Generational Theory Forum: The Fourth Turning Forum: A message board discussing generations and the Strauss Howe generational theory

GOOD RIDDANCE AND ROAST IN HELL!


(Read only if you have yet to eat, as it might make you sick to your stomach).

Théoneste Bagosora (16 August 1941 – 25 September 2021) was a Rwandan military officer. He was chiefly known for his key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). In 2011, the sentence was reduced to 35 years' imprisonment on appeal. He was due to be imprisoned until he was 89.[3] According to René Lemarchand, Bagosora was "the chief organizer of the killings".[4] On 25 September 2021, he died in Malian prison hospital, due to heart disease where he was serving his sentence.[5][1]
 

Human skulls at the
Nyamata Genocide Memorial Centre

Bagosora was born in Giciye in what is now Nyabihu District, Western Province, Rwanda. In 1964 he graduated from the École des officiers (Officers' School) in Kigali with the rank of second lieutenant, and continued his studies in France. During his military career, he served as second-in-command of the École supérieure militaire (Superior Military School) in Kigali and as commander of Kanombe military camp.

On 29 April 1970, he was promoted to the rank of captain.[6]
He was appointed to the position of directeur du cabinet (chief of staff) in the Ministry of Defence in June 1992. Despite officially retiring from the military on 23 September 1993, he retained this post until fleeing the country in July 1994.

Role in the genocide

Quote:It seems that, in as much as there was a general organizer of the whole operation, this distinction has to go to Colonel Théoneste Bagosora.
— Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide, New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-231-10408-1.

Bagosora was born in the same northern region as Juvénal Habyarimana, the president of Rwanda from 1973 to 1994. He was linked to le Clan de Madame, known later as the akazu, a group associated with Agathe Habyarimana, the president's wife, who was at the nexus of the Hutu Power ideology.[7]

Although he was present at the negotiations of the Arusha Accords in August 1993, he never supported them. He is widely cited as saying, in the context of the Arusha Accords, that he was returning to Rwanda to "prepare for the apocalypse", but that is apocryphal.[8] Luc Marchal, a Belgian officer, who served as Kigali sector commander in UNAMIR, reported that Bagosora told him that the only way to solve Rwanda's problems was to get rid of the Tutsi.[9]

Bagosora was responsible for establishing paramilitary "self-defense" units, the Interahamwe, that would operate in every commune in the country. These groups were to act in concert with the local police, militias, and military authorities. Bagosora was also responsible for distributing arms and machetes throughout Rwanda. Between January 1993 and March 1994, Rwanda imported more than 500,000 machetes, twice the number imported in previous years.[10]

At about 8:15 pm on the evening of 6 April 1994, President Habyarimana was flying back to Kigali after a meeting when his plane was struck by two missiles fired from the ground. The plane crashed, killing everyone on board. The position of the American and Rwandan governments is that the missiles were fired from the Kanombe barracks, which were controlled by the Presidential Guard, but that conclusion is disputed. News of the President's death was broadcast and the killings began.[11]

After the assassination, Colonel Bagosora along with Colonel Rwagafilita gathered supporters and convened a meeting of a Crisis Committee.[12] Roméo Dallaire, the UN commander was invited, and arrived to find the senior leadership of the Rwandan army.[13] Dallaire rejected Bagosora's proposal of having the military take control of the political situation until they could hand it over to the politicians and he reminded him that Rwanda still had a government headed by Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. Bagosora responded that she was incapable of governing the nation. A few hours later, Madame Agathe was murdered with her husband by members of the Presidential Guard and the army.[14] After Bagosora's failed attempt to have the military take over the role of government, the group proceeded to pick a provisional government. The interim government was a multiparty group, but all came from the hardliner sections of their respective parties.[15]

Massacres began all over the country. Many prominent Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed right away, their names and addresses having been on lists. Radio Mille Collines broadcast incitements to murder. Trucks began arriving to pick up scores of bodies. On the morning of 7 April, ten Belgian peacekeepers who had been guarding Prime Minister Agathe and who were witnesses to the government troops laying siege to her residence were disarmed and taken to Camp Kigali, approximately 200 metres from where Colonel Bagosora was holding a meeting of military officers. The peacekeepers were murdered over the course of several hours by military personnel. During his testimony, Colonel Bagosora admitted attending to the scene while the murders were in progress, although claiming he could do nothing to stop the killings. As anticipated, the death of the ten Belgian peacekeepers prompted the withdrawal of most peacekeeping troops from Rwanda, effectively clearing the way for slaughter.

Over the next 100 days, people were being killed at an astonishing rate. The number of dead in the genocide varies from 500,000 to more than 1,000,000 people, depending on the source.

Upon the interference of Tutsi army in response to the genocide, Bagosora fled into neighbouring Zaire. "Fed and protected in refugee camps supported by millions of dollars in international aid, the Hutu Power leaders were able to hold regular planning meetings and to recruit new members."[16] With Bagosora actively involved, they rebuilt their military structures with the purpose of wiping out the Tutsi population.




Pages of Théoneste Bagosora's diary of February 1992 showing elements of a program of "civil self-defence"

Bagosora later moved to Cameroon with several other Hutu Power leaders. It was there that he was detained with André Ntagerura. In 1997, he first appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, to face thirteen counts of eleven different international crimes, based on the laws of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The joint trial with three other senior military officers charged as co-conspirators opened on 2 April 2002.

During his trial further evidence was submitted that in 1991 he and other co-accused helped to draft a document where they referred to the Tutsi ethnic group as the "principal enemy" which was widely distributed in the army. They were also accused of supporting the media outlets responsible for spreading hate messages and making lists of victims.[17]

The trial wrapped up on 1 June 2007, after five years, with Colonel Théoneste Bagosora still maintaining his innocence.
On 18 December 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found Bagosora and two other senior Rwandan army officers, Major Aloys Ntabakuze and Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced him to life imprisonment.[18][19] In ruling that life imprisonment was the appropriate sentence for Bagosora the three trial judges concurred that "The toll of human suffering was immense as a result of crimes which could have only occurred with his orders and authorisation."[20] The tribunal court stated that Bagosora had been "the highest authority in the Rwandan Defense Ministry, with authority over the military" in the aftermath of the assassination of President Habyarimana.[21] The court ruled that Bagosora was responsible for the murders of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the ten Belgian peacekeepers who had been guarding the Prime Minister at Camp Kigali, the president of the Constitutional Court Joseph Kavaruganda, and three major opposition leaders, Faustin Rucogoza, Frederic Nzamurambaho, and Landoald Ndasingwa. In addition, the court found Bagosora guilty of orchestrating the mass killings of Tutsis in Kigali and Gisenyi. However, the trial court held there was a reasonable doubt that events prior to 6 April could only be explained by Bagosora conspiring with others, so he was therefore acquitted on a charge of conspiracy to commit genocide prior to 7 April 1994.[21]

In the end result at trial, Bagosora was convicted of 10 counts of eight different crimes, including genocide, two counts of murder (one for Rwandans and one for peacekeepers), Extermination, Rape, Persecution, Other Inhumane Acts, two counts of Violence to Life (one for Rwandans and one for peacekeepers) as well as Outrages Upon Personal Dignity.[22] On 1 April 2021, his request for parole was denied.[23]

In the 2005 film by HBO Sometimes in April, a historical drama about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Bagosora is portrayed by Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga.
In the 2007 film Shake Hands with the Devil, a dramatisation of Canadian military officer Roméo Dallaire's book about his time as commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, Bagosora is portrayed by Burundian actor Michel-Ange Nzojibwami.

A bit more on this genocide perpetrator at Wikipedia.

Tommy Kirk, child actor (Old Yeller, etc.)



Thomas Lee Kirk (December 10, 1941 – September 28, 2021)[1] was an American actor, best known for his performances in a number of highly popular films made by Walt Disney Studios such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, as well as the beach-party films of the mid-1960s. 


n 1954, Kirk accompanied his elder brother Joe to an audition for a production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California. "Joe was star struck," said Kirk.[3] Joe was not cast, losing out to Bobby Driscoll, but Tommy was, and he made his stage debut opposite Will Rogers Jr.[4] "It was five lines, it didn't pay anything, and nobody else showed up, so I got the part," said Kirk.[3]
The performance was seen by an agent from the Gertz agency who signed Kirk and succeeded in casting him in an episode of TV Reader's Digest, "The Last of the Old Time Shooting Sheriffs", directed by William Beaudine. Kirk's brother went on to become a dentist.[3]
Television
Kirk began to work steadily in television throughout 1956 and 1957 in episodes of Lux Video Theatre ("Green Promise"), Frontier ("The Devil and Doctor O'Hara"), Big Town ("Adult Delinquents"), Crossroads ("The Rabbi Davis Story"), Gunsmoke ("Cow Doctor"), Letter to Loretta ("But for God's Grace", "Little League"), and Matinee Theatre ("The Outing", "The Others" – a version of Turn of the Screw).[5] According to Diabolique magazine "Kirk was in heavy demand as an actor almost immediately. Watching his early performances it’s easy to see why – he was wide-eyed, gangly, keen and immensely likeable… the very picture of Eisenhower Era American youth, unaffected and natural, surprisingly non-annoying, extremely easy to cast as someone’s kid brother, or son, or neighbour."[6]
Kirk also supported Angie Dickinson in a short feature called Down Liberty Road (aka Freedom Highway) (1956),[7] a short commercial travelogue produced by Greyhound Lines to promote their Scenicruiser buses.
Of these early experiences, Kirk especially liked working on Matinee Theatre:

Quote:I did thirty-seven of those in the next five years. I think I did more than any other actor. That was a fantastic training ground. They were hour-long shows, telecast live from coast to coast. I worked with some fascinating people—Sarah Churchill and others — and I started getting known.[8]

Disney
The Hardy Boys
In April 1956, Kirk auditioned for the part of Joe Hardy for The Mickey Mouse Club serial "The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure". He was successful and was selected to co-star with Tim Considine. The show was filmed in June and early July 1956, and broadcast that October, at the start of the show's second season.[9] The show and Kirk's performance were extremely well received and led to a long association between the actor and the studio.
In August 1956 Disney hired Kirk and former Mouseketeer Judy Harriet to attend both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominating conventions, for newsreel specials that later appeared on the show.[10]
Kirk also hosted short travelogues for the serial segment of the show's second season. He did the voice-over narration for "The Eagle Hunters", and then co-hosted two more travelogues with Annette Funicello. Tommy also did voice-dubbing work for the Danish-made film Vesterhavsdrenge, shown on the Mickey Mouse Club as the serial "Boys of the Western Sea". Around this time it was announced Kirk would appear as Young Davy Crockett, but this does not seem to have happened.[11]
Old Yeller

Kirk in a photo for "Old Yeller" (1957)
Kirk's career received its biggest break yet when in January 1957 Disney cast him as Travis Coates in Old Yeller (1957), an adventure story about a boy and his heroic dog.[12] Kirk had the lead role in the film, which was enormously successful, and he became Disney's first choice whenever they needed someone to play an all-American teenager. Kevin Corcoran played his younger brother and the two of them would often be teamed together as brothers.[6]
Both Kirk and Corcoran were announced for the cast of Rainbow Road to Oz, a feature film based on the stories of L. Frank Baum, but this film was never produced.[13]
Kirk appeared in another Hardy brothers installment, the original story The Mystery of Ghost Farm (September 13 – December 20, 1957).
He continued to guest star in TV series, such as The O. Henry Playhouse ("Christmas by Injunction"), The Californians (as Billy Kilgore in "Little Lost Man"), Matinee Theatre ("Look Out for John Tucker") and Playhouse 90 ("A Corner of the Garden").

