Obit watch: October 23, 2023.

October 23rd, 2023

Bobby Charlton, English soccer player. He was 86.

Charlton was famed for his bullet shot and his relentless goal scoring, even though he did not play as a traditional striker. He was England’s top scorer, with 49 goals, for 45 years until Wayne Rooney beat the mark in September 2015. Charlton was also Manchester United’s top scorer for decades, with 249 goals in 758 appearances over 17 years, until Rooney surpassed that figure, too, in January 2017.

Worthy of note: he was also a survivor of the 1958 Manchester United plane crash.

Elaine Devry, actress. Other credits include “Project U.F.O.”, “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf”, “Cannon”, and three appearances on the 1960s “Dragnet”.

Vincent Asaro, mobster. Readers of this blog with an excellent memory may recall that he was charged in the 1978 Lufthansa robbery…and was acquitted in 2015. However, he was convicted in 2017 of having a guy’s car set on fire. He got eight years for that, but was released in 2020 for “health reasons”.

Posted in Law, Obits, Planes, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#111 in a series. Also, random gun crankery.)

October 21st, 2023

There is no joy in this one.

Larry Vickers pled guilty to federal firearm charges yesterday.

“But,” you say, “Larry Vickers isn’t a political figure.” Right you are, Bob.

Mr. Vickers was charged with four other men: Sean Sullivan, James Tafoya, Matthew Hall, and James Sawyer. Mr. Hall was the chief of police in Coats, North Carolina, and Mr. Sawter was the chief of police of Ray, North Dakota. This is where the flaming hyenas come in.

Sullivan was the owner and operator of Trident, LLC, located in Gambrills, Maryland, and was also an Intelligence Analyst with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

He was a Fed?! I know, I know, quel fromage! But really?

Sullivan and Trident were Federal Firearms Licensees (“FFLs”) and Special Occupational Taxpayers (“SOTs”), which allowed them, in certain circumstances, to possess, import, manufacture, and deal in fully automatic firearms (machineguns) and other regulated firearms. Tafoya and Vickers owned and operated firearms related businesses in New Mexico and North Carolina and were also FFLs and SOTs.

Allegedly, all of these guys came up with a really clever scheme.

The indictment alleges that, beginning in at least June 2018 through at least March 2021, the defendants conspired to acquire machineguns and/or other restricted firearms, such as short-barreled rifles, by falsely representing that the firearms would be used for demonstration to law enforcement agencies, including the Coats Police Department and the Ray Police Department. The indictment further alleges that Hall, Sawyer, and other conspirators signed law letters with no expectation that the weapons would ever be demonstrated to their respective law enforcement agencies.
The defendants allegedly intended to impermissibly import into the United States and resell the machineguns and other firearms for profit or to keep for their own use and enjoyment. Sullivan allegedly submitted the false law letters to the ATF seeking to import the machineguns and other restricted weapons. Once the firearms were received, Sullivan allegedly kept some of the machineguns and other restricted weapons and transferred some of the weapons to Vickers, Tafoya, and other conspirators.

Now, everyone else hasn’t gone to trial, and should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

In addition to the indictment, Larry Vickers pleaded guilty yesterday to participating in the conspiracy to import and obtain machineguns and other restricted firearms and admitted that he received some of the imported machineguns and other weapons. As detailed in his plea agreement, Vickers kept some of the machineguns and other restricted weapons in his personal collection and transferred other machineguns and restricted weapons to other FFLs and third parties. Vickers also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions against a foreign firearms manufacturer between July 2014 and March 2021, in the Southern District of Florida.

So just not illegal import of restricted firearms, but also sanction violations. “Between July 2014 and March 2021” makes me wonder who the sanctions violations were against.

I haven’t seen any coverage of this anywhere, including the usual gun blogs. The only reason I know about it is that Mike the Musicologist sent me a link to the Justice Department press release. I feel kind of bad for Mr. Vickers, who also was dealing with cancer a while back. But this doesn’t sound like BATFE “paperwork” violations. This sounds like a pretty serious conspiracy to illegally import restricted weapons under cover of the law enforcement exemption.

While I object to the idea that what these people did should be against the law, the fact remains that it is, and they apparently (“all suspects” etc) tried to camouflage it as “only ones”. You know, “we’re the only ones competent enough to have full-auto weapons. We’re the only ones competent enough to carry a Glock.”

That, I do resent.

Posted in Cops, Guns, Law, Politics | 3 Comments »

Firing or not?

