My mom, who died two years ago, would have been 94 the day after tomorrow. We didn't have a lot to say, sometimes, but I've been thinking of her this past week. Likewise, my dad, who died several years before that, but had a birthday ten days before hers. Now the house has been sold (last year, in April) there is barely any family presence in the town we all grew up in and (almost all) moved away from.
I'm not feeling particularly sad, or bad, about that, just wondering at it, that it can be true. But it is.
This thread continues from the long-standing RIP thread on the 2006-2019 version of the CHE forum...itself undergoing change.
M.
A day late, already posted to CHE, but worth posting here as well:
Those who died in the Tian'anmen massacre thirty years ago yesterday.
Leon Redbone has joined the Otherworldly Band.
Oh, shoot. Dr. John is right there with them, too.
I lost my first grandparent that I can remember last week to bladder cancer. (I had a grandfather pass when I was two, but I have no memory of them). The funeral was Wednesday, and I got back last night at about midnight.
Quote from: drbrt on June 21, 2019, 08:18:10 AM
I lost my first grandparent that I can remember last week to bladder cancer. (I had a grandfather pass when I was two, but I have no memory of them). The funeral was Wednesday, and I got back last night at about midnight.
Condolences to you, I'm glad that you had him in your life for so long.
All good thoughts for the days ahead, too. It takes time for grief to become less sharp and overwhelming.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on June 21, 2019, 09:00:49 AM
Quote from: drbrt on June 21, 2019, 08:18:10 AM
I lost my first grandparent that I can remember last week to bladder cancer. (I had a grandfather pass when I was two, but I have no memory of them). The funeral was Wednesday, and I got back last night at about midnight.
Condolences to you, I'm glad that you had him in your life for so long.
All good thoughts for the days ahead, too. It takes time for grief to become less sharp and overwhelming.
M.
I actually lost a parent before my first grandparent, which is a little backwards. This was kind of a hard death. Grandma only made it 20 days after the diagnosis of cancer and surgery. Though, sometimes all you can hope for with cancer is that it is fast.
I'm very sorry for your loss, drbrt.
Quote from: bioteacher on June 21, 2019, 08:02:33 PM
I'm very sorry for your loss, drbrt.
Thanks, bioteacher.
This is a soon to be loss. An undergraduate mentor of mine is in hospice care. I'd been looking forward to reconnecting with them again through some volunteer work. I sent off a note this morning to express how much they'd influenced me and that I appreciated all I'd learned from them. I hope it arrives in time.
I hope so, too, Archaeo42. Hugs.
An old friend from elementary school. We were a close-knit bunch, surviving the horrors of Catholic school together, all 40 of us, for almost 10 years. She and I were in the same group of friends, did sleep-overs, etc., and then went to high school together where we each found different friends. We reconnected on FB, and she had a lovely life, with two daughters, loving husband, a job she liked. Three months ago she was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer, which she fought to the end, but a massive stroke took her last week. We're all in a bit of shock. She leaves behind two daughters on the brink of adulthood, and a husband whose last post on caring bridge brought us all to tears. She was a kind, funny, smart person who made the world better. In her memory I spent extra time with my family this week and savored it because she could not. Rest well, Michelle.
I'm so sorry, Reener.
Sorry for your loss, Reener.
I'm so sorry, Reener.
Hugs to everyone who knew and loved your friend, Reener.
Farewell to my Great Aunt June, who past away yesterday. She truly lived a remarkable life. She and her brother (my grandfather) were raised by a single father in the 1920s after their mother was committed for depression. She was the first i the family to attend college, had two daughters, and worked her way up being the dean of girls at a local college. One famous story is her fight to be allowed to wear trousers to work. She was twice a delegate to the DNC national conventions.
After "retirement" she earned a PhD in psychology, and self published at least 20 books. Most were non-fiction historical analyses that required extensive research. She was married 4 times and outlived them all. With husband #3 she renovated a Victorian era mansion on 1000 acres in the Napa valley. It was a truly idyllic spot, which led her to take up oil painting. I have one of her oil paintings in my home, and it's beautiful.
In her 80s she decided she wanted to know more about the law so she applied to law school! The only place that would consider her was an up and coming online law school, so she enrolled there and took many classes, although she never finished that degree. I'm sure there are other achievements that I'm missing as well.
My mother visited her just a few months ago and said she was still sharp as a tack, but couldn't keep on weight. Her assessment then of the 2020 DNC field was that Bernie and Joe were too old (!!) and the rest had yet to make an impact on her. June died at home, in her sleep having turned 99 on June 1. May we all be so lucky.
Wow, mythbuster! Great Aunt June sounds like a real dynamo. Indeed, we should all be so lucky -- and so engaged with life.
We need more like mythbuster's Great Aunt June!
Wow, what an amazing person your aunt was mythbuster.
Reneer, I'm sorry about your friend.
My undergrad mentor I mentioned upthread passed away over the holiday weekend. They're gone far too soon.
All good thoughts and sorrow shared with all who mourn.
I echo the delight in hearing of Jane, and find encouragement in her self-starting initiative in so many fields.
M.
Wow, myth buster, your aunt is inspiring. Thank you for sharing her story.
Archaeo42, I'm so sorry about your mentor.
Thanks everyone for the condolences. They mean a lot. I had a dream about my friend last night. I think even though we'd lost touch, my friendship with her symbolized a lot about my own coming-of-age, and her death too young has reminded me I'm getting older than I'd like. Hearing Mythbuster's story about her aunt was helpful, in that age is just a number, and to make most of whatever you have.
Rutger Hauer
My mom will be gone 6 years next month. For some reason (new school year?), I'm having more bouts of "I want my mommy" than usual lately.
David Berman, 52, killed himself last Wednesday in a Brooklyn apartment. Son of Richard Berman, a right-wing lawyer, they had a bitter relationship. David was married to Cassie, although their relationship had ended. David was an indie musician and poet, best known for his band the Silver Jews, who were quite big in the 1990s and who existed until 2009. David struggled with depression and mental illness. He took a lot of drugs in his time. He had been living in his record company's offices in Chicago and was preparing for a tour with his new band, Purple Mountains (basically him and some of the members of Woods). They were going to be doing a big tour. There was much anticipation and most of the shows were sold out. He will be mourned by many who loved his music.
My colleague in the next office, who all but "adopted" me when I came here as a new faculty member, and who died suddenly last year. He was a source of excellent career advice, and also a source of a lot of laughs when I most needed them. His office door was always open, literally as well as figuratively. I miss him like crazy. (And if he knew that I'd said that, he'd laugh in my face and tell me that my next book idea needs work.)
Quote from: downer on August 14, 2019, 08:23:46 AM
David Berman, 52, killed himself last Wednesday in a Brooklyn apartment. Son of Richard Berman, a right-wing lawyer, they had a bitter relationship. David was married to Cassie, although their relationship had ended. David was an indie musician and poet, best known for his band the Silver Jews, who were quite big in the 1990s and who existed until 2009. David struggled with depression and mental illness. He took a lot of drugs in his time. He had been living in his record company's offices in Chicago and was preparing for a tour with his new band, Purple Mountains (basically him and some of the members of Woods). They were going to be doing a big tour. There was much anticipation and most of the shows were sold out. He will be mourned by many who loved his music.
<singing> In 1985, I was hospitalized for approaching perfection.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/sports/franco-columbu-dead.html
One of my childhood athletic heroes and role models.
For all victims of Hurricane Dorian, in the Bahamas and elsewhere...and for the family members as yet unsure of their loved ones' survival.
M.
The spouse of one of our own, at least on the other forum. I can't remember their moniker. Their spouse died suddenly last week and will be greatly missed, not only by the forumite, but by those of us who were friends by proxy. It was far too soon for someone who had far too much life left to live.
Quote from: bioteacher on September 29, 2019, 07:11:54 PM
The spouse of one of our own, at least on the other forum. I can't remember their moniker. Their spouse died suddenly last week and will be greatly missed, not only by the forumite, but by those of us who were friends by proxy. It was far too soon for someone who had far too much life left to live.
Her username was octoprof. Her husband was often referred to as Mr. Wondeful on the other board. So heartbreaking. :(
Quote from: paddington_bear on September 30, 2019, 05:17:09 AM
Quote from: bioteacher on September 29, 2019, 07:11:54 PM
The spouse of one of our own, at least on the other forum. I can't remember their moniker. Their spouse died suddenly last week and will be greatly missed, not only by the forumite, but by those of us who were friends by proxy. It was far too soon for someone who had far too much life left to live.
Her username was octoprof. Her husband was often referred to as Mr. Wondeful on the other board. So heartbreaking. :(
This is terrible news. My condolences to Octoprof.
I am so saddened to hear this.
All I can do is send comforting thoughts.
I'm so sorry, Octoprof - what a devastating loss! Memories of Mr. Wonderful will never replace him, but I hope they can provide you some comfort.
I'm so sorry to hear about Mr. Wonderful. I'm a long-time lurker and have been wondering how he was doing. Prayers for peace & comfort to Octoprof.
Oh, no!
They were my dream couple.
Do we know what happened?
I'm very, very, very sorry to hear this.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on September 30, 2019, 11:03:00 AM
Do we know what happened?
He just... stopped. Just in a moment. Keeled over on the sofa. I walked into the living room where he was watching Monty Python's Flying Circus on DVD and I didn't see him sitting in his usual spot (i.e. his head sticking up so I can see it over the back of the sofa). I walked closer and found him slumped over on the sofa sideways as if he'd been really tired and just laid over to exhaustion-nap. But he was unresponsive. I dialed 911, did CPR, and the EMTs came and did CPR and more, but he couldn't be revived.
Probably heart attack or aneurysm or blood clot or something. He looked peaceful. There was no sign of struggling. I like to think he was unaware and his body just went from on to off for some reason. The coroner is still deciding what he's going to do, apparently. it's a rural county and the coroner has to decide if he's going to send the body to another county for autopsy. As of 5pm Friday they hadn't decided. And they haven't been in when I've phoned today. We are planning the funeral for Friday morning assuming his body will be released in the next day or so.
I don't think he suffered. It was just way too soon. So shocking. Like he was violently ripped from our arms even though there was no violence. He was so healthy (good annual check up at the cancer center in August) and fit (still cycling almost every day, training for his next century ride in November, slim and trim, only 54, etc.). We thought he would outlive everyone. I am bereft. Mama is bereft. His Mom is inconsolable. Everyone who loved him is in shock. We are just going on like zombies.
He was truly the best of men. He loved me even when I was unlovable. He never had a harsh word to say to anyone. He never passed up an opportunity to help people. We are at a loss without him. Helpless.
My deepest condolences, beloved Octo, to you and to your family. He does sound like a true Mr. Wonderful.
I am so sorry, Octoprof. My deepest sympathy to you and yours.
Quote from: aside on September 30, 2019, 04:28:13 PM
I am so sorry, Octoprof. My deepest sympathy to you and yours.
Plus one.
Octoprof, my condolences, too.
Sincerest condolences and prayers to you and yours.
I am beyond sorry. What a tragedy.
I'm so sorry Octoprof, my condolences to you and all those who loved Mr. Wonderful.
Shocking news. My heart goes out to you Octoprof.
Octoprof, please know that cgfunmathguy sends his condolences and prayers for peace and comfort for you and all who loved Mr Wonderful. We know how much he loved you and how much you loved him.
I'm so very, very sorry, Octoprof. Take care of yourself.
I'm so sorry to read this -- my deepest and sincerest condolences.
I'm so sorry for your loss, Octoprof.
We've also lost Infopri. Hugs to all who knew and loved her.
Quote from: bioteacher on October 06, 2019, 05:39:50 PM
We've also lost Infopri. Hugs to all who knew and loved her.
Oh, no.
I know she had all the injuries from her accident as well as all the chronic stuff, but I thought she was doing better.
I'm very sorry to hear this.
RIP, InfoPri...
M.
M.
Oh no, just oh no.
Octoprof, I am so sorry for your unbelievable loss.
Infopri, RIP, and condolences to all ...
Quote from: bioteacher on October 06, 2019, 05:39:50 PM
We've also lost Infopri. Hugs to all who knew and loved her.
How sad! Infopri was such a valued and valuable member of the Fora community.
RIP, Infopri. So many good and interesting interactions. I am so sorry to hear about this loss to our community as well. My condolences to her close friends and family! And hugs all around here. I think we need them.
Octoprof, I am so sorry.
We just lost our good friend. He was an MD, and one of our regular Thursday board game group. He was a larger than life figure, and his presence is terribly missed. He liked to attend Ren Faires as a pirate (I know :D) and when we were coming home from his funeral, we passed a really BIG pirate ship, all lit up with canons on our street. We both thought we were hallucinating, so we drove around the block for another look. It turns out that our new neighbors decided to go all out for Halloween and were putting up a REALLY big ghost pirate ship (the thing is seriously 10 feet tall by about 20 feet long, and is REALLY realistic- now I can't wait to meet them). It was just so fitting...
Quote from: backatit on October 07, 2019, 10:55:36 AM
We just lost our good friend. He was an MD, and one of our regular Thursday board game group. He was a larger than life figure, and his presence is terribly missed. He liked to attend Ren Faires as a pirate (I know :D) and when we were coming home from his funeral, we passed a really BIG pirate ship, all lit up with canons on our street. We both thought we were hallucinating, so we drove around the block for another look. It turns out that our new neighbors decided to go all out for Halloween and were putting up a REALLY big ghost pirate ship (the thing is seriously 10 feet tall by about 20 feet long, and is REALLY realistic- now I can't wait to meet them). It was just so fitting...
I'm so sorry, backatit, but I'm glad you saw a good sign. Those are going to be fun neighbors.
Adding my sympathies on your loss, Backatit. And I agree, it seems like a sign and a great one. Those kinds of things provide a ray of hope even in times of such loss.
Oh, Octo, I am so sorry. How heartbreaking this news is about Mr. Wonderful.
And my condolences also to backatit and everyone who knew Infopri.
I've been absent from these fora for a few weeks, but just logged in to do some PMs. My little brother (in his thirties) died in a motor vehicle accident very recently. I'm totally devastated and feeling like my life has lost its rudder. I haven't been sleeping effectively. And for a lot of reasons linked to the circumstances within which we grew up together (mostly familial abuse), I'm really angry with the world for the unfairness that his life ended well before it got to the good part.
I just needed to share that. Thanks.
I'm so sorry, Nescafe.
Nescafe, I am so very sorry to hear of your devastating loss. Please seek out some sort of counseling when you are ready. You are a survivor of so much, and the scabs and scars that helped you function have been ripped open with this terrible loss. Getting the right support to help you process this all might make the road forward a bit less awful. Hugs and love to you.
Quote from: nescafe on October 12, 2019, 07:12:27 PM
I've been absent from these fora for a few weeks, but just logged in to do some PMs. My little brother (in his thirties) died in a motor vehicle accident very recently. I'm totally devastated and feeling like my life has lost its rudder. I haven't been sleeping effectively. And for a lot of reasons linked to the circumstances within which we grew up together (mostly familial abuse), I'm really angry with the world for the unfairness that his life ended well before it got to the good part.
I just needed to share that. Thanks.
Thinking of you. And him.
M.
Sending my condolences to you, Nescafe. What a terrible loss to suffer. Take care.
I am so sorry for your tragic loss, Nescafe.
My deepest condolences to you, nescafe.
I'm so sorry, nescafe.
Literary critic Harold Bloom (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/books/harold-bloom-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries) has died.
I don't have the background to comment on Harold Bloom's work and the criticism of or praise for it, but I did have the opportunity to have dinner with him and his family once. Definitely an interesting character and very learned, and we had quite the discussion. He was larger than life, and it is strange to think about him being gone.
My fieldwork & clinical practice site is in Central America where I work with a small NGO. The staff there were led by Mr. Rudy who was the main driver for mobiles out to the villages and as I called him, "our roving ambassador of goodwill." He was well known in the community and everybody knew and liked him. i last saw him in September and was greeted by his usual "Hi Doc!" and we chatted a bit. I just found out Mr Rudy had a heart attack and died. I can't tell you how sad that makes me. Bumping along in a Toyota Land Cruiser over a lousy road on the way to Barranco will never be the same. Peace friend - we are all going to miss you.
My mom died in September. She was 93.
When mom graduated from high school in 1946 she bought a car and she and three of her girlfriends drove around the county. They stayed in cheap motels and saw the national parks and the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They had crackers and cheese and sometimes tuna fish for three meals a day. She talked about it her whole life.
Mom worked hard to provide us with as good a childhood as she could. Dad drank and was intermittently employed. I remember so many Saturday trips growing up, mom would pack sandwiches and we'd get in the Falcon station wagon and go to some state park or museum or historic site. One time when I was maybe 9 or 10 I saw a newspaper article about some Chinese bronzes being exhibited at a university on the other side of the state and mom drove me out there to look at them. She waited in the car, I realize now because she did not have enough money to pay a second admission charge. I am just realizing that now.
She worked mostly as a bookkeeper after my parents divorced. When she was in her fifties her boss asked her what she had for retirement. It was not much, just a small nest egg from the sale of our family house. He convinced her to let him invest it. I know what you are thinking, but it turns out he was some kind of genius in this regard, and against all odds, she retired comfortably.
Mom used her retirement to do all of the travel she had been unable to do. She found a tour company she liked and made a circle of friends and they went on adventures together. The Castles of Ireland and Scotland was one tour. The Great Rivers of Europe Cruise. The Great Wall of China. Canadian Maritimes Cruise. Highlights of Eastern Europe. One summer she met up with one of my distant great aunts who had an RV and they drove most of the West Coast. She visited me in different National Parks where I worked, in grad school in Washington State and Virginia, and at our home in Washington numerous times. She took Amtrak across the country to visit two years ago, getting a sleeper berth.
I say retirement, but she never quite retired. She'd work for a tax accountant every February-March to help with the rush. She got a part-time job at a small retirement community and ended up running the place for a number of years. She returned to the part-time job and did that until last year. Sometimes I'd call her and ask what she had going on. "Oh I am going to see the old people this weekend," she'd say.
I saw mom in August, a month before she died. She was fading, she had difficulty walking and her hearing was terrible. We were able to go on a lighthouse tour of Long Island Sound, which she really enjoyed. She had hearing aids but refused to wear them. "You really mumble!" she told me. "You've always mumbled but it has gotten a lot worse!"
My older sister is going through mom's things. Yesterday I got an envelope from her, stuffed with newspaper clippings about me and report cards of mine that mom had saved. I teared up for the first time since she died.
Larry, what a lovely tribute to MomC. May her memory be a source of comfort to you.
Secundem Artem, I'm sorry for your loss and that of all who knew Mr. Rudy.
Beautiful post, LarryC. Your mother sounds like the salt of the earth. I am sorry for your loss.
Secundem_artem, my condolences for the loss of Mr. Rudy. I hope we have all been fortunate enough to have encountered someone like him in our endeavors.
Agree.
Larryc, your mom sounds like a wise captain of the ship that was her life, and yours.
Mr. Rudy reminds me of the jocular camp caretaker where I had my first job as a counselor...lived blessings, both of them.
M.
larryc may her memory be a blessing and a source of comfort to you.
I'm very sorry for your loss, Larry. Thank you for sharing those memories with us.
Grief is not linear and it isn't scripted. There is no Right Way to grieve, only the right way for you. Some find the tears don't stop, others discover they cry infrequently but have other outlets. Please don't feel guilty for crying/not crying. She loved you and was proud of you. Your grief journey is as unique as the woman she was. Hugs.
Secundem_artem, Mr. Rudy clearly made an impression on many who had the pleasure of crossing his path. Thank you for letting us get to know him a little bit. We are so blessed by so many people we only meet in passing. Your post is a reminder to be thankful for them when and where we find them.
Neil Peart, drummer for Rush, age 67.
Not sure if this is the right place, but it's something I have to say today: it's the anniversary of my dad's death, and even though it was 49 years ago and I was a little tiny sprout, I still mind.
I'm so sorry. That's a loss that never leaves you.
RIP for a professor who mentored me when I got my first FT job 30 years ago. She knew all the ways of the private university, and had seen it all as a single female academic in a culture that prioritized masculinity. Students respected and feared her--she did not suffer fools gladly--but she was always generous with her time, hospitality, and advice when requested.
Today is the anniversary of my best friend and coworker's death as well.
Sorry for your loss.
And there's a separate thread started, but I'll add Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and the others on that flight here as well.
RIP.
M.
Andy Gill, 64, influential guitarist for the Gang of Four, of pneumonia. I cannot overstate his influence on my own guitar playing in the early 80's, when I was trying to emulate Ritchie Blackmore and Eddie Van Halen and failing miserably. I saw the Gang of Four at a big festival in the California desert in 1982. They played for 45 minutes but it's both vivid in memory and ephemeral. Hugo Burnham behind the drum kit, smiling improbably at the bassist Sara Lee as their interlocking rhythm parts pushed the machine forward. Edi Reader on percussion, giving the machine a kick once every 4 bars. Jon King, sweating through his shirt, exhorting the crowd to action. And there was Andy Gill, in gray blazer and matching trousers, looking like an extra from a film noir, zooming across the stage with his Stratocaster, extracting ungodly howls from it in between razor sharp staccato shards of pure treble and lead lines that sound what someone would play while being tortured. It was terrifying, and perfect.
Johnny Greenwood, Tom Morello and Kurt Cobain took notes, for sure. His playing is still there somewhere in the stew of influences that inform what I play every time I pick up a guitar.
My husband's mother's birthday was January 31. She died at a very early age (early 40s) of a sudden stroke. The family had to decide both to put her on life support and then to take her off of it.
He has been alternately quiet and voluble while continuing to process his grief.
I'm so glad he was able to visit her grave when we were there in December; he hadn't been able to handle it for nearly two decades, but now he can, so it was a healing experience.
Only moments ago we learned that a regular library patron had just been found dead in her home. She had been dealing with various medical issues, but this was still very sudden. Though I did not know her personally, it has been a great shock to her family and friends, and library staff who did know her.
I'm sorry for your community's loss.
Sometimes the library is the last community some folks have, in fact.
M.
I had a horrible semester and missed so many notices on this board. My deepest condolences to Octoprof and Nescafe and LarryC and others. And infopri is gone? I'm so, so sorry.
And I logged on in part for this: My 59 year old BIL died of cancer Saturday, too young. Really healthy guy who ignored symptoms for a year. Didn't like doctors. He fought it over a year after diagnosis came, but it was Stage IV by then. He seemed to have found peace in the end. He was hard to like, honestly, and so I have mostly not-good memories of him, but we saw him in October and his hardness seemed gone, and he seemed more accepting of people, and actually was supportive of me and my hard semester. This, after a lifetime of us on opposite political, moral, and pretty much every other sphere of life. He leaves 10 children and my sister, who is devastated. Heading to be with them in a few days for the funeral. The children are all almost grown--the youngest is 12, the oldest 32, and they just had their first grandchild. This is not how my sister envisaged her later years.
As Octo said once...
"Too much death."
I'm so sorry for your family's loss.
M.
Dr. Li Wenliang, 34, was the doctor that was arrested by Chinese police for 'spreading rumors' to his chat group of former classmates about what is now the Coronavirus.
If the coronavirus is able to kill otherwise healthy 34 year olds, then perhaps there are many more deaths to be reported.
Orson Bean was hit by a car and killed in LA, aged 91. RIP
Quote from: bacardiandlime on February 08, 2020, 06:34:13 AM
Orson Bean was hit by a car and killed in LA, aged 91. RIP
He was the voice of Bilbo Baggins in the 1977 "The Hobbit" animated movie. I remember his role as Loren Bray, a merchant owner, in "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" for 6 seasons during the '90s.
Robert Conrad died today.
I remember him as James West in Wild Wild West, Pappy Boyington in Black Sheep Squadren and in a few Columbo Mysteries of the Week.
The literary scholar George Steiner (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/feb/08/george-steiner-appreciation-stellar-polymath) died on Feb. 3. When I was first getting to know translation studies, the field where I now publish most, despite it not being the field in which I am formally trained, I read his After Babel. I did not care for the book, but I keep returning to it. Even now, something keeps drawing me back, despite myself. That is perhaps the highest compliment I can pay a scholarly work -- it was considerably more than it first appeared.
Yesterday I attended the funeral of a dear friend from back home. She was a member of my parents' church. She wasn't blood-kin, but was like family. She never married and had little living family of her own. She was born with a withered right arm. Her parents raised her to go ahead and do pretty much everything that anybody else could do. She delivered newspapers and did odd jobs for a living, raised her own vegetables, hunted for her own meat, and cut her own firewood. She was also an excellent amateur naturalist and nature photographer. We used to ride around the back roads in the hills looking for wildflowers. I guess when I was growing up she was sort of like a really cool aunt.
Despite her own challenges, she was always of help to elderly neighbors and others who needed it. When her own health failed she went into a nursing home, and seeing to her care became mainly the responsibility of our own family. Since I no longer lived nearby, it was mainly my mother who visited her several times a week and made sure she was probably cared for. Mom saw to it that she continued to have a chance to see birds and other glimpses of nature.
She was 86. The funeral was a simple graveside service. Dad, who has pastored the church for nearly four decades, conducted the service. He had a hard time getting through it. For my part, I have a hard time feeling too sorry for her. She had a long and remarkably full life, and is now finally free to go on to a better place to be with God. It was a privilege to have known her while she was here.
