Wally Campo, actor.
Other credits include “Shock Corridor”, “Ski Troop Attack”, and “Hell Squad”.
Sylvia Syms, British actress.
Other credits include “Doctor Who”, “Dalziel and Pascoe”, “The Poseidon Adventure” (the TV movie), “Doctor Zhivago” (the TV series), and “EastEnders”.
This is another rabbit hole that I attribute to McThag: the Casca book series.
I remember the Casca books from when I was a teenager: I never bought any, but I remember seeing them around.
I actually saw a bunch of them (if memory serves, it was eight or nine out of the first dozen) at Half-Price Books a month or so ago. I thought about buying them, but there were a little expensive, and this was during the “not buying anything for myself” time period.
Things I did not know until I read McThag’s post and looked up the books:
I may have to go back to Half-Price and see if they still have those Casca books.
Paul La Farge, author. He wasn’t someone I’d heard of before, but he sounds interesting:
Mr. La Farge’s novels and short stories defied easy categorization, but they were all characterized by a sort of writer’s derring-do.
“With each novel he would set out, and then it would become clear to him that he had set what seemed like an impossible formal challenge for himself,” Ms. Stern, the artistic director of the Vineyard Theater in Manhattan, said by email, “but he would keep on, wrestling forward and sideways and backwards, and eventually the story and its form would be inextricable in a way that was awe-inspiring and yet felt inevitable.”
…
Mr. La Farge began “Haussmann: Or the Distinction” (2001) by presenting it as a translation of an unearthed French text from 1922. The novel goes on to tell a made-up tale about the real-life French official Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who oversaw the redesign of Paris in the 1800s.“The Facts of Winter” (2005) was another exercise in fiction-as-reality. Mr. La Farge presented it as his translation of a minor French poet, Paul Poissel, whom he had invented out of whole cloth.
…
“Luminous Airplanes” (2011), about a San Francisco programmer who returns to upstate New York to sort through his dead grandfather’s possessions, is perhaps the most realistic of Mr. La Farge’s novels, but it had its own unexpected element: Readers were invited to go to a website where Mr. La Farge posted elaborations on and continuations of the story.
His most recent novel, “The Night Ocean” (2017), again takes a real historical figure — the writer H.P. Lovecraft — and weaves a story around him.
…
Lance Kerwin. Other credits include “FBI: The Unheard Music The Untold Stories”, “The Fourth Wise Man”, and “Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy”.
Victor S. Navasky, former editor and publisher of The Nation.
I haven’t forgotten about part two of Day of the .45. I do want to get that up. Unfortunately, the weather on Saturday was bad for photo taking, Sunday was entirely consumed by battleship, and the weather so far this week is also kind of hinky.
This weekend is looking less busy, so if the weather holds up and we get some sunlight, I may be able to take some photos and get a post up.
Also have some more books to post about as well, but that should be an easier process as it does not depend so much on good weather. Possibly Thursday?
And I also have not forgotten that I need to update the City Council/Commissioner’s Court/Congressional Representatives lists. That is, for sure, on the agenda, especially in light of recent events. As I think everyone knows, I try to wait until after January 20th to update those lists, as it takes time for people to get sworn in and websites to get updated. Updating those lists is also part of my evil master plan for this week.
Yoshio Yoda, actor.
He only has five acting credits in IMDB, but one of those was 163 episodes of “McHale’s Navy” as “Fuji Kobiaji”. He was also in two “McHale’s Navy” movies.
Betty Sturm, actress. “The World’s Greatest Sinner” is her only IMDB credit. (I have not seen “Sinner”, and I’m not aware of anyone ever screening it while I’ve lived in Austin. Apparently it is on Amazon Prime. I have seen “200 Motels”, and would have to think hard about repeating that experience. And I’m a Zappa fan.)
Last boat post of the day, and until Memorial Day (I think), just because I think people might be getting tired of me going on about the Texas.
Did the stern, pretty much have to do the bow as well.
1. The Alex Murdaugh murder trial starts today.
I probably will not be covering it in detail, but I will try to keep half an eye on it, and will link anything I find interesting and not offensive.
(I specify “not offensive” because: there was a story in the media last week which summarized the autopsy reports on Maggie Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh. It went into enough detail that I decided not to link it, because I felt it was just too much detail for my readers.)
2. Back in 2021, a 15-year old boy hit a mother and child in Venice, California.
The video shows a stolen vehicle speeding the wrong way down a one-way backstreet. It plowed into a woman walking her infant son in a stroller. Then he hit the gas, accelerating away from the scene, where a good Samaritan in a pickup truck rammed the suspect vehicle head on.
Los Angeles police responded and found drugs in the driver’s system and marijuana in the car, according to an incident report obtained by Fox News.
This case was in the news last year:
…
Last week, someone shot the (now 17-year old) boy.
Sources close to the investigation told FOX News that he had been at a fast food restaurant earlier trying to “get with a girl.”