October 20th, 2023

I say “not a firing”. Yet. But the winds are blowing in a direction that makes me think a whole bunch of people are going to get fired.

Connor Stalions, a “football analyst” with the University of Michigan, has been suspended indefinitely with pay.

There’s an ongoing investigation into Michigan by the NCAA. The university is accused of using “an ‘elaborate’ scouting system to steal signals from future opponents since at least 2021“.

Athletic director Warde Manuel announced Stalions’ suspension with pay on Friday, one day after the analyst was identified as a person of interest in the investigation into whether No. 2-ranked Michigan violated an NCAA rule by scouting future opponents in person at games, sources told ESPN. The NCAA prohibited such scouting in 1994.

I can understand the issue with “stealing signs”, though I really don’t know what that means in college football. But the NCAA has a rule against attending your opponents games in person? Seriously? I guess, maybe, they are afraid larger schools with more resources will have an advantage over smaller schools that can’t afford to travel as much? Or is this just more of “we’re the NCAA. Nothing we do has to make sense”?

Harbaugh served a three-game suspension to start this season related to NCAA charges of failure to cooperate and head-coach responsibility over alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period. A violation by a member of his coaching staff could trigger another charge of head-coach responsibility, potentially a Level I violation.
Sources said the NCAA enforcement staff’s level of interest in Stalions was so significant that it sought access to his computer as part of its investigation.

So they were already looking at Harbaugh for recruiting violations, and he basically pled guilty to that. This would be the second rules violation in less than a year. What would be the implications in terms of NCAA penalties if this is substantiated?

Could we see…dare I say it…the “death penalty“?

I doubt it myself. But it’d be fun to see. Realistically, if this is substantiated, I suspect major loss of scholarships, a ban on post-season play, and possibly for Harbaugh to get a “show-cause penalty“.

Posted in Firings, Sports | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: October 19, 2023.

October 19th, 2023

Burt Young. THR.

Other credits include “The Rockford Files”, “Once Upon a Time in America”, “Miami Vice”, and “Pig Pen” in “Convoy”.

Posted in Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 18, 2023.

October 18th, 2023

Dr. James Irving Wimsatt, professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, passed away Sunday morning, He was 96.

Dr. Wimsatt was a personal friend of mine, and of many other readers of this blog. I met him through his son, Andrew.

He was a great guy. I always felt intimidated by him: I described him to someone (no disrespect intended, Andrew) as “scary smart and tough as a bus station steak”. He was walking several miles a day on a regular basis well into his 90s. And he remained in full possession of his facilities pretty much right up until his death (though he’d been in and out of hospitals and rehab).

I thought this was kind of a neat entry from encyclopedia.com:

In Chaucer and His French Contemporaries: Natural Music in the Fourteenth Century, Wimsatt provides a wide range of information and analysis that treats comprehensively Chaucer’s reciprocal relationships with fourteenth-century French poetry and poetic theory. In addition to considering the works of Chaucer, Wimsatt addresses the efforts of such poets as Guillaume de Machaut, Jean de le Mote, Froissart, Oton de Granson, and Eustache Deschamps, writers who have previously been dismissed as mundane or not worth literary examination. However, Wimsatt considers them all viable poets and pays close attention to their lyric styles in particular. He also looks at the climate of the culture at the time and how this affected the themes of these writers’ works and any overlap in ideas. Jane H.M. Taylor, writing for the Review of English Studies, remarked that “Wimsatt’s breadth of knowledge is remarkable; his contribution to Chaucer studies is valuable, and indeed, on the rather neglected Oton de Granson and Eustache Deschamps, he offers insights which French scholars too might well find worthwhile.” Ardis Butterfield, in a review for Medium Aevum, dubbed the book “a substantial and reliable guide to Chaucer’s connections with fourteenth-century France.”

He wasn’t just a Chaucerian, though my understanding is he was a damn good one. He also wrote a lot about other poets. Dr. Wimsatt was kind enough, at one point, to give me a copy of his Hopkins’s Poetics of Speech Sound. I haven’t read it yet, being backlogged, but I wish I had before he passed.

He also served honorably in the US Navy. And he was a pretty regular member of the Saturday Dining Conspiracy.

“He that loveth God will do diligence to please God by his works, and abandon himself, with all his might, well for to do.”
–Geoffrey “Big Geoff” Chaucer

I believe that Dr. Wimsatt did indeed please God by his works, and he’s up there laughing with all those other English professors of that generation.

