Archive for January, 2022

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Obit watch: January 16, 2022.

Sunday, January 16th, 2022

It has been a bad time for country music and SF writers.

Ralph Emery, noted country music broadcaster.

Beginning his career at small radio stations and then moving into television as well, Emery was probably best known for his work on the Nashville Network cable channel. From 1983 to 1993, he was host of the channel’s live talk-variety show Nashville Now, earning the title “the Johnny Carson of cable television” for his interviewing style. From 2007 to 2015, Emery hosted a weekly program on RFD-TV, a satellite and cable TV channel.

By way of Lawrence: Ron Goulart, SF and mystery writer.

Dallas Frazier. Among other credits, he wrote “Elvira” (“…previously recorded by Rodney Crowell before it became a smash hit for the Oak Ridge Boys in 1981”)

Frazier also found success co-writing songs with A.L. “Doodle” Owens, including Charley Pride‘s first No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs hit, 1969’s “All I Have to Offer You (Is Me).” Pride also had No. 1 country hits with the Frazier/Owens collaborations “(I’m So) Afraid of Losing You Again,” “I Can’t Believe That You’ve Stopped Loving Me” and “Then Who Am I.”

Dave Wolverton, who also wrote as “Dave Farland“.

Wolverton worked as an English professor of creative writing at Brigham Young University, and held writing workshops for aspiring and established writers. He taught writers Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Jessica Day George, Eric Flint, James Dashner, as well as others.

NYT obit for Andrew Vachss, including quotes from Joe R. Landsdale. According to the paper of record, he passed on November 23rd, but “his death had not been widely reported previously”.

Obit from “The Rap Sheet” for Mr. Vachss and for J.J. Lamb.

Posted in Books, Music, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 15, 2022.

Saturday, January 15th, 2022

Eddie Basinski has passed away at the age of 99. He was the second oldest former major league baseball player.

Interestingly, Mr. Basinski was also a trained classical violin player.

Basinski, who had taken classical violin lessons since childhood, played with the University of Buffalo’s symphony orchestra before embarking on his major league career in 1944, a time when baseball rosters had lost many players to service in World War II. (He was deferred from military service because he had poor eyesight.) He played in 39 games for the Dodgers in his rookie season, mostly at second base, and in 108 more games in 1945, filling in at shortstop for the future Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese, who was in the Navy.

…

Basinski had a .244 career major league batting average.

…

Basinski told The Times that there was a relationship between playing the violin and fielding ground balls. “I had great quickness because of the bowing and the fingering, which just has to be lightning quick,” he said. “There is a great correlation.”

NYT obit for Terry Teachout.

Saousoalii Siavii Jr., former defensive tackle with the Kansas City Chiefs. This is an odd one: he died in custody at Leavenworth.

In August 2019, Siavii was arrested and later charged with being an unlawful drug user in possession of firearms after suburban Kansas City police say he was spotted exiting a vehicle reported stolen and fighting with officers, who used a stun gun on him twice during the arrest. Prosecutors alleged Siavii possessed a gun, ammunition, methamphetamine and marijuana.

Posted in Art, NFL, Obits, Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: January 14, 2022.

Friday, January 14th, 2022

Terry Teachout, critic, blogger, playwright, cultural commentator, and biographer, passed away yesterday.

“About Last Night” blog. WSJ (through archive.is). National Review.

I wrote briefly about him and his blog when his wife died. I was still an irregular follower – I tried to check in once a week – but I knew he had found a new love and was excited about that. This seems especially unfair.

On Twitter, he described himself as a “critic, biographer, playwright, director, unabashed Steely Dan fan, ardent philosemite.”

Though he led a sophisticated life of culture in New York, Mr. Teachout retained some of his small-town earnestness. “I still wear plaid shirts and think in Central Standard Time,” he wrote in his memoir. “I still eat tuna casserole with potato chips on top and worry about whether the farmers back home will get enough rain this year.”

I never met Mr. Teachout, though I would have liked to. He seems like one of those good decent people whose passing leaves a void in the world.

Edited to add: tribute from Rod Dreher.

Posted in Art, Books, Media, Music, Obits, Theatre | Comments Closed

Culley-ing the herd.

Friday, January 14th, 2022

Well. Well well well. Well.

David Culley out as head coach of the Houston Texans after a single season. Battle Red Blog.

The Texans were 4-13 and, quite frankly, stank. But:

Culley’s Texans were objectively horrendous in 2021 and Culley certainly looked over his skis as a head coach at various times, but we should not ignore how dreadful the talent on the roster was. In other words, I don’t think many coaches could have coaxed more than four wins out of this squad.

Also out: offensive coordinator Tim Kelly.