Quote from: apl68 on February 18, 2020, 08:07:51 AM
She was 86. The funeral was a simple graveside service. Dad, who has pastored the church for nearly four decades, conducted the service. He had a hard time getting through it. For my part, I have a hard time feeling too sorry for her. She had a long and remarkably full life, and is now finally free to go on to a better place to be with God. It was a privilege to have known her while she was here.
Exactly. To a life well-lived. (Clink)
Oh man. I lost a good friend. She was fairly young, in her 60's, and probably one of the most vital people I know. She was an avid horseback rider, and had retired from that and had taken up a new passion, scuba diving, and was getting quite skilled (her husband died a couple of years ago and she was head over heels in love with a new guy who was an avid diver, and she was SO happy; had sold her farm and moved in with him on his boat, and they were fixing it up together). She was on a dive on Sunday, and had a medical event while diving (they believe a heart attack).
She had the heartiest laugh I've ever heard. I will really miss her.
To top things off, I had just heard about it, and we found our old golden retriever laying out in the yard, near death. We rushed him to the e-vet, and he had a large tumor on his spleen that had ruptured, and he had lost so much blood. We ended up having to put him to sleep. Yesterday was a really rough day, and I am sad. Our three other dogs seem kind of lost. He was old, but still really playful and in really good shape (he swam a lot and was really healthy). The day before I was playing with him in the yard throwing a stick. I know we were lucky - many Goldens don't live into their teens in such good shape (no hip issues; I credit our pond and his daily swims and the fact that he was a good weight despite my partner's best efforts). I know we were lucky he didn't suffer long, and that he didn't have a long downhill slope. He was really, really good and pain free up till his last day. It just seems a bit much, you know?
Quote from: backatit on March 03, 2020, 01:06:15 PM
Oh man. I lost a good friend. She was fairly young, in her 60's, and probably one of the most vital people I know. She was an avid horseback rider, and had retired from that and had taken up a new passion, scuba diving, and was getting quite skilled (her husband died a couple of years ago and she was head over heels in love with a new guy who was an avid diver, and she was SO happy; had sold her farm and moved in with him on his boat, and they were fixing it up together). She was on a dive on Sunday, and had a medical event while diving (they believe a heart attack).
She had the heartiest laugh I've ever heard. I will really miss her.
To top things off, I had just heard about it, and we found our old golden retriever laying out in the yard, near death. We rushed him to the e-vet, and he had a large tumor on his spleen that had ruptured, and he had lost so much blood. We ended up having to put him to sleep. Yesterday was a really rough day, and I am sad. Our three other dogs seem kind of lost. He was old, but still really playful and in really good shape (he swam a lot and was really healthy). The day before I was playing with him in the yard throwing a stick. I know we were lucky - many Goldens don't live into their teens in such good shape (no hip issues; I credit our pond and his daily swims and the fact that he was a good weight despite my partner's best efforts). I know we were lucky he didn't suffer long, and that he didn't have a long downhill slope. He was really, really good and pain free up till his last day. It just seems a bit much, you know?
backatit, I'm so sorry for your losses. Everything about the suddenness and the pile-on timing is so harsh. I know there's nothing I can say that would make your situation any less painful, but I'll be thinking of you and hoping you find comfort soon. Best wishes.
Traductio, this is just a triviality in the midst of all this loss, but I used to know George Steiner's dog-sitter. George and Mrs. Steiner would call the dog every day from wherever he was in the world. FWIW.
MY father's sister died last Sunday evening. She had only just gone into hospice a couple of days earlier. They had moved out of state to be close to one of their daughters, and we didn't hear about her hospice until the day before she died. She was lucid until nearly the end, and had a chance to say goodbye to each of her children and grandchildren one at a time. She was 81. Neither Dad nor her other brothers will be able to make her funeral today, due to distance, weather, and their own medical issues.
This week I remember two unfortunately juxtaposed deaths: My ex, who, within the year after the divorce, was diagnosed with cancer and then died; and my mother, who died of natural causes several years later. I remember and miss them both in very different ways.
My condolences to everyone, and wishes for strength to all of you.
I'm posting this here because it's the best place for it, except that it's not a loss. On the contrary, although it involves one.
My grandpa (my dad's dad) died long before I was born. He was 42. My dad was in college and it affected him deeply, so much so that when he was 42, I know it was constantly on his mind. Last week, I turned 43, and there was a sense of relief in my dad's voice (he's now pushing 70) when I talked to him on my birthday. I hadn't talked about it either, but it had been on my mind, too.
Quote from: Hegemony on March 04, 2020, 03:44:17 AM
Traductio, this is just a triviality in the midst of all this loss, but I used to know George Steiner's dog-sitter. George and Mrs. Steiner would call the dog every day from wherever he was in the world. FWIW.
That's actually kind of sweet!
Rock n roll legend Little Richard (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/arts/music/little-richard-dead.html), age 87.
Jerry Stiller
Comic legend Jerry Stiller has passed away, his son, Ben Stiller, announced on May 11. Jerry, largely famous for playing George Costanza's dad in "Seinfeld," was 92. "I'm sad to say that my father, Jerry Stiller, passed away from natural causes," Ben tweeted. "He was a great dad and grandfather, and the most dedicated husband to Anne for about 62 years. He will be greatly missed. Love you Dad." Jerry, who had a career spanning six decades, left an indelible mark on Hollywood.
Quote from: backatit on March 03, 2020, 01:06:15 PM
Oh man. I lost a good friend. She was fairly young, in her 60's, and probably one of the most vital people I know. She was an avid horseback rider, and had retired from that and had taken up a new passion, scuba diving, and was getting quite skilled (her husband died a couple of years ago and she was head over heels in love with a new guy who was an avid diver, and she was SO happy; had sold her farm and moved in with him on his boat, and they were fixing it up together). She was on a dive on Sunday, and had a medical event while diving (they believe a heart attack).
She had the heartiest laugh I've ever heard. I will really miss her.
To top things off, I had just heard about it, and we found our old golden retriever laying out in the yard, near death. We rushed him to the e-vet, and he had a large tumor on his spleen that had ruptured, and he had lost so much blood. We ended up having to put him to sleep. Yesterday was a really rough day, and I am sad. Our three other dogs seem kind of lost. He was old, but still really playful and in really good shape (he swam a lot and was really healthy). The day before I was playing with him in the yard throwing a stick. I know we were lucky - many Goldens don't live into their teens in such good shape (no hip issues; I credit our pond and his daily swims and the fact that he was a good weight despite my partner's best efforts). I know we were lucky he didn't suffer long, and that he didn't have a long downhill slope. He was really, really good and pain free up till his last day. It just seems a bit much, you know?
It's totally too much. These things shouldn't happen, but sometimes they do. It's also unfortunate that most of society does not recognize what a blow it can be to lose a beloved pet. My condolences.
Jimmy Cobb, (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/25/jimmy-cobb-dead-miles-davis-kind-of-blue) the drummer who powered the classic Miles Davis album Kind of Blue, age 91. He was the last surviving musician on that album, which featured Davis, Cobb, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, and Wynton Kelly.
Cobb, Kelly and Chambers also formed a traveling rhythm section backing up soloists. They were behind Wes Montgomery when he recorded Live at the Half-Note, his most celebrated recording.
Steve Priest - Bassist for glam band The Sweet in the 70's. They had a number of hits back in the day - Little Willie, The Ballroom Blitz, Fox on the Run, Action, Love is Like Oxygen.
We didn't actually add George Floyd here (1974-2020).
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/george-floyd-obituary?pid=196288691
There will be a public visitation in Houston, where he was raised, tomorrow, June 8; a private funeral will be held there on the 9th.
RIP.
M.
One of the most brilliant minds in his field, comedian Carl Reiner (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/arts/television/carl-reiner-dead.html?action=click&module=Alert&pgtype=Homepage), aged 98. His work from the Sid Caesar and Dick Van Dyke shows still holds up.
++1
He was one of the first names of a writer for a TV show that I remembered...I realized his input had something to do with the solidity of the actors' work...he gave them good material to work from and let them go ahead and do it.
M.
The great British actor Sir Ian Holm:
https://tellyvisions.org/2020/06/23/remembering-sir-ian-holm (https://tellyvisions.org/2020/06/23/remembering-sir-ian-holm)
The accomplished actor performed on stage, TV, and movies.
Grant Imahara from Mythbusters. Dead from an aneurysm at age 49. He made nerds and science look cool. He got paid to do what every teenage boy wants to do - blow stuff up. He also built stuff but he filled the deep need for destruction built into teenage boy's DNA.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/arts/television/grant-imahara-dead.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage
Quote from: secundem_artem on July 14, 2020, 10:32:32 AM
Grant Imahara from Mythbusters. Dead from an aneurysm at age 49. He made nerds and science look cool. He got paid to do what every teenage boy wants to do - blow stuff up. He also built stuff but he filled the deep need for destruction built into teenage boy's DNA.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/arts/television/grant-imahara-dead.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage
I'm pretty juvenile, but have never been into blowing stuff up. I don't think I'm alone in saying that I really enjoyed the way Grant (and Kari and Tory) measured stuff. That is what I really like about the guy on Youtube (don't have the reference at hand) who tried to determine which bird feeders could fend off squirrels. My wannabe engineering granddaughter am I are enthralled by his channel.
RIP to Grant indeed.
I've just heard, belatedly, of a good, dear friend's death.
RIP Rupert.
I'll have to return to Vezelay for you, I'd always hoped you would do it yourself.
M.
Representative John Lewis (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/john-lewis-dead.html), age 80, from cancer. A humble giant of conscience.
My wonderful dog walker and then cat sitter (for almost a decade) about whom I cared very much, and one other, both in the same week.
Condolences to all who are grieving, including those for whom a significant anniversary is looming.
M.
Olivia de Haviland (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/movies/olivia-de-havilland-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries), aged 104, in Paris. Several news outlets ran photos of her riding a bicycle on her July 1 birthday.
The films she did with Errol Flynn are still wonderful to see (esp. as the gutsy niece of the governor in Captain Blood, made when she was only 18 or 19). She's about the last one left of Old Hollywood. Rest in peace.
Quote from: AmLitHist on July 26, 2020, 11:53:07 AM
Olivia de Haviland (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/26/movies/olivia-de-havilland-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries), aged 104, in Paris. Several news outlets ran photos of her riding a bicycle on her July 1 birthday.
The films she did with Errol Flynn are still wonderful to see (esp. as the gutsy niece of the governor in Captain Blood, made when she was only 18 or 19). She's about the last one left of Old Hollywood. Rest in peace.
An absolute favorite.
Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of Karen, our library's former part-time janitor. Karen had not had an easy time of it. She had a good education and did pretty well with her husband for some years. Then they fell on hard times. Their daughter went off the rails. When I knew her, Karen was serving as the single mother to her teenage granddaughter. Our local economy being what it had become, she was having to get by cleaning houses and serving as our part-time library janitor.
Thanks to care and frugality, and some help from their church, Karen was able to give her granddaughter a good life. Somebody set them up with a house to live in. Karen was well-read, and encouraged her girl to take pleasure in reading. She was good at making low-cost fun and craft stuff. She was an interesting person to talk to. She was a friend as well as a staff member.
Four years ago, two youths broke into her house early in the morning and shot Karen and her granddaughter. Karen died. The granddaughter played dead until the assailants left, then made her way to a nearby police station. The bullet that lodged in her neck only just missed killing her. It's still there--the doctors determined that it was too dangerous to remove. An uncle and aunt in another state took her in. She has been doing okay.
Karen and her granddaughter were two white women living in an overwhelmingly black neighborhood. The youths who gunned them down were black. Ostensibly it was a robbery, but they took very little. There was very little to steal (They took a cell phone, which was immediately traced and led to their arrest. It was a very open-and-shut case). Their targeting of the only white household in the neighborhood...well, it's hard to believe it was a coincidence. Had the skin colors of victims, attackers, and neighborhood been reversed, this would without a doubt have been labeled a hate crime, and gotten national headlines for weeks. But the victims were white, so it was nothing but a run-of-the-mill home invasion.
I wish everybody here could have seen Karen's funeral. The crime shocked and appalled our whole community. There was no race-baiting or rioting. Black and white members of the community came together to mourn and celebrate the life of a sister in Christ who had become a victim of this world's wickedness. Karen's pastor preached a sermon from Proverbs chapter 24:
"Do not lie in wait against the dwelling of the righteous, O wicked man. For though the righteous fall seven times, yet will he rise, but the wicked will fall into disaster.
"Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, or be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased.
"Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the wicked;
"For there will be no future for the evil man: the lamp of the wicked will be put out."
The pastor spoke of how we can't know why God allowed such a crime to befall somebody who had spent a difficult life trying to do nothing but good. What we did know is that Karen knew and served Jesus, and so is now safe from all evil. Those of us who are left behind are the ones with responsibility--responsibility to thank God for Karen and her life, to care for her granddaughter who survived her, and to extend forgiveness and prayer toward those who murdered her, in hopes that they will come to Jesus and escape the just wrath of God for their actions. It was an uplifting time for all of us who were there.
Somehow in the last couple of years it has become controversial to say "All lives matter." But they do. Karen's life mattered for a great deal.
Two in one week: A dear colleague and the mother of my son's significant other. These follow the two from several weeks ago.
I found out that my uncle passed away a few days ago (peacefully). It has hit me a little harder than I expected. He was not a spry young chicken by any means (in his 80s) but always seemed so vital and strong to me. Still, it was bound to happen eventually. He was my dad's "Irish twin" of sorts, although my dad was born a year and a day after him, so I supposed that does not technically count, although they were always very close. They lost their sister to an unfortunate accident before I was born and their younger brother when I was in my early 20s. My dad passed away about 20 years ago, and my uncle, the oldest, was the last of their group. It's weird to think about. My uncle was an interesting guy. He had a lot of his body replaced due to a severe accident a long time ago but was a power lifter and, as far as I know, remained one up until not too long ago. But, my aunt (absolute love of his life) passed away a few years ago, and I guess it was his time to join her. I was just thinking about him last week and wish I had reached out. Too late, per usual, but at least it seems to have brought the family back into touch, at least temporarily.
Condolences, ab_grp.
Quote from: notmycircus on August 15, 2020, 02:43:04 PM
Condolences, ab_grp.
Thank you! This is a sad thread, but it is so nice to be able to memorialize those we love, admire, and will miss in the world.
Yes, peace to you.
M.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Quote from: clean on September 18, 2020, 04:52:49 PM
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Oh, no.
Baruch Dayan HaEmet, careful one.
M.
Quote from: clean on September 18, 2020, 04:52:49 PM
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
What an amazing woman! What an icon! A life well lived.
Quote from: Bud on September 19, 2020, 01:02:12 AM
Quote from: clean on September 18, 2020, 04:52:49 PM
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
What an amazing woman! What an icon! A life well lived.
She had the tenacity of Satan himself. Even I admired her.
My father-in-law, the Catwoman's father. It was at the end of July.
It was pretty sudden - he was feeling a bit ill, and when the doctor visited he passed out. He was taken to the hospital and they discovered that he had a massive internal infection which had been almost symptomless. He passed away without regaining conscience.
Up to that point, he had been pretty healthy - they lived on the third floor, no elevator, and he had just started going up and down again (after not doing so for a couple of months due to the quarantine)
He was 87 years old, and had survived his family fleeing the Nazis and being refugees, then losing his father, a high ranking officer during the war, to Stalin's purges.
He lost two sisters, one when she was young to a car accident, and the other to Soviet medicine just before the family immigrated to Israel.
An intellectual, he was never able to defend his thesis, because he was a Jew (that was the specific reason given to him - "our quita of Jews has defended). He finally gave up, and started a business with a friend churning out theses for others. If any of you has ever interviewed somebody with a PhD from the USSR from the 1980s, there is a non-negligible chance that it was written by the Catwoman's father.
He worked as a high school teacher, and as a manager at assorted jobs. He would move to a new position, be promoted until he reached the highest level that a Jew could hold, and then move on to a new position.
He was very smart, but had a total inability to learn new languages, despite having an amazing facility with Russian.
On the other hand, all he needed was a couple of hours, and he could give an engaging talk on any possible topic under the sun. He worked as a volunteer tour guide for the Jewish sites and history of Vilnius, and gave many talks to different Russian tour groups and immigrants while in Israel.
He raised two daughters as a failed chauvinist. He would ever so often make claims about women could or couldn't do, and then encouraged and supported his daughters, second wife, step daughters, and granddaughter to do exactly those things that he claimed that women couldn't do.
He had an enormous appetite for life, and, despite many hardships, was always able to find things to enjoy. Despite always having been a heavyset man, he was light on his feet, and excellent dancer, and had been a mountain climber and a high level fencer.
His first marriage was not happy for the most part, and, luckily, his daughters were able to convince him that a divorce was a good idea. He married better (for him) the second time, and was happily married for more than 20 years.
He was extremely proud of the Catwoman, of her sister, and his grandkids, but was unfortunately unable to meet his first great grandson because of the pandemic.
The Catwoman was unable to travel to Israel for either the funeral or the revealing of the headstone, but her nephew was able to connect her via FB live to both. She will hopefully be able to travel there for the first Yahrzeit. It was also good that the Mouselet was still home, so both of us were here to support her.
I'm sorry to hear about your father-in-law, Mouseman. He sounds amazing. My deepest condolences to the three of you and your extended family.
My sympathies to you and your family on your loss, Mouseman.
I am sorry for your loss, Mouseman. What a life!
May his memory be a blessing.
Eddie Van Halen dead at 65 from cancer. One hell of a guitar player.
Quote from: secundem_artem on October 06, 2020, 01:14:08 PM
Eddie Van Halen dead at 65 from cancer. One hell of a guitar player.
He was such an icon for those of us growing up in the late 70's - early 80's.
Fair Warning is still one of my favorite albums. And, yes, I have the actual album, thank you very much.
Getting old continues to suck.
Sean Connery obit
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/31/movies/sean-connery-dead.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Quote from: Langue_doc on October 31, 2020, 07:54:46 AM
Sean Connery obit
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/31/movies/sean-connery-dead.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Besides the Bond movies, I remember him in "Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade" and "First Knight."
Aside from his Bond roles -- From Russia .. -- was my favorite, he did serious stuff such as the unforgettable The Hill and The Man who Would be King.
What else stood out strongly is that most actors and actresses talk garbage if they don't have a script -- Sean Connery made sense when asked about anything.
The Indiana Jones movie is one of my favorites too. I also liked him in The Man Who Would be King and The Untouchables. RIP, Sean Connery.
Sad to hear of Alex Trebek's passing.
Quote from: sinenomine on November 08, 2020, 10:52:26 AM
Sad to hear of Alex Trebek's passing.
Yes, Alex has been part of the evening routine for decades. The world has irreparably changed.
Quote from: polly_mer on November 08, 2020, 11:04:43 AM
Quote from: sinenomine on November 08, 2020, 10:52:26 AM
Sad to hear of Alex Trebek's passing.
Yes, Alex has been part of the evening routine for decades. The world has irreparably changed.
Neither one of these posts were put in the form of a question.
(sigh)
Quote from: fishbrains on November 08, 2020, 11:21:07 AM
Quote from: polly_mer on November 08, 2020, 11:04:43 AM
Quote from: sinenomine on November 08, 2020, 10:52:26 AM
Sad to hear of Alex Trebek's passing.
Yes, Alex has been part of the evening routine for decades. The world has irreparably changed.
Neither one of these posts were put in the form of a question.
(sigh)
Who has been part of the evening routine for decades?
(sigh)
I have friends who don't answer their phones until after 7:30.
Not a person, and I apologize if it's therefore inappropriate for this thread, but I think many scientists and stargazers will miss the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is damaged beyond repair (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/famed-arecibo-telescope-brink-collapse-will-be-dismantled).
Thinking also of the million+ souls lost to COVID as well as those left behind, particularly the health care workers dealing with grief on top of incredible personal and professional stress (https://twitter.com/Prof_Lowe/status/1327038059238617099).
Quote from: namazu on November 20, 2020, 09:36:19 PM
Not a person, and I apologize if it's therefore inappropriate for this thread, but I think many scientists and stargazers will miss the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is damaged beyond repair (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/famed-arecibo-telescope-brink-collapse-will-be-dismantled).
Thinking also of the million+ souls lost to COVID as well as those left behind, particularly the health care workers dealing with grief on top of incredible personal and professional stress (https://twitter.com/Prof_Lowe/status/1327038059238617099).
Sad for both.
My father-in-law passed this morning. It has been a rough week.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 29, 2020, 10:05:39 AM
My father-in-law passed this morning. It has been a rough week.
I'm sorry about your loss, e_p_w.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 29, 2020, 10:05:39 AM
My father-in-law passed this morning. It has been a rough week.
I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. Take care.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 29, 2020, 10:05:39 AM
My father-in-law passed this morning. It has been a rough week.
Sympathies to you and your extended family. Take care.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 29, 2020, 10:05:39 AM
My father-in-law passed this morning. It has been a rough week.
Very sorry to hear it. Hope your cats will be cuddly and comforting for you.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 29, 2020, 10:05:39 AM
My father-in-law passed this morning. It has been a rough week.
Sorry to hear about your loss, EPW. Please take good care of yourself.
Oh, no!
Very sorry to hear about your loss. The holidays are especially hard after a death, and when the death is during the holidays it is much worse. I wish you all peace and I hope that you remember the best of the times.
I add my condolences to others', e_p_w.
I also just found out about the death of dancer Marge Champion, 101, on October 21 of this year.
https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/entertainment/2019/09/03/woman-who-served-model-disneys-snow-white-turns-100/2199361001/
https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-10-23/marge-champion-famed-dancer-of-hollywoods-golden-age-dies-at-101
I met her briefly in 1973; her insights and energy had a pivotal effect on my work in the liturgical arts.
Her graciousness and courage in the face of several setbacks throughout her life were exemplary.
RIP--and find one of those clouds to keep dancing on, Marge.
M.
Geoffrey Palmer, 93, the estimable British actor who played Lionel Hardcastle on 'As Time Goes By', one of the very best TV series ever made anywhere.
My sick colleague (whose courses I took over) has died.
I didn't know her for long, nor did I know her well, but I'm very sorry she's gone.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 12, 2020, 10:26:09 AM
My sick colleague (whose courses I took over) has died.
I didn't know her for long, nor did I know her well, but I'm very sorry she's gone.
I'm sorry to hear about your colleague. These losses are hard no matter what. Take care.
Charlie Pride has died of Covid.
Quote from: clean on December 12, 2020, 03:32:27 PM
Charlie Pride has died of Covid.
Also Carol Sutton.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/12/us/carol-sutton-coronavirus-death/index.html
M.
John la Carre of pneumonia. A writer whose plain but elegant writing brought into being a remarkable world for those of us born in the shadow of WW 2.
RIP. I enjoyed and still enjoy his novels, especially the George Smiley ones.
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 13, 2020, 03:57:45 PM
RIP. I enjoyed and still enjoy his novels, especially the George Smiley ones.
I just watched the "Soldier, etc" series this past summer, have read others.
Detail and settings were vivid, characters deep, even unto themselves. A dimensional world.
M.
Was that the one with Alex Guinness? There's also the follow up, "Smiley's People".
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 13, 2020, 05:10:42 PM
Was that the one with Alex Guinness? There's also the follow up, "Smiley's People".
Yes, I saw both. In fact, I saw "Smiley's People" first, then looked up the predecessor, it was so good.
M.
I saw both, but only after I had read the novels. I also remember seeing "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" with Richard Buton.
Here is the obit: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/books/john-le-carre-dead.html
Incidentally, one of the clues in NYT's Monday crossword (the online edition is released Sun evening) is on John Le Carre.
One of my favorites is "Call for the Dead"--short, tight, and gripping.
Someone else agrees:
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/12/the-achievement-of-john-le-carres-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy/617383/
It's somehow encouraging to think that our good work can live after us....at least in some cases.
M.
StatSpouse's aunt and a former colleague's wife (suddenly) this week, plus two members of my extended family in the past month. And let me just say that Zoom funerals are barely better than nothing.
So sorry, Statsgeek. Losses, especially compound ones, are difficult enough without physical presence of those who can share in the grief.
Spoke to a neighbor and fellow church member today who lost his sister to COVID last week. None of the family was able to be with her before she died. And of course they can't hold a real funeral. He's well and accepting.
We lost one of our long-time custodians to COVID last week. Our first death in the campus family. I never met him, but people have commented online about what a nice, unassuming guy he was, always quick with a story. Sympathy to his family and those who loved him.
Dawn Wells dies of Covid
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/dawn-wells-dies-of-covid-19-mary-ann-on-gilligans-island-was-82/ar-BB1cm21J?li=BBnb7Kz
Grad student in my cohort. Announcement to our department today. No details beyond vague allusion to medical complications. Haven't interacted much after first year courses and our class being scattered to different thesis labs. Did not know him well. Still feels like a punch in the gut. We're a pretty small cohort. Feeling so sorry for his family right now.
Don't know yet how the rest of the cohort is taking the news.
My condolences. Even when you're not very close to someone, it's hard when you've known them at all.
M.
Found out only minutes ago that one of our long-time patrons has just died. Not, so far as we know, from COVID. He was a widower with long-term health problems whose time just seems to have come. It's still sad for his family and others who knew him.
Mary Oliver, nature poet extraordinaire, who passed away from lymphoma 2 years ago today.
Legendary music producer Phil Spector (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/arts/music/phil-spector-dead.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage) - aged 81 from Covid 19.
Sylvain Sylvain (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/arts/music/sylvain-sylvain-dead.html) guitarist for the proto-punk New York Dolls.