(Crossposed to the Logbook of the Saturday Dining Conspiracy.)

Posted in Food, Obits | Comments Closed

Random gun crankery.

October 18th, 2023

There have been some gun related news stories over the past few weeks that I want to make note of.

1. Vista Outdoor is selling off their ammunition business to Czechoslovak Group a.s. for $1.91 billion. The Vista Outdoor ammo business includes Speer, Remington’s ammo side, CCI, and Federal.

I can’t find as much information as I would like about Czechoslovak Group. It looks like they currently own Fiocchi, and they are not the same company that owns Colt CZ Group. Czechoslovak Group seems to be big in the defense industry, with the sporting ammo component being relatively small. Perhaps they are looking to expand?

To effect the transaction, Vista Outdoor will separate its Outdoor Products business from its Sporting Products business, and CSG will merge one of its subsidiaries with Vista Outdoor (holding only the Sporting Products business), with current public stockholders of Vista Outdoor receiving shares of Outdoor Products (recently rebranded as Revelyst) and approximately $750 million in cash in the aggregate. This will be treated as a taxable sale of a stockholder’s Vista Outdoor shares for the Outdoor Products shares and cash consideration they receive in the merger, allowing stockholders to recover tax basis and recognize built-in gain and loss in their Vista Outdoor shares.

…

Revelyst will leverage meticulous craftsmanship and cross-collaboration across its portfolio of category-defining brands. Brands include Fox, Bell, Giro, CamelBak, Camp Chef, Bushnell, Simms Fishing, Foresight Sports, Bushnell Golf and more. Eric Nyman will continue as CEO of Outdoor Products and become the CEO of Revelyst upon transaction close.

So it looks like what’s going to be left of Vista Outdoors Revelyst is going to be fishing, camping, golf, cycling helmets, Camelbacks, and golf. Disclosure: the “gun hedge fund” (which is neither a hedge nor a fund) owns some shares in Vista Outdoor, and may make some money off of this. Vista Outdoor has been one of the best performing stocks in the group, though it’s down considerably right now. ($24.81 a share as I write this.)

You shouldn’t take financial advice from me, but I really don’t see “Revelyst” being a growing business, or one I’d be interested in continuing to invest in.

2. I’m having trouble finding what I think of as really reliable sources for this, but: “According to multiple news sources, the Lake City ammo plant has cancelled all of its commercial contracts.”

This is swell news, he said with some sarcasm, as Lake City produces an estimated 30% of the 5.56 ammo on the civilian market. So if you thought things were rough before…suck air, grab clusters, and stock up on 5.56 if you find it at a good price.

My first thought was that this was stealth gun control by the Sleepy Joe administration: if they can’t restrict the guns, why not restrict the ammo? (“Reloading? What’s that?”) A more rational thought (and what seems to be the conventional wisdom) is that the government is stockpiling ammo, both to refresh the Ukraine and against a possible land war in the Middle East.

Disclaimer: the “gun hedge fund” (see above) also owns stock in Olin Corporation. Olin runs the Lake City plant under contract, and our Olin stock has been the best performer overall in the fund. As a matter of fact, our Olin stock is the only stock in the “fund” that’s currently in the black. ($48.12 a share as I write this.)

3. The Recoil website reported this about two weeks ago: BATFE has banned importation of “non-lethal” training ammo unless it is for use by military or law enforcement customers.

Maybe.

So far, it seems like the only report of this is on Instagram. The post is actually a letter a company called Ultimate Training Munitions sent to Sage Dynamics, but this is backed up by a statement on UTM’s website.

The other big maker of “non-lethal” training ammo is Simunition, which apparently imports from Canada. As far as I know, they have not made any public statement on this yet, even though they have been asked by Recoil, and I assume other outlets.

It is unclear what authority BATFE has to ban import of “non-lethal” training ammo. Perhaps the “sporting purposes” clause. Then again, when has BATFE ever gotten hung up on pesky questions of “legal authority”?

Posted in Guns | 3 Comments »

Obit watch: October 17, 2023.

October 17th, 2023

Lara Parker, actress.

Other credits include the good “Hawaii Five-O”, “Sword of Justice”, “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”, and “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo”.

Joanna Merlin, actress. Other credits include “All That Jazz”, “The Killing Fields”, and “City of Angels”.

Posted in 1970s, Movies, Obits, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 16, 2023.