Kirk during recording for the English dub of The Snow Queen
He provided the voice (along with Sandra Dee) for the U.S. version of a Soviet animated feature, The Snow Queen (1957).
The Shaggy Dog and Swiss Family Robinson
In July 1958 Kirk was cast in The Shaggy Dog (1959), a comedy about a boy inventor who, under the influence of a magic ring, is repeatedly transformed into an Old English Sheepdog.[14] This teamed him with Corcoran and two other Disney stars with whom he would regularly work, Fred MacMurray and Annette Funicello. According to Diabolique, "Much of the credit went to MacMurray; a lot of the credit should have gone to Kirk, whose easy-going boy next door charm made him the ideal American teen."[6]
Kirk says when filming finished, Disney told him they did not have any projects for him and he was being dropped. "I was thin and gangly and looked a mess... I thought the whole world had fallen to pieces," he said.[15]
He went back to TV, appearing in The Millionaire ('Millionaire Charles Bradwell") (1959) and Bachelor Father ("A Key for Kelly").
Shaggy Dog turned out to be a massive hit - bigger than Old Yeller - and Disney soon contacted Kirk, offering him another long-term contract and a role as middle son Ernst Robinson in another adventure film, Swiss Family Robinson (1960), starring John Mills, Dorothy Maguire, Janet Munro and Corcoran. This was another box office hit, and it remained Kirk's favorite movie.[16] When he returned from filming in the West Indies, the studio signed him to two more movies.[17]
In 1959 Film Daily called Kirk one of its five "male juveniles" of the year (the others being Tim Considine, Ricky Nelson, Eddie Hodges, and James MacArthur).[18]
In 1959 he and a friend were almost killed in a car crash in Arizona. "The car was totally demolished, but we didn't get a scratch," he said later. "How do you explain that?"[19]
Disney comedies
Kirk followed it with a secondary role in a fantasy comedy starring Fred MacMurray, The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). It was another huge hit.[20]
Disney sent Kirk to England along with Munro and Funicello for The Horsemasters (1961), a youth-oriented horse riding film, which was made for US television but screened theatrically in some markets.
Kirk guested on Angel ("Goodbye Young Lovers"), and for Disney played the support role of Grumio in the fairy tale fantasy Babes in Toyland, supporting Funicello, Ray Bolger, Ed Wynn and Tommy Sands. Kirk later described this film as "sort of a klunker... but it has a few cute moments, it's an oddity", and enjoyed working with Ed Wynn.[21] It was a box office disappointment. So too was Moon Pilot (1962), a satirical comedy for Disney where Kirk played the younger brother of Tom Tryon.[22] Diabolique said "Both these films were box office disappointments and would have been better had Kirk been given more to do – or, come to think of it, played the male lead, instead of Tommy Sands and Tom Tryon respectively. Male actors who excel in light comedy were exceedingly rare, then as now, as Disney was coming to appreciate."[6]
Kirk did a family comedy with MacMurray, Bon Voyage (1962), with other family members played by Jane Wyman, Deborah Walley and Corcoran. MacMurray once reportedly gave Kirk "the biggest dressing-down of my life" during the filming, one that Kirk says he deserved.[23] Kirk:

Quote:I really liked him [MacMurray] very much but the feeling wasn't mutual. That hurt me a lot and for a long time I hated him. It's hard not to hate somebody who doesn't like you. I was sort of looking for a father figure and I pushed him too hard. He resented it and I guess I was pretty repellent to him, so we didn't get along. We had a couple of blow ups on set... He was a nice person, but I was just too demanding. I came on too strong because I desperately wanted to be his friend.[24]

Kirk also had trouble with Jane Wyman, saying: "She was very mean to me. She went out of her way to be shitty...but she was a total bitch and I think she was homophobic."'[25]
But Kirk maintained good relationships with other actors he worked with. "Tommy played my brother in a lot of films and put up with a lot of things that I did to him over the years," Corcoran says in a commentary on the DVD release of Old Yeller. "He must be a great person not to hate me." Tim Considine calls Kirk "a monster talent."[23]
Kirk starred with Funicello in another overseas-shot story which screened in the US on TV but was released in some countries theatrically: Escapade in Florence (1962). Newspaper columns occasionally linked Kirk and Funicello's names romantically.[26] Kirk always spoke highly of her:

Quote:A perfect lady, perfect manners, very careful about her career, a very cool-headed businesswoman, friendly. We've always been friendly, but never been friends... But nobody can fault her, she's always friendly and gracious to everybody. People say bad things about everybody in this business, but I don't know anybody who ever said anything bad about her.[24]

In July 1962 Disney announced he would make The Happiest American with Kirk but it appears to have not been made.[27] Instead he did a sequel to Absent Minded Professor, Son of Flubber (1963), his last film with MacMurray.
Kirk guest starred on an episode of Mr. Novak, "Love in the Wrong Season" (1963). He was given the lead in Disney's Savage Sam (1963), a follow up to Old Yeller which reunited him with Corcoran and co-starred Brian Keith; it was not as well received as Old Yeller. He guested in "Ten Minutes from Now", an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964).
Misadventures of Merlin Jones
Disney then cast Kirk as "scrambled egghead" student inventor Merlin Jones in The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), opposite Funicello. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson, who had made the bulk of Disney's comedies. It became an unexpected box office sensation and was one of the biggest hits of the year.
Kirk says he only met Walt Disney outside the studio one time, at a party. Kirk says Disney called him his "good luck charm".[3]

Kirk said he knew he was gay from an early age:

Quote:I consider my teenage years as being desperately unhappy. I knew I was gay, but I had no outlet for my feelings. It was very hard to meet people and, at that time, there was no place to go to socialize. It wasn't until the early '60s that I began to hear of places where gays congregated. The lifestyle was not recognized and I was very, very lonely. Oh, I had some brief, very passionate encounters and as a teenager I had some affairs, but they were always stolen, back alley kind of things. They were desperate and miserable. When I was about 17 or 18 years old, I finally admitted to myself that I wasn't going to change. I didn't know what the consequences would be, but I had the definite feeling that it was going to wreck my Disney career and maybe my whole acting career. It was all going to come to an end.[28]

While filming The Misadventures of Merlin Jones in 1963, Kirk started seeing a 15-year-old boy he had met at a local swimming pool in Burbank. The boy's mother discovered the affair and informed Disney, who elected not to renew Kirk's contract.[29] Kirk was 21 years old. Walt Disney personally fired Kirk.[30] Kirk describes the situation himself: "Even more than MGM, Disney was the most conservative studio in town.... The studio executives were beginning to suspect my homosexuality. Certain people were growing less and less friendly. In 1963, Disney let me go. But Walt asked me to return for the final Merlin Jones movie, The Monkey's Uncle, because the Jones films had been moneymakers for the studio."[31]

The news of Kirk's termination from Disney Studios was not made public, and Kirk soon found work for himself at American International Pictures (AIP) who were looking for a leading man to co-star with Funicello in a musical they were preparing, The Maid and the Martian; Kirk was cast as a Martian who arrives on Earth and falls in with a bunch of partying teenagers. The movie was later retitled Pajama Party (1964) and was a box office hit, so AIP signed him to star in a follow-up, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.
In the meantime The Misadventures of Merlin Jones had become an unexpected smash hit, earning $4 million in rentals in North America and Disney invited him and Funicello back to make a sequel, The Monkey's Uncle (1965).[32]
He was also cast (but did not star) in a John Wayne film, The Sons of Katie Elder,[33] as well as a beach party movie Beach Ball.[34]

More at Wikipedia.

John Rigas, cable TV magnate and fraudster

John James Rigas (November 14, 1924 – September 30, 2021) was an American businessman who was one of the founders of Adelphia Communications Corporation, which at its peak was one of the largest cable TV companies in the United States. He was also the majority owner of the Buffalo Sabres franchise of the National Hockey League. In 2005, he was convicted on multiple charges of fraud and sentenced to 15 years in prison.


Rigas was born in Wellsville, New York, to Greek immigrants James and Eleni (Brazas) Rigas, who sought a better life in the United States for their children.[2][3] John had three siblings: Gus, Mary and Katherine. James was an entrepreneur of some repute in Wellsville, beginning as a shoe-shine man, then in 1921 introducing the Texas hot to Wellsville.[4] The Texas hot stand remains in operation, currently co-owned by John's nephew, Chris Rigas.[5] John's first job was, at the age of nine, busing tables. After graduating from Wellsville High School, he was drafted into the U.S. Army[1] and was placed in the 14th armored infantry division in 1943, seeing combat in France.[6] His division ended up being involved in the liberation of Dachau concentration camp in April of 1945. After the war ended he returned to life in Wellsville and, soon afterward, enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He studied engineering and earned a bachelor of science degree in management engineering. He was also a member of the Nu Theta Chapter of Phi Mu Delta. He then returned to Wellsville, only to take a job with the Sylvania corporation in Emporium, Pennsylvania.

In 1952, Rigas started his first business venture by buying a movie theater in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, a town midway between Wellsville and Emporium.[7] He borrowed the money from his family and friends, including his godfather, James Lucas, to purchase the theater and started operating it in the evenings while he worked days at the Sylvania plant.

The Rigas cable television enterprise first started in Coudersport when the family purchased the town's TV cable franchise. Always looking to grow his company, John had teamed with his brother Gus to start Adelphia after buying out his partners. They borrowed heavily to buy more and more suburban cable companies and avoided city franchises. Eventually, Adelphia became the largest cable provider outside Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and South Florida and had systems reaching over 30 states and over 5.6 million customers. Adelphia also launched product lines such as high-speed cable Internet service and long-distance telephone service.

