Obituaries for 2017

[Free Vulcan]

We're huge Ron White fans, too.

RW in the first Blue Collar comedy tour had the funniest monologue I've ever heard. One of my favorite bits:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRmmIVnjqfQ

[EasyAce]

RIP one of the first men in baseball to come public and clean about struggles with mental illness:

Jimmy Piersall dies after monthslong illness

His first autobiography, Fear Strikes Out, was made into a film starring Anthony Perkins as Piersall
and Karl Malden as his over-demanding father. Perkins made a credible Piersall on screen, but trust me
when I tell you the film barely did the book justice.

[musiclady]

RIP one of the first men in baseball to come public and clean about struggles with mental illness:

Jimmy Piersall dies after monthslong illness

His first autobiography, Fear Strikes Out, was made into a film starring Anthony Perkins as Piersall
and Karl Malden as his over-demanding father. Perkins made a credible Piersall on screen, but trust me
when I tell you the film barely did the book justice.

I had a Jimmy Piersall baseball card, and my Mom threw it out. 

I never read the book, but saw the film and knew the story.  He battled, that's for sure.

[EasyAce]

I had a Jimmy Piersall baseball card, and my Mom threw it out. 

I never read the book, but saw the film and knew the story.  He battled, that's for sure.

@musiclady
I found the book on the rack in a drugstore for a quarter. That was after I knew the story---not through the film,
but through a book Mickey Mantle put his name on called The Quality of Courage, which had a full chapter
on Piersall. (After his recovery, Piersall once pulled a home run Mantle hit back with a spectacular catch; Mantle
admitted he kicked about a ton of dirt out of the infield after that catch and quoted an unnamed sportswriter
as writing, "In seventeen years of covering this game I never saw a catch like that.")

I had a father somewhat similar to Piersall's, maybe not so harsh a personality overall but just as impossibly
demanding when it came to things he assumed I should know how to do but were things you needed to be
taught. (Among other things, my father assumed a strong boy could handle himself in a fight; it
never got programmed into his software that all the strength in the world was useless if you didn't know
what to do with it; you can take down a stronger guy than yourself if he doesn't know what he's doing
against you, and I didn't know, and my father was stubborn enough not to teach me, and he was also
fool enough to respond to any time I lost a fight---which was all the time because I didn't know what to
do with my strength or my fists and he wouldn't teach me---it would be nothing compared to the beatings
I got from him afterward.)

Let's just say I paid a price for not knowing things my father was foolish enough to believe a boy
was supposed to know by instinct, and that the price I paid for that became compounded with usurious
interest when my father died seven months after my tenth birthday.

Piersall spent part of 1963 as a New York Met. He hit his 100th career home run as a Met---and cracked
up the fans in the Polo Grounds (where the Mets played their first two seasons awaiting Shea Stadium's
completion) by backpedaling around the bases. Even the Phillies (off whom he hit the bomb) laughed.

[Sanguine]

@musiclady
I found the book on the rack in a drugstore for a quarter. That was after I knew the story---not through the film,
but through a book Mickey Mantle put his name on called The Quality of Courage, which had a full chapter
on Piersall. (After his recovery, Piersall once pulled a home run Mantle hit back with a spectacular catch; Mantle
admitted he kicked about a ton of dirt out of the infield after that catch and quoted an unnamed sportswriter
as writing, "In seventeen years of covering this game I never saw a catch like that.")

I had a father somewhat similar to Piersall's, maybe not so harsh a personality overall but just as impossibly
demanding when it came to things he assumed I should know how to do but were things you needed to be
taught. (Among other things, my father assumed a strong boy could handle himself in a fight; it
never got programmed into his software that all the strength in the world was useless if you didn't know
what to do with it; you can take down a stronger guy than yourself if he doesn't know what he's doing
against you, and I didn't know, and my father was stubborn enough not to teach me, and he was also
fool enough to respond to any time I lost a fight---which was all the time because I didn't know what to
do with my strength or my fists and he wouldn't teach me---it would be nothing compared to the beatings
I got from him afterward.)

Let's just say I paid a price for not knowing things my father was foolish enough to believe a boy
was supposed to know by instinct, and that the price I paid for that became compounded with usurious
interest when my father died seven months after my tenth birthday.

Yes, I am blessed in that my father has lived long enough for us to come to terms and understand and forgive.  On both sides.  It leaves a missing piece when you don't have the chance to do that. 

However, it sounds like you have done a great job with what you had.  God bless you.

[Cyber Liberty]

I was #3 boy, so it was pretty much assumed I wouldn't amount to anything.  What I know I learned on my own. 

[EasyAce]

However, it sounds like you have done a great job with what you had.  God bless you.

