Obit watch: March 14, 2024.

March 14th, 2024

Admiral Philippe de Gaulle has passed away at 102. He was the oldest son of Charles de Gaulle.

I’ve noted before that I don’t like doing obits for children of celebrities simply because of their birth. In that vein, I think it is important to point out that Philippe de Gaulle himself had a long history of heroism:

As a young naval officer in World War II, he fought in the English Channel and in the Atlantic; personally received the surrender of German troops in Paris occupying the Palais Bourbon, now the French Senate, in August 1944; “took part in all the battles of the Liberation,” the Elysée said; and was wounded six times.
He later became a naval pilot and fought in France’s wars in Indochina and Algeria. He ended his military service in 1982 as inspector general of the French Navy.

Robyn Bernard, actress. Other credits include “Diva”, “Simon & Simon”, and “Tour of Duty”.

Michael Culver, actor. Other credits include “Space: 1999”, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”, “Thunderball”, and “From Russia With Love” (the last two were uncredited).

Paul Alexander, TikTok and iron lung guy.

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

Firings watch.

March 13th, 2024

Kenny Payne out as head coach of men’s baskeball at Louisville. ESPN for the archive challenged.

12-52 in two seasons, with one road win. 8-24 this season, 3-17 in conference.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 12, 2024.

March 12th, 2024

Eric Carmen, musician. NYT (archived).

I don’t have any association with or memories of “All By Myself”, but I do remember hearing “Hungry Eyes” a lot on the radio.

Jean Allison, actress. No “Mannix”, but she did do a fair number of cop and cop adjunct shows. Other credits include “Hec Ramsey”, “McCloud”, and “Lou Grant”.

Posted in Movies, Music, Obits, TV | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: March 11, 2024.

March 11th, 2024

Malachy McCourt, Frank McCourt’s brother and (as the NYT puts it) “professional Irishman”.

The barrel-chested, red-bearded Mr. McCourt appeared regularly on soap operas — notably “Ryan’s Hope,” on which he had a recurring role as a barkeep — and played bit parts in several films. In the 1950s, he opened what was considered Manhattan’s original singles bar: Malachy’s, on the Upper East Side.

His IMDB page.

In 2006, he ran for governor of New York as, appropriately enough, the Green Party candidate. His opposed the war in Iraq and, as part of his environmental agenda, suggested a prohibitive levy on chewing gum. He got 42,000 votes, or about 1 percent of the total, which was enough to qualify for a distant third place. (Eliot Spitzer was the winner.)

I’m leaving out the overcoat story. Check the obit for that one.

NYT obit for David Bordwell. (Previously.)

Posted in Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

March 11th, 2024

Roberto D’Aversa has been fired as manager of Lecce. Lecce is a team in the Italian Serie A soccer league.

This is not ordinarily something I would take notice of, but the reason for his firing is interesting:

D’Aversa, 48, head-butted Verona striker Thomas Henry in the aftermath of their 1-0 home defeat on Sunday.

Hellas Verona was the opposing team, and is in 13th place in Serie A. Lecce is in 15th place.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 8, 2024.

March 8th, 2024

Vice Admiral Richard Truly (US Navy – ret.), astronaut and former NASA administrator. NASA.

Mr. Truly joined NASA in 1969, but he didn’t venture into space for 12 years, when he was the pilot of the shuttle program’s second orbital flight. The success of that flight proved that NASA could safely relaunch the Columbia shuttle, seven months after its maiden flight, and safely return it to earth.

…

In 1983, Mr. Truly, who was a captain at the time, commanded the Challenger during its third flight, the eighth overall in the shuttle program. It took off at night and landed in darkness — a first for the program. The flight also marked a personal distinction: Captain Truly was the first American grandfather in space.

…

But he returned to NASA as its associate administrator in charge of the shuttle program in 1986, less than a month after the Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight due in part to launching in too cold temperatures, killing its seven-person crew, which included a teacher, Christa McAuliffe.
A month into his new job, Captain Truly said that the next shuttle would be launched only in daylight and in warm weather (the Challenger was launched at 36 degrees Fahrenheit), and that it would land in California instead of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
“I do not want you to think this conservative approach, this safe approach, which I think is the proper thing to do, is going to be a namby-pamby shuttle program,” he said. “The business of flying in space is a bold business.”
He added: “We cannot print enough money to make it totally risk-free. But we certainly are going to correct any mistakes we may have made in the past, and we are going to get it going again just as soon as we can under these guidelines.”

…

He remembered walking to his office on his first day as associate administrator to find people crying in the corridor “because of the pounding they had been taking in the media,” he said in a 2012 interview with the Colorado School of Mines, where he was a trustee at the time.
“By that time,” he added, “rather than an airplane accident, it had been portrayed as NASA killed its crew. It was the start of the most tumultuous engineering, political, cultural, social endeavor that I ever found myself in.”