Remind us why the unrepentant murderer Spector ought to be given plaudits here....
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 17, 2021, 10:49:05 PM
Remind us why the unrepentant murderer Spector ought to be given plaudits here....
The man changed the face of music in the 50's and 60's. Not a nice guy, probably an abusive narcissist. But I try to see people as broadly as I can. John Lennon beat women in his life. But a brilliant musician. Norman Mailer - genuine asshole, stabbed his wife once. But a well known man of letters. Einstein - absolute dickhead to his first wife. Married his cousin. Changed the very nature of physics. James Crick - co-discovered DNA. Jackass IRL.
So.... Phil Spector, dead at 81. Brilliant music producer. Also killed a struggling actress. People can be admirable in some aspects and monsters in others.
Quote from: secundem_artem on January 17, 2021, 11:09:07 PM
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 17, 2021, 10:49:05 PM
Remind us why the unrepentant murderer Spector ought to be given plaudits here....
Not a nice guy, probably an abusive narcissist.
This reminds me of Norm MacDonald's very long joke about serial killer Albert Fish: https://youtu.be/yrbZxtuUdsQ (https://youtu.be/yrbZxtuUdsQ)
Lemme see: changed music in the 60s, good, balances out, murderer, bad.
This individual ought to 'rest in peace'?
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 18, 2021, 11:30:14 AM
Lemme see: changed music in the 60s, good, balances out, murderer, bad.
This individual ought to 'rest in peace'?
Yes, but he should have started years ago.
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 18, 2021, 11:30:14 AM
Lemme see: changed music in the 60s, good, balances out, murderer, bad.
This individual ought to 'rest in peace'?
Assuming the "RIP" in the title is more of a reminder that soeone is dead than an actual wish for someone's eternal repose, if we only choose to "remember" non-complicated people, that will be an extremely short list. It's like getting rid of statues of historical figures; removing public reminders of them doesn't erase their influence (good and bad) on history. Refusing to talk about them doesn't eliminate their contributions.
Quote from: marshwiggle on January 18, 2021, 12:03:02 PM
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 18, 2021, 11:30:14 AM
Lemme see: changed music in the 60s, good, balances out, murderer, bad.
This individual ought to 'rest in peace'?
Assuming the "RIP" in the title is more of a reminder that soeone is dead than an actual wish for someone's eternal repose, if we only choose to "remember" non-complicated people, that will be an extremely short list. It's like getting rid of statues of historical figures; removing public reminders of them doesn't erase their influence (good and bad) on history. Refusing to talk about them doesn't eliminate their contributions.
I thought it could be a way to gloat, while playing the gentleman.
Quote from: mahagonny on January 18, 2021, 12:08:16 PM
Quote from: marshwiggle on January 18, 2021, 12:03:02 PM
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 18, 2021, 11:30:14 AM
Lemme see: changed music in the 60s, good, balances out, murderer, bad.
This individual ought to 'rest in peace'?
Assuming the "RIP" in the title is more of a reminder that soeone is dead than an actual wish for someone's eternal repose, if we only choose to "remember" non-complicated people, that will be an extremely short list. It's like getting rid of statues of historical figures; removing public reminders of them doesn't erase their influence (good and bad) on history. Refusing to talk about them doesn't eliminate their contributions.
I thought it could be a way to gloat, while playing the gentleman.
Fair enough. Still more honest than trying to forget they ever existed, or never did anything of value.
Quote from: marshwiggle on January 18, 2021, 12:27:23 PM
Quote from: mahagonny on January 18, 2021, 12:08:16 PM
Quote from: marshwiggle on January 18, 2021, 12:03:02 PM
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 18, 2021, 11:30:14 AM
Lemme see: changed music in the 60s, good, balances out, murderer, bad.
This individual ought to 'rest in peace'?
Assuming the "RIP" in the title is more of a reminder that soeone is dead than an actual wish for someone's eternal repose, if we only choose to "remember" non-complicated people, that will be an extremely short list. It's like getting rid of statues of historical figures; removing public reminders of them doesn't erase their influence (good and bad) on history. Refusing to talk about them doesn't eliminate their contributions.
I thought it could be a way to gloat, while playing the gentleman.
Fair enough. Still more honest than trying to forget they ever existed, or never did anything of value.
Specter's music production innovations are a matter of historical record but their value is a matter of individual taste.
Quote from: mahagonny on January 18, 2021, 01:04:14 PM
Quote from: marshwiggle on January 18, 2021, 12:27:23 PM
Quote from: mahagonny on January 18, 2021, 12:08:16 PM
Quote from: marshwiggle on January 18, 2021, 12:03:02 PM
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 18, 2021, 11:30:14 AM
Lemme see: changed music in the 60s, good, balances out, murderer, bad.
This individual ought to 'rest in peace'?
Assuming the "RIP" in the title is more of a reminder that soeone is dead than an actual wish for someone's eternal repose, if we only choose to "remember" non-complicated people, that will be an extremely short list. It's like getting rid of statues of historical figures; removing public reminders of them doesn't erase their influence (good and bad) on history. Refusing to talk about them doesn't eliminate their contributions.
I thought it could be a way to gloat, while playing the gentleman.
Fair enough. Still more honest than trying to forget they ever existed, or never did anything of value.
Specter's music production innovations are a matter of historical record but their value is a matter of individual taste. (said the curmudgeon)
A couple who were acquaintances both died in the last month, both of COVID.
He ran a restaurant and a glossy lifestyle magazine focused on our town. They used to throw release parties for the magazine and we'd go to meet some interesting people. He and I hit it off and made each other laugh.
When COVID hit and he had to close his restaurant he went nuts. Kept arguing on Facebook that it wasn't that bad, the governor is overreacting, etc. He got kicked out of a local Facebook group devoted to COVID safety and wrote a column in his magazine about how mean they were too him.
And throughout the summer and fall they both kept posting photos of themselves out socializing, in groups, no masks in site.
She was 57, he was about 60. I am sad and angry both.
I'm sorry for that loss, and I think I also understand your anger.
It's almost the way one can feel about a suicide, on the one hand a felo de se, in that they brought it on themselves, and yet they also deprived others of their beloved company and created a sense of loss in the world that no-one would have ever wanted.
M.
My father died 11 years ago today on his 94th birthday. He'd be 105 today. He always said he planned to live to be 100 and was mean enough to make. And he nearly did. Rest easy Dad.
A hs classmate of mine died of cancer today. She was a friend of decades, though not intimate, and she made some questionable choices, one of which was embracing, to the point of becoming a practitioner, of quack 'alternative medicine'. Sadly I have to question whether this hastened her death.
I'm sorry for your loss.
When you've known someone that long, it just seems like they'll always be there...and then they aren't.
RIP.
M.
Thank you. I confess I am conflicted. I do not want her to be dead, but I cannot get around the fact that her poor choices wrt embracing quackery likely greatly hastened that death. She was not only a user of such things, but an active teacher of them, being, amongst other new agey things, a 'Reiki Master'.
This is similar in fact to what I felt like six months ago when a grad school buddy of mine was killed in a motorcycle crash. He was in his late 40s, a family man. Now his wife is a widow and his daughter fatherless, because he was stupid enough to ride a motorcycle. I get that he was not at fault for the accident-- the trucker who hit him, not impaired in any way, probably just could not see him, and when a truck hits a motorbike, well we all know who loses. Six months have gone by, his widow is still obviously, by her Facebook efforts, still having a mighty hard time of it, and I am still dealing with really negative feelings towards the guy, who was off on a cross-country summer bike trip while his family was at home, presumably filling some sort of midlife crisis fantasy. I do not necessarily like my feelings, but cannot deny them nonetheless.
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 21, 2021, 06:30:13 PM
Thank you. I confess I am conflicted. I do not want her to be dead, but I cannot get around the fact that her poor choices wrt embracing quackery likely greatly hastened that death. She was not only a user of such things, but an active teacher of them, being, amongst other new agey things, a 'Reiki Master'.
This is similar in fact to what I felt like six months ago when a grad school buddy of mine was killed in a motorcycle crash. He was in his late 40s, a family man. Now his wife is a widow and his daughter fatherless, because he was stupid enough to ride a motorcycle. I get that he was not at fault for the accident-- the trucker who hit him, not impaired in any way, probably just could not see him, and when a truck hits a motorbike, well we all know who loses. Six months have gone by, his widow is still obviously, by her Facebook efforts, still having a mighty hard time of it, and I am still dealing with really negative feelings towards the guy, who was off on a cross-country summer bike trip while his family was at home, presumably filling some sort of midlife crisis fantasy. I do not necessarily like my feelings, but cannot deny them nonetheless.
So sorry for your loss, kay.
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 19, 2021, 10:29:32 PM
A hs classmate of mine died of cancer today. She was a friend of decades, though not intimate, and she made some questionable choices, one of which was embracing, to the point of becoming a practitioner, of quack 'alternative medicine'. Sadly I have to question whether this hastened her death.
Same with Steve Jobs.
I dunno. Maybe she preferred to die whole and naturally instead of sick with radiation and chemotherapy?
She was 53yo and had children. She should have accepted serious science-based treatment, rather than quackery. It really is that simple.
https://www.twincities.com/2021/01/22/hammerin-hank-aaron-has-died-at-age-86/ (https://www.twincities.com/2021/01/22/hammerin-hank-aaron-has-died-at-age-86/)
Hank Aaron died today.
Tonight's "PBS News Hour" newscast ended with a memorial tribute to Jim Lehrer who died this time last year.
Larry King (87)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/larry-king-breezy-interviewer-of-the-famous-and-infamous-dies-at-87/ar-BB1d1qhd?ocid=Peregrine&li=BBnb7Kz
Quote from: clean on January 23, 2021, 08:44:53 AM
Larry King (87)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/larry-king-breezy-interviewer-of-the-famous-and-infamous-dies-at-87/ar-BB1d1qhd?ocid=Peregrine&li=BBnb7Kz
King had a truly odd interviewing style. "So.... Putin, Schmutin. Waddaya think?" He had a 60 year career so I expect that means this was successful, but I always found it confusing.
Quote from: secundem_artem on January 23, 2021, 01:47:51 PM
King had a truly odd interviewing style. "So.... Putin, Schmutin. Waddaya think?" He had a 60 year career so I expect that means this was successful, but I always found it confusing.
Here's an interview with Larry King from 2015:
https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/01/broadcast-legend-larry-king-dies-at-87-wtop-shares-obituary-in-his-own-words/ (https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/01/broadcast-legend-larry-king-dies-at-87-wtop-shares-obituary-in-his-own-words/)
I didn't know he'd been in radio before he went to CNN. From WTOP Radio online 1/23/21
Flory Jagoda. (https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/flory-jagoda)
Quote from: American Folklife CenterThe American Folklife Center is very sad to pass on the news of the death of Flory Jagoda. Flory was a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and cultural activist who survived the Holocaust and kept the flame of Sephardic Jewish tradition alive in the face of adversity. She was a tradition bearer whose work was crucial to her tradition and to the United States, and she was recognized with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among many other honors.
Flory appeared at the Library of Congress many times in the past few years. She was a favorite performer and friend to many in the American Folklife Center and the Judaica Section. All of us at the Center express our condolences to Flory's family, friends, students, and fans.
[...]
At the link, find a blog post celebrating Flory's legacy, with embedded videos of three of Flory's concerts and an oral history interview by Howard Bass.
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2019/03/homegrown-plus-flory-jagoda/?loclr=fbafc
Appropriately, Flory died in the hours leading up to a special Sabbath in the Jewish faith: Shabbat Shirah, which commemorates the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. Shabbat Shirah means "The Sabbath of Song," because the Israelite women sang a song of praise after coming through the sea, led by the prophet Miriam with her tambourine. Flory was just such a song leader for so many in the community of Sephardic musicians.
Someone I know lost her mother to Covid. :(
Cloris Leachman.
R.I.P. Frau Blücher [sad, but still nervous, neighing of horses]
Captain Tom, the 100-year-old World War II veteran who did 100 laps to raise money, has now died of COVID.
Hal Holbrook at 95.
I saw him in An Evening With Mark Twain. I had tickets to see him a second time, but the show was cancelled when his wife took a turn, and unfortunately, died.
Quote from: clean on February 03, 2021, 12:39:31 PM
Hal Holbrook at 95.
I saw him in An Evening With Mark Twain. I had tickets to see him a second time, but the show was cancelled when his wife took a turn, and unfortunately, died.
He played the elderly Mark Twain so convincingly for so long that I was surprised to hear that he had still been alive. I'd supposed that he must have passed 100 years ago.
Friends just told me about meeting him in London at a small restaurant near Pall Mall several years ago.
They recognized him, but didn't let on. He just said, "How nice to see some Americans here!"
He asked them what they'd been doing, they said wandering around London.
They asked him what he'd been doing, he said going to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen.
I don't know what happened after that, but they said they did not ask for autographs or let on they knew who he was.
M.
Quote from: apl68 on February 03, 2021, 12:35:06 PM
Captain Tom, the 100-year-old World War II veteran who did 100 laps to raise money, has now died of COVID.
The London Eye was lit in red, white, and blue in his honor:
https://secretldn.com/london-eye-captain-tom/ (https://secretldn.com/london-eye-captain-tom/)
Posted on Secret London online (2/2/21)
Nobody here has mentioned Cicely Tyson. She died suddenly within the last couple of weeks. She lived to be almost as old as Miss Jane Pitman.
Her memoir was just in the process of coming out. We have it on order for the library.
I've had it in mind twice and didn't have a link on hand to an obit or article on her.
RIP, Cicley: You set the bar high for class, role selection, and style.
M.
Christopher Plummer (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/movies/christopher-plummer-dead.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage) aged 91 after a fall.
Susan Bayh, wife of Sen. Evan Bayh, at 61 of cancer.
Rush Limbaugh age 70
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rush-limbaugh-conservative-radio-provocateur-and-cultural-phenomenon-dies-at-70/ar-BB1dLy8M?li=BBnb7Kz
That's fair. I seldom if ever agreed with Limbaugh, but to go from sports-guy-shock-jock to major national kingmaker is quite a ride.
Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti died yesterday
From "The world is a beautiful place":
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn't half so bad
if it isn't you
Quote from: fishbrains on February 23, 2021, 12:21:04 PM
Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti died yesterday
From "The world is a beautiful place":
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn't half so bad
if it isn't you
Aw, sorry to hear that he is gone.
NYT obit https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/obituaries/lawrence-ferlinghetti-dead.html
Quote from: Langue_doc on February 23, 2021, 01:12:42 PM
NYT obit https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/obituaries/lawrence-ferlinghetti-dead.html
Oh, one of my all time favorites. What gifts he gave to the world:
From "I Am Waiting" (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42869/i-am-waiting-56d22183d718a):
QuoteI am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
youth's dumb green fields come back again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder
Roger Mudd at 93
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/roger-mudd-anchorman-who-stumped-a-kennedy-is-dead-at-93/ar-BB1eq51C?li=BBnb7Kz
Quote from: clean on March 09, 2021, 04:05:26 PM
Roger Mudd at 93
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/roger-mudd-anchorman-who-stumped-a-kennedy-is-dead-at-93/ar-BB1eq51C?li=BBnb7Kz
Of interest, Mr. Mudd worked at WTOP Radio and Richmond, VA news outlets before he went to CBS.
https://wtop.com/tv/2021/03/roger-mudd-longtime-network-tv-newsman-dies-at-93/ (https://wtop.com/tv/2021/03/roger-mudd-longtime-network-tv-newsman-dies-at-93/)
Adam Zagajewski, the amazing Polish poet, passed away yesterday. He leaves behind the good advice to "Try to Praise the Mutilated World".
My neighbor (in her mid-70's) had to put her dog down yesterday. This was one of those dogs who looked like it might die at any minute for the last 5 years; but the dog was always playful and enjoyed looking my dogs square in the eyes as she pooped a foot away from our chain-link fence while my dogs barked hysterically. The dog's last few days were pretty ugly. This was a chunky bulldog, so we had to help our neighbor lift it around. Ugh.
Our neighbor's son (who lived with her) died suddenly about 15 months ago and they had adopted the dog together as a puppy, so the dog was the queen of the house.
Our neighbor quit eating for a bit after her son died. We're keeping an eye on her.
The owner of a local independent wine shop in my town died early this week. I had brought bottles of Disznókő Tokaji Dry Furmint (2016 vintage) at this shop and enjoyed talking with the owner whenever I went. He remembered I wanted something from Croatia but he was unsuccessful finding a company there wanting to export.
He also carried some beers but wine was the main thing.
I'm sorry for both your losses.
M.
Several in the entertainment world this week:
Author Larry McMurtry (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/books/larry-mcmurtry-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries) aged 84
Actor George Segal, (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/movies/george-segal-dead.html) aged 87
Actress Jessica Walter (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/arts/television/jessica-walter-dead.html?searchResultPosition=2), aged 80
Quote from: mamselle on March 24, 2021, 07:39:26 PM
I'm sorry for both your losses.
M.
Thanks! The owner had been there for a decade, his shop was along one of the downtown streets. If the shop is shuttered for good, I'm sorry I didn't discover it sooner. :( Disznókő Tokaji Dry Furmint took me back to Budapest each time; I'm grateful he had that available.
Beverly Cleary has died at age 104.
NY Times obit (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/books/beverly-cleary-dead.html)
Quote from: AmLitHist on March 26, 2021, 08:45:22 AM
Several in the entertainment world this week:
Actor George Segal, (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/movies/george-segal-dead.html) aged 87
My favorite dad joke from Segal (I think from
Fun with Dick and Jane):
JF: "How many times have you been shot?"
GS: "Including this time?"
JF: "Yeah."
GS: "Once."
Quote from: namazu on March 26, 2021, 07:09:39 PM
Beverly Cleary has died at age 104.
NY Times obit (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/books/beverly-cleary-dead.html)
She was HUGE in our house, esp. with our oldest daughter.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle was a big hit for a long time--including the creation of a diorama that earned an A+; I still remember saving dryer lint for her to use in making Ralph just the right color and fuzziness.
Quote from: AmLitHist on March 27, 2021, 11:46:58 AM
Quote from: namazu on March 26, 2021, 07:09:39 PM
Beverly Cleary has died at age 104.
NY Times obit (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/books/beverly-cleary-dead.html)
She was HUGE in our house, esp. with our oldest daughter. The Mouse and the Motorcycle was a big hit for a long time--including the creation of a diorama that earned an A+; I still remember saving dryer lint for her to use in making Ralph just the right color and fuzziness.
I love it! :)
Quote from: namazu on March 26, 2021, 07:09:39 PM
Beverly Cleary has died at age 104.
NY Times obit (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/books/beverly-cleary-dead.html)
This is one of those obits that make me feel sad to know someone I admired has died yet feeling much more...hmm...I'm not actually sure what the right word would be.
It's some form of satisfaction that comes from knowing someone lived a long life doing work they deeply cared about, leaving behind a wonderful legacy in the form of their beloved books.
She was my favorite writer when I was little, and an author I still return to as an adult. I'm very much in awe of people who are able to write well for children, people who are able to tell memorable and moving stories using simple and direct language.
I enjoyed the Ramona books and the illustrations in those editions printed/released in the 1990s.
Prince Philip (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/obituaries/prince-philip-dead.html), aged 99.
Paul Greenberg, Pulitzer-prizewinning Arkansas journalist dies at the age of 84. His Pulitzer work was before my time, but he was still a remarkable writer even late in life.
https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/135308/pulitzer-winner-paul-greenberg-dead-at-84
Quote from: AmLitHist on April 09, 2021, 06:39:58 AM
Prince Philip (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/obituaries/prince-philip-dead.html), aged 99.
Here is the BBC News obit. The NYT had to bring in Oprah. Ugh!
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-10224525
And pictures: https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-36417297
Quote from: Langue_doc on April 10, 2021, 04:51:12 PM
Quote from: AmLitHist on April 09, 2021, 06:39:58 AM
Prince Philip (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/obituaries/prince-philip-dead.html), aged 99.
Here is the BBC News obit. The NYT had to bring in Oprah. Ugh!
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-10224525
And pictures: https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-36417297
Thanks for posting these BBC links, Langue_doc. Interesting bio and photos.
I've been reading about Prince Philip from UK based news sources on my phone. Quite a life!
Royalcentral.co.uk has some good coverage:
https://royalcentral.co.uk (https://royalcentral.co.uk)
"Prince Philip: 99 years, 143 countries and one very famous wife"
This article shows the family tree of his descendants.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42651950
Daunte Wright, shot to death on Sunday during a routine police stop in Minneapolis:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56729673
M.
QuoteDaunte Wright, shot to death on Sunday during a routine police stop in Minneapolis:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56729673
M.
After seeing the video, it was not exactly 'routine' unless people routinely make a break for it and try to drive off.
However, it is certainly unfortunate that the officer shot him. His actions did not justify being shot.
Something probably needs to be done with the training of officers. This is hardly the first time an officer shot someone when they THOUGHT that they were using a Taser device.
A year ago, 22 people in Nova Scotia were killed, and several more injured, when a shooter attacked both people known to him, as well as strangers, and set fire to several homes.*
Rest to those who died, and respite to those still suffering.
M.
* a plea was made by survivors and others to refrain from naming him, to avoid giving him any infamy; I'm abiding by that.
Shock G.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/entertainment/shock-g-digital-underground-dead/index.html (https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/entertainment/shock-g-digital-underground-dead/index.html)
Jim Steinman. Yes, his music was excessive, but I loved it all the same, I especially enjoyed his work with Meatloaf.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jim-steinman-dead/2021/04/21/2159f3a0-a211-11eb-a774-7b47ceb36ee8_story.html
Medievalist Paul Szarmach, on April 27th.
For many years, he ran the International Conference on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, until 2006.
In that year he became a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America for his scholarship in early English literature, and its Executive Director until his retirement in 2011.
I've never heard a bad word spoken of him. He always had a twinkle in his eye and was willing to listen to and encourage new research and new researchers.
M.
Olympia Dukakis.
Johnny Crawford, whom I believe was one of the original Mouseketeers, in addition to his role in The Rifleman.
Eric Carle, author of The Very Hunger Caterpillar, died today (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/books/eric-carle-dead.html).
He was the author of one of my favourite opening sentences of any book I have ever read (it's such a peaceful sentence): "In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf."
I loved his bold use of color and whimsy...page cut-outs and glittery fish fins among them.
RIP to one who created so much cause for joy.
M.
This tribute to him is fitting:
https://www.wbur.org/npr/970974320/eric-carle-creator-of-the-very-hungry-caterpillar-has-died
M.
Right now, the names of a few hundred indigenous children who died at one of several mandated educational institutions are known, but thousands may have been buried in unmarked graves in other locations as well:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57325653
Your people stewarded the land for generations, and this is how you were repaid...not only in this one place, but in many, throughout the globe.
Reparations for lost young lives are impossible, may we all, in all places, learn to do and be better.
M.
I just found out that one of my colleagues passed yesterday. He was only 67.
Ned Beatty died a couple of days ago. Deliverance was the first R-rated movie I ever saw. Probably wasn't a good first choice for me. He was good as Dan's dad in Roseanne as well. [sigh]
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on June 17, 2021, 03:57:13 PM
I just found out that one of my colleagues passed yesterday. He was only 67.
So sorry to hear this, EPW.
Frank Bonner, the guy who played Herb Tarlek on WKRP in Cincinnati, died Wednesday at the age of 79.
Donald Rumsfeld:
https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-6-30-21-n1272874
M.
Quote from: mamselle on July 01, 2021, 02:42:07 PM
Donald Rumsfeld:
https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-6-30-21-n1272874
M.
Quel dommage. Not.
I saw a biography of Rummie a number of years ago. It was clear he'd been an a-hole since he was out of diapers.
João Gilberto (https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739488787/how-joao-gilbertos-music-sparked-an-aesthetic-revolution).
This is delayed, I thought I had posted it in June, but had only made a note to myself to do so:
On June 12, 1963, fifty-eight years ago, the nonviolent NAACP leader, activist Medgar Evers, was shot in the back in his own driveway, on a day the police and FBI protection being afforded him in response to credible threats did not appear to escort him out.
A veteran of the French theater of WWII (Battle of Normandy), and honorably discharged as a Sergeant, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. After three trials, his assassin was convicted and jailed in 1994.
I recall this event personally because, at the age of ten, seeing the article in the newspaper, it was the first time I realized I disagreed with my father over something significant, and I was puzzled about it.
My dad had helped found an interracial fraternity, Akerima, at Ohio State and had forced my mom's folks to accept the fact that his black army buddy (one of them had carried the other off a field in Germany, he never said which) was going to be one of his groomsmen. Or there wouldn't be a wedding.
But when I showed him the article, he was weirdly subdued, muttered something like "that's not the way to go about it," and wouldn't discuss it further.
Now, many years later, my sibs and I, putting recollections together, have concluded he had a longstanding PTSD-related depression, and I am guessing it muted what might in other moments have been outrage over Evers' death.
But I recall then, and still believe now, that the assassination was eerily responsive to JFK's Civil Rights speech of the day before. A kind of war had been declared, and Evers wasn't the first casualty, but a significant one.
A graduate of Alcorn, there's a statue of him on their campus.
RIP.
M.
Actor Ed Asner died yesterday at 91.
I hate spunk.
Willard Scott (NBC Weatherman.)
Quote from: kaysixteen on August 30, 2021, 09:24:29 PM
I hate spunk.
:)
How old do I have to be to recognize this reference?