Rigas was honored numerous times, including honorary degrees by three universities. In 1997 he bought the Buffalo Sabres from team co-founder Northrup R. Knox, installing his son Timothy as team president. After considering buying a professional baseball franchise, Rigas opted to relaunch the Wellsville Nitros as a collegiate summer baseball team in 1998.[8] His political contributions include a total of $50,750 to the Republican Party,[9] with which he had affiliation,[1] and placed a strong value in conservative Republican family values.[10]
 
Rigas resigned from his position as CEO in May 2002 after being indicted for bank fraud, wire fraud, and securities fraud. His sons Timothy and Michael, as well as James Brown and Michael Mulcahey, were also charged with participation in these crimes. The executives were accused of looting the corporation by concealing $2.3 billion in liabilities from corporate investors and of using corporation funds as their personal funds.[11]

John Rigas was convicted of the charges in summer 2004 and on June 27, 2005, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Adelphia Corporation filed for bankruptcy after it acknowledged that the three Rigases had taken $3.1 billion in loans that were not recorded on the books. In 2005 John and Timothy were charged with tax evasion and pleaded not guilty in October 2005. On January 27, 2012, the charge of tax evasion was officially dismissed. Following John's arrest, the NHL virtually stripped him of his authority over the Sabres. After more than a year as a ward of the league, the franchise was purchased by another western New York multibillionaire, Tom Golisano.
On May 24, 2007, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld John's and Timothy's 2004 convictions on 17 of the original 18 counts. On June 27, 2007, John and Timothy were ordered to report to prison on August 13 for their fraud convictions. On August 13 John and Timothy reported to the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, located about 45 minutes northwest of Raleigh, North Carolina, unsuccessful in their request to be allowed to serve their time together at a facility close to their homes in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. On November 1, 2007, after a 20-day bidding war involving 31 bidders, the palatial $30 million former Adelphia Headquarters building in Coudersport was sold to an undisclosed buyer at auction for $3.4 million.

On March 3, 2008, the Supreme Court rejected the final appeal without comment. The case was Rigas v. U.S., 07-494. John's original release date was September 4, 2020, but a federal judge reduced his sentence by three years, and his new release date was scheduled to be January 23, 2018. Rigas applied for a presidential pardon in January 2009, but George W. Bush left office without making a decision.[12] Rigas sold his house in Indigo Run, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, in order to pay for legal fees. Sometime during the week of November 6, 2011, both John and Timothy were transferred to the Low Security Facility of the Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex in Pennsylvania. The Allenwood FCC is located 2 miles north of Allenwood on Route 15, about 11 miles south of Williamsport.[13]
 

On December 14, 2015, Rigas' lawyers announced that he was terminally ill with bladder cancer and had between one and six months to live. Rigas was diagnosed with the cancer prior to his conviction and, under his sentencing, could seek compassionate release if he had less than three months to live.[14] Judge Kimba Wood issued an order allowing for Rigas's release on February 19, 2016.[11] Rigas was well enough to make public appearances by June 2016.[15]

Rigas died in Coudersport, Pennsylvania on September 30, 2021, at the age of 96.[16]

Comment: conservative family values include respect for legality and financial probity. He and his family could have sold out Adelphia for a neat profit instead of bleeding it. Doing something that could send one to prison at age 83? Now that is reckless!

Todd Akin, Senate nominee tripped up on the topic of "legitimate rape"

William Todd Akin (July 5, 1947 – October 3, 2021) was an American politician, businessman, and U.S. Representative for Missouri's 2nd congressional district, serving from 2001 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party.
Born in New York City, Akin grew up in the Greater St. Louis area. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, Akin served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked in the private sector in the computer and steel industries. In 1988, he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. He served in the state house until 2000, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, in which he served until 2013.

Akin's Congressional career ended after he lost a bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill in the 2012 election. Akin, who had won the Republican primary in a crowded field, led McCaskill in pre-election polls until he said that women who are victims of what he called "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant. Akin eventually apologized for the remark but rebuffed calls to withdraw from the election.[1] He lost to McCaskill by 54.7 percent to 39.2 percent.[2] In a book published in July 2014, Akin said that he regretted having apologized and defended his original comments.[3]


Akin was an outspoken opponent of abortion in all cases, including health reasons or in cases of rape or incest, and he opposed embryonic stem cell research. In a 2008 speech on the House floor, Akin called abortion providers "terrorists" and alleged that it was "common practice" for abortion providers to perform "abortions" on women who were not actually pregnant.[34][35]
Akin was a supporter of the right to keep and bear arms and had an A rating from the National Rifle Association.[36] Akin was a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2006, he co-sponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act,[37] and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.[38]

Akin also authored the Protect the Pledge (of Allegiance) Act.[29] In late June 2011, Akin objected to NBC's recent removal of the words "under God" from a video clip of school children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. After remarking that "NBC has a long record of being very liberal," Akin said, "at the heart of liberalism really was a hatred for God and a belief that government should replace God".[39] Two days later, Akin said he did not mean all liberals hate God, only that liberals have "a hatred for public references for God." The next day, he apologized, saying his statement had been "directed at the political movement, Liberalism, not at any specific individual".[40]
During his 2012 US Senate bid, Akin reaffirmed his opposition to legislation like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which he voted against as a Congressman.[41]

Akin opposed the No Child Left Behind Act. Akin believed that it should not be the federal government that decides on education, but that local government should have control over public education.[42]

The last living major-league player to...

William Edward Robinson (December 15, 1920 – October 4, 2021) was an American Major League Baseball first baseman, scout, coach, and front office executive of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s who, during a 13-year playing career (1942; 1946–57), was on the roster of seven of the eight American League teams then in existence (with the Red Sox as the sole exception). He was the author of an autobiography, published in 2011, titled Lucky Me: My Sixty-five Years in Baseball.[1]

Robinson was the last surviving member of the 1943 "Navy World Series",[2] the last living person to win the World Series with the Cleveland Indians,[3] as well as the oldest living player to play on a World Series-winning team and the oldest living member of the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics, and Washington Senators.[4] He was the last living Major League Baseball player who played at League Park in Cleveland, which the Indians abandoned after the 1946 season. Following the death of Val Heim on November 21, 2019, Robinson became the oldest living former player. Robinson was also the last living player from the 1942 season, as well as the oldest living player whose major league career was interrupted by World War II service.[5]

Eddie Robinson, a left-handed batter who threw right-handed, played four seasons in the minor leagues before being briefly called up at the end of the 1942 season by the Cleveland Indians. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the 1942 season and did not resume his baseball career until 1946. He suffered a leg injury while in the service, and never fully recovered fully thanks to a botched operation, but he recovered sufficiently to enjoy an outstanding major league career.[5] He enjoyed his most prominent team moment when, at the age of 27, he contributed to his first team, the Cleveland Indians, winning the 1948 World Series. Although traded during that offseason, he was still at the top of his game and with his next two teams, Washington Senators (1949–50) and Chicago White Sox (1950–52), experienced the most productive seasons of his time in the majors. In 1951 Robinson began his life-long relationship with Paul Richards when former player Richards started his major league career as a manager with the Chicago White Sox.[8]

Overall, he appeared in 1,315 games and batted .268 with 172 home runs, and 723 runs batted in. Defensively, he finished his career with a .990 fielding percentage playing every inning at first base. He did not play in the 1943 through 1945 seasons, due to his service in the U.S. Navy during World War II.[5]

A four-time All-Star, he was the American League's starting first baseman for the midsummer classics of 1949 and 1952. The first game was a slugfest, 11-7, won by the American League, with a Robinson first-inning single off National league starter Warren Spahn driving in Joe DiMaggio. In the 1952 game, a rain-shortened 3-2 National League victory, Robinson singled in the American League's first run, scoring Minnie Miñoso, who had led off the fourth inning with a double.

In 1955, while playing for the New York Yankees as a part-time player, Robinson hit 16 home runs while having only 36 hits. He also had more runs batted in than hits, knocking in 42 runs. For the season he hit only .208 in 173 at bats, and had 36 base-on-balls.[9]

Robinson was the oldest living Major League player who began his career during or after the 1940s, and he was the last living player whose Major League career was interrupted by World War II service. (Chris Haughey never made it back to the majors, and Eddie Basinski and Tommy Brown were civilians throughout the war.)

Upon retirement, he became a coach for the Baltimore Orioles and then moved into their player development department. A protégé of Orioles manager and fellow Texan Paul Richards, he followed Richards to the Houston Astros, then worked as the farm system director of the Kansas City Athletics during the tempestuous ownership of Charlie Finley in the mid-1960s. In 1968 he rejoined Richards in the front office of the Atlanta Braves. He succeeded Richards as general manager of the Braves during the 1972 season, serving through early 1976 in that post.
Robinson then returned to the American League as a member of the Texas Rangers front office. In 1977, Robinson was named co-general manager (with Dan O'Brien Sr.) of the Rangers, and became sole GM from 1978 to 1982. Although the Rangers posted winning seasons in 1977, 1978, and 1981, a disastrous 1982 campaign cost Robinson his job as General Manager.[10]

Continuing in baseball as a scout and player development consultant, he found his last position as a scout for the Boston Red Sox, the only team of the "original eight" American League clubs that he did not play for.
The last living Cleveland Indians player to win a World Series championship (there are no living players who played on an earlier World Series championship team than Robinson's 1948 Indians), Robinson attended Game 6 of the 2016 World Series between the Indians and Chicago Cubs at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Robinson lived in Fort Worth, Texas. After the death of outfielder Val Heim, Robinson was recognized as the oldest living baseball player.

Robinson enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the 1942 season; he served three years. After basic training, he married Elayne Elder in February 1943. They had two children, one of whom died in childhood, and divorced in 1951.[11]
He married the former Bette Farlow, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1955.[12] The couple raised three sons — Marc, Drew, and Paul.[11] As of 1993 they had lived in Woodhaven Country Club Estates for 15 years and also grew and sold pecans from a farm near Austin, Texas.[12]

He resided in Fort Worth, Texas, where he and Bette moved in 1984.[13][12]

On December 15, 2020, Robinson turned 100. He was working on a podcast, "The Golden Age of Baseball", through which he hoped to eventually have donations made to the Alzheimer's Foundation.[14]

Eddie Robinson died on October 4, 2021, at his ranch in Bastrop, Texas.[15] He was 100.

First President of the Islamic Republi8c of Iran:

Sayyid Abolhassan Banisadr (Persian: سید ابوالحسن بنی‌صدر‎; March 22, 1933 – October 9, 2021) was an Iranian politician and writer. He was the first president of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution abolished the monarchy, serving from February 1980 until he was impeached by parliament in June 1981. Prior to his presidency, he was the minister of foreign affairs in the interim government. He had resided for many years in France where he co-founded the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Following his impeachment, Banisadr fled Iran and found political asylum in France. Banisadr later focused on political writings about his activities during the Iranian revolution and his critiques of the Iranian government. He became a critic of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the country's handling of its 2009 elections. He died in 2021 at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris.

