DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[Fading Fast]

All the reason to not put such folks on a pedestal to worship.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

exactly the point - we are all limited / no one has the answers / sports, movie or physics stars have no special brilliance away from their respective field of expertise.

 

[Frunobulax]

This morning, the collective IQ of the human race has taken a sharp drop.

"People who boast about their IQ are losers."
-S. Hawking


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[LizzieMaine]

exactly the point - we are all limited / no one has the answers / sports, movie or physics stars have no special brilliance away from their respective field of expertise.

Indeed. A scientist commenting on economics is out of his element, since economics, when you get right down to it, is a religious system based more on faith -- "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" -- than demonstrable science.

Although as far as sports personalities are concerned, though, I'd give a pass to Satchel Paige, who always seemed to have a touch of divine wisdom about him.

 

[Bushman]

The world has lost one of the greatest thinkers it will have ever known. This man was a gift to mankind, and a real treasure. Like Albert Einstein, his name was synonymous with "genius". Few people go through life as accomplished as Stephen Hawking. Many go through life never gaining half the knowledge Hawking had. He was truly an inspiration. May he forever rest in peace.

 

[Fading Fast]

Indeed. A scientist commenting on economics is out of his element, since economics, when you get right down to it, is a religious system based more on faith -- "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" -- than demonstrable science.

Although as far as sports personalities are concerned, though, I'd give a pass to Satchel Paige, who always seemed to have a touch of divine wisdom about him.

Economics is a soft or social science, IMHO, as opposed to the physical sciences. But even the physical ones suffer from mistakes, biases and faith. Newton was everything until they broke open the atom and found that his "laws" didn't work at the subatomic level. And what we "know" about dinosaurs seems to keep changing regularly (if only our friend from Sinclair could talk).

All knowledge, in all fields, IMHO, is a winding road that, overall, moves forward (we aren't still living in caves and dying from [most] bacterial infections or polio or...anymore), but goes down wrong paths and, even, backwards at times.

I'm suspicious of all "this is the absolute answer" views - even in the physical sciences as nothing was more obvious and "known as fact," at one time, than the sun going around the earth - but I am not negative on man's long-term trajectory at gaining knowledge (this isn't being read on a stone tablet after all).

And there are Satchel Paiges (taking your word as I'm not that familiar with him), da Vincis, etc. - but not that many.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Satch was as profound a thinker as the twentieth century ever produced. "If you didn't know how old you was, how old would you be?" "I used to be a second-class player, now they let me be a second-class immortal."

 

[Frunobulax]

Satch was as profound a thinker as the twentieth century ever produced. "If you didn't know how old you was, how old would you be?" "I used to be a second-class player, now they let me be a second-class immortal."

Satch, like many who are unburdened by a sense of superiority, had "Uncommon Sense."


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."

 

[HudsonHawk]

Former baseball great Rusty Staub passed away this morning, three days before his 74th birthday. Staub came up in 1963 with the Houston Colt .45's, becoming one of their first stars, before moving on to great years in Montreal and New York, with additional stops in Detroit and Texas. Staub was always a fan favorite, with his big red-haired smile and sunny disposition, and was a noted philanthropist and business owner in retirement, as well as being just an all-around lovable guy.

RIP Le Grand Orange

 

[Fading Fast]

Former baseball great Rusty Staub passed away this morning, three days before his 74th birthday. Staub came up in 1963 with the Houston Colt .45's, becoming one of their first stars, before moving on to great years in Montreal and New York, with additional stops in Detroit and Texas. Staub was always a fan favorite, with his big red-haired smile and sunny disposition, and was a noted philanthropist and business owner in retirement, as well as being just an all-around lovable guy.

RIP Le Grand Orange

He was a fan favorite. I just looked it up and was surprised to see that he only played for the Mets for three seasons in the '70s. Having grown up in the NYC area, I would have said he played for them for more years than that as he was one of "the Mets" to me growing up.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Expos were "my" National League team growing up, so I had a real fondness for Le Grand Orange. There weren't a lot of stars on those early Expos teams -- it was hard to get excited about Coco Laboy or Bob "Beetle" Bailey or John Boccccccccabellllllllla -- so Staub's exploits were always cause for excitement. I know that there are a lot of people in Montreal who will remember him with great fondness today.