He was appointed administrator by George H.W. Bush, but (according to the NYT) left after three years because of a dispute with “Vice President Dan Quayle and his staff at the National Space Council, of which Mr. Quayle was the chairman.”

Between 1960 and 1963, he made more than 300 landings, many of them at night, on the aircraft carriers Intrepid and Enterprise, then became a flight instructor.

…

His honors included the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross, the Presidential Citizens Medal and two NASA Distinguished Service Medals.

Steve Lawrence, of Steve and Eydie fame. NYT (archived).

FotB RoadRich sent over an obit for Akira Toriyama, manga guy and creator of “Dragon Ball”.

John Walker, AutoCAD and Autodesk guy.

The idiosyncratic Mr. Walker put his mark on a company that was anything but corporate in spirit. A 1992 article in The New York Times described Autodesk under Mr. Walker as “a cabal of counterculture senior programmers” who “took their dogs to work and tried to reach a consensus on strategy through endless memos sent by electronic mail.” (In those days, email was still a novelty in the business world.)
That same year, The Wall Street Journal scored a rare interview with Autodesk’s “founding genius.” The resulting article noted his quirks, including the fact that he did not allow the company to distribute his photograph in any form. He was prickly in manner during the interview, the reporter noted, and insisted that it be conducted in front of a video camera, debated each question and claimed a copyright on the conversation.

Posted in History, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Ketchup.

March 7th, 2024

Apologies for the silence the past two days. I have been busy assisting the police with their inquiries.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Admin, Cops, Law, Urine | 1 Comment »

That old devil is at it again…

March 4th, 2024

The New Jersey Devils fired coach Lindy Ruff. ESPN.

Ruff, 64, departs the Devils after coaching the team to a 128-125-28 record in 281 regular-season games over three-plus seasons.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 4, 2024.

March 4th, 2024

Brigadier General John C. Bahnsen Jr. (US Army – ret.) has passed away at the age of 89.

Gen. Bahnsen was a genuine, certified, American badass.

General Bahnsen was among the most decorated combat veterans in U.S. history. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest honor for heroism, behind the Medal of Honor; five Silver Stars; four Legions of Merit; three Distinguished Flying Crosses; four Bronze Stars (three for valor); two Purple Hearts; and the Army Commendation Medal with a “V” device for valor.
He earned most of those awards during the second of two Vietnam tours, when he led a troop in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment that was commanded by Maj. Gen. George S. Patton, the son of Gen. George S. Patton Jr. of World War II fame.

…

Unlike fellow commanders who led from a desk, General Bahnsen led troops from his own helicopter — a tactic that allowed him to coordinate air and ground forces simultaneously, which he did while firing his rifle and dropping grenades from his window.
“We thought he had a death wish sometimes,” Mr. Noe said.
He did, but not for himself.
“The enemy of my country is my enemy, and our mission was to kill them,” General Bahnsen said in a 2013 interview with the American Veterans Center. “You could capture them if you could. We captured a lot of them in my units, but we also killed them. And my feeling was, that’s our job.”
He was unrelenting. He often landed his helicopter to fight alongside his ground troops. One day, he was shot down three times. Each time, he ordered delivery of a replacement helicopter so that he could return to attacking.

…

General Bahnsen was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during a battle in early 1969.After his crew chief was severely wounded amid heavy gunfire at low altitudes, General Bahnsen evacuated him, refueled and rearmed.
“I was mad as hell!” he wrote in his autobiography. “I thought those bastards had just killed my crew chief.”
Not knowing whether the crew chief was alive or dead — he survived but was paralyzed — General Bahnsen returned to the battle site.
“Forcing them to a confined area, he marked their position and directed five airstrikes against them, while at the same time controlling four separate rifle platoons,” his award citation reads.
Enemy fire crippled his helicopter, so he returned to his base and got another.
Upon returning, the citation says, he “landed to guide in the lift ships carrying an additional infantry unit, and then led a rifle platoon through dense terrain to personally capture two enemy who were attempting to escape.”
He ordered the captives to be evacuated by helicopter while he remained on the ground, and led his squad on foot for more than a mile to a safe position.

…

“He is one of those rare professionals who truly enjoys fighting, taking risks and sparring with a wily foe,” General Patton wrote in an evaluation of General Bahnsen, adding that he was “the most highly motivated and professionally competent leader I have served with in 23 years of service, to include the Korean War and two tours in Vietnam.”

Chris Mortensen, ESPN guy.

David Bordwell, film scholar. He did a lot of work for the Criterion Collection.

