Headline of the day.

April 24th, 2019

From the HouChron:

A giant bird killed its owner. Now it could be yours.

Bonus: Florida man!

Double bonus:

Bill Grotjahn, who investigated the death for the Medical Examiner’s Office, said Hajos had died from trauma inflicted by the bird. He called it “such an unusual situation.”
“I’ve been doing this for 18 years and I’ve never had a thing like this,” he said. “I’ve had them killed by alligators and snakes but never by a bird like that. I know ostriches and emus have their moments, but cassowaries are an extremely, extremely dangerous bird. You don’t want to fool around with them. They have no sense of humor.”

“…this doesn’t look like any ostrich attack that I’ve ever seen.”

(Yes, yes, I know: cassowaries are not ostriches or emus. But unless I’m badly misreading Wikipedia, they are in the same family.)

Posted in Angry, Birds, Media | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: April 24, 2019.

April 24th, 2019

Henry W. Bloch, co-founder of H&R Block, has passed away at 96.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces and served as a B-17 navigator, flying 31 combat missions over Germany, three over Berlin, and winning the Air Medal and three oak leaf clusters.

I don’t get as much of an opportunity to use these tags as I would like, so I have to note the death of Verena Wagner Lafferentz, Richard Wagner’s last surviving grandchild.

Ms. Lafferentz was the daughter of Wagner’s son Siegfried and his wife, the English-born Winifred, who was a fanatical admirer and a rumored paramour of Hitler’s. She met him at the Bayreuth Festival in 1923.

…

In 1940, she, too, was romantically linked to Hitler, although he was said to have been uncomfortable with how the public would perceive their two-decade age gap. She was known to be both flirtatious and unusually frank in her conversations with him about everything from culture to current events.

…

In 1943, when she was 23, she was back in the public eye when she married Bodo Lafferentz, who had joined the Nazi Party a decade earlier, had worked for Volkswagen and had since 1939 been a high-ranking officer in the SS, assigned to the Race and Settlement office.
He oversaw a rocket research center at an outpost of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, where, according to the book “Bayreuth, the Outer Camp of Flossenbürg Concentration Camp” (2003), Wieland Wagner recruited inmates as laborers to build sets for the Bayreuth Festival.

Posted in Music, Nazis, Obits, Wagner | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 23, 2019.

April 23rd, 2019

Jacqui Saburido passed away on Sunday Saturday. She was 40.

On the night of September 19th, 1999, she and three friends were returning from a party at Lake Travis. Along RM 2222, their car was hit by a drunk driver. Two people died in the crash. Two more were pulled out of the car before it caught fire.

Saburido, trapped in the front passenger seat, burned for nearly a minute before paramedics could put out the fire. Horrific burns covered nearly her entire body, except for the bottom of her legs and feet. She spent months at a Galveston burn unit, undergoing skin grafts and emergency surgeries. One by one her lips, ears and nose fell off. Her eyes were sewn shut so they wouldn’t dry out. The dead bones of her fingers were amputated.

The drunk driver, Reggie Stephey, was convicted on two counts of intoxication manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison.

During the trial, Saburido asked to meet with Stephey; she told Stephey she forgave him. He served every year of his sentence before being released in June 2008. Throughout his prison stint, he collaborated with Saburido on the drunken-driving campaign, filming public service announcements and speaking to high schools.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 20, 2019.

April 20th, 2019

NYT obit for Gene Wolfe.

Warren Adler, novelist. He is perhaps most famous as the author of The War of the Roses, which was adapted into the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner film.

James W. McCord Jr., leader of the Watergate burglars.

On June 17, 1972, four expatriate Cubans and Mr. McCord, chief of security for the Nixon re-election campaign and a leader of the White House “plumbers” unit assigned to plug information leaks, broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington to fix problematic listening devices that they had planted weeks earlier.
But a night watchman alerted the police, and they were caught, odd burglars in business suits carrying cameras and walkie-talkies. E. Howard Hunt, a former C.I.A. agent, and G. Gordon Liddy, the re-election committee’s general counsel, who ran the break-in from a nearby hotel room, fled but were soon arrested. Mr. McCord revealed at an arraignment that he had once worked for the C.I.A., and the unraveling began.