Quote from: clean on September 05, 2021, 11:31:58 AM
Willard Scott (NBC Weatherman.)
He got his start in broadcasting here in DC:
https://wtop.com/tv/2021/09/he-made-everybody-feel-special-johnny-holliday-remembers-willard-scott/ (https://wtop.com/tv/2021/09/he-made-everybody-feel-special-johnny-holliday-remembers-willard-scott/)
Posted on WTOP Radio (9/5/21)
Quote from: fishbrains on September 05, 2021, 12:17:01 PM
Quote from: kaysixteen on August 30, 2021, 09:24:29 PM
I hate spunk.
:)
How old do I have to be to recognize this reference?
"A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants."
Michael K. Williams https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/arts/michael-k-williams-dead.html. He was a multi-talented individual who brought some truly iconic and unforgettable characters to life (Omar Little is probably the biggest fan favorite), but obviously he had numerous personal struggles throughout his own life. He was obviously well regarded by his colleagues and sounds like a genuinely kind and giving person as well.
Norm McDonald at 61
After a nine year fight with cancer
He kept it a secret so I never knew he was sick
Yes--Mcdonald didn't want audiences to regard him any differently, and nothing was allowed to get in the way of the comedy. The guy made me laugh a lot.
Norm was fearless: "I bet it's spelled b-o-r-e-d!"
https://youtu.be/lL0WayC7jW0 (https://youtu.be/lL0WayC7jW0)
The confirmation of the death of Gabby Petito is due after the forensic autopsy tomorrow, but the announcement to the family has been made and investigations have apparently moved towards a likely criminal charge of her fiance, who is himself missing, shortly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogTMRKTsyxQ
Both families are dealing with difficult issues; peace to them all.
M.
In annual memoriam:
Dr. Elizabeth Cain, musicologist, Sarum chant expert, Latinist, vocalist, liturgist, and gatekeeper (in the old liturgical sense) to that rarified culture of individuals who, like her, saw no reason to distinguish between singing music and studying its history; knowing how to make a good jousting parry and how to cut a good galliard caper; and translating a medieval musical source and chewing out a blinkered bishop who didn't quite see the point of women's (Anglican) ordination.
She god-parented at least two of us that I know of who seek to follow in her dancing footsteps and live by her joyful precepts (and chew out any bishops or their like who still need it, even yet today).
+ 2016.09.30 (Feast of St. Jerome)
RIP
M.
Pat Fish, the main man behind The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, aka The Jazz Butcher, died this week at the age of 63.
I enjoyed their music.
George Frayne - Commander Cody of Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. Rockabilly pioneers of the 1960's. Biggest hit was Hot Rod Lincoln (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ZycJC-pmo)
Quote from: mamselle on September 20, 2021, 10:03:09 AM
The confirmation of the death of Gabby Petito is due after the forensic autopsy tomorrow, but the announcement to the family has been made and investigations have apparently moved towards a likely criminal charge of her fiance, who is himself missing, shortly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogTMRKTsyxQ
Both families are dealing with difficult issues; peace to them all.
M.
Updated: The cause of death was identified and homicide confirmed. The fiance remains unfound, but has been federally charged with credit card fraud for the use of her cards in the days after her probable date of death, which was laterally referred to by the coroner as due to domestic violence.
The family has created an endowed fund to assist others in such circumstances, specifically in response to concerns that a documented imbalance in searching and prosecution exists; in the process of searching for Petito, two other missing individuals' remains have been located.
M.
Megan Rice, peace activist
Colin Powell At 84
(From COVID)
Quote from: clean on October 18, 2021, 10:34:57 AM
Colin Powell At 84
(From COVID)
Just a clarifying addendum from CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/18/politics/colin-powell-dies/index.html):
Quote
"General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19," the Powell family wrote on Facebook, noting he was fully vaccinated.
Powell had multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that suppresses the body's immune response, as well as Parkinson's, Peggy Cifrino, Powell's longtime chief of staff, confirmed to CNN. Even if fully vaccinated against Covid-19, those who are immunocompromised are at greater risk from the virus.
Link to the NYTimes article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/us/politics/colin-powell-dead.html
From covering up the Mai Lai massacre to lying about Iraq (and lying about lying about Iraq), invading Panama, and coordinating the war on terror, he was a cowardly bag man to the end.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 18, 2021, 12:57:23 PM
From covering up the Mai Lai massacre to lying about Iraq (and lying about lying about Iraq), invading Panama, and coordinating the war on terror, he was a cowardly bag man to the end.
So just out of curiosity, is there
anyone who has led armed forces in time of war who you would consider worthy of honour and respect?
Quote from: marshwiggle on October 18, 2021, 01:06:10 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 18, 2021, 12:57:23 PM
From covering up the Mai Lai massacre to lying about Iraq (and lying about lying about Iraq), invading Panama, and coordinating the war on terror, he was a cowardly bag man to the end.
So just out of curiosity, is there anyone who has led armed forces in time of war who you would consider worthy of honour and respect?
The ones who don't commit or cover up war crimes so they can enrich themselves.
Quoteso they can enrich themselves
How specifically did he "enrich himself"?
Exactly did junior officer Powell help cover up the My Lai massacre? What exactly was the problem with invading Panama to rid it of a cocaine-trafficking dictator?
What is the evidence pro/ con that Powell was lying about not knowing what he told the UN about Iraq was a lie?
Yes, in a head of the Joint Chiefs, one is not looking for somebody to organize a church social.
Had his job description been followed by his successors, many in the world would have been better off:
QuoteIn doing so he stamped the Powell Doctrine on military operations: Identify clear political objectives, gain public support and use decisive and overwhelming force to defeat enemy forces.
The NYT article neglects to mention what he called an exit strategy. In plain English: Politicos, define success, and then get the hell out.
Colin Powell was decent and wise.
Or perhaps, like most humans, he was simply a mixture of characteristics, some worthy, some less so.
M.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 18, 2021, 02:33:47 PM
Quote from: marshwiggle on October 18, 2021, 01:06:10 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 18, 2021, 12:57:23 PM
From covering up the Mai Lai massacre to lying about Iraq (and lying about lying about Iraq), invading Panama, and coordinating the war on terror, he was a cowardly bag man to the end.
So just out of curiosity, is there anyone who has led armed forces in time of war who you would consider worthy of honour and respect?
The ones who don't commit or cover up war crimes so they can enrich themselves.
Give a specific example.
The 'yellow cake uranium' speech was bullshit. And influenced public opinion in favor of the Iraq invasion. Another thing Trump wasn't wrong about, the regime change didn't have to happen. George W. Bush continues to be flummoxed over the whole situation, unsure of anything other than that he always does the right thing.
On another subject, here's a tribute to a police officer who was murdered in cold blood while on the job. If anyone's offended that George Floyd gets mentioned again and not in glowing terms, remember, you guys are the ones with the T-shirts with Floyd's lovely face on them, so he's fair game for discussion.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/no-gold-coffins-or-public-funerals-for-officer-dylan-harrison
Who would have thought that Parasaurolophus and DJT would agree on something!
Quote from: clean on October 18, 2021, 05:16:06 PM
Quoteso they can enrich themselves
How specifically did he "enrich himself"?
I'll concede his grift is nothing like as direct as Cheney's. But he leveraged his career into a series of extremely lucrative speaking engagements and a multi-million dollar book deal, then after leaving the Bush administration became a partner for a number of venture capital, software, energy, and other firms.
Now, there's nothing wrong in principle with leveraging your career to do that. Except that his was a career characterized by keeping quiet about really big, important wrongs so that he could climb the next rung on the ladder.
Quote from: kaysixteen on October 18, 2021, 07:49:30 PM
Exactly did junior officer Powell help cover up the My Lai massacre?
In 1968 he was tasked with investigating a letter corroborating the My Lai massacre. He shrugged and said there was nothing to it, allowing it to be covered up until 1970.
QuoteWhat exactly was the problem with invading Panama to rid it of a cocaine-trafficking dictator?
You know Noriega was a US-backed CIA plant (until he wasn't), right? Regardless, regime-change operations are bad for the countries whose regimes are "changed"--they introduce serious instability. And remember, this was in the context of South America's dirty wars in the 1980s: the US did a lot of very bad things there and then, including training torturers who subsequently "disappeared" over 30 000 people in Argentina. I don't know enough to know how involved Powell was in all of that, but I do know that he had a chance to speak up against American involvement in Panama, and instead he doubled down.
Quote
What is the evidence pro/ con that Powell was lying about not knowing what he told the UN about Iraq was a lie?
As you doubtless know, Congress never investigated him, so there's lots we don't know. But here's (https://theintercept.com/2018/02/06/lie-after-lie-what-colin-powell-knew-about-iraq-fifteen-years-ago-and-what-he-told-the-un/) a good summary of what we do know, and how it shows he was a lying sack of shit.
It's perhaps worth adding that Powell was, by his own admission, privy to the fact that the US was using torture during the Bush administration (with the caveat that he was initially kept in the dark). Once again, he did not speak out.
And then, of course, there's his opposition to peacekeeping in Bosnia, his public spat with Clinton about allowing queer people to serve in the military...
Powell was a coward, and he deserves nothing but our contempt. That he was less shitty than Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld doesn't do a lot to burnish his legacy.
Quote from: mamselle on October 18, 2021, 09:02:06 PM
Or perhaps, like most humans, he was simply a mixture of characteristics, some worthy, some less so.
M.
Sure. But the difference is that he's complicit in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and his life left the world a significantly worse place than it was. Genghis Khan was a complex and flawed person, too, but he also murdered hundreds of millions. Donald Trump is a mix of worthy and unworthy characteristics, too, but the unworthy far outweighs the worthy. We should be honest about people's legacies.
Quote from: marshwiggle on October 18, 2021, 09:36:52 PMQuote
The ones who don't commit or cover up war crimes so they can enrich themselves.
Give a specific example.
You know that the implication, here, is that there are no such people?
I'm happy to concede that there are. I'm sure there must be. There are a lot of military officials in the world, and I don't keep close tabs on their careers. At a pass, how about Roméo Dallaire? For Americans, maybe Douglas MacArthur or Dwight D. Eisenhower? (Although the latter's presidential history might disqualify him by my standards.) I dunno,
you tell
me.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 19, 2021, 08:23:29 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on October 18, 2021, 09:36:52 PMQuote
The ones who don't commit or cover up war crimes so they can enrich themselves.
Give a specific example.
You know that the implication, here, is that there are no such people?
I'm happy to concede that there are. I'm sure there must be. There are a lot of military officials in the world, and I don't keep close tabs on their careers. At a pass, how about Roméo Dallaire?
Roméo Dallaire suffered a serious mental breakdown from having been
prevented from intervening during a genocide. It sounds to me like isolationism is the only acceptable option for you.
Quote from: marshwiggle on October 19, 2021, 08:36:43 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on October 19, 2021, 08:23:29 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on October 18, 2021, 09:36:52 PMQuote
The ones who don't commit or cover up war crimes so they can enrich themselves.
Give a specific example.
You know that the implication, here, is that there are no such people?
I'm happy to concede that there are. I'm sure there must be. There are a lot of military officials in the world, and I don't keep close tabs on their careers. At a pass, how about Roméo Dallaire?
Roméo Dallaire suffered a serious mental breakdown from having been prevented from intervening during a genocide. It sounds to me like isolationism is the only acceptable option for you.
...no? I just don't accept war crimes, coups, and other needless interventions. Anybody who commits war crimes is a bad person in my book, even if they fed stray dogs and gave to charities.
War crimes are very
very bad. And most military personnel manage not to commit them.
Quote from: mamselle on September 20, 2021, 10:03:09 AM
The confirmation of the death of Gabby Petito is due after the forensic autopsy tomorrow, but the announcement to the family has been made and investigations have apparently moved towards a likely criminal charge of her fiance, who is himself missing, shortly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogTMRKTsyxQ
Both families are dealing with difficult issues; peace to them all.
M.
The FBI has identified remains found in the woods of an environmental reserve near the Laundrie family home in Orth Port, FL, which until recently had been flooded, as those of Brian Laundrie, Gabby Petito's fiance. He was a person of interest in her murder, and a suspect fugitive in the theft of her credit cards after the confirmed date of her death.
Whatever has happened, both families need peace now.
M.
My uncle just passed away. He was in his 80s and was diagnosed with lymphoma a few years ago. Despite being vaccinated and being diligent about mask-wearing, he still got COVID-19. His weakened immune system (between the cancer and the chemo) just couldn't handle it.
Fortunately, he had enough time--several days--that his kids could (almost) all come home to be with him. He was a great man, a kind man. He was lucky, in all the best ways. He made his own luck through a combination of hard work and truly, deeply caring about other people. He is one of the reasons I am so accepting of people different from me. Despite being an upper-middle-class white man, he always emphasized how important it is to see the world through the other person's eyes.
You know, even when it's expected, and even after a long, full life, the end is always too soon. His death will leave a huge hole in the family and his community.
Quote from: pgher on October 22, 2021, 01:52:54 PM
My uncle just passed away. He was in his 80s and was diagnosed with lymphoma a few years ago. Despite being vaccinated and being diligent about mask-wearing, he still got COVID-19. His weakened immune system (between the cancer and the chemo) just couldn't handle it.
Fortunately, he had enough time--several days--that his kids could (almost) all come home to be with him. He was a great man, a kind man. He was lucky, in all the best ways. He made his own luck through a combination of hard work and truly, deeply caring about other people. He is one of the reasons I am so accepting of people different from me. Despite being an upper-middle-class white man, he always emphasized how important it is to see the world through the other person's eyes.
You know, even when it's expected, and even after a long, full life, the end is always too soon. His death will leave a huge hole in the family and his community.
I am very sorry for your loss.
+1
It sounds like you were all so fortunate to have known him.
M.
Sorry for your loss, pgher. He sounds like he was a wonderful person.
Thanks all. I hadn't seen him in a few years, but then was able to visit him in August. That was a blessing.
Peter Scolari at 66. Plenty of television shows, and I saw him on Broadway in Lucky Guy.
Once, in an Italian Renaissance literature course we briefly pondered what it would be like to be the television version of Rick Moranis.
SO lost his estranged brother to an OD. Been interesting over here.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 03, 2021, 05:11:09 PM
SO lost his estranged brother to an OD. Been interesting over here.
Please extend my consolation to your SO and his family, and to you both for absorbing the complications and sense of loss.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on November 03, 2021, 05:41:40 PM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 03, 2021, 05:11:09 PM
SO lost his estranged brother to an OD. Been interesting over here.
Please extend my consolation to your SO and his family, and to you both for absorbing the complications and sense of loss.
M.
Thanks.
From fifty years ago today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PXORQE5-CY
JFK, RIP.
M.
(I think your dates are off a bit, Mamselle. It was November 22, 1963.)
Quote from: AmLitHist on November 06, 2021, 11:51:36 AM
(I think your dates are off a bit, Mamselle. It was November 22, 1963.)
Right. I saw a retrospective and started looking up other things; one of them had that title and I was confused.
Apologies.
M.
So, to recall the correct date, as noted above...
....and sadly, the 5 individuals, part of a downtown holiday parade, who were killed by an out-of-control driver fleeing charges for domestic violence in Waukesha, WI yesterday evening.
M.
One of my former students passed away this week in a car accident. I have no words and I'm angry at the Universe.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 27, 2021, 12:21:16 PM
One of my former students passed away this week in a car accident. I have no words and I'm angry at the Universe.
I'd be angry, too.
Peace, in time, to you--and to your student.
M>
Quote from: mamselle on November 27, 2021, 12:42:09 PM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 27, 2021, 12:21:16 PM
One of my former students passed away this week in a car accident. I have no words and I'm angry at the Universe.
I'd be angry, too.
Peace, in time, to you--and to your student.
M>
Thanks. He grew so much, just to be cut down. Not even close to 30.
If you're a Broadway musicals fan, Stephen Sondheim at 91:
https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/11/towering-musical-theater-master-stephen-sondheim-dies-at-91/ (https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/11/towering-musical-theater-master-stephen-sondheim-dies-at-91/)
He visited the DC area over the years.
Three students killed (and six others wounded) by gunshot in their high school just north of Detroit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUI4YcdhNM
M.
Quote from: mamselle on November 30, 2021, 04:45:03 PM
Three students killed (and six others wounded) by gunshot in their high school just north of Detroit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUI4YcdhNM
M.
So sad.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 30, 2021, 07:06:08 PM
Quote from: mamselle on November 30, 2021, 04:45:03 PM
Three students killed (and six others wounded) by gunshot in their high school just north of Detroit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUI4YcdhNM
M.
So sad.
A fourth student, one of the hospitalized with wounds, has died. All their names have now been released:
Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Justin Shilling, 17.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on December 01, 2021, 05:59:25 PM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 30, 2021, 07:06:08 PM
Quote from: mamselle on November 30, 2021, 04:45:03 PM
Three students killed (and six others wounded) by gunshot in their high school just north of Detroit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRUI4YcdhNM
M.
So sad.
A fourth student, one of the hospitalized with wounds, has died. All their names have now been released:
Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Justin Shilling, 17.
M.
I was talking recently with my college-age child, and they said that Islamic terrorism doesn't really register on their radar of things to fear. School shootings do. They have become so commonplace, such a part of the landscape that their generation grew up in.
It's so fucked up that it's so new and already omnipresent.
the Dancing Grannies in Waukesha, WI
https://thefederalist.com/2021/11/23/a-requiem-for-the-dancing-grannies/
And a child has now succumbed to injuries cause by the terrorist attack.
Quote from: mamselle on November 22, 2021, 05:31:54 PM
....and sadly, the 5 individuals, part of a downtown holiday parade, who were killed by an out-of-control driver fleeing charges for domestic violence in Waukesha, WI yesterday evening.
M.
...was poster earlier...but this...
Quotethe Dancing Grannies in Waukesha, WI
https://thefederalist.com/2021/11/23/a-requiem-for-the-dancing-grannies/
And a child has now succumbed to injuries cause by the terrorist attack.
...sadly, needs to be fact-checked:
Only three, not all, of the group called The Dancing Grannies were killed--not that any are not too many. Two other victims were unrelated to the group.
A sixth victim, a child, has died since: seven more remain hospitalized, three in serious condition.
The perpetrator was never identified by police as a terrorist, but as an individual, acting alone, fleeing a court summons in response to domestic violence charges in which he had previously run over his wife and child. He was out on bail, set low to prevent jail overcrowding, from previous, similar charges.
The judge involved has expressed regret at the perpetrator's having been discharged from the jail, given his subsequent behavior.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on December 02, 2021, 09:48:11 AMThe perpetrator was never identified by police as a terrorist, but as an individual, acting alone, fleeing a court summons in response to domestic violence charges in which he had previously run over his wife and child.
To some people, a person of color is automatically a terrorist, while a white perpetrator is, at worst, a deeply troubled individual.
Quote from: WWUpdate on December 02, 2021, 11:12:01 AM
Quote from: mamselle on December 02, 2021, 09:48:11 AMThe perpetrator was never identified by police as a terrorist, but as an individual, acting alone, fleeing a court summons in response to domestic violence charges in which he had previously run over his wife and child.
To some people, a person of color is automatically a terrorist, while a white perpetrator is, at worst, a deeply troubled individual.
And to some, the other way around.
Quote from: marshwiggle on December 02, 2021, 01:01:02 PMAnd to some, the other way around.
To
some people, perhaps, but how often are white people referred to as "terrorists" even when their actions clearly fit the dictionary definition of terrorism--"the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims"?
I did not post the clarification to invite a quadrangular shooting match on this thread.
Take it elsewhere. (reported).
M.
Quote from: mamselle on December 02, 2021, 09:48:11 AM
Quote from: mamselle on November 22, 2021, 05:31:54 PM
....and sadly, the 5 individuals, part of a downtown holiday parade, who were killed by an out-of-control driver fleeing charges for domestic violence in Waukesha, WI yesterday evening.
M.
...was poster earlier...but this...
Quotethe Dancing Grannies in Waukesha, WI
https://thefederalist.com/2021/11/23/a-requiem-for-the-dancing-grannies/
And a child has now succumbed to injuries cause by the terrorist attack.
...sadly, needs to be fact-checked:
Only three, not all, of the group called The Dancing Grannies were killed--not that any are not too many. Two other victims were unrelated to the group.
A sixth victim, a child, has died since: seven more remain hospitalized, three in serious condition.
The perpetrator was never identified by police as a terrorist, but as an individual, acting alone, fleeing a court summons in response to domestic violence charges in which he had previously run over his wife and child. He was out on bail, set low to prevent jail overcrowding, from previous, similar charges.
The judge involved has expressed regret at the perpetrator's having been discharged from the jail, given his subsequent behavior.
M.
Pardon me, I posted again about the people killed in Waukesha for the benefit of those who actually care about white lives, who may have skipped over your post in a sudden attack of common sense.
Fact checking: the evidence that Brooks is an actual terrorist and not simply a poor driver, at this late date (less than two weeks) is only that he has been known to make hateful public statements on social media against whites and Jews and already has a record of vehicular homicide or attempts at doing that.
To the question 'did he act alone' it's not clear yet whether he did, or whether he is working with Britney Cooper, a professor at Princeton, or somewhere....stAY TUNED.
Please show respect for all the departed by taking contentious discussion to some other thread.
Reported (again).
M.
Yes, I think that's enough for this thread.
Eddie Mekka, the actor who played Carmine "The Big Ragu" Ragusa on Laverne & Shirley died a week ago. I'm not sure why this bums me out so much.
Senator Bob Dole at 98.
December 6, 1989. 12 engineering students, 1 nursing student, and 1 university employee murdered because they were women. We remember. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
Quote from: Morden on December 06, 2021, 08:32:49 AM
December 6, 1989. 12 engineering students, 1 nursing student, and 1 university employee murdered because they were women. We remember. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
RIP.
M.
Quote from: clean on December 05, 2021, 01:08:05 PM
Senator Bob Dole at 98.
A nice tribute...https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/12/06/the_many_bob_doles_all_of_them_honorable_146843.html
A different era. 'Even the democrats couldn't dislike him.'
Pearl Harbor, Dec.7, 1941,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Pearl_Harbor_Remembrance_Day
M.
Quote from: Morden on December 06, 2021, 08:32:49 AM
December 6, 1989. 12 engineering students, 1 nursing student, and 1 university employee murdered because they were women. We remember. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
I am ashamed. I read the story, and wondered when it happened. Then I saw that it was during my senior year in High School. How do I not remember this event?
Quote from: FishProf on December 07, 2021, 12:31:19 PM
Quote from: Morden on December 06, 2021, 08:32:49 AM
December 6, 1989. 12 engineering students, 1 nursing student, and 1 university employee murdered because they were women. We remember. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
I am ashamed. I read the story, and wondered when it happened. Then I saw that it was during my senior year in High School. How do I not remember this event?
Unless you were in Canada at the time, or taking French newspapers (as I was, online) it was not well-covered at all in the US news.
M.
I was living in Vermont at the time, and it did get wide coverage on Burlington TV.
That said, what say we consider, as a country, cutting off the massive publicity that we give each of these shootings? I realize that this would be a hard sell, both for the media and for the general public, but it 1) does no good, does not lessen the chances of future shootings nor do anything for the victims and their families, and 2) can easily inspire a) copycat shooters and b) the sort of paranoia I mentioned on the other thread.
Quote from: mamselle on December 07, 2021, 01:07:59 PM
Quote from: FishProf on December 07, 2021, 12:31:19 PM
Quote from: Morden on December 06, 2021, 08:32:49 AM
December 6, 1989. 12 engineering students, 1 nursing student, and 1 university employee murdered because they were women. We remember. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
I am ashamed. I read the story, and wondered when it happened. Then I saw that it was during my senior year in High School. How do I not remember this event?
Unless you were in Canada at the time, or taking French newspapers (as I was, online) it was not well-covered at all in the US news.
M.
Pretty much
anything that doesn't have specific relevance (or perceived relevance) to the US gets little to no coverage in US news. For instance, in the Olympics, if there's an event where the US isn't in the finals, but there's a record, either Olympic or world, which is likely to be set, it probably won't get covered in the US. Most other countries are more universal than that.
True.
-----
The body of aspiring nursing student Kathleen Moore was found near the home of her boyfriend in Florida; he has been charged in the murder.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/us/florida-kathleen-moore-missing-collin-knapp-arrested/index.html
For a week, it was looked upon as a missing persons case; after signs of domestic abuse were found, the search changed character.
RIP, Kathleen. By all accounts you were trying to make something of yourself; the theft of your future life is regrettable.
M.
Quote from: marshwiggle on December 08, 2021, 05:11:20 AM
Quote from: mamselle on December 07, 2021, 01:07:59 PM
Quote from: FishProf on December 07, 2021, 12:31:19 PM
Quote from: Morden on December 06, 2021, 08:32:49 AM
December 6, 1989. 12 engineering students, 1 nursing student, and 1 university employee murdered because they were women. We remember. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_massacre
I am ashamed. I read the story, and wondered when it happened. Then I saw that it was during my senior year in High School. How do I not remember this event?
Unless you were in Canada at the time, or taking French newspapers (as I was, online) it was not well-covered at all in the US news.
M.
Pretty much anything that doesn't have specific relevance (or perceived relevance) to the US gets little to no coverage in US news. For instance, in the Olympics, if there's an event where the US isn't in the finals, but there's a record, either Olympic or world, which is likely to be set, it probably won't get covered in the US. Most other countries are more universal than that.