October 16th, 2023

Suzanne Somers. THR. Tributes. IMDB.

Posted in 1970s, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 15, 2023.

October 15th, 2023

I’m aware of Suzanne Somers, but all the obits I’ve seen so far have been preliminary. I think I’ll wait until tomorrow on this one.

Piper Laurie. THR.

Other credits include two episodes of the 1985-1986 “Twilight Zone” revival, “The Bunker”, “The Eleventh Hour” and “Breaking Point” (both of which I was just recently reading about, and which I would love to see on home video), and three episodes of “St. Elsewhere”.

Colette Rossant, cookbook author and popularizer of French food. She may have been a bit obscure for most of you: I know of her because she was a great friend of Calvin Trillin, and he wrote about her multiple times in “The Tummy Trilogy”.

In a 1981 article in The Times with the headline “The Inspirations of a Global Cook,” Craig Claiborne, the newspaper’s august food critic, wrote that he “found it impossible to refuse an invitation to a Rossant meal, which turned out to be a feast,” including a blend of fresh and smoked salmon christened with rillettes of fish as an appetizer, a roast of veal “cooked to a savory state in milk” and other delicacies.
Mr. Claiborne noted that Mr. Trillin, the celebrated author, humorist and food writer, had once written that whenever he was invited to dine at Ms. Rossant’s, his wife, Alice, was “forced to grab me by the jacket two or three times to keep me from breaking into a steady, uncharacteristic trot.”

Tommy Gambino, of Gambino family fame.

He was the nephew of “Big Paul” Castellano, who succeeded Carlo as the head of the family but was rubbed out in 1985 on the orders of eventual Gambino godfather John Gotti.
Tommy Gambino arrived at Sparks Steakhouse on East 46th Street just moments after Castellano and his driver, Tommy Bilotti, were gunned down outside the eatery.
Tommy Gambino, once described as the a “quintessential Mafia prince of New York City,” was convicted in 1993 of two counts of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy for controlling gambling and loan sharking operations in Connecticut.
He served in federal prison from 1996 to 2000.
The prosecution’s evidence in his trial included secretly recorded conversations with Mafia turncoat Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.

Posted in 1970s, Food, Law, Movies, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Your loser update: weeks 6 and 7, 2023.

October 15th, 2023

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

Carolina

Next week, Carolina and Houston (along with a few other teams) have a bye week.

I call out Carolina and Houston specifically because they play each other in week 8 (on October 29th): it will be a home game for Carolina. As I write this (and with the understanding that this is two weeks out) Houston is favored.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Pho pas.

October 14th, 2023

State Fair time has rolled around again. And I have been negligent in covering this year’s offerings.

Various people have sent me links to stories, so it isn’t anyone’s fault but mine. I think I’ve just been too busy naval gazing.

Anyway, by way of the paper of record, I have learned that there’s a scandal at the State Fair.

Ms. Le, a vendor at the fair, is being accused of stealing their deep-fried pho recipe.

Yes, you read that correctly. You are not having a stroke. “Deep-fried pho”.

The version at the state fair, which costs $24, is deep-fried and the size of a salami. The hulking phorrito at Cris and John, a Vietnamese Mexican restaurant, is pan-fried, as stocky as a cocktail shaker and starts at $10. Each is served with broth as a dipping sauce, though Ms. Le’s is a light, aromatic infusion, while the phorrito’s accouterment is somewhere between traditional pho broth and birria consomé.

It’s a little more complicated, though: Cris and John were offered a slot at the fair, but they would have had to close on Saturday (that seems like a non-starter), and Ms. Le apparently offered to work with them before the fair. However, Ms. Le also says she’s been working on deep-fried pho since 2011.

Mr. Pham and Ms. Mendez, who recalled painful criticism of their third-culture fusion cuisine when they opened their restaurant in 2017, are the first to relinquish credit for the phorrito. They based their version on one sold by the Los Angeles restaurant Komodo.

Also: gratuitous photo of “cheesecake swaddled in chocolate and Biscoff cookie crumbs”. On a stick. Of course.

Posted in Food, On a stick | Comments Closed

Obit watch: October 14, 2023.

October 14th, 2023

Mark Goddard. THR.

Other credits include “Quincy M.E.”, “Adam-12”, “Perry Mason”, and (the original) “The Fugitive”.

Louise Glück, poet and winner of the Nobel Prize (also the Pulitzer and the National Book Award).

Posted in Books, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

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