Interesting thing about this obit: Mr. McCord apparently passed away in June of 2017, but his death was not widely reported until recently.

Lorraine Warren, “psychic” fraud.

This was noted elsewhere earlier in the week, but for the historical record: Geraldyn M. “Jerri” Cobb, noted pilot and an early recruit for the astronaut program.

Posted in Books, History, Law, Movies, Nixon, Obits, Planes | Comments Closed

Noted.

April 18th, 2019

1. Judith Clark has been granted parole. Officer Waverly Brown and Sgt. Edward O’Grady of the Nyack Police Department were unavailable for comment, as was Brinks employee Peter Paige.

2. Thread:

I haven’t seen “A Few Good Men” yet. (I feel like I should, but: Sorkin.) But I agree with his points on “Magnum Force”. I swear I’ve written about this before, but I think “Dirty Harry” and “Magnum Force” are both much more complicated movies than the people who call them “fascist” give them credit for. “Dirty Harry” is about a good man who is trying to do his job, while coming to terms with a world that’s changing around him. “Magnum Force” is about that same man, who, when given a chance to reject those changes, makes the moral choice not to.

3. Article about Father Fournier from the NYT. Mike the Musicologist sent over a Reddit thread as well.

It seems somehow inappropriate to refer to a priest as a bad a–, but I can’t think of a better word. Before rushing into a burning building, the Father had:

  • served with French forces in Afghanistan, and survived an ambush that killed 10 men
  • went into Bataclan while the shooting was going on to provide absolution for the victims

Clint Eastwood, call your people, please: Father Fournier would be a good subject for your next movie.

Tactical advice from a priest:

From a military base in Afghanistan to a revered cathedral torn by flames, the rule, he said, is the same: “Always be on the move, or else you die.”
Inside Notre-Dame, he said, he kept the safety of his fellow firefighters foremost in his mind. “Artworks can be reproduced, while a human life can’t,” he said.
“The one who tells you that he’s not afraid in that kind of situation is either very dangerous or foolish,” the chaplain said. “Even for a firefighter, to go inside a building in flames isn’t that natural.”

4. Should Roberto Clemente’s number 21 be retired across all of baseball? My feelings about baseball are well known, so I’m not the person to ask. But I do kind of like Clemente, who died nobly and far too young.

5. The Alliance of American Football has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Posted in Law, Movies, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

Notre-Dame.

April 17th, 2019

I don’t feel like I have to comment on everything in the news here, but I feel like I have to say something. I’ve spent the past couple of days going around in my head about this.

I don’t have the personal connection to Notre-Dame de Paris that a lot of folks do: I’ve never been to France, much less seen it up close and personal. I feel like I should have more of a connection, being a frustrated amateur historian and Notre-Dame being one of the spiritual centers of my people.

I don’t know that I have any kind of profound take on it, compared to other, smarter people. There is a part of me that finds some level of symbolism in the fire taking place this week, of all weeks: Notre-Dame rising from the ashes as symbolic analogy to Christ rising from the tomb.

There is another part of me that wants to echo Pirsig from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the distinction he makes: the church as corporate body that pays bills and employs people and owns buildings, and the Church as the great mass of believers, the continuity of belief and tradition in the lives of people, not in a building. Notre-Dame might burn, but the true Church will never die as long as there are believers.

But that seems dismissive. On the other hand, there are some takes I’ve liked:

(Thread.)

(Also thread. But calling out:

Remind you of anything in particular?)

It looks now like there’s a lot of reason to be optimistic: the rose windows survived, the art and relics were rescued (and if there’s any justice at all in France, Father Fournier will never be able to pay for a drink or meal with his own money for the rest of his life), and the cathedral will be rebuilt. As other, smarter people have pointed out, this isn’t the first time: Notre-Dame was desecrated and damaged during the French Revolution, and restored between 1844 and 1864.