What's that famous headline?? "Typhoon hits Bangladesh: 1 million killed, no Americans injured"
The Olympics consist of watching Americans win gold medals, and watching some gymnast from Pottsylvania fall flat on her arse. NBC sucks.
Watch weather too... it stops at the Canadian Border.... (after which it must all be the same... blizzards every day
The feminist scholar bell hooks has died: https://twitter.com/Enter_Ebony/status/1471151210438791168.
Few contemporary scholars have influenced so wide a range of students and scholars.
Best selling novelist Anne Rice at 80:
https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/12/anne-rice-author-of-gothic-novels-dead-at-80/ (https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/12/anne-rice-author-of-gothic-novels-dead-at-80/)
Her son Christopher Rice has collaborated with her in more recent novels.
I found out today that another estranged member of my family passed in January. R.I.P.
Condolences on your loss.
Whenever we may find out, it's still a loss.
M.
My grad programs are really bad about keeping in touch with alumni. That, plus my near-total cocooning during the past 18 months, led to me being completely flattened this week by two losses.
First, I learned that the then-chair of my PhD program--who passed over other students and pointedly sought me out to offer me a fellowship mid-year when another student dropped out, and who was particularly kind to this older student among all the 20-somethings--passed from COVID in February, just a week after her husband had also died from COVID.
Then, in my annual Google search before sending a holiday email to my MA advisor (to see what he's been working on, and such), I learned that he died in August, following a TBI after falling down basement stairs in January. He'd been in a coma the entire time. He was only 3 years older than me, so we shared a lot of common memory and became fast friends. Professionally, he too was patient and kind and always pushed me to do things I was sure I couldn't do. He also recognized my lack of academic acumen (to say that I was "green" and clueless and intimidated by younger students in grad school is an understatement!), but instead of writing me off, he saw something in me that he could help focus and nurture. He challenged me to always continue refining and developing my interests and to go wherever my students and readers might be, even if that was just teaching CC students and writing for a popular (the horror!) rather than a scholarly audience. In essence, he saw things in me that I'd thought and been told weren't worth much, and he validated me for who I was and have become.
Both gave me more than they could ever know, as people and as academics. I'm not a big-name PhD at a big famous R-1, but I've helped a lot of students recognize that they can improve their lives and that they do matter, to me and to others. And I've shared a lot of information with a lot of readers about things they never even knew they might be interested in, and they've learned and explored further as a result. None of that will make me famous, but it's important work--and it comes directly from the examples that these two professors lived out and engrained in me. With eternal gratitude, RIP, TL and HKB.
With heartfelt sympathy, my condolences.
That you've passed on what they gave you is the greatest honor you could give them.
Huge, long, virtual hugs.
M.
New journalist, memoirist, playwright, author Joan Didion (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/books/joan-didion-dead.html).
Quote from: AmLitHist on December 23, 2021, 12:05:52 PM
New journalist, memoirist, playwright, author Joan Didion (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/books/joan-didion-dead.html).
Run, River is one of my favorite novels.
Just found out that one of my childhood friends died of pneumonia and she was younger than I am. Wtf.
Keeping you in my thoughts.
M.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/world/africa/desmond-tutu-dead.html), aged 90. He and Nelson Mandela caught my imagination as a teen and lit the first sparks of activism (and recognition that there was a big world beyond my little country town) in me.
Quote from: AmLitHist on December 26, 2021, 08:10:53 AM
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/world/africa/desmond-tutu-dead.html), aged 90. He and Nelson Mandela caught my imagination as a teen and lit the first sparks of activism (and recognition that there was a big world beyond my little country town) in me.
He preached in our church twice in the 1980s. I was so moved by his gentleness, his wit, and his fire for loving justice.
A huge loss to the world.
M.
Wayne thiebaud, wonderful painter whose paintings are lit from within, at 101.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/obituaries/wayne-thiebaud-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries
E. O. Wilson:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/2021/12/27/013b4bd2-6700-11ec-a76b-374aeb82e811_story.html
M.
John Madden--football coach and game announcer--at 85.
Senator Harry Reid, at 82 years of age:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l22JA7cujB4
M.
Betty White! At 99.
I had expected that this Golden Girl would make it to 100.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/02/world/richard-leakey-death/index.html (https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/02/world/richard-leakey-death/index.html)
Sidney Poitier, age 94:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/entertainment/sidney-poitier-death/index.html
M.
Poitier is one of my favorite actors. I grew up near the town where In the Heat of the Night was filmed when I was a kid, and I remember so many people speaking of having been bowled over by how nice he and Rod Steiger were to the locals.
Here is the NYT obit:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/07/movies/sidney-poitier-dead.html
In the Heat of the Night is one of my favorites, and more so after including it in the list of required films for one of my ESL courses. I still remember having to walk the students through the movie as most of them were unfamiliar with the culture of the south.
'To Sir, With Love' is one of the greatest films ever made.
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 07, 2022, 10:45:36 PM
'To Sir, With Love' is one of the greatest films ever made.
Although the theme music sounds a bit creepy now.
Earlier this week, director Peter Bogdanovich (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/movies/peter-bogdanovich-dead.html).
C. Lani Guinier, law school professor and activist:
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/01/lani-guinier-civil-rights-lawyer-and-pioneering-harvard-scholar-dies-at-71.html
M.
What exactly is creepy about it? The whole point of the flick is to see a dedicated guy who discovers a calling as a teacher, and is really good at it, and turns young lives around, young people who honor him at the end with a party headlined by a song....
Quote from: kaysixteen on January 09, 2022, 09:54:58 PM
What exactly is creepy about it? The whole point of the flick is to see a dedicated guy who discovers a calling as a teacher, and is really good at it, and turns young lives around, young people who honor him at the end with a party headlined by a song....
Here are the lyrics, with a few highlights:
Quote
Those school girl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume.
It isn't easy but I'll try,
If you wanted the sky I'd write across the sky in letters
that would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, With Love.
The time has come, for closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave I know that I am Leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong, and weak from strong.
That's a lot to learn.
What! What can I give you in return?
If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start
But I would rather, you let me give my heart,
To Sir, With Love.
Those awkward years, have hurried by why did they fly away.
Why is it Sir children grow up to be people one day,
What takes the place of climbing trees and dirty knees in the world outside?
What is there for you I can buy?
If you wanted the world I'd surround it with a wall I'd scrall
These words with letters ten feet tall,
To Sir, With Love.
With all of the stories on inappropriate relationships between teachers (profs, etc.) and students, it's pretty much impossible to hear this and not cringe at the reality that many relationships like this are exploited in unhealthy ways.
This kind of enthralled hero worship with no reservations is reminiscent of a cult.
[/quote]
Here are the lyrics, with a few highlights:
Quote
Those school girl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume.
It isn't easy but I'll try,
If you wanted the sky I'd write across the sky in letters
that would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, With Love.
The time has come, for closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave I know that I am Leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong, and weak from strong.
That's a lot to learn.
What! What can I give you in return?
If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start
But I would rather, you let me give my heart,
To Sir, With Love.
Those awkward years, have hurried by why did they fly away.
Why is it Sir children grow up to be people one day,
What takes the place of climbing trees and dirty knees in the world outside?
What is there for you I can buy?
If you wanted the world I'd surround it with a wall I'd scrall
These words with letters ten feet tall,
To Sir, With Love.
With all of the stories on inappropriate relationships between teachers (profs, etc.) and students, it's pretty much impossible to hear this and not cringe at the reality that many relationships like this are exploited in unhealthy ways.
This kind of enthralled hero worship with no reservations is reminiscent of a cult.
[/quote]
Reported to mods. And with an added editorial comment from me: Jeez Louise.
Also, we might take some time for the late Bob Saget, who leaves behind an interestingly bifurcated legacy of embodying the go-to reliable dad on the family-friendly sitcom Full House, as well as generating a great deal of (sometimes shockingly) blue humor as a hard-working comedian. He brought some joy to my life in both roles.
Quote from: little bongo on January 10, 2022, 05:52:42 AM
Quote
Here are the lyrics, with a few highlights:
Quote
Those school girl days of telling tales and biting nails are gone,
But in my mind I know they will still live on and on,
But how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume.
It isn't easy but I'll try,
If you wanted the sky I'd write across the sky in letters
that would soar a thousand feet high,
To Sir, With Love.
The time has come, for closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave I know that I am Leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong, and weak from strong.
That's a lot to learn.
What! What can I give you in return?
If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start
But I would rather, you let me give my heart,
To Sir, With Love.
Those awkward years, have hurried by why did they fly away.
Why is it Sir children grow up to be people one day,
What takes the place of climbing trees and dirty knees in the world outside?
What is there for you I can buy?
If you wanted the world I'd surround it with a wall I'd scrall
These words with letters ten feet tall,
To Sir, With Love.
With all of the stories on inappropriate relationships between teachers (profs, etc.) and students, it's pretty much impossible to hear this and not cringe at the reality that many relationships like this are exploited in unhealthy ways.
This kind of enthralled hero worship with no reservations is reminiscent of a cult.
Reported to mods. And with an added editorial comment from me: Jeez Louise.
For what, exactly?
Deleted, with apologies for hasty action, and moved to the "Asides" thread.
Thanks for pointing out Bob Saget's passing, littlebongo.
He was a big part of our girls' growing-up years, between Full House and AFV. As some pointed out on CNN yesterday evening, he starred on two very popular shows at the same time, at a time when families watched t.v. together because, even with cable, that's how you consumed entertainment (i.e., no streaming or things like YouTube, etc.). I miss those days, and Bob Saget (among others) was a big part of them for our family.
Thanks, AmLitHist--yes, great memories of AFV as well.
And for those who remember (or caught in reruns) The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, a nod to Dwayne Hickman. I wasn't born during the original run and did not catch it on reruns (except I have vague memories of seeing one episode where he shows off a new suit, thus upping his status). But somehow I wound up watching a reunion movie called "Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis," which lifted most of its plot from Durrenmatt's "The Visit" (although Dobie gave the audience a much happier ending).
Nothing in the To Sir with Love song indicates an inappropriate relationship between student and teacher. Really, it doesn't.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/entertainment/meat-loaf-obit/index.html (https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/entertainment/meat-loaf-obit/index.html)
Louie Anderson (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/arts/television/louie-anderson-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1), aged 68, of cancer.
And Meat Loaf was part of the soundtrack to a couple of great summers of running around after dark, sitting uptown on the old Piggly Wiggly lot with our friends, and blasting our car stereos because there was nothing else to do in this little two-horse town, 40+ years ago.
Beegie Adair (1937-2022)
https://wkuherald.com/63307/news/beegie-adair-jazz-musician-and-distinguished-wku-alumna-passes-away-at-84/
We learned yesterday at the library that a longtime patron, one of our most familiar faces, died in a house fire the previous evening. We had seen him at the library as usual just hours before it happened. We're not sure what caused the fire, or how it was that he failed to escape. He was only a few years older than I am, and not infirm.
How awful, APL. So sorry
Quote from: Harlow2 on January 26, 2022, 06:31:38 AM
How awful, APL. So sorry
Yes, what a shocking story. Sympathies.
He was an academic--the only one we had who regularly patronized our library. He had adjuncted and did I don't know what all else at the nearest college, forty miles away. He had even published a couple of books--real books, not print-on-demand self-published stuff--on very specialized topics. He was the only person I could talk to locally who also knew what it was like to go through a PhD program in history (He actually got his degree), and we talked about it a time or two.
The last time I really spoke with him, within just the last couple of weeks, he was trying to interest a publisher whom everybody here would recognize in a new book. I suspect that any work he had done on that was lost in the fire with him.
We would all do well to remember that this present world could end for any one of us without warning at any time. It is later than you think.
My uncle died yesterday at 88 years old. My mother is now the sole surviving sibling in her immediate family.
Extremely tall (more than 6.5 feet tall since his early teens) yet never intimidating, he was always genial, kind, and full of bonhomie. He grew up on a farm, milked cows, fed pigs and chickens, collected eggs, drove a tractor, joined glee clubs and sang in church, went to a well-regarded small liberal arts undergraduate institution and an even nicer graduate music conservatory, earned a PhD in music (voice), and became an opera singer and teacher.
He was known for his rich, full, deep bass-baritone voice. I have a copy of the one CD he made, and when I put it in the player and his voice comes out of the speakers it's like he's in the room, laughing and joking with you, his hand on your shoulder.
Once when I was little (in the late 1970s), we heard that he and my aunt had flown over to the United States for a little while, so we drove out to the old family farm (100 acres on USA Highway 1 and the Neuse River, 15 minutes north of Raleigh). Under the oak trees in the side yard sat an early 1970s Jaguar XKE 2+2 coupe, gleaming pearlescent white with a red leather interior, sitting on glittery delicate wire wheels, looking entirely incongruous next to the faded red and green farm tractors--just one example of how the man had style.
Wealth and travel didn't change who he was at heart (he was always warm, friendly, humble, down-to-earth, and personable to everyone he met). My mother's first comment after receiving the news and sitting stunned for an hour yesterday morning: "He was always such a nice boy. And man. I will miss him so much." Echoed, Mom, echoed.
Condolences to both you and apl68.
The loss of close significant others, whether family or friend, is hard.
In "The Four Loves," C.S.Lewis noted that in addition to the person themselves, one loses that part of oneself that only that person knew (and I've thought, by corollary, the way one knew oneself in their presence.)
One mourns those losses for a long time.
M.
Peter Robbins took his own life at age 65--he was the first child actor to perform the voice of Charlie Brown through the TV specials in the 1960s and the first movie, A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
It's hard to overstate the roles Charlie Brown and his gang had in my growing up--the books helped me learn to read, and the daily comic strips led me to the newspaper every morning. And on TV--that combination of blah outlook, constant failure, and rather paradoxically, sheer hope had a voice. Charlie Brown failed at pretty much everything, more than once, and that got him depressed, as failure often does. But at the same time, there was always this sense of, "This time. This time I'll talk to the little red-haired girl; this time I'll get a hit; this time I'll strike someone out... this time I'll kick that football. This time for sure." How does someone like that sound? As it turned out, he sounded like Peter Robbins: "Rats." "Good grief." "I got a rock." It was all there in his voice, and I was depressed with him, and I had hope with him and for him.
Peter Robbins the man ran out of "this time," somehow. He couldn't bring himself to take another kick at that football. But maybe somewhere, Charlie Brown can.
RIP to Peter...but not to Charlie Brown.
Thank you for a beautiful encomium, Bongo.
M.
My condolences to paultuttle and apl68.
Quote from: little bongo on January 26, 2022, 01:01:55 PM
Peter Robbins took his own life at age 65--he was the first child actor to perform the voice of Charlie Brown through the TV specials in the 1960s and the first movie, A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
It's hard to overstate the roles Charlie Brown and his gang had in my growing up--the books helped me learn to read, and the daily comic strips led me to the newspaper every morning. And on TV--that combination of blah outlook, constant failure, and rather paradoxically, sheer hope had a voice. Charlie Brown failed at pretty much everything, more than once, and that got him depressed, as failure often does. But at the same time, there was always this sense of, "This time. This time I'll talk to the little red-haired girl; this time I'll get a hit; this time I'll strike someone out... this time I'll kick that football. This time for sure." How does someone like that sound? As it turned out, he sounded like Peter Robbins: "Rats." "Good grief." "I got a rock." It was all there in his voice, and I was depressed with him, and I had hope with him and for him.
Peter Robbins the man ran out of "this time," somehow. He couldn't bring himself to take another kick at that football. But maybe somewhere, Charlie Brown can.
It's only after we grow up and gain some perspective that we can see how sad and painful so much of the Charlie Brown universe actually is. Never getting to kick the football. Getting no help for his 5¢ from Lucy. The Great Pumpkin never showed up. That Christmas tree was a fail. The Charlie Brown universe was filled with existential pain and angst. No wonder poor Peter Robbins topped himself.
Thanks for your post, little bongo.
Charlie Brown did kick the football in the 1981 "It's Magic, Charlie Brown" TV special. Thanks to Snoopy's mishap during a magic show, Charlie Brown was invisible for most of the special. Lucy was bewildered when the football went off into the air on its own! This special is a bonus on the "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" DVD.
Quote from: paultuttle on January 26, 2022, 10:08:46 AM
My uncle died yesterday at 88 years old. My mother is now the sole surviving sibling in her immediate family.
Extremely tall (more than 6.5 feet tall since his early teens) yet never intimidating, he was always genial, kind, and full of bonhomie. He grew up on a farm, milked cows, fed pigs and chickens, collected eggs, drove a tractor, joined glee clubs and sang in church, went to a well-regarded small liberal arts undergraduate institution and an even nicer graduate music conservatory, earned a PhD in music (voice), and became an opera singer and teacher.
He was known for his rich, full, deep bass-baritone voice. I have a copy of the one CD he made, and when I put it in the player and his voice comes out of the speakers it's like he's in the room, laughing and joking with you, his hand on your shoulder.
Once when I was little (in the late 1970s), we heard that he and my aunt had flown over to the United States for a little while, so we drove out to the old family farm (100 acres on USA Highway 1 and the Neuse River, 15 minutes north of Raleigh). Under the oak trees in the side yard sat an early 1970s Jaguar XKE 2+2 coupe, gleaming pearlescent white with a red leather interior, sitting on glittery delicate wire wheels, looking entirely incongruous next to the faded red and green farm tractors--just one example of how the man had style.
Wealth and travel didn't change who he was at heart (he was always warm, friendly, humble, down-to-earth, and personable to everyone he met). My mother's first comment after receiving the news and sitting stunned for an hour yesterday morning: "He was always such a nice boy. And man. I will miss him so much." Echoed, Mom, echoed.
What a lovely remembrance, paultuttle.
Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP)
I spoke with our deceased patron's sister today and learned some details about his death. The fire at his house was caused by electrical wiring. The remains of an electrocuted raccoon were found on the scene. Our staff members, who were apparently the last to see the victim alive, said that he had complained of not feeling well. That would explain why he was lying down earlier in the evening than usual. He may have taken cold medicine and dozed off. The fire started elsewhere in the house, and he was apparently overcome by the smoke before he could get out.
A manuscript of his last book that he had sent to a family member has survived. They plan to see if they can get the publisher to publish it without the revisions they had wanted.
Both sad that such a confluence of circumstances should have snapped off his life so suddenly, and redemptive that his book MS wasn't lost.
RIP.
M.
Quote from: apl68 on January 31, 2022, 12:50:41 PM
I spoke with our deceased patron's sister today and learned some details about his death. The fire at his house was caused by electrical wiring. The remains of an electrocuted raccoon were found on the scene. Our staff members, who were apparently the last to see the victim alive, said that he had complained of not feeling well. That would explain why he was lying down earlier in the evening than usual. He may have taken cold medicine and dozed off. The fire started elsewhere in the house, and he was apparently overcome by the smoke before he could get out.
A manuscript of his last book that he had sent to a family member has survived. They plan to see if they can get the publisher to publish it without the revisions they had wanted.
If the publisher was interested in the book provided that revisions were made, you might suggest that the family hire someone to make the changes using money from the estate. Perhaps a young scholar on the job market might be willing to do the work for a reasonable price as stopgap employment. They could be credited like this: John Smith with Jane Doe [Jane Doe being the author of the revisions]. I doubt that a publisher would take the book without revisions if one of their editors had already seen it and said that it needed work.
Quote from: fleabite on January 31, 2022, 03:44:56 PM
Quote from: apl68 on January 31, 2022, 12:50:41 PM
I spoke with our deceased patron's sister today and learned some details about his death. The fire at his house was caused by electrical wiring. The remains of an electrocuted raccoon were found on the scene. Our staff members, who were apparently the last to see the victim alive, said that he had complained of not feeling well. That would explain why he was lying down earlier in the evening than usual. He may have taken cold medicine and dozed off. The fire started elsewhere in the house, and he was apparently overcome by the smoke before he could get out.
A manuscript of his last book that he had sent to a family member has survived. They plan to see if they can get the publisher to publish it without the revisions they had wanted.
If the publisher was interested in the book provided that revisions were made, you might suggest that the family hire someone to make the changes using money from the estate. Perhaps a young scholar on the job market might be willing to do the work for a reasonable price as stopgap employment. They could be credited like this: John Smith with Jane Doe [Jane Doe being the author of the revisions]. I doubt that a publisher would take the book without revisions if one of their editors had already seen it and said that it needed work.
I'd be willing to do the work myself
pro bono if I had a good idea of what the publisher wanted to see.
Quote from: clean on January 30, 2022, 08:18:23 PM
Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP)
This one hit me harder than I expected, mostly because I have such fond memories of laughing myself silly watching WKRP with my brother. We still have a few sibling jokes and sayings that stemmed from our childhood with WKRP.
Quote from: Istiblennius on February 01, 2022, 08:30:55 AM
Quote from: clean on January 30, 2022, 08:18:23 PM
Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP)
This one hit me harder than I expected, mostly because I have such fond memories of laughing myself silly watching WKRP with my brother. We still have a few sibling jokes and sayings that stemmed from our childhood with WKRP.
It was a great show. Would one of the sayings be "As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly" by any chance?
Quote from: jimbogumbo on February 01, 2022, 11:39:49 AM
Quote from: Istiblennius on February 01, 2022, 08:30:55 AM
Quote from: clean on January 30, 2022, 08:18:23 PM
Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP)
This one hit me harder than I expected, mostly because I have such fond memories of laughing myself silly watching WKRP with my brother. We still have a few sibling jokes and sayings that stemmed from our childhood with WKRP.
It was a great show. Would one of the sayings be "As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly" by any chance?
Every time one of us makes a mistake or miscalculation in judgment!
QuoteIt was a great show. Would one of the sayings be "As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly" by any chance?
That quote is from the show, but not associated with Howard Hesseman.
It was Mr. Carlson who said that about the turkeys. That show had Less Nessman as the reporter on the scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p00nBSNIPwg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FXSnoy71Q4
Quote from: clean on February 01, 2022, 03:17:37 PM
QuoteIt was a great show. Would one of the sayings be "As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly" by any chance?
That quote is from the show, but not associated with Howard Hesseman.
It was Mr. Carlson who said that about the turkeys. That show had Less Nessman as the reporter on the scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p00nBSNIPwg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FXSnoy71Q4
Oh, trust me, I knew! Les described it just like the Hindenberg! My wife just cracks up!!
Two campus police killed in a shooting in Virginia, at Bridgewater College:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9DFh-R9s80
RIP, and thank you for your service...
M.
Dr. Paul Farmer, global medicine advocate and activist, in his sleep onsite in Rwanda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2_iukzpHDA
M.
Quote from: mamselle on February 22, 2022, 07:07:29 AM
Dr. Paul Farmer, global medicine advocate and activist, in his sleep onsite in Rwanda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2_iukzpHDA
M.
I met him once at a small global health conference. He looked up the bio of each attendee and presented each of us with one of his books - chosen to reflect his interpretation of who we were and what we did in global health. They say never meet your heroes - in this case, they are wrong. A phenomenal human being who deserves every bit of praise he's ever received.
My father's oldest brother died yesterday. He was in his early 80s, and had been going downhill for a good while. Now he can finally be well again!
When their older sister died, in the darkest days of COVID (Though not from COVID), nobody could go to her funeral. Now we can meet like we want to. I'll be leaving early on Friday morning to drive a couple of hours to the funeral. My brother and I are among the pallbearers.
All good thoughts to you and your family as you celebrate his life and mourn his passing.
M.
Seattle grunge icon Mark Lanegan died in Ireland yesterday at 57. Lead man of Screaming Trees, major player in Queens of the Stone Age. I can't say I ever paid much attention to those bands. But his voice was distinctive, and he left an impressive legacy. I found his more recent work and his collaborations with younger musicians more interesting. He made some great recordings.
Quote from: mamselle on February 23, 2022, 08:32:59 AM
All good thoughts to you and your family as you celebrate his life and mourn his passing.
M.
Echoed, apl68. Along with my most profound condolences.
Quote from: paultuttle on February 25, 2022, 01:35:53 PM
Quote from: mamselle on February 23, 2022, 08:32:59 AM
All good thoughts to you and your family as you celebrate his life and mourn his passing.
M.
Echoed, apl68. Along with my most profound condolences.
Thank you all!
The funeral went well. My brother arrived safely after a 13-hour drive that carried him close to, but not quite through, areas with winter weather travel problems. It was a cheerful funeral. He had lived the sort of life that made it clear to us all that we could be confident in his future as he moves to the next stage. I got to see a lot of family that I hadn't seen in a long time. And got to spend a long weekend with my parents and my brother, who was unexpectedly able to arrange to stay on for a few days.
Our uncle was the foreman for a local contractor for 50 years. It was a small enough contractor that he had to be pretty hands-on. He oversaw the construction of half the newer parts of their town. Somebody imagined him walking around the mansions of Heaven, instinctively checking to make sure that everything was level and plumb....
One of my older brother's classmates from high school, who was also a friend of mine when we were young, passed away unexpectedly on Monday. He was only 51. My first thought was of his smile, and my brother also said one thing he remembered about this guy was that he always had a goofy grin on his face. We were on the track team together, he was a multi-sport athlete and the athlete of the year at our HS his senior year but never let that go to his head. I live a thousand miles away from where we grew up, but my brother kept in touch with him. He was kind and funny and generous, a talented craftsman and carpenter, and was loved by many.
