, 2015.

November 27th, 2015

Guy V. Lewis, former basketball coach at the University of Houston.

With his signature red polka-dot towel in hand, Lewis was the winningest coach in UH history, compiling 592 victories and making five Final Four trips while coaching such stars as Elvin Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler in 30 seasons from 1956 to 1986.

Off the court, he was regarded as a visionary and innovator for putting together the 1968 “Game of the Century” against top-ranked UCLA at the Astrodome and for being one of the first college basketball coaches to embrace racial integration in the South.

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Obit watch: November 25, 2015.

November 25th, 2015

The NYT is reporting the death of actor Rex Reason.

He appeared with Hayworth in “Salome” in 1953 and with Gable and Sidney Poitier in “Band of Angels” in 1957. In 1956 he played Dr. Thomas Morgan in “The Creature Walks Among Us,” the last installment in the last of the so-called Gill Man trilogy.

Mr. Reason was perhaps most famous for playing Cal Meacham in “This Island Earth”, which I almost think I’d like to watch again for real (as opposed to the MST3K movie version).

Posted in Clippings, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch: November 24, 2015.

November 24th, 2015

Old man yells at cloud!

This week’s TMQ, after the jump…

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Obit watch and random notes: November 24, 2015.

November 24th, 2015

I’ve written previously about Ron Reynolds, a state representative and lawyer who was charged with barratry.

Well, it has been a while. The other seven people who were arrested with Rep. Reynolds took pleas, but Rep. Reynolds went to trial. And…?

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena!

The Fort Bend County Democrat was convicted Friday of five counts of illegally soliciting clients, or misdemeanor barratry. A six-person jury on Monday rejected his plea for probation, and instead sentenced him to 12 months behind bars and a fine of several thousand dollars.

I’ve also written about Kelly Thomas, who was beaten to death by the Fullerton PD. The city (meaning local taxpayers) is going to pay out $4.9 million to his family, in settlement of their wrongful death lawsuit.

Obit watch: noted elsewhere, but I did want to mention the passing of Ken Johnson, former player for the Houston Astros (and the Colt .45s, their predecessor), and the only pitcher ever to “complete a nine-inning game without yielding a hit and still manage to lose it.”

(Oddly enough, there’s a good explanation of how this happened in the FARK discussion thread.)

Also among the dead: Adele Mailer, Norman’s ex-wife and the woman he stabbed in a drunken rage.

Some guests recalled that the point of no return came when she told her husband that he was not as good as Dostoyevsky.

Posted in Books, California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Norts spews.

November 20th, 2015

By way of the NYT, we learn of a controversy sweeping the world of curling: “high-tech” brooms.

Perhaps unsurprising for a sport that has something in common with a household chore, the issue involves fabric — specifically, something called directional fabric. The use of this material in broom pads is the latest escalation in an arms race among manufacturers seeking to help the world’s best curlers guide their 44-pound stones along a sheet of ice as if they were controlled by joysticks.

More:

Many, but not all, of the sport’s top competitors signed an agreement last month to shun the newest brooms. But with few regulations on the books and Olympic qualifying tournaments underway this month, the World Curling Federation stepped in Wednesday and issued new rules that set severe restrictions on the types of brooms that can be used.

It is not going back to hog’s hair, but it is close — banning waterproofed fabric and “stiffening” inserts, and requiring all brooms to be available for purchase at a retailer.

“a retailer”? Like a grocery store? Or like a curling specialty shop?

(Steve’s Curling Supplies sells both the Balance Plus and the Hardline.)

Wednesday was the 30th anniversary of Joe Theismann’s leg injury, and the WP ran a story tied to that.

“The pain was excruciating,” he said. “I’ve had people come up and say ‘Did it hurt?’ And my suggestion to anyone, if you want to know what it felt like, go hang your foot over a curb and let somebody drive a car over it and you’ll get an idea of the severity of it. But the amazing thing about the human body is it hurt tremendously in an instant, and then from the knee down, my leg went completely numb.

Speaking from recent bitter personal experience, this.

So they’re lifting me off the stretcher, and my right leg just drops down like a wet noodle. And I turned to the attendant, I said ‘Excuse me, can you just pick up the rest of me please?’ Didn’t feel a thing. Did not feel one thing.

(Also, I love the detail about the black and white TV with the coat hanger. The ER at Brackenridge has cable TV, so at least you’ve got something to distract you. If you happen to be conscious.)

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TMQ Watch: November 17, 2015.

November 19th, 2015

You know what we miss from the new, tighter, TMQ?

We’ll tell you. After the jump, this week’s TMQ…

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Failure to launch.

November 18th, 2015

And we have our first firing of the NBA season (I think):

Kevin McHale is gone as head coach of the Houston Rockets.

McHale was fired just 11 games into his new four-year, $16 million contract extension. He leaves with the best winning percentage of any coach in franchise history, having taken the Rockets farther last season, to the Western Conference Finals, than any coach in 17 years.

McHale was 193-130 overall.

(By the way, Philadelphia is 0-11.)

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Musical interlude.

November 13th, 2015

No particular reason. Just feel like it.

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Well!

November 12th, 2015

I wasn’t blogging the trial, nor was I following it very closely, but this is just too good to pass up:

Vincent Asaro, who was charged with helping plan the 1978 Lufthansa robbery at Kennedy International Airport along with other acts of racketeering and extortion that spanned much of his 80 years, was acquitted on all counts on Thursday.

