RIP Notable Figures

[ProfessorFate]

I hated 'No Country...' (the movie). Cant stand it at all.

Then your condition is beyond care. Start drinking heavily.

I don't understand what you mean by the word 'Start'.

I consider No Country the best movie of the last 20 years

[Chicat]

A man who tried and made a difference.

[pc in NM]

A man who tried and made a difference.

RIP BILL RICHARDSON.

I have mixed feeling about our ex-governor. He had good political values, was an effective diplomat, but his arrogance and temper compromised him, especially in his second term.

[UAEebs86]

[waysouthcat]

I wore number 5 as a little league 3rd baseman back in the day because of him.

[EastCoastCat]

Best fielding 3b ever.

[UAEebs86]

[UAEebs86]

I worked with his dad in Florida in the early 90s when he was pitching for the Pirates.

[EastCoastCat]

Yikes. He was still young. Very sad.

[dovecanyoncat]

RIP Dick Butkus

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/di ... f3d7&ei=39

[Merkin]

Wow. As a youth growing up in Michigan I respected what a badass he was when he destroyed the Lions.

[UAEebs86]

[Merkin]

[arizonawildcats]

[FreeSpiritCat]

When I lived in Indiana I got to see the 75-76 team play in their version of the red/blue game in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I also remember watching a Purdue exhibition game against the Soviet Union with the San Diego chicken. During one time-out the chicken tossed a chair on the court and the crowd went nuts.

[EastCoastCat]

When I was in HS my basketball coach showed us training films from Knight’s time at Army. Needless to say our practices sucked.

And his “kiss my ass” closing speech ranks amongst the all time best.

[Merkin]

Lute hated Knight. Not sure they ever got along.

[pc in NM]

There can be no doubt that Bob Knight was one of the best basketball coaches ever. He ran an excellent program, especially his demands for academics, high graduation rate and character development of his athletes. He inspired great loyalty.

He was also a deeply flawed human being, capable of cruelty, insensitivity, and forever unforgiving of perceived criticism. And, so obvious, he was a notorious rageaholic. Not to mention an asshole.

You either loved him of hated him. I tended mostly to the latter...

This is an excellent recollection of the man, his strengths and flaws by John Fienstien. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2 ... feinstein/

The Bob Knight I knew mixed greatness and brilliance with self-sabotage

Perspective by John Feinstein

There was almost no one neutral on the subject of Robert Montgomery Knight, who died Wednesday at 83 after being ravaged by dementia for several years. Many swore by him; many swore at him. He was an emotional and intense person who inspired great emotions and intensity.

Let’s begin with the easy part: He was a great basketball coach. He won 902 games at Army, Indiana and Texas Tech, retiring as the all-time winningest Division I men’s basketball — surpassed later by his pupil Mike Krzyzewski and a handful of others. He won three national titles, went to five Final Fours and won an Olympic gold medal. His first national championship team in 1976 is the last Division I men’s team to go undefeated. Knight almost never drank, but each winter when the last undefeated team went down he would treat himself to a sangria and ginger ale.

He played his college basketball for great teams at Ohio State, but he rarely got off the bench, in large part because — ironically — he couldn’t play defense. Coaching was his way of becoming a bigger star in the hoops pantheon than teammates such as Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek and Mel Nowell. Defeat always tore him up, and he always needed to blame someone else — referees, players, the media, even his bosses at Indiana.

When the Hoosiers finished their undefeated 1976 season, Knight walked out of the Philadelphia Spectrum with his pal Bob Hammel, sports editor of the Bloomington Herald-Telephone. Hammel remembered being thrilled and saying to Knight, “You did it, you did it, you won the championship!”

Knight’s response? “Shoulda been two.” He was still upset that his 1975 team had finished 31-1, losing in the region final to Kentucky. Knight never got over losses — it was part of his greatness as a coach and his frequent unhappiness as a person.

Bob Knight, polarizing powerhouse coach of college basketball, dies at 83

Knight was an almost Shakespearean character: brilliant, thoughtful and tragically flawed. In the late 1980s, he happened to show up on a rare evening when high school recruit Calbert Cheaney had a bad night. He upbraided his assistants for dragging him to see a player clearly not good enough for Indiana. They explained he had caught Cheaney on a bad night and should see him play again. Knight told them he wouldn’t waste any more time, nor should they.