Battle Red also reports that, while Culley had a five-year contract, only the first two years were guaranteed. So he’ll get paid a mere $4 million instead of $12 million to $14 million if all five years had been guaranteed…

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#79 in a series)

Friday, January 14th, 2022

Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore prosecutor, indicted on federal charges of “perjury and making false statements”.

Mosby, 41, is charged with falsely claiming to suffer financial hardship from the coronavirus to obtain an early withdrawal from her retirement savings to purchase the homes. In addition, federal prosecutors allege she lied on a mortgage loan application by hiding an outstanding federal tax debt. And they accuse her of entering into an agreement to rent out a home she bought in Kissimmee, near Disney World, while at the same time promising not to rent the property — all to obtain a lower interest rate.

Additional coverage from the NYT.

What do we always say, folks?

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 12, 2022.

Wednesday, January 12th, 2022

Jean Ramirez, catcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. He was 28.

Ronnie Spector.

Posted in Music, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

I have no joke here…

Wednesday, January 12th, 2022

…I just want to observe that you can get “The Day of the Dolphin” on blu-ray from Amazon at a not unreasonable price (affiliate link).

No particular reason, really.

Posted in Bagatelle, Movies | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Wednesday, January 12th, 2022

Sorry for the lack of a clever headline, but the NY Post cut me off at the pass on this one.

Joe Judge out as coach of the New York Football Giants. Two seasons, 10-23 overall.

He is the third consecutive Giants coach to be fired after two seasons or less, following Ben McAdoo (13-15) and Pat Shurmur (9-23), as the once-proud franchise stumbles through one of the worst 10-year stretches in its history.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: January 11, 2022.

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

Robert Durst.

Lawrence sent this over for the “Burning In Hell watch”, but I have to say: I don’t have the strong feelings about Durst that I’ve had about other criminals who I hope are roasting. Durst was almost certainly nuttier than a Stuckey’s pecan log roll, and was probably guilty of the crimes he was convicted of.

Admittedly, I only followed the trials from the fringes, but it did seem to me that there was a lot of…stuff…that made me go “hmmmmmmm”. I wasn’t on any of the juries, I didn’t hear all the evidence, but I’m not sure there was enough there to convince me beyond a reasonable doubt.

At this point, it doesn’t matter: he knows, God knows, and that’s good enough.

Posted in Law, Obits | Comments Closed

Rules of the Gunfight.

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

I did some training this past weekend at the KR Training facility. (KR Training, official firearms trainer of Whipped Cream Difficulties.)

Before I talk about this, I feel like I need to address an elephant in the room. It seems like there are two schools of thought in the gun blogging community:

  1. “Why aren’t you running out every weekend and traveling 500 miles, and then 500 more, to attend tactical operator fantasy camp where you learn how to operate tactically in operations using tactics? Aren’t you serious about this stuff? Don’t you have a job that lets you travel and pay thousands of dollars multiple times a month to take training courses?”
  2. “Fark you, I don’t have the time or the money to travel every weekend and play pretend ninja with my gun writer buddies. I have a job that doesn’t involve shooting guns or people, a family to take care of, and I don’t get free training classes because I’m a gunwriter.”

I hate to be lukewarm, but I totally get both sides of this issue. Training is good. Training is fun. I should do more of it. But I don’t have time or money to train every weekend, so I pick my opportunities carefully.

I’m lucky in that KR Training’s facilities are just a little over an hour away from my house (an hour and a half if I stop at Buc-ee’s on the way). I’m also lucky in that KR Training concentrates almost entirely on practical training for private citizens. (I do not get free training from KR Training, even though they are the official trainer of WCD. I would not accept free training if it was offered: I insist on paying real American money for their services. They do not accept Bitcoin or Dogecoin yet, as far as I know.)

In this case, KR Training was offering two classes from John Hearne. Yes, they were a little expensive. But I decided to treat this as a personal indulgence. I’ve heard Karl talk about Mr. Hearne’s presentations at the Rangemaster conferences, and figured this was worth taking a flyer on.

(These two classes were the second and third I have taken in roughly a month, so you can throw stones at me now. However, the first class was Red Cross First Aid/CPR/AED certification: also through KR Training because that was convenient, but you can pretty much do that anywhere these days. And you should, in my ever so humble opinion.)

tl,dr: If John Hearne is teaching near you, go if you can. He’s worth it.

I’m putting in a jump here because this is going to run long. I can feel it.

(more…)

Posted in Books, Endorsements, Geek, Guns, Leadership | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: January 10, 2022.

Monday, January 10th, 2022

Playing catch-up from the weekend:

Dwayne Hickman. THR.

His most famous role was as the title character on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”. Other roles included “Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis?”, “Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis”, “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini”, and “Sergeant Orkin” in “The Youth Killer” episode of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”.

Bob Saget. THR.