@Sanguine
If only that were true. I ended up dealing with my own mental issues for too many years to follow.
Only ten years ago was I able to begin coming to complete terms and begin an earnest recovery.
And I'm not sure it's all that complete; I still have my moments, if not hours, of anguish. Particularly
since, as of 1998 (when my younger brother was killed), I'm the only surviving member of my
childhood household. As of August, I'll also have outlived both my parents and my younger brother.

I plod along in my quiet way; I'm not retired by any means, but I have worked since as a free lance
editor/writer (I was a professional journalist in small city/regional daily newspapers, daily news
radio, trade, and early Internet journalism, after a brief career as an Air Force intelligence analyst)
and blues musician/arranger/composer. I've found a peace in my work and in my life now that was
alien to me previously. But I thank you for your kind words, my friend.

[Idiot]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfTyEtVIe84

Yep, and this, imho, was one of his best skits.

 

I loved Tim Conway.  We made a special trip to see him in Branson several years back.  He replayed this very skit....  He told the crowd at the beginning of the show that he was only in Branson, because he had gambling debts from the horse track, or otherwise he wouldn't be there.  He was serious...and no one laughed.  It was odd...after that no one in the crowd really laughed at anything.  He performed for 45 min....it was just really sad and really not funny.  I've never been more disappointed.....   Since then I'll turn the channel if I see him on.

[Sanguine]

@Sanguine
If only that were true. I ended up dealing with my own mental issues for too many years to follow.
Only ten years ago was I able to begin coming to complete terms and begin an earnest recovery.
And I'm not sure it's all that complete; I still have my moments, if not hours, of anguish. I plod
along in my quiet way; I'm not retired by any means, but I have worked since as a free lance
editor/writer (I was a professional journalist in small city/regional daily newspapers, daily news
radio, trade, and early Internet journalism, after a brief career as an Air Force intelligence
analyst) and blues musician/arranger/composer. I've found a peace in my work now that was
alien to me previously. But I thank you for your kind words, my friend.

Ace, I've been on this earth for quite a while, and one thing I've learned is that you can only work with what you have.  When you have had some time and acquired a bit of wisdom, you can work with that, but until then you have to work towards that wisdom.  Don't ever be ashamed at how long it took, or the effort that you had to put into it.  It takes as long as it takes, friend.

[EasyAce]

Ace, I've been on this earth for quite a while, and one thing I've learned is that you can only work with what you have.  When you have had some time and acquired a bit of wisdom, you can work with that, but until then you have to work towards that wisdom.  Don't ever be ashamed at how long it took, or the effort that you had to put into it.  It takes as long as it takes, friend.

@Sanguine
You deserve a hug for that.

Or . . .

[Sanguine]

@Sanguine
You deserve a hug for that.

Or . . .

Wine, please.   

[EasyAce]

Wine, please.   

@Sanguine
Deal!

[Machiavelli]

trust me when I tell you the film barely did the book justice.

Agreed, @EasyAce

I read the book several times and saw the movie several times.

[musiclady]

@musiclady
I found the book on the rack in a drugstore for a quarter. That was after I knew the story---not through the film,
but through a book Mickey Mantle put his name on called The Quality of Courage, which had a full chapter
on Piersall. (After his recovery, Piersall once pulled a home run Mantle hit back with a spectacular catch; Mantle
admitted he kicked about a ton of dirt out of the infield after that catch and quoted an unnamed sportswriter
as writing, "In seventeen years of covering this game I never saw a catch like that.")

I had a father somewhat similar to Piersall's, maybe not so harsh a personality overall but just as impossibly
demanding when it came to things he assumed I should know how to do but were things you needed to be
taught. (Among other things, my father assumed a strong boy could handle himself in a fight; it
never got programmed into his software that all the strength in the world was useless if you didn't know
what to do with it; you can take down a stronger guy than yourself if he doesn't know what he's doing
against you, and I didn't know, and my father was stubborn enough not to teach me, and he was also
fool enough to respond to any time I lost a fight---which was all the time because I didn't know what to
do with my strength or my fists and he wouldn't teach me---it would be nothing compared to the beatings
I got from him afterward.)

Let's just say I paid a price for not knowing things my father was foolish enough to believe a boy
was supposed to know by instinct, and that the price I paid for that became compounded with usurious
interest when my father died seven months after my tenth birthday.

Piersall spent part of 1963 as a New York Met. He hit his 100th career home run as a Met---and cracked
up the fans in the Polo Grounds (where the Mets played their first two seasons awaiting Shea Stadium's
completion) by backpedaling around the bases. Even the Phillies (off whom he hit the bomb) laughed.

Man, I'm sorry to hear about your rough childhood, @EasyAce .

The advice that @Sanguine gave you says it all.

You have done amazingly well with yourself, my friend!

