The paper of record finally got around to publishing an obit for Niklaus Wirth.
Ewen MacIntosh, British actor. IMDB.
Lefty Driesell, noted college basketball coach.
Robert Reid, one of the great Houston Rockets.
Lawrence sent over two obits:
Paul D’Amato, actor. IMDB.
Steve Miller, SF author.
Tomorrow morning’s episode of “Perry Mason” (assuming METv sticks to their schedule) is “The Case of Constant Doyle”.
This is an interesting episode. This is not the same as saying it is a good episode, or one I recommend you watch. If you have not seen it previously, it might be worth your time.
During the filming of the sixth season, Raymond Burr was hospitalized for a period of time. I haven’t read any of the biographies, so I’m not sure exactly why. But his issue was serious enough that he was unable to film several episodes of “Perry Mason”.
There’s a four episode block (plus at least one more episode later in sequence) where they have “guest” lawyers, played by some of the best actors in Hollywood. Michael Rennie, Hugh O’Brian, Walter Pidgeon, and Mike Connors all did stints.
This is the first episode in that four episode block, and the guest lawyer is…Bette Davis, as the titular “Constant Doyle”.
The setup for this episode is that Constant and her husband Joe were both lawyers, and friends of Perry Mason. As the episode opens, it is established that Joe Doyle passed away a few months earlier, leaving Constant a widow. She gets involved in the case of “Cal Leonard”, a 17-year-old juvenile delinquent (played by Michael Parks) and friend of Joe’s. Constant ends up having to defend him from murder charges, even though criminal law is not her area of practice. But of course, Paul and Della are willing to help out. Perry even appears briefly (by telephone from his sickbed: they shot some scenes before Burr’s hospitalization and inserted them).
If I don’t exactly sound enthusiastic about this episode, as I have with others, well…
Bette Davis is always worth watching. But the way she plays Constant Doyle in this episode is very much as a cougar. This was 1963, and the networks still had standards and practices, so there’s nothing explicit here. But the character very clearly comes across as desiring not just a client-lawyer relationship (and the big fee she’d get from defending a teenage deliquent), but something more: perhaps something to fill the void left by the death of her husband.
The long lingering looks, the touching…your mileage may vary, but for me, this is a really uncomfortable episode to watch.
This episode will be on at 0800 CST (0900 EST) Thursday morning, so if you want to watch Ms. Davis, consider yourself notified.
You could also wait until the evening and watch “All About Eve” again.
…here’s another gun that was featured in a “Preview of coming attractions” post a while back.
Since I’ve written a lot about the 1911 in the past, and plan to write a lot about 1911s in the future, I can make this a somewhat shorter than usual for gun crankery post.
(Also, I think at this point I need a “1911” sub-category under “Guns”. I think a “Smith and Wesson” category was long overdue as well.)
Mike and I were out at Provident Arms in Spicewood a while back, just making the rounds and poking around.
The guy behind the counter (GBtC) said, “Hey, do you want to see something cool?”
“Hey, do you want to see something cool?” is, to my mind, one of the most dangerous phrases you can hear in a gun shop. Especially if, like me, you have Smith and Wesson tastes and a Jennings budget.
Anyway, we indicated our assent, and GBtC pulled this out.
It’s not a 1911A1. It’s a real honest to God Colt 1911.
Yes, it has the four line Colt patent and the US property mark.
And the Model of 1911 stamp on the side, along with the RIA marking.
I realize the differences between the 1911 and the 1911A1 are subtle, especially if you’re not a 1911 aficionado. Your average member of the Colt Collector’s Association can probably recite them from memory: as for me, I have to look them up.
Here’s my CMP gun side-by-side with the 1911:
Not a great picture, but I think you can at least see some of the differnces: specifically, the relief cuts and the shortened trigger.
This particular 1911 isn’t the best example, as it has been modified by a previous owner. I was told the sights had been replaced, and the mainspring housing modified. Also, both the GBtC and I are pretty sure it has been refinished, but whoever refinished it did a nice job. It doesn’t have as much collector value as it would unaltered, but I really like the way it feels in the hand.
