Archive for December, 2022

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Obit watch: December 9, 2022.

Friday, December 9th, 2022

Squadron Leader George Leonard “Johnny” Johnson, MBE, DFM (RAF – ret.) has passed away at the age of 101.

He was the last surviving participant in the May 17, 1943 “Dambusters” raid by 617 Squadron.

This is a great story:

The crew of Sergeant Johnson’s plane — flown by the lone American on the raid, Flight Lt. Joe McCarthy, a native of Long Island who had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force — had an even tougher task
Its target, the Sorpe Dam, was an embankment lined with soil and rocks that was expected to absorb much of a bomb’s explosive power, in contrast to the two more vulnerable masonry dams.

…

Lieutenant McCarthy had to clear the steeple of a church, then dip to a level of 30 feet and fly parallel and extraordinarily close to the wall for his plane’s bomb to make a significant impact when it exploded underwater. He made repeated runs along the dam before Sergeant Johnson was satisfied that he could drop his bomb at the center point, where it could do the most damage.
“I found out very quickly how to be the most unpopular member of the crew,” Mr. Johnson recalled in a 2013 interview with the University of Huddersfield in England, explaining that his patience had increased the chances of his plane being spotted by the Germans.
At one point, he said, his rear gunner pleaded, “Will somebody just get that bomb out of here?”
“After nine dummy runs, we were satisfied we were on the right track,” Mr. Johnson wrote in his memoir. “I pushed the button and called, ‘Bomb gone!’ From the rear of the plane was heard ‘Thank Christ for that!’ The explosion threw up a fountain of water up to about 1,000 feet.”

Two Lancasters hit the Sorpe: the dam was damaged, but not breached.

The squadron leader, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who would be killed in action later in the war, received the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for valor. Sergeant Johnson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal.

…

His death, announced by his family on Facebook, came five years after Queen Elizabeth II conveyed the title Member of the Order of the British Empire on Mr. Johnson in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
The honor was bestowed after thousands had signed a petition asking that Mr. Johnson, a bomb-aimer during the war (the equivalent of an American bombardier), be accorded recognition in his final years as a collective tribute to the Dambusters.

…

For all the harrowing missions he took part in, Mr. Johnson said, he felt confident that he would survive.
“I didn’t feel afraid,” he told James Holland for his book “Dam Busters” (2012), in recalling his combat service between 1942 and 1944. “I was sure I was going to come back every time.”

Posted in History, Obits, Planes, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 8, 2022.

Thursday, December 8th, 2022

Lawrence sent over an obit for Al Strobel, the one-armed man from “Twin Peaks”.

Representative Jim Kolbe (R-Arizona).

Sal Durante, historical footnote. He caught the ball from Roger Maris’s 61st home run.

Mills Lane. He was the ref in the Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield 1997 fight (that was the ear biting one) and later went on to have a syndicated court show.

“Stomp”. 29 years off-Broadway.

“KPOP”. the musical. 17 regular performances on Broadway and 44 previews.

Since it began previews in October, the new musical has often made less than $200,000 a week, ranking among the lowest-grossing in weekly industry tallies. Capacity has remained fairly healthy but alongside a low average weekly ticket price. The quick closing means KPOP will not be able to benefit from the traditional boost in ticket sales that comes around the holidays and for which many shows hold out for.

I had forgotten about the associated drama: the NYT pretty much panned the show, the producers accused the NYT of racism, and the NYT basically responded with the bedbug letter.

“Wonder Woman 3”.

Posted in Movies, Obits, Politics, Sports, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#99 in a series)

Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

Mike the Musicologist asked me if I do foreign flaming hyenas.

The answer is: sure! I did the Germans a while back!

Now it is the Argentinians turn.

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a political titan in Argentina, was found guilty on Tuesday and sentenced to six years in prison and banned from holding public office for a fraud scheme that directed public roadworks contracts to a family friend while she was the first lady and president.
The verdict was a major blow to Mrs. Kirchner, the current vice president and a deeply polarizing figure who has helped split Argentina between those who favor her and her leftist movement, called Kirchnerismo, and those who say she has helped ruin a country that has struggled with high inflation, poverty and failed economic policies.