[Machiavelli]

@
I had a father somewhat similar to Piersall's, maybe not so harsh a personality overall but just as impossibly
demanding when it came to things he assumed I should know how to do but were things you needed to be
taught. (Among other things, my father assumed a strong boy could handle himself in a fight; it
never got programmed into his software that all the strength in the world was useless if you didn't know
what to do with it; you can take down a stronger guy than yourself if he doesn't know what he's doing
against you, and I didn't know, and my father was stubborn enough not to teach me, and he was also
fool enough to respond to any time I lost a fight---which was all the time because I didn't know what to
do with my strength or my fists and he wouldn't teach me---it would be nothing compared to the beatings
I got from him afterward.)

Let's just say I paid a price for not knowing things my father was foolish enough to believe a boy
was supposed to know by instinct, and that the price I paid for that became compounded with usurious
interest when my father died seven months after my tenth birthday.

I'm so sorry, @EasyAce

[andy58-in-nh]

@EasyAce

Thank you for sharing those experiences - that could not have been well, easy. 

You have friends here. I'm quite certain many of us have had our own demons to fight. I know for damned certain that I have. Depression is a vicious beast, as I found out. I was diagnosed about a year ago. I haven't ever shared that here, but I am much, much better now... I needed help, and got it.

Best wishes -

AK

[Machiavelli]

@Piersall spent part of 1963 as a New York Met. He hit his 100th career home run as a Met---and cracked
up the fans in the Polo Grounds (where the Mets played their first two seasons awaiting Shea Stadium's
completion) by backpedaling around the bases. Even the Phillies (off whom he hit the bomb) laughed.

@EasyAce

I remember that.

Do you also remember that stunt he pulled with the Senators during a spring training game?

Piersall was the third base runner and the bases were loaded. Chuck Hinton came up and hit a grand slammer.

Instead of heading on home, Piersall waited for the other three runners to catch up with him, and then led them home, finishing with a mad slide across the plate.

[EasyAce]

@EasyAce

I remember that.

Do you also remember that stunt he pulled with the Senators during a spring training game?

Piersall was the third base runner and the bases were loaded. Chuck Hinton came up and hit a grand slammer.

Instead of heading on home, Piersall waited for the other three runners to catch up with him, and then led them home, finishing with a mad slide across the plate.

@Machiavelli
I didn't remember that one but that sounds classic!

[EasyAce]

@musiclady
@Machiavelli
@andy58-in-nh

Thank you so much, my friends!

[Smokin Joe]

@musiclady
I found the book on the rack in a drugstore for a quarter. That was after I knew the story---not through the film,
but through a book Mickey Mantle put his name on called The Quality of Courage, which had a full chapter
on Piersall. (After his recovery, Piersall once pulled a home run Mantle hit back with a spectacular catch; Mantle
admitted he kicked about a ton of dirt out of the infield after that catch and quoted an unnamed sportswriter
as writing, "In seventeen years of covering this game I never saw a catch like that.")

I had a father somewhat similar to Piersall's, maybe not so harsh a personality overall but just as impossibly
demanding when it came to things he assumed I should know how to do but were things you needed to be
taught. (Among other things, my father assumed a strong boy could handle himself in a fight; it
never got programmed into his software that all the strength in the world was useless if you didn't know
what to do with it; you can take down a stronger guy than yourself if he doesn't know what he's doing
against you, and I didn't know, and my father was stubborn enough not to teach me, and he was also
fool enough to respond to any time I lost a fight---which was all the time because I didn't know what to
do with my strength or my fists and he wouldn't teach me---it would be nothing compared to the beatings
I got from him afterward.)

Let's just say I paid a price for not knowing things my father was foolish enough to believe a boy
was supposed to know by instinct, and that the price I paid for that became compounded with usurious
interest when my father died seven months after my tenth birthday.

Piersall spent part of 1963 as a New York Met. He hit his 100th career home run as a Met---and cracked
up the fans in the Polo Grounds (where the Mets played their first two seasons awaiting Shea Stadium's
completion) by backpedaling around the bases. Even the Phillies (off whom he hit the bomb) laughed.

From reading down thread, it sounds like you have done well from a rough start. Keep at it my friend, you have accomplished much, and have my respect.

[EasyAce]

From reading down thread, it sounds like you have done well from a rough start. Keep at it my friend, you have accomplished much, and have my respect.

@Smokin Joe
 

[goatprairie]

@musiclady
I found the book on the rack in a drugstore for a quarter. That was after I knew the story---not through the film,
but through a book Mickey Mantle put his name on called The Quality of Courage, which had a full chapter
on Piersall. (After his recovery, Piersall once pulled a home run Mantle hit back with a spectacular catch; Mantle
admitted he kicked about a ton of dirt out of the infield after that catch and quoted an unnamed sportswriter
as writing, "In seventeen years of covering this game I never saw a catch like that.")