(And the CMP gun is sort of a mixmaster anyway. Not that I’m complaining, just saying it probably isn’t a perfect exemplar of the 1911A1 for historians, either.)
Colt has an online serial number lookup tool, which says this one shipped in 1918. I’ve sent off for a historical letter, but have not received it yet.
As I have so often quoted, “You’re not paying for the gun. You’re paying for the story behind it.” The story I got was that the person who brought this in, received it as a gift from his father-in-law. That seems very much like a G.K. Chesterton sort of moment to me. It also feels like, given the modifications, this was owned by someone who knew what he wanted in a defensive handgun at the time, and didn’t value “history” more than he did “practicality”. I kind of like that in a person, and in a gun.
Unfortunately, however, the father-in-law was now the ex-father-in-law. Guy couldn’t stand having the memory of his ex-wife around? He was a Glock aficionado? Just not a gun guy at all, and wanted to convert the gun into some jingle in his jeans? No idea, but his desire to part with the gun was Provident’s gain.
And about two weeks later, my bonus payment from Cisco came through, so…it followed me home, Ma, can I keep it?
Funny story: I asked the folks at Provident if I could have a paper bag to put it in, as I didn’t want to leave it on the floor of my car in the open. The GBtC went into the back, rummaged around a bit, and came out with a really nice Glock pistol carrier that just fit the gun.
“No, no, I wasn’t asking for free stuff. I just wanted a paper bag or something.”
“No worries, chief. Glock sent us a whole box of these as promo items. I figure we can throw one in for you.”
I was a little concerned that putting a 1911 into a Glock carrier would be kind of like mixing matter and anti-matter, but so far nothing has exploded. Yet.
On the other hand, I haven’t gotten out to the range yet. I have to find some time to do that. Perhaps over spring break, as I expect to have a couple of Sunday afternoons free. And I still need to break it down and lube it…time is a flat circle indeed.
I recall reading somewhere (I think in Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It) that Lincoln was a big gun guy. If any inventor showed up at the White House with a new or improved weapon design, they were pretty much guaranteed an audience with Abe.
How much of that was desperation to win the war, and how much of it was a fascination with guns and the mechanics of machines, I have no idea.
Short shameful confession: it has been a while since I field stripped a 1911 pattern pistol.
I wanted to break down and lube one of my Commander length guns (using the lubrication suggestions from Bill Wilson’s Gun Guy, and also his lube). I had forgotten what a complete and utter (word that rhymes with “witch”) it is to get the slide stop pin through both the frame and the barrel link. Every time, the link got pushed backwards and into a position where I couldn’t get the stop into place.
I finally got it, but it took me probably 45 minutes. Maybe I need more practice. Good thing I have three more 1911s that need the same treatment. And plenty of Wilson lube left…
After the jump, a few gun books for the discerning eyes of my readers.
Jacque Vaughn out as coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
The team is 21-33 this season, and lost their last game before the break to Boston by 50 points. Vaughn was 71-68 in “two plus” seasons, and 0-8 in the playoffs.
In not exactly firings related news that I don’t have another place to put, I didn’t pay a darn bit of attention to the All Star game, but I did read the stories this morning.
The Eastern Conference won, 211-186. Yes, one team scored over 200 points. Yes, Adam Silver is peeved.
And the players still aren’t taking it seriously.
Instead, it was another game with virtually no defense and with little to no life inside the building — to the point that the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis said his most memorable moment was when the hype teams from the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers went through their dunk routines between the third and fourth quarters.
“I think the best [moment], we were talking about it, was the Bulls and the Pacers dunkers,” Davis said. “With the trampoline? They were very, very impressive.”
…
Then there was Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, who admitted he wasn’t interested in playing all that hard in an All-Star Game, period.
“For me, it’s an All-Star Game, so I will never look at it as being super competitive,” he said. “It’s always fun. I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive. I don’t know. I think everyone looks at it … it’s a break, so I don’t think everyone wants to come here and compete.