(True side note: my mother emailed me and asked if Quasimodo made it out. I had to explain to her that he wasn’t actually in the cathedral at the time, but was in a small space behind the building: the hutch back of Notre-Dame. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.)

Edited to add: One thing I forgot to note: we know a lot about Notre-Dame.

Posted in History, Religion | Comments Closed

A small silly diversion.

April 17th, 2019

Lawrence stated the other night that you can Google DuckDuckGo “Florida Man” and any combination of words and almost be guaranteed you’ll get some results back.

Here is a perfect example of that theory:

Florida man arrested after aggressively eating handfuls of pasta

No, you are not having a stroke. Yes, that is an actual headline, though the gentleman in question was actually arrested for (quel frommage!) being drunk and disorderly in public and resisting arrest. To the best of my knowledge, the eating of pasta – even in an aggressive fashion – is not an actual crime in Florida. Yet.

In other news of the weird:

Man in monkey mask stole mail from Southwest Austin apartments, police say

Moral of this story: don’t mess with the postal inspectors. They got his fingerprints off light bulbs, and…

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service, told police the agency had planted a gift card in the mail designed to force the recipient into giving up their personal information to access the gift card. The day after the burglary, postal inspectors learned that the card was accessed by a Texas woman who — joined by a man later identified by authorities as Ortiz — used the card at a Target retail store on Research Boulevard about two weeks later, the affidavit said.

“The Man in the Monkey Mask” was also one of Dumas’s less successful works.

Posted in Bagatelle, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 17, 2019.

April 17th, 2019

Owen Garriott, astronaut.

In 1973 he was the science pilot of Skylab 3, the record-breaking 59-day mission — more than double the duration of any previous flight — to Skylab, the first United States space station.
He logged nearly 14 hours outside Skylab in three spacewalks, during which physiological and biomedical metrics were monitored to determine the body’s response to long periods spent in reduced gravity.

…

He returned to space in 1983 on the 10-day flight of the shuttle Columbia, which carried the European Space Agency’s Spacelab 1 module, on which a multinational team of scientists conducted research.
On that mission, Dr. Garriott operated the first amateur radio station from space. He used his station’s call sign, W5LFL, to connect with about 250 ham operators, including his mother in Enid, Okla.; Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona; and King Hussein of Jordan.

…

His marriage to Helen Walker in 1952 ended in divorce. In addition to his son Richard, his survivors include three other children from that marriage, Randall, Robert and Linda Garriott; his wife, Evelyn (Long) Garriott; three stepchildren, Cindy Burcham, Bill Eyestone and Sandra Brooks; 12 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Posted in Geek, History, Obits, Radio | Comments Closed

Gene Wolfe.

April 16th, 2019

Michael Swanwick. I love that story about the bags full of old books: I have a similar feeling to Wolfe’s sometimes when I’m watching an old movie, or (yes) handling an old book.

Brian Doherty at Reason’s “Hit and Run”.

Lawrence.

Posted in Books, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 16, 2019.

April 16th, 2019

Thanks to Alan Simpson for providing Gene Wolfe obit links. I’m still holding off a bit on posting here, as I’d like to see some things come together first.

In the meantime: Georgia Engel, Ted Baxter’s girlfriend/wife on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. Apparently, she also had a gig on “Everybody Loves Raymond”, but I was one of the people who didn’t love Raymond. And she had a pretty substantial theater career, both before and after MTM.

“I was walking down the street one day after ‘Dolly’ closed to cash my unemployment check for $75,” Ms. Engel told The Toronto Star years later, “when I ran into John and he told me I had to be in his play ‘The House of Blue Leaves.’ I was so thrilled, until I got my first paycheck. I was making $74, one dollar less than unemployment.”

Posted in 1970s, Books, Obits, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 15, 2019.

