Both THR and Variety are reporting the passing of Bob Newhart at the age of 94.
I think this needs to wait until tomorrow for a round-up, but I wanted to get the news out there.
One of my favorite Bob Newhart memories:
The fella at the next table was nice enough to help me hold the flag after the Cubs won!!! Go Cubs and fly the W!!#GoCubsGo #FlytheW #Game7 pic.twitter.com/QJVaPgOTDH
— Bob Newhart (@BobNewhart) November 2, 2016
Robert Pearson, hair stylist turned…barbecue chef.
He was pretty successful as a stylist, working with Vidal Sassoon and Paul Mitchell, as well as setting up a chain of salons in Bloomingdale’s.
He took up Texas-style barbecue seriously.
He purchased a $13,000 custom-made pit from Texas. He bought mesquite wood at $800 a cord, which he blended with local green oak (at just $110 a cord); after much experimentation, he found that a one-to-four ratio created the right balance of smoke from the mesquite and moisture from the oak to fuel the six- to 18-hour fires he needed to cook his meats.
Mr. Pearson was a purist: He insisted on wood, and only wood, as fuel. He cooked low and very, very slow. He eschewed rubs and sauces, letting flavor emerge from the meat and smoke. He specialized in brisket, the lodestar of Texas barbecue, but also offered half chickens, pork shoulder and the occasional exotic fare, like alligator, elk loin and rattlesnake.
His first location was in Connecticut, just off of I-95. Later on, he moved it to Queens.
After establishing himself in Queens, Mr. Pearson tried to open an outlet in Manhattan, which he supplied with food cooked in Queens. But he found that the cooked meat lost its zing during the drive across the East River, and in any case the space caught fire a few days after opening.
In the late 1990s, he stepped back from his restaurant, not long before it lost its lease under pressure from neighbors who, despite loving his food, were less enamored with its constant, thick smoke.
…
While many young pit masters looked to Mr. Pearson as a mentor, few chose to follow his near-religious devotion to an austere interpretation of Texas barbecue, and in particular his aversion to sauce.
Conceding to consumer tastes, he did offer a quartet of sauces as an accompaniment: mild, medium, “madness” and “mean,” which he said, with some disdain, was a further concession to “macho” diners who insisted that real barbecue had to be wet and spicy. Mean, made with a pile of Szechuan peppercorns, gave them what they wanted, and more.
“When I’m making that sauce at the store, I’ve got to make sure it’s very quiet, and nobody else is around,” he told Newsday. “It’s very volatile. Mean is not really meant for human consumption.”
Peter Buxtun, one of the people responsible for exposing the Tuskegee Study.
For the benefit of my younger readers:
Officially known as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, the research began in 1932 with the recruiting of about 400 poor, undereducated Black men in Macon County, Ala., whose seat is Tuskegee. All had been found to have syphilis.
The infected men were deceptively told that they had “bad blood,” not a sexually communicable disease that could lead to blindness, heart injury and death. The researchers wanted to use them as human guinea pigs, without their informed consent, to study the ravages of syphilis.
Even after penicillin was found in the 1940s to be an effective cure for syphilis, the men were not offered treatment. In one sample of 92 deceased men from the study, 30 percent were found to have died of syphilis complications.
…
But in the early 1970s, after Mr. Buxtun had left the health service for law school, he turned his files over to reporters for The Associated Press. An article by Jean Heller, an A.P. investigative reporter, ran on front pages around the country, including in The New York Times on July 26, 1972.
“All hell broke loose,” said Susan M. Reverby, the author of “Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy.”
…
I like this quote:
Dr. Reverby, who got to know Mr. Buxtun, described him as a political libertarian and National Rifle Association member who was angry that the health agency where he worked, tracing people with sexually transmitted diseases, was denying treatment to the Alabama men.
“He thought it was outrageous and wrong,” she said, adding, “He was really a strong-willed, irascible guy.”
Naomi Pomeroy, prominent Portland chef. She appeared on a few reality shows, but probably wasn’t that well known to my readers. The obit is interesting, though.
She and her first husband, Michael Hebb, got started by hosting “underground suppers”. They proved popular enough that they were able to get investors and started opening brick and mortar restaurants. They got widespread acclaim in Portland for “revitalizing” the restaurant scene there, and some national acclaim.
Then it all fell apart. One day, Mr. Hebb told Ms. Pomeroy that there wasn’t any money left to pay the staff or run the restaurants, and left town that night. (There’s a good article from “Portland Monthly” in 2009 about what happened, if you want more details.)
Ms. Pomeroy was left holding the bag. The “Portland Monthly” article and, to some extent, the NYT obit, make it sound like she was the real talented chef of the two, while Mr. Hebb was more of an idea and hype man.
Ms. Pomeroy did manage to recover and re-enter the restaurant business. She was 49, and died in a tubing accident on the Willamette River.