I actually have a three part proposal for improving the All Star game:
1. Eliminate the All Star Game.
2. Shut down the NBA.
3. Profit.
Alternative proposal: no rules, no penalties, no substitutions, and the teams play until only one man is left standing.
It looks like the NBA All-Star break is upon us.
How are the Detroit Pistons doing?
Well, at the break, they are 8-46, for a .148 winning percentage. The Washington Wizards are 9-45, for a .167 winning percentage.
Projecting this out, and assuming things remain the same, the Pistons will win about 12 games, and the Wizards 13.7 games.
That’s not good, but is it historically bad?
Actually, maybe, yes.
I had a hard time finding a list of worst NBA teams. You’d think that would be a Wikipedia page, but no. ESPN has one, but it hasn’t been updated recently.
I finally found this page (from December of last year).
The 1993-94 Dallas Mavericks and 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks both went 13-69, and are #9 and #8 on the list. The Wizards could fit comfortably in there.
The 2009-10 New Jersey Nets and 1986-87 Los Angeles Clippers all went 12-70, and are #7 and #6 on the list. Detroit could fit comfortably in there.
If I’m off by one (or two) in my projections, they could match the 1997-98 Denver Nuggets (11-71, #5) and the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks (11-71, #4). I can’t see either team reaching the heights of the 2015-16 Philadelphia 76ers (10-72, #3) or the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers (9-73, #2, and the team I think most people agree is the worst ever).
#1 on the list is the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, with a winning percentage of .106. However, there was a lockout that season, and they only played 66 games. As a personal rule, I generally do not take into account strike (or lockout) shortened seasons when I’m looking at this stuff.
Both the NYPost (archived for your pleasure) and Task and Purpose are reporting the death of Sgt. Chuck Mawhinney (USMC – ret.).
For those unfamiliar with Sgt. Mawhinney, he is considered to be the most successful sniper of the Vietnam War.
From 1968 to 1969, Mawhinney — still only a teenager — was credited with 103 confirmed kills.
An additional 216 kills were listed as “probable” since the enemies’ bodies were risky to verify in the active war zone.
Mawhinney had confirmed kills over 1,000 yards, with the average kill shot for snipers during the Vietnam War taken at a distance of 300 to 800 yards.
After the war, he kept his head down.
He worked for the Forest Service for 27 years.
Joseph Ward, one of his spotters, wrote a book in 1991. (Dear Mom: A Sniper’s Vietnam. Affiliate link.) The book didn’t get a lot of attention at first, but people found Ward’s mention of Sgt. Mawhinney’s record, and it rapidly became public knowledge.
Jim Lindsay, author of “The Sniper: The Untold Story of the Marine Corps’ Greatest Marksman of All Time,” met Mawhinney in 1979 at the Idle Hour tavern in Baker City, Oregon. Lindsay said that people seemed to not believe Mawhinney, but he confirmed that he did, in fact, have 103 confirmed kills and 216 unconfirmed kills during his 16 months of duty in Vietnam.
“Chuck’s platoon leader had kept track of the kills. He had the kill sheets and verified Chuck’s numbers,” Lindsay said. “So, there was no argument then. His life changed overnight. All of a sudden, everybody knew him.”
The Sniper: The Untold Story of the Marine Corps’ Greatest Marksman of All Time on Amazon. (Affiliate link.)
Peter Senich, a military historian and author specializing in sniping and small arms, went to verify Ward’s claim in the Marine Corps archives and found he was wrong. Mawhinney didn’t have 101 kills — he had 103.
Mawhinney, a man who valued his privacy and was not seeking any fame for his actions in Vietnam, agreed to an interview with Senich in 1997, which was featured in the Baker City Herald.
“It’s an opportunity for me to get some recognition for a lot of the Vietnam vets that didn’t receive any recognition,” Mawhinney said.
“We were all there together. If I have to take recognition for it, that’s OK, because every time I talk to someone, I can talk about the vets. It gives me an opportunity to talk about what a great job they did.”
…
“He was a good man,” said Lindsay in an interview with The Oregonian Wednesday, sharing that Mawhinney never boasted about his kills and said he “did what I was trained to do.”