Banisadr was born on 22 March 1933 in Hamadān.[3] His father was an ayatollah and close to Ruhollah Khomeini.[4] He studied finance and economics at the Sorbonne.[5] In 1972, Banisadr's father died and he attended the funeral in Iraq where he first met Ayatollah Khomeini.[6]

Banisadr had participated in the anti-Shah student movement during the early 1960s and was imprisoned twice, and was wounded during an uprising in 1963 which led to his fleeing to France.[4][6] He later joined the Iranian resistance group led by Khomeini, becoming one of his hard-line advisors.[4][6] Banisadr returned to Iran together with Khomeini as the revolution was beginning in February 1979. He wrote a book on Islamic finance, Eghtesad Tohidi, which roughly translates as "The Economics of Monotheism."[7]
 

Following the Iranian Revolution, Banisadr became deputy minister of finance on 4 February 1979 and was in office until 27 February 1979.[8] He also became a member of the revolutionary council when Bazargan and others left the council to form the interim government.[8] After the resignation of the interim finance minister Ali Ardalan on 27 February 1979, he was appointed finance minister by then prime minister Mehdi Bazargan.[8][9] On 12 November 1979, Banisadr was appointed foreign minister to replace Ebrahim Yazdi in the government that was led by Council of the Islamic Revolution when the interim government resigned.[9]
Banisadr was elected to a four-year term as president on 25 January 1980, receiving 78.9 percent of the vote in the election, and was inaugurated on 4 February.[10] Khomeini remained the Supreme Leader of Iran with the constitutional authority to dismiss the president.[11] The inaugural ceremonies were held at the hospital where Khomeini was recovering from a heart ailment.[12]
Banisadr was not an Islamic cleric; Khomeini had insisted that clerics should not run for positions in the government.[13] In August and September 1980, Banisadr survived two helicopter crashes near the Iran–Iraq border.[14] During the Iran–Iraq War, Banisadr was appointed acting commander-in-chief by Khomeini on 10 June 1981.[15]
Impeachment
The Majlis (Iran's Parliament) impeached Banisadr in his absence on 21 June 1981,[16] allegedly because of his moves against the clerics in power,[17] in particular Mohammad Beheshti, then head of the judicial system. Khomeini himself appears to have instigated the impeachment, which he signed the next day.[13] According to Katzman, Banisadr believed the clerics should not directly govern Iran and was perceived as supporting the People's Mujahedin of Iran.[13]

Even before Khomeini had signed the impeachment papers, the Revolutionary Guard had seized the Presidential buildings and gardens, and imprisoned writers at a newspaper closely tied to Banisadr.[18] Over the next few days, they executed several of his closest friends, including Hossein Navab, Rashid Sadrolhefazi and Manouchehr Massoudi.[18] Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri was among the few people in the government in support of Banisadr, but he was soon stripped of his powers.[18]

At the same time, the Iranian government outlawed all political parties, except the Islamic Republican Party.[18] Government forces arrested and imprisoned members of other parties, such as the People's Mujahedin, Fadaian Khalq, Tudeh, and Paikar.[18]
Banisadr went into hiding for a few days before his removal, and hid in Tehran, protected by the People's Mujahedin (PMOI).[19] He attempted to organize an alliance of anti-Khomeini factions to retake power, including the PMOI, KDP, and the Fedaian Organisation (Minority), while eschewing any contact with monarchist exile groups.[19] He met numerous times while in hiding with PMOI leader Massoud Rajavi to plan an alliance, but after the execution on 27 July of PMOI member Mohammadreza Saadati, Banisadr and Rajavi concluded that it was unsafe to remain in Iran.[19]

In Banisadr's view, this impeachment was a coup d'état against democracy in Iran. In order to settle the political differences in the country, President Banisadr had asked for a referendum.[20]
 



When Banisadr was impeached on 21 June 1981, he had fled and had been hiding in western Iran.[16] On 29 July, Banisadr and Massoud Rajavi were smuggled aboard an Iranian Air Force Boeing 707 piloted by Colonel Behzad Moezzi.[4] It followed a routine flight plan before deviating out of Iranian groundspace to Turkish airspace and eventually landing in Paris.[16] As a disguise, Banisadr shaved his eyebrows and mustache and dressed in a skirt.[21][22]

Banisadr and Rajavi found political asylum in Paris, conditional on abstaining from anti-Khomeini activities in France.[4] This restriction was effectively ignored after France evacuated its embassy in Tehran.[4] Banisadr, Rajavi and the Kurdish Democratic Party set up the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris in October 1981.[4][19] Banisadr soon fell out with Rajavi, however, accusing him of ideologies favoring dictatorship and violence.[9] Furthermore, Banisadr opposed the armed opposition as initiated and sustained by Rajavi, and sought support for Iran during the war with Iraq.[9]
 
More at Wikipedia.

"Father of the Pakistani nuke program"

Abdul Qadeer Khan (/ˈɑːbdəl ˈkɑːdɪər ˈkɑːn/ (listen); Urdu: عبد القدیر خان‎; 1 April 1936 – 10 October 2021)[4] NI, HI, FPAS, DEng, known as A. Q. Khan, was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer who is colloquially known as the "father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program".

An émigré from India who migrated to Pakistan in 1952, Khan was educated in the metallurgical engineering departments of Western European technical universities where he pioneered studies in phase transitions of metallic alloys, uranium metallurgy, and isotope separation based on gas centrifuges. After learning of India's 'Smiling Buddha' nuclear test in 1974, Khan joined his nation's clandestine efforts to develop atomic weapons when he founded the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) in 1976 and was both its chief scientist and director for many years.

In January 2004, Khan was subjected to a debriefing by the Musharraf administration over evidence of nuclear proliferation handed to them by the Bush administration of the United States.[5][6] Khan admitted his role in running the proliferation network[vague] – only to retract his statements in later years when he leveled accusations at the former administration of Pakistan's Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1990, and also directed allegations at President Musharraf over the controversy in 2008.[7][8][9]

Khan was accused of selling nuclear secrets illegally and was put under house arrest in 2004, when he confessed to the charges and was pardoned by then President Pervez Musharraf.[10] After years of house arrest, Khan successfully filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government of Pakistan at the Islamabad High Court whose verdict declared his debriefing unconstitutional and freed him on 6 February 2009.[11][12] The United States reacted negatively to the verdict and the Obama administration issued an official statement warning that Khan still remained a "serious proliferation risk".[13]
 
More at Wikipedia.

Ruth Irene Tompson (July 22, 1910 – October 10, 2021) was an American camera technician, animation checker and supercentenarian.[2] She was known for her work on animated features at The Walt Disney Company and was declared a Disney Legend in 2000.[3]

Ruthie Tompson was born on July 22, 1910 in Portland, Maine and raised in Boston, Massachusetts.[4] She then moved with her family to Oakland, California in November 1918 at age eight. She experienced the 1918 influenza pandemic near the end of World War I.[5] In 1924, her parents divorced and her mother, Arlene, remarried artist John Roberts. The family relocated to Los Angeles and their house was in the same block as the house of Robert Disney, uncle of Walt Disney. This is where Roy and Walt Disney lived when they first came to Los Angeles.[6]

As she stated in an interview, Tompson first met the Disneys when she visited her neighbor Robert's new baby. She recalls sitting on an apple box until her parents said they were going home for dinner.[6][5] The location of The Walt Disney Company, then known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, was not far from her home – she passed it on her way to grammar school. She was invited into the office after many times standing outside and watching them work through the window. She visited the office often and ended up appearing in the Alice Comedies.[6][7][5]

At the age of 18, Tompson started working at Dubrock's Riding Academy, where Roy and Walt Disney often played polo.[8] Walt Disney remembered Tompson from when she was young and offered her a job as an inker.[8] After training as an inker, Tompson was transferred to the Paint Department,[9][5] where she helped with Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[6] After working on several other Disney films, Tompson was promoted to final checker position where she reviewed animation cels before they were photographed onto film. Tompson continued working for Disney and was promoted to animation checker during WWII, where she worked on training and education films, for the U.S Armed Forces, starring Disney characters such as Mickey, Donald Duck and Goofy.[9] By 1948, Tompson was working in the camera department, developing camera moves and mechanics to shoot animation.[10] She became one of the first three women admitted into the International Photographers Union, Local 659 of the IATSE.[2] Tompson continued to work through the studio ranks, eventually becoming the supervisor of the screen planning department.[9]
Tompson retired in 1975 after working for The Walt Disney Company for almost 40 years.[2][11] In retirement, she worked for an in-house television channel at the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) Country House where she lived.[8][12] Tompson was the oldest member of Women in Animation.[13][14] In 2000, Tompson was honored by the Disney Legends program and received the Disney Legends Award for her work at the Walt Disney Studios.[15] In 2017, Tompson was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for her contributions to the animation industry. In July 2020, Tompson became a supercentenarian and celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg wished her a happy birthday.[16][17]
Tompson died on October 10, 2021, at the age of 111.[18][19][20]
 
Filmography

• Lonesome Ghosts (1937) (ink and paint - uncredited)[21]
  
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (ink and paint - uncredited) (1937)[3]
  
• Pinocchio (1940)[3]
  
• Fantasia (1940)[3]
  
• Dumbo (1941)[3]
  
• Donald in Mathmagic Land (scene planner - uncredited) (1959)[22]
  
• Sleeping Beauty (checker and scene planner - uncredited) (1959)[21][23]
  
• Popeye the Sailor (1960–62)[23]
  
• Mary Poppins (scene planner - uncredited) (1964)[23]
  
• The Aristocats (scene planner - uncredited) (1970)[23]
  
• Robin Hood (scene planning supervisor - uncredited) (1973)[24]
  
• Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (short; 1974)[22]
  
• The Rescuers (1977)[3]
  
• The Lord of the Rings (1978)[23]
  
• Metamorphoses (1978)[22]
  
• The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story (Documentary) (special thanks - as Ruthie Tompson) (1999)[25]
  
• American Experience (TV Series documentary) (self) (2015)[26]
  
• 110-Year-Old Ruthie Tompson Tells Us About Making Snow White – NOT-SO SMALL WORLD (Web episode) (self; as Ruthie Tompson) (2020)[27]
  

At Wikipedia.

Edita Gruberová (Slovak: [ˈedita ˈɡruberoʋaː]; 23 December 1946 – 18 October 2021)[1] was a Slovak coloratura soprano. She made her stage debut in Bratislava in 1968 as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, but successfully auditioned at the Vienna State Opera the following year, which became her base. She enjoyed huge success internationally in roles such as Mozart's Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. In her later career, she explored heavier roles in the Italian bel canto repertoire, such as the title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Elvira in Bellini's I puritani, and Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux. In 2019, she portrayed Elizabeth I who leaves her throne, concluding a stage career performing leading roles over 51 years. She is remembered as the "Slowakische Nachtigal" (Slovak Nightingale).

