Werner Gustav Doehner, the last survivor of the Hindenburg disaster died November, 8 at his home in New Hampsire. He was 90.
Michael J. Pollard, dead at 80. I remember him mostly from Little Fauss and Big Halsy , with Robert Redford.
Damn fine drummer. Had to google the other stuff. Doesn't seem terribly noteworthy in the spectrum of rock and roll tomfoolery.
One of my favourite Aussies, Clive James - writer, broadcaster and TV critic - at the age of 80 after a long bout with various forms of cancer. By all accounts a very very nice man, with a amusing and perceptive persona. He's been very ill for the past 10 years, so this isn't a huge shock. But still. Damn. I really liked him.
He had a show over here, didn’t he? Back in the 80s. Watched it religiously and yes, he came across as a very sincere man. He even managed to make the Aussie accent sound pleasant.
And ...celebrity chef Gary Rhodes, who apparently had some accident at his home in Dubai ...looks like he might have fallen in the shower. He was only 59 years old and in apparently good health before. I never took to his signature hairstyle (greasy spikes) or his excessive use of butter in his cooking, but he seemed like a good guy and was popular not only with the viewing public on TV, but also with his fellow celebrity chefs.
And also Sir Doctor Jonathan Miller...I don’t suppose any of you people recall Jonathan quite so much, not being on your ‘tellies.’ Theatre and opera and polysmith. ergum pater mortis [latin]
Nick Clifford, the last of the roughly 400 artisans and laborers to carve Mt Rushmore died November 26th, he was 98. When he was hired on he was 17 and made 55 cents an hour.
My favorite inflation calculator says $10.04, which isn't a lot to hang off the edge of a cliff with a hammer drill, but during a Great Depression probably worked out pretty well.
Inflation must be moving faster than we thought; the same page factored it to $14.30 for me. Either way, this was still pay for an unskilled laborer position, so he likely would not have been doing much of the actual climbing, blasting, or detail work. He probably spent much of his time clearing debris and playing gopher. That’s not to say just being there wasn’t dangerous.
The Apostrophe Protection Society, dead at 18. 'The ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!' https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-02/apostrophe-protection-society-closes-down-john-richards/11756830?pfmredir=sm
Legendary England fast bowler Bob Willis died today. He took 325 wickets at an average of 25.2 in 90 Test matches, and is probably best known for taking 8-43 in the Headingley Ashes Test in 1981 to bowl England to an unlikely victory. I imagine a good proportion of the members are probably unfamiliar with him though.
Not a criticism of sport(s), although I'm not really a fan, but as an American I have a basic familiarity with American sports. We're actually forced to learn the rules of baseball, soccer, and American football in school. But the paragraph above I find entertaining because the only part of it I can visualize at all is "fast bowler." I know just enough about cricket to know that the bowler is the guy who throws the ball at the ground. Other than that image, the rest of the man's career is just a fuzzy blank to me. Sorry for your loss though.
Imagine a small, hard cork object bouncing off the ground and rearing up at your head at about 90mph, and you have a top class fast bowler. They didn't play with helmets to protect them either in those days.
Oh, I understand that bit, it's the scores and the wickets and why it takes a century for a good player to finish a game that I'm lost on. No need to explain though, I'll probably stick to sumo.
I've been in Scotland for nearly 34 years now, and I still don't 'get' cricket. Mind you, my Scottish husband doesn't get baseball. He was casually watching a televised World Series game when he was visiting me in Michigan, prior to our marriage. After a little while he said to me, "I guess I know what's going on most of the time. But why does the bowler start to throw the ball at the batsman, then suddenly turn around and throw the ball someplace else?"