Marilyn Bergman. She and her husband Alan were Hollywood lyricists.

The Bergmans and Mr. Hamlisch won the 1974 best-song Academy Award for “The Way We Were,” from the Robert Redford-Barbra Streisand romance of the same name. (The album of that movie’s score also won the Bergmans their only Grammy Award.) Their other best-song winner, “The Windmills of Your Mind” (“Round, like a circle in a spiral/Like a wheel within a wheel”), was written with Mr. Legrand for the 1968 film “The Thomas Crown Affair.” Their third Oscar was for the score of Ms. Streisand’s 1983 film “Yentl,” also written with Mr. Legrand.

…

But their lyrics were probably heard far more often by viewers of popular late-20th-century television series. They wrote the words to the bouncy theme songs for the hit sitcoms “Maude,” “Alice” and “Good Times,” as well as the themes for the nostalgic comedy series “Brooklyn Bridge” and the drama series “In the Heat of the Night.” Their hit “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” best known as a duet by Neil Diamond (who wrote the music) and Ms. Streisand, was originally written for Norman Lear’s short-lived series “All That Glitters.”

NYT obit for Max Julien, for the record.

Lani Guinier, historical footnote. Bill Clinton nominated her for the post of “assistant attorney general for civil rights” in 1993, but was forced to withdraw her nomination after some of her views came to light.

She argued, for example, that the principle of “one person, one vote” was insufficient in a system where the interests of minorities, racial or otherwise, were inevitably trampled by those of the majority, and that alternatives needed to be considered to give more weight to minority interests.

(Hattip: Lawrence.)

Posted in History, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Blood in the streets!

Monday, January 10th, 2022

While this would be an appropriate title for an after-action report on the training classes I went to over the weekend, this is not that report. I hope to be able to write that sometime this week.

This is your “Monday morning after the end of the NFL season” firings watch. So far, there’s a lot of “sources say”. I’m going to leave these unlinked for right now, and update when there’s better confirmation.

“Sources say” Mike Zimmer is out as head coach, and Rick Spielman is out as general manager of the Vikings.

Edited to add: Story from the Star Tribune, though it is still “according to a source familiar with the team’s decision-making”. I can’t find any evidence that there’s been a press release, press conference, or other official announcement.

Zimmer had led the team to the postseason in three of his first six years, earning a second contract extension from the Wilfs before the 2020 season. Shortly thereafter, the Vikings gave Spielman a three-year deal to match the length of Zimmer’s, rewarding the general manager who’d had full control of the roster since 2012 and hired Zimmer to replace Leslie Frazier in 2014.
Zimmer finished his eight years in Minnesota with a 72-56-1 mark, ranking third in team history in wins, games coached (129) and winning percentage (.559). He was the seventh-longest tenured head coach in the NFL; all six who’ve been in their jobs longer than Zimmer have won Super Bowls.

Edited to add: this is now official, with a statement from the team ownership.

“This morning we met with Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer to notify them we will be moving in a different direction at the general manager and head coach positions in 2022,” co-owners Zygi and Mark Wilf said in a statement. “We appreciate Rick and Mike’s commitment to the team’s on-field success, their passion for making a positive impact in our community and their dedication to players, coaches and staff. While these decisions are not easy, we believe it is time for new leadership to elevate our team so we can consistently contend for championships. We wish both Rick and Mike and their families only the best.

“Sources say” Matt Nagy is out as head coach of da Bears.

Edited to add: Chicago Tribune, “according to league sources”, Sun Times.

Nagy went 34-31; his winning percentage of 52.3 trails only Mike Ditka and Lovie Smith among Bears modern-era coaches. Both those two went to the Super Bowl. The Bears lost in each of their two playoff appearances — most memorably in 2018, when Cody Parkey double-doinked the potential game-winner in the first round against the Eagles.

More as events break.

Edited to add: going back a day, Denver Post coverage (by way of archive.is) of the Vic Fangio/Broncos firing.

Edited to add: Brian Flores out as head coach of the Dolphins. This appears to be an official team announcement, not “sources said”.

Flores led the Dolphin to a 5-11 record his first season, 10-6 his second and 9-8 in his third season, which ended with Sunday’s win against the New England Patriots.

…

Flores’ firing was the byproduct of a poor relationship with general manager Chris Grier, among other factors, according to an ESPN report. “His relationship with Grier and Tua [Tagoavailoa] had deteriorated to a pretty bad place,” ESPN’s Jeff Darlington reported. “Along with constant staff changes, owner Steve Ross n longer saw Flores as a healthy fit in Miami.”

Edited to add: Dave Gettleman out as general manager of hapless the New York Football Giants. It seems like the official spin on this is that he “retired”.

The Giants finished 4-13 this season and were 19-46 in Gettleman’s tenure running the football operations.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

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