I had a father somewhat similar to Piersall's, maybe not so harsh a personality overall but just as impossibly
demanding when it came to things he assumed I should know how to do but were things you needed to be
taught. (Among other things, my father assumed a strong boy could handle himself in a fight; it
never got programmed into his software that all the strength in the world was useless if you didn't know
what to do with it; you can take down a stronger guy than yourself if he doesn't know what he's doing
against you, and I didn't know, and my father was stubborn enough not to teach me, and he was also
fool enough to respond to any time I lost a fight---which was all the time because I didn't know what to
do with my strength or my fists and he wouldn't teach me---it would be nothing compared to the beatings
I got from him afterward.)

Let's just say I paid a price for not knowing things my father was foolish enough to believe a boy
was supposed to know by instinct, and that the price I paid for that became compounded with usurious
interest when my father died seven months after my tenth birthday.

Piersall spent part of 1963 as a New York Met. He hit his 100th career home run as a Met---and cracked
up the fans in the Polo Grounds (where the Mets played their first two seasons awaiting Shea Stadium's
completion) by backpedaling around the bases. Even the Phillies (off whom he hit the bomb) laughed.

Fathers as depicted on tv fifty years were quite different than the ones in real life. I was (and mostly still am) inept with fixing things mechanically.
One time when I was about twelve or thirteen I attempted to fix my bicycle. The chain had fallen off or something similar. So my father walked by, and I asked him for some help or advice.  He looked at me for about ten or fifteen seconds, and then he told me nobody showed him anything, why should he show me.  Then he puffed on his pipe and walked away.
His theory was if you couldn't learn things on your own, tough. He wasn't going to help. So out of my three brothers and myself only one of us learned to do carpentry, something my father was a whiz at but didn't teach us about either.
Likewise, my mother never showed my three sisters how to cook.  As a result, none of them learned much on their own, and their husbands were much better cooks than they were.
But that still doesn't stop a person from learning on their own if they have the desire.
So would I rather have had a demanding father like Piersall's or one like my father who just wasn't much interested in anything you did and didn't want to help even when asked? (My father also had a terrible temper.) 
I don't know.  My siblings and myself managed to make it through life without screwing up too much....in fact, most of my siblings became very successful to the point of most of them being very well off.
So even without the ultra-demanding father, would Piersall have turned out different? Who knows? I know I had my own faults which had nothing to do with whatever my parents did or didn't do to me.  Nevertheless, I don't like to see children abused by parents.  As bad a temper as my father had, he never beat us.  Yelling and screaming was his preferred method of discipline. An occasional clout here and there, but nothing like the beatings you were subjected to by your father.
My view is if you can make it adulthood with the knowledge of what's right and what's wrong, everything that happens after that is on you.

[EasyAce]

Fathers as depicted on tv fifty years were quite different than the ones in real life. I was (and mostly still am) inept with fixing things mechanically.
One time when I was about twelve or thirteen I attempted to fix my bicycle. The chain had fallen off or something similar. So my father walked by, and I asked him for some help or advice.  He looked at me for about ten or fifteen seconds, and then he told me nobody showed him anything, why should he show me.  Then he puffed on his pipe and walked away.
His theory was if you couldn't learn things on your own, tough. He wasn't going to help. So out of my three brothers and myself only one of us learned to do carpentry, something my father was a whiz at but didn't teach us about either.
Likewise, my mother never showed my three sisters how to cook.  As a result, none of them learned much on their own, and their husbands were much better cooks than they were.
But that still doesn't stop a person from learning on their own if they have the desire.

It doesn't stop a person, of course, but when the ones you depend on in your childhood show that kind of
disinterest, it may take you a long time before you feel confident enough to try to learn those things on
your own.

(p.s. I'm one of those men who learned to cook early enough; I learned a few tricks from my mother and
my grandmother and a favourite aunt, and I taught myself a few tricks on my own later on.)

So would I rather have had a demanding father like Piersall's or one like my father who just wasn't much interested in anything you did and didn't want to help even when asked? (My father also had a terrible temper.) 
I don't know.  My siblings and myself managed to make it through life without screwing up too much....in fact, most of my siblings became very successful to the point of most of them being very well off.
So even without the ultra-demanding father, would Piersall have turned out different? Who knows? I know I had my own faults which had nothing to do with whatever my parents did or didn't do to me.  Nevertheless, I don't like to see children abused by parents.  As bad a temper as my father had, he never beat us.  Yelling and screaming was his preferred method of discipline. An occasional clout here and there, but nothing like the beatings you were subjected to by your father.
My view is if you can make it adulthood with the knowledge of what's right and what's wrong, everything that happens after that is on you.