“He was a good father, a good husband and an asset to the community. He was a pretty cool cat.”
Not a bad way to be remembered.
The hyenas aren’t flaming, yet, but there is smoke.
And it seems oddly ironic in the first case.
Yesterday, the FBI searched the homes of two senior chiefs in the New York City Fire Department. They also searched offices in the FDNY department headquarters.
What could a chief do that requires FBI intervention? The chiefs in question were responsible for overseeing safety inspections.
Nobody seems to think this is related to the other ongoing corruption investigations, but there’s been no official statement. Because the chiefs haven’t been charged with any crime yet, I’m not naming them here.
As of late last year, the investigation into the chiefs was examining, at least in part, whether they had accepted the payments as part of an effort to help expedite or influence fire inspections on building projects, some of the people said.
The payments of $97,000 apiece to the chiefs came from a recently retired firefighter, and at least one was made to a limited liability company registered to [edited – DB] home address, the people said. In 2023, the Fire Department paid [edited – DB] $241,119 and [edited – DB] $235,462, according to city payroll records compiled by the watchdog group SeeThroughNY.net.
There’s some weird stuff I don’t want to try to explain (read the article: it’s archived) with the Turkish Consulate and (allegedly) Mayor Eric Adams.
In other news, Mike the Musicologist has been texting me updates about Tiffany Henyard, mayor of Dolton, Illinois. I haven’t written about her because she hasn’t been charged with a crime yet. But the NYPost has a good summary of her craziness.
…
…Dolton Trustee Kiana Belcher said former Dolton Chief of Police Robert Collins admitted the mayor forced him to target people.
“She’ll have the police follow you and give tickets,” Belcher said. “I went out of town and she had one of the officers … give me tickets … It was a manipulation tactic.”
When she confronted Collins, Belcher said, the chief didn’t hesitate to blame Henyard.
“He looked down at me and said, ‘She told me to write them,’” Belcher said.
…
“It started probably two weeks after she had been in office as mayor. We got a bill for the inauguration. The bill was like $15,000.”
“It was a big party, basically,” Belcher said, explaining that Henyard promised to pay with campaign funds, but the town ended up footing the bill instead. And it was just the beginning of town-funded parties.
“The spending has become unbearable for the residents. It’s parties and a lot of events. It’s resources in reference to making it look like something is being done but we really can’t afford it.”
…
When a Post reporter and photographer showed up at the “Love on the Ice” Valentine’s Day dinner Wednesday night, four police officers blocked them from entering the event — despite it being on public property.
One officer said she received “an order” to ensure that they stay put on the sidewalk and she and another cop watched the pair for more than an hour as Henyard went igloo to igloo, taking selfies with residents, while R&B music and chants of “Super mayor!” blasted from speakers.
Henyard was flanked by an assistant and two cops — including the highest-ranking police official in Dolton, Deputy Police Chief Lewis Lacey, who acted like her bodyguard the entire night.
…
Beyond parties, Belcher said bills to the tune of $1 million have piled up from paying overtime to cops made to serve as Henyard’s personal security detail, first assigned after a protest over a shooting in 2021.
“She just latched on and kept the detail,” Belcher said. “The contract says that you can have a detail but it should be on their shift and it changes. But with her people, they pick up at 10 and drop off at 12, 1 in the morning, so it’s all overtime hours.”
“They pick up her daughter from school, they go shopping,” she said. “A million dollars of overtime for the police department is absurd. We can’t afford it.”
…
Henyard, who also serves as Thornton Township supervisor, lashed out at the village trustees last week after they filed a lawsuit alleging she forged checks and withheld financial records.
“You all should be ashamed of yourselves because you all are black. You all are black,” she said during a meeting on February 5. “And you all [are] sitting up here beating and attacking a black woman that’s in power.”
Henyard — who takes home $285,000 in salary from her political positions — has also faced criticism for a salary ordinance she proposed and passed that would cut by 90% the pay for whoever takes her seat if she loses the next election, Fox 32 reported. Her salary, however, would remain the same.