In 1968, Gruberová made her operatic debut at the National Theatre in Bratislava as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.[3][12][13] After winning a singing competition in Toulouse, she was then engaged as a soloist of the opera ensemble of the J. G. Tajovský Theatre in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, from 1968 to 1970.[3][8][14] Among her roles there was Eliza in Loewe's musical My Fair Lady.[15] Since communist Czechoslovakia was going through normalisation, during which the borders to non-communist countries were closed, Medvecká surreptitiously arranged for an audition for Gruberová at the Vienna State Opera in the summer of 1969. She was immediately engaged, and made her breakthrough the following year when she appeared as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.[3][13] In 1971, Gruberová decided to emigrate to the West.[16] She became a member of the Vienna State Opera in 1972.[9][17] and was invited to perform at many of the most important opera houses in the world, especially in coloratura roles.[3] Gruberová made her debut at Glyndebourne in 1973 as the Queen of the Night.[3][18] She became an Austrian citizen in 1974.[19]
Gruberová achieved international recognition in 1976 when she sang Zerbinetta in the premiere of a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss in Vienna, conducted by Karl Böhm.[8] The conductor wished that the composer could have heard that performance.[2] She first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in 1977,[20] again as the Queen of the Night, conducted by James Conlon.[21] She appeared there as Zerbinetta in 1979 in a live broadcast conducted by James Levine, and a reviewer of Opera News noted:

Quote:New, and a brilliant addition to the ensemble, was Edita Gruberova as Zerbinetta, The Slovak soprano is everything one could hope for in this soaring, most demanding role, for she acts enchantingly, sings with great skill and musicality and possesses a voice that not only sails easily to the top, but is filled out with sweetness and quality; she had a triumph, predictably, not only in her big aria, but in the touching duet with the Composer in the prologue as well.[22]

In 1977, she first appeared at the Salzburg Festival, as Thibault in Verdi's Don Carlo, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. She appeared as Gilda in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1982 film of Rigoletto, alongside Ingvar Wixell in the title role and Luciano Pavarotti as the Duke,[23] and in his 1988 film of Mozart's Così fan tutte, alongside Delores Ziegler and Ferruccio Furlanetto.[24] Gruberová made her Royal Opera House debut as Giulietta in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in 1984. Other important roles include the title roles of Verdi's La traviata, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and Massenet's Manon. She performed as Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.


Gruberová in 2008
Gruberová appeared as a regular guest at the Zürich Opera, as Marie in Donizetti's La fille du régiment in 1984, as Lucia in 1990, and in the title role of Rossini's Semiramide in 1992. She performed there in the title role of Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix in 1995, as Elvira in Bellini's I puritani in 1999, in the title role of Donizetti's Anna Bolena in 2000, and in the title role of Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda in 2001.[9] The same year, she withdrew from all her performances at the Zürich Opera, after Alexander Pereira [de], then intendant, refused that her dancer daughter's injury, which ruined her career, was an occupational accident.[8] In 2012, she appeared there again in a recital, stepping in for Jonas Kaufmann.[25] Later that year, after Pereira's departure, she finally performed with the company again, in a revival of Roberto Devereux.[26]

Gruberová appeared as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni at La Scala in Milan in 1987 and as Elisabetta in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux in Vienna in 1990. The role became one of her signature roles; in a new production in Munich directed by Christof Loy, she made peace with Regietheater in a dramatic portrayal of the Queen, without loosing coloratura brilliance. She always performed coloratura ornamentation with dramatic expressiveness, with humour as Zerbinetta, and in rapture with a high trill as the dying Antonia in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann .[2] In 2006, she added the title role in Bellini's Norma to her repertoire, at the Bavarian State Opera.[8]

She gave her last opera performance on 27 March 2019 as Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux at the Bavarian State Opera.[27][7] She convincingly portrayed the aging Elizabeth I who leaves her throne, with still breathtaking singing.[2] She concluded her stage career after 51 years of singing leading roles,[2] and received ovations for 58 minutes.[12] She then focused on concerts and giving masterclasses.[27][7] She officially retired from the stage in September 2020, in part due to delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic which made planning further performances difficult.[28] Her last performance was in Gersthofen on 20 December 2019,[29] as two planned farewell performances in a semi-staged Roberto Devereux at the State Theatre Košice at the end of November 2020 were eventually cancelled due to the pandemic.[30]

Gruberová was introduced to Lieder repertoire by Harald Goertz [de], a professor at the Vienna Music Academy, and repetiteur at the Vienna State Opera. They often performed together, until Erik Werba became her lied partner with whom she performed sons by Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler.[8] They gave a recital at the Salzburg Festival in 1980,[8] with clarinetist Peter Schmidt, of songs by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Strauss.[31]

 Gruberová made many recordings,[3][9] most notably in full-length opera, and extended selections from Donizetti's Tudor Queens' trilogy and other bel canto operas. In her later years, she recorded exclusively on the Nightingale label. More than a dozen of her filmed and televised opera appearances have been released on DVD, including Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, I puritani, Norma, Manon, Beatrice di Tenda, and Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia and Linda di Chamounix, and Ariadne auf Naxos.[3]

She recorded Bach's solo cantatas for soprano, such as Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51, and Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, in 1979, with Helmut Winschermann conducting the Deutsche Bachsolisten and trumpeter Wolfgang Basch.[42][43]

More at Wikipedia.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (/ˈmiːhaɪ ˈtʃiːksɛntmiːˌhɑːjiː/, Hungarian: Csíkszentmihályi Mihály, pronounced [ˈt͡ʃiːksɛntmihaːji ˈmihaːj] (listen); 29 September 1934 – 20 October 2021) was a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognised and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.[1][2] He was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He was the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.[3]

Csikszentmihalyi was noted for his work in the study of happiness and creativity, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic.[9] Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology.[10] Csikszentmihalyi once said: "Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished.


Main article: Flow (psychology)

Mental state in terms of challenge level and skill level, according to Csikszentmihalyi's flow model.[13]

In his seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csíkszentmihályi outlined his theory that people are happiest when they are in a state of flow—a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation.[14] It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.[14] The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove.[15] The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what they are doing.[15] This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.[15]

In an interview with Wired magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."[16]

Csikszentmihályi characterized nine component states of achieving flow including "challenge-skill balance, merging of action and awareness, clarity of goals, immediate and unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task at hand, paradox of control, transformation of time, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience".[17] To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer.[18] If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur as both skill level and challenge level must be matched and high; if skill and challenge are low and matched, then apathy results.[18]

One state that Csikszentmihalyi researched was that of the autotelic personality.[17] The autotelic personality is one in which a person performs acts because they are intrinsically rewarding, rather than to achieve external goals.[19] Csikszentmihalyi describes the autotelic personality as a trait possessed by individuals who can learn to enjoy situations that most other people would find miserable.[20] Research has shown that aspects associated with the autotelic personality include curiosity, persistence, and humility.[21]


A majority of Csikszentmihalyi's final works focused the idea of motivation and the factors that contribute to motivation, challenge, and overall success in an individual.[22] One personality characteristic that Csikszentmihalyi researched in detail was that of intrinsic motivation.[23] Csikszentmihalyi and his colleagues found that intrinsically motivated people were more likely to be goal-directed and enjoy challenges that would lead to an increase in overall happiness.[22]

Csikszentmihalyi identified intrinsic motivation as a powerful trait to possess to optimize and enhance positive experience, feelings, and overall well-being as a result of challenging experiences.[24] The results indicated a new personality construct, a term Csikszentmihalyi called work orientation, which is characterized by "achievement, endurance, cognitive structure, order, play, and low impulsivity".[24] A high level of work orientation in students is said to be a better predictor of grades and fulfillment of long-term goals than any school or household environmental influence.[24]

More at Wikipedia

Bernard Johan Herman Haitink CH, KBE (Dutch: [ˈbɛrnɑrt ˈɦaːi̯tɪŋk]; 4 March 1929 – 21 October 2021[1]) was a Dutch conductor and violinist.

Haitink was born in Amsterdam, the son of Willem Haitink, a civil servant who was to become director of the Amsterdam electricity board, and Anna Clara Verschaffelt, who worked for Alliance Française.[2] He studied the violin and conducting, with Felix Hupka,[3] who conducted the school's orchestra,[4] at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He then played the violin in orchestras before taking courses in conducting under Ferdinand Leitner in 1954 and 1955.


Haitink conducted his first concert on 19 July 1954 with the Netherlands Radio Union Orchestra (later the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic [RFO]).[5] He became second conductor of the orchestra in 1955, and chief conductor of the orchestra in 1957. His conducting debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra was on 7 November 1956, substituting for Carlo Maria Giulini.[6] After the sudden death of Eduard van Beinum, Haitink was named first conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra on 1 September 1959. He became principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961, and shared that position jointly with Eugen Jochum until 1963, when Haitink became sole principal conductor.[7] With the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Haitink made many recordings for the Philips label, and later Decca and EMI Classics, and toured widely with the orchestra.

In the early 1980s, Haitink threatened to resign his Concertgebouw post in protest at threatened reductions to its subsidy from the Dutch government, which could have led to the dismissal of 23 musicians from the orchestra. The financial situation was eventually settled,[8] and Haitink remained as chief conductor until 1988. In 1999, he was named the honorary conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In December 2012, following his advocacy for the RFO in the wake of proposed budget cuts to the orchestra and Dutch music in general, Haitink accepted the title of patron of the RFO.[5] In March 2014, Haitink stated to the Dutch newspaper Het Parool that he wished to renounce the title of RCO conductor laureate and no longer to guest-conduct the orchestra, in protest at the orchestra's current administrative management.[9] In September 2015, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra announced a rapprochement with Haitink, with a scheduled guest-conducting engagement with the orchestra in the 2016–2017 season.[10][11]

Haitink was Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1967 to 1979. Haitink was also Music Director at Glyndebourne Opera in England from 1978 to 1988. He was Music Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1987 to 2002, where his musicianship was praised though he received criticism for his degree of attachment to the organisation as a whole.[12][13]

From 2002 to 2004, Haitink was Chief Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. His original contract with Dresden ran to 2006, but Haitink resigned in 2004 over disputes with the Staatskapelle's Intendant, Gerd Uecker, on the orchestra's choice of successor.[14]


At the Barbican Centre in London with the London Symphony Orchestra, 2011

Haitink served as principal guest conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2004, when he took on the new title of conductor emeritus. In addition, he has appeared with l'Orchestre National de France and the London Symphony Orchestra. In the early 2000s, he recorded the complete Beethoven and Brahms symphony cycles with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for the LSO Live label. Haitink is an honorary member of the Berlin Philharmonic.

In April 2006, after an acclaimed two-week engagement in March 2006 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), the CSO appointed Haitink to the newly created position of principal conductor, effective from the 2006–2007 season.[15] The duration of the contract was four years.[16] Haitink had declined an offer from the CSO to be music director, citing his age.[17] With respect to this contract, Haitink stated that "every conductor, including myself, has a sell-by date."[18] He concluded his Chicago principal conductorship in June 2010 with a series of concerts of the complete Beethoven symphonies[19] and being awarded the Theodore Thomas Medallion by the orchestra.[20]

Haitink conducted and recorded a wide variety of repertoire, with the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams, and the complete piano concertos of Beethoven and Brahms with Claudio Arrau notable among his recordings.[21] Haitink has made many recordings for several labels, including Philips Records, EMI Classics, Columbia Records, LSO Live, RCO Live, and CSO Resound. Other recordings include the complete orchestral works of Debussy, the two symphonies of Elgar, the three Mozart/Da Ponte operas, and Wagner's complete opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, and the opera Tannhäuser.