A parent who is demanding without teaching or encouraging is his or her own kind of abusive parent.

For me the tragedy was what I learned years later from the single most unimpeachable source I know: my father's younger
sister, one of my favourite aunts. She told me what I suspected but could never quite confirm: my parents wanted children
in the worst way possible only to learn the hard way that they had no patience for raising children, that they had no patience
for children being children. Aside from the fight issue, my parents didn't know the difference between real disobedience or
misbehaviour and children just being children. It was one thing to be spanked for disobeying or really misbehaving, but
it was something else entirely to be spanked for an honest human mistake. Because the flip side was that when they were
good, they were parents you wished every kid had. (My father in particular was generous beyond belief; he even got me
aboard an airplane for the first time when he told his bosses at his insurance firm he wouldn't make a trip to Virginia
unless he could take me. It was the best time I ever had with my father; he knocked his business off in two days and
we spent three happy days bumming around Richmond and Petersburg.)

The scar from a babyhood stomach surgery was nothing compared to the scars in my head and heart. But I managed to
make my way through it after several decades and no small heartbreak. And I enjoy life so much more now.

[Gefn]

@EasyAce

Thank you for sharing those experiences - that could not have been well, easy. 

You have friends here. I'm quite certain many of us have had our own demons to fight. I know for damned certain that I have. Depression is a vicious beast, as I found out. I was diagnosed about a year ago. I haven't ever shared that here, but I am much, much better now... I needed help, and got it.

Best wishes -

AK

@andy58-in-nh
@EasyAce

I’ve suffered from depression  since adolescence and I wouldn’t wish it on my own worst enemy. Bless you both for handling it so well. I can’t tell you how much I admire you both for surviving through it.

[EasyAce]

@andy58-in-nh
@EasyAce

I’ve suffered from depression  since adolescence and I wouldn’t wish it on my own worst enemy. Bless you both for handling it so well. I can’t tell you how much I admire you both for surviving through it.

Thank you, @Freya

[andy58-in-nh]

@andy58-in-nh
@EasyAce

I’ve suffered from depression  since adolescence and I wouldn’t wish it on my own worst enemy. Bless you both for handling it so well. I can’t tell you how much I admire you both for surviving through it.

Thank you. For me, the weird part was not being aware of what was happening to me - it felt normal. Only later did I realize that I had become acclimated to a state of mind that was not normal, but rather unhappy.

[sneakypete]

Fathers as depicted on tv fifty years were quite different than the ones in real life.

@goatprairie

No kidding. Mine had a lot in common with yours. My first bicycle came from the dump,and my father wouldn't even let me use his pliers or wrenches to fix the flat tires or replace the chain,and even refused to show me how to do it. He told me I was "too stupid to learn,so he wasn't going to waste his time" trying to teach me.

I learned. It wasn't easy,but I borrowed some tools from a neighbor and just kept screwing with it until I got it right. IIRC,I was in the 1st grade at the time.

When I was in the 5th grade and about 5'2" tall a freakishly tall kid (about 6'2") in the 7th grade decided he was going to impress the girls by picking on me in the school yard after school by doing stuff like throwing a basketball in my face as hard as he could throw it. When I went home crying to my father about it,he told me it was none of his business and I needed to learn how to man-up and take care of these things on my own. So a few days later I laid his ass out with a baseball bat after school one day,and stood over him and dared him to bleed harder because if he did I was going to beat him to death with the bat.

For some odd reason I never had any more trouble from him,or any other school bullies after that.

My father even sold the first two cars I bought with my own money that I earned working in the summers between school. The first car was a 38 Chyrsler that ran and drove that I bought for 20 bucks I earned digging septic tanks with a shovel when I was 12,and the other was a 40 Ford tudor I had bought with money I earned working as a deckhand on a shrimp boat when I was 13. He sold them both while I was away from home at school or work,and even refused to give me the money he got. "My house,my yard,my money" was the excuse I got. I was told about the time I was in the 1st grade that I needed to learn something in school because when I turned 18 I was out of the house. When I came back home from basic training after joining the army on my 17th birthday,they had already given or thrown all my clothes and other possessions away.

Sounds harsh,but the reality is unlike a lot of children I grew up without illusions about how fair the world is and the understanding that if I wanted something,I was going to have to work for it and earn it.

To be fair to my father,he grew up in the early part of the 20th Century,and he was in the 3rd grade when his father died,and he had to quit school and go to work in a shipyard as a laborer to help his mother support his 5 brothers and sisters. Then when he did get married,it was to a woman who had an adopted daughter from a earlier marrige,and he also got stuck with raising a nephew about 5 years old after his parents were killed in a car accident. A nephew who came down with juvenile diabetes when he was 13 and kept him broke paying doctors bills.  Then I had a reaction to the first Polio Vaccine when it first came out,and was bedridden with my own doctors bills for a couple of months,and even had to learn to walk again. Right after that my mother came down with type 1 diabetes,and that cost him,too.

