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bring out your dead.. mel turpin posted by: horsebeater 11:01 7.19.10 http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2010/07/terry_plutos_talkin_about_the_20.html george steinbrenner posted by: horsebeater 15:05 7.16.10 http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/07/16/bill-spaceman-lee-isnt-shedding-any-tears-for-george-steinbre/ bill lee: "As far as Steinbrenner's passing? Good," Lee said. "Trust me, if hell freezes over, he'll be skating. ... He may have been good for the Yankees organization, but he was definitely a thorn in my side. ... He said I was an incompetent and I was bad for the game of baseball. Well, I'm not a convicted felon like George Steinbrenner, and he'll take that to his grave. ... I have no sadness. I'm Irish, I'm Catholic, and when you're gone, you're gone." Ernie Harwell, voice of the Detroit Tigers posted by: isidorus 10:09 5.5.10 http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/36951144/ns/sports-baseball/ http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/ernie-harwell-in-his-own-words/?scp=2&sq=Harwell&st=cse really... posted by: simplicissimus 19:06 1.29.10 can anyone top this re: jd? http://www.theonion.com/content/news/bunch_of_phonies_mourn_j_d I'm with HB posted by: simplicissimus 13:15 1.29.10 I was never that into Catcher, but my lady friend remarked last night that it was the first book she ever read that she really, really liked and that turned her on to reading in general. She specifically remarked that her teacher had the class read portions of it aloud and it was only then that she really "got" how much was going on, how sarcastic and embittered he was. It's hard to see it now that we're older, but Salinger really was a master at expressing what it's like to be 15 and self-aware. Will I read it again? I doubt it. But will I (continue to) think about it every time I see a younger kid with a ratty suitcase -- which, granted, happens a lot on the blue line to o'hare -- yep. And for that alone, I give the man his props. sort of like all those albums from when you were in high school: they may seem unremarkable now, but there was a time when they were a critical part of your life. And it's just not fair to dismiss them not they've been outgrown. i understand what you're saying posted by: horsebeater 00:38 1.29.10 obviously reading catcher in the rye later in life is a different experience than reading it at 15. but not everything in this world is necessarily for adults. count me among the people in this world that, by the end of 8th grade, loved choose your own adventure books, tolkien and bad fantasy novels and then hated freshman english but stumbled upon catcher in the rye and thought "hmmm ... maybe this literature thing has something to it." good on you jd salinger, for me and a million others like me. a rule of thumb... posted by: publius 15:01 1.28.10 when constructing a list of wildly over-rated authors, always start with salinger near the top...because when you're done with your list he'll still be right up there. Will they preserve the corpse with frozen peas until burial? posted by: ludwig 13:37 1.28.10 http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/jd-salinger-91-is-dead/ sad to be sure... posted by: publius 12:30 12.17.09 but if you made a list of guys in the nfl who might to die after being thrown from the bed of a pickup truck during a mobile domestic squabble...i'd have to think chris henry would be on that list. it's a story as old as time. guy gets big nfl contract. guy almost throws it all away. guy "gets his life together". guy dies in a fall from the bed of a moving pickup. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/16/bengals.henry/index.html THE WINNER OF THE GAME posted by: horsebeater 15:10 9.14.09 one admittedly rough way to value the contribution of people's lives to society is to ask the question: "how many lives of others did this person preserve or take?" the vast majority of the human population, including myself, would have to say our net impact, measured this way, is a big fat ZERO. Lots of people focus on those in the negative side of the column. The Bundies and Dahmers. Those are of course nothing compared to Stalin and Hitler, who must be # 1 and # 2 in some order, each in the tens of millions. On the plus side, towering above us all, however, is good old Norman Borlaug, who saved India and Pakistan from catastrophic famine in the late 1960's and who has done more than anyone on the planet to make third world children a little less hungry each night. Some say that he's saved a billion, which strikes me as overstated, but he certainly is at the head of the pack, whatever the number. statement from india's prime minister at his passing: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-tech/norman-borlaugs-death-marks-end-of-an-era-pm_100247348.html easterbrook article from 12 years ago: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jan/borlaug/borlaug.htm "too big to tentfort" posted by: simplicissimus 11:59 8.28.09 i've noticed, per below, that we've reached a certain point where things are just "too big to tentfort". that is, how on earth can anyone event comment on michael jackson's death? after being bombared through seemingly every orfice (rim shot ... wait! rim shot on the rim shot!) for 48 hours, it's almost like tentfort is becoming a place where you i am *happy* to know that the latest sensationalized story will garner nary a comment. i mean, michael jackson or the image of izzy humping a hummer? i know what my money (and hopes and dreams) rest on. posted by: horsebeater 11:14 8.28.09 starting last night and finishing tonight, i re-read this thread from top to bottom. 3 thoughts: (1) it was amazing how many people I had forgotten were dead (paul newman; kurt vonnegut, etc) (2) it gets pretty fucking depressing after a while. to quote flaming lips: "do you realize ... that everyone you know someday will die?" (3) how the fuck did no one post about michael jackson in this thread? Mary Jo Kopechne Day! posted by: horsebeater 16:04 8.26.09 Let us remember that, whatever your political persuasion, deep down, Ted Kennedy was a misogynistic dickhead. Donte Stallworth and Kobe Bryant rolled into one. http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_5585&pageNum=5 prince of darkness... posted by: simplicissimus 12:33 8.18.09 ...may i introduce you to the prince of darkness. i kid, i kid. because i love. actually, i had no love for bob novak and i'd be lying if i all of the sudden said nice things about him because he's dead. so, instead i'll say nothing at all. except that he's dead. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090818/ap_on_re_us/us_novak_obit all i can say is: posted by: publius 17:32 8.6.09 breakfast club pretty in pink sixteen candles weird science ferris bueller's day off some kind of wonderful uncle buck planes, trains and automobiles home alone yes, john hughes. john hughes is dead at 59. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/john-hughes-director-of-the-breakfast-club-and-sixteen-candles-dies-at-59/?hp This probably means something to the Forters posted by: rahoohl_dewk 09:38 5.26.09 I first heard uncle tupelo through Simpli which eventually led me to some other bands incl. Wilco.... Jay Bennett - dead at 45 - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/05/former-wilco-member-jay-bennett-dies.html Marilyn Chambers, we hardly knew ye (well, we knew ye a little. . .) posted by: prankmonkey 10:15 4.15.09 http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-marilyn-chambers14-2009apr14,0,2571017.story different kind of dead... posted by: publius 17:43 4.10.09 same headline lifted from monty python... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/arts/music/12ratl.html gygax againax posted by: publius 16:05 4.10.09 the co-creator of d&d (who knew there was anyone besides the famous gary gygax - david lance arneson? come on...) has now died...d&d is completely rudderless...the world shudders...orcs run rampant... http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/04/10/obit.david.lance.arneson/index.html the d&d thing is good... posted by: simplicissimus 11:47 3.19.09 though i'm not touching it with a 10 foot pike. hah! i learned today (wonder how?) that it is now pretty much standard to wear a helmet while skiing. when did this happen? gygax redux posted by: publius 09:46 3.19.09 i occasionally receive emails from amazon with suggestions for books i may want to purchase based on my purchasing history with them. today i got one about new books in games and puzzles, presumably because i have bought a number of chess books over the years... imagine my surprise (or perhaps bemusement is more apt) when i saw these: http://www.amazon.com/Assault-Nightwyrm-Fortress-Adventure-4th/dp/0786950005/ref=pe_24020_11556470_as_img_1/ http://www.amazon.com/Players-Handbook-Core-Rulebook-Bk-2/dp/0786950161/ref=pe_24020_11556470_as_img_4/ i guess i had just assumed that d&d had passed out of existence (or moved to the xbox or the wii - d&d on the wii...that could be interesting)...but if you search around on amazon there are tons and tons of new d&d books... gary gygax is chuckling to himself in the 12th circle of mordor as he slays and orc with his vorpal sword...(like the mixed references there? thought you would...) need a potato peeler? posted by: publius 12:54 2.3.09 i work right near union square in manhattan, and a couple of days a week there is a (really good) greenmarket. sometimes at lunch i wander over there to see what i can find for a culinary expedition. and every time i go there, in the northwest corner of the square, there was this old, well-dressed guy with a british accent selling potato peelers, deomonstrating his wares constantly. there was always a crowd around him. whatever it is that makes someone a good salesman, this guy had it figured out. every time i saw him i made a mental note to do a little research and try to find out a bit of backstory. unfortunately that research has now been done for me, because joe ades, debonair seller of potato peelers, has passed on...fare thee well mate...you will be missed... and his story is pretty interesting... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/nyregion/03ades.html "I'm the world's forgotten boy... posted by: mrbuckles 18:27 1.21.09 ...the one who searches and destroys" Ron Asheton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Asheton) of The Stooges passed a few weeks ago. If you don't know The Stooges, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKYALsp-sIg But Marge... posted by: rahoohl_dewk 11:25 1.18.09 "...Alan Thicke is throwing knives at Ricardo Montelban!" "[Thwing]...Sorry Ricardo!" ---- "Quien es mas macho? Fernando Lamas? O Ricardo Montalban? ....Senor Lamas o.....Montelbannnnnn?" Khaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnn!!! posted by: squisshy 17:03 1.14.09 for a genetically superior human, i always thought he'd last past 100. still, 88 is not too shabby, and it seems he was philosophical about the great unknown ... Actor Montalban dead at 88 Posted: 04:38 PM ET LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Actor Ricardo Montalban, star of the hit TV series “Fantasy Island,” died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home, a family spokesman said. Montalban, 88, was in deteriorating health over the last several days, but “died peacefully” at 6:30 a.m., son-in-law Gilbert Smith said. He understood “it was his time,” Smith said. The cause of death was not given. i'm just as God made me, sir ... posted by: squisshy 16:54 12.8.08 http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-benedict5-2008dec05,0,2329529.story bummer. The Studs thing makes me really sad... posted by: simplicissimus 01:35 11.1.08 This guy will never get the credit he's due, but my dad made me (well, the Arn-dog never really made me do anything except homework, have a job, or yard work) read "Working" when I was in junior high. What a fucking book. And, like most brilliant people, it wasn't that the subject was so insanely complicated or novel - just his way of presenting it. He and Nelson Algren are surely sharing a scotch right about now, so it ain't all bad. I've been dreading this for a while now posted by: camdolphin 23:45 10.31.08 Studs Terkel is dead at 96. For second city denizens jealous of New York's strangle hold on personalities, culture, and general relevance, he was our personality. I hope he gets the credit he's due. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/books/01terkel.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin law firms posted by: ludwig 16:52 10.28.08 They're dissolving like no one's business. I just saw that Thelen Reid is rolling up the carpet. Heller Ehrman has dissolved. A bunch of other big firms have gone under in the last few years (Brobeck, Testa Hurwitz, Jenkins & Gilchrist). Some because they lost big clients, other because of legal troubles, and others because of partner infighting. Partner infighting usually centers on money -- how much comes in and how it gets divided up. Partner compensation has gone through the roof the last 10 years so battles over compensation usually have been over who gets grossly overpaid as opposed to just overpaid. But as the corporate world implodes look to cut costs, legal will be one area that they pare down. And it will get ugly in firms as revenues dry up and partners start de-equitizing/firing their colleagues in an attempt to maintain their own compensation levels. I expect more dissolutions in the next 18 months. There just won't be the work and the big firms are going to find it harder to justify their rates. Except bankruptcy. HB and his ilk are golden. Damn you, HB!! Go Hit Jerry's Binger in the Sky, Merl posted by: prankmonkey 16:18 10.28.08 "Keyboardist Merl Saunders, who played with acts including Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis, has died at the age of 74." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7693007.stm Pour some liquor... posted by: spacehippie 13:54 10.21.08 Rudy Ray Moore, AKA Dolemite, is no more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-moore21-2008oct21,0,4372689.story It's nice to see Rudy Ray getting the credit he deserves for influencing both rap and comedy artists. Both art forms, even in their current incarnations, and for generations to come, will continue to benefit from Moore's contributions. I hope that Rudy Ray is in heaven right now, and I hope heaven is exactly like the back seat of the limo that Dolemite took home when he was released from prison. i had forgotten.... posted by: publius 16:02 9.27.08 about this exchange from earlier in this thread...funny how closely it foreshadows what i actually had to say.... ___________________ takin' off, boss... posted by: simplicissimus 13:49 3.19.07 ...indeed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6467997.stm though it would be have been a much better death had it been in the midst of him eating 50 eggs. ____________________ you had me scared there for a posted by: publius 14:26 3.19.07 i thought maybe paul newman had died...that will be a sad day. _____________________ takin' off boss.... posted by: publius 10:39 9.27.08 paul newman is dead. of all the class acts out there, certainly paul newman had to be at the top of anyone's list. he was cool hand luke he was butch cassidy he was hud he was fast eddie felson (the hustler and the color of money) he was sully sullivan (nobody's fool) he was henry gondorff (the sting) he was frank galvin (the verdict) among many many others. he had been sick for quite a while and there was a kerfuffle recently when one of his friends mentioned to the press that he was battling cancer. newman, a very private man, never confirmed or denied this publicly, but he was looking incredibly frail. this is truly a sad, sad day. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/27/paulnewman.usa fletch dies posted by: ludwig 14:07 9.16.08 On occasion, postings to this web site descend into wanking paeans to Canton, Ohio and the people from there. From what I gather from such posts, in Canton it was real, is real, and -- most certainly -- kept real. But let Shrewsbury, Massachusetts claim its own heroes. I give you the now very dead Gregory McDonald, author of the "Fletch" series: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/books/12mcdonald.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss as if the whole thing weren't sad enough already posted by: isidorus 22:01 9.15.08 you get the impression (at least I do, anyway) that his parents are almost relieved for him, and happy that he is out of his misery. ugh. this must have been one shitty year for them. === His father said Sunday that Mr. Wallace had been taking medication for depression for 20 years and that it had allowed his son to be productive. It was something the writer didn’t discuss, though in interviews he gave a hint of his haunting angst. In response to a question about what being an American was like for him at the end of the 20th century, he told the online magazine Salon in 1996 that there was something sad about it, but not as a reaction to the news or current events. “It’s more like a stomach-level sadness,” he said. “I see it in myself and my friends in different ways. It manifests itself as a kind of lostness.” James Wallace said that last year his son had begun suffering side effects from the drugs and, at a doctor’s suggestion, had gone off the medication in June 2007. The depression returned, however, and no other treatment was successful. The elder Wallaces had seen their son in August, he said. “He was being very heavily medicated,” he said. “He’d been in the hospital a couple of times over the summer and had undergone electro-convulsive therapy. Everything had been tried, and he just couldn’t stand it anymore.” it's been a bad weekend posted by: isidorus 20:10 9.15.08 steady rain, global economic collapse, sarah palin, and now this. If you haven't read ASFTINDA, take prank's advice and get it. All the essays are good (though the one about math and tennis and philosophy is a little obtuse for me) and the Illinois State Fair piece, and the title essay are standouts. My favorite, though, is the piece about the low-ranked, journeyman tennis player who qualifies for the canadian open and makes it into the second round there. as with all of DFW's writing, it's not so much about its putative subject, but the observations and the prose and the humor are terrific. Or get Consider the Lobster, and read the piece about how he spent september 11 2001. Very moving and very funny. You get a sense for what a decent and kind person he was from the setting where he watched the shit go down -- the living room of a 73 yr old church lady, filled with numerous other church ladies, in downstate illinois. The piece in CTL about McCain 2000 is also worth a read. Or just read this quote, from the WSJ earlier this spring. It gives some insight into his clever mind and the rich language he could deploy. Plus it just makes me like him. Sigh. ====== WSJ: I have an advance copy of "Infinite Jest" that your publishing house sent me in 1996. It's signed—apparently—by you and there's a little smiley face under your name. I've always wondered—did you actually draw that smiley face? Mr. Wallace: One prong of the Buzz plan [for "Infinite Jest"] involved sending out a great many signed first editions—or maybe reader copies—to people who might generate Buzz. What they did was mail me a huge box of trade-paperback-size sheets of paper, which I was to sign; they would then somehow stitch them in to these "special" books. I basically spent an entire weekend signing these pages. You've probably had the weird epileptoid experience of saying a word over and over until it ceases to denote and becomes very strange and arbitrary and odd-feeling—imagine that happening with your own name. That's what happened. Plus it was boring. So boring, that I started doing all kinds of weird little graphic things to try to stay alert and engaged. What you call the "smiley face" is a vestige of an amateur cartoon character I used to amuse myself with in grade school. It's physically fun to draw—very sharp and swooping, and the eyebrows are just crackling with affect. I've seen a few of these "special books" at signings before, and it always makes me smile to see that face. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again posted by: prankmonkey 12:23 9.15.08 was an eye-opener when I first read it (the essay anthology, not just the titular story). A great voice, distinct mannerisms (some seeming authentic, some - like the footnotes - bordering on self-parody). Then I tried to read Brief Conversations with Hideous Men, and the bloom was off the rose for Wallace as far as I was concerned. Still, much of the writing in ASFTINDO made a real impression on me. I hadn't heard he offed himself. Sad. actually... posted by: publius 09:23 9.15.08 i felt exactly the opposite (granted, i read it first thing in the morning before i was truly awake, so perhaps i should read it again). i thought it was appropriately laudatory while also acknowledging his shortcomings...certainly didn't get the feeling that michiko's snark was showing... anyone get the feeling that Michiko Kakutani posted by: ludwig 08:41 9.15.08 didn't care for David Foster Wallace? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/books/15kaku.html?scp=5&sq=david%20foster%20wallace&st=cse david foster wallace posted by: publius 22:00 9.14.08 of an apparent suicide (i think the fact that he hung himself goes a long way to making the "apparent" bit unnecessary). now, i've never read any of his works aside from a random essay here (the footnotes man, the footnotes!) and there, though, like millions of others, "infinite jest" is perpetually on my reading list. so i felt a little bit like poseur posting his death notice to tentfort. but i searched around and found that three separate tentforters (isidorus, squisshy and horsebeater) have all expressed admiration (and for works they have actually read) so i figured that in the communal tentfort spirit i would "break" this one here... that said, wallace was always one of those guys that, even though i wasn't overly familiar with his work, seemed to have a pretty interesting program. every time he popped into my consciousness i was always briefly pleased that he was out there in the world doing his thing. and now he is not, and that makes me sad. not sure how much sense any of that makes, but that's how it be. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/books/14wallace.html best obit ever? posted by: simplicissimus 23:48 9.4.08 http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/09/the_death_of_a.html An icon posted by: rahoohl_dewk 09:18 6.23.08 George Carlin dead at age 71. He's been a cornerstone of my pantheon of comedians for some time. Always brash yet insightful. An intellect and a clown. My most memorable moments of his: 1) opening "monologue" to the Aristocrats, 2) his Comedy Relief bid in the mid 80's where he discusses "NIMBY" - Not In My Back Yard" - still rings true today, and 3) the 7 dirty words you can't say on TV (but can be played b/w 10 pm to 6 am on certain radio stations (indecency v. obscenity) due to the issues he framed through his 70's stand up routine). Be sure to satirize your afterlife, George. stan winston posted by: squisshy 22:14 6.18.08 i hated getting called out by prankmonkey on bo diddley so didn't want "creature effects by stan winston" to go unremembered. just purchased and viewed The Thing recently ... no one did "head grows legs and eyestalks and starts to scuttle away" like stan the man. Tim Russert posted by: simplicissimus 15:59 6.13.08 Heart attack. No shit. That sucks. C'mon! Diddley Squat for Bo Di posted by: prankmonkey 13:37 6.3.08 He died yesterday and must be commemorated. The "Bo Diddley beat" (dum-da-dum-da-dum. . .da-dum-dum) is a staple. "Who Do You Love" is one of the all-time great songs. He played a square guitar. He was, without doubt, one of the "fathers of rock and roll." What more do you want? (On the downside, he gave the world George Thorogood, who built a carreer on butchering the Bo's beat). In the words of a 1965-ish Eric Burdon, "Yeeeeeeaaaahhh, Bo Diddley!" http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN0228500620080603 that was... posted by: publius 21:11 4.14.08 the most satisfying tentfort posts i've read in a while. well done camdolphin. R. Eugene Pincham posted by: camdolphin 12:29 4.14.08 A civil rights legend in Chicago is dead: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-judge-pincham-obit-webapr04,0,7172555.story I went to his funeral over the weekend (at Obama's church, Rev. Wright presided over the services), after having the pleasure of working with Pincham over the last several months. Pincham was a very religious old guy who began every other sentence with "there is no God damn way..." He was "unabashedly black" but he sent his cases to me, skinny white boy, at the end of his career b/c he wanted to do the best for his clients. He was a black civil rights leader, infamous for his exhortation during Mayor Harold Washington's (Chicago's first black mayor) reelection bid that if "Any man south of Madison Street who casts a vote in the Feb. 24 election who doesn't cast a vote for Harold Washington ought to be hung." [Madison street is the dividing line between the predominantly white north and the predominantly black south sides of the city]. The funeral was fun - black crowds are always more entertaining than white ones. There was a lot of laughter at the funeral, even whiter than white United States District Judge Holderman brought the funny. Reverend Wright is a character. I've observed several black reverends/pastors do their thing over the last several years, and they all have a gift for speaking quickly (kind of like God-rap) and using 10 cent words. What set Wright apart from them was that his vocabulary was strong enough that he was able to use fancy words and aliteration without sounding forced. Of all the speakers (and there were ten prominent people speaking) he was the best able to bring the crowd to its feat, sit em down, and bring em back over and over again. He took shots at Fox news and didn't shy away from race (how could he? race imbued everything at that funeral). I was struck by how black churches seem to be caught-up in peoples' titles. I spend little time in black churches, but even less in white churches, so it may be the same for all church-going people. But I think blacks are more enamored with them because they are cheaper to obtain than other status symbols. Kind of like the theory that blacks spend more on cars because they are barred from buying fancy houses (both based on racial discrimination and financial inability). Some other time I'll tell you about the black church I attended in which there was a big ceremony for six men who had gone to bible study once a week for six weeks and were appointed "Jedis" of the church - yes, as in George Lucas Jedi, complete with swords. The more titles, the higher the stature. It has a very eighteenth century england feel to it. i would imagine... posted by: publius 14:45 4.6.08 that the first thing they did was take his gun from his cold dead hands... http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/04/06/heston.dead.ap/index.html gygax hit piece! posted by: simplicissimus 14:16 3.11.08 wow. http://www.slate.com/id/2186203/ i swear to god... posted by: publius 16:00 3.10.08 "stuff white people like" is stealing ideas from tentfort... (note that there are no spoilers in the main article, but if you don't want to pick up a few stray plot points DO NOT read through the comments...) http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/ "If you attempt to talk about an episode they have not seen yet, they will scream and cover their ears. In white culture, giving away information about a film or TV series is considered as rude as spitting on your mothers grave. It is an unforgivable offense." either that or we're just very very white...the problem with that call is that, at least from what i can tell from my neighborhood, black people seem to like the wire just as much as us white folks... HP Lovecraft posted by: ludwig 10:36 3.7.08 I was driving back from Costco last night and was cut off by a driver in a VW (of course) with the license plate "Kthulu." Setting aside the misspelling, after employing one of my vast collection of obscene Italian hand gestures, I immediately thought of you handjobs as I'm sure that if you dabbled in D&D you also read a few pages of Lovecraft. wow! posted by: squisshy 12:00 3.6.08 those really take me back, actually. i have to say, dorky as it was, i had a lot of good times playing D&D ... if ever there was job for the posted by: publius 11:39 3.6.08 this is it: http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=503 seeing some of those covers is truly jarring... http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showbook&bookid=143 http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showbook&bookid=698 http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showbook&bookid=700 the monster manual and monster posted by: horsebeater 09:00 3.6.08 ... of course! i had forgotten those! oh, and by the way ... posted by: squisshy 18:02 3.5.08 the picture of the Succubus was drawn well enough for me, if you know what i mean (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no MORE!). yes... posted by: simplicissimus 17:59 3.5.08 ...i even seem to recall doing one that involved me running a major leauge franchise. shudder. i believe i still have mine as posted by: squisshy 17:54 3.5.08 and i *think* it was the Monster Manual. could that be right? oh yeah, i was a huge D&D dork for a while, and branched out into other dorky role-playing games, including one based on Star Trek. i remember those two.. posted by: simplicissimus 11:59 3.5.08 ..and i think there were like 3 or 4 other, more obscure ones. medium size. thinly bound. hardcover. poorly drawn scene, in color, on the cover. minature pencil sketches of monster dappling the pages on the inside. there was a period of time in 4th or 5th grade where we toted them around everywhere we went. i actually still have mine at my home. you mean the players' handbook posted by: horsebeater 11:23 3.5.08 I am unfortunately too familiar. this is the honest to god trut posted by: simplicissimus 10:45 3.5.08 i remember being in 5th or 6th grade, and standing around a desk pouring over one of those old school hard cover D&D books that listed all the different monsters and shit with 4 or 5 of my friends. you remember those books? they were sort of like a proto-internet, because you could just flip around them endlessly, stare at the different hand drawings of monsters, etc. anyhow, i very specifically remember our conversation: about how cool it would be if you were gary gygax's son. about how you'd get all the books for free and he'd make monsters for you and shit. needless to say, now that i'm older i'm pretty sure being gary gygax's son would not be so cool. gary gygax posted by: horsebeater 10:31 3.5.08 really one of the idea-men that gave us the world of video games we have today. certainly the hero of dorks everywhere. the demonic sounding name always made D&D seem that much more dangerous to me: http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/tv/16218352.html they're big files... posted by: publius 18:03 3.4.08 about 300mb each...i'll burn you a disc and drop it in the mail in the next day or so. no sweat... posted by: simplicissimus 17:55 3.4.08 the truth is...his character was so obviously not going to make it. don't give it another thought. now, as for those shady episodes...that intrigues me. well i obviously won't say any posted by: publius 17:42 3.4.08 i will however say that i also do not have hbo, but have kept up each week by downloading episodes from one of those shady bulletin boards sites. so if you'd like me to make those available to you so you can watch them now....just let me know. and sorry once again....it's been bumming me out all afternoon... i know, i know... posted by: simplicissimus 17:24 3.4.08 i already heard someone (in the el!) use the words "popped" and "prop joe" in the same sentence...but with marlowe you knew it was coming. but omar? shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. sorry.... posted by: publius 16:22 3.4.08 i had no idea...i figured that if anyone was keeping up with goings on in baltimore it would be you... my deepest apologies...i can (sort of) understand how you feel.... you will rot in hell 1,000,000 posted by: simplicissimus 16:20 3.4.08 really, dude, this is like the worst thing you've ever done. some of us don't have hbo... seriously, i've embargoed anything and everything from the show and it's almost through...and now i feel like throwing up. omar little posted by: publius 15:58 3.4.08 omar, the best character on the best show on television, has met his end at the hands of a little hopper with a gun. an ignominious, and yet oddly appropriate, exit. the man who said "a man gotta have a code" dies shortly after breaking his own by killing someone when it wasn't necessary; simply because he lost his cool. once he gave up his code, it only made sense that the system in which he lived and operated but always seemed to be above would take him down. http://boards.hbo.com/topic/Wire-Hbo-Official/Omar-Little-Rip/1900003292 i think the nyt editorial page posted by: publius 15:16 2.28.08 sums up pretty neatly my thoughts on william f. buckley... "There are not many issues on which Mr. Buckley and this page agreed or would agree — except, perhaps, the war in Iraq, which Mr. Buckley regretted as “unrealistic” and “anything but conservative.” Yet despite his uncompromising beliefs, Mr. Buckley was firmly committed to civil discourse and showed little appetite for the shrillness that plagues far too much of today’s political discourse." i like that william f. buckley...he was a wild man...unlike the countless dartmouth review types who play croquet on the green and drink martinis and imagined that they were his second coming...and certainly unlike the ultra-shrill mass-market conservatives of today... WFB posted by: horsebeater 10:39 2.28.08 on Monday I was at the library and randomly picked up a book of letters to the editor that WFB responded to. One such letter was from someone who wrote that WFB's arguments on a particular point had been shredded by a pundit on Firing Line and that WFB's points were clearly no longer valid. The letter closed "Cancel my subscription to National Review!" WFB's response: "Cancel your own goddamn subscription." Classic. More info posted by: rahoohl_dewk 13:50 2.27.08 http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/27/buckley.obit/index.html?iref=topnews yeah... posted by: simplicissimus 12:05 2.27.08 i shudder at the memory. but i still always liked that guy. take away his mag's really dubious posiitons on race in the 60s and it was interesting. William F. Buckley posted by: rahoohl_dewk 11:40 2.27.08 I recall Simpli got me reading the Nat Review in high school. I thought I was smart and cool. Wrong on both counts. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/27/obit.buckley.ap/index.html i salute you, prankmonkey! posted by: squisshy 22:53 2.12.08 (and, in a more lugubrious manner, you, roy scheider). i had seen this and thought about posting it on the fort, but didn't think any other tf'ers gave a fuck about chief brody. i had planned on posting under "you're gonna need a bigger boat ..." but had a case of the "tonight on FOX ... eh, who cares" before i could do it. anyhoo, i agree with the call on Blue Thunder. i thought that was the shit when i was 12, and it sparked a fascination with armed helicopters that was only heightened by the jan-michael vincent show "Airwolf." (oh, jan-michael vincent, you somewhat talented drunk). i tried to rent the Thunder (for free, naturally) in HD recently and was struck mainly by the insane youthfulness of daniel stern, who is scheider's sidekick. i didn't, however, finish the movie. anyway, i am raising a glass to Roy, not so much for Seaquest: DSV, but for Jaws and Blue Thunder, definitely. What? No mention of Roy Scheid posted by: prankmonkey 09:59 2.12.08 I'm surprised it was left to a slacker like me to post this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/movies/11scheider.html?bl&ex=1202965200&en=5f7b6009f86c551b&ei=5087%0A I mean, Jaws alone puts this "rich man's Ron Silver" (that's for you, Squisshy) in the pantheon. Plus Frech Connection. And when I was twelve or thirteen, Blue Thunder was about the shite. here it is... posted by: simplicissimus 23:21 2.7.08 not really that big of a deal. but just sort of sad. http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=398449&Category=17&fromSearch=yes&subCategoryID=0 and, for the record, having a small to moderate amount of familiarity with guns, i feel confident in saying that it's my opinion that a "gun cleaning accident" is just another way for people to say, "what was going on and what happened is none of the public's god-damned business." link don't work posted by: isidorus 23:17 2.7.08 sorry for your loss, though. this sucks posted by: simplicissimus 19:03 2.7.08 http://www.cantonrep.com/index...subCategoryID=0 i grew up a couple of blocks from the grimsleys in canton. and reading this story reminded me of something i hadn't thought of in 15 years. one day, in the late 1970s, all the neighborhood kids were playing pick up football in the grimsleys' side yard. john was there to, and even though i was 6 or 7 years old, if you grow up in canton you *know* the names of the mckinley stars. so, naturally, i wanted to be there too. anyhow, as i was watching them play i started singing "grimsley and clover" (to the tune of "crimnson and clover"...i'm not sure if i was trying to be funny or if i was genuinely confused, but i was surely showing off). not only did he think it was funny, he and all the older guys let me kick off everytime somebody scored. and john tought me a "secret" way of kicking the ball -- laying it sideways on the ground -- so that it was impossible to catch. it's only now that i realize this was because i was not yet able to actually kick a football. the big kids let me kick whenever somebody scored, and i distinctly remember john doing one of those exaggerated stumbling on the ground things and fumbling the ball routines (that, as a kid, you only realize 5 years later is completely made up for your benefit) so i could recover it. that's what kind of guy he was: the kind of guy who as a mckinley star (and believe me, if you're a mckinley star, your life is very, very good) took the time to make a really little simplicissimus feel like he was surely going to be the next great mckinley bulldog. not coincidentally, i'm sure, for years afterwords i would secretly practice my punting -- knowing that a simplicissimus size guy could only ever be a mckinley punter -- in the vain hopes that if i started preparing at 9 i would surely become the best punter by sheer force of will. this dream died (with mr. conrad baines' encouragement) when i played 8th grade football and attempted to convince the coach that because i could kick with either foot i was surely the best option at punter. and i don't think i've ever shared that last tidbit with a single soul until now. damn, this is really depressing. Rudy Guiliani's political care posted by: simplicissimus 22:33 1.29.08 is dead. i'm not sure where else i can posted by: simplicissimus 11:44 1.25.08 it's about omaha beach on d-day. and i've never read anything quite lick it (the atlantic has opened up its archives, so this is a 1960 article from SLA Marshall, who is a really famous military historian). anyhow, it really, really is worth the read if only to appreciate how terrifying war must be and further how good all of us have it: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/196011/omaha he's legitimately famous... posted by: publius 00:12 1.23.08 not like brad renfro, who also died young this week. among a fair number of other things, he was one of the dylans in i'm not there... he is famous! posted by: simplicissimus 17:29 1.22.08 broke back mountain! heath ledger... posted by: simplicissimus 16:50 1.22.08 i have no idea who he is. but i think he's famous. and he's dead. not-so-proud Ike posted by: spacehippie 10:59 12.15.07 My favorite Ike Turner moment was when I was flipping through daytime, non-cable tv. It must have been almost 10 years ago. I stumbled upon Judge Joe Brown, or something of that ilk, and who should be standing before the judge being sued by an ex-girlfriend/backup singer. I don't remember exactly what the case was about. I think Ike was actually the plaintiff, and was suing the woman for missing a performance. What I do remember is that the woman was stunningly beautiful, and that she alleged that Ike had hit her and abused drugs during their relationship. I was glad to see that Ike had moved on... along those lines... posted by: publius 15:28 12.13.07 i was having dinner with some friends in london a few years ago and the subject of tina turner came up. people were saying how amazing she looks at 85 (or however old she is these days), how they like her music, etc. my comment? "well, she can definitely take a punch better than most singers out there" you know those moments in movies where they play the sound of a turntable needle sliding across a record and then everything goes dead silent? it was kind of like that. people were not amused. New York Post headline: posted by: rabble-rouser 15:10 12.13.07 IKE BEATS TINA TO DEATH He was your Garbage Man posted by: rahoohl_dewk 09:30 12.13.07 Ah Funky Canton...interesting how this man will always be remember for beating up Tina Turner first, and his music 2nd. Gotta be impressed that he lived to 76 with all the junk he put in his body. Ike Turner Dead at 76 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwJR1EemeIhi-56_2TjX37mlLHSQD8TGFR5G0 Ike Turner managed to rehabilitate his image somewhat in the past few years, touring around the globe and drawing acclaim that included his first solo Grammy earlier this year. But the 76-year-old's prodigious musical legacy was forever tarnished by his image as the drug-addicted, brutally abusive former husband of Tina Turner. Turner, known with his ex-wife for such songs as "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Proud Mary," died Wednesday at his suburban home. No cause of death was immediately given. In interviews toward the end of his life, Turner acknowledged many mistakes, but said he still carried himself with pride. "I know what I am in my heart. And I know regardless of what I've done, good and bad, it took it all to make me what I am today," he once told The Associated Press. In her 1987 autobiography, "I, Tina," Tina Turner narrated