Haitink stated in a 2004 article that he would no longer conduct opera, but he made exceptions in 2007, directing three performances of Parsifal in Zurich in March and April and five of Pelléas et Mélisande in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées) in June. He stated in 2004 that he did not plan to conduct again at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.[22] However, an April 2007 announcement stated that Haitink would return to the Royal Opera in December 2007, with the same Zurich production of Parsifal,[23] and he fulfilled this engagement.[24]
Haitink led master classes in conducting for young conductors in Lucerne for several years.[25] In June 2015, the European Union Youth Orchestra announced the appointment of Haitink as its conductor laureate, effective immediately.[26]

In June 2019 Haitink stated in an interview with De Volkskrant that his final concert as conductor was to be in September 2019, formalising his previously announced sabbatical into retirement.[27] His final concerts as conductor with ensembles with whom he was formally associated were as follows:

• Chicago Symphony Orchestra: 30 October 2018
  
• Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam: 27 January 2019
  
• Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra: 15 June 2019[28]
  
  

Haitink's final UK concert was at The Proms in London on 3 September 2019, his 90th Prom, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.[29] His last concert was in Lucerne at the KKL on 6 September 2019, with the Vienna Philharmonic.[30]

More at Wikipedia.

Udo Zimmermann (6 October 1943[1] – 22 October 2021[a][3]) was a German composer, musicologist, opera director, and conductor.[4] He worked as a professor of composition, founded a centre for contemporary music in Dresden, and was director of the Leipzig Opera and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He directed a contemporary music series for the Bayerischer Rundfunk and a European centre of the arts in Hellerau. His operas, especially Weiße Rose, on a topic he set to music twice, have been performed internationally, and recorded.

Born in Dresden, Zimmermann was a member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor from 1954 to 1962, when he completed the Abitur.[5] Directed by Rudolf Mauersberger, Zimmermann was immersed in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and learned vocal expression, which became a focus of his own compositions. He wrote three motets which were performed by the choir,[6] including a "Vaterunserlied" in 1959.[7] Education in the choir fostered a humanitarian attitude which he kept for life.[7]

He continued his music education at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber, studying composition with Johannes Paul Thilman and also voice and conducting.[6] The works composed during these years include Dramatische Impression für Violoncello und Klavier auf den Tod von J. F. Kennedy (Dramatic impression for cello and piano on the death of John F. Kennedy), composed in 1963, Fünf Gesänge für Bariton und Kammerorchester (Wolfgang Borchert) (Five chants for baritone and chamber orchestra after Wolfgang Borchert), written in 1964, and the opera Weiße Rose based on a libretto by his brother Ingo Zimmermann [de] and composed in 1967/68.[6] The theme of the opera, which he composed as a student, is the White Rose resistance movement of the siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl.[1][8] From 1968, he studied in Berlin at the Akademie der Künste with Günter Kochan. In the same year he composed Musik für Streicher (Music for strings), his first work including twelve-tone technique and a new organisation of sound processes in levels ("flächig)".[6]

In 1970, Zimmermann became dramaturge of the Staatsoper Dresden.[5] In 1978 he was appointed professor of composition at the Dresden Musikhochschule, where he had lectured from 1976.[5] As a conductor, he was invited by major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig, Orchestre de Radio France in Paris, Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, MDR Symphony Orchestra, and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. He also appeared as a guest conductor at opera houses in Bonn, Hamburg, Munich and Vienna.[9] He organised productions of his operas in both East and West Germany, and arranged for leading papers to review them.[7]

In 1986, he founded the Dresdner Zentrum für zeitgenössische Musik (Dresden Center for Contemporary Music) as a research center and for concerts and festivals. He returned to his opera topic Weiße Rose and wrote a condensed version for only two voices and ensemble on a text by Wolfgang Willaschek.[10] It premiered at the Opera Stabile, Hamburg, on 27 February 1986, and was staged often.[10] Zimmermann was the artistic director of the Leipzig Opera. During this time, 27 premieres of new works were performed at the house,[1] including several especially for the tricentenary of the opera house.[11] Parts of Stockhausen's Licht were premiered, also Jörg Herchet's nachtwache, staged by Ruth Berghaus, and Dieter Schnebel's "Majakowskis Tod – Totentanz". The house received international attention, presenting Busoni's Doktor Faust staged by Willy Decker, and a cycle of Mozart's operas on librettos by da Ponte, staged by John Dew, among others.[12] From 2001 to 2003 he was general director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.[1][5][13]
Zimmermann directed the series musica viva of contemporary music, run by the broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk from 1997 to 2011. He invited notable composers and ensembles to concerts in Munich, many of which were recorded. In 2007/08, he initiated an additional ars musica viva festival, which presented leading radio orchestras and ensembles. The BMW Kompositionspreises, a composition prize for the series, was an award for many new works by young international composers. A total of 175 works were performed, with 161 compositions commissioned by musica viva, and presented in 180 broadcasts. Zimmermann received the broadcaster's Gold Medal for his work over 14 years.[14]

Zimmermann then directed the Europäisches Zentrum der Künste in Dresden-Hellerau (European centre of the arts in Dresden-Hellerau), with a vision of a laboratory for contemporary art ("Labor für zeitgenössische Kunst"), including theatre, dance, architecture, art and media art. He retired from the position in 2008.[1]

Zimmermann died in Dresden at age 78 after a long illness.[2][3][15]


More at Wikipedia.

Halyna Hutchins (Ukrainian: Галина Гатчинс, romanized: Halyna Hatchyns, née Androsovych,[1] Ukrainian: Андросович; 1979[2] – 21 October 2021) was a Ukrainian[3] cinematographer and journalist credited with work on more than 30 films, short films and TV miniseries, including the films Archenemy, Darlin', and Blindfire.[4][5]

Hutchins was born in 1979[6] in Horodets, Zhytomyr Oblast, USSR, but grew up in Murmansk,[1] on a Soviet military base in the Arctic.[1][7] She called herself an "army brat".[7] According to film historian Jim Hemphill, she first became interested in film while living at the military base.[8] She attended National Agricultural University[1] and then Kyiv National University, first studying economics before changing her study to journalism.[9] Hutchins graduated there with a degree in international journalism, and worked on documentary films as an investigative journalist in Eastern Europe.[10][11][12] She met her husband Matthew,[13] who is American, while in Kyiv.[14] They had a son.[13]

She moved to Los Angeles, California to focus on filmmaking, taking on roles in production and fashion photography.[15][16][7] In Los Angeles, she met Bob Primes [de], a cinematographer. He encouraged Hutchins to apply to the American Film Institute Conservatory, where he was a teacher.[16] She was accepted, and began studying there in 2013 for a two-year master's program, which she graduated from in 2015.[17][15] Stephen Lighthill [de] mentored her there.[15] Her thesis project, Hidden, made with director Rayan Farzad, was screened at the Camerimage International Film Festival, AFI Fest, and the Austin Film Festival.[15][18]

In 2018, she was one of the first eight female cinematographers participating in the Fox DP Lab program, which was established to provide greater opportunities for women cinematographers.[18][19] In 2019, she was named one of the "10 up-and-coming directors of photography who are making their mark" by American Cinematographer.[15] She was director of photography on Adam Egypt Mortimer's 2020 film Archenemy.[20] She is also credited for work on the films Darlin' (2019),[21] Blindfire (2020), and The Mad Hatter (2021).[22][23]

Main article: 2021 Rust shooting incident

On 21 October 2021, Hutchins was working in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as director of photography on the set of the Western film Rust, when actor Alec Baldwin discharged a prop gun, seriously injuring her and director Joel Souza. She later died from her injuries at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, at the age of 42.[24] Baldwin released a statement the next day expressing shock and sadness at the incident. He said he would cooperate with police, and offered support to her family.[25]

More at Wikipedia

Alfredo Diez Nieto (25 October 1918 – 25 October 2021) was a Cuban composer, conductor and professor.

Alfredo Diez Nieto was born in Havana (La Habana), Cuba, on 25 October 1918.[1] He enrolled at the Conservatorio Iranzo in Havana and studied composition, counterpoint, fugue, music history, music theory, orchestration, piano, and pedagogy with professors Rosario Iranzo, Jaime Prats, Juana Prendes, Amadeo Roldán, and Pedro Sanjuán.[2][3] He completed his education at the Juilliard School of Music in New York,[4] where he studied composition with Bernard Wagenaar, orchestral conducting with Fritz Mahler and piano with Edward Steuerman.[1][2]

Diez Nieto began teaching in 1934[5] and taught as professor of composition, counterpoint and fugue, harmony, music history, orchestration, and piano at the Instituto Musical Kohly, the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory, the National Art School, and the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana.[2][3] Along with musicologist Odilio Urfé, in 1949, Diez Nieto founded the Musical Institute of Folkloric Research, an organization based upon preserving and disseminating information about the ethnomusicological history of Cuba.[4] Through this organization, the duo created the Orquesta Popular de Conciertos (Popular Concert Orchestra), which was integrated by independent musicians and other members of several popular music orchestras. Diez Nieto served as the orchestra's conductor. Urfé described Diez Nieto's work at the institute as significant to the development of Cuban music. The Musical Institute was later renamed (1963) as the Seminario de Música Popular (Seminary of Popular Music).[2] In 1959, he established the Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory, in Marianao, Havana.[2][3]

The concerts offered in Havana by the Orquesta Popular de Conciertos at the Church of San Francisco de Paula during 1967, as well as in the Amadeo Roldán Theatre in 1972, are memorable.[3] In 1971, the Orquesta Popular was renamed the Orquesta Popular de Conciertos Gonzalo Roig (Gonzalo Roig Popular Concert Orchestra). Diez Nieto also conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Escuela Nacional de Música, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Camagüey, the Orquesta Popular de Conciertos, with which he interpreted pieces from Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ignacio Cervantes, Alejandro García Caturla, George Frederick Handel, Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes and Antonio Vivaldi; and premiered his Organ Concerto, with Manuel Suárez as a soloist. He accompanied the sopranos Emelina López, Yolanda Hernández, Susy Oliva and Lucy Provedo; pianists Frank Emilio Flynn, Julio Hamel, Alberto Joya and Roberto Urbay; violinists Rafael Lay, Armando Ortega, and Celso Valdés Santandreu; flutists Richard Egües and Alfredo Portela; oboist María de los Ángeles Castellanos; guitarist Flores Chaviano; and clarinetist Rubén Noriega.[2]

Diez Nieto died on his 103rd birthday, on 25 October 2021.[4][6][7]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Diez_Nieto

Roh Tae-woo (Korean: 노태우; Hanja: 盧泰愚; Korean pronunciation: [no.tʰɛ̝.u]; 4 December 1932[3][4][5][a] – 26 October 2021) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as President of South Korea from 1988 to 1993. He was a leader of the Democratic Justice Party and was known for having passed the June 29 Declaration in 1987.