American journalist Brent Renaud has been gunned down by Russian forces while covering the war in Ukraine:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brent-renaud-ukraine-russia-american-journalist-killed/
Brent Renaud and his brother made a documentary some years ago about an Arkansas National Guard unit's tour of duty in Iraq. His loss hits close to home in Arkansas.
Edna, my condolences.
Apl68, yes, I've been thinking of the losses of life in Ukraine as well. It is hard in so many different ways, but especially so when it's someone whose work one is familiar with more closely.
RIP.
M.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has died, age 84:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRYJtfUwdyo
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qc5y3tD8s
Pax in terra
M.
Also, no survivors on the downed Chinese flight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_hl_wBaTc8
RIP
M.
Madeleine Albright's obit in the BBC World News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48401172
and in the NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/us/madeleine-albright-dead.html
https://www2.stetson.edu/today/2022/03/stuart-michelson-phd-noted-finance-professor-passes-away/
Stuart Michelson Phd
Stetson University
Was very instrumental in the success of multiple journals, conferences, associations, Stetson University, and certainly his friends and family.
Gilbert Gottfried, comedian and 'aladdin'' star, dies at 67
The Washington Post reports that he died of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 2
Quote from: clean on April 12, 2022, 04:18:52 PM
Gilbert Gottfried, comedian and 'aladdin'' star, dies at 67
The Washington Post reports that he died of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 2
He had quite a career over the years:
https://wtop.com/celebrities/2022/04/gilbert-gottfried-standup-comic-and-actor-dies-at-67/ (https://wtop.com/celebrities/2022/04/gilbert-gottfried-standup-comic-and-actor-dies-at-67/)
Enjoy the interview!
One of my coworkers met him ahead of a show at the DC Improv.
I am sad to have to report that a gentleman in my church just passed of cancer. He was a grand total of 8 days my senior. Until around this time last year, he was looking good, and overall in significantly better shape than myself. He was also telling everyone at church that the covid vax would rewrite his DNA. So of course, in Aug., he got covid. Bad. He was in the hospital for 5 weeks, ventilated, and even had to have part of his lung surgically removed. He seemed to be improving by around Thanksgiving, and was all set to begin what was going to be hard p.t. But he had more pain and pain in places that could not be accounted for. He was examined, and cancer somewhere in his back was discovered, cancer that was probably in its earliest and sadly undetected stages by the time he had the covid. It is clear that the covid experience significantly accelerated his cancer growth, even as it also weakened his body. Less than 6 months later, he is gone. He leaves a wife and three kids.
Quote from: kaysixteen on April 29, 2022, 08:03:26 PM
I am sad to have to report that a gentleman in my church just passed of cancer. He was a grand total of 8 days my senior. Until around this time last year, he was looking good, and overall in significantly better shape than myself. He was also telling everyone at church that the covid vax would rewrite his DNA. So of course, in Aug., he got covid. Bad. He was in the hospital for 5 weeks, ventilated, and even had to have part of his lung surgically removed. He seemed to be improving by around Thanksgiving, and was all set to begin what was going to be hard p.t. But he had more pain and pain in places that could not be accounted for. He was examined, and cancer somewhere in his back was discovered, cancer that was probably in its earliest and sadly undetected stages by the time he had the covid. It is clear that the covid experience significantly accelerated his cancer growth, even as it also weakened his body. Less than 6 months later, he is gone. He leaves a wife and three kids.
So sorry for your loss.
Naomi Judd at 76
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/naomi-judd-of-grammy-winning-duo-the-judds-dies-at-76/ar-AAWMQ9q?li=BBnb7Kz
Thank you. I am taking it very hard, much harder than I let anyone at church know... the crux of my problem is that I am struggling mightily, have been since he first got covid last summer, with the enormously bad decision he made, not to vax up... his intense covid case, which nearly killed him then, undoubtedly significantly weakened his body and made treating his cancer much harder, and ultimately futile. I get that these thoughts are sub-Christian, and am struggling with them and praying about them, but there they are nonetheless.
Dennis Waterman, British actor and musician, May 8th, age 74.
https://youtu.be/p6WB33WxHE0
Hw was the soul of 'New Tricks,' had starred with John Thaw in 'The Sweeney,' and worked as a child actor as well.
M.
Uvalde, TX
21 killed by 18 year old, plus his grandmother.
Ray Liotta at 67
Goodfellas actor
Quote from: clean on May 26, 2022, 10:28:00 AM
Ray Liotta at 67
Goodfellas actor
NYT obit
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/movies/ray-liotta-dead.html
Quote from: clean on May 26, 2022, 10:27:07 AM
Uvalde, TX
21 killed by 18 year old, plus his grandmother.
RIP. I didn't realize the grandmother had succumbed.
M.
Im sorry. I dont know if the grandmother has died. The news is all so shocking, that I did not catch that she had survived.
https://www.kens5.com/article/news/special-reports/uvalde-school-shooting/grandmother-uvalde-shooter-recovering-san-antonio-area-hospital/273-7d344fa2-5d22-427e-9969-30c2637ba35d
Long time PBS "NewsHour" contributor/political analyst Mark Shields:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/remembering-longtime-newshour-political-analyst-mark-shields (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/remembering-longtime-newshour-political-analyst-mark-shields)
He retired in 2020.
Quote from: hmaria1609 on June 21, 2022, 06:41:21 PM
Long time PBS "NewsHour" contributor/political analyst Mark Shields:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/remembering-longtime-newshour-political-analyst-mark-shields (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/remembering-longtime-newshour-political-analyst-mark-shields)
He retired in 2020.
I remember him, and liked him. Wife and I used to watch him [with Gigot?] on TV in the mid to late '90's. Wife liked him because he seemed to be a "cloth cap liberal", but wasn't left enough. I thought he was a left wing nut job. After some of these viewings, wife and I had deep discussions!
I expect he had a good time, and I certainly hope so.
One of my former colleagues, and friends, passed away today. I am very sad.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on July 06, 2022, 06:19:14 PM
One of my former colleagues, and friends, passed away today. I am very sad.
My condolences.
I'm sorry for your loss, EPW. Take care.
My sympathies, EPW.
James Caan (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/movies/james-caan-dead.html)(who will always be Sonny Corleone to me), at age 82.
Quote from: AmLitHist on July 07, 2022, 03:01:17 PM
My sympathies, EPW.
James Caan (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/movies/james-caan-dead.html)(who will always be Sonny Corleone to me), at age 82.
I remember his time as a casino owner in the popular TV show "Las Vegas" on NBC.
Walmart and a number of buildings around here have put their flags into half-staff the last two days--- anyone have any idea why?
Quote from: kaysixteen on July 07, 2022, 10:05:48 PM
Walmart and a number of buildings around here have put their flags into half-staff the last two days--- anyone have any idea why?
Due to the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/07/05/proclamation-on-honoring-the-victims-of-the-tragedy-in-highland-park-illinois/), in which at least 7 people were killed.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been assassinated:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07/08/world/japan-shinzo-abe-shooting
RIP.
M.
Ivana Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/nyregion/ivana-trump-dead.html
I'll leave this without comment, as much as I may want to opine.
Claes Oldenberg:
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/claes-oldenburg-artist-death/index.html
Someone who believed size matters...
RIP
M.
The wonderful actor Paul Sorvino (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/obituaries/paul-sorvino-dead.html), at age 83.
Three movie mobsters gone in recent months: Sorvino, James Caan, and Ray Liotta. RIP all.
Tony Dow.
Who would not have wanted to be a Cleaver?
British actor David Warner
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/25/entertainment/david-warner-actor-death-omen-titanic-cec/index.html (https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/25/entertainment/david-warner-actor-death-omen-titanic-cec/index.html)
He started with the Royal Shakespeare Co.
I remember his roles in "Star Trek" and "Titanic"
Quote from: AmLitHist on July 26, 2022, 10:56:56 AM
The wonderful actor Paul Sorvino (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/obituaries/paul-sorvino-dead.html), at age 83.
Three movie mobsters gone in recent months: Sorvino, James Caan, and Ray Liotta. RIP all.
RIP, Paul Sorvino. I still watch old episodes of
Law and Order--just love the repartees between Phil Cerreta and Mike Logan. He was a good cop.
Eric Flint died at the age of 75 on July 17, per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Flint.
Among other achievements, he was a noted writer of speculative fiction (which is typically classed with science fiction and fantasy in most bookstores and libraries).
His most famous series starts with his novel 1632, which asks the interesting question of what would people from a small town in West Virginia do, around the turn of the 21st century, if they suddenly found themselves transported almost 400 years in time and across the Atlantic to the middle of Germany, during the Thirty Years War (in the eponymous year). For instance, how would they survive the various endemic diseases, what system(s) of government would they institute, how would they interact with the people and governments of that time, and what technological advances would they be able to promulgate, centuries earlier than when those advances and inventions occurred in their own historical timeline?
Interestingly, he identified strong writers very early on among his fanbase and encouraged them to become co-authors and independent authors via multiple strategies (e.g., creating online spaces where the 1632-based alternate history could be discussed and formalized into canon, soliciting short stories from his fanbase and then collecting the best into published collections, and inviting the strongest writers to co-write novels advancing various storylines in the 1632 series). Few have done more in democratizing the writing process in the speculative fiction area.
He will definitely be missed.
Nichelle Nichols (Lt Uhura on Star Trek) died today
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/star-trek-legend-nichelle-nichols-has-died-at-89/ar-AA109ZTl?cvid=726b4c711e144809a1af52dbc754635c
First inter racial kiss. Black woman officer on a 1960s TV show.
"A beloved icon of the science-fiction franchise, Nichols' casting as a prominent character in a position of authority was unprecedented and radical for a TV show that first aired in 1966. Her character's kiss with William Shatner's Captain James Kirk also broke ground for being one of the first interracial kisses ever aired on television. After the original series ended, Nichols worked with NASA to recruit women and people of color as astronauts and continued to act, appearing onstage and in films like Snow Dogs and the TV series The Young and the Restless. Still, throughout her life, she remained devoted to Star Trek and was a fixture at fan conventions well into her 80s."
Quote from: AmLitHist on July 26, 2022, 10:56:56 AM
The wonderful actor Paul Sorvino (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/obituaries/paul-sorvino-dead.html), at age 83.
Three movie mobsters gone in recent months: Sorvino, James Caan, and Ray Liotta. RIP all.
...and Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts)
Bill Russell, basketballer:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34323568/boston-celtics-great-bill-russell-11-nba-champion-dies-88
And:
https://youtu.be/k9lKCjP265Y
RIP
M.
Also, Communications Officer Lt Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols, 89) has left the bridge of the Enterprise:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/31/entertainment/nichelle-nichols-star-trek-dies/index.html
Fly free...
M.
Quote from: mamselle on July 31, 2022, 08:46:17 PM
Also, Communications Officer Lt Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols, 89) has left the bridge of the Enterprise:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/31/entertainment/nichelle-nichols-star-trek-dies/index.html
Fly free...
M.
I'm a Trek fan and sad about this too.
Historian David McCollough:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/books/david-mccullough-dead.html
RIP.
M.
Olivia Newton-John
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/arts/olivia-newton-john-dead.html?
So sorry to see that.
She had class. And sass.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on August 08, 2022, 11:17:20 AM
Historian David McCollough:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/books/david-mccullough-dead.html
RIP.
M.
Tonight's PBS "News Hour" featured a 2011 interview with him:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/remembering-the-life-and-work-of-pulitzer-prize-winning-historian-david-mccullough (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/remembering-the-life-and-work-of-pulitzer-prize-winning-historian-david-mccullough)
Besides the books, he's the narrator in Ken Burns's "The Civil War" documentary.
I read and own
The Greater Journey (2011) about Americans abroad in Paris during the 19th century.
He was at the National Book Festival at the Washington Convention Center one year.
Quote from: hmaria1609 on August 08, 2022, 07:07:17 PM
Quote from: mamselle on August 08, 2022, 11:17:20 AM
Historian David McCollough:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/08/books/david-mccullough-dead.html
RIP.
M.
Tonight's PBS "News Hour" featured a 2011 interview with him:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/remembering-the-life-and-work-of-pulitzer-prize-winning-historian-david-mccullough (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/remembering-the-life-and-work-of-pulitzer-prize-winning-historian-david-mccullough)
Besides the books, he's the narrator in Ken Burns's "The Civil War" documentary.
I read and own The Greater Journey (2011) about Americans abroad in Paris during the 19th century.
He was at the National Book Festival at the Washington Convention Center one year.
I heard he's also the narrator in the movie
Seabiscuit.
Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the U.S.S.R.:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/30/gorbachev-death-putin-world-react-last-soviet-00054293
M.
Barbara Ehrenreich: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/barbara-ehrenreich-nickel-dimed-author-activist-dies-81-rcna46150
Quote from: jimbogumbo on September 02, 2022, 04:13:14 PM
Barbara Ehrenreich: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/barbara-ehrenreich-nickel-dimed-author-activist-dies-81-rcna46150
Nickel and Dimed was, and remains, a very important book. I wish more people today had read it (it's quite gripping, too).
Ehrenreich wrote this 20 years ago and made great points and recs. Things, however, are worse now than they were then, esp for job seekers over 40.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on September 02, 2022, 05:47:26 PM
Quote from: jimbogumbo on September 02, 2022, 04:13:14 PM
Barbara Ehrenreich: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/barbara-ehrenreich-nickel-dimed-author-activist-dies-81-rcna46150
Nickel and Dimed was, and remains, a very important book. I wish more people today had read it (it's quite gripping, too).
Agreed! I didn't stumble on it until a few years ago & it was amazingly good at really getting you to clearly see things you sort-of knew, but didn't really think about much.
All those killed in the recent Saskatchewan stabbings including the perpetrators:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/second-suspect-deadly-canada-stabbing-spree-apprehended-officials-say-rcna46410
And all others who have died in senseless mass attacks of rage by whatever means, including the children of Uvalde, now returning to school.
M.
Author Peter Straub.
Ghost Story is a high water mark of genuinely creepy and unsettling horror for me. One of the novels that fostered my life long love affair with the dark.
Quote from: Istiblennius on September 08, 2022, 08:59:59 AM
Author Peter Straub.
Ghost Story is a high water mark of genuinely creepy and unsettling horror for me. One of the novels that fostered my life long love affair with the dark.
I do not think I am familiar with his works, but I came across this tribute from his daughter (also a writer, looks like) the other day that I thought was very touching and made me want to learn more about him. I ended up sending it to myself to follow up on but hadn't gotten a chance yet, so thanks for the reminder. It's a great tribute with some personal memories that you might find interesting (beware: some language!): https://twitter.com/emmastraub/status/1567284488907939840
Queen Elizabeth Dead at 96 is the breaking news.
Quote from: clean on September 08, 2022, 10:34:24 AM
Queen Elizabeth Dead at 96 is the breaking news.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/08/world/queen-elizabeth
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61585886
BBC obit https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61605149
God rest Queen Elizabeth. Long live the queen.
Quote from: clean on September 08, 2022, 10:34:24 AM
Queen Elizabeth Dead at 96 is the breaking news.
Ouch. I had hoped she'd last at least a few more years, not that it makes any practical difference. She looked a fair bit like my grandmother...
I guess that means a fair few changes over here.
While far from a monarchist, I still find myself sad at her passing. All my life she has been head of state. She was just a little younger than my father, but outlived him considerably. A tough old bird, gone now.
Yes, she lived through a lot.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/08/uk/queen-health-supervision-gbr-intl/index.html
M.
Queen Elizabeth has always been there as long as I have been alive. I find myself strangely sad and nostalgic, a lot like when Princess Diana died.
And R.I.P. Mr. Straub too. I greatly admired his writing.
Peace to all the Queen's subjects in the British Isles.
Peace to the Royal Family.
Saddened by the death of HM the Queen too. :(
The virtual condolence book is available for those who wish to sign:
https://www.royal.uk/platinum-jubilee-central-weekend (https://www.royal.uk/platinum-jubilee-central-weekend)
Click on the tab on the right side of your screen to write your message.
I don't see anything on the UK Embassy Washington landing page at this time.
Here are two songs especially composed by Loretta Kay Feld for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee from YouTube:
The Queen's Soliloquy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEIZT92kamQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEIZT92kamQ)
"70 Years a Queen"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYeO3NsyRLc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYeO3NsyRLc)
Both released June 1st
what changes do you anticipate for Canada, owing to her death?
Quote from: kaysixteen on September 08, 2022, 11:16:11 PM
what changes do you anticipate for Canada, owing to her death?
Getting tripped up by the words when singing "God Save The
Queen King".
Quote from: kaysixteen on September 08, 2022, 11:16:11 PM
what changes do you anticipate for Canada, owing to her death?
The money will all be retired and re-issued, though that may well take years. The direction of the face, in particular, will switch.
More substantively, this will provide the occasion for reconsideration of our adherence to the monarchy. We might well end up divesting ourselves of them entirely, in a few years (or not; the status quo is a powerful thing). We'll see. Charles remains pretty unpopular.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on September 09, 2022, 11:27:14 AM
Quote from: kaysixteen on September 08, 2022, 11:16:11 PM
what changes do you anticipate for Canada, owing to her death?
The money will all be retired and re-issued, though that may well take years. The direction of the face, in particular, will switch.
More substantively, this will provide the occasion for reconsideration of our adherence to the monarchy. We might well end up divesting ourselves of them entirely, in a few years (or not; the status quo is a powerful thing). We'll see. Charles remains pretty unpopular.
Well, looking at the neighbours, who got rid of the monarchy a couple of centuries ago, it's hardly like they're all so content with their system of government without all of that. (And of course, they add a bunch of the pomp and circumstance to their elected leader that countries with a monarchy don't typically assign to anyone who is, at the end of the day, just another politician.)
Perhaps a new thread?
M.
Yes, sorry.
Well, Canada presumably would not adopt a unitary executive Presidential style government. Having the head of state and head of government be the same person more or less commands at least some of the trappings of monarchy in that person.
Quote from: kaysixteen on September 09, 2022, 11:03:51 PM
Well, Canada presumably would not adopt a unitary executive Presidential style government. Having the head of state and head of government be the same person more or less commands at least some of the trappings of monarchy in that person.
New thread here:
https://thefora.org/index.php?topic=3105.0#msg113066
M.
Eliza Fletcher, a teacher.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/eliza-fletcher-memphis-funeral-draws-hundreds-slain-mother-remembered-bringing-light-world
Clinton nemesis Ken Starr. Died of complications of surgery.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/us/politics/ken-starr-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries
A colleague who'd worked with me at my most recent institution and in the statewide chapter of our professional organization died August 30 of colorectal and liver cancer. He was in his late 40s. Less than a year ago, it was found and diagnosed; four rounds of chemo didn't shrink the tumors enough to be operable, and they metastasized.
Family, friends, and colleagues were at his memorial service this past Saturday--his "celebration of life," they called it--which was one of the most moving services I've been privileged to attend: The officiant and another speaker read aloud multiple memories supplied by family and longtime friends. Probably 100+ people attended, and for those who couldn't come for various reasons, the service was available virtually as well. The rain made it seem that nature itself was mourning his passing.
He leaves behind a young wife, two children (one adult and one just now a teenager), and many grieving family members, friends, and colleagues--of which I am one. He will be missed.
I'm so sorry for your loss, paultuttle.
Cayler Ellingson. Mowed down by a drunk motorist in North Dakota who was upset because he thought Ellingson was a 'republican extremist.'
Joan Nordell....https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/joan-nordell-obituary?id=24346724
Loretta Lynn. [sigh]
Dame Angela Lansbury, age 96:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeoCT2sIMOg
M.
Robbie Coltrane (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/arts/robbie-coltrane-harry-potter-dead.html), 72--Hagrid in the Harry Potter films.
Quote from: AmLitHist on October 14, 2022, 11:10:50 AM
Robbie Coltrane (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/arts/robbie-coltrane-harry-potter-dead.html), 72--Hagrid in the Harry Potter films.
I'll also remember Coltrane for the two James Bond movies he did in the 1990s. (Pierce Brosnan had taken over the iconic role at the time) His character was a casino owner and had his own caviar brand.
Two victims, plus the shooter, dead in a high school shooting in St. Louis (https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/all-st-louis-public-schools-on-lockdown-after-cvpa-shooting/)(close to one of my CC's campuses, which was on lockdown for a while this morning). A number of students from the HS go to our various campuses; I have 2 alumni in my classes this fall. All St. Louis public schools remain on lockdown this afternoon.
RIP.
M.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/leslie-jordan-beloved-will-grace-actor-who-became-social-media-sensation-dies-at-67/ar-AA13kyFw?cvid=c728048fbad54bca8fd47fd8a35e9d9e
Leslie Jordan.
I saw him in several shows, and will miss seeing him further.
and only 67!
Peter Schjeldahl, adventurous art critic at the New Yorker. Beautifully constructed and articulated pieces that were like whirlwind symphonies in grabbing readers up, and they were also funny; I looked at things I never would have to try to see what he saw and always came away richened.
No!
I have loved him from afar these many years. His latest article in the 'New Yorker' was just a few weeks ago; I was about to send a letter to the editor in recognition of his work.
RIP, you gave us deeper eyes to see with, and hearts to understand what we saw.
M.
Msgr. Michael Doyle, remarkable presence in Camden, NJ, from the time he was one of the Camden 28 war resisters, and who did much to help create a critical mass of energy and repair over his 60 years in the city. https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/michael-doyle-obituary-sacred-heart-camden-20221104.html
Mimi Parker of Low, the Duluth band, dead of cancer at 55. One of the great indie bands, they were together 29 years. Mimi had a great voice. I saw them several times in the last few years, for which I'm grateful.
Gallagher!
Died today (11 11 2022) at age 76.
No one else can swing the Sledge o Matic with the same degree of skill! He made me happy, and will be missed.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/11/entertainment/gallagher-comic-dead/index.html
Kevin Conroy - The Voice of Batman died at 66.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/11/entertainment/kevin-conroy-death-batman-voice-cec/index.html
Five individuals killed (and nearly 20 wounded) at the Q-Club of Colorado Springs during an LGBTQ+ Celebration Night, ar the hands of a gunman:
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/colorado-springs-club-q-shooting-11-21-22/index.html
And four Idaho students, still under investigation:
https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/police-identify-4-university-of-idaho-students-found-dead/article_243e1380-6434-11ed-9662-dff7f656fef9.html
RIP.
M.
Remembering Charles Schulz on his 100th birthday:
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/26/1138671852/charles-schulz-100-birthday-peanuts-legacy (https://www.npr.org/2022/11/26/1138671852/charles-schulz-100-birthday-peanuts-legacy)
Posted on NPR online 11/26/22
Many popular daily syndicated comic strips are celebrating Mr. Schulz and the Peanuts gang.
Of interest, special editions of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (1966) and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) soundtrack albums were released over the summer and fall. Both albums feature previously unheard studio recording outtakes.
Kristi Alley!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/entertainment-celebrity/kirstie-alley-actress-and-tv-personality-known-for-her-role-in-cheers-has-died-at-age-71/ar-AA14WQcp?cvid=027952c003d34890a5954539c1a18583
I am shocked/surprised!
Did not see this one coming!
Hamish Kilgour of The Clean, the New Zealand indie band. He was 65. The Clean's first single, Tally Ho!, was also the first release of the great record label Flying Nun in 1978.
Quote from: clean on December 05, 2022, 06:08:22 PM
Kristi Alley!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/entertainment-celebrity/kirstie-alley-actress-and-tv-personality-known-for-her-role-in-cheers-has-died-at-age-71/ar-AA14WQcp?cvid=027952c003d34890a5954539c1a18583
I am shocked/surprised!
Did not see this one coming!
Here is the NYT obit:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/05/arts/television/kirstie-alley-dead.html
I remember Kristi Alley in "Cheers" and "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan."
Barbara Walters https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/business/media/barbara-walters-dead.html
Video clips https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/arts/television/the-best-of-barbara-walters.html
Pope Benedict XVI
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/31/world/pope-benedict-dies
Mamselle.
Rest in peace.
Legendary guitarist Jeff Beck (https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/01/11/guitarist-jeff-beck-dead/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fb_news_token=JIHm%2F%2FAd3xhDvShCG5YfBw%3D%3D.D780u%2BueQn4StfEbkZej9A18INUNhzdHZEITNCH9GUn6UAl%2B7g1DrQbER0CiEltRmgRR0dIwnuK638y2R3KNrIhMXYaRSTPBhRu2TQ6%2B6Pwd22filq2SfWBQm6xS2TdyCFl4Ga8USNlWGRwngfaNCPNLemhdgNlBWJoyU56rRyrpVLruWSNlcZJTVJ2iccB%2Bhb0tmLpJ8ELuf%2BHxZd65pQB2voaGDCxtL21xU02xz9l%2BGiEOU02wQz83Tz6b46U%2F93lNpIrVsvEkwXPXdWggf1Msgl8wE7CA0EvyD9%2BQeedhV9oEe5aEDMtlmt5bpCSzkfExsaDWbf3E%2B2BQf4g8BQ%3D%3D&fbclid=IwAR1M2SdaAjXiQyykAJhmLkyV7XUGDZ4dtYH61hO6rknGqSV3t2l_brhCvTg), of bacterial meningitis, age 78.
I've played guitar for almost 50 years now, starting with acoustic, and he was an absolute inspiration when I was struggling with the electric guitar. He wasn't my first guitar hero, but he was the one my heroes listened to, so it didn't take long.
Lisa Marie Presley (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/us/lisa-marie-presley-hospital.html), at age 54.
Quote from: ursula on January 03, 2023, 03:04:58 PM
Quote from: paultuttle on January 03, 2023, 07:28:09 AM
Mamselle.
