Dell Demps out as GM of the New Orleans Pelicans.
I don’t follow the NBA much, so I’m missing a lot of what’s going on here. (Then again, I wouldn’t exactly say I’ve been “missing” it, Bob.) The sources I read say this is fallout from Anthony Davis wanting to be traded, and New Orleans pushing back on offers from the Lakers.
The anarcho-capitalist side of me thinks Alexandra Occasional Cortex is an idiot.
The less anarcho-capitalist side of me thinks a 100% marginal tax rate sounds like a great idea, as long as it’s applied only to people who purchase $1,475 sterling silver weed grinders and $950 bongs.
Lyndon LaRouche, one of the 20th Century’s greatest cranks. LaRouche PAC.
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In Mr. LaRouche’s view, Mr. Johnson continued, “true Platonists believe that industrialization, technology and classical music should be used to bring wealth and enlightenment to the citizens of the world.”
He added: “The Aristotelians are trying to stop them by using not only sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll but also environmentalism and quantum theory. With their bag of brainwashing techniques, they hope to trick civilization into destroying itself, bringing on a new dark ages in which the world’s riches will be firmly in the hands of the oligarchs.”
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He was rather oddly obsessed with the British royal family. From a recent editorial on the LaRouche PAC web site calling for his exoneration:
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They don’t make them like that any more.
Technically, from last night:
Trying to think of how my life would be different if all the songs written by the Beatles were forgotten and not really thinking of any major differences.
— Fr. Brendon Laroche (@padrebrendon) February 14, 2019
Good news: Carlos Uresti has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for bribery.
Bad news: this sentence will run concurrently with his existing 12 year sentence from last year, so he won’t actually be doing any additional time.
Rick Schmidt, former owner of Kruez Market in Lockhart.
Kreuz Market first opened in 1900. Rick’s father, Edgar “Smitty” Schmidt, purchased it in 1948, and Rick and his brother Don Schmidt bought the legendary Lockhart barbecue restaurant from their father in 1984. Don retired from the family business in 1997, and in 1999, Austin-native Rick relocated Kreuz Market from its previous location on Main Street to Colorado Street, near Town Branch creek, following a public dispute with his sister, Nina Sells, who inherited the old brick building on Main Street.
Sells converted the original Kreuz Market location into Smitty’s Market, while Schmidt opened his massive, red-brick building about a mile up the road. The family feud made headlines in Austin and landed the family on an episode of the CBS newsmagazine “48 Hours.″
Over the weekend, Lawrence and I went to see “They Shall Not Grow Old“.
Quick hot take: go see this movie. Take your teenage children.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the movie: Peter Jackson went through about 100 hours of vintage WWI footage at the Imperial War Museum and selected portions which he enhanced (removing scratches and other artifacts of old age, as well as adjusting exposures), adjusted the film speed to contemporary standards, colorized it, and edited it into a narrative of the war.
Almost all of the voices you hear in the film are actual veterans of WWI (taken from 1950s-1960s oral histories recorded by the BBC). There are some places where Jackson actually hired professional lip readers to determine what the people in the film were saying, and then had professional actors dub the lines.
It doesn’t concentrate on one major battle, or the larger scale strategy of the war: it’s more like “this is what the typical experience of a soldier on the Western Front was like”, from the pre-war mobilization through training to trench combat and finally the end of the war.
IMDB lists the movie as 99 minutes long. In the showing we saw, there was also a 30-minute post credit documentary narrated by Jackson explaining some of the technical aspects. (It isn’t clear to me if that’s the case for all showings.)
I could not be more enthusiastic about recommending this movie: if I had the money, I would rent out movie theaters for showings of this, and give out free tickets in schools. (Yes, it is kind of a hard “R”, mostly for realistic depictions of the effects of war. There’s also some brief shots of male butts in a non-sexual context.)
Of course, I do have a couple of minor notes…
Repeating myself: go. See. It’s not “fun”, but it’s an extraordinary piece of work.
Great and good friend of the blog Borepatch, who has probably forgotten more about popular music than I know, sent over a couple of obits that I missed.
Bonnie Guitar passed away in January at the age of 95.
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And Sanger D. “Whitey” Shafer also died in January. He was perhaps most famous for writing “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” and “Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind”.
Tribute from “Austin City Limits”. Obit from Saving Country Music. Obit from WFAA.
Frank Robinson, who became the first black manager in MLB when he took over the Cleveland Indians:
Robinson made his debut as the majors’ first black manager with the Cleveland Indians on April 8, 1975, 28 years after Jackie Robinson (no relation) first took the field with the Dodgers. Rachel Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s widow, threw out the ceremonial first ball.
Frank Robinson, who was still an active player, punctuated the historic occasion by hitting a home run in his first at-bat, as the designated hitter, leading the Indians to a 5-3 victory over the Yankees.
Remember, folks: when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have frozen pork chops.
(Hattip for the submission: Mike the Musicologist. We also would have accepted his suggested title: “Roald Dahl, call your office, please.” even though that’s not quite technically accurate. Hattip for the title.)
Also by way of Mike:
Boston cop on leave after service weapon allegedly stolen by strippers
Strippers. Always the strippers.
Note that the arrest report values the Glock at $5,000. Should we be calling the unnamed police officer “The Man With the Golden Gun” from now on?
Autopsy: Man died of meth overdose before being eaten by bear at national park
Drugs are bad, kids. Mm’kay?
This one goes out to Borepatch and Weer’d Beard: Jacqueline Steiner, who co-wrote “M.T.A.”. That song (also known as “Charlie on the M.T.A.”) later became a huge hit for the Kingston Trio:
Thing I did not know: it was originally written for a guy running for mayor in 1949. He only got one percent of the vote, and was later blacklisted as a Communist.
Also among the dead: Albert J. “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap, notorious corporate raider.