Roh was born on 4 December 1932 into a farming family in Tatsujō-gun, near Taikyū, Keishōhoku-dō. His father, a low-echelon civil officer in the district, died in a car accident when Roh was seven years old. With his uncle's help, Roh first enrolled at the Taegu Technical School but transferred to the local Kyongbuk High School where he was an above-average student. Roh befriended Chun Doo-hwan while in high school in Taikyū.

During the Korean War (1950–1953), Roh joined the South Korean army as an enlisted conscript in an Artillery unit, being promoted to Sergeant Cannoneer of an M114 155 mm howitzer gun line. He later entered the Korean Military Academy, completing it in the first class of the four-year program, he graduated in February 1954 with a Bachelor of Science degree and a commission as an Army 2nd Lieutenant in the 11th class of the Korea Military Academy (KMA).

A commissioned officer in the infantry from 1954, Roh rose steadily through the ranks and fought in the Vietnam War first in 1968 as a Lieutenant Colonel and Battalion Commander, later was promoted to Major General and the commander of White Horse Division in 1979. A member of the Hanahoe, a secret military group, he gave critical support to a coup later that year in which Chun became the de facto ruler of South Korea. Roh was a military general when he helped Chun lead troops to the Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980.
Roh held several key army posts such as Commander of the Capital Security Command in 1979 and Commander of the Defense Security Command in 1980. Following his retirement from the Korean Army in July 1981, Roh accepted President Chun's offer of the post of Minister of State for National Security and Foreign Affairs. Later, he served as Sports Minister, Home Affairs Minister, President of the Seoul Olympics Organizing Committee, and in 1985, chairman of the ruling Democratic Justice Party. Most notably, he oversaw preparations for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, which he officially declared open.

Presidency (1988–1993)
Despite his involvement in the 12 December 1979 Coup d'état against then-President Choi Kyu-hah and the bloody military crackdown of dissidents in the Gwangju Uprising of 18-27 May 1980 and with an eye on the Blue House in the upcoming 1987 Presidential Elections, Roh began working to distance himself from the unpopular Chun government. The reason was that Roh worked to carry out his own agenda for democratic reform. By agreeing to meeting the demands of the political opposition in terms of political reforms with his eight-point proposal including direct election of the President, Roh successfully upstaged Chun and boosted his own image as a reformer.
In June 1987, Chun named Roh as the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Justice Party. This was widely perceived as handing Roh the presidency, and triggered large pro-democracy rallies in Seoul and other cities in the 1987 June Democracy Movement.
In response, Roh made a speech on 29 June promising a wide program of reforms. Chief among them were a new, more democratic constitution and popular election of the president. In the election, the two leading opposition figures, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung (both of whom later became presidents), were unable to overcome their differences and split the vote, in spite of the first female presidential candidate, Hong Sook-ja in South Korean electoral history history withdrawing from the race to support Kim Young-sam against Roh.[6] This enabled Roh to win by a narrow margin and become the country's first cleanly elected president on 16 December 1987 and he was inaugurated as President on 25 February 1988.

Roh's rule was notable for hosting the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and for his foreign policy of Nordpolitik, which represented a major break from previous administrations. True to his word, he remained committed to democratic reforms. He also met with President Corazon Aquino for a series of talks between the Philippines and South Korea for economic, social, and cultural ties, supporting the Filipino boxer Leopoldo Serantes in the Olympics, and to discuss unification talks to end North Korea's hostilities after the Korean War.
During his administration, Roh's stance as President was very active in diplomacy and steadfast in the push toward political and socio-economic reforms at home. Democratization of politics, economic "growth with equity," and national reunification were the three policy goals publicly stated by the Roh administration. Successfully hosting the 24th Summer Olympics in Seoul in his first year in office was a major accomplishment, followed by his active diplomacy, including his address before the United Nations General Assembly in October 1988, his meeting with U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and delivering a speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress. He also conducted a five-nation European visit in December 1989.
On 7 July 1988, he launched an aggressive foreign policy initiative called the Northern Diplomacy, or Nordpolitik, which brought about benefits and rewards to his government. In 1989, Seoul established diplomatic relations with Hungary and Poland, followed by diplomatic ties with Yugoslavia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Mongolia in 1990. South Korea's trade with the People's Republic of China steadily increased, reaching the $3.1 billion mark at the same time South Korea's trade with the Eastern Bloc nations and the Soviet Union increased to $800 million. Seoul and Moscow exchanged full consular general's offices in 1990.
Roh's emphasis on "economic growth with equity," although well received by the public, led to the dwindling in the annual economic growth rate from the high of 12.3 percent in 1988 to 6.7 percent in 1989. As labor strikes and demands for higher wages intensified, the Roh government imposed an austerity plan to keep South Korea's export-oriented economy more competitive internationally. However, higher wages and the appreciation of the South Korean won in value against the U.S. dollar made South Korean products less competitive internationally.

In 1992, Roh's government sealed up a cave on Mount Halla where the remains of the Jeju uprising massacre victims had been discovered.[7]

In order to overcome the paralysis of governing due to lack of majority support in the National Assembly, the Roh government sought to attain "a grand compromise" in partisan politics. The surprising announcement of the party merger on 22 January 1990 was an attempt to accomplish this political miracle. The ruling Democratic Justice Party merged with two opposition parties, Kim Young-sam's Reunification and Democracy Party and Kim Jong-pil's New Democratic Republican Party. The new established Democratic Liberal Party, which commanded a more than two-thirds majority in the legislature, sought to establish political stability so as to enable socio-economic progress.

Diplomatic relations with Soviet Union and China

On 4 June 1990, Roh, while visiting the United States, met with another Head of State, Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union. The meeting ended 42 years of official silence between the two countries and paved the way for improved diplomatic relations. Roh later visited Soviet Union in 1991.

Roh also established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China on 24 August 1992, which ended 43 years of the diplomatic relations between Taiwan and South Korea.
Barred from running for a second term in 1992 (the 1987 constitution retained the previous ban on reelection), Roh left office on 25 February 1993.

In 1993, Roh's successor, Kim Young-sam, led an anti-corruption campaign that led to Roh and Chun Doo-hwan going on trial for bribery. Kim had merged his party with Roh's in a deal that enabled him to win the election. The two former presidents were later separately charged with mutiny and treason for their roles in the 1979 coup and the 1980 Gwangju massacre.
Both were convicted in August 1996 of treason, mutiny, and corruption; Chun was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment, while Roh's 22½-year jail sentence was reduced to 17 years on appeal. Both were released from prison in December 1997, pardoned by Kim Young-sam.

Roh also admitted to corruption 16 years after being in office and was scheduled to repay illegally gained wealth of W24 billion (22 million USD) of a W262.9 billion fine for corruption in office, at the age of 81.[8]

Roh died on 26 October 2021, aged 88.[9]
 
More at Wikipedia

Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian since Will Rogers.[1][2] Sahl pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event topics using improvised monologues and only a newspaper as a prop.

Sahl spent his early years in Los Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he made his professional stage debut at the hungry i nightclub in 1953.[3] His popularity grew quickly, and after a year at the club he traveled the country doing shows at established nightclubs, theaters, and college campuses. In 1960 he became the first comedian to have a cover story written about him by Time magazine. He appeared on various television shows, played a number of film roles, and performed a one-man show on Broadway.
Television host Steve Allen said that Sahl was "the only real political philosopher we have in modern comedy". His social satire performances broke new ground in live entertainment, as a stand-up comic talking about the real world of politics at that time was considered "revolutionary". It inspired many later comics to become stage comedians, including Lenny Bruce, Jonathan Winters, George Carlin, and Woody Allen. Allen credits Sahl's new style of humor with "opening up vistas for people like me".[4] 

Numerous politicians became his fans, with John F. Kennedy asking him to write his jokes for campaign speeches, though Sahl later turned his barbs at the president. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl focused on the Warren Report's inaccuracies and conclusions, and spoke about it often during his shows. This alienated much of his audience and led to a decline in his popularity for the remainder of the 1960s. By the 1970s, his shows and popularity staged a partial comeback that continued over the ensuing decades.[5] A biography of Sahl, Last Man Standing, by James Curtis, was released in 2017.[6]
 

Morton Lyon Sahl was born on May 11, 1927, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada,[7][8] the only child of Jewish parents.[4][9] His father, Harry Sahl, came from an immigrant family on New York City's Lower East Side, and hoped to become a Broadway playwright. He met his wife when she responded to an advertisement he took out in a poetry magazine. Unable to break into the writing field they moved to Canada where he owned a tobacco store in Montreal.[2]

The family later relocated to Los Angeles, California, where his father, unable to become a Hollywood writer, worked as a clerk and court reporter for the FBI. Sahl notes, "My dad was disappointed in his dreams and he distrusted that world for me."[4]: 55  Sahl went to Belmont High School in Los Angeles where he wrote for the school's newspaper. Actor Richard Crenna was a classmate.[4]:
When the U.S. entered World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Sahl, then fourteen, joined the school's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). He won a medal for marksmanship and an American Legion "Americanism award".[4]:  Wanting to express his patriotism, he wore his ROTC uniform to school and in public[2] and, when he turned fifteen, he dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Army by lying about his age.[4]: His mother tracked him down and brought him back home two weeks later after she revealed his true age.[4]: 

Upon graduating from high school, his father tried to get him into West Point and had received his Congressman's help.[2] But Sahl had by then already enlisted in the United States Air Force. He was later stationed in Alaska with the 93rd Air Depot Group. In the military, however, he resisted the discipline and authoritarian control it had over his life. He expressed his nonconformity by growing a beard and refusing to wear a cap as required. He also wrote articles for a small newspaper criticizing the military that resulted in his being penalized with three months of KP duty.[2] In an interview Sahl found his military experience a good one that he described as "spiritual".[10]
Sahl was discharged in 1947 and enrolled in Compton College, followed by the University of Southern California. He received a B.S. degree in 1950 with majors in traffic engineering and city management.[2][8] He continued with the masters program but dropped out to become an actor and playwright.[2]
 
After a year at the hungry i, Sahl began appearing at clubs throughout the country, including the Black Orchid and Mister Kelly's in Chicago, the Crescendo in Los Angeles, and the Village Vanguard and the Blue Angel in New York City.[12] Many of the clubs had never before had a stand-up comedian perform, which required Sahl to break in as a new kind of act. "I had to build up my own network of places to play," he said.[4]: 

Quote:He was the best thing I ever saw. There was a need for revolution, everybody was ready for revolution, but some guy had to come along who could perform the revolution and be great. Mort was the one. He was the tip of the iceberg. Underneath were all the other people who came along: Lenny Bruce, Nichols & May, all the Second City. Mort was the vanguard of the group.