Among Bordwell’s favorite films, according to IndieWire, were Passing Fancy (1933), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Sanshiro Sugata (1943), Song of the South (1946), Advise and Consent (1962), Zorns Lemma (1970), Choose Me (1984), Back to the Future (1985) and The Hunt for Red October (1990).

Interesting list. I kind of feel like calling “Song of the South” one of your favorite films in this day and age is just setting yourself up for cancellation. But then again, he’s dead, so what does he care if he gets cancelled? (And to be frank, the Criterion Collection could probably do a great job of preserving and showing “Song” in a historical and scholarly context.)

Mark Dodson, voice actor. Other credits include a video game inspired by a minor 1960s SF TV series, “Darkwing Duck”, and “Legend of the Superstition Mountains”.

Posted in Heroism, History, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 1, 2024.

March 1st, 2024

Richard Abath.

Mr. Abath was one of the two guards on duty at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum early in the morning on March 18, 1990. He was the one who let the two robbers, disguised as police officers, into the museum.

Over the next hour and a half, the thieves stole more than a dozen works of art, including pieces by Edgar Degas, Rembrandt van Rijn, Édouard Manet and Peter Paul Rubens, cutting the works from their ornate wooden frames. They also took an ancient Chinese beaker and a bronze eagle finial from a Napoleonic-era flagpole.

…

All together they took some $500 million in art, the equivalent of $1.2 billion today, making it by far the biggest art heist in history.
Suspicion immediately turned to Mr. Abath. City and federal investigators zeroed in on important details, like the coincidence of the thieves arriving so soon after the second guard left to make the rounds. A video camera outside the museum showed Mr. Abath briefly opening a side door not long before the robbery occurred.
Mr. Abath maintained his innocence throughout the rest of his life, and he was never named as an official suspect. He said that he regularly opened the side door to make sure it was locked and that while museum protocol forbade him from letting anyone in after hours, there was no contingency should the visitors be uniformed police officers.
“You know, most of the guards were either older or they were college students,” he told NPR in 2015. “Nobody there was capable of dealing with actual criminals.”

Brian Mulroney, former Canadian PM.

Posted in Art, Law, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 29, 2024.

February 29th, 2024

Richard Lewis. Tributes. (The one from Jamie Lee Curtis is particularly nice.) NYT (archived).

Anne Whitfield, actress. Other credits include “The Bold Ones: The New Doctors”, “Dragnet 1967”, and “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”.

Posted in Obits, TV | Comments Closed

More tags that I do not get to use often enough.

February 28th, 2024

Even better, this is sort of a Texas story.

For decades, countless articles and videos using similar verbiage have boasted of their creators gaining unprecedented access to sumo. What follows is inevitably a mishmash of cliche, misinformation, outdated statistics and the all-too-common confusing of amateur sumo with professional.
The reality is that ōzumo, for all its pageantry and uniqueness, is actually one of the most open and accessible top-level professional sports in the world, particularly for amateur athletes from overseas.

Summary: guy up in Dallas runs a sumo club, club holds first tournament successfully, everyone celebrates and places long distance call. Lots of great stories start out this way.

“We got drunk in celebration and made a drunken Instagram call to Gaga (former maegashira Gagamaru). He was with someone who spoke English and we were like ‘You should come our next tournament! We’ll have you as a guest’ and he was like “Yes I’m down. Let’s do it!’”

It happened.

“We hung out with him for a week in Dallas, took him all over the place, and he helped us train, and did a group session with all the people who flew in for the tournament,” Morrison says.

And one thing led to another.

Emboldened by that positive experience, and their growing friendship with Gagamaru, Morrison and Sauer decided to make a sumo-centric visit to Tokyo this month to coincide with the retirement ceremony of another Georgian rikishi — Tochinoshin.
With little more than a “why not” attitude and a handful of social media connections, the Texan managed to have a deeper and more all-encompassing sumo experience over the course of two weeks than most do in a lifetime.
Morrison also took advantage of former Texan rikishi Wakaichiro’s coincidental visit to the capital by tagging along to watch training at Ikazuchi stable. Morrison was delighted when the stablemaster — who had extensive experience in amateur and international sumo — agreed to let him join practice.
“I barely even have time to stretch and, before I know it, my first bout is against Ikazuchido, who I’ve rooted for on TV and I’m like ‘what the hell is happening.’ It was surreal.

…

Further sessions with rikishi from Oshima and Asakayama stables left Morrison in plenty of pain but floating on air.

The whole story reminds me of “Genghis Blues“, except with sumo instead of Tuvan throat singing. Brings a smile to my face, it does.

Posted in Sports, Sumo | Comments Closed

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