Rest in peace.
Amen.
I am so very sad to hear this news -- mamselle is someone I had the pleasure of meeting once at a fora meet-up many years ago in Cambridge. She was extraordinarily knowledgeable as a historian and skilled in music and dance as well. Another forumite has found a very detailed and loving obituary for her -- which reveals even broader talents and the breadth of her dedication to many community issues. I know we are not supposed to reveal the real names of forumites here, but if someone could remind me of the guidelines about sharing information (such as the link to her obituary) after someone has passed, I would be grateful for that.
RIP, mamselle
Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida (https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/16/entertainment/gina-lollobrigida-dead-intl-scli/index.html).
My father would have been 107 today. He's been gone for 13 years and I still think of him.
I am sorry for your loss. It is still, 13 years later, a loss. It is good that you think about him.
My grandfather died at 94 on Christmas Eve 3 or 4 years ago now, and I dream about the things we used to do. They are good dreams.
Crosby, Stills, and Nash co-founder David Crosby dead at age 81.
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/19/750902962/david-crosby-obituary
Tom Verlaine, (https://www.npr.org/2023/01/28/1152357360/tom-verlaine-guitarist-and-singer-of-influential-rock-band-television-dies-at-73) leader of the CBGB's era band Television, age 73.
His guitar playing was like no other. This is a bad month for my guitar heroes...
Cindy Williams (Laverne and Shirley)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/laverne-shirley-actor-cindy-williams-dies-at-75/ar-AA16UXVD?cvid=42f775196c9b4740b3ff10fe25f60137
Lisa Loring -
The Adams Family and a soap opera star.
Bobby Hull aka The Golden Jet. One of the finest hockey players to ever lace up a pair of skates. An icon of my youth.
Richard Belzer
QuoteRichard Belzer, Detective Munch on 'Law & Order: S.V.U.,' Dies at 78
A stand-up comic, he called his hard-boiled character on the long-running TV drama "Lenny Bruce with a badge."
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/arts/television/19xp-richard-belzer-dead.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2023/02/15/raquel-welch-actress-sex-symbol-dead-at-82/11265151002/
Raquel Welch at 82
Quote from: Langue_doc on February 19, 2023, 04:41:12 PM
Richard Belzer
QuoteRichard Belzer, Detective Munch on 'Law & Order: S.V.U.,' Dies at 78
A stand-up comic, he called his hard-boiled character on the long-running TV drama "Lenny Bruce with a badge."
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/19/arts/television/19xp-richard-belzer-dead.html
I peed next to Belzer in the Barrow Street Theatre men's room about 12 years ago. I was thrilled. I'm guessing he didn't remember my brush with greatness. He even had the dark glasses on. So cool.
My friend Bob Barrett was killed by a student charged with drunk driving. He was 68 and a huge Clemson fan. He had been attending the basketball game.
https://www.postandcourier.com/greenville/news/pedestrian-killed-after-clemson-university-nit-game/article_b6aa2e40-c431-11ed-b1b4-e7503574ccc8.html
He had been a dean at SC State, and retired. He enjoyed all things Clemson and was enjoying his retirement.
Quite a shock.
I'm so sorry for your loss, Clean. Such a senseless and tragic way to lose a friend.
Quote from: ab_grp on March 17, 2023, 12:10:51 PM
I'm so sorry for your loss, Clean. Such a senseless and tragic way to lose a friend.
I am sorry for your loss.
From the article: "The student posted a $992 bail". I guess that's how much we value the loss of a human life today.
Yesterday a friend of our family died unexpectedly. He was a couple of years younger than me (early 50s) and had not been in great health in recent years. Last month he landed in the hospital with an assortment of problems that turned out largely to be complications from diabetes. He was in the hospital for several weeks. For a little while they weren't sure he would live. Then he seemed to be doing better, and was sent to a rehab center to be begin regaining his strength. But he got worse there instead of better. He was awaiting a transfer back to the hospital when he died unexpectedly yesterday.
His mother, who is an old friend of my parents, had recently overcome a long struggle with cancer. She was wearing herself out trying to be near him at the rehab center. She's bearing up well. She says that her son has been healed completely now and is with God. We had been hoping and praying for a different kind of healing, but we're glad for what he and we have got.
I'm sorry to that your family has lost a young friend as well, apl68. I'm sorry that he didn't recover, and I hope his mother has support and care.
I saw that Lance Reddick passed away, also too young. He was such a talented actor (The Wire, John Wick, ...) but also just seemed like a nice human being. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/us/lance-reddick-dead.html
Sorry apl. Peace be with you, your family, and your friends.
Tonight I found out that an old junior high / high school classmate passed away. We were never great friends, he was a bit of an outcast, I haven't spoken to him in at least 35 years, but he was a nice guy. I am strangely undone by news of his death. I am not sure why.
Go on, Kevin. I'm sure your journey on the other side will be blessed with the memories we send with you into the afterlife.
Received word yesterday that a former colleague who had retired a couple of years ago, and was living his best life in retirement pursuing his hobbies of travel, photography, and spending time with his family, passed away suddenly. He went to sleep and didn't wake up. He was only 63.
Our secretary's husband passed last week. He'd battled diabetes and kidney disease for years, but seemed to be improving lately--they were working him up to going back on the transplant list. I always figured I'd be a widow before her. We're all kind of in a funk in the office this week. At least he's not suffering any more, and she can finally take a breath and start taking care of herself. That kind of caretaking is hard on everyone involved.
Harry Belafonte
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/516446742/harry-belafonte-dead (https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/516446742/harry-belafonte-dead)
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on April 25, 2023, 08:05:15 AM
Harry Belafonte
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/516446742/harry-belafonte-dead (https://www.npr.org/2023/04/25/516446742/harry-belafonte-dead)
Here is the NYT obit: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-dead.html
BBC obit: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65390525
So much grace, class, and dignity, in addition to his singing talent!
Barry Humphries - aka Dame Edna Everage, aka Sir Les Patterson.
Us possums are going to miss Dame Edna as she's gone to the great Moonee Ponds in the sky where's she now pushing up the gladiolas.
QuoteHarry Belafonte: A Life in Photos
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/harry-belafonte-a-life-in-photos.html
About the very first 45-rpm record I ever bought (and I never bought many, really) was "The Banana Boat Song." Not all that many banana boats or bananas in Alberta in 1956. But two years later I was in Florida and could see what a banana palm looked like. I actually got to see the Caribbean, too. I calmed down when I missed the tarantula experience.
Jerry Springer at 79.
The show where I learned a shoe could be a serious weapon in a street fight.
Springer was, of course, a significant responsible actor for the ever increasing disintegration of standards on American TV. Who exactly mourns this fellow?
Quote from: kaysixteen on April 28, 2023, 09:01:32 PM
Springer was, of course, a significant responsible actor for the ever increasing disintegration of standards on American TV. Who exactly mourns this fellow?
His friends and colleagues and loved ones, just like anyone else.
OK, but it doesn't mean anyone else has, nor that we should not condemn him for his bad actions.
My dearest friend, who saw me through a very difficult time. A big sister, in a way, with an acute understanding of human behavior and a warmth that drew children and adults alike to her. She faced her own difficulties with quiet resolve until dementia foreclosed that.
A friend of mine at church, a few years older than me, just lost a son who was only in his early 30s. This son had had a twin who died in childhood. And the father has quite recently had a severe bout of illness that he is still recuperating from.
I saw him at church Sunday. During our conversation he told a joke and laughed. It was a good sign.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/gordon-lightfoot-dead-1.6828991
Quote from: Anselm on May 01, 2023, 07:31:47 PM
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/gordon-lightfoot-dead-1.6828991
I just saw that. When I was a kid, my parents loved Gordon Lightfoot, and we'd listen to his music as we drove for hours to visit grandparents. (We always lived 1000+ miles away and never flew.) His music was a formative part of my childhood.
Quote from: traductio on May 02, 2023, 05:37:38 AM
Quote from: Anselm on May 01, 2023, 07:31:47 PM
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/gordon-lightfoot-dead-1.6828991
I just saw that. When I was a kid, my parents loved Gordon Lightfoot, and we'd listen to his music as we drove for hours to visit grandparents. (We always lived 1000+ miles away and never flew.) His music was a formative part of my childhood.
A bad year for musicians from the Great White North. Robbie Bachman (drummer for Bachman Turner Overdrive) died in January and brother Tim (original rhythm guitarist for BTO) just last week - although the dude had some serious legal problems that seem to have been swept under the rug.
Mrs Artem used to go regularly to Lightfoot's annual 1 week residency at Massey Hall back in the 70's. She told me some nights he was just terrific and other nights he'd be drunk and abusing the audience. I guess genius may have a price.
RIP to them all.
Quote from: traductio on May 02, 2023, 05:37:38 AM
Quote from: Anselm on May 01, 2023, 07:31:47 PM
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/gordon-lightfoot-dead-1.6828991
I just saw that. When I was a kid, my parents loved Gordon Lightfoot, and we'd listen to his music as we drove for hours to visit grandparents. (We always lived 1000+ miles away and never flew.) His music was a formative part of my childhood.
Yes, it is the same with myself. My parents played the adult contemporary easy listening radio stations in the car. My young brain was molded by Gordon, Neil Diamond, Streisand, Karen Carpenter, etc.
Tina Turner (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/arts/music/tina-turner-dead.html), aged 83.
Cormac McCarthy, 89
The link above doesn't seem to work.
Here's the NYT article with links to the following: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/books/cormac-mccarthy-dead.html
QuoteCormac McCarthy (1933-2023)
Obituary
A Guide to His Books
5 Film Adaptations to Stream
Food in His Writing
1992 Profile
Early Interviews
QuoteRobert Gottlieb, Eminent Editor From le Carré to Clinton, Dies at 92
At Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf and The New Yorker, he polished the work of a who's who of mid-to-late 20th century writers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/books/robert-gottlieb-dead.html
QuoteMr. Gottlieb edited novels by, among many others, John le Carré, Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Joseph Heller, Doris Lessing and Chaim Potok; science fiction by Michael Crichton and Ray Bradbury; histories by Antonia Fraser and Barbara Tuchman; memoirs by former President Bill Clinton and Katharine Graham, the former publisher of The Washington Post; and works by Jessica Mitford and Anthony Burgess.
Quote"He wasn't just an editor, he was the editor," Mr. le Carré told The Times. "I never had an editor to touch him, in any country — nobody who could compare with him." He noted that Mr. Gottlieb, using No. 2 pencils to mark up manuscripts, often signaled changes with hieroglyphics in the margins: a wavy line for language too florid, ellipses or question marks advising a writer to "think harder and try again."
QuoteMr. Gottlieb joined Knopf in 1968 as vice president and editor in chief. He edited Robert Caro's Pulitzer-Prize winning biography of Robert Moses, "The Power Broker" (1974), cutting 400,000 words from a million-word manuscript with the author fuming at his elbow. Despite the brutal cuts, their collaboration endured for five decades and became the subject of a 2022 documentary, "Turn Every Page," directed by Lizzie Gottlieb, Mr. Gottlieb's daughter.
"I have never encountered a publisher or editor with a greater understanding of what a writer was trying to do — and how to help him do it," Mr. Caro said in a statement on Mr. Gottlieb's death.
I just watched "Turn Every Page" about the extraordinary collaboration between Gottlieb and Robert Caro. It's a lovely film, and Gottlieb's wit, both puckish and sly, is evident throughout.
I have never read, barely heard of, McCarthy-- worth reading (I assume he is writer of fiction)?
Yes, Cormac McCarthy was one of the most celebrated American novelists of the last half-century. I have a feeling you wouldn't like his work, kaysixteen. It's quite violent in a weighty (as opposed to cartoony action-adventure) way.
Quote from: kaysixteen on June 14, 2023, 09:49:45 PMI have never read, barely heard of, McCarthy-- worth reading (I assume he is writer of fiction)?
Quote from: Hegemony on June 15, 2023, 10:43:27 PMYes, Cormac McCarthy was one of the most celebrated American novelists of the last half-century. I have a feeling you wouldn't like his work, kaysixteen. It's quite violent in a weighty (as opposed to cartoony action-adventure) way.
Yeah, definitely
not your cup of tea.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on June 15, 2023, 11:16:39 PMQuote from: kaysixteen on June 14, 2023, 09:49:45 PMI have never read, barely heard of, McCarthy-- worth reading (I assume he is writer of fiction)?
Quote from: Hegemony on June 15, 2023, 10:43:27 PMYes, Cormac McCarthy was one of the most celebrated American novelists of the last half-century. I have a feeling you wouldn't like his work, kaysixteen. It's quite violent in a weighty (as opposed to cartoony action-adventure) way.
Yeah, definitely not your cup of tea.
Yeah, I haven't read anything of his, but I did watch No Country for Old Men which he wrote the screenplay for. I thought it was really good, even fun in a way, and it's really stayed with me, but I have never watched it again and probably won't. It was just...tough. Really interesting, really engaging, glad I watched it, enjoyed watching it, but brutal in a way that made me not want to repeat the experience, if that makes any sense.
The Road is pretty accessible, especially if you have a kid. Child of God or Blood Meridian . . . well, not so much.
I have read or listened to several McCarthy books and agree that they are not for everyone. And I strongly agree that
Child of God is not a good introduction (I would just avoid that one entirely).
Blood Meridian is pretty brutal but still (IMO) well written and an interesting story. One that was a little different was
The Sunset Limited: A Novel in Dramatic Form, which I listened to earlier this year and thought was well performed, but which also got good reviews in book format. It's a little more philosophical, and a nice change of pace from his others that I have read. Here's the Amazon description:
QuoteIn that small apartment, "Black" and "White," as the two men are known, begin a conversation that leads each back through his own history, mining the origins of two fundamentally opposing world views. White is a professor whose seemingly enviable existence of relative ease has left him nonetheless in despair. Black, an ex-con and ex-addict, is the more hopeful of the men–though he is just as desperate to convince White of the power of faith as White is desperate to deny it.
Their aim is no less than this: to discover the meaning of life.
Ugh, sounds insufferable! The meaning of life... Barf.
My main complaint about McCarthy has always been that his work is Literature-with-an-L (apart from The Road, where his spare style works very nicely and most of the pretensiousness has been scrubbed out).
But I'm a crank, and I fully recognize that. And I wouldn't deny that he writes well--or even that he does a good job of writing Literature. I just can't stand that sort of thing. I want more blood and guts.
Julian Sands, while hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/movies/julian-sands-dead.html
Quote from: Langue_doc on June 28, 2023, 05:39:44 AMJulian Sands, while hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/movies/julian-sands-dead.html
That's a sad story. It's good for his loved ones' sake that his remains have now been found.
Milan Kundera
QuoteMilan Kundera, Czech Literary Star and Communist Party Outcast, Dies at 94
The author of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," he was known for sexually charged novels that captured the suffocating absurdity of life in his native Czechoslovakia.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/world/europe/milan-kundera-dead.html
Quote from: Langue_doc on July 12, 2023, 05:27:31 AMMilan Kundera
QuoteMilan Kundera, Czech Literary Star and Communist Party Outcast, Dies at 94
The author of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," he was known for sexually charged novels that captured the suffocating absurdity of life in his native Czechoslovakia.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/world/europe/milan-kundera-dead.html
Here's an interview with one of Kundera's friends on France 24 in yesterday's news cast:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230712-%F0%9F%94%B4-czech-born-french-writer-milan-kundera-author-of-the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-dies-at-94 (https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230712-%F0%9F%94%B4-czech-born-french-writer-milan-kundera-author-of-the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-dies-at-94)
Jane Birkin, age 76.
Wrote and performed ""Je t'aime... moi non plus," a sultry duet whose explicit lyrics saw the song banned in several countries." Sultry? Understatement of the age.
Here it is Je t'aime. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Fa4lOQfbA)
Well, I was a yute then.
We have a staff member who lost her husband recently after a long illness. He was only in his late 60s. She is back at work, but is still having to get used to not having him. It's hard for anybody who has been widowed.
Harry Frankfurt, philosopher at Princeton U, died two days ago. I will remember him as the author of On Bullshit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bullshit).
From the Wikipeidia article on the book
QuoteRise of bullshit
Frankfurt concludes his book by discussing the rise of bullshit. He does not argue that there is more bullshit in society now than there was in the past. He explains that all forms of communications have increased leading to more bullshit being seen, read and heard. He states that the social expectation for individuals to have and express their opinions on all matters requires more bullshit. Despite a lack of knowledge on a subject matter, for example politics, religion or art, there is an expectation to participate in the conversation and provide an opinion. This opinion is likely to be bullshit at times as it is not based on fact and research. The opinion is motivated by a disregard of the truth with a desire to appear knowledgeable or adequately opinionated. Frankfurt acknowledges that bullshitting may not always be intentional but believes that ultimately it is performed with a disregard and carelessness of the truth. Frankfurt argues that this rise in bullshit is dangerous as it accepts and enables a growing disregard of the truth.
Sinéad O'Connor, aged 56. I adored her voice. I hope she finds the peace she never seemed to find in life.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66318626
Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee Wee Herman) at 70.
Here's hoping that in his version of heaven he actually gets to see the basement of the Alamo.
Pee Wee's Playhouse was hilarious. I was in my late twenties when I watched that on many Saturdays.
Randy Meisner (one of the founding members of The Eagles), Sinead, and now Pee-Wee: those all hit hard, as an admirer of all three. RIP all.
Quote from: Ruralguy on July 31, 2023, 01:15:28 PMPee Wee's Playhouse was hilarious. I was in my late twenties when I watched that on many Saturdays.
Yes. When I tell my kids "Your wish is granted! Long live Jambi!" when they ask for something, they give me the funniest blank stares.
This is the anniversary of the murder several years ago of a friend who was also a fellow staff member. She was our janitor. She worked hard to support her granddaughter whom she had custody of. Two youths came into the house early one morning and shot her right in front of her granddaughter. Then they shot the girl through the neck and left her for dead. It's little short of a miracle that she was not killed outright and was able to make her way to help.
The crime was ostensibly a robbery, but hardly anything was taken. There was hardly anything to take. The assailants were black, and the victims were the only white household nearby. Had the races been reversed, this would undoubtedly have been branded a hate crime, with national and international attention and every anniversary making the news. Instead it was an obscure local crime that barely made the state paper. The killers were quietly caught and tried--they were caught with very clear evidence of their guilt--and are now serving a long sentence.
I remember the funeral. The pastor challenged everybody present to remember that we all stand in need of God's forgiveness. If we've accepted Jesus' offer of forgiveness, then we must in turn be prepared to forgive others--of anything--and pray that they will accept Jesus' forgiveness as well while they still can. I do still pray for the two killers. Maybe we can all be together with Jesus some day. It's up to them to take advantage of the opportunity. In the meantime, the killing failed to create an increase in local racial tensions. The pastor didn't address the issue of race directly, but I believe his message had a lot to do with it.
Acclaimed Serbian novelist and translator David Albahari:
https://balkaninsight.com/2023/07/31/acclaimed-serbian-novelist-david-albahari-dies-at-75/ (https://balkaninsight.com/2023/07/31/acclaimed-serbian-novelist-david-albahari-dies-at-75/)
His novels were translated into 21 languages.
Mark Margolis, at 83. He played Hector Salamanca on "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul."
Quote from: Bbmaj7b5 on August 05, 2023, 05:48:12 AMMark Margolis, at 83. He played Hector Salamanca on "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul."
Such a great character among great characters (and actor among actors). I hadn't realized he was from Philadelphia.
Sen. James Buckley, 100, who gave us FERPA: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4158901-former-sen-james-buckley-dies-at-100/
Bobby Baun A stalwart defenceman for the Maple Leafs in the 1960's. Legendarily, he finished the 3rd period of one game playing on what he knew was a broken ankle. Dude was tough as a boiled owl.
Finally, in the NYT; other news outlets reported this at least a week ago.
QuoteJohn Warnock, Inventor of the PDF, Dies at 82
As a founder of Adobe Systems, he oversaw the development of software and systems that made modern personal computing possible.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/technology/john-warnock-dead.html
ETA: probably behind a paywall, so here's the article:
QuoteJohn Warnock, a founder of Adobe Systems whose innovations in computer graphics, including the ubiquitous PDF, made possible today's visually rich digital experiences, died on Aug. 19 at his home in Los Altos, Calif. He was 82.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, Adobe, which Dr. Warnock started in 1982 with Chuck Geschke, said in a statement.
Until Dr. Warnock and Adobe came along, desktop printing was an arduous, expensive and unsatisfying endeavor. Users relied on either a screechy dot-matrix printer, with its pixelated text, or a specialized typesetting machine, which could cost $10,000 and take up most of a room.
Dr. Warnock developed protocols that came loaded into desktop printers themselves, and that accurately rendered what a computer sent them. Adobe's first such protocol, PostScript, went into Apple's revolutionary LaserWriter, released in 1985, and within a few years it was the industry standard.
PostScript, licensed to hundreds of software and hardware companies, helped make Adobe rich. But the company was largely unknown to the public until 1993, when it released Acrobat, a program designed to render and read files in what it called a Portable Document Format, or PDF.
The PDF was the result of Dr. Warnock's abiding obsession since graduate school: finding a way to ensure that the graphics displayed on one computer — whether words or images — looked the exact same on another computer, or on a page from a printer, regardless of the manufacturer.
"It had been a holy grail in computer science to figure out how to communicate documents," he said in a 2019 interview with Oxford University.
Acrobat and the PDF were not immediately successful, even after Adobe made its Acrobat Reader free to download. The company's board wanted to retire them, but Dr. Warnock persisted.
"I think the crossover point is if I can go to General Motors and say, 'I can deliver your information more quickly and more cheaply than you can on paper,'" he told The New York Times in 1991. "You're talking about savings of tens of millions of dollars."
The PDF eventually became standard, as the ease of sharing crisp, accurate documents across computer systems made the long-envisioned paperless office a reality.
Though Adobe is best known for the PDF, it owes its dominance in the software industry to a whole suite of design programs championed by Dr. Warnock over the years, including InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.
Taken together, these programs helped make the modern personal computing experience what it is, turning what had been a soup of obscure commands and monochromatic images into an engaging aesthetic experience.
"Making the computer into a machine that we can use to produce visual and print culture, that wasn't foreordained," David Brock, the director of curatorial affairs at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., said in a phone interview. "That's where he was really instrumental."
John Edward Warnock was born on Oct. 6, 1940, in Holladay, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. His father, Clarence, was a lawyer; his mother, Dorothy (Van Dyke) Warnock, was a homemaker.
John was an admittedly average high school student who managed to flunk algebra in ninth grade. Nevertheless, he studied mathematics at the University of Utah, receiving his undergraduate degree in 1961 and a master's in the same subject in 1964.
He did not initially plan to go into technology. But a grueling summer job during graduate school spent recapping tires persuaded him to apply to IBM, which was recruiting mathematicians.
He returned to Utah to pursue a doctorate in mathematics, but after a few years he switched to electrical engineering, which at the time encompassed computer science. The university had recently received an enormous influx of money and resources from the Department of Defense to work on computer graphics, a field that had captured his interest.
He was especially captivated by the question of how to render a three-dimensional image in two dimensions. The result was the Warnock algorithm, a major step forward in computer graphics and the basis for some of his later work at Adobe.
He married Marva Mullins in 1965. She survives him, as do his daughter, Alyssa; his sons, Christopher and Jeffrey; and four grandchildren.
Dr. Warnock received his doctorate in 1969 and then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for a company founded by two of his mentors at Utah, David C. Evans and Ivan Sutherland. After they asked him to transfer to the company's Salt Lake City office he decided to stay in California instead and went to work for Xerox, whose Palo Alto Research Center was then pioneering the first personal computers.
There he met Dr. Geschke, and the two became fast friends. Dr. Warnock spent years working on how to get printers to render an image from a computer screen, a seemingly easy issue that had befuddled computer scientists for years. (Dr. Geschke died in 2021).
But when he presented his solution, InterPress, to his bosses, they were not interested in releasing it to the public. He and Dr. Geschke, who had worked on the project, were crestfallen.
"I went into his office, and I said, 'We can live in the world's greatest sandbox for the rest of our life, or we can do something about it,'" Dr. Warnock said in a 2018 interview with the Computer History Museum.
They both quit, and in late 1982 they founded Adobe Systems, named for a creek near Dr. Warnock's home. In 2023 it had a market capitalization of $235 billion, making it one of the largest information-technology companies in the world.
In 2009, President Barack Obama presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to both Dr. Warnock and Dr. Geschke.
Dr. Warnock and Dr. Geschke, who ran the company as equals, were rare exceptions among the outsize egos and eccentric zillionaires of Silicon Valley: avuncular and academic, they built an aggressively competitive company while consistently ranking high on lists of the best places to work.
Despite its size, Adobe was often cast as the David versus much larger Goliaths, most often Microsoft — which, unlike Apple, repeatedly rejected Dr. Warnock's entreaties to collaborate and instead tried to beat Adobe with its own protocols and programs. None of them worked.
Dr. Warnock, who had 20 patents to his name, stepped down as chief executive in 2001 but remained on Adobe's board of directors.
"Being a C.E.O. of a company that is over $1 billion is not all it is cracked up to be," he said in an interview with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2010. "The thing I really enjoy is the invention process. I enjoy figuring out how to do things other people don't know how to do."