Cheaney committed to Evansville — coached by Jim Crews, who had played on Indiana’s 1976 team and coached under Knight for eight years. Knight was at a summer camp game a few months later and saw Cheaney again. This time, the real Calbert Cheaney showed up.

“Why aren’t we recruiting that kid?” Knight asked his assistants.

The assistants told him he had ordered them not to recruit Cheaney. “Why don’t you just give him a call and see if he might have any interest in Indiana?” Knight said.

Cheaney, quite naturally, was thrilled. He chose Indiana, was the star of Knight’s last Final Four team in 1992 and is still the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer. Crews was stunned that his old coach had recruited a player who had committed to him.

“If some other coach did that to me, you’d call him every name in the book,” Crews said to Knight. “I know coaches do this sort of thing, but how could you do this to me?”

Knight responded by telling Crews he would be nothing in basketball if not for him. Crews finally said, “You know something, Coach: The saddest part of your life is that you treat your enemies better than you treat your friends.”

The truth in that statement is very sad. Although they all stayed publicly loyal to Knight to the end, he got into huge fights with, among others, Krzyzewski, former Indiana star Steve Alford, longtime assistant coaches Ron Felling and Dan Dakich and — far less importantly — me.

I can’t possibly overstate how important Knight was in my life. The access he gave me for “A Season on the Brink” allowed my first book, about Indiana’s 1985-1986 season, to become a No 1. bestseller, which has allowed me to pick and choose book topics for the past 38 years. Not once did Knight back away from the access, even during some difficult moments for his team. Although he didn’t speak to me for eight years after the book’s publication — upset, of all things, with seeing profanity in the book — he eventually decided to “forgive” me, and we had a distant though cordial relationship for the rest of his life.

He could be cruel, and he could be downright mean. There were times, though, when he was as loyal of a friend as you could have. I saw both sides.

Among his many flaws, there were two that stood out: He always insisted he didn’t care what anyone cared about him when, in fact, he cared desperately and went so far out of his way to prove it that he hurt himself figuratively — and literally.

Early in my season there, Indiana lost a very good game at Louisville, which went on to win the national championship. Exams were starting at Indiana that week, and Knight told his longtime sports information director, Kit Klingelhoffer, to let the Louisville people know he wouldn’t be coming to speak to the media because the team had to get back to Bloomington. It was a legitimate excuse, although Knight could easily have gone in for a few minutes while the players were showering and dressing.

Somehow, the reason for his absence never got to the Louisville people, who announced only that Knight wasn’t coming in to speak. I know Klingelhoffer delivered the message because I was standing there when he did.

The next morning, all the local paper reported was that Knight had “refused” to come in. Reading this, Knight went ballistic. He sent for Klingelhoffer and read him the riot act. When Klingelhoffer said he had delivered the message, Knight got so angry he kicked the telephone that was sitting on the floor next to his locker room chair. Unfortunately, he was barefooted at the time and began hopping around in pain, screaming profanities. I ran from the room, afraid that if I laughed, he would banish me forever.

Worse than that, he always had to have the last word — whether it was with referees, other coaches, players, the media and even his family.

His firing at Indiana in 2000 was classic Knight, reacting angrily to an Indiana student walking past him and saying, “What’s up, Knight?”

The kid was being a jerk, and Knight wasn’t wrong to be upset about being spoken to that way by someone 35 years his junior, but he went too far getting in the kid’s face. He was already on a “zero tolerance” edict from school president Myles Brand after a video had come out the previous season showing him choking the late Neil Reed in practice after Knight had insisted such a thing never happened. I was asked if I had ever seen Knight physically abuse a player during my season with him. Physically abuse them? No. Emotionally and verbally abuse them? You bet.

After Brand fired him, he vowed never to return to Indiana and even made a point of visiting archrival Purdue to “show” Brand. When the 1987 championship team gathered for a 20th reunion, Knight refused to attend. The same thing happened when the 1981 title team gathered for a 25th reunion. In 2016, the undefeated 1976 team had a 40th reunion, and Knight refused to come. He was still showing Brand — who had been dead for seven years.