 Needless to say,as a carpenter working in the 50's he had no medical insurance. He worked from the time he was in the 3rd grade until he was 62 and could retire on SS,and the only time I ever remember him missing a day of work was when he fell of a roof he was shingling when he was in his late 50's. I remember when I was 6 years old watching him get on his knees in a bathtub one Sunday morning with a pair of slip-joint pliers and a nutpick,and pull 3 of his own teeth because he couldn't afford to go to a dentist,and he couldn't afford to lose a days work to go to one even if he had the money for the dentist.

Unlike everyone else in his family,he didn't drink,he didn't gamble,and he didn't run around with other women. If he wasn't working,he was at home. When he got paid on Friday afternoon,he gave the money to my mother and she put together the budget and paid all the bills. When she died in 1980 he was lost. He had no idea what anything cost,and he didn't even know grocery meats were dated. I had to teach him how to shop.
 

Working hard was all he ever knew how to do. He could write his name,but that was about it. To him it must have seemed like I had every opportunity in the world to take care of myself, and needed to learn to do just that.

[jmyrlefuller]

British actor Peter Sallis, of Wallace and Gromit & Last of the Summer Wine fame, dies at 96



Sallis, a London native, was best known for two long-running roles in which he played a Northern Englishman: Norman Clegg in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, and Wallace, the human title character in the Wallace and Gromit animated series; both of which have been seen in the U.S. The rest of his acting career, which began largely on a lark during his time teaching in the Royal Air Force, consisted mostly of one-off and bit parts on British stage, film and television.

Diagnosed with macular degeneration near the end of his life, Sallis died of natural causes on June 2.

Obituary from the BBC

Wikipedia


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXBmZLmfQZ4

IMDB

[Cyber Liberty]

I'm really going to miss Peter Sallis, but at 96 he was due for some rest.  Take it in peace, Mr. Sallis.

[Gefn]

British actor Peter Sallis, of Wallace and Gromit & Last of the Summer Wine fame, dies at 96



Sallis, a London native, was best known for two long-running roles in which he played a Northern Englishman: Norman Clegg in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, and Wallace, the human title character in the Wallace and Gromit animated series; both of which have been seen in the U.S. The rest of his acting career, which began largely on a lark during his time teaching in the Royal Air Force, consisted mostly of one-off and bit parts on British stage, film and television.

Diagnosed with macular degeneration near the end of his life, Sallis died of natural causes on June 2.

Obituary from the BBC

Wikipedia


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXBmZLmfQZ4

IMDB

I love Wallace and Grommet.RIP, Sir. And thanks for the cheese.

[Cyber Liberty]

I love Wallace and Grommet.RIP, Sir. And thanks for the cheese.

[EC]

Just came to post that.

Wallace and Gromit were OK, but Last of the Summer Wine - that were special. I grew up in a small Yorkshire town like that.

[Cyber Liberty]

Just came to post that.

Wallace and Gromit were OK, but Last of the Summer Wine - that were special. I grew up in a small Yorkshire town like that.

I really liked Summer Wine.  Always wondered if it was really like that in Yorkshire...such a beautiful countryside.

[EC]

I really liked Summer Wine.  Always wondered if it was really like that in Yorkshire...such a beautiful countryside.

Well - it rains about 290 days of the year, but other than that - aye. It's pretty much like they show. Mostly older folk - the young leave as there's not a lot of work - and highly matriarchal.

[Cyber Liberty]

Well - it rains about 290 days of the year, but other than that - aye. It's pretty much like they show. Mostly older folk - the young leave as there's not a lot of work - and highly matriarchal.

No wonder it always looks like it just rained.  Phoenix:  350 days per year of sunshine.  Imagine that.  Just try.

[Gefn]

I really liked Summer Wine.  Always wondered if it was really like that in Yorkshire...such a beautiful countryside.

I recall reading Summer Wine was Her Majesty's favorite TV show.

Yorkshire is beautiful. The moors are lovely.

[Machiavelli]

Roger Smith, '77 Sunset Strip' Star and Husband of Ann-Margret, Dies at 84

Roger Smith, the suave leading man of television who starred on the popular 1950s-'60s ABC private eye series 77 Sunset Strip before a neuromuscular disease ended his acting career in his 30s, has died. He was 84.

Smith, who went on to manage the career of Ann-Margret, his wife of 50 years, died Sunday at Sherman Oaks Hospital, a representative for the actress told The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was announced...