Clay Risen is an obituaries reporter for The Times. Previously, he was a senior editor on the Politics desk and a deputy op-ed editor on the Opinion desk. He is the author, most recently, of "American Rye: A Guide to the Nation's Original Spirit." More about Clay Risen
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 25, 2023, Section B, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline:
RIP, our colleague who was killed in a UNC lab.
QuoteU.N.C. Faculty Member Is Fatally Shot in Lab
The school's Chapel Hill campus had ordered students and faculty to stay inside Monday afternoon after warning of an "armed, dangerous person." A suspect was later arrested.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/us/university-north-carolina-shooting.html?searchResultPosition=1
Jimmy Buffett (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/02/arts/jimmy-buffett-dead.html), aged 76.
He finally "cruised on back home"
Besides performing in the metro DC area, Jimmy Buffet enjoyed the local seafood in Annapolis:
https://wtop.com/entertainment/2023/09/jimmy-buffett-remembered-by-dc-area-parrotheads/ (https://wtop.com/entertainment/2023/09/jimmy-buffett-remembered-by-dc-area-parrotheads/)
Posted on WTOP online 8/2/23
He also had a bit role in "Jurassic World" (2015):
https://www.thewrap.com/jimmy-buffett-margaritaville-jurassic-world-cameo/ (https://www.thewrap.com/jimmy-buffett-margaritaville-jurassic-world-cameo/)
Another musical icon of my youth: Gary Wright. Formerly with Spooky Tooth he had a massive solo hit in the late 70's with his Dream Weaver album. All keyboards and synths. No guitars.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/arts/music/gary-wright-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries
Music was much much better in the 70s.
Actor David McCallum (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/arts/television/david-mccallum-dead.html), aged 90. I really enjoyed him as Dr. "Ducky" Mallard in NCIS, and I'm old enough to remember him as Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Roger Whittaker.
The Last Farewell.
Quote from: kaysixteen on September 26, 2023, 09:46:10 PMRoger Whittaker.
The Last Farewell.
I remember seeing commercials for one of his albums on late night TV--way back before TV was 24/7. It was generally a sign to start closing out the party.
Quote from: fishbrains on September 27, 2023, 05:30:43 AMQuote from: kaysixteen on September 26, 2023, 09:46:10 PMRoger Whittaker.
The Last Farewell.
I remember seeing commercials for one of his albums on late night TV--way back before TV was 24/7. It was generally a sign to start closing out the party.
For those of us "of a certain age", everybody's mother just loved that guy. Him and Nana Mouskouri.
Michael Gambon, UK acting great:
https://tellyvisions.org/article/rip-michael-gambon-1940-2023 (https://tellyvisions.org/article/rip-michael-gambon-1940-2023)
He had many stage and screen credits.
Dianne Feinstein, at 90.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/us/politics/dianne-feinstein-dead-senate.html
Feinstein obit (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/us/politics/dianne-feinstein-obituary.html?name=styln-dianne-feinstein®ion=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=undefined) NYT
We missed Brooks Robinson's passing. I had his name on my glove when I played 3rd base in Little League way back in the olden days.
Susanne Somers dies from cancer at 76
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2023/10/15/suzanne-somers-threes-company-dead-76-cancer/71197413007/
Hard for me to think of her in her 70s! I guess that I did not think she was so much older than am I.
QuoteLouise Glück (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/books/louise-gluck-dead.html), 80, Nobel-Winning Poet Who Explored Trauma and Loss, Dies
Acclaimed as one of America's greatest living writers, she blended deeply personal material with themes of mythology and nature.
Quote from: fishbrains on September 30, 2023, 08:27:43 PMWe missed Brooks Robinson's passing. I had his name on my glove when I played 3rd base in Little League way back in the olden days.
His passing was definitely not missed here in Arkansas. The news was a big deal in Little Rock.
Mark Goddard, aka Maj. Don West, pilot of the Jupiter II. And then valued special ed teacher here in Mass.
"Shaft" actor Richard Roundtree (https://wtop.com/national/2023/10/shaft-star-richard-roundtree-considered-the-first-black-action-movie-hero-has-died-at-81/)
He also starred in many TV shows and movies following "Shaft."
Here's the iconic theme song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTU_9T5ufzY) by Isaac Hayes.
Then we can dig it.
R.I.P., Mr. Roundtree.
Matthew Perry??
In a hot tub maybe?
I hope that the news is wrong. He was 54.. I just turned 59, so it is hard to hear about people younger than am I die suddenly.
From WTOP online on Matthew Perry as known so far:
https://wtop.com/entertainment/2023/10/matthew-perry-friends-star-dead-at-54/ (https://wtop.com/entertainment/2023/10/matthew-perry-friends-star-dead-at-54/)
Considering some of the things in the news right now, I feel like a tremendously pampered American, but I am really sad about Matthew Perry. He had great comic timing and seemed to be a descent human being. And way too young. Damn.
At least early in Friends, they gave him the bulk of the "clever-isms" and he did deliver them well.
The last couple of years of the series were dull, including him, but not really because of him, even though it might seem that way in retrospect due to his difficulties with substance abuse. In any case, it sucks that he died relatively early, regardless of the exacts cause.
Charlie Munger (Berkshire Hathaway)
Sidekick to Warren Buffet.
at 99 (only about a month short of his 100th birthday).
QuoteHolly Maguigan (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/us/holly-maguigan-dead.html), Who Fought for the Rights of Battered Women, Dies at 78
Through her scholarship and her teaching, she made it possible for women in abusive relationships to claim self-defense when fighting back.
Rosalyn Carter (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/19/us/politics/rosalynn-carter-dead.html), (1927-2023)
Rosalyn Carter's life in photos (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/us/rosalynn-carter-photos.html).
Henry Kissinger (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/us/henry-kissinger-dead.html), 100.
Obit (https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/11/29/henry-kissinger-dead-obituary/) in The Washington Post.
Shane McGowan, singer of The Pogues
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67546785
Sandra Day O'conner (1st woman on supreme court) at 93.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sandra-day-o-connor-the-first-female-supreme-court-justice-dead-at-93/ar-AA1kQwX7?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=dfb62838bef24991ac83d9420444a134&ei=10
Not having been old enough to recall Kissinger actually serving in public office, I do realize that he is an enormously partisan/ controversial figure, and it is therefore hard to discern accurate remarks from, well, propaganda, hagiography, etc. Anyone who is old enough care to comment?
Quote from: kaysixteen on December 01, 2023, 10:53:11 PMNot having been old enough to recall Kissinger actually serving in public office, I do realize that he is an enormously partisan/ controversial figure, and it is therefore hard to discern accurate remarks from, well, propaganda, hagiography, etc. Anyone who is old enough care to comment?
Here's his biographer in the Wall Street Journal: Henry (https://www.wsj.com/articles/henry-kissingers-century-01a1a932?mod=hp_opin_pos_1)
I was contemporaneously floored by his work in the opening to China. I saw tricky Dick Nixon's announcement on TV in which he used the expression "People's Republic of China" instead of "Red China", which had been his wont. The beer can I had been drinking from nearly fell out of my hand. I was further glad that he was instrumental in ending the Viet Nam war.
In the big picture, Henry was Metternich and Castlereagh rolled into one, and I would add -- a touch of Bismarck. Men who can wage war for the sake of a later greater peace.
Realpolitiker.
Quote from: kaysixteen on December 01, 2023, 10:53:11 PMNot having been old enough to recall Kissinger actually serving in public office, I do realize that he is an enormously partisan/ controversial figure, and it is therefore hard to discern accurate remarks from, well, propaganda, hagiography, etc. Anyone who is old enough care to comment?
He authorized the carpet bombing of Cambodian and Laotian villages, which did nothing at all to help the USA win its unwinnable war in Southeast Asia and, in the Cambodian case, facilitated the rise of the Khmer Rouge to power, who killed one-quarter of the country's population in less than four years.
Quote from: spork on December 02, 2023, 05:15:40 AMQuote from: kaysixteen on December 01, 2023, 10:53:11 PMNot having been old enough to recall Kissinger actually serving in public office, I do realize that he is an enormously partisan/ controversial figure, and it is therefore hard to discern accurate remarks from, well, propaganda, hagiography, etc. Anyone who is old enough care to comment?
He authorized the carpet bombing of Cambodian and Laotian villages, which did nothing at all to help the USA win its unwinnable war in Southeast Asia and, in the Cambodian case, facilitated the rise of the Khmer Rouge to power, who killed one-quarter of the country's population in less than four years.
Quotehttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/henry-kissinger-war-crimes-cambodia-bangladesh-b2457241.html
QuoteFrom Cambodia to Bangladesh: a brief history of Henry Kissinger's alleged war crimes
Henry Kissinger sided with military dictators and genocidal regimes in his pursuit of projecting US power during the Cold War, resulting in the deaths of millions of innocents, Bevan Hurley reports
Quote
Quote from: clean on December 01, 2023, 08:27:10 AMSandra Day O'conner (1st woman on supreme court) at 93.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sandra-day-o-connor-the-first-female-supreme-court-justice-dead-at-93/ar-AA1kQwX7?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=dfb62838bef24991ac83d9420444a134&ei=10
Sandra Day O'Conner's legacy (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/02/us/sandra-day-oconnor-women-le).
NYT obit (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/us/sandra-day-oconnor-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1)
The old guy with severe memory loss I would meet on my walk two or three times a week. The path is about a 1/3 mile circle, and by the time we came around and saw each other again he would have forgotten that he had already met me that day. Always friendly though.
His daughter had been taking care of him and his old chubby Beagle for the last year.
Norman Lear, at 101.
QuoteNorman Lear, Whose Comedies Changed the Face of TV, Is Dead at 101
As the producer of "All in the Family" and many other shows, Mr. Lear showed that it was possible to be topical, funny and immensely popular.
Link to the NYT obituary of Norman Lear: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/arts/television/norman-lear-dead.html
Our three colleagues at the University of Nevada.
My campus lost a student to suicide yesterday. Not anyone I knew personally and it's still hitting me very hard.
Actor Ryan O'Neill (https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/entertainment/ryan-oneal-death/index.html), aged 82.
The three victims (https://www.yahoo.com/news/3-victims-unlv-shooting-remembered-043353749.html) of the UNLV shooting.
Actor Andre Braugher (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/arts/television/andre-braugher-cause-of-death-lung-cancer.html), aged 61. Homicide: Life on the Streets is one of my all-time favorite t.v. series--he's brilliant in it. Cancer sucks.
Tom Smothers (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/arts/television/tom-smothers-dead.html), 86.
Dennis Edney (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/lawyer-dennis-edney-dead-at-77-1.7072899) at 77, after struggling with dementia.
The guy was a fucking hero. He fought like the devil to get Omar Khadr out of Guantanamo, where he was tortured (as a child!), and then out of the maximum security prison he was transferred to in Edmonton. The Canadian government fought them every step of the way, and had popular opinion on its side for most of that time. After years of fighting, he got an official apology and a settlement from the Canadian government for its role in the kid's torture. When Khadr was finally released, he put him up in his own house.
QuoteJoyce Randolph (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/14/obituaries/joyce-randolph-dead.html), Last of the 'Honeymooners,' Is Dead at 99
Peter Schickele, composer and animator of PDQ Bach, at age 88. (NY Times obit (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/arts/music/peter-schickele-dead.html))
Norman Jewison (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/movies/norman-jewison-dead.html)
QuoteNorman Jewison, Filmmaker Who Spanned Genres, Is Dead at 97
His movies — from dramas to comedies and musicals — became magnets for Oscars, but he was best known for socially conscious films, like "In the Heat of the Night."
Wow, what a career!
Last year I watched the documentary "Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13660266/)" (2022) on Kanopy. The movie was filmed in Croatia.
Charles Osgood (https://wtop.com/national/2024/01/charles-osgood-cbs-host-on-tv-and-radio-and-networks-poet-in-residence-has-died-at-91/), long time host of CBS Sunday Mornings and the "Osgood Files," at age 91.
Chita Rivera (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/theater/chita-rivera-dead.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20240130&instance_id=113890&nl=from-the-times®i_id=46382589&segment_id=156837&te=1&user_id=349c6abacc09730a88f6caaeae2eed71).
QuoteChita Rivera, Electrifying Star of Broadway and Beyond, Is Dead at 91
Appearing in scores of stage productions, she dazzled audiences for nearly six decades, most memorably starring as Anita in "West Side Story" and Velma Kelly in "Chicago."
The Department Chair that hired me 21 years ago died the day after Christmas. I had emailed him about New Years and again about the start of the term, and no reply. He was famous/notorious for replying within hours!
I did a search of his name and his obituary was the first thing to pop up. No one had notified the university, so I had to take care of that. I dont know what the university does if/when notified.
The dean that first hired me also died! He died the first week of January. He and the chair worked very closely together and were instrumental in getting us to the position we are in now. To have them both die within 10 day...
Jean Carnahan (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/us/politics/jean-carnahan-dead.html), straight-talking US Senator from Missouri. She was appointed to fill her husband's term after he'd won election posthumously, following a plane crash.
Quote from: clean on January 30, 2024, 12:51:19 PMThe Department Chair that hired me 21 years ago died the day after Christmas. I had emailed him about New Years and again about the start of the term, and no reply. He was famous/notorious for replying within hours!
I did a search of his name and his obituary was the first thing to pop up. No one had notified the university, so I had to take care of that. I dont know what the university does if/when notified.
The dean that first hired me also died! He died the first week of January. He and the chair worked very closely together and were instrumental in getting us to the position we are in now. To have them both die within 10 day...
That is very sad, clean. I am sorry for your double loss.
Actor Carl Weathers (https://wtop.com/entertainment/2024/02/footballer-turned-actor-carl-weathers-who-starred-in-rocky-movies-and-the-mandalorian-dies/) at age 76
Wayne Kramer - Guitarist for the legendary MC5.
"Kick out the jams muthafvkas!"
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/arts/music/wayne-kramer-dead.html
Quote from: secundem_artem on February 03, 2024, 02:41:43 PMWayne Kramer - Guitarist for the legendary MC5.
"Kick out the jams muthafvkas!"
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/arts/music/wayne-kramer-dead.html
A real one.
Country Music Singer Toby Keith at 62 (stomach cancer).
Quote from: clean on February 06, 2024, 06:44:57 AMCountry Music Singer Toby Keith at 62 (stomach cancer).
Link to the NYT obit (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/arts/music/toby-keith-dead.html).
Seiji Ozawa. (obit from WBUR) (https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/02/09/conductor-seiji-ozawa-obituary)
Quote from: AmLitHist on December 08, 2023, 02:28:51 PMActor Ryan O'Neill (https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/entertainment/ryan-oneal-death/index.html), aged 82.
I was a big fan. An underrated actor. Starred in Barry Lyndon, one of my alltime favorites, A masterpiece of art
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 13, 2020, 09:03:36 PMI saw both, but only after I had read the novels. I also remember seeing "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" with Richard Buton.
Here is the obit: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/books/john-le-carre-dead.html
Incidentally, one of the clues in NYT's Monday crossword (the online edition is released Sun evening) is on John Le Carre.
One of my favorites is "Call for the Dead"--short, tight, and gripping.
The Tailor of Panama read it twice and great movie with Brosnan and Jamie Lee Curtis, Geoffrey Rush
A satire on the CIA intelligence
Canadian former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney at 84.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/world/canada/brian-mulroney-dead.html
The slimiest sack of merde to ever inhabit 24 Sussex Avenue. We were still living in The Great White North when Muldoon became PM. As I recall, his nickname was "lint" because when George HW Bush put his hand in his pocket, he'd come out with lint.
I remember going into a bookstore and there was a paperback with Muldoon on the cover. Somebody had scratched the eyes out.
He was elected to Parliament with what I believe was the biggest majority ever. By the time he left, the Tories were left with a half dozen seats and hoping Kim Campbell could right the ship. The results were 15 years in the wilderness as the Tories tried to wipe off the stink off from they guy.
My section-mate, who took me under his wing when I re-joined a community band for the first time in years this past fall. Yesterday's first rehearsal without him was hard but cathartic.
The leader of the congregation in which I grew up. He was there from my birth through my wedding and beyond. He was a good guy, and will be missed.
Mulroney's death has been commented on by many Canadians and those knowledgeable about Canada, and he does not seem to have evoked neutral views in more or less anyone. What really is the truth about him and his admin/ policies?
Quote from: kaysixteen on March 02, 2024, 09:40:35 PMMulroney's death has been commented on by many Canadians and those knowledgeable about Canada, and he does not seem to have evoked neutral views in more or less anyone. What really is the truth about him and his admin/ policies?
When I was still working in T.O. one of my colleagues was an American woman who had married an Canadian. Her take on Canada was that Canadians only have 2 ways of looking at the US. (1) They're ignoring us. (2) They want to take us over.
Muldoon was instrumental in passing the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement. That later expanded into NAFTA by including Mexico. Certainly proposing getting into bed with the Americans over trade (which also included some immigration and other considerations) got those who believed in option #2 above pretty riled up. There were posters of an American flag, only with a Maple Leaf replacing one of the stars.
Lyin' Brian was also remarkably close with both Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. This did not sit with with a lot of people either. Pierre Trudeau (Justin's papa) used to say that living beside the Americans was like a mouse sleeping next to an elephant. No matter how good natured the pachyderm, if it rolled over in bed, the mouse was in deep trouble.
Canadians have long lived with the question of what it means to be a Canadian. Were we significantly different from Americans? How? Trudeau père did a lot in the 70's and 80's to try and forge a Canadian identity. At some level, I think a lot of us saw Muldoon as undoing that work - not necessarily deliberately - but undoing it nonetheless.
I think it was the Toronto Star that once held a contest to complete the sentence, "As Canadian as........".
The winning entry was "..... possible under the circumstances."
Mulroney also did a number of things that were varying degrees of questionable/corrupt/crooked but I don't think that was what actually got him disliked so thoroughly.
We moved to the Excited States over 30 years ago. And I suspect that the Canadian identity has become firmer over that period. But certainly, in our time in the Great White North, Muldoon was thoroughly polarizing figure.
Not sure who else on here is/was Canadian. Any different thoughts on the topic?
Quote from: secundem_artem on March 03, 2024, 11:28:03 AMQuote from: kaysixteen on March 02, 2024, 09:40:35 PMMulroney's death has been commented on by many Canadians and those knowledgeable about Canada, and he does not seem to have evoked neutral views in more or less anyone. What really is the truth about him and his admin/ policies?
When I was still working in T.O. one of my colleagues was an American woman who had married an Canadian. Her take on Canada was that Canadians only have 2 ways of looking at the US. (1) They're ignoring us. (2) They want to take us over.
Muldoon was instrumental in passing the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement. That later expanded into NAFTA by including Mexico. Certainly proposing getting into bed with the Americans over trade (which also included some immigration and other considerations) got those who believed in option #2 above pretty riled up. There were posters of an American flag, only with a Maple Leaf replacing one of the stars.
Lyin' Brian was also remarkably close with both Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. This did not sit with with a lot of people either. Pierre Trudeau (Justin's papa) used to say that living beside the Americans was like a mouse sleeping next to an elephant. No matter how good natured the pachyderm, if it rolled over in bed, the mouse was in deep trouble.
Canadians have long lived with the question of what it means to be a Canadian. Were we significantly different from Americans? How? Trudeau père did a lot in the 70's and 80's to try and forge a Canadian identity. At some level, I think a lot of us saw Muldoon as undoing that work - not necessarily deliberately - but undoing it nonetheless.
I think it was the Toronto Star that once held a contest to complete the sentence, "As Canadian as........".
The winning entry was "..... possible under the circumstances."
Mulroney also did a number of things that were varying degrees of questionable/corrupt/crooked but I don't think that was what actually got him disliked so thoroughly.
We moved to the Excited States over 30 years ago. And I suspect that the Canadian identity has become firmer over that period. But certainly, in our time in the Great White North, Muldoon was thoroughly polarizing figure.
Not sure who else on here is/was Canadian. Any different thoughts on the topic?
Yes, when K-16 raised the question, the first thing I thought was that the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement made him unpopular, at least in certain circles. Don't know more about Mulroney than Wikipedia tells me. But at the time, it was part of my job to stay informed of international trade matters.
What is amazing is how popular opinion can vary from reality. "Getting into bed with the Americans" was surely the way it looked to the uninitiated. In fact, it was getting out from under the thumb of the Americans in trade!
Canada was rightly pissed off that US corporations were able to induce so called "anti-dumping duties" -- in fact just extraordinarily high tariffs on many countries' goods, including Canada's, just by administrative fiat. Canada sought a way to stop this nonsense. To get you gotta give, so what came out of that was the Canada US Free Trade Agreement which didn't just reduce tariffs to zero, but
added Canadian representatives to the US quasi-judicial procedures in awarding anti-dumping tariffs.
The extension to NAFTA was the will of each country; it was not one agreement, but rather three pairs of agreements. No one would say Canada got into bed with Mexico, but on the naive observer logic, they could.
That's the opposite of what it might look like. This is not unusual in economics.
Comedian Richard Lewis, on February 27. Very funny man.
My high school math teacher, Mr. N. His daughter just called me to let me know. We had remained close over the years. Even in his last days, he was writing out math problems for his children, grandkids, and even the staff at the nursing home to solve. He was a patient, kind, and caring teacher. A good man. And very, very smart. I told him when I went back to visit during my undergrad days, that college math was relatively easy for me because he'd done such a good job of teaching us in high school, all the way up through calculus. I will miss him, may he rest in peace.
Great character actor M. Emmett Walsh passed at 88.
A colleague's son. 21 or 22. I've known him since he was born. Except for maybe younger siblings and the odd cousin here or there, you shouldn't know someone for their entire life span . . .
Russia is not my favorite country right now, but thoughts and prayers to the Russian people killed in the Crocus City Hall atrocity and their friends, families, and the survivors.
Colleague's father, who also taught here for 40+ years, passed last week. It was a blessing, as he'd had multiple serious health problems in recent years, but it's never easy. I enjoyed talking with him in the few years our tenure overlapped, and his daughter is one of my few friends, and one of the very few people at work that I trust. His wife also worked as an adjunct and tutor in my dept. for many years.
Danny Kahneman, age 90. Wicked smart and by all accounts a very nice guy, too.
Not everyone's cup of tea, but RIP David Breashears.
QuoteDavid Breashears, 68 (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/obituaries/david-breashears-dead.html), Who Braved Everest to Capture It on Film, Dies
He risked death on the slopes of the world's highest mountain to produce the highest-grossing IMAX documentary of all time.
QuoteRichard Serra (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/26/arts/richard-serra-dead.html), Who Recast Sculpture on a Massive Scale, Dies at 85
His tilted walls of rusting steel, monumental blocks and other immense and inscrutable forms created environments that had to be walked through, or around, to be fully experienced.
A controversial sculptor, but I liked his Schunnemunk Fork (https://images.app.goo.gl/6sqCXm3mbEq3jgHb9) at The Storm King Art Center (https://collections.stormking.org/Browse/archival/facet/rel_entity_facet/id/184), which I think is the perfect background for gigantic works of art.
ETA:
QuoteSchunnemunk Fork (https://collections.stormking.org/Detail/objects/461), a site-specific commission, is installed in a ten-acre rolling field with a natural border of nearby woods, which, at the time of the work's construction, was the southern edge of the Storm King property. When Richard Serra surveyed Storm King's grounds and chose the site, it had never before been considered for its artistic potential. He arrived at his final composition through a complex process that involved consulting both topographical maps and a surveyor, as well as walking the grounds with his wife, Clara Weyergraf-Serra. The work consists of four weathering steel plates set lengthwise and inserted into the ground at designated intervals. Each plate is eight feet high and two and a half inches thick; lengths vary from thirty-five to almost fifty-five feet. Roughly a third of the length of each rectangular plate is visible; the remainder is buried in the earth. The visible angles correspond to eight-foot drops in the terrain. The title refers to the four-pronged scheme of the piece and references nearby Schunnemunk Mountain.
Former Senator Joseph (Joe) Lieberman (https://wtop.com/national/2024/03/former-sen-joe-lieberman-democrats-vp-pick-in-2000-dead-at-82/) at age 82
I met then Sen. Lieberman during a Southwest Airlines flight from Baltimore to Manchester, NH. It was spring 2002. I had been home for spring break and was heading back to my college. Some well-wishers greeted him at both airports and a NH state trooper met him at the baggage claim.
O.J. Simpson. At 76.
"Go, O.J.! Go!"
Sorry, sometimes you gotta go for the low-hanging fruit.
QuoteFaith Ringgold Dies at 93 (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/13/arts/faith-ringgold-dead.html?ugrp=u&unlocked_article_code=1.kE0.agQM.9-StC6WJQgYI&smid=url-share); Wove Black Life Into Quilts and Children's Books
A champion of Black artists, she explored themes of race, gender, class, family and community through a vast array of media and later the written word.
I had the privilege of sitting around a table listening to her talk about one of her books. This must have been two decades ago. I've also seen her works in more than one museum.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear about Daniel Kahneman.
Quote from: hmaria1609 on March 28, 2024, 12:57:06 PMFormer Senator [url="https://wtop.com/national/2024/03/former-
He was no help at all to Al Gores's campaign in 2000
Quote from: Myword on April 15, 2024, 01:31:43 PMQuote from: hmaria1609 on March 28, 2024, 12:57:06 PMFormer Senator ="https://wtop.com/national/2024/03/former-
He was no help at all to Al Gores's campaign in 2000
I remember watching the vice-presidential debate between Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney. How intelligently they spoke, I thought, certainly compared to Bush and Gore.