April 15th, 2019

I am seeing unconfirmed reports that Gene Wolfe, one of the greatest SF authors ever to walk the face of the earth, has passed away.

I’ll try to link to reliable obits when I find them.

Edited to add:

Posted in Books, Obits | 2 Comments »

Happy BAG Day!

April 15th, 2019

I did make it down to Cabela’s yesterday, but I didn’t see anything that really called out to me and said “Take me home!”

They did have a bunch of S&W Model 59s in one of the display cases – I want to say at least ten out on the floor, and I don’t know if they had more in back. It looked like they’d been knocked around some, so I’m thinking these were trade-ins or surplus from somewhere. But I didn’t have a chance to ask, or look closely at any of them, as the counter people were busy. The price isn’t too awful – $350 – and it is a Smith I don’t have, but I just don’t know if I need another hi-cap 9mm right now.

They also had a surprising number of Winchester Model 70s out on the rack (as opposed to in the gun library) but nothing pre-64 (of course) and none of them were in calibers that I found desirable: mostly .30-06 and .243, with one each in .300 Win Mag and .308. Also a bunch of Savage rifles, but, again, nothing in a caliber or configuration that really attracted me.

So I’m declaring a push on my own personal Buy a Gun Day. But I’m also declaring this an open thread for anyone who wants to brag about their acquisitions.

P.S. Since I’m making the rules for this thread: yes, layaways do count. Also, if you need some inspiration, you-know-who is still selling M&P Shields for $250.

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

Good night, Luke.

April 12th, 2019

Luke Walton out as head coach of the LA Lakers.

98-148 over three seasons. LA was 37-45 and missed the playoffs this season.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: April 12, 2019.

April 12th, 2019

Earl Thomas Conley, musician.

Mr. Conley had 24 Top 10 country singles in the ’80s, several of which he wrote or co-wrote, including 18 that reached No. 1. Only two artists that decade topped the country charts more times than he did: the vocal group Alabama, which had 27 No. 1 singles, and the singer Ronnie Milsap, who had 23. All but one of Mr. Conley’s No. 1 hits were recorded for RCA, starting with “Somewhere Between Right and Wrong” in 1982.

…

“My stuff started with bluegrass music,” Mr. Conley once explained in an interview. “That’s what inspired me, the people that came out of those hills in West Virginia and Kentucky. And, of course, Hank Williams Sr. down in Alabama.
“I was born in ’41, and I was raised up on that early stuff,” he went on. “Coming out of those mountains, there’s a different soul and a different feeling and a whole different deal than what it would be like to come from the city.”

Forrest Gregg, legendary Green Bay Packer.

He was the best offensive lineman of his era. He was so good that he went to nine Pro Bowls, was a first-ballot Hall of Famer and was named to the NFL’s 75th anniversary team.

…

Drafted in the second round out of SMU in 1956, Gregg began a streak of a then-NFL record 188 consecutive games, interrupted only in ’57 when he missed the entire season in order to serve in the army. The NFL did not count those as missed games and Gregg became a mainstay on the Packers’ offensive line, playing mostly right tackle but filling in at guard when injuries dictated.

He also did some coaching: he was with the Browns, took the Bengals to the Super Bowl, had a controversial stint as head coach in Green Bay, and was the first coach at SMU after the scandal.

NYT. Packers.com.

Posted in Music, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

April 11th, 2019

Dave Joerger out as head coach of the Sacramento Kings.

Three seasons, 98-148, and the team went 39-43 this season, which was their best record since 2005. Also out: assistant GM Brandon Williams and PR director Chris Clark.

Memphis fired head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and “reassigned” GM Chris Wallace. Apologies for linking ESPN, but I can’t get the Commercial-Appeal website to load on my phone.

(Edited to add 4/12: coverage from the Commercial-Appeal.

Not exactly a firing, but Larry Drew is not coming back as head coach in Cleveland. Drew took over after head coach Tyronn Lue was fired early this past season.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

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