 

[Worf]

The Expos were "my" National League team growing up, so I had a real fondness for Le Grand Orange. There weren't a lot of stars on those early Expos teams -- it was hard to get excited about Coco Laboy or Bob "Beetle" Bailey or John Boccccccccabellllllllla -- so Staub's exploits were always cause for excitement. I know that there are a lot of people in Montreal who will remember him with great fondness today.

Same here when he became a Met he became "my guy". Le Grand Orange as we called him. Shame he never got a ring but he'll always be remembered by me.

Worf

 

[LizzieMaine]

Another baseball death this week caught my notice for a personal reason -- former Red Sox catcher Jerry Moses died at the age of 71. He was one of many catchers who came and went in Boston in the 1960s and early 70s before the rise of Mr. Fisk, and was one of the better of this motley lot, having made the American League All Star team in 1970. He was traded to the Angels in the Tony C. trade that fall, and bounced around various teams for the rest of the decade before calling it a career. He moved back to Boston in later life, and became one of the most visible Sox alumni on the charity circuit, raising a great deal of money for the Jimmy Fund over the years. He was, by all accounts, a good guy.

But for me, he'll always be the man who stepped up on an August afternoon and pinch-hit a high, arcing home run into the screen off Stan Williams of the Twins, just moments after I stood up on my rickety wooden seat in Section 6 and screamed HIT A HOMER JERRY! It was the first major league game I ever attended, and even though the Sox ended up blowing it, I'll never forget that one moment. Here's to Jerry Moses, who gave a loud-mouthed seven-year-old the biggest thrill of her life.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I'm surprised nobody's posted about Steven Bochco yet. This is the best appreciation piece I've seen about his hugely influential career:

http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/steven-bochco-obit.html

 

[Lean'n'mean]

British professional darts player, Eric Bristow MBE, 5x world champion, died yesterday (5th) aged 60, heart attack.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The death of French singer/song writer/ composer, Jacques Higelin, has just been announced. He was 77.
A strange fella, an original & highly sensitive artist. R.I.P. Jacques.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Masterful Japanese animation director Isao Takahata. Not as famous as his Studio Ghibli partner Miyazaki, but nearly as talented. I am particularly fond of his charming look-back-at-youth film Only Yesterday. Most recently, he was a co-producer of the beautiful fable The Red Turtle.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/isao-takahata-dead-studio-ghibli-founder-was-82-1100281

 

[Doctor Strange]

Comic great Chuck McCann. If you were a kid watching NYC-based TV in the sixties - like me - this guy was significant.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chuck-mccann-dead-comic-actor-kids-tv-host-was-83-1024097

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of the key figures in early Laurel and Hardy fandom, who helped form the "Sons of the Desert," the organization that has done more than any other in preserving the heritage of the Hal Roach Studios. Those of us who relish two-reel comedy in all its forms owe him a moment of silence.

I enjoyed him on a forgotten CBS summer replacement show in 1970 called "Happy Days," which had nothing to do with Fonzie -- it was a celebration of 1930s pop culture, during that brief window when said culture was the focus of the nostalgia fad. McCann did a number of his most famous bits on the show -- notably his "Little Orphan Annie" impersonation complete with blank cardboard disks over his eyes, and another in which he impersonated Clark Kent dancing with Lois Lane at a formal dance, with his cape hanging out below the tail of his tuxedo coat.

 

[Doctor Strange]

My oldest film collector friend - we made Super 8 films together in the seventies - is a major guy in the NYC Tent of the Sons of the Desert, he joined around 1971. He held the title Keeper of the Celluloid - the person who put together their meeting's film programs - for many years. I went to a couple of meetings with him long ago. Through the Sons, he met and has been friends with a remarkable group of characters - kid-show hosts like McCann and Buffalo Bob, Our Gang kids like Spanky and Darla, supporting cast from L&H films, musicians like Vince Giordano, writers/preservationists like Leonard Maltin and Dick Bann, and the modern showbiz industry folks who make up much of the membership, at least in NYC. I absolutely agree that this organization has been of tremendous importance to comedy film history!