The person most hurt by Knight’s absences was Knight.

Three years later, he finally returned to Assembly Hall after moving back to Bloomington for medical care. Sadly, he was sick by then and couldn’t really appreciate or enjoy the roaring ovation he got from the Indiana faithful.

His other great flaw: Knight regularly thought he was funny when he wasn’t, and his idea of humor was often offensive.

One day after practice, Felling didn’t hear Knight calling him because he was talking to me. When I finally pointed out that Knight was calling him, we sprinted across the court. When we arrived, Knight, having decided it was my fault Felling hadn’t heard him, made a truly inappropriate comment.

I froze. I knew I couldn’t argue with him in front of his coaches because he would have to win the argument.

But that night, he and I were alone in his car en route to one of the many preseason appearances, and I called him on it.

There was a long pause.

“You know what I hate more than anything?” he finally said. Oh, God, I thought, here we go.

“What?” I said.

“When I say something truly stupid,” he said.

I knew two coaches well who had almost fail-safe memories for names, dates and just about every game they ever coached: Dean Smith and Bob Knight. Both later suffered from dementia, as tragic of an irony as I can imagine.

I feel truly sad that he died in such an agonizing way. He left behind a lot of friends and some emphatic enemies. But he made an indelible impression on everyone who knew him.

[Merkin]

Knight never got over losses — it was part of his greatness as a coach and his frequent unhappiness as a person.

Like Lute said, Knight was a nice guy until he lost to you.



Kerr on how terrifying Knight was:

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/nba/sacra ... 30493.html

[CopaCat]

One of Knights biggest accomplishments was mentoring Coach K. K and Knight won 8 Natty's between them. Pretty impressive.

[azgreg]

[UAEebs86]

My favorite Suns player ever. Rest in peace Sweet D.


My wife was in a commercial with him for a youth center in Sunnyslope when she was a young girl.

[pc in NM]

My favorite Suns player ever. Rest in peace Sweet D.

One of my all-time favorite too. Once watched him from court-side shooting threes around the perimeter during pre-game warmups - just awesome how high his release, and accurate his shot!

[Irish27]

[Chicat]

[UAEebs86]

[84Cat]

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter dies at 96

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-AA1kc46Z

[Merkin]

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter dies at 96

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-AA1kc46Z

[azcat49]

What a great example of love and marriage the Carters gave us. Hard to see the former President being with us much longer after losing his bride. I am sure in his mind he wishes he would have gone first so he could greet her at the entrance to heaven

[RichardCranium]

He met her on the day she was born, and he held her on the day she died.

[scumdevils86]

Damn. I wouldn't be surprised if he followed very shortly. RIP

[UAEebs86]

Willie Hernández dies at 69: Former Tigers closer won MVP, Cy Young and World Series in 1984



https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/will ... s-in-1984/

[84Cat]

[EastCoastCat]

I went to school with his kids. My best friend’s ex husband is like #2 at Berkshire.

[dovecanyoncat]

Better than Berkshire's ROI is the philanthropy of Munger and Buffett. Capitalism is great at moving $ to the top of the food chain. While it undeniably helps in middle class formation, its other virtue lies in its captains' redistributing it in private philanthropy. Gotta look for that pony in the pile of shit.

[Merkin]

Good.

If you want to get angry...

[CatsbyAZ]

If you want to get angry...

As the video starts…it’s weird to realize Kissinger was STILL(!) alive until this week.

Since I learned of Kissinger years ago thanks to Christopher Hitchens’ heavy-handed criticisms of him, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a single person - politically right or left - say one thing nice in retrospect of Kissinger.

His moral compass seemed to be “If it vaguely helps a few U.S. citizens than it’s worth however much harm to however many thousands of foreigners in places those vaguely helped fellow citizens aren’t too aware of.”

[dovecanyoncat]

and he was a nefarious horndog

[Chicat]

I thought that evil motherfucker was going to live forever.

[scumdevils86]

Rot in hell

[pc in NM]

I'm one who affirms that whenever a political opponent dies, one should only speak good of them.

Henrry Kissinger has died.

GOOD!!

Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia — the fruits of his genius for statesmanship — and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milosevic."

- Anthony Bourdain, A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines,” 2001

[pc in NM]

RIP John Nichols.

His "New Mexico Trilogy" contains three of my favorite novels ("The Milagro Beanfield War", "The Magic Journey", and "The Nirvana Blues"). Inspiration for my later move to New Mexico.

He also published a really good non-fiction tabletop book with photos, "If Mountains Die, The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn"

Acclaimed author John Nichols left lasting 'love letter' to New Mexico

By Robert Nott rnott@sfnewmexican.com Nov 29, 2023


Author John Nichols, whose rollicking and passionate books about Northern New Mexico helped draw a spotlight to both its promise and problems, lived life on his own terms — writing almost up to the day he died.

“He took [writing] serious as hard, hard work,” Nichols’ daughter, Tania Harris, said in an interview Tuesday. “He worked tirelessly on novels, sometimes over the course of 10 years.”

Considered by many as one of the finest writing talents of his generation but less appreciated for the tireless work he put into every passage, Nichols died Monday of heart-related problems in his Taos home, Harris said.

He was 83.

Engaging, political and funny, Nichols wrote several fiction and non-fiction works but is best known for 1974’s The Milagro Beanfield War, a galvanizing tale about the collision between old and new in New Mexico, issues that face the state even today. The book gained added notoriety thanks to a 1988 film adaptation directed by Robert Redford.

But Milagro’s popularity may have been eclipsed by Nichols’ devotion to other works — both fiction and non-fiction — many of them focused on the beauty and challenges facing the people, customs and land of the state.

“I hope his legacy will be his enduring love letter to New Mexico,” said Stephen Hull, director of the University of New Mexico Press, which published Nichols’ memoir, I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer, in 2022.

Nichols got his, all right, and the memoir’s title was a wry, double-edged commentary both on the often quixotic nature of his literary career — lots of books, some OK royalty checks, frustration dealing with literacy critics, editors and Hollywood — and the joy he experienced through writing.

“Unreasonable persistence,” he wrote in his memoir, describing his way of surviving hurdle after hurdle, pothole after pothole, critical attack after critical attack. One portion of his memoir includes a number of critical reviews attacking his many books — revealing a man, perhaps in pain, sharing it with others while continually facing off against it.

https://www.taosnews.com/news/local-new ... 2b6ad.html

Read the whole article

[CalStateTempe]

I'm one who affirms that whenever a political opponent dies, one should only speak good of them.

Henrry Kissinger has died.

GOOD!!

Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia — the fruits of his genius for statesmanship — and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milosevic."

- Anthony Bourdain, A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines,” 2001

First quote I thought of when I heard of this asshole going for his dirt nap.

[84Cat]

Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, dies

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/20327726 ... onnor-dies

[Siempre Verde]

Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, dies

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/20327726 ... onnor-dies

I’d forgotten she was still alive. She’d been hanging on, like a chad, for years. It was her sister Ann who had died

[CopaCat]

Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, dies

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/01/20327726 ... onnor-dies

I’d forgotten she was still alive. She’d been hanging on, like a chad, for years. It was her sister Ann who had died

I couldn't believe it either. When I was told she died I thought to myself didn't she die 5 years ago.

[84Cat]

Norman Lear, who made funny sitcoms about serious topics, dies at 101

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/33489063 ... ies-at-101

[CatsbyAZ]

"Juanita Castro, sister of former Cuban rulers Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro and a longtime opponent of the Communist regime in Cuba, died Monday in Miami. She was 90."

"The fifth daughter of Angel Castro and Lina Ruz, born in Birán, in the eastern region of Cuba, Castro was one of the most vigorous critics of Fidel Castro’s regime and never returned to her country after going into exile. She left the island in 1964, on her way to Mexico to reunite with her sister Enma. By that time she already had significant differences with her brother Fidel, due to his turn toward communism."

"She settled in Miami in 1964 and opened a pharmacy in Little Havana, Mini Price, in 1973. She sold the drugstore to the CVS Pharmacy chain in 2006."

[Chicat]

[EastCoastCat]

Jesus. It’s like I just watched him play not too long ago.

This is a depressing thread sometimes.