— Woody Allen[13]: 160 

Numerous celebrities dropped by to see his shows after they heard about the "new phenomenon," referring to Sahl's unique style of comedy. Woody Allen, who saw his show at the Blue Angel in 1954, commented that "he was suddenly this great genius that appeared who revolutionized the medium."[4]: 68  British comedy actor John Cleese became immediately interested in Sahl's radical style of humor, and accorded to him the same level of respect that the Beatles once reserved for Elvis Presley.[5]
 

On The Ed Sullivan Show in 1960

Television host Steve Allen, who originated the Tonight Show, said he was "struck by how amateur he seemed," but added that the observation was not meant as a criticism, but as a "compliment". He noted that all the previous successful comics dressed formally, were glib and well-rehearsed, and were always in control of their audiences.[4]: 63  Allen said that Sahl's "very un-show business manner was one of the things I liked when I first saw him work."[4]: 63 
Sahl dressed casually, with no tie and usually wearing his trademark V-neck campus-style sweater. His stage presence was seen as being "candid and cool, the antithesis of the slick comic," stated theater critic Gerald Nachman.[4]: 50  And although Sahl acquired a reputation for being an intellectual comedian, it was an image he disliked and disagreed with: "It was absurd. I was barely a C student," he said.[4]: 67  His naturalness on stage was partly due to his preferring improvisation over carefully rehearsed monologues. Sahl explained:

Quote:I never found you could write the act. You can't rehearse the audience's responses. You adjust to them every night. I come in with only an outline. You've got to have a spirit of adventure. I follow my instincts and the audience is my jury.[4]: 64 

His casual style of stand-up, where he seemed to be one-on-one with his audience, influenced new comedians, including Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory. Sahl was the least controversial, however, because he dressed and looked "collegiate" and focused on politics, while Bruce confronted sexual and language conventions and Gregory focused on the civil rights movement. After seeing Mort Sahl on stage, Woody Allen, whose writings were often about his personal life, decided to give it a try: "I'd never had the nerve to talk about it before. Then Mort Sahl came along with a whole new style of humor, opening up vistas for people like me."[4]: 

Commenting on Sahl's monologues, Nachman described him as a "gifted narrator, so good at taking you along on his travels that you didn't quite realize until the show was over that you had been on a labyrinthine journey."[4]: The speed with which Sahl gave his monologues was also notable. British film critic Penelope Gilliatt recalled how Sahl's improvisation "goes on a breakneck stammering loop and you think it will never make the circle. It always does." For her it was like watching a circus act: "He freewheels a bike on a high wire tightrope with his brain racing and his hands off the handlebars."[4]: 

Sahl's popularity "mushroomed like an Atomic cloud during the 50s," says filmmaker Robert B. Weide, adding, "Simply put, Mort Sahl reinvented stand-up comedy."[1] Time magazine in 1960 published a cover story about him and his rise to fame, in which they described him as "the best of the New Comedians [and] the first notable American political satirist since Will Rogers."[2] Along with his nightclub performances, he appeared in some films and on television shows, including his network debut on The NBC Comedy Hour in May 1956.[14] He was one of the interim hosts on The Tonight Show following Jack Paar's departure as the network waited for Johnny Carson to become available.

His audience had also widened to include not only students and a "hip" public, but now even noted politicians sought out his shows. Some became friends, such as presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, who asked him to prepare a bank of political jokes he could use at public functions.[2] Kennedy liked his style of political satire and what he described as Sahl's "relentless pursuit of everybody."[2] Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey were fans, Humphrey stating that "whenever there is a political bloat, Mort sticks a pin in it."[2] Sahl considered Ronald Reagan one of his closest friends.[15]

They valued the fact that he stayed current and took material from major newspapers and magazines. He kept his material fresh, wrote few notes, and entertained his audiences by presenting otherwise serious news with his brand of humor.[2] He was not fond of television news, however, which he blamed in 1960 for "spoon-feeding" the public, and was therefore responsible for the "corruption and ignorance that may sink this country."[2]

As a result of Sahl's popularity, besides getting on the cover of Time, he also became the first comedian to make a record album, the first to do college concerts, and was the first comedian to win a Grammy.[16]

Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl's interest in who was responsible was so great that he became a deputized member of District Attorney of New Orleans Jim Garrison's team to investigate the assassination.[8] As a result, Sahl's comedy would often reflect his politics and included readings and commentary about the Warren Commission Report, of which he consistently disputed the accuracy.[17] He alienated much of his audience, was effectively blacklisted, and more of his planned shows were cancelled. His income dropped from $1 million to $19,000 by 1964.[citation needed] According to Nachman, the excessive focus on the Kennedy assassination details was Sahl's undoing and wrecked his career. Sahl later admitted that "there's never been anything that had a stronger impact on my life than this issue," but added that he nonetheless "thought it was a wonderful quest."[11]
 

Mort Sahl in 1985

Quote:Mort Sahl has charted one of the most precipitous courses in American entertainment for last thirty years and has gone from celebrity to internal exile. There was no precedent for what he did. There were no prototypes. He's a genuinely self-created man and a true existential in that sense. Once he passes from the scene, people will begin to lionize him and call him the great American and take to heart all the things he said.

— Los Angeles Times, 1983[4]: 54 

Sahl in 2007

By the 1970s the rising tide of counterculture eventually fueled Sahl's partial comeback as a veteran comedian, and he was included along with the new comedians breaking into the field, such as George Carlin, Lily Tomlin, and Richard Pryor.[4]: 89  In the 1980s he headlined for Banducci's new clubs in San Francisco. In the late 1980s he was trying to write screenplays, besides doing sporadic shows around the country. In 1987 he had a successful multiweek run in Australia.[18]
In 1988 Sahl was back in New York City and performed a one-man Off-Broadway show, Mort Sahl's America, which, despite getting good reviews from critics was not a box office success. The New York Times stated, "History has returned Mort Sahl to the spotlight when he is most needed. His style has an intuitive spontaneity. His presence is tonic."[4]: 92  Robert Weide produced a biographical documentary, Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition, which ran on PBS in 1989.[1]

However, the level of success he once had now eluded him. One Los Angeles Times critic wrote, "Sahl is a man with a country but not a stage."[4]: 96  A number of television specials gave him a venue to perform in front of live audiences. The Monitor Channel broadcast a series of eight shows called Mort Sahl Live beginning in November 1991.[19][20]

From the 1990s on he performed, but less often and mostly in theaters and college auditoriums.[21] When Woody Allen saw him perform in 2001 at one of his rare New York club appearances, Allen told him, "this is crazy—you should be working all the time."[4]: 96  Allen then called his manager Jack Rollins: "Listen, this guy is hilarious. We gotta bring him to New York."[4]: 96  Sahl then did shows at Joe's Pub in Manhattan to standing-room only audiences.[4]: 97 

Sahl was ranked #40 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, ranked between Billy Crystal and Jon Stewart.[22] In 2003 he received the Fifth Annual Alan King Award in American Jewish Humor from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.[23]

In 2011, the Library of Congress placed his 1955 recording, At Sunset, on the National Recording Registry.[24]

Sahl's humor was based on current events, especially politics, which led Milton Berle to describe him as "one of the greatest political satirists of all time."[5] His trademark persona was to enter the stage with a newspaper in hand, casually dressed in a V-neck sweater. He would often recite some news stories combined with satire.[8] He was dubbed "Will Rogers with fangs" by Time magazine in 1960.[25]
Sahl would discuss people or events almost as if he were reporting them for the first time, and would digress into related stories or his own experiences. TV executive Roger Ailes said he saw him read the paper one day and after a few hours Sahl got up onstage with an entire evening's worth of new material. "With no writers, he just did what he had seen in the afternoon paper. He was a genius."[4]: 52 
Sahl's presentation of news commentary as a form of social satire created a wide assortment of celebrity and political fans, including Adlai Stevenson, Marlene Dietrich, S.J. Perelman, Saul Bellow, and Leonard Bernstein. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. said his popularity was due to the public's "yearning for youth, irreverence, trenchancy, satire, [and] a clean break with the past."[4]: 71  And Steve Allen introduced him on one of his shows as being "the only real political philosopher we have in modern comedy."[26]
 

Sahl performing in 2016

Combined with his improvisational skill, Sahl's naturalness was also considered unique for a stage performer. Woody Allen notes that other comics were jealous of Sahl's stage persona and did not understand how he could perform by simply talking to the audience.[4]: Nachman stated that the "mere idea of a stand-up comic talking about the real world was in itself revolutionary ... [and] the comedians who followed him—Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Dick Gregory, Phyllis Diller, Shelley Berman, Jonathan Winters—were cast in a familiar nightclub mold."[4]In the September 28, 1960 Peanuts comic strip, Schroeder is reading to Lucy from a biography (supposedly on his all-time favorite composer, Beethoven) where he describes the subject as someone who "would sometimes startle people in public places," then would at times "flew out in anger against all that was petty, dull, or greedy in men., [and] Often, however, his scorn would turn to high hilarity and humorous jests." Lucy then asks afterwards, "Are you reading about Beethoven or Mort Sahl?"[27]


More at Wikipedia.

...a reminder: just as so many of us are getting full of ourselves and empty of the capacity to recognize our foibles, the old Silent knack for humanizing us through self-deprecating humor is becoming available only on video. They are either dying or no longer doing comedy. Maybe after the 4T is over we will see it again among young adults born just after 2000, and not a moment too soon.

Bùi Diễm (1923 – 24 October 2021) was South Vietnam's ambassador to the United States under President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. He played a key role in the last desperate attempt to secure US$722 million in military aid to defend South Vietnam against the North in 1975. He was the nephew of Trần Trọng Kim, who served as the Prime Minister of Emperor Bảo Đại.
Bùi was born in Hà Nam in 1923. He was the founder of the Saigon Post, in South Vietnam.[1] After the fall of Saigon in 1975, he settled in the United States, living in Rockville, Maryland. He was a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and at the American Enterprise Institute, as well as a research professor at George Mason University.[2] Bui Diem was interviewed by Stanley Karnow for Vietnam: A Television History, where he recounts in a stunning allegation that Lyndon B. Johnson had unilaterally deployed Marine ground troops into South Vietnam without consulting the South Vietnamese government.[3]
He was the author of the book In the Jaws of History.[4] He was interviewed in Ken Burns's series The Vietnam War.
Bùi died in Rockville, Maryland, on October 24, 2021, at the age of 98.[5]

More at Wikipedia

Ginny Mancini, Philanthropist, Big-Band Singer and Widow of Henry Mancini, Dies at 97 

Ginny Mancini, former big-band singer, widow of composer Henry Mancini and one of Hollywood’s leading philanthropists, died Monday night at her Malibu home. She was 97.

She founded the Society of Singers, which supports professional singers; served as president of the Henry