a harrowing tale of abuse, including suffering a broken nose. Ike Turner was hauntingly portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the movie "What's Love Got To Do With It," based on Tina Turner's autobiography. In a 2001 AP interview, he denied his ex-wife's claims of abuse and expressed frustration that he had been demonized in the media while his historic role in rock's beginnings had been ignored. "You can go ask Snoop Dogg or Eminem, you can ask the Rolling Stones or (Eric) Clapton, or you can ask anybody — anybody, they all know my contribution to music, but it hasn't been in print about what I've done or what I've contributed until now," he said. Turner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951. Produced by the legendary Sam Phillips, it was groundbreaking for its use of distorted electric guitar. "I see Ike Turner in the company of James Brown and Count Basie as being supremely gifted band leaders, and I say that with no sense of exaggeration," said Tom "Papa" Ray, who co-owns an independent music store in St. Louis and for 20 years has hosted a local blues and soul radio show. Turner's profile grew after he met 18-year-old Anna Mae Bullock in 1959. He quickly made the husky-voiced woman the lead singer of his group, refashioning her into the sexy Tina Turner. Tina Turner declined to comment on her ex-husband's death. "Tina is aware that Ike passed away earlier today. She has not had any contact with him in 35 years. No further comment will be made," her spokeswoman, Michele Schweitzer, said Wednesday. The pair, who had two sons, produced a string of hits with Ike Turner on guitar or piano. The first, "A Fool In Love," was a top R&B song in 1959. Others included "I Idolize You" and "It's Gonna Work Out Fine." Rolling Stone executive editor Joe Levy said such songs acted as musical representations of their personal relationship. "He's the big, ominous voice. She's the passionate, emotional voice." Their densely layered hit "River Deep, Mountain High" was one of producer Phil Spector's proudest creations. A rousing version of "Proud Mary," a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit, became their signature song and won them a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a group. Though they were known publicly as a powerful, dynamic duo, Tina Turner later said her husband was secretly an overbearing wife abuser and cocaine addict. She said the cycle ended after a vicious fight between the pair in the back seat of a car in Las Vegas, where they were scheduled to perform. It was the only time she ever fought back against her husband, she said. Ike Turner denied his ex-wife's claims of abuse, despite acknowledging in his 1999 autobiography, "Takin' Back My Name," that he hit Tina. He denied in the book that the hitting amounted to beating. After Tina and Ike Turner broke up, both fell into obscurity and endured money woes for years before Tina Turner made a dramatic comeback in 1984 with the release of the album "Private Dancer," a multiplatinum success with hits such as "Let's Stay Together" and "What's Love Got To Do With It." Ike Turner never again had the success he enjoyed with his former wife. After years of drug abuse, he was jailed in 1989 and served 17 months. His career finally began to revive in 2001 when he released the album "Here and Now." The recording won rave reviews and a Grammy nomination and finally helped shift some of the public's attention away from his troubled past and onto his musical legacy. "His last chapter in life shouldn't be drug abuse and the problems he had with Tina," said Rob Johnson, the producer of "Here and Now." Turner spent his later years making more music and touring, even while he battled emphysema. His songs were sampled by a variety of rap acts and he won a Grammy for "Risin' With the Blues." Robbie Montgomery — one of the "Ikettes," backup singers who worked with Ike and Tina Turner — said Turner's death was "devastating" to her. "He gave me my start. He gave a million people their start," Montgomery said. one tough bitch posted by: rabble-rouser 10:20 11.5.07 RIP, Lillian Ellison, the Fabulous Moolah, the father of women's professional wrestling. http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/fabulousmoolahpasses i almost posted this article y posted by: publius 22:58 10.11.07 but then i figured it was your show so i'd let you do the follow-up... i love it when a plan comes together...almost as much as i love shooting cocaine every hour... well done, sir posted by: ludwig 18:48 10.11.07 If you're going to go, go big . . . http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article3047626.ece Bismarck died after injecting cocaine 'every hour for a day' By Cahal Milmo Published: 11 October 2007 In the aftermath of the notorious drug-induced death 21 years ago of his friend Olivia Channon, Count Gottfried von Bismarck vowed: "My days of living it up are all over." The extent to which he failed to keep to his promise was revealed yesterday when a pathologist told an inquest that the count's body had the highest level of cocaine he had ever seen. The body of the great-great-grandson of imperial Prussia's "Iron Chancellor", Otto Von Bismarck, was found in his near-empty £5m flat in Chelsea, southwest London, in July this year, up to three days after he died from a massive overdose of cocaine and morphine he had injected during a 24-hour drink and drugs binge. An estate agent selling the flat, close to Sloane Square, discovered the body after being asked to check on the count by his father, Prince Ferdinand von Bismarck. Westminster coroner's court heard that the 44-year-old German socialite was found lying on a mattress with his arm exposed and blackened. He had injected himself every hour for a period of nearly 24 hours before his death. Professor Sebastien Lucas, who conducted a post-mortem examination, said the amount of cocaine in the count's body was highest he had seen in his career and was accompanied by traces of morphine that could have come from heroin. The inquest heard he also had liver damage from alcohol and drug abuse as well as HIV and hepatitis B and C. Recording a verdict of death from a heart attack caused by drug dependency and the overdose, the Westminster coroner, Paul Knapman, said: "I think this is a very regrettable story. The reckless behaviour with cocaine has caused his death." The tragedy was the final act in a life which had begun steeped in privilege and early academic brilliance only to be dogged by psychological frailty and a reputation as a louche hell-raiser. Friends said Von Bismarck had spent much of the last two decades living under the shadow cast by the death of Ms Channon. The 22-year-old daughter of the Conservative cabinet minister Paul Channon, was found in the count's bed in his rooms at Christ Church College, Oxford, after taking a heroin overdose while celebrating the end of her finals in 1986. Von Bismarck was charged with possessing cocaine, fined and ordered home to the family castle near Hamburg after vowing to live life on the straight and narrow. He was awarded a third-class degree in politics, philosophy and economics. The inquest heard that after a brief business career in the former East Germany where the telecommunications company he worked for went bust owing £105m, the count led a chaotic life in London. Never shy about his homosexuality after coming out in the 1990s, he was in the headlines again in August 2006 when Anthony Casey fell to his death from the roof terrace of the count's flat during a sex party. Von Bismarck had come out of rehabilitation before his death but he rapidly fell back into his cocaine habit. Named after a great uncle who was involved in the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler and tortured in a concentration camp, Von Bismarck was said to have considered his family name, and the expectation it placed upon him, a burden. More dead, depraved aristocrat posted by: ludwig 14:02 7.5.07 Count Gottfried von Bismarck - great great grandson of the Iron Chancellor, abuser of heroin, wearer of women's clothes Best line: "When not clad in the lederhosen of his homeland, he cultivated an air of sophisticated complexity by appearing in women's clothes, set off by lipstick and fishnet stockings." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/04/db0402.xml Count Gottfried von Bismarck, who was found dead on Monday aged 44, was a louche German aristocrat with a multi-faceted history as a pleasure-seeking heroin addict, hell-raising alcoholic, flamboyant waster and a reckless and extravagant host of homosexual orgies. The great-great-grandson of Prince Otto, Germany's Iron Chancellor and architect of the modern German state, the young von Bismarck showed early promise as a brilliant scholar, but led an exotic life of gilded aimlessness that attracted the attention of the gossip columns from the moment he arrived in Oxford in 1983 and hosted a dinner at which the severed heads of two pigs were placed at either end of the table. When not clad in the lederhosen of his homeland, he cultivated an air of sophisticated complexity by appearing in women's clothes, set off by lipstick and fishnet stockings. This aura of dangerous "glamour" charmed a large circle of friends and acquaintances drawn from the jeunesse dorée of the age; many of them knew him at Oxford, where he made friends such as Darius Guppy and Viscount Althorp and became an enthusiastic, rubber-clad member of the Piers Gaveston Society and the drink-fuelled Bullingdon and Loders clubs. Von Bismarck's university career ended in catastrophe in June 1986, when his friend Olivia Channon was found dead on his bed, the victim of a drink and drugs overdose. Von Bismarck admitted that his role in the affair had brought disgrace on the family name; five years later he told friends that there were still people who would not speak to his parents on account of it, and who told his mother that she had "a rotten son". In the reunified Germany, von Bismarck managed several telecoms businesses and, armed with a doctoral thesis on the East German telephone system, oversaw the sale of companies formerly owned by Communist East Germany to the private sector. By the late 1990s von Bismarck was working for Telemonde, Kevin Maxwell's troubled telecoms firm based in America, with responsibility for developing the business in Germany; the company collapsed in 2002 with debts of £105 million. Von Bismarck eventually returned to London, where he became chairman of the investment company AIM Partners, dabbled in film production and promoted holidays to Uzbekistan. Never concealing his homosexuality, von Bismarck continued to appear in public in various eccentric items of attire, including tall hats atop his bald Mekon-like head. At parties he would appear in exotic designer frock coats with matching trousers and emblazoned with enormous logos. Flitting from table to table at fashionable London nightclubs, he was said to be as comfortable among wealthy Eurotrash as he was on formal occasions calling for black tie. Although described personally as quiet and impeccably mannered, von Bismarck continued to live high on the hog, hosting riotous all-night parties for his (chiefly gay) friends at his £5 million flat off Sloane Square. It was at one such event, in August last year, that von Bismarck encountered tragedy for a second time when one of his male guests fell 60 ft to his death from the roof garden. While von Bismarck was not arrested, he was questioned as a witness and there were those who wondered - not, perhaps, without cause - whether he might be the victim of a family curse. Gottfried Alexander Leopold Graf von Bismarck-Schonhausen was born on September 19 1962 in Brussels, the second son of Ferdinand, the 4th Prince Bismarck, whose own father had served in the German embassy in pre-war London until a feud with the ambassador, von Ribbentrop, ended his career. As a talented young scholar, Gottfried had studied at what he described as "an aristocratic Borstal" in Switzerland and worked at the New York stock exchange before going up to Christ Church, Oxford. Von Bismarck never fully recovered from the death in June 1986 of Olivia Channon, the striking 22-year-old daughter of Paul Channon (later Lord Kelvedon), then one of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet ministers. To celebrate the end of their finals, von Bismarck and Olivia Channon had taken part in a drinking bout involving excessive amounts of champagne, Black Velvet and sherry before she overdosed on heroin. At the inquest her cousin, Sebastian Guinness, described how he and other revellers had repaired to von Bismarck's bottle-strewn rooms, where Olivia was found dead the following morning. Von Bismarck himself was charged with possessing cocaine and amphetamine sulphate and was later treated at a £770-a-week addiction clinic in Surrey. Following Olivia Channon's funeral, at which he was said to have "wept like a child", von Bismarck was ordered home to the family castle near Hamburg by his father. His removal from Oxford was so abrupt that he was not given time to settle his bills; Prince Ferdinand sent a servant who did the rounds of von Bismarck's favoured watering-holes, restaurants and his tailor bearing a chequebook. The tabloids quoted words of repentance from von Bismarck himself - "My days of living it up are all over. This past week has just been too much" - but although he was reported to be leaving to finish his studies at a German university and eventually to enter German politics, in the event he was treated again for alcoholism at a German clinic. He returned briefly to Oxford, where local magistrates fined him £80 for drug possession; he wiped away tears as his lawyer offered mitigation, pointing out that since the Channon affair von Bismarck had received a bad press in Germany. Doubting whether he would be able to find work in his own country, von Bismarck was said to be planning to study at a university in Los Angeles while continuing to receive treatment for his drink problem. Olivia Channon's death, his barrister said, would prove to be a shadow over von Bismarck's head "probably for the rest of his life". So it proved. He never married. i just want to repost one part posted by: simplicissimus 10:12 5.22.07 ..in case anyone doesn't have the time to read it: "Among several bizarre stories, she alleged that, on one occasion, she had returned unexpectedly to their flat in Cannes to find her husband in the company of a large Arab gangster and two Arab women who were rifling through the wardrobes. Her husband was on a stool singing and dancing; the women left with a car-load of her belongings." conference call clicking posted by: ludwig 08:56 5.22.07 while on a never ending conference call, I often take to perusing wikiepdia for what ever is new. Following link after link I came to this obit (the deceased's wife is now on trial for his murder). outstanding. the british are always more vicious towards their dead. Incidentally, his heir (the 11th earl) died one month after him. The current holder of the title (the 12th earl) is a 27 year old DJ who lives in New York. He also owns the 9000 acre family estate. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/21/db2101.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/04/21/ixportal.html The Earl of Shaftesbury Last Updated: 1:04am BST 21/04/2005 The 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, whose death aged 66 was confirmed yesterday, demonstrated the dangers of the possession of inherited wealth coupled with a weakness for women and Champagne. Shaftesbury, who disappeared last November prompting an international police investigation, was tall, debonair, affable and rather shy. He tried after his own fashion to be true to the liberal philanthropic family traditions of his ancestors, notably the first Earl (1621-83), founder of the Whig party in Parliament, and the 7th Earl (1801-85), the great 19th-century evangelical social reformer. He served as president of the Shaftesbury Society, which the 7th Earl had founded, and - as a keen music fan - was chairman of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1966 to 1980. advertisementHe was also respected as a conservationist. On his 9,000-acre estate at Wimborne St Giles, Dorset, he planted more than a million trees and, in 1992, was joint winner of the Royal Forestry Society's National Duke of Cornwall's Award for Forestry and Conservation. He also served as president of the Hawk and Owl Trust and as vice-president of the British Butterfly Conservation Society. It was said, after his mysterious disappearance from a Cannes nightclub, that the 10th Earl, like Gladstone, had been devoting himself to helping vulnerable young girls working in nightspots on the French Riviera to start new lives. But as the mystery deepened, it seemed that his interest was more than merely philanthropic. Indeed, Lord Shaftesbury had always exhibited a weakness for exotic women. At Eton he had famously penned an article for the college magazine in which he described English debutantes as "round-shouldered, unsophisticated garglers of pink champagne". His subsequent amorous career was notable for his avoidance of the species. He met his Italian-born first wife, Bianca Le Vien, the ex-wife of an American film producer and 12 years his senior, during a skiing holiday. They married in 1966, but divorced, owing to his adultery with an unnamed woman, in 1976. The same year he married a Swedish-born divorcee, Christina Casella, the daughter of a diplomat, with whom he had two sons. That marriage, too, ended acrimoniously, in 2000, and he embarked on a string of short-lived and expensive love affairs with younger women distinguished by their exotic looks and equally colourful past histories. He became a familiar figure in some of the loucher nightspots on the French Riviera, where he cut a curious figure in leather trousers, pink shirts and large red-and-black spectacles; he was notable for his habit of flashing his money around as he bought drinks for a succession of nubile female companions. In 1999 he had begun a relationship with Nathalie Lions, a pneumatic 29-year-old whom he had met in a lingerie shop in Geneva, where she was working as a model. They became engaged, and he paraded her around London, Barbados and the south of France, maintaining that she was a member of the Italian royal house of Savoy. He admitted to lavishing some £1 million on her in cheques and expensive gifts, including a £100,000 Rolex watch and an Audi TT sports car. But their relationship came to an end in 2002 after it was revealed that she was, in fact, a French nude model and former Penthouse "Pet" with silicone-enhanced breasts. Later that year, he married Jamila M'Barek, a Tunisian divorcee with two children, whom he had met in a Paris bar where she was working as a hostess. She separated from him in April 2004, claiming that he had become an alcoholic and "sex addict", regularly overdosing on Viagra and having testosterone injections. Among several bizarre stories, she alleged that, on one occasion, she had returned unexpectedly to their flat in Cannes to find her husband in the company of a large Arab gangster and two Arab women who were rifling through the wardrobes. Her husband was on a stool singing and dancing; the women left with a car-load of her belongings. In August 2004 Shaftesbury was reported as having taken up with a 33-year old Moroccan hostess known as Nadia. He installed her and her two children in their own flat and, a month later, asked her to become the fourth Countess of Shaftesbury. On the evening of November 5 2004, Shaftesbury left the Noga Hilton Hotel in Cannes and, as was his regular habit by this time, entered a basement hostess-bar nearby. Within 24 hours he had vanished, setting off an international criminal investigation. The saga of "le Lord disparu" sent the French media into a frenzy, and spawned a multitude of theories. In February his estranged wife, Jamila M'Barek, was arrested by French police and allegedly admitted that she was present when the Earl was killed in her home; but she insisted that she was only a witness to a fight involving her husband and his killer. She and her brother Mohammed have both been placed under investigation for murder, which is a step short of formal charges under French law. Anthony Ashley-Cooper was born on May 22 1938, the elder son of Major Lord Ashley, elder son of the 9th Earl of Shaftesbury KP, PC, GCVO, CBE. Lord Ashley, who died in 1947 before he could inherit the earldom, had shocked London society by marrying the model and chorus girl Sylvia Hawkes. After their divorce she went on to marry Douglas Fairbanks Sr, followed by Clark Gable. Anthony was the son of his father's French-born second wife, Françoise Soulier. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, and, as a young man, was a keen climber and skier. He succeeded to the earldom aged 22 on his grandfather's death in 1961. The 9th Earl had, by prudent financial planning, arranged matters so that his heirs would avoid death duties. The young earl therefore came into an estate which included the family's 17th-century home and large estate in Dorset, several other properties and a collection of art and other valuables. By the 1990s his wealth was said to be in the "low millions". It was another ancestor, the 3rd Earl, who had bequeathed to his wayward descendant the wisest counsel: "The extending of a single passion too far or the continuance of it too long," he observed, "is able to bring irrecoverable ruin and misery." Shaftesbury's body was found in the south of France on April 5; yesterday it was announced that DNA tests had confirmed his identity. By his second marriage, Lord Shaftesbury had two sons, the eldest of whom, Anthony Nils Christian, Lord Ashley, born in 1977, succeeds to the earldom. Sad day posted by: rahoohl_dewk 08:54 4.12.07 KV was an artist that illuminated free thought in those around me when I was 16 years old. I think KV was one of the artists that brought Simpli and I together in our quasi-intellectual pursuits in high school(along with the likes of Minor Threat, Public Enemy, and Hunter S. Thompson). Nothing like drinking beer at a HS party, shooting the shit about gangsta rap and Ice 9 - feeling like you're *smart* and have a hold on something the rest of the people don't. KV did that for me at a young age. I read Slaughterhouse Five ("Fumf!") and Cat's Cradle in High School English (thank you Ms. Fox and Mr. Young) and KV is one of the true artistic inspirations that I can pin point on my early life's map. In the spring of 04, before the Bush/Kerry election, we saw him speak at Severance Hall in Cleveland. The Hall is the home of the Cleveland Orchestra and a special place to see any type of event for its relevance to art, architecture and stunning acoustics. A artistic centerpiece for Cleveland. It was a very important day seeing one of my heroes wax philosophical about polictics (very dry and stunningly honest in his criticism of policitcs (Rs, Cheney, and Bush in general - he said something like - "I never thought I would be able to stand here today and say we've got a Dick and Bush in the Whitehouse") and people. At the end of his speech, music came on and KV slowly and beautifully waltzed (literally) sans partner across the stage with this huge smile on his face. . . as if he was dancing with all of life. He was there to make us think about being on this here Earth. In my mind, today, I am seeing him Waltzing silently with that smile. An everlasting memory. Everlasting beauty. God Bless You Mr. Rosewater....Billy Pilgrim...and of course, Kilgore Trout. goodnight mr. rosewater posted by: simplicissimus 23:24 4.11.07 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/books/11cnd-vonnegut.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1176347214-mANKS76Y1K7vZ8BY77edKw&oref=slogin kurt vonnegut. the man never took his name out of the phonebook...at least as of the mid-1990s when i checked to see if that was myth or true...reason enough to love him. add that to the fact that it was through him that i learned about eugene debs (the closest thing to a saint american politics is likely ever to be graced with), and, well, i'm pretty fucking bummed. sol lewitt posted by: publius 08:36 4.9.07 not appreciating sol lewitt is a character flaw. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/arts/design/09lewitt.html it's an outrage posted by: rabble-rouser 09:24 4.5.07 that clark's obit failed to mention that he worte (with david e. kelley), directed and produced "from the hip." "you'll shoot your eye out, ki posted by: publius 23:54 4.4.07 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070405/en_nm/clark_dc_1 best. suicide. note. ever. posted by: simplicissimus 17:01 3.28.07 george eastman's note: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blastcap/279469331/ george eastman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eastman posted by: ludwig 11:04 3.22.07 Larry "Bud" Melman. God he was funny. http://youtube.com/watch?v=fQ7PMG8c2gI the director of "cool hand" di posted by: rabelais 04:30 3.22.07 http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2007/03/19/stuart_rosenberg_directed_cool_hand_luke/ "Is that your answer, old man? Well, I guess you're a hard case too." here's to stuart rosenberg. you definitely contributed. you had me scared there for a posted by: publius 14:26 3.19.07 i thought maybe paul newman had died...that will be a sad day. takin' off, boss... posted by: simplicissimus 13:49 3.19.07 ...indeed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6467997.stm though it would be have been a much better death had it been in the midst of him eating 50 eggs. more than a feeling ... posted by: squisshy 15:07 3.10.07 http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/09/delp.dead.reut/index.html the anna nicole saga gets odde posted by: ludwig 10:34 3.9.07 http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-03-08/news/tohono-o-odham-with-love/full want i want to know is... posted by: publius 23:27 3.1.07 what does it mean that the photo has been "genitally glued to the river rock" shudder.... don't shed a tear... posted by: simplicissimus 23:16 3.1.07 her legend lives on, long before her candle burned out. or something like that. http://eugene.craigslist.org/hsh/285772108.html not for me posted by: rabble-rouser 13:31 2.15.07 although i have to say that for the past hour or so "gary" and i have had some really meaningful chats about our... you know. fact is, norelco's home use technology is years behind the professional clinics. while the home use tool makes balls appear to be limes or peaches, mine look just like eggs. i actually wear them outside my pants. thank you misterconradbain for allowing me to come forward with this personal information. it's hard for me to feel a genuine burst of liberation these days, what with walking around with my balls out and all. Rabble - did you happen to use posted by: prankmonkey 10:48 2.15.07 http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2007/02/14/notes021407.DTL&nl=fix And (more to the point) http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/ Despite the state of the world, as a society we appear to have WAY too much time on our hands. And hair on our elsewheres. it is official posted by: misterconradbain 21:56 2.14.07 everyone on here especially squisshy and r.dewk makes me laugh but rabble-rouser just cemented himself as my favorite tentforter - you are hilarious not gay or ridiculous posted by: rabble-rouser 21:41 2.14.07 you asked a simple question and deserve a straight forward answer. i know my balls are nicer and smoother than the others because i recently had my sack waxed and injected with botox. not a wrinkle on'em. they're like eggs. my apologies, old man rouser posted by: misterconradbain 20:49 2.14.07 Young Bains did not intend to be condescening as he did not know calling you young would offend. A sincere apology is extended. Maybe someday when you are older you will see being called young as a compliment, fella. Someday when you yourself have an "old wrinkly cock". I'm sorry that you assume the 90 year old couldn't possibly have "nice smooth balls" like you rouser, but how do you know this? How well do you know Atty. Howard Stern, Prince Gabor and the Minister of Tourism and their rabble-rousers? I can't believe you were insulted for being called young. Exactly how old are you? Maybe Simpli can take you to see the new Wes Anderson movie next year - your first rated R movie. (ok I'm obviously very bored to be trying to pick a fight this gay and ridiculous) bang her like a screen door in posted by: rabble-rouser 12:08 2.14.07 mismisterconradbain, thank you for your thoughts. while i can’t help but detect a bit of condescension in the way you called me young, i take some security in the fact that you, like vickie, seem to prefer collecting older men. in any case, and this goes for all of you, whether collecting men, cloth, or men of cloth, please keep in mind that there is a difference between getting naked to become famous and getting naked as a publicity stunt after one is already famous. just imagine the amounts of old wrinkly cock that vickie had to suck to go from fat nobody stripper to Playmate of the Year. all that work to go from rags to riches separates her from paris, who made a sex video, a reality show, and an album only after she was already famous for doing nothing. none of paris’ projects would have gotten off the ground had they not been associated with someone who was already famous. dewk, nobody would have ever seen paris fuck and blow a guy if she wasn’t already famous. but millions of people took time and spent money to see vickie naked when she was a nobody. let’s give credit (however limited) where credit is due. R.I.P. Slap yer ass like a goddamn ca posted by: rahoohl_dewk 19:12 2.13.07 http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-parishiltonabstinence,0,797156.story And from an article revealed by my google search - reprinted without permission and for the pure sake of scaled down hillarity: "The only parts of this story you should believe are that Paris Hilton doesn't know who Tony Blair is and that she hasn't been paid for her sex tape. Everything else is basically rubbish. Because the only way I'll believe Paris Hilton has only slept with two guys and is only kissing now is if Jesus appears in my living room, slaps me across the face, and tells me it's true. And even then there's still a slight possiblity I'd slap him back and call him a dirty liar." Paris v. Vickie - Not to say I posted by: rahoohl_dewk 19:08 2.13.07 Paris would not be where she is today if she did not fuck and blow a guy on video that most 14-35 year olds with a computer have seen to date. They're both whores and they're famous for being quasi sexy whores. Plain and simple. Whorish dervishes of flesh that have been elevated to notoriety by the reality TV generation. Iconic of course but they have accomplished little of note. BTW - does anyone remember Paris telling some interviewer a year or two ago she's only fucked two guys in her life? One of which, I guess is the guy we all saw. The other might have been that Stavros guy with the billions and a fleet of ships. Fun. fame posted by: misterconradbain 18:35 2.13.07 rouser - thank you for your interest in my doll collection. I am impressed that you are familiar with street cloths, some people refer to normal clothes as street clothes but you know about street cloths - nice to see another cloth fan on tentfort. A better question than the Estrada question is am I currently featuring a Bob Saget doll or a Danny Tanner doll? Neither, it is a real life Dave Coultier - the actual man, I own Uncle Joey Gladstone. And young rouser, I am not as impressed with the Playmate of the Year honors as you appear to be - didn't paris make a tv show with Lionel's daughter and put out a few homemade porn vids and crotch pics. simpli - as a card carrying member of the Stark County Boots Jennings fan club, thank you for giving him his due but your post gave me a herman's headache. It isn't so complicated. You and the dewkanator are way too concerned about people earning or deserving fame - there is only one test: If I go to idaho, meet a stranger, who do we both know. He isn't going to know my neighbor Phil Schlup . So until Philly does something, he isn't part of the world's collective consciousness. They all did something to get there. I actually don't like Paris, but you have to give her credit for self-promotion -there are other wealthy families besides the Hiltons, I'm sure there are some other heiresses we haven't heard of - the Marriott daughters or Red Roof Inn girls i watched it, too posted by: simplicissimus 16:53 2.13.07 did you see when they had "the daily show black correspondent" on? priceless. daily show last night... posted by: horsebeater 16:28 2.13.07 ... did a hilarious 10 minutes at the top of the show mocking the anna nicole saturation coverage. catch the highlights here: http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml Money line: "Move over crazy astronaut in diapers." eh posted by: rabble-rouser 10:04 2.13.07 you think ponch and vickie are more like political figures amy carter, linda tripp, monica lewinsky and norman schwartzkopf, and less like entertainers gary coleman, gallagher or howie mandel? that’s a stretch. first, it ignores that simple fact that eric estrada is famous for playing ponch in chips. that his fame has been extended for whatever reason is beside the point. saying that he is famous for once being famous for playing ponch on chips is mere semantics. ask misterconradbain if his estrada blow up doll is dressed in street cloths or a chips uniform. i think we all know the answer. in addition, the fact that john didn’t remain famous for his role in chips doesn’t mean that estrada is no longer famous for playing ponch. does claire’s lack of ongoing fame for her role in the cosby show render cliff less famous for his role? of course not. some people remain in the public eye while others fade. coming back to vickie, she gained notoriety for doing something. paris did not. whether the “something” is currently relevant does not change those simple truths. correction posted by: simplicissimus 17:32 2.12.07 i meant to say that ponch is "famous for once being famous" instead of "famous for being famous". on fame posted by: simplicissimus 17:29 2.12.07 i've pondered this issue, and have to (provisionally) side with squishy. the issue is this: what qualifies as fame? i would say somebody is famous either for: (a) a singular act (or acts) that effect society at large; (b) an innait trait that is exceptionally notable. (a) a singular act that has an effect on society at large. this is the hitler, princip, sirhan sirhan, andy warhol, general patton, john glenn etc. school of fame. they may or may not have been "the best" or "the most talented", but for whatever reason they did something, or many things, that altered the course of history or the world's perception of itself. usually, (b) an innait trait or personality that is exceptionally notable. this is the "lesser" of the two categories in my mind. usually the type of fame associated with guiness book of world record holders (the "pool ball in the mouth guy"), freakishly freakish athletes (spudd webb, refrigerator perry, etc.) musicians(twista, mariah carey) or entertainers (gallagher or howie mandel). these people are "known" for something -- height, weight, musical range or speed, or smashing watermelons and placing rubber gloves over their head. we know who these people are for a reason. it may not be a great reason...and the more silly the reason, the less famouse they really are...but there is something about them that allows them to do that nobody else does. --- of the two cited by rabble-rouser (gary coleman and ponch), only gary coleman can, even arguably, be placed in (b) above. he was, and is, after all very short. however, i would submit that "ponch" is a perfect example of the "famous for being famous" school. he was once famous, for being the most popular member of a very popular show. but if he was really right, then "jon" would be just as famous. and he isn't...though he probably was at one time. however, once jon was no longer famous (because CHiPs was no longer "important) then neither was ponch. (incidentally, ponch showed up to a car show at the canton civic center and was literally "selling kisses": simplicissimus knows because simplicissimus saw it with his own eyes). ponch remains known...and became more celebrated...only in a totally ironic way. he became, and remains, famous only for the fact that he once was very relevant and now is just an ironic signifier, a touchstone for another era. amy carter falls into this category, as does (increasingly) linda tripp and monica lewinsky. norman schwartzkopf, too. "boot" jennings (the channel 3 in cleveland in the mid-1980s: "hello everybody, nice seeing you again) come to mind as well. billy ray cyrus, anyone? if you need more, check out "the surreal life". none of these people, however, are famous for being famous. they are "famous for once being, albeit briefly, famous." so on that score, i'm with rabble-rouser. our american people's princess, anna nicole, was once famous. however, that was it. --- this leaves the question of "famous for being famous" and i still think this is a relatively new phenomenon and one only displayed by paris hilton. she was never, ever, ever known for anything special. never once did somebody say, "she's going to succeed" or "she's changing the way we view things" or "she could be big" because she never ever set out to do any of that. she was really sort of sui generis in that way. debord probably would have something to say about this. i, however, am still utterly flumoxed by what ms. hilton "means" (though i would argue in some post-moderinist way she was simply the first to figure out that you don't "need" any "hook" (i.e., (a) or (b) above) to become famous. which, in and of itself, just may be a reason to consider her worthy of actually and truly being considered "famous". squisshy, posted by: rabble-rouser 16:59 2.12.07 she is famous for being playmate of the year (and having a billion-dollar sugar daddy). yes it happened a long time ago, but that is why she is famous. gary coleman is not famous for being famous; he is famous for being a child tv star-- a long time ago. eric estrada is not famous for being famous; he's famous for being Ponch-- a long time ago. i could go on all day. point is, vickie accomplished more than paris has, regardless of when she became famous. the plot thickens ... posted by: squisshy 14:59 2.12.07 http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/02/12/smith.bahamas.ap/index.html was anna nicole killed by a bahamanian political operative? is daniellyn europian royalty, related to zsa zsa gabor by marriage? ... and people wonder why this story has legs. by the way, rabble-rouser, she was last famous for taking her clothers off over a decade ago. i'd say at the time of her death she qualified as famous for being famous. r.dewk is pissed posted by: misterconradbain 17:21 2.9.07 r.dewk has spoken and he is not bitter! wow, dewk tell us how you really feel about her. did anna nicole smith turn you down for prom or something? this sounds too personal. and reality tv? did "The Amazing Race" reject your application for you and hlk rumsey again? posted by: rabble-rouser 13:27 2.9.07 i note that anna nicole smith (or vickie, as i know her) is not famous for being famous. she is famous for getting naked. big difference in my book. also, i loved and cheered for her mostly for being the muse who inspired the Central District of California to draft these fucking billiant findings of fact. http://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/CACD/RecentPubOp.nsf/0/3e2b24e60e29602788256b75005ef293/$FILE/SACV01-97DOC.pdf start on page 7, stop whenever you must. Let's start with posted by: rahoohl_dewk 13:09 2.9.07 "i just wonder what combination of drugs (and i include any possible trimspa effects) did her in." Wonder now more: about the lifelong combination of weight loss/gain, fried food, inconsistent exercise, plastic surgery, stress, depression, stress, depression, booze, pharmies, diet aids and copious amounts of Bolivian Marching Powder. She's a trainwreck. She deserves no publicity. Fucking waste of time. Yet another window into America's ridiculous obsession with the rich/famous. We have turned a corner as to who's important. You need not be exceptional. You only need to be known. Reality TV is doing us in. Gonzo Journalism Forever, R. Dewk well ... posted by: squisshy 12:38 2.9.07 i see what you're saying, but there was something quasi-fascinating about her. i think i saw her life referred to in the coverage as a "beautiful train wreck," which just about sums it up. the other "famous for being famous" people just aren't nearly as interesting, and actually, whatever article i was reading drew a sharp distinction with ms. hilton ... i mean, who cares if a silver-spoon millionaire heiress has problems and eventually dies? no one but her family. but whatever, it is also quite absurd. the whole affair depresses me a little, actually -- here was a woman who had many obvious problems but all anyone could really do was sit back and watch the fireworks ... but that's the way life is i guess. i just wonder what combination of drugs (and i include any possible trimspa effects) did her in. is anyone else as suprised as posted by: simplicissimus 12:31 2.9.07 i expected some salacious stories, but this is utterly absurd. at this rate, we're going to have a national day of morning, and a yearly day of rememberence, when paris hilton dies. i'll start... posted by: simplicissimus 18:29 2.8.07 by remembering my favorite line from "heathers" (which, to this day, i think of each and every time a woman who is -- or was at any point in her life -- vaugely attractive): dear god, why'd you have to kill such hot snatch? i mean, where do you start wit posted by: publius 18:04 2.8.07 anna nicole smith, rip... http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/08/anna.nicole.collapses/index.html my head is about to explode from the commentary possibilities on this particular death... sad day in america posted by: isidorus 22:01 1.31.07 Molly Ivins, cleverest bush-basher of all. RIP. ============================ January 31, 2007 Molly Ivins, Populist Texas Columnist, Dies at 62 By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE Molly Ivins, the liberal newspaper columnist who delighted in skewering politicians and interpreting, and mocking, her Texas culture, died today at her home in Austin. She was 62. Her death, after a long fight with breast cancer, was confirmed by her personal assistant, Betsy Moon. In her syndicated column, which appeared in about 350 newspapers, Ms. Ivins cultivated the voice