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Post by berkley on Dec 16, 2021 0:32:17 GMT -5
RIP to writer Ann Rice, author of the Lestat cycle and others. She was 80. My wife was a fan of her stuff. I sampled a few while at university because one of my roommates was also a big fan, but I never really got into her mythology, but her prose was very good. She is largely responsible for the renaissance of vampire fiction that began in the 80s. -M
I liked Interview a lot and the sequel, The Vampire Lestat, was even better. But the third entry in that initial trilogy was such a let-down that I never tried any of her later vampire books. I did enjoy the one about Ramses, though.
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Post by Mormel on Dec 19, 2021 9:59:30 GMT -5
Richard Rogers, British architect who designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the O2 in London, the European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg, and the Three World Trade Center in New York City, has passed away aged 88.
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Post by Mister Spaceman on Dec 21, 2021 19:14:23 GMT -5
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 23, 2021 0:04:47 GMT -5
I saw that earlier. Until I watched it, I had not heard that Mike Henry, the former NFL player and star of a trio of Tarzan movies, in the 60s, where he was turned into a sort of James Bond of the Jungle, had died, back on January 8! Also in Smokey & the Bandit, as Junior, one of the guards in The Longest Yard, an episode of the Six Million Dollar Man, with Larry Csonka, an episode of MASH, as Margaret's husband, Donald Penobscott, and Kowalski, the sergeant who takes out about a half dozen VC, while he is dying, in The Green Berets. Let's see Chuck Norris do that! He was a decent actor, who knew his limitations and how to work with them, but was usually pretty good in any part.
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Post by foxley on Dec 25, 2021 0:53:31 GMT -5
Joan Didion, famed American writer, has died from complications of Parkinson's disease at the age of 87. Didion was on of the first proponents of the so-called 'New Journalism', and her works (fiction and non-fiction) include slouching Towards Bethlehem, Play It as It Lays, A Book of Common Prayer, The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights. As a screenwriter, her screenplays include Panic in Needle Park, A Star is Born (the 1976 version), True Confessions and Up Close & Personal. Her essay "Goodbye to All That" is a standard piece showcased in literature and writing classes, and she inspired and influenced several generations of writers.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2021 8:49:56 GMT -5
RIP Bishop Desmond Tutu. He was 90. A pivotal figure in the struggle against apartheid, he was one of my heroes when I was younger and more idealistic, and I still have a tremendous amount of respect and reverence for his dedication, accomplishments, and grace.
-M
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 26, 2021 12:33:40 GMT -5
RIP Bishop Desmond Tutu. He was 90. A pivotal figure in the struggle against apartheid, he was one of my heroes when I was younger and more idealistic, and I still have a tremendous amount of respect and reverence for his dedication, accomplishments, and grace. -M One of the influential figures that led to a more peaceful end to apartheid and majority rule. Also head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which though not perfect, became a standard for other peoples to try to come together after violent conflict.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 26, 2021 20:16:34 GMT -5
Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who successfully argued Roe vs Waid, before the Supreme Court, at age 26, has died.Not gonna touch the politics; but, imagine being 26 years old, not long out of law school and the Bar exam, and you are standing before the Supreme Court, arguing the case that will bring down one of the most significant and controversial decisions of the Court's history. That's a hell of a way to begin a career, though it makes the rest of it seem like an anti-climax. Except, as the obit will show, she didn't just stop there and became a legislator and advisor to presidents.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2021 21:09:14 GMT -5
^ at least she didn't live long enough to see her most stunning work overturned by a Conservative Court that doesn't reflect the values of the majority of Americans.
so I find some peace in that.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 27, 2021 22:36:50 GMT -5
Sociobiologist EO Wilson has passed away. Began his research with ants and moved onto DNA and biological determinism, which drew some critics, equating some of his theories with eugenics. Became a strong advocate for biodiversity and environmentalism.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2021 22:53:37 GMT -5
Sociobiologist EO Wilson has passed away. Began his research with ants and moved onto DNA and biological determinism, which drew some critics, equating some of his theories with eugenics. Became a strong advocate for biodiversity and environmentalism. This brings back some memories for me...my father often cited Wilson, particularly from his book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (I recall that having a really big impact on him). While I never read Wilson directly, I felt like I came to know a bit about his thinking from many extended conversations with my father (we enjoyed many an "intellectual" late night debate on a wide range of topics).
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Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2021 23:14:26 GMT -5
RIP to comic creator Ryan "Bode" Bodenheim. He was a frequent guest at Gem City and I had a chance to meet and chat with him a few times, and seemed a wonderful person. He was only 44.
From the obit on Bleeding Cool
-M
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Post by EdoBosnar on Dec 28, 2021 4:01:32 GMT -5
Sociobiologist EO Wilson has passed away. Began his research with ants and moved onto DNA and biological determinism, which drew some critics, equating some of his theories with eugenics. Became a strong advocate for biodiversity and environmentalism. This brings back some memories for me...my father often cited Wilson, particularly from his book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (I recall that having a really big impact on him). While I never read Wilson directly, I felt like I came to know a bit about his thinking from many extended conversations with my father (we enjoyed many an "intellectual" late night debate on a wide range of topics). Yeah, besides being a top expert in his field, Wilson could also write about and explain complex biological concepts to non-experts quite well. I recall particularly enjoying his book The Creation, which among other things is a very impassioned plea for saving/preserving the environment that carries a lot of weight because he had such deep knowledge of the planet's biology. Around the time I read that, I was also reading as many articles by him and interviews with him that I could find. But his career was not without controversies; cody pointed out the criticism his sociobiology theories provoked (that was mainly back in the 1970s). He also gave as good as he got, getting into some occasionally nasty spats with other biologists in the 1980s and later, including quite recently, long after he had retired from his post at Harvard. The New York Times obituary by Carl Zimmer (a science reporter and popular science writer) provides a great deal more detail on his career, highlighting both the positive and negative aspects of his legacy.
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Roquefort Raider
CCF Mod Squad
Modus omnibus in rebus
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 28, 2021 7:55:00 GMT -5
Director Jean-Marc Vallée passed away at the young age of 58. C.R.A.Z.Y., Big Little Lies, Dallas Buyers Club, Wild... Vallée was a brilliant creator who always managed to bring out the best in his collaborators. As if 2021 couldn't suck any more, it keeps taking away our best and brightest...
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 28, 2021 9:53:39 GMT -5
Joe Lansdale has reported on Twitter that crime novelist and child advocate Andrew Vachss has passed away at 79. I’d never gotten around to reading any of Vachss’ work but am familiar with his work as an attorney and child advocate.
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