…

A panel of three judges in Buenos Aires, the capital, rendered the verdict on a public broadcast after a three-year trial in which Mrs. Kirchner was accused of steering hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded contracts to a business associate to build roads in Patagonia, on the tip of South America.
The panel found her not guilty of a second charge of directing an “illicit association” that oversaw that kickbacks scheme.
“We are certain” the ruling said, that “an extraordinary fraudulent maneuver took place that harmed the pecuniary interests of the national public administration under the terms and conditions established by criminal law.”

…

Twelve other people were also accused in the corruption case including Lázaro Báez, the Kirchner associate who received the roadworks contracts, and two former Kirchnerista government ministers who have been convicted in other corruption cases.
Mr. Báez was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to six years in prison. He was already serving a 12-year sentence for money laundering in a separate case. José López, a former public works secretary, was also sentenced to six years in prison for fraud and banned from holding public office.

…

The focus of Mrs. Kirchner’s trial has largely been 51 roadworks contracts that were awarded to companies linked to Mr. Báez, who went from being a bank employee in Santa Cruz to forming a construction company in the days before Mr. Kirchner became president in 2003. The prosecution said that from 2003 to 2015 the scheme defrauded the Argentine state of more than 5 billion pesos, or about $926 million, according to officials.
The contracts were often awarded at inflated prices, went over budget or granted other special considerations, according to the prosecution. Almost half of the road projects were never finished.

…

Last year, a court dismissed charges against her over accusations that she conspired to cover up Iran’s purported role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people. The accusations against Mrs. Kirchner were first made in 2015 by a prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, who was found dead of a gunshot wound in his apartment days later.
His death was never solved, and the matter has been a source of frenzied speculation and political infighting ever since.

I feel like there’s really only one thing I can say about this:

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Crash of the Titans.

Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

Jon Robinson out as general manager of the Tennessee Titans.

The Titans went 66-43 under Robinson, reaching the AFC Championship during the 2019 season and securing the No. 1 seed in the playoffs in 2021. But despite postseason berths in four of Robinson’s six full seasons, including the past three, a confluence of failed selections at the top the NFL Draft, the untimely trade of star receiver A.J. Brown and some uncharacteristic performances this season put Robinson’s tenure in the cross-hairs.

Interestingly, the Titans are 7-5 and at the top of their division…

…but haven’t looked particularly dominant. They have lost three of their past five games, including a 35-10 loss at NFL-leading Philadelphia on Sunday that saw Brown torch his former team for 119 yards and two touchdowns.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 6, 2022.

Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

Kirstie Alley. THR. Tributes.

Other credits include the second movie based on a minor SF TV series from the 1960s, the 1995 “Village of the Damned”, and “The Love Boat”.

(Thank you to pigpen51 for tipping me off to this last night.)

Lawrence sent over an obit for Meg Wynn Owen, who passed away in June (but her death was only announced recently).

She appears to have been best known for “Upstairs Downstairs”. Other credits include “The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission”, “Gosford Park”, and “The Duellists”.

Posted in Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Quick pro tip.

Monday, December 5th, 2022

If you are making commercials for your business (say, for example, a law firm I won’t name here) and the person doing your commercials suggests using small children in them…

…please run, don’t walk, in the other direction and find a new company to work with.

Posted in Bagatelle | 1 Comment »

Administrative note.

Monday, December 5th, 2022

I feel like I shouldn’t need to say this, and that I have to say this.

I do not necessarily agree with all the comments I approve here. However, I will not censor comments except under very limited conditions:

  • Obvious spam.
  • Personal insults directed at other commenters.
  • A court order from a court of competent jurisdiction. (However, to steal a line from Nick Fury: “I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.”)

This is your yearly administrative note. Back on your heads.

Posted in Admin | 2 Comments »

Firings watch.

Monday, December 5th, 2022

Former first round draft pick and Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield waived by the Carolina Panthers.

The Browns picked him first in the 2018 draft, and traded him in July to the Panthers for a fifth-round draft pick (“…that could have become a fourth had Mayfield, the first pick of the 2018 draft, played 70% of the snaps.”)

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 5, 2022.

Monday, December 5th, 2022

Cliff Emmich.

Other credits include “Invasion of the Bee Girls”, “The Incredible Hulk”, “Salvage 1”, and “Halloween II”.