of a folksy populist who derided those who acted too big for their britches. She was rowdy and profane, but she could filet her ideological opponents with droll precision. After Patrick J. Buchanan, as a conservative candidate for president, declared at the 1992 Republican National Convention that America was engaged in a cultural war, she said his speech “probably sounded better in the original German.” “There are two kinds of humor,” she told People magazine. One was the kind “that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity,” she said. “The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule. That’s what I do.” Hers was a feisty voice that she developed in the early 1970s at The Texas Observer, the muckraking biweekly that would become her spiritual home for life. Her subject was Texas. To her, the Great State, as she called it, was “reactionary, cantankerous and hilarious,” and its legislature was “reporter heaven.” When the legislature was set to convene, she warned her readers: “Every village is about to lose its idiot.” Her Texas upbringing made her something of an expert on the Bush family. She viewed President George H.W. Bush benignly. (“Real Texans do not use the word ‘summer’ as a verb,” she wrote.) But she derided President George W. Bush, whom she first knew in high school. She called him Shrub and Dubya. With the Texas journalist Lou Dubose, she wrote two best-selling books about Mr. Bush: “Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush” (2000) and “Bushwhacked” (2003). In 2004 she campaigned against Mr. Bush’s re-election, and as the war in Iraq continued, she called for his impeachment. In her last column, earlier this month, she urged readers to “raise hell” against the war. Mary Tyler Ivins was born on Aug. 30, 1944 in California and grew up in the affluent Houston suburb of River Oaks. Her father, James, a conservative Republican, was general counsel and later president of Tenneco Corporation, an oil and gas company. As a student at private school, Ms. Ivins was tall and big-boned and often felt out of place. “I spent my girlhood as a Clydesdale among thoroughbreds,” she said. She developed her liberal views partly from reading The Texas Observer at a friend’s house. Those views led to fierce arguments with her father about civil rights and the Vietnam War. “I’ve always had trouble with male authority figures because my father was such a martinet,” she told The Texas Monthly. After her father developed advanced cancer and shot himself to death in 1998, she wrote: “I believe that all the strength I have comes from learning how to stand up to him.” Like her mother, Margot, and grandmother, Ms. Ivins went to Smith College in Massachusetts. Graduating in 1966, she also studied at the Institute of Political Science in Paris and earned her master’s degree at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Her first newspaper jobs were at The Houston Chronicle and The Minneapolis Tribune, now The Star Tribune. In 1970, she jumped at the chance to move to Austin, where she became co-editor of The Observer. Covering the statehouse, she found characters whose fatuousness helped focus her calling and define her persona, which her friends saw as populist and her detractors saw as manufactured cornpone. Even her friends marveled at how quickly she could drop her Texas voice for what they called her Smith voice. Sometimes she combined the two, as in: “The sine qua non, as we say in Amarillo.” Ronnie Dugger, the former publisher of The Observer, said the political circus in Texas inspired her. “It was like somebody snapped the football to her and said, ‘All the rules are off, this is the football field named Texas, and it’s wide open,”’ he said. In 1976, her writing, which she said was often fueled by “truly impressive amounts of beer,” landed her a job at The New York Times. She cut an unusual figure in The Times newsroom, wearing blue jeans, going barefoot and bringing in her dog, whose name was an expletive. While she drew important writing assignments, like covering the Son of Sam killings and Elvis Presley’s death, she sensed she did not fit in and complained that Times editors drained the life from her prose. “Naturally, I was miserable, at five times my previous salary,” she later wrote. “The New York Times is a great newspaper: it is also No Fun.” After a stint in Albany, she was transferred to Denver to cover the Rocky Mountain states, where she continued to challenge her editors’ capacity for prankish writing. Covering an annual chicken slaughter in New Mexico in 1980, she used a sexually suggestive phrase, which her editors deleted from the final article. But her attempt to use it angered the executive editor, A.M. Rosenthal, who ordered her back to New York and assigned her to City Hall, where she covered routine matters with little flair. She quit The Times in 1982 after The Dallas Times Herald offered to make her a columnist. She took the job even though she loathed Dallas, once describing it as the kind of town “that would have rooted for Goliath to beat David.” But the paper, she said, promised to let her write whatever she wanted. When she declared of a congressman, “If his I.Q. slips any lower, we’ll have to water him twice a day,” many readers were appalled, and several advertisers boycotted the paper. In her defense, her editors rented billboards that read: “Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?” The slogan became the title of the first of her six books. After The Times Herald folded in 1991, she wrote for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, until 2001, when her column was syndicated by Creators Syndicate. Ms. Ivins, who never married, is survived by a brother, Andy, of London, Tex., and a sister, Sara Ivins Maley, of Albuquerque, N.M. One of her closest friends was Ann Richards, the former Texas governor, who died last year. The two shared an irreverence for power and a love of the Texas wilds. “Molly is a great raconteur, with a long memory,” Ms. Richards said, “and she’s the best person in the world to take on a camping trip because she’s full of good-ol-boy stories.” Ms. Ivins worked at a breakneck pace, adding television appearances, book tours, lectures and fund-raising to a crammed writing schedule. She also wrote for Esquire, the Atlantic Monthly and The Nation. An article about her in 1996 in The Star-Telegram suggested that her work overload may have caused an increase in factual errors in her columns. (She eventually hired a fact-checker.) And in 1995, the writer Florence King accused Ms. Ivins of lifting passages from Ms. King’ for an article that Ms. Ivins had written in Mother Jones in 1988. Ms. Ivins had credited Ms. King six times in the article but not in two lengthy sentences, and she apologized to Ms. King. Ms. Ivins learned she had breast cancer in 1999 and was typically unvarnished in describing her treatments. “First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you,” she wrote. “I have been on blind dates better than that.” But she continued to write her columns and continued to write and raise money for The Observer. Indeed, rarely has a reporter so embodied the ethos of her publication. On the paper’s 50th anniversary in 2004, she wrote: “This is where you can tell the truth without the bark on it, laugh at anyone who is ridiculous, and go after the bad guys with all the energy you have.” it is disappointing to learn posted by: squisshy 18:05 1.10.07 that scooby snacks have been converted by the great capitalist machine into nilla wafers. some mysteries are best left ... unsolved. it is disappointing to learn posted by: squisshy 17:46 1.10.07 that scooby snacks have been converted by the great capitalist machine into nilla wafers. some mysteries are best left ... unsolved. Hail! Hail! Wikipedia! posted by: ludwig 15:25 1.10.07 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby_Snacks so, then ... posted by: squisshy 14:38 1.10.07 you're not holding, are you? i, too, have always wondered what, exactly, a scooby-snack is -- especially given the obvious predilections of scoob and shaggy. although, cutting against the metaphoric interpretation of the snack is that, to the best of my recollection, only scooby ever actually ate the scooby-snacks. this would seem to indicate a dog treat ... then again, he was a talking dog, so who knows what sort of things he was into? admittedly, my lack of knowledge on this subject may make my above pledge to take one down ring hollow, but i am confident that if i ever a) learn what a scooby-snack is, and b) acquire one, that the end result of ingesting it would be groovy. which begs the question: posted by: simplicissimus 14:31 1.10.07 what exactly is a scooby snack? i know this comes on the heals of the whole robot thing, but i assure you this question has plauged me since i was little. is it a dog biscuit? a meat-based dog snack (did they have those in the 70s?)? a metaphor? this is a serious question. Iwao Takamoto ... posted by: squisshy 14:18 1.10.07 otherwise known as the creator of Scooby-Doo (hopefully, just Scoob, and not the infuriating scrappy ... pup-pup-pup-puppy powwwweerrr ... that's right, i think i remember one of scrappy's catch phrases). i enjoyed this take on what message or worldview might be contained in scooby-do, from a recycled slate article: "Kids should meddle, dogs are sweet, life is groovy, and if something scares you, you should confront it." i hereby pledge to ingest a scooby-snack in memoriam of mr. takamoto, as soon as i can get my hands on one. a vacation picture... posted by: publius 22:56 1.4.07 http://www.flickr.com/photos/52391017@N00/346203701/ all apoligies to those who die posted by: simplicissimus 20:55 12.29.06 (and therefore don't make the december list) US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire UK NAME NOT RELEASED YET Basra - Basrah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (north of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Edward W. Shaffer Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal Christopher Esckelson Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal William C. Koprince Jr. Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire LAT dižkareivis Vitalijs Vasiljevs Diwaniyah (near) - Qadisiyah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack LAT dižkareivis Gints Bleija Diwaniyah (near) - Qadisiyah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Douglas L. Tinsley Baghdad (South of) - Babil Non-hostile - vehicle rollover US Specialist Joseph A. Strong Baghdad (South of) - Babil Non-hostile - vehicle rollover US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (northwest of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (northwest of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (northwest of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal Joshua M. Schmitz Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Sergeant John T. Bubeck Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Captain Hayes Clayton Balad - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant 1st Class Dexter E. Wheelous Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Jae S. Moon Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Private Eric R. Wilkus Landstuhl Reg. Med. Ctr. - Baghdad Non-hostile US Specialist Aaron L. Preston Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Private 1st Class Andrew H. Nelson Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Jason C. Denfrund Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Private Evan A. Bixler Hit - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - indirect fire US Lance Corporal Stephen L. Morris Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Michael J. Crutchfield Balad (Camp Anaconda) - Salah ad Din Non-hostile US Specialist John Barta Buhritz - Diyala Hostile - hostile fire - indirect fire US Specialist Chad J. Vollmer Salman Pak - Babil Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Private 1st Class Wilson A. Algrim Salman Pak - Babil Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Private Bobby Mejia II Salman Pak - Babil Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Curtis L. Norris Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Elias Elias Baghdad (southwest of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Joshua D. Sheppard Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Lance Corporal Fernando S. Tamayo Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Lance Corporal Ryan J. Burgess Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Lance Corporal Ryan L. Mayhan Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Hospitalman Kyle A. Nolen Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Lance Corporal Myles Cody Sebastien Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Specialist Scott D. Dykman Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Staff Sergeant Jacob G. McMillan Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire, IED US Specialist Robert J. Volker Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Specialist Andrew P. Daul Hit - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal Joshua D. Pickard Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Captain Kevin M. Kryst Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - mortar attack US Staff Sergeant Brian L. Mintzlaff Taji - Baghdad Non-hostile - vehicle rollover US Private 1st Class Seth M. Stanton Taji (Died in Balad) - Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Nick J. Palmer Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - sniper fire US Private 1st Class Joe L. Baines Taji - Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Staff Sergeant David R. Staats Taji - Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Matthew J. Stanley Taji - Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Staff Sergeant Henry K. Kahalewai Brooke Army Med Center, TX - Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Private 1st Class Paul Balint Jr. Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Staff Sergeant Theodore A. Spatol Thermopolis Non-hostile - illness US Lance Corporal Luke C. Yepsen Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Lance Corporal Matthew W. Clark Albu Hayatt - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Major Gloria D. Davis Baghdad Non-hostile US Sergeant Brent W. Dunkleberger Mosul - Ninawa Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack US Lance Corporal Budd M. Cote Khaldiyah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal Matthew V. Dillon Khaldiyah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Clinton J. Miller Khaldiyah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Master Sergeant Brian P. McAnulty Al Anbar Province Non-hostile - helicopter crash US Staff Sergeant Thomas W. Clemons Diwaniyah (near) - Qadisiyah Non-hostile - illness - heart attack US Private 1st Class Shawn M. Murphy Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Philip C. Ford Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Brennan C. Gibson Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Nicholas P. Steinbacher Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US 1st Lieutenant Nathan M. Krissoff Al Taqaddum - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Brent E. Beeler Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire US Staff Sergeant Henry W. Linck Baghdad (South of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Micah S. Gifford Baghdad (South of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Staff Sergeant Kristofer R. Ciraso Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Nicholas R. Gibbs Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Lance Corporal Cody G. Watson Fallujah - Anbar Non-hostile US Sergeant Yevgeniy Ryndych Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Private 1st Class Travis C. Krege Hawijah - At-Ta'mim Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Yari Mokri Hawijah - At-Ta'mim Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Jason Huffman Hawijah - At-Ta'mim Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Jesse J.J. Castro Hawijah - At-Ta'mim Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Joshua B. Madden Hawijah - At-Ta'mim Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Captain Travis L. Patriquin Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Vincent J. Pomante III Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal Dustin J. Libby Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Major Megan M. McClung Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Jordan W. Hess Brooke Army Med Center, TX - At-Ta'mim Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Marco L. Miller Landstuhl Reg. Med. Ctr. - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - indirect fire US Private 1st Class Roger A. Suarez-Gonzalez Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Private 1st Class Albert M. Nelson Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire US Lance Corporal Thomas P. Echols Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire US Hospitalman Christopher A. Anderson Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire US Sergeant Jay R. Gauthreaux Ba'qubah (died in Balad) - Diyala Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Nicholas D. Turcotte An Nasiriyah - Dhi Qar Non-hostile - vehicle accident US Private Ross A. McGinnis Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - grenade US Specialist Dustin M. Adkins Haditha - Anbar Non-hostile - helicopter crash US Captain Shawn L. English Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal Joshua C. Sticklen Haditha - Anbar Non-hostile - helicopter crash US Major Joseph Trane McCloud Haditha - Anbar Non-hostile - helicopter crash US Captain Kermit O. Evans Haditha - Anbar Non-hostile - helicopter crash US Private Troy D. Cooper Balad - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Kenneth W. Haines Abu Hishma (died in Balad) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Corporal Billy B. Farris Taji - Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Lance Corporal Jesse D. Tillery Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire US Specialist Corey J. Rystad Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Specialist Bryan T. McDonough Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Sergeant Keith E. Fiscus Taji (near) - Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack US Staff Sergeant Robert L. Love Jr. Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack Frankenstein, we hardly knew y posted by: prankmonkey 14:27 12.13.06 Peter Boyle, who will always be the Monster from Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein to me, dead. http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/13/boyle.obit.ap/index.html jfk jr... posted by: publius 12:10 10.30.06 my favorite comment on jfk jr's death, and perhaps my favorite onion one liner of all time... "lbj jr sworn in as editor of george" harsh posted by: rabble-rouser 12:05 10.30.06 irwin contributed more to the world than the speedball/whisky guy from above (assuming nothing else about that guy) or fictional jack dundee. however, the overblown coverage of his death made it difficult for me to feel sorry about the loss, ala jfk jr. for that part of it south park was on the money. somebody remarked this weekend posted by: simplicissimus 10:48 10.30.06 ...that steve irwin is just this decade's crocodile dundee. sure, it's a simplistic one liner. but it's pretty fucking true. i'm willing to go a step furth posted by: horsebeater 09:46 10.30.06 nothing got me as hot and bothered as the whole jon krakauer "into thin air" thing 6-7 years ago, about how it is oh so sad about the people that died climbing mount everest and "oh my god, the kids" of the everest guides, and how sad that is, when it is really simply immoral for someone charged with supporting a family and raising children to subject themselves to extreme danger as a means of earning a living, when the danger they are subjecting themselves to is for no purpose at all, but simply a more intense form of bungee jumping. those guys could've simply flipped burgers for a living and they would've gotten to see their kids graduations. they chose to do something exciting for themselves, ignoring the potential downsides for their family and the risks bit them in the ass, and now the family is left with the consequences. if i went on a six day speedball bender and running around town chugging bottles of whiskey and i was single, you might try to calm me down because you were my friend, but, on some level, it's my life, right? i can do what i want. victimless crimes as shit like that. but if i was doing that with a family, it ain't just my own life i'm fucking up with that kind of behavior. it's plain irresponsible. just because those mountain climber fuckers got their kicks out of climbing a mountain and i would prefer to get mine out of drugs (and steve irwin would prefer to get his by sticking his head in crocodiles' mouths), that doesn't change the morality of the situation. a lot of people like to climb mountains, but they live in a suburb with their wife and kids and go to the local wall on the weekend. a lot of people like to promote conservation, but they cut a check to the sierra fund and the nature conservancy and vote for money to fund the zoo. they don't see the need to fuck with animals in a dangerous way. steve irwin wasn't bad entertainment (my daughter puts animal planet on the tube several times a week as well and i've seen my share), but i really don't feel bad for him at all and think the average joe who drops dead of a heart attack at 40 deserves gobs more sympathy than mr. irwin. ********* and i saw the south park, and it was excellent. With that said. . . posted by: prankmonkey 18:49 10.27.06 I'm not interested in deifying the guy. I watched his show often enough (because when your choices are Animal Planet and the rest of the shite on TV, I'll take the former), and I dug his whole "gonzo zoo keeper" thing. But he courted danger and it got him. I agree that the only people who should "mourn" him are his family and friends. But I thought he was a cool doofus who wished the world was more interested in preservation. That gets a big thumbs up from me. I'll take. . . posted by: prankmonkey 18:37 10.27.06 a slight lowering on the cynicism dial, please. and the john ritter award goes posted by: publius 15:29 10.27.06 remember when john ritter died, and we were all told how much we loved him and what a terrible loss it was that he was gone. tragic, just tragic...i think there was even a tribute episode of his sitcom called "thirty six things to do with john ritter when he's dead". that's exactly how i feel about this whole steve irwin thing. i had nothing against the guy, but i certainly didn't feel any sadness or whatsoever at his passing...it was mildly surprising and called instantly to mind his appearance on south park in which he is shown harrassing all sort of animals and getting mauled for his efforts...but he was basically just a goofy guy who put himself in harm's way for profit and was well aware that one day it would probably be the death of him...and so it was. and so of course... http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/27/irwin.southpark/index.html the boys from south park are at it again. and of course there is an uproar because he died so recently, his family is still in mourning, etc. this i can understand. but taking a slightly wider view, i think that, in their own (thankfully) inimitable way, parker and stone are saying that really this whole outpouring of grief for the crocodile hunter (!) is pretty absurd. it doesn't take much to see the mechanism of the bait and switch that will translate this fabricated grief into real money through movies, action figures, amusement park rides, stuffed stingrays, etc.... i'm just sayin'.... Too bad posted by: prankmonkey 12:00 9.6.06 Irwin was a bit "over-exuberant," and perhaps not the best example to follow in his actions, but he had a genuine love of wildlife and was on a mission to make other people care about it, too. We definitely need more of that. I felt a bit sad about this all day yesterday, and believe the world is worse off for his loss. i like this final line ... posted by: squisshy 10:00 9.6.06 from a slate article: Jacques Cousteau was impossibly enchanting, and Marlin Perkins was as paternal as a wizard, but Steve Irwin was a magical ham. ********************************* you had to love the guy. amazing he died in an apparently freakish manner, and not by being bitten by one of the various creatures he was subduing. Crickey! posted by: isidorus 10:57 9.5.06 wow. ======================= September 5, 2006 Steve Irwin, Wildlife Master, Is Killed by a Stingray at 44 By GLENN COLLINS Steve Irwin, the khaki-clad wildlife stalker who won global fame with his televised death-defying crocodile stunts and whose booming voice made “Crikey!” in a ripe Australian accent an international catchword, was killed by a stingray yesterday while filming a documentary at the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s northeast coast. He was 44. Witnesses said he apparently died of cardiac arrest after the stingray attack. Mr. Irwin was on location in the area to film television segments, including material for “The Ocean’s Deadliest.” Witnesses on his boat, Croc One, and on a nearby diving vessel said that when he came close to a stingray, its barb pierced his chest and lodged in his heart. In an interview with reporters in Australia, Prime Minister John Howard termed the death “a huge loss to Australia,” and called Mr. Irwin “a wonderful character.” “He was a passionate environmentalist,” Mr. Howard added. Mr. Irvin’s television shows, including “The Crocodile Hunter,” were seen in more than 100 countries on cable television, and he was an ebullient staple of American talk shows ranging from “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” to “Live With Regis and Kelly.” He customarily appeared in his trademark hiking boots and khaki shorts and shirt, commenting volubly on animal conservation and showing clips of his fearless exploits, which included leaping on the backs of crocodiles, wrestling with boas and mastering poisonous snakes and spiders. Dr. Leo Smith, an expert on venomous fishes in the department of ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, said that although Mr. Irwin had no scientific degree and some scientists criticized his theatrics and hyperbole, “he could be considered a biologist rather than just a television personality.” “He was knowledgeable and seemed to care passionately about wildlife,” Dr. Smith said. “He took a very outgoing approach that made people less fearful of sharks and other mean things out there.” Mr. Irwin’s death, he said, “is depressing because the last thing you want is for the guy who says things are safe to be killed.” But Mr. Irwin was widely criticized in 2004 for feeding a snapping crocodile inside a pen while holding his infant son, Bob, in one arm. Though some likened the action to child abuse, he said he had been in firm control of both the child and the crocodile. He was never charged with endangering his son’s welfare. While filming a documentary in Antarctica later that year, Mr. Irwin ran afoul of critics who said he came too close to humpback whales, seals and penguins, disturbing them. Environmental officials did not press charges after an investigation. Though Mr. Irwin was accustomed to confronting dangerous animals, deaths from ray attacks are unusual, Dr. Smith said. “On an average there are only one or two fatalities a year worldwide,” he said. Dr. Smith said there were approximately 120 known ray species and four families of venomous stinging rays. At the base of the tail is a spine or barb connected to a venom gland; in an attack, the spike and the gland may be broken off and can remain in the wound. The stingray venom contains toxic proteins, and most stingray attacks pose risk from shock, infection and the venom’s toxicity, he said. Most deaths are caused by heart injuries or blood loss. “The puncture alone could have done it,” Dr. Smith said of the attack on Mr. Irwin, “but the venoms do have major cardiac effects.” Stephen Robert Irwin was born in 1962 in a suburb of Melbourne and spent his childhood in Queensland, where his parents, Bob and Lyn Irwin, operated a wildlife park; he grew up with wild animals, including crocodiles. He met his American-born wife, Terri, when she was vacationing in Australia in 1991. Film from their honeymoon in the wild — trapping crocodiles — was used in creating their first documentary. She became his business partner and, styled as the Crocodile Huntress, she was an on-screen co-star in his television shows and in a 2002 feature film, “The Crocodile Hunters: Collision Course.” Mr. Irwin was caricatured in “South Park” for his penchant for phrases like “Check out the size of this bloke!” and “Whew, he’s getting cranky!” He also appeared in the 2001 film “Dr. Dolittle 2” with Eddie Murphy. His fame engendered books, action figures and interactive games and, for a time, tube-watching pub crawlers played a drinking game, hoisting a glass every time Mr. Irwin said, “Crikey!” or, “Isn’t she a beauty?” His parents’ wildlife park, renamed Australia Zoo and expanded and developed by Mr. Irwin, became a popular tourist attraction. His survivors include his wife and son, and a daughter, Bindi Sue. It pains me to say it... posted by: simplicissimus 01:01 5.27.06 ...but, I've admitted this privately to many of you, so I may as well make it public. I understand that "The Israelites" is a watershed song. I understand that it is really catchy. I understand that it was featured prominently in that cult-esque movie about drug users with Matt Dillon that was all the rage when we were in college. I understand that it reached the American Top Ten in 1966, and was therefore not only a decade ahead of its time, but really the first mainstream reggae hit. However, I -- and I've heard it on the radio three times today -- will never really like it all that much. Never did. God Speed Desmond, but maybe you can work on some new music to suprise me when I join you in heaven (that is if the Mormons offer both of us post-death conversion). desmond dekker... posted by: publius 23:22 5.26.06 has died. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060527/en_nm/dekker_dc_10 I have no idea how this was p posted by: isidorus 19:52 3.22.06 weird, but good for the stats. this guy must have *hated* phi posted by: isidorus 18:33 3.22.06 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/national/22freedman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin James Freedman, Former Dartmouth President, Dies at 70 By KAREN W. ARENSON Published: March 22, 2006 James O. Freedman, a former president of Dartmouth College and the University of Iowa and a forceful voice against anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance on college campuses, died yesterday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 70. He died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, his son, Jared, said. Mr. Freedman was a strong advocate for a liberal education in an increasingly career-oriented world, but he gained his widest attention for speaking out against strains of prejudice and bigotry in the academic world. In one widely publicized episode, in 1988, he condemned The Dartmouth Review, a conservative student newspaper, for ridiculing blacks, gay men and lesbians, women and Jews. In a column and a front-page cartoon, the paper had portrayed Mr. Freedman, who was Jewish, with a Hitler mustache and wearing a Nazi uniform and had likened the effects of his campus policies to the Holocaust. Mr. Freedman defended The Review's right to publish, but he declared, "Racism, sexism and other forms of ignorance and disrespect have no place at Dartmouth." He spoke on a similar theme in 1997, at the dedication of a Dartmouth center for Jewish students. In a widely reported speech, he recounted a history of anti-Semitism at Dartmouth and other elite colleges, quoting, among others, a former Dartmouth president who had described the college's interest in the "Christianization of its students." Mr. Freedman assured the audience that such language was a thing of the past, and that Jewish students had "a proud place at Dartmouth today." Five years later he helped gather the signatures of more than 300 college presidents in issuing a joint statement calling for "intimidation-free" campuses. The statement grew out of incidents in which Jewish students were reported to have been harassed and intimidated at student rallies protesting the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. The statement drew some criticism, however, for focusing only on Jewish students. Beneath the public persona, Mr. Freedman was a consummate intellectual, addicted to buying books and losing himself in them. His collection exceeded 6,000 volumes, some piled in towers in the study of his home near the Dartmouth campus, in Hanover, N.H. James Oliver Freedman traced his love of reading to his youth in Manchester, N.H. When he was 15, he recalled, he was spending a summer washing dishes in a hospital, a job he found exhausting and boring. So his father, Louis Freedman, a high school English teacher, said he could quit on one condition: that he spend the rest of the summer reading. He started with Sinclair Lewis and W. Somerset Maugham, and was hooked. His father and his mother, Sophie Freedman, a bookkeeper at a bank, pushed him to attend Harvard. "To their generation of New England Jews, Harvard represented the most exalted educational opportunity available and the most reliable vehicle of upward social mobility," he wrote in "Idealism and Liberal Education," a collection of his essays published in 1996 by University of Michigan Press. Mr. Freedman entered Harvard in 1953, then moved on to Harvard Law School. But he was unhappy and dropped out, returning home to work for the Manchester newspaper, The Union Leader, as a copy boy and reporter. Two years later he tried law school again, this time at Yale, and went on to clerk for Thurgood Marshall, who was a Federal Appeals Court judge in New York at the time. After working briefly at a New York law firm, Mr. Freedman turned to academia, starting as an assistant law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He later became associate provost and dean of the law school. In 1982, the University of Iowa tapped him as president, a post he held for five years. When Dartmouth recruited him, in 1987, he became the first president of the college since 1822 not to have been a student or faculty member there. His mission, he wrote in "Idealism and Liberal Education," was to shore up the intellectual reputation of a college known for being "inhospitable to women, fraternity-oriented, unintellectual, ultraconservative and especially congenial for 'jocks.' " In his inaugural address, he declared his intention to make Dartmouth more attractive to students who took pleasure in "the lonely acts of writing poetry or mastering the cello or solving mathematical riddles or translating Catullus." When he stepped down in 1998, a professor of religion at Dartmouth, Susan Ackerman, said he had "upped the intellectual ante" at the college. "The students are brighter and brighter, and now they're not afraid to admit that they're bright," said Professor Ackerman, who was quoted in a New York Times article. "He's made it O.K. to talk about books and ideas." Mr. Freedman and his wife, Bathsheba, a clinical psychologist, moved to Cambridge, where he later became president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is based there. In addition to his wife and son, Jared, of Washington, he is survived by a daughter, Deborah Freedman, of Philadelphia, and four grandchildren. Mr. Freedman was by nature a private man, but he often opened his life publicly to help others. In talks with students, he told of his transformation from a shy and reserved boy who had lacked confidence into a public figure. He also spoke openly of his long fight with cancer. "Hearing a physician say the dread word 'cancer' has an uncanny capacity to concentrate the mind," he said at Dartmouth's 1994 graduation ceremony, a time when chemotherapy had caused him to lose much of his hair. "That is what liberal education does, too," he said. "When the ground seems to shake and shift beneath us, liberal education provides perspective, enabling us to see life steadily and see it whole. It has taken an illness to remind me, in my middle age, of that lesson." m. lee seemed like his goal in posted by: ludwig 14:35 3.22.06 He's now president of Willamette in Salem, Oregon. I think that's as high as he goes. If you want to see someone with a meteoric rise, look at Lee Bollinger. that guy had about 5 jobs in 5 years - each better than the other. i think he now heads up columbia. Freedman was a smart guy. Eghhedaed and odd and utterly ill-suited to the upper valley. Part of his probelm was PR. He had no razzamatazz. as for m. lee pelton, on the o posted by: publius 10:38 3.22.06 that bureaucratic stuffed shirt....him i would (still) wish to see run out hanover on a rail...though i'm sure something similar has already happened. you know.... posted by: publius 10:36 3.22.06 the more i think about him, the more i like freedman. he may not have been inspiring as a leader, but the world needs more "consummate intellectuals" of his ilk. over the years i've spent a fair bit of time thinking about the guy, and it makes me sad that i'll never have the chance to sit down and have an adult conversation with him (not that i particularly thought this would happen, but it would have made me happy if it had). so rest in peace president freedman....we hardly knew ye. Not an inspiring leader posted by: ludwig 09:18 3.22.06 However, you should have seen the email exchanges between Publius and M. Lee Pelton, Dean of the College. They were brutal . . . this guy must have *hated* phi posted by: isidorus 08:57 3.22.06 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/national/22freedman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin James Freedman, Former Dartmouth President, Dies at 70 By KAREN W. ARENSON Published: March 22, 2006 James O. Freedman, a former president of Dartmouth College and the University of Iowa and a forceful voice against anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance on college campuses, died yesterday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 70. He died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, his son, Jared, said. Mr. Freedman was a strong advocate for a liberal education in an increasingly career-oriented world, but he gained his widest attention for speaking out against strains of prejudice and bigotry in the academic world. In one widely publicized episode, in 1988, he condemned The Dartmouth Review, a conservative student newspaper, for ridiculing blacks, gay men and lesbians, women and Jews. In a column and a front-page cartoon, the paper had portrayed Mr. Freedman, who was Jewish, with a Hitler mustache and wearing a Nazi uniform and had likened the effects of his campus policies to the Holocaust. Mr. Freedman defended The Review's right to publish, but he declared, "Racism, sexism and other forms of ignorance and disrespect have no place at Dartmouth." He spoke on a similar theme in 1997, at the dedication of a Dartmouth center for Jewish students. In a widely reported speech, he recounted a history of anti-Semitism at Dartmouth and other elite colleges, quoting, among others, a former Dartmouth president who had described the college's interest in the "Christianization of its students." Mr. Freedman assured the audience that such language was a thing of the past, and that Jewish students had "a proud place at Dartmouth today." Five years later he helped gather the signatures of more than 300 college presidents in issuing a joint statement calling for "intimidation-free" campuses. The statement grew out of incidents in which Jewish students were reported to have been harassed and intimidated at student rallies protesting the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. The statement drew some criticism, however, for focusing only on Jewish students. Beneath the public persona, Mr. Freedman was a consummate intellectual, addicted to buying books and losing himself in them. His collection exceeded 6,000 volumes, some piled in towers in the study of his home near the Dartmouth campus, in Hanover, N.H. James Oliver Freedman traced his love of reading to his youth in Manchester, N.H. When he was 15, he recalled, he was spending a summer washing dishes in a hospital, a job he found exhausting and boring. So his father, Louis Freedman, a high school English teacher, said he could quit on one condition: that he spend the rest of the summer reading. He started with Sinclair Lewis and W. Somerset Maugham, and was hooked. His father and his mother, Sophie Freedman, a bookkeeper at a bank, pushed him to attend Harvard. "To their generation of New England Jews, Harvard represented the most exalted educational opportunity available and the most reliable vehicle of upward social mobility," he wrote in "Idealism and Liberal Education," a collection of his essays published in 1996 by University of Michigan Press. Mr. Freedman entered Harvard in 1953, then moved on to Harvard Law School. But he was unhappy and dropped out, returning home to work for the Manchester newspaper, The Union Leader, as a copy boy and reporter. Two years later he tried law school again, this time at Yale, and went on to clerk for Thurgood Marshall, who was a Federal Appeals Court judge in New York at the time. After working briefly at a New York law firm, Mr. Freedman turned to academia, starting as an assistant law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He later became associate provost and dean of the law school. In 1982, the University of Iowa tapped him as president, a post he held for five years. When Dartmouth recruited him, in 1987, he became the first president of the college since 1822 not to have been a student or faculty member there. His mission, he wrote in "Idealism and Liberal Education," was to shore up the intellectual reputation of a college known for being "inhospitable to women, fraternity-oriented, unintellectual, ultraconservative and especially congenial for 'jocks.' " In his inaugural address, he declared his intention to make Dartmouth more attractive to students who took pleasure in "the lonely acts of writing poetry or mastering the cello or solving mathematical riddles or translating Catullus." When he stepped down in 1998, a professor of religion at Dartmouth, Susan Ackerman, said he had "upped the intellectual ante" at the college. "The students are brighter and brighter, and now they're not afraid to admit that they're bright," said Professor Ackerman, who was quoted in a New York Times