Evan Wright, journalist and author. (Generation Kill)
The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You can also dial 988 to reach the Lifeline.
This just in: Senator Robert “Gold Bar Bob” Menendez convicted on all counts. (Previously.)
The NYT coverage is probably better, but it is also being constantly updated and is paywalled. I may possibly throw up a link to their story later today or tomorrow.
Edited to add 7/17: here’s the second day NYT story.
That seems relatively short.
Looks like the All-Star Game is tomorrow, and we’re at the break. So it is probably a good time to check on a few MLB teams.
The Chicago White Sox seem to have gained a hap or two. They are currently at 27-71, with a .276 winning percentage. That works out to about 117 losses if my math is right. I think that’s good enough to qualify for the MLB historical list, but perhaps not as bad as I was hoping for. Then again, I was hoping for “1899 Cleveland Spiders” bad. And you know, that projection might be off. 120 losses is still in play.
The Marlins are at 33-63, .344. That works out to 106 losses, which I don’t think is quite record worthy. After Miami, Colorado is 34-63, .351, projecting out to 105 losses. Also probably just out of record contention.
James B. Sikking, great character actor, has passed away at 90.
Yes, yes, “Howard Hunter” on “Hill Street Blues” and Doogie Howser’s dad. But he had a pretty substantial resume beyond those. 159 acting credits in IMDB, including one of the movies based on a minor SF TV show from the 1960s, “Cop Rock” (an unaccredited appearance as “Howard Hunter”: I just had to get that in), “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo”, the good “Hawaii Five-0”, “The Rockford Files”, “Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy”, “The F.B.I.”, “Perry Mason”, “Von Ryan’s Express”…seriously, man was in every darn thing.
Including “Mannix”. (“One For the Lady”, season 4, episode 2. He was “Mark Langdon”. “Desert Run”, season 7, episode 6. He was “Sketchley”.)
Wow. It has been a weekend, hasn’t it?
Happy Bastille Day to all my readers, since I don’t expect to do a second post today.
The only thing I have to say about Trump is: in my opinion, 130 yards is not a sniper shot. It really isn’t even a very long shot for the average person. I believe most people zero their rifles so they’re on target at 100 to 150 yards. Calling this guy a “sniper” is an insult to actual snipers.
With all that out of the way:
Shannen Doherty. NYT (archived). IMDB.
And finally, speaking of snipers, Dr. Ruth Westheimer. NYT (archived).
I’m sorry if it seems like I’m shorting these three people on coverage, but I feel like they all are getting a tremendous amount of coverage already (modulo the ongoing news coverage) and I just don’t have anything to add.
…happy 45th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night!
For those of my readers who may be unfamiliar with what is (in my humble opinion) one of the three great events in sports history, here’s a “game story” from SABR.
You know, I’m not sure I would consider a bat to be a good trade for a silver belt buckle. Also, how do you steal a belt buckle? Unless you’re Apollo Robbins…
Here’s a 25th anniversary documentary that I don’t think I’ve linked to before:
And a more recent 45th anniversary compilation:
Finally, Steve Dahl’s “Do You Think I’m Disco?”:
As someone with no musical talent at all, I will leave it to my loyal readers to judge the quality of this song.
I feel like I have to say something about the firing of Gregg Berhalter, since this is SportsFirings.com. Even though I hate soccer.
On a happier note, here’s a fun article from The Society for American Baseball Research: “You’re Out of Here: A History of Umpire Ejections”.
Yes, I don’t like baseball either. But I dislike it less than I do soccer, and a history of baseball ejections is the kind of weird thing that appeals to me. Much like Disco Demolition Night…
Shelley Duvall. This is breaking, and the NYT is in “full obit to come” mode. I’ll link to that later.
Edited to add: NYT obit.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. As noted, they own Redbox. They also own the Crackle streaming service.
Fun fact:
They had filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition (which would have allowed them to re-organize) but yesterday it was converted into a Chapter 7 petition, which is total liquidation. And it sounds like there was some sleazy stuff going on.
I have seen reports that they were pocketing employee health insurance premiums, but not actually paying the insurers. Those are just reports, and the executives are entitled to the presumption of innocence. But if it is true that they weren’t paying employees, and weren’t paying employee health insurance…the kind side of me thinks those people should be in jail. The unkind side of me thinks that rope and lampposts are in order.
Edited to add: more from THR, concentrating on the RedBox part of the business, but including the accusations of financial mismanagement.
Benji Gregory. Other credits include “Amazing Stories”, “The Twilight Zone” (the 1985-1986 revival), and “T.J. Hooker”.
Playing catch-up:
Joe Bonsall, of the Oak Ridge Boys.
James M. Inhofe, Republican senator from Oklahoma and former mayor of Tulsa.
Today is the 220th anniversary of the Burr-Hamilton duel.
Here’s a fairly good article about the pistols.
Fun fact that I did not know until a few days ago, when I went looking for the video online: Michael Bay directed this commercial.