White Dog

Tim.

For most people, dying at your desk would be the last thing you would want or expect for yourself or anyone.

I have a feeling you would not expect anything but that for someone like Russert. He loved his job. He was good at it and was one of the most balanced of the political press.

He understood both the media and the medium and lived for getting that question answered.

I think he would grin a little that it ended at his desk, but most would have wished it would have been at 108 and not 58.

WaPo article

Politico.com

Breitbart

Bo.

Gutting science.

Do you think quashing curiosity about science is a good thing?

Here's an older PBS story about feds abusing one of the last sources of science experiment supplies in the U.S. and the hassles folks have in learning about chemistry.

Here's someone trying to combat that - a new book by Robert Thompson, just published this month: Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments All Lab, No Lecture.

Clarke & Kinch...

Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90 -

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction writer, has died aged 90 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, it was confirmed tonight.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30am after suffering breathing problems, his personal secretary Rohan De Silva said.        

“Sir Arthur passed away a short while ago at the Apollo Hospital [in Colombo]. He had a cardio-respiratory attack,” he said.

His valet, W. K. M. Dharmawardena, said that funeral arrangements would be finalised when his close family returned to the island from Australia.        

Mr Dharmawardena said that Clarke's condition had begun to deteriorate in recent weeks and he had been in hospital for four days.

The visionary author of more than 70 books, who was nominated for a Nobel Prize after predicting the existence of satellites, was most famous for his short story "The Sentinel", which was expanded into the novel that was later adapted for Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey".        

He was also credited with inventing the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality.

Clarke was the last surviving member of what was sometimes known as the "Big Three" of science fiction, alongside Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.  

[from the Times-Online]

'Hogan's Heroes' actor dies in Charlotte

   

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Actor, director and producer Ivan Dixon, best known for his role as Kinchloe in the television series "Hogan's Heroes," has died in Charlotte at the age of 76.

Dixon died Sunday at a Charlotte hospital after suffering a hemorrhage, said Whitney Stauffer of Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles.

Dixon began his acting career on Broadway in plays that included "The Cave Dwellers" and "A Raisin in the Sun." On film, he appeared in "Something of Value," "A Raisin in the Sun," "A Patch of Blue," "Nothing But a Man" and the cult favorite, "Car Wash."

But he was probably best known for the role of U.S. Staff Sgt. James Kinchloe on "Hogan's Heroes." Kinchloe, who's in charge of electronic communications, can mimic German officers on the radio or phone.

In addition to acting on television, he also directed hundreds of episodic shows, including "The Waltons," "The Rockford Files," "Magnum P.I." and "Heat of the Night."

Actor Sidney Poitier said the two men became friends after Dixon was his stunt double in the 1958 movie, "The Defiant Ones. Dixon earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the CBS Playhouse special, "The Final War of Olly Winter."

Born April 6, 1931, in New York City, Dixon graduated in 1954 from North Carolina Central University in Durham. Dixon's awards include four NAACP Image Awards, National Black Theatre Award and the Paul Robeson Pioneer Award from the Black American Cinema Society. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild of America, and the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Berlie Dixon; son, Alan Kimara Dixon and daughter, Doris Nomathande Dixon. Two sons, Ivan Nathaniel Dixon IV and N'Gai Christopher Dixon, are deceased. At Dixon's request, Stauffer said no memorial is planned.

Tough week for NASA...

Today is the 5-year anniversary of the loss of Columbia - the latest, but certainly not the last such incident in the human trek to the stars...

PajamasMedia has a nice overview.

NASA Day of Remembrance.

People wonder why I drink . . .

For some reason...these stories stand out.

Here's one from CNN this morning...

    

35 Years Later...

...for more than three decades, there was mostly silence about the December 29, 1972, crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 in the Everglades.

Investigators and reporters stopped calling. His airboat rusted in the yard. A rubber boot that had squished through swampwater and jet fuel deteriorated on the back porch, right where he took it off.

---

"Had it not been for Bud, there would not have been a grandpa for the children, there would not have been a grandpa to share the good times in life with," said David Kaplan, now 71 and living in Delray Beach.

---

[...]he strained to hear his wife's voice, but she never answered his cries. She had died, 20 days after they married. "I need to do it. I never was able to see my wife. I need to go back there," said Infantino, a 61-year-old Miami insurance agent. "I always said to myself, 'I don't know where to go.' I've always wanted some kind of recognition for the people who've lost their lives."

There are special people in your life - all the time - whether you know they are there or not. 

Whenever they are within arms reach - you should reach out.

And squeeze them.

If - through some unfortunate circumstance  - you find out too late who those special people are - try to find - and squeeze them - later.


Better yet - just squeeze the ones you think are special NOW.