article. "He's made it O.K. to talk about books and ideas." Mr. Freedman and his wife, Bathsheba, a clinical psychologist, moved to Cambridge, where he later became president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is based there. In addition to his wife and son, Jared, of Washington, he is survived by a daughter, Deborah Freedman, of Philadelphia, and four grandchildren. Mr. Freedman was by nature a private man, but he often opened his life publicly to help others. In talks with students, he told of his transformation from a shy and reserved boy who had lacked confidence into a public figure. He also spoke openly of his long fight with cancer. "Hearing a physician say the dread word 'cancer' has an uncanny capacity to concentrate the mind," he said at Dartmouth's 1994 graduation ceremony, a time when chemotherapy had caused him to lose much of his hair. "That is what liberal education does, too," he said. "When the ground seems to shake and shift beneath us, liberal education provides perspective, enabling us to see life steadily and see it whole. It has taken an illness to remind me, in my middle age, of that lesson." more popcorn! posted by: simplicissimus 15:45 10.19.05 less marionettes! Vivian Brunner, 79; Ran Popcor posted by: ludwig 14:16 10.19.05 -- Best line: In the 1980s, the Brunners utilized their marionettes to create special effects for motion pictures and television shows — including many unsuitable for their former child fans. -- Vivian L. Brunner, who with her late husband John operated the Popcorn Theater Marionettes for three decades, has died. She was 79. Brunner died Sept. 24 of natural causes in North Hollywood, her son Paris Brunner announced. Born in Downey, the former Vivian Hypes studied mathematics at Stanford and in 1947 married John David Brunner. In the mid-1950s the couple moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne and often enjoyed watching puppet shows in the city's parks. After returning to Los Angeles, Vivian Brunner worked as a dress designer and her husband was an art director for an advertising agency. But neither was happy. They quit their jobs and founded their touring marionette show in 1962, with John Brunner making the puppets by hand and his wife fashioning the costumes. Their versatile cast included about 100 marionettes, some valued at $1,000. The most detailed puppets took as much as 600 hours to carve, paint, costume and string. When they were not performing, maintenance consumed most of the couple's waking hours. "The marionettes are a labor of love," Vivian Brunner told The Times in a 1968 interview, "and a 24-hour-a-day job." The first year was financially rough, and it took three years before they matched their former income. The couple wrote their own shows and sang the songs as they pulled the puppets' strings for about 200 shows a year throughout Southern California. In one show in Santa Ana in 1977, they presented their musical version of "Ben Franklin's Dream" with 19 marionettes not only acting out the play but jumping off the stage and interacting with the audience. Although most of their productions were aimed at children, they also created a popular show for adults based on Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." In the 1980s, the Brunners utilized their marionettes to create special effects for motion pictures and television shows — including many unsuitable for their former child fans. Vivian Brunner was credited on the special effects crew for the 1985 science fiction vampire film "Lifeforce," starring Patrick Stewart. She also provided the special effects for the murderous dolls in the 1987 horror movie "Dolls." Widowed in 1993, Brunner is survived by her son and a granddaughter. Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the First Christian Church of North Hollywood. that famous dude from scotland posted by: isidorus 10:21 8.26.05 Slipper of the Yard http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article307983.ece Anyone die recently? posted by: ludwig 13:14 8.22.05 publius, perhaps . . . gerry thomas, 83, thought up t posted by: publius 16:13 7.21.05 is there anyone out there who wouldn't have tv dinners on their guilty pleasures list. they sort of look like food, they almost taste like food, and there's always some section with cranberries that no one eats. rawk. gerry thomas beat out an influential paleontologist, the first offensive lineman elected to the pro football hall of fame, a rich-voiced baritone, a dermatologist, and the guy who played scotty on star trek (i actually saw notices of scotty's death yesterday and was convinced he would be my guy today...but tv dinners? come on...) there's not really a whole lot in gerry's obit aside from the fact that he came up with the idea for tv dinners. a few things you probably didn't know about tv dinners... 1. they were introduced in 1954 by swanson in a box designed to look like a tv screen 2. the first dinner consisted of turkey, cornbread dressing and gravy, buttered peas and sweet potatoes. 3. part of the inspiration for the dinners is the fact that one year swanson found itself with an oversupply of frozen turkey which were loaded in refrigerated railroad cars. 4. frozen foods bring in over $30 billion every year and a few things you didn't know about gerry thomas (aside from everything, of course) 1. he got the idea from the food service trays on pan am airlines 2. he was an army office during wwii and won a bronze star for breaking japanese codes 3. after frozen food, he directed an art gallery in new york so gerry thomas, you may have done more than almost any other single indvidual to ruin the eating habits of middle america, but every time i'm drunk and eating some "mashed potatoes" from a tv dinner that taste EXACTLY like what i imagine styrofoam tastes like, i'll give thanks that i'll wake up that little bit less hung over in the morning. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/business/21thomas.html? publius' last two posts... posted by: simplicissimus 09:58 7.21.05 ...are priceless. i was suprised to see they were written at normal person hours, as they definitely had that 3 am "nobody else is awake" rant feel. dementia. and regarding the dogs... i nominate the caption to the pic ("...one of the dogs that helped extend the lives of many people") for euphamism of the year. it should read: "...one of the approximately 5 million dogs that died a horrible, painful, terrifying, slow death in his laboratory so that the lives of the very rich could be extended by a year or two." if any of you were dogs... posted by: nelson_the_dog 18:13 7.20.05 you'd see this guy like i do, as some kind of board-certified dr. mengele. but no, just because he walks upright and has opposable thumbs and saves the lives of some of your own, he's a visionary. if i could work a pencil i'd be writing to j.m. coetzee right now. he'd understand. damn you people and your opposable thumbs! damn you to hell! now somebody get me some food! clarence dennis, 96, builder o posted by: publius 18:05 7.20.05 i chose clarence based on three main criteria: 1. his name is clarence 2. i have a thing for people with two first names 3. his cause of death is listed as "dementia". i didn't realize you could die of dementia. i can see how it could be a contributing factor in a death, but as a standalone cause? does the body just decide that the brain is simply too demented, to crazy to continue, and shuts down all vital processes in rebellion against the rampant dementia. dementia is a cool thing to say and write a lot. dementia. clarence beat out a moderator on public tv, a woman who began an innovative college, a father figure of the off broadway stage, a music arranger, and general westmoreland (he was the only obit yesterday, but for some reason here he is again today - did he die twice?) so clarence built machines that helped advance heart surgery. but all was not roses. "dr. dennis's team used the heart-lung machine on a second patient who died because of a technician's blunder during the operation." i can understand dying from a technician's blunder. i'm still having a hard time with dying from dementia. dementia. there's a lot of high-falutin language in this obit. at one point a dr. who used a machine based on dennis's design "blasted open the door that had been locked for centuries against any medical therapeutic intrusion into the cardiovascular field". sounds like something out of harry potter. dennis also "fired the imagination of surgeons". at one point his laboratory was located in an empty funeral home. interesting choice for a surgeon. and in this laboratory lots of bad things happened to dogs (see photo). clearly his use of dogs as test subjects contributed to his later case of dementia. dementia. i learned in the course of this obit that a cardiologist is not the same thing as a heart surgeon, though i'm too lazy to look up the difference. best line in this obit? "a platinum blond, dr. dennis maintained a youthful appearance well into his later years." that sounds to me like the kind of code they would have used in the 50s to imply that he was gay. but perhaps i've just seen closer a few too many times. and in the picture (he's the one on the right) he doesn't jump out at you as a platinum blond either... so dr. dennis, though you probably won't appreciate it on account of all that dog-torturing-induced dementia, thanks for giving me a forum in which i got to write the word dementia many times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/20/obituaries/20dennis.html? mortimer levitt, 98, clothier posted by: publius 22:28 7.14.05 just for the record, in the print edition, he was billed as "author and patron of the arts". however, the main reason i chose him over republican civil rights leader is his role as clothier. a little background.... i came very late to any sort of sartorial knowledge or ownership. until the age of 28 i had never owned a suit, had hair down to my shoulders and wore red wing work boots to work every day. eventually i got to the point where i needed a suit. so, knowing that my father got his suits at the custom shop (founded by mortimer levitt), that seemed as good of a place as any. i've always liked the fact that suitwise, i went from having no wheels to driving a merc in the course of an afternoon of measurements...in addition, all of my shirts came from there, because there's not an off the rack dress shirt on the planet that fits me. writing the above paragraph makes me more than a little nostalgic for the time when i actually had an income which allowed me to buy nice clothes...it also makes me vaguely embarrassed for having written the above paragraph at all. but i don't care. i really need a partron...something mort was apparently also good at. so this really has been less about my favorite dead person and all about me. and that's ok. it's my thread and i'll write it any way i damned well please. the only thing i want to mention about mort, aside from having founded the custom shop, is the great titles of some of his books... "class: what it is and how to acquire it" "the executive look: how to get It, how to keep it" "how to start your own business without losing your shirt: secrets of 17 successful entrepreneurs" (after seeing those titles i am less embarrassed about my trip to the custom shop story above...i think) so mortimer levitt...you may have penned your last book with a silly title, but one member of tentfort's entire adult wardrobe continues to bear your imprint. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/14/nyregion/14levitt.html I kid you not posted by: ludwig 09:03 7.14.05 The weird dreams have been coming fast and furious. I had one where I attended a job interview pantsless and neither I nor the interviewer could find a way to directly address the issue. All she said was "We have certain expectations about dress." I responded "Of course." And then a long painful silence ensued as we both considered my state of undress . . . Then, this was a doozy, i was on the Green (with publius and simpli) and simpli said: "Hey, there's Dale Bannister." Dale (if that was his name), in all his 1970's afrotastic beingness, walked by. It was quite odd. He and simpli seeemed to know each other. I think that dream has led me to have that damn Cavs song in my head today. now that you mention it... posted by: publius 08:36 7.14.05 that does ring a vague bell. however, had you not mentioned it, i wouldn't have come up with it. ever. is there some sort of reference library to our college years which you and ludwig are members of, and i clearly am not? n.a.r.c. posted by: simplicissimus 22:52 7.13.05 you may recall a little secret organization...."N.A.R.C.", as in "Never Again Rick Comes". created following a disasterous evening freshman year where we went socializing with Rick Brock and he got really drunk and weird and inappropriate. The group had one and only one aim: the make sure that that experiment was never again repeated. you were a founding member. actually... posted by: publius 17:54 7.13.05 i did originally pick it up from someone at dartmouth (though the short form, "cor" is all mine), but it certainly wasn't tom keegan. first name begins with a z.... n.a.r.c?..... cool-o-rama posted by: simplicissimus 17:46 7.13.05 that sounds like something that tom keegan would say. n.a.r.c., -s james g. baker, 90, designer o posted by: publius 15:37 7.13.05 jg baker beat out the guy who "remade british airways", a guy who "translated omar khayyam and 'gatsby'", and a diplomat for the us at the un. you think google earth is cool? at least some of the credit is likely due to mr. baker, "an astronomer who designed powerful lenses and cameras for the u2 spy plane in the 1950's and became a pioneer of satellite reconnaissance in the cold war". in addition, "dr. baker later helped create the camera systems used in the air force's high-speed reconnaissance plane, the sr-71 blackbird, in use from the 1960's until the 1990's." now, when i was in jrotc in high school (yes, it's true...i used to wear a pseudo naval uniform to school once a week) i was fairly into planes and other military stuff. the sr-71 blackbird was always my favorite plane. i even built a model of one at some point, and i was never all that into models (until now, when i have little choice). what it says about me that i preferred the fast, sleek, reconnaissance type of plane to something macho and powerful like the f-14 tomcat of "top gun" fame...that i shall leave up to you all to decide. in any case, this is what an sr-71 looks like: http://images.abovetopsecret.com/sr71a.jpg as they say in the navy, cool-o-rama. so back to james baker....you pretty much get the idea. he was one of the guys who designed things that help us see good. and he was better at it than most, it appears. the baker-nunn satellite camera, developed in 1957, is apparently still being used today. so james g. baker, though you may have designed your last super-camera, perhaps on a clear night some member of tentfort will train a baker super-schmidt camera on the sky and see if they can't catch a glimpse of you as you...do whatever it is dead people do up in the sky... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/national/13baker.html?pagewanted=print I can't believe you slighted B posted by: ludwig 16:21 7.12.05 "He beat out . . . 'one of the few successful black artists in country music' (whose photo merits a link, even if he lost out as my favorite dead person of the day)" - July 8, 2005 http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/07/08/arts/08downing_184.jpg I've met Big Al many times. He was the brother-in-law of the lady who lives next door to my parents. Many time he brought his kids up to play with her kids. He (was very popular in our neighborhood. After all, there are not many 300 pound, black country music "stars" in suburban Worcester county. hell ,there are not many blakc people period in the couty. Anyhoo, Big Al (as we, and everyone else, called him) was big. Huge. A massive man. He was very generous with his time. One day he taught me how to make a great toy gun using a piece of wood, some glue, a rubber band, and two clothes pins. That was very nice of him. I would be remiss if I failed to add that he came within .5 mm of shooting my eye out with said gun. I still remember walking down the driveway (to retrieve one of our little missiles), turning around, and seeing that hunk of metal and its attached rubber band coming right at my head. Big Al thought it would be a hoot if he shot me - a 6 year old - in the ass. A very slight turn of the head left me with a black eye. But I kept my vision. Big Al, aside from being a practical joker, was not a very good shot. Bon voyage, Big Al. May all the angels wear eye protection. gustaf sobin, 69, a writer who posted by: publius 14:41 7.12.05 this is a man after my own heart, who easily bested some woman who was a "trouper on bob hope tours". this obit had me at: "mr. sobin journeyed south [in france] and found the sense of place that had eluded him during his childhood in new england." amen brother. as for what he did? kicked around with hemingway and rené char a bit, wrote some poetry and novels, lived in provence. to quote the obit, "his greatest popularity came with a novel, the fly-truffler". somehow i bet that that title sounds less smutty in french... so gustaf sobin, you may have left behind the life of an ex-pat in provence, but at least one member of tentfort is angling for an obit with many of the same broad strokes as your own... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/books/12sobin.html? as billed... posted by: publius 15:37 7.8.05 "so i'm starting a (more or less) daily "my favorite nyt dead person" thread." more or less being the key phrase... sometimes the spirit just doesn't move me. sometimes i'm just lazy. sometimes the obits don't grab me. yesterday was kind of a combo of all three. didn't anybody die yesterday? posted by: armyoflebron 13:21 7.8.05 at least anyone of note? just wondering. ray davis, 65, veteran member posted by: publius 12:27 7.8.05 he beat out a jordanian banker, a "federal investigator of terror", a judge on the new york court of appeals, and "one of the few successful black artists in country music" (whose photo merits a link, even if he lost out as my favorite dead person of the day) http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/07/08/arts/08downing_184.jpg what more really needs to be said about davis than this: "ray davis, a founding member of parliament-funkadelic, the flamboyant funk band whose music is considered a precursor to modern rap and hip-hop...". i mean, the man helped assemble and steer the mothership. 'nuff said. so ray davis, you may finally have torn the roof off the sucka, but at tentfort we'll remember to keep stretchin' the rubber band... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/arts/music/08davis.html and a photo, since there wasn't one with the obit... http://www.pond.com/~dbrooks/OriginalPFunk8/ray3.jpg ernest lehman, 89, who wrote " posted by: publius 17:28 7.6.05 anybody who collaborated with hitchcock is likely to be good in my book. lehman beat out the guy who ran for vp with perot, a director of an experimental theater company, and a geologist who studied climate change. this guy had his hand in all sorts of hollywood and broadway projects as a writer and producer, including "the king and i", "the sound of music", "west side story", "who's afraid of virginia woolf", "sweet smell of success" and "hello dolly". and of course "north by northwest". he started his career as a proto-paparazzo: "his job was to haunt the nightclubs, slipping juicy tidbits to walter winchell and other gossip columnists". eventually he moved up (in all senses of the word) in the world and the highlight of his career, north by northwest, was his only original script (all the rest were adapted). in what almost sounds like a joke, the time writer claims..."in rapid-fire dialogue as dry and delicious as a fine martini, he brings to life the character of roger o. thornhill (cary grant), a shallow advertising executive who is kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity by operatives of al-qaeda". ok. i made that last part up. but only the last part. this is a boring day for the obits. give me a break. so ernest lehman, you've adapted your last film version of someone else's work, but every time someone at tentfort gets chased across a field by a crop duster, they'll certainly think of you. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/movies/06LEHMAN.html? brigadier general robert e. ga posted by: publius 12:37 7.1.05 the general beat out a rabbi and a magazine founder today. let's start with the litany of this guys decorations... 1 medal of honor 1 navy cross 1 legion of merit with combat "v" 1 distinguished flying cross with one gold star 1 purple heart i air medal with 10 gold stars (how do you wear that?) 1 british distinguished flying cross "as a major, he shot down 11 enemy planes in 29 days while leading an aerial combat squadron at guadalcanal." our boy was a badass. he also happened to be an all-american basketball player for university of washington. so general robert galer, you may finally have lost a dogfight, but we'll all be humming "snoopy and the red baron" in your honor this fourth of july weekend. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/01/national/01galer.html methinks barry melton... posted by: armyoflebron 16:31 6.28.05 ...may have a somewhat distorted view of himself and his band. yeah, yeah. i've got the cd too and thought it was pretty sweet when i was sixteen, but i don't believe they merit that company. chet helms, 62, "father of san posted by: publius 11:15 6.28.05 it was a tough decision today whether to go highbrow with a classical violinist or middlebrow with chet helms. i think this quote from country joe and the fish guitarist barry melton tipped it for helms: "without chet, there would be no grateful dead, no big brother and the holding company, no jefferson airplane, no country joe and the fish, no quicksilver messenger service..." three others who were never really in the running for today's title were an aerospace executive ("originator of the pac-man defense against takeovers"), a designer of nasa's rocket carriers, and senator joe lieberman's mother. ah, how well we all remember the summer of love. and if we don't ACTUALLY remember it, we all went through american colleges in the 90s when constant 1960s one-upsmanship seemed to be the most important game in town. close enough, if you ask me. so how could we forget chet, who moved from austin to san francisco in 1962 and became the founder and manager of big brother and the holding company. and remember our amazement when, in 1966, he came back from a brief trip to back to austin and brought with him his old college friend janis joplin. man she could drink. sing too. those shows at the fillmore were groovy, man. ken kesey was there. hunter s. thompson was there. paul wolfowitz was there. like i said...groovy... post-altamont, chet continued to promote music and run an art gallery in sf, and "he proudly sported a grizzled beard and long hair topped by a hat throughout much of his adult life." groovy. so chet helms...enjoy your first southern comfort with janis in almost 40 years, and don't forget to drop us a line here at tentfort some time using...errr...the quicksilver messenger service. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/arts/music/28helms.html? damned fact checkers... posted by: publius 12:03 6.27.05 i suppose one loves "winnie the pooh", not "winny the pooh". my apologies. tigger AND piglet! posted by: publius 12:00 6.27.05 how could you not love winny the pooh? and what could be more random than, on the same day, getting the obit for paul winchell, 82, "tv host and film voice of pooh's tigger and that of john fiedler, 80, "stage actor and film voice of pooh's piglet". so today i'm breaking with a venerable three or four day tradition and having two favorite dead people, united in pooh (hah!). they beat out a guy who was an adviser to the kennedys and the saudis. first john fiedler, since he's probably a bit better known. in addition to voicing piglet, he also played one of the jurors in the film version of "12 angry men" (the meek, kind of nerdy guy). he also was in the broadway production of "a raisin in the sun" with sidney poitier and "the odd couple" with walter matthau and art carney. not to mention tv roles in "star trek" and "the bob newhart show". best line from his obit: "john fiedler's natural speaking voice was higher than most men's, his brother said, but he still had to raise it considerably to achieve the high-pitch of the little pink pig". next comes paul winchell, voice of tigger, who was far and away the coolest creature in christopher robbins' menagerie (he got around by bouncing on his tail and he had the immortal "the most wonderful thing about tiggers, is i'm the only one" song). winchell also was a ventriloquist who voice puppets named jerry mahoney and the dubiously monikered knucklehead smiff. according to the obit: "his creativity was not limited to show business, however. he studied hypnotism, acupuncture and theology and was fascinated by the way things worked. he was an enthusiastic inventor and developed 30 patents. these included one for an early artificial heart...mr. winchell also claimed credit for a wide variety of other inventions, including a flameless cigarette lighter, battery-heated gloves and an invisible garter belt." invisible garter belt!!! in the 80s, he teamed with the high power duo of ed asner and richard dreyfuss on "the tilapia project" which involved a plan to cultivate the tilapia fish as a source of protein for those in sub-saharan africa, as the tilpia can thrive in brackish water (in case you're wondering, it's a white fish). unfortunately "the project failed to interest congress". now the invisible garter belt project...that would have had the hill listening! and tigger wasn't the only voice this guy did! he was gargamel from the smurfs! he was boomer in "the fox and the hound"! (errr...maybe that last one should be a period instead of an exclamation point). the obit doesn't mention it, but look at winchell's picture and tell me he wasn't the partriarch of the addams family in the tv version... stangest stand-alone line from his obit: "though the book [his autobiography, "winch"] describes the emotional traumas in his life, mr. winchell had a sense of humor." of course he did! he invented the invisible garter belt! only a man with a sly sense of humor could conceive of, never mind invent, such a thing. and did i mention he was tigger? and gargamel? so despite the fact that both paul winchell and john fiedler were taken out "execution style" one day apart by some sort of hundred-acre wood hit squad (i don't care what their official causes of death are listed as...i think roo had a score to settle), simplicissimus (tentfort's resident eeyore) and the rest of us will always welcome them with open arms. invisible garter belt! ta-ta for now... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/movies/27fiedler.html? http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/movies/27winc.html vera komarkova, 62, mountainee posted by: publius 14:03 6.26.05 to begin with, vera komarkova's obit (and only hers) flouts the convention mentioned in the above post. her headline in the print edition of the times is "vera komarkova, mountaineer, dies at 62". so i'm thinking that it really have everything to do with fitting the headline to the available space. there was a point in my life when i did a fair bit of rock climbing and spent a decent amount of time in the mountains. so i have a soft, vaguely nostalgic spot in my heart for mountaineers. and any mountaineer who can claim to be the first woman and the first american to climb annapurna is ok by me. the fact that she and her climbing partners financed their trip (to the tune of about $80,000) by selling t-shirts with the slogan "a woman's place is on top" is prett cool too (frequenters of thrift stores...if you happen to find one of these shirts please buy it for me and i'll pay you double what it cost you). she was a smart cookie too, having earned a masters in biiology and chemistry at charles university in prague. and it would be hard to come with a more romantic obituary line than: "throughout her youth, she climbed in europe, scaling mountains in the tatras, carpathians, and the alps". carpathians....mmmmm.....carpathians. she was, very sadly (and by definition unfairly), struck down at the relatively early of 62 by breast cancer. so vera komarkova...though you may have climbed your last 8000 meter peak, you have will always be remembered on tentfort as the jaunty climber you were in your prime (see photo). http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/sports/othersports/26komarkova.html an intriguing footnote about t posted by: publius 12:17 6.24.05 in the online edition, the headline always reads "xxxxx is dead", or "xxxxx dies", whereas in the print edition the "is dead" or "dies" is just left off. otherwise the headlines are the same. i don't know why this is. my thought was that whereas in the print edition all of the obits are grouped together on on page (so you know right away that you're dealing with people who have just died, online you could come to the story as the result of a google search or something, so the death note in the headline lets you know the gist of the article right away, without having to read the first paragraph of the story. that sounds a little thin though. more likely it is simply a result of the fact that space is much more restricted in a physical edition, whereas online it doesn't really matter how long a headline is. guillermo suárez masón, 81, of posted by: publius 12:01 6.24.05 today wasn't the best day for the obits. general masón beat out an air force missile chief, a public housing advocate, a lawyer from the desegregation era and someone whose nickmame was "the godfather of beach volleyball". he accomplished this largely on the strength of his name and the picture, which calls to mind palm trees, jeeps, machetes, and pretty much anything else you saw in "the tailor of panama". so...he commanded a junta. cool. i've always like the word junta. he was under arrest at the time of this death. also cool. he was under investigation for "allegations of illegal adotions of children born to women detained during the 1976-1983 dictatorship." that sounds like a fun chapter in world history... he had also been under investigation in the past for "disappearing" some pesky leftist guerillas (who no doubt wore sombreros and carried belts of cartridges crossed over their chests) during argentina's "dirty war". he sounds like the just the type we need down at gitmo. so general guillermo suárez masón...you may have "disappeared" from the land of the living, but we at tentfort shall preserve the memory of your wonderful junta. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/obituaries/24suarezmason.html? mencken's talk of evangelicals posted by: ludwig 13:58 6.23.05 is a little eerie given the present state of circumstances i don't know if the link works posted by: ludwig 13:43 6.23.05 Has it been marked by historians that the late William Jennings Bryan’s last secular act on this earth was to catch flies? A curious detail, and not without its sardonic overtones. He was the most sedulous flycatcher in American history, and by long odds the most successful. His quarry, or course, was not Musca domestica but Homo neandertalensis . For forty years he tracked it with snare and blunderbuss, up and down the backways of the Republic. Wherever the flambeaux of Chautaqua smoked and guttered, and the bilge of Idealism ran in the veins, and Baptist pastors dammed the brooks with the saved, and men gathered who were weary and heavy laden, and their wives who were unyieldingly multiparous and full of Peruna--there the indefatigable Jennings set up his traps and spread his bait. He knew every forlorn country town in the South and West, and he could crowd the most remote of them to suffocation by simply winding his horn. The city proletariat, transiently flustered by him in 1896, quickly penetrated his buncombe and would have no more of him; the gallery jeered at him at every Democratic National Convention for twenty-five years. But out where the grass grows high, and the horned cattle dream away the lazy day, and men still fear the powers and principles of the air--out there between the corn-rows he held his old puissance to the end. There was no need of beaters to drive his game. The news that he was coming was enough. For miles the flivver dust would choke the roads. And when he rose at the end of the day to discharge his Message there would be such a breathless attention, such a rapt and enchanted ecstasy, such a sweet rustle of amens as the world has not known since Johannan fell to Herod’s headsman. There was something peculiarly fitting in the fact that his last days were spent in a one-horse Tennessee village, and that death found him there. The man felt at home in such scenes. He liked people who sweated freely, and were not debauched by the refinements of the toilet. Making his progress up and down the Main Street of little Dayton, surrounded by gaping primates from the upland valleys of the Cumberland Range, his coat laid aside, his bare arms and hairy chest shining damply, his bald head sprinkled with dust--so accoutred and on display he was obviously happy. He liked getting up early in the morning, to the tune of cocks crowing on the dunghill. He liked the heavy, greasy victuals of the farmhouse kitchen. He liked country lawyers, country pastors, all country people. I believe that this liking was sincere--perhaps the only sincere thing in the man. His nose showed no uneasiness when a hillman in faded overalls and hickory shirt accosted him on the street, and besought him for light upon some mystery of Holy Writ. The simian gabble of a country town was not gabble to him, but wisdom of an occult and superior sort. In the presence of city folks he was palpably uneasy. Their clothes, I suspect, annoyed him, and he was suspicious of their too delicate manners. He knew all the while that they were laughing at him--if not at his baroque theology, then at least at his alpaca pantaloons. But the yokels never laughed at him. To them he was not the huntsman but the prophet, and toward the end, as he gradually forsook mundane politics for purely ghostly concerns, they began to elevate him in their hierarchy. When he died he was the peer of Abraham.... His place in the Tennessee hagiocracy is secure. If the village barber saved any of his hair, then it is curing gall-stones down there today. But what label will he bear in more urbane regions? One, I fear, of a far less flattering kind. Bryan lived too long, and descended too deeply into the mud, to be taken seriously hereafter by fully literate men, even of the kind who write school-books. There was a scattering of sweet words in his funeral notices, but it was not more than a response to conventional sentimentality. The best verdict the most romantic editorial writer could dredge up, save in the eloquent South, was t the general effect that his imbecilities were excused by his earnestness--that under his clowning, as under that of the juggler of Notre Dame, there was the zeal of a steadfast soul. But this was apology, not praise... The truth is that even Bryan’s sincerity will probably yield to what is called, in other fields, definitive criticism. Was he sincere when he opposed imperialism in the Philippines, or when he fed it with deserving Democrats in Santo Domingo? Was he sincere when he tried to shove the Prohibitionists under the table, or when he seized their banner and began to lead them with loud whoops? Was he sincere when he bellowed against war, or when he dreamed himself into a tin-soldier in uniform, with a grave reserved among the generals?... Was he sincere when he pleaded for tolerance in New York, or when he bawled for the fagot and the stake in Tennessee? This talk of sincerity, I confess, fatigues me. If the fellow was sincere, then so was P.T. Barnum. The word is disgraced and degraded by such uses. He was, in fact, a charlatan, a mountebank, a zany without any shame or dignity. What animated him from end to end of his grotesque career was simply ambition--the ambition of a common man to get his hand upon the collar of his superiors, or, failing that, to get his thumb into their eyes. He was born with a roaring voice, and it had the trick of inflaming half-wits against their betters, that he himself might shine. His last battle will be grossly misunderstood if it is thought of as a mere exercise in fanaticism--that is, if Bryan the Fundamentalist Pope is mistaken for one of the bucolic Fundamentalists. There was much more in it than that, as everyone knows who saw him on the field. What moved him, at bottom, was simply hatred of city men who had laughed at him so long, and brought him at last to so tatterdemalion an estate. He lusted for revenge upon them. He yearned to lead the anthropoid rabble against them, to set Homo neandertalensis upon them, to punish them for the execution they had done upon him by attacking the very vitals of their civilization. He went far beyond the bounds of any merely religious frenzy, however inordinate. When he began denouncing the notion that man is a mammal even some of the hinds at Dayton were agape. And when, brought upon Darrow’s cruel hook, he writhed and tossed in a very fury of malignancy, bawling against the baldest elements of sense and decency like a man frantic--when he came to the tragic climax there were snickers among the hinds as well as hosannas. Upon that hook, in truth, Byran committed suicide, as a legend as well as in the body. He staggered from the rustic court ready to die, and he staggered from it ready to be forgotten, save as a character in a third-rate farce, witless and in execrable taste. The chances are that history will put the peak of democracy in his time; it has been on the downward curve among us since the campaign of 1896. He will be remembered, perhaps, as its supreme impostor, the reduction ad adsurdum of its pretension. Bryan came very near being President of the United States. In 1896, it is possible, he was actually elected. He lived long enough to make patriots thank the inscrutable gods for Harding, even for Coolidge. Dulness has got into the White House, and the smell of cabbage boiling, but there is at least nothing to compare to the intolerable buffoonery that went on in Tennessee. The President of the United States doesn’t believe that the earth is square, and that witches should be put to death, and that Jonah swallowed the whale. The Golden Text is not painted weekly on the White House wall, and there is no need to keep ambassadors waiting while Pastor Simpson, of Smithville, prays for rain in the Blue Room. We have escaped something--by a narrow margin, but still safely. That is, so far. The Fundamentalists continue at the wake, and sense gets a sort of reprieve. The legislature of Georgia, so the news comes, has shelved the anti-evolution bill, and turns its back upon the legislature of Tennessee. Elsewhere minorities prepare for battle--here an there with some assurance of success. But it is too early, it seems to me, to the firemen home; the fire is still burning on many a far-flung hill, and it may begin to roar again at any moment. The evil that men do lives after them. Bryan, in his malice, started something that will not be easy to stop. In ten thousand country town his old heelers, the evangelical pastors, are propagating his gospel, and everywhere the yokels are ready for it. When he disappeared from the big cities, the big cities made the capital error of assuming that he was done for. If they heard of him at all, it was only as a crimp for real-estate speculators--the heroic foe of the unearned increment hauling it in with both hands. He seemed preposterous, and hence harmless. But all the while he was busy among his old lieges, preparing for a jacquerie that should floor all his enemies at one blow. He did the job competently. He had vast skill at such enterprises. Heave an egg out of a Pullman window, and you will hit a Fundamentalist almost anywhere in the United States today. They swarm in the country towns, inflamed by their pastors, and with a saint, now, to venerate. They are thick in the mean streets behind the gasworks. They are everywhere that learning is to heavy a burden for mortal works. They are everywhere that learning is too heavy a burden for mortal minds, even the vague, pathetic learning on tap in little red schoolhouses. They march with the Klan, with the Christian Endeavor Society, with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, with the Epworth League, with all the rococo bands that poor and unhappy folk organize to bring some light of purpose into their lives. They have had a thrill, and they are ready for more. Such is Bryan’s legacy to his country. He couldn’t be President, but he could at least help magnificently in the solemn business of shutting off the presidency from every intelligent and self-respecting man. The storm, perhaps, won’t last long, as times goes in history. It may help, indeed, to break up the democratic delusion, now already showing weakness, and so hasten its own end. But while it lasts it will blow off some roofs and flood some sanctuaries. American Mercury, October 1925, pp. 158-160. i love the economist obits posted by: ludwig 13:40 6.23.05 Though neither as numerous nor as obscure as those carried by the NYT, they can be utterly ruthless. I can't find it on the web, but I recall reading the Economist obit of Enoch Powell, the racist British MP famed for the River of Blood speech. The writer should have been charged with sodomozing a corpse, he was so harsh. On a side note, the best obit ever is mencken on william jennings bryan (http://purple.niagara.edu/chambers/mencken.html) many people die every day... posted by: publius 12:48 6.23.05 but very few of them get much in the way of column inches on the nyt obits page. but the melange of very accomplished people you've never heard of is fascinating. so i'm starting a (more or less) daily "my favorite nyt dead person" thread. today is william n. fenton, 96, "expert on iroquois" i chose him over a jazz guitarist (he might have made it did he not bear some responsibility for the musical holocaust that is steely dan), a guy who was one of the first to warn about global warming, and an "innovative medical educator". and i chose him as my favorite inaugural dead person even before i read that he graduated from dartmouth in 1931. so william n. fenton...you may have gone to the big iroquois pow-wow in the sky, but you'll always have a place here at tentfort. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/nyregion/23fenton.html