That’s right. Aquitted.

But the jury rejected the prosecution’s case, dealing a stunning blow to the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

(You may remember the Lufthansa robbery from such movies as “Goodfellas”.)

Edited to add 11/13:

Flanked by his lawyers, Elizabeth Macedonio and Diane Ferrone, he fielded a flurry of questions from reporters, who asked what he was going to do (“play some paddleball”), where he was heading (“to have a good meal and see my family”) and what he was going to eat (“anything but a bologna sandwich”). Indeed, he appeared delighted by the commotion his acquittal had created. “John Gotti didn’t get this much attention,” he said of the Gambino boss, who was notoriously hard to convict.

I’m just going to leave this here…

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TMQ Watch: November 10, 2015.

November 12th, 2015

We’re running behind again, this time due to Time-Warner issues and other things. In case you were wondering, we are still a bit gimpy, but our hand is steadily improving.

Let’s go ahead and jump into this week’s TMQ…

Read the rest of this entry »

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Obit watch: November 12, 2015.

November 12th, 2015

Carol Doda has passed away at the age of 78.

For those of you like me who were a little young to remember Ms. Doda, she was an early and influential topless dancer:

To understand the scandalousness of Ms. Doda’s precedent-setting impromptu performance in San Francisco, on June 19, 1964, consider that it was followed less than a month later in that same city by the Republican National Convention that nominated the conservative Barry Goldwater.

Apologies for the lack of pictures to provide historical context, but I am blogging from work…

Edited to add: more from SFGate.

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Obit watch and other random notes: November 11, 2015.

November 11th, 2015

Helmut Schmidt, former chancellor of West Germany.

Allen Toussaint, noted New Orleans musician.

In 1964, trumpet maestro Al Hirt covered Toussaint’s jaunty instrumental “Java,” which became a No. 1 hit. In 1965, Mr. Toussaint’s “Whipped Cream” not only became the title track on a Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album, it later became the bachelorettes theme of the television game show “The Dating Game.”

Vito J. Lopez, former New York assemblyman who resigned due to a sexual harassment scandal.

Non-obit, but interesting:

The police in Northern Ireland arrested a 66-year-old man on Tuesday in connection with Bloody Sunday, the infamous massacre of unarmed civilian marchers by British soldiers in Londonderry on Jan. 30, 1972. It was the first time anyone has been arrested in the massacre, for which the British government formally apologized in 2010.

The individual is not named, but is described as a “former lance corporal”.

“Former fugitive fish smuggler pleads guilty, prosecutors say”. Somebody at the LAT was having a bit of fun…

Second day coverage of the Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow trial. Doesn’t seem like much here: one of “Shrimp Boy”‘s confederates claims he ordered a hit, but he never explicitly said anything beyond “take care of this”.

The patrol reached a small bridge over a canal and was approached by men on motorcycles coming from the opposite direction — possibly members of the Taliban. They began crossing the bridge but stopped partway and retreated in the opposite direction. The suicide bomber appeared on foot to the left of the patrol after coming out of a building. Groberg ran at him and threw him to the ground with the help of another soldier, Sgt. Andrew Mahoney, who would later receive the Silver Star for his valor.

Where do we get such men?

Posted in Clippings, Heroism, Law, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Well. Well well well. Well.

November 10th, 2015

More from the HouChron on the “person of interest” in the Judge Kocurek case.

Highlights:

  • He was scheduled to go before the judge in December: prosecutors were looking to revoke his probation from a previous fraud case.
  • He’s been charged with a murder from May of this year.
  • He “has a long arrest record in Harris County but few convictions, court records show.”

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Law, Travis County | 1 Comment »

Quick random notes: November 10, 2015.

November 10th, 2015

Mike Thomas out as athletic director at Illinois.

The Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow trial stated yesterday.

On one occasion, Hasib said, Chow told an agent, who clandestinely tape-recorded his comments, “I don’t commit crimes myself, but I know a lot of people who do.”

More from the LAT.

My mother was complaining last night that the authorities were being awfully close-mouthed about the shooting of Judge Kocurek. I figured they were playing things close to the vest because the investigation was ongoing.

Well. Well well well. Well.

Austin police said Monday night that it is aware of the arrest in Houston of a person of interest in Kocurek’s shooting and that the person is being detained on unrelated charges, but declined to comment any further citing the ongoing investigation.

Posted in Austin, California Über Alles, Clippings, Firings, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee, Sports, Travis County | 1 Comment »

Historical note, suitable for use in schools.

November 10th, 2015

40 years ago today, 29 sailors died when their freighter sank during a storm on Lake Superior.

By late in the afternoon of November 10, sustained winds of over 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph) were recorded by ships and observation points across eastern Lake Superior. [Arthur M.] Anderson logged sustained winds as high as 58 knots (107 km/h; 67 mph) at 4:52 p.m., while waves increased to as high as 25 feet (7.6 m) by 6:00 p.m. Anderson was also struck by 70-to-75-knot (130 to 139 km/h; 81 to 86 mph) gusts and rogue waves as high as 35 feet (11 m).

I refer, of course, to the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.

S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald Online.

Coverage from MLive.

Mariners’ Church of Detroit.

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