In honor of Mr. Emmich, the Saturday Movie Group watched “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”, which I had never seen before. I like it, but it is kind of an odd film: sort of a weird blend of a road movie and a heist movie, with lots and lots of landscape. (No surprise there: this was the first movie directed by Michael Cimino. Arguably, one of the problems with “Heaven’s Gate” was Cimino’s obsession with landscapes, at the expense of plot, length, and coming in under budget.)

Notes:

  • Per Wikipedia, Clint Eastwood was available for this movie (which Cimino wrote specifically for him) because he turned down the lead in “Charlie Varrick”. I liked “Charlie Varrick”, but supposedly Eastwood didn’t find anything likeable in any of the characters. So the role went to Walter Matthau, who I think acquitted himself well. But he found the movie incomprehensible.
  • This is the second week in a row we’ve watched a movie with George Kennedy in a key role. (Last week, it was “Airport ’75”.)
  • I think Lawrence and I were both a little surprised by the vault scene. Both of us were wondering, “Are they going to put on ears?” And then, yes, the Eastwood and Kennedy characters put on both ear and eye protection before the real star of the movie comes into play.

IMFDB entry.

Back in the day (before GCA 1968) you could purchase 20mm surplus anti-tank guns and shells. Today, Anzio Ironworks will sell you a single-shot 20mm for a mere $9,800, and a mag-fed one for $11,900. Add $3,200 for a suppressor.

And as a fun historical note, suitable for use in schools: here’s an article from American Rifleman about the real life heist that may have inspired “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”.

Bob McGrath, longtime “Sesame Street” guy.

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, underground comic artist.

Posted in Guns, History, Law, Movies, Obits, TV | 3 Comments »

Obit watch: December 2, 2022.

Friday, December 2nd, 2022

Frederick Swann, organist.

Mr. Swann was well known in New York as organist and music director at Riverside Church in Manhattan, where he began playing in the 1950s.
In 1982 he reached a much wider audience when he moved to the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., home base of the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, the television evangelist. There he appeared each week on “Hour of Power,” one of the most widely watched religious programs in the country, with a viewership in the millions.
Before retiring in 2001, he also served for three years as organist at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, which has one of the largest pipe organs in the world. He also played thousands of recitals all over the United States and beyond.

…

“Fred was a genius at controlling and maximizing the potential of very large pipe organs,” the organist John Walker, who succeeded Mr. Swann as music director at Riverside, said in a phone interview. “Every organ is absolutely unique. They are custom-made works of art, and Fred was so uniquely skilled at uncovering the timbres in each instrument that he was regularly invited to give inaugural recitals” — that is, the first public performance on a new or rebuilt organ.
He filled that role in 2004 for the formidable organ at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, a 6,134-pipe instrument designed by Frank Gehry. His program that night included pieces by Bach, Mendelssohn and Josef Rheinberger.
“In all three,” Mark Swed wrote in a review in The Los Angeles Times, “the stirring deep pedal tones produced a sonic weight that seemed to anchor the entire building, while the upper diapason notes were clear and warm. The delicate echo effects in the slow movement of Mendelssohn’s sonata spoke magically, as if coming from the garden outdoors.”

…

Mr. Walker said that Mr. Swann held four centuries’ worth of music in his head and generally played from memory. He played recitals of all kinds, sometimes as the featured attraction and sometimes accompanying a vocalist, and released numerous albums. Mr. Walker said his playing for religious services was particularly poignant.
“In playing a hymn,” he said, “he would be able to express the meaning of an individual word in such a poignant way that I would just immediately tear up.”

Brad William Henke, former NFL player and actor.

He played prison guard Desi Piscatella on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black over seasons four and five. Henke was among the series’ co-stars to be awarded with the Screen Actors Guild Award for best cast in a comedy in 2016.

Wait, wait: “Orange Is the New Black” was a comedy? By the way, he was also “Coover Bennett” in season 2 of “Justified” (working opposite Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale).

Frank Vallelonga Jr. Other credits include “The Sopranos” and “The Birthday Cake”.

Posted in Movies, Music, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: December 1, 2022.

Thursday, December 1st, 2022

Sgt. Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura (US Army – ret.)

Sgt. Miyamura received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Korean War. He was the first living Japanese-American MoH recipient. (Pvt. Sadao Munemori received the MoH in 1946, but his award was posthumous.)

Mr. Miyamura was drafted in 1944 and assigned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Japanese American unit that compiled a storied World War II combat record in Europe while people of Japanese heritage on the West Coast were placed under armed guard at desolate inland internment camps, feared as security risks, which they were not.