In 1957, Columbia Pictures put Smith under contract. This led to a string of film appearances, including No Time to Be Young (1957), Operation Mad Ball (1957), Crash Landing (1958) and Auntie Mame (1958), in perhaps his most notable film role as the adult Patrick Dennis...

Full article

Wikipedia

IMDb

[goatprairie]

It doesn't stop a person, of course, but when the ones you depend on in your childhood show that kind of
disinterest, it may take you a long time before you feel confident enough to try to learn those things on
your own.

(p.s. I'm one of those men who learned to cook early enough; I learned a few tricks from my mother and
my grandmother and a favourite aunt, and I taught myself a few tricks on my own later on.)
A parent who is demanding without teaching or encouraging is his or her own kind of abusive parent.

For me the tragedy was what I learned years later from the single most unimpeachable source I know: my father's younger
sister, one of my favourite aunts. She told me what I suspected but could never quite confirm: my parents wanted children
in the worst way possible only to learn the hard way that they had no patience for raising children, that they had no patience
for children being children. Aside from the fight issue, my parents didn't know the difference between real disobedience or
misbehaviour and children just being children. It was one thing to be spanked for disobeying or really misbehaving, but
it was something else entirely to be spanked for an honest human mistake. Because the flip side was that when they were
good, they were parents you wished every kid had. (My father in particular was generous beyond belief; he even got me
aboard an airplane for the first time when he told his bosses at his insurance firm he wouldn't make a trip to Virginia
unless he could take me. It was the best time I ever had with my father; he knocked his business off in two days and
we spent three happy days bumming around Richmond and Petersburg.)

The scar from a babyhood stomach surgery was nothing compared to the scars in my head and heart. But I managed to
make my way through it after several decades and no small heartbreak. And I enjoy life so much more now.

Ha, ha...your spanking story brought back memories.  Maybe it was really true at the time....many or most parents believe that sparing the rod spoiled the child.
My parents even had a designated "licking stick" (one of those paddles and rubber ball things...without the rubber ball of course.)
When one of us transgressed some unwritten law,  usually we were all disciplined for what the one kid did or didn't do.  Many times I had no idea what the supposedly bad/awful  thing we had done was.  But we had to line up anyway and each get a swat or two on the behind (that paddle really hurt) for our crime...whatever it was.  My parents operated under the assumption that we were all guilty of something even if they could only prove one kid  did something. Protesting innocence availed us naught.
It was only when I got older that I realized it was one way for my father (he administered most of the lickings) to relieve his frustrations concerning his job and his tough time earning money when we were young. Not a lot of frills. When my father became enraged (which was frequent), the best thing to do was just stay out of his way.  Eventually he would calm down after screaming his lungs out for five or ten minutes.
When we got older and became young adults, none of us put up with his temper tantrums. When he would start yelling at my mother about something, WE!!! would tell him to shut up and quit upsetting everybody. Then he'd go in a corner and sulk.
My father was not an evil person and  did a lot of things for us.  I think the stress of life is something some people can handle well and some can't. My mother kept a lot of her frustrations in and I believe suffered a nervous breakdown.  Many families in those days were large with four or more kids (I had six siblings.)
As my parents aged and we all left the house, my parents became much more subdued and easier to be around.
But as you mentioned, many parents from those days were not mentally equipped to handle multiple kids.  It was their duty to have children (my parents were strict Catholics), so they had a lot of children.
But like I said, we all turned out mostly okay with nobody going to prison or going bankrupt.  But my sisters vowed to never treat their children like they were treated. All three despised my father and did not attend his funeral when he died four years ago.  All us four brothers did.
We realized that despite his faults, he was still our father and in his own way thought  he was doing what was best for us.

[TomSea]

Stalin's grandson who rejected dictator's name dies at 75

    24 May 2017
Alexander Burdonsky, a talented Russian theatre director whose grandfather was Soviet leader Josef Stalin, has died of cancer aged 75.

Burdonsky was born Alexander Stalin but took his mother's maiden name to escape association with the Soviet dictator.

For several years he was head of the Central Russian Army Theatre in Moscow.

Last year another grandson of Stalin, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, died aged 80. However, he was a staunch defender of his grandfather's legacy.

More: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40026823

[Free Vulcan]

Roger Smith, '77 Sunset Strip' Star and Husband of Ann-Margret, Dies at 84



After a debilitating illness ended his days as an actor, he managed his wife's career. "Roger had tremendous confidence in me, much more than I did," she once said.

Roger Smith, the suave leading man of television who starred on the popular 1950s-'60s ABC private eye series 77 Sunset Strip before a neuromuscular disease ended his acting career in his 30s, has died. He was 84.

Smith, who went on to manage the career of Ann-Margret, his wife of 50 years, died Sunday at Sherman Oaks Hospital, a representative for the actress told The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was announced.