...just in case....

-----

----

 

Cinematic Titanic....

Just go....

You can thank me later.....

Thank you, Charlie...

A long overdue honor.......

“Peace, joy, love, and wishes fulfilled.
These are the timeless treasures of Christmas.
Thank you, Charlie, for all you’ve done to make Christmas wishes come true for thousands of children through the years.
Now it’s time to make a wish come true for you, too.
You’re officially invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
Merry Christmas!”

Grand Ole Opry

Merry Christmas, indeed...

“Charlie Daniels’ songs and musicianship are nothing less than legendary,” said Pete Fisher, Opry vice president and general manager. “He’s known worldwide as one of country music’s true icons, and all of us with the Opry are excited to welcome him into our family of new stars, superstars and legends.”

Daniels has been a music icon for more than 40 years. Born in Wilmington, N.C., he was raised on a musical diet that included Pentecostal gospel, local bluegrass bands, rhythm & blues, and country music from the radio, including Nashville’s 650 WSM. During his career, Daniels has been awarded a Grammy, three CMA awards, the ACM Pioneer Award, and the TNN/Music City News Living Legend award for his musical contributions. His signature song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” topped both country and pop charts, bringing him international acclaim.

It has been uncomfortably rare to meet someone who is genuinely proud to be an 'American'.  Charlie is, unfortunately, one of the few 'celebrity' types who willingly speaks his mind and defends the troops.

Here is part of his 'Open Letter to America's Heroes'...

[ I sometimes wonder what you must think when]...(you are...)...used as a political football by wimpy voiced politicians who are not worthy of lacing up your desert boots. To see Hollywood fat cats making movies that try to cast you all as rapists and heartless killers of women and children.

Well take heart troops!!!!!!

For every martini sucking, socialist loving, agenda driven newspaper writer there are ten thousand red blooded Americans who stand up for the national anthem at NASCAR races and football games and take patriotism seriously.

For every milksop, godless politician in Washington there are millions of Christians who pray to Almighty God every day for all of you.

For every Hollywood numb brain who lives in the mentally incestuous and cloistered confines of Beverly Hills bent on tarnishing America's patriotism there are untold millions of Americans who dismiss their trash as the
anti-American junk it is. Just look at the box office reports.

...

Wherever you are, in whatever far-flung corner of the world, it is so important to me for you to know how much I admire and respect you and how I feel such an unpayable debt of gratitude to every one of you who wear that uniform of valor.

If they weren't so goddamn organized...I would consider myself an atheist. Alternately, I guess it would be 'agnostic'. That aside, I must agree with his sentiments. His 'box-office' comments are not wishful thinking...if you can find the results in the last weeks attendance it seems most of us really do not want to participate in actively cheering against the survival of our country.

The crop of anti-American theatrical releases in the last few weeks have thankfully bombed at the ticket counter and to honor a prominent American who promotes definitive American values today is a feather in the cap of the Opry staff.

Merry Christmas.

A good dog.

You might stop by and help Rachel out this weekend.

Digger stories are one of the reasons so many folks went back to read her site over the years.

From her description, it sounds like the decision has pretty much made itself - it is just a matter of the timing now. She is still tormenting herself with the conundrum that modern medicine has brought. There are so many things that might work, how do you decide when it's just not right to put your friend through any more 'experiments'.

Fifty years ago, decisions like this were much easier to make. At least for the 'is it time' part of it.  As for the actual 'doing it' part - that's never easy. For anyone.

No matter how 'right' it is, any thinking and caring person will pause at the point of actually voicing their decision. It's not wrong to feel bad about it, but it is wrong to put off the decision so you don't feel bad.

Rachel has to (and will) make that call over the next day or so. Stop by and relate the story of your friend, or just read some of the ones already posted.

Digger is a good dog.

Always will be.

Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr.

I haven't posted anything yet about Porter or Robert.

Both are important American figures and deserve appropriate mention,  but Paul is an important WORLD figure who just happened, fortunately, to be American.

Paul Tibbets Jr., who flew the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb — on Hiroshima, Japan — died this morning at his East Side home. He was 92.

He joined the Army Air Corps in 1938. After the U.S. entered World War II, Tibbets first patrolled the Atlantic coast for submarines and later piloted some of the first daylight missions of B-17s over Germany.

On Aug. 6, 1945, Tibbets piloted the Enola Gay, a B-29 he had christened for his mother, down the runway on Tinian Island for a six-hour flight to Japan. He was a 30-year-old colonel.      [Columbus Dispatch]

A quick look online shows that in 1997, the average age of a USAF Colonel was 49. There's a reason that Tibbets was a Colonel at 30, and it's part of the reason he had the mission he is known for.

Tibbets and crew.