Very quick, because I have a meeting tonight (and maybe some smoking hyenas to update):
Jarmo Kekalainen out as general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
ESPN:
San Francisco fired Steve Wilks as defensive coordinator yesterday.
In Wilks’ lone season with the Niners, the defense had its share of ups and downs. A unit that led the NFL in multiple categories in 2022 under DeMeco Ryans — including fewest points per game allowed (16.3) and defensive expected points added (89.58) — took a step back in 2023.
San Francisco still finished third in points allowed (17.5) this season, but the 49ers were ninth in defensive EPA (41.48) and sprung significant leaks against the run in the playoffs, allowing the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs to average 5.1 yards per carry and 149.3 yards per game in the postseason.
Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, soprano.
…
…it was merely a prelude to a long career that included her New York City Opera debut in 1982, once again as Musetta in “La Bohème,” as well as performances throughout Europe.
In addition to making Musetta her own, she also made the title role in Verdi’s “Aida,” an Ethiopian princess held captive in ancient Egypt, a signature. At one point she even performed the role amid the temples of Luxor in Egypt itself.
In 1992, Ms. Fernandez won a Laurence Olivier Award, the British equivalent of a Tony, for best actress in a musical for her rendition of Carmen in “Carmen Jones.”
The prelude was her role in a movie, which is what she may be most famous for.
“Diva” was considered a high-water mark in the movement known as the cinéma du look, a high-sheen school of French film often centered on stylish, disaffected youth in the France of the 1980s and ’90s. A film with all the saturated color and gloss of a 1980s music video, it was an art-house hit that became a cult favorite for the initiated.
The story revolves around a young opera fan named Jules (played by Frédéric Andréi) who grows so infatuated with an American opera star named Cynthia Hawkins that he surreptitiously tapes one of her performances — despite her well-known decree that none of her work be recorded, since it would capture only a part of the power and immediacy of her grandeur.
Ms. Fernandez played Cynthia, and the tape plays the MacGuffin.
When this came out in 1981, Siskel and Ebert reviewed it, and I wanted to see it. A moped chase through a subway? I was there, man. But at that time, it was hard for me to see foreign films in a theater, or on home video. I don’t recall “Diva” being re-released or playing anywhere when I was in college, even at the Union when they still had a film program.
Now, of course, I have “Diva” on blu-ray from Kino Lorber. And it is on our big movie list. I’ve been waiting until we can watch it as a group.
“Diva” was her only film role as an actress, though IMDB also credits her with a 1980 “TV movie” of “La Bohème” in which she sang “Musetta”. (Kiri Te Kanawa sang “Mimi”.)
William Post, one of nature’s noblemen.
Mr. Post was the creator of the Pop-Tart.
Post did numerous interviews about his invention during his lifetime and every time he said the credit was shared.
“Bill would say, ‘I assembled an amazing team that developed Kellogg’s concept of a shelf-stable toaster pastry into a fine product that we could bring to market in the span of just four months,’,” his death notice states.
Capt. Larry L. Taylor (United States Army – ret.) passed away on January 28th.
I wrote about Capt. Taylor back in September, when he received the Medal of Honor. Capt. Taylor is the guy who flew four men out of a hot LZ, with them hanging onto the sides of his Huey Cobra helicopter.
Bob Edwards, NPR guy. There was a time when I woke up to Bob Edwards in the morning…
Also among the dead Bobs: Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill. I’ve bought and used specialty products from Bob’s, though I never met Bob. 94 is a pretty good run.
David Bouley, prominent NYC chef.
Kelvin Kiptum, marathon runner. He was 24 and died in a car accident in Kenya.
This seems particularly sad. He set the men’s marathon record in Chicago last year: 2:00:35.
…
Many people think he had a shot at running a marathon in under two hours, which is sort of the Holy Grail of marathon running. He actually ran one in Vienna (in 2019) at 1:59:40, but that didn’t count as a record for reasons. He had said he was going to try to break the two-hour mark in Rotterdam in April.