On 136 episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, Smith portrayed Jeff Spencer, one-half of a breezy detective pair who solved crimes and chased women while working out of their ultra-hip offices on the Sunset Strip. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. played his partner, Stu Bailey.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/roger-smith-dead-77-sunset-888323

[musiclady]

@EasyAce  - I thought you might like to see a souvenir I have from the 1961 Cleveland Indians, bought at a game I went to as an 11 year old....




(I've spent the past two days hunting for it!  ^-^ )

[EasyAce]

@EasyAce  - I thought you might like to see a souvenir I have from the 1961 Cleveland Indians, bought at a game I went to as an 11 year old....




(I've spent the past two days hunting for it!  ^-^ )

@musiclady

I remember seeing that pic! (You poor thing, the 1961 Indians . . . ;) )

This was the cover of the paperback edition I once had of Fear Strikes Out:



. . . and this was Jim Piersall arriving home after backpedaling around the bases upon hitting his 100th
career home run, when he was a brief 1963 Met:

[EC]

Adnan Khashoggi: Saudi billionaire arms dealer dies aged 82

Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, a billionaire businessman known for his lavish lifestyle, has died in London at the age of 82.

His family said in statement that he died peacefully while being treated for Parkinson's disease.

Mr Khashoggi became one of the world's richest men in the 1970s and '80s by brokering international arms deals.

His parties were legendary, often lasting for days, but there was also controversy about his business.

A statement from the family on Tuesday said: "He lived his last days surrounded by his devoted family, children and grandchildren, with the same elegance, strength and dignity that characterised his remarkable life. He is survived by his wife Lamia.

"AK was a pioneer who achieved global recognition in a golden age through his extraordinary business achievements and renowned generosity. Our father understood the art of bringing people together better than anyone.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40180931

I thought the old buzzard had died years ago. 

[Smokin Joe]

Our father understood the art of bringing people together better than anyone

And cutting them a deal on the stuff to kill each other with....

[musiclady]

@musiclady

I remember seeing that pic! (You poor thing, the 1961 Indians . . . ;) )

This was the cover of the paperback edition I once had of Fear Strikes Out:



. . . and this was Jim Piersall arriving home after backpedaling around the bases upon hitting his 100th
career home run, when he was a brief 1963 Met:

Fantastic!  I really need to read Fear Strikes Out, and not just go by the movie.

As for the '61 Indians............ I've been a Cleveland fan my whole life.

I've dealt with more grief than a human being should ever have to endure.  :dx1:

[Smokin Joe]

Fantastic!  I really need to read Fear Strikes Out, and not just go by the movie.

As for the '61 Indians............ I've been a Cleveland fan my whole life.

I've dealt with more grief than a human being should ever have to endure.  :dx1:

I find it funny that the two NFL teams who get the most fans in these parts are the Denver Broncos and the Minnesota Vikings. The Broncos have lost 5 of 8 super bowls, the Vikings are perfect with 4 losses for 4 appearances. You can imagine the wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments I have witnessed.

 

[Cyber Liberty]

I love Wallace and Grommet.RIP, Sir. And thanks for the cheese.

I love Wallace and Grommet.  I developed a taste for The Last of the Summer Wine. A truly unusual program, which really grew on me.  You never knew just what these three guys would get in to.

[musiclady]

I find it funny that the two NFL teams who get the most fans in these parts are the Denver Broncos and the Minnesota Vikings. The Broncos have lost 5 of 8 super bowls, the Vikings are perfect with 4 losses for 4 appearances. You can imagine the wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments I have witnessed.

 

I know a lot about Vikings' fans.  I lived in MN for 6 years, and have loads of friends and family there.

Just imagine how my son feels..... when Art Modell stole the Browns from Cleveland and ripped the hearts out of the fans, our son chose the Vikings as his team.  A Browns and Vikings fan??  Not a happy place to be.   :dx1:

[Smokin Joe]

I know a lot about Vikings' fans.  I lived in MN for 6 years, and have loads of friends and family there.

Just imagine how my son feels..... when Art Modell stole the Browns from Cleveland and ripped the hearts out of the fans, our son chose the Vikings as his team.  A Browns and Vikings fan??  Not a happy place to be.   :dx1:

Sounds like a glutton for punishment to me.  --especially for something someone can't influence.

At least with national politics I get to have some influence on what goes on (12.5 parts per billion, more than the acceptable limits for lead in drinking water).

[musiclady]

Sounds like a glutton for punishment to me.  --especially for something someone can't influence.

At least with national politics I get to have some influence on what goes on (12.5 parts per billion, more than the acceptable limits for lead in drinking water).

Well, he IS an ultra mountain marathon runner, so I suppose glutton for punishment is an apt descriptor, but in this case he was only a kid when he made that football choice, so I give him a break on it.  ^-^