“As he walked home alone, a car pulled up next to him and an argument broke out. Someone in the vehicle opened fire, then sped off,” FOX News reported.
The police don’t currently think there is any relationship between the hit-and-run and the shooting. It seems more like a violation of the Rule of Stupids.
3. Former Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melanie Andress-Tobiasson died by suicide last Friday. She resigned in 2021.
Her problems began when her daughter Sarah, then 16, started working at a clothing store that Andress-Tobiasson claimed was a front for criminal activities and tried to stop it, first by reporting the issue to the police, the Daily Mail reported. She said the store, Top Knotch, was involved with prostitution and trying to recruit her daughter.
She called out Las Vegas cops for ignoring information about the alleged sex trafficking at the store. She claimed that the store was an unlicensed, underage nightclub and added that she was “terrified” of Shane Valentine, who ran the store at the time.
…
Andress-Tobiasson said she had to go to the FBI with the information after being ignored by local police — which resulted in officers investigating her for allegedly breaching judicial rules by making an allegation to federal agents.
A complaint filed against Andress-Tobiasson alleged that she failed to comply with and uphold the law, and allowed family interests and relations to influence her conduct, the Daily Mail reported.
I’m not clear on why “judicial rules” would preclude making a complaint to federal agents if you believe there’s wrongdoing or corruption, and can’t get any results at the local level. I understand the “family interests and relations” part, but I wonder how much truth there is to that.
And before you say I’m giving the innocent Mr. Valentine a hard time…
Valentine was later linked to a shooting where a couple was found dead.
They did not officially link him to the killings of Sydney Land, 21, and Nehemiah “Neo” Kauffman, 20, until months later, according to the Daily Mail.
Here’s the Daily Mail article, which includes a photo of Mr. Valentine. Neither article, however, is specific about what “linked to a shooting” means: there’s no mention of Mr. Valentine actually facing any charges.
But Andress-Tobiasson contacted Land’s mother and “began to personally investigate the case” because she thought that Valentine was responsible, the complaint stated.
It added that she used “burner phones” to contact Land’s mother and sent texts to another woman she thought was involved in the murder.
The commission alleged that Andress-Tobiasson stated publicly that she reached out to Valentine’s lawyer at the time and “told him to tell Valentine that if he called her daughter again, she would ‘take care of it herself,’” and that one time she “went to Shane Valentine’s house and kicked in the door.”
Yay, burner phones! Been a while since I’ve seen a case with those.
Detectives learned of Andress-Tobiasson’s activity, according to the charges, and launched an investigation into the judge, going as far as tracking her phone records.
They also alleged that she had links to a man called “Anthony Danna” who was a “known and documented organized crime figure.”
“known and documented organized crime figure”. Again, what does that mean? (As best as I can tell, he’s not in the Black Book.)
…it is battleship steel.
And it isn’t just battleship steel, it is (I’m pretty sure) low background steel.
Sadly, though, low background steel ain’t what it used to be.
You know, I wonder if you could forge a knife out of Battleship Texas steel…probably, if you could get enough of it from the Foundation. That’d be a cool gift shop item.
On a semi-related note, I find this slightly weird. No shade on Drachinifel: I’ve watched a few of his shorter videos, but don’t have time for his longer stuff. I guess it just seems odd that they’re using him as a draw. Even more so at $100 a head (drinks and “light snacks” extra).
You don’t really realize how big these things are until you’re standing right next to them.
You also don’t realize just how large the infrastructure supporting these things is until you see it.
(If you live in Texas, or want to make a trip, the Battleship Texas Foundation is doing these tours through April 30th, only on Sundays. You can find details here if you’re interested.)
(This was a Christmas present from my beloved and indulgent brother and his family. Thanks, folks!)
I didn’t get a chance to blog this yesterday, as I was busy pretty much all day (for reasons I hope to be able to post shortly).
Bruce Boudreau out as coach of the Vancouver Canucks. That’s a NHL team, for those who might be wondering: I was a little confused at first myself and thought they were a CFL team.
The Canucks have lost 28 out of 46 games this season.
Boudreau is the second coach Vancouver has fired in under 14 months. Boudreau took over in December 2021 when previous coach Travis Green and general manager Jim Benning were let go 25 games into the 2021-22 season.
The Canucks have missed the playoffs the past two seasons since reaching the second round in the bubble in 2020.
…
Former NFL player Ed Reed out as football coach of Bethune-Cookman University.
The question is, does this count as a firing?
He was “hired” less than a month ago, but stated yesterday:
Mr. Reed also went on a rant a few days ago “about the conditions at Bethune-Cookman”.
Ed Reed complaining about the trash at Bethune Cookman 😳
“I’m waking out here with the football team picking up trash. I should leave, I’m not even under contract yet !”
“Theses MFs didn’t even clean my office when I got here !” pic.twitter.com/oiKF8YrHqL
— Unfiltered Media ™️ (@UnfilteredInd) January 15, 2023