He stayed in the reserves post-WWII and was called up to serve in Korea.

He became a squad leader in the Third Infantry Division in an integrated Army, the military having been desegregated after World War II.

From his Medal of Honor citation:

Cpl. Miyamura, a member of Company H, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. On the night of 24 April, Company H was occupying a defensive position when the enemy fanatically attacked, threatening to overrun the position. Cpl. Miyamura, a machine-gun squad leader, aware of the imminent danger to his men, unhesitatingly jumped from his shelter wielding his bayonet in close hand-to-hand combat, killing approximately 10 of the enemy. Returning to his position, he administered first aid to the wounded and directed their evacuation. As another savage assault hit the line, he manned his machine gun and delivered withering fire until his ammunition was expended. He ordered the squad to withdraw while he stayed behind to render the gun inoperative. He then bayoneted his way through infiltrated enemy soldiers to a second gun emplacement and assisted in its operation. When the intensity of the attack necessitated the withdrawal of the company Cpl. Miyamura ordered his men to fall back while he remained to cover their movement. He killed more than 50 of the enemy before his ammunition was depleted and he was severely wounded. He maintained his magnificent stand despite his painful wounds, continuing to repel the attack until his position was overrun. When last seen he was fighting ferociously against an overwhelming number of enemy soldiers. Cpl. Miyamura’s indomitable heroism and consummate devotion to duty reflect the utmost glory on himself and uphold the illustrious traditions on the military service.

He was taken prisoner and spent 28 months as a POW.

The medal had been awarded in December 1951, eight months after Corporal Miyamura was captured. He was listed as missing at the time, but some four months after the honor was bestowed in secret, his name was included in a partial list of POWs provided by the Chinese.
The Army did not reveal the awarding of the medal until he was released, since it feared his captors would take vengeance on learning of it. As General Osborne told him, “You might not have come back alive.”
In October 1953, Mr. Miyamura, then a sergeant, was formally presented with the medal, the military’s highest award for valor, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a White House ceremony.

Noted:

After the war, Miyamura met Terry Tsuchimori, a woman from a family who had been forced to live at the Poston internment camp in southwestern Arizona following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. They married in 1948 and had three children.

Terry died in 2014. Sgt. Miyamura was 97 when he passed. His death leaves Col. Ralph Puckett Jr. as the only surviving MoH recipient from the Korean War.

Lawrence has also posted an obit, which I commend to your attention.

Gaylord Perry, legendary spitballer.

He became the first of six pitchers to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues, capturing it as the American League’s best pitcher with the Cleveland Indians (now named the Guardians) in 1972 and the National League’s leading pitcher with the San Diego Padres in 1978. His older brother, Jim Perry, won the award in 1970 with the A.L.’s Minnesota Twins.
Gaylord Perry, who pitched for eight teams, was a five-time All-Star, pitched a no-hitter for the San Francisco Giants against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968 and won at least 20 games five times. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.
He combined with his brother Jim for 529 victories, No. 2 on the career list for brothers, behind Phil and Joe Niekro’s 539.

…

Perry wrote that his Giants teammate right-hander Bob Shaw taught him the spitter in 1964, when he was first starting to develop his legal pitches.
He said that after wetting the ball with saliva, he graduated over the years to “the mud ball, the emery ball, the K-Y ball, just to name a few.”
“During the next eight years or so, I reckon I tried everything on the old apple but salt and pepper and chocolate sauce toppin’,” he wrote in the vernacular of his rural North Carolina roots.

…

Perry was a brilliant pitcher with or without a spitter. His 3,534 strikeouts are No. 8 on the career list, and his 5,350 innings pitched are No. 6. He threw 303 complete games.
But he reached the postseason only once, winning one game and losing one when his Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1971 National League Championship Series.

…

Gaylord Perry had 314-265 record, having pitched, in order, for the Giants, Indians, Texas Rangers, Padres, the Rangers again, the Yankees, the Atlanta Braves, the Mariners and the Royals.

Christine McVie, of Fleetwod Mac fame. I’m sorry if I’m giving this one short shrift, but I feel like it has been well covered by others who are better qualified to talk about her (and the band’s) legacy.

Posted in Heroism, History, Music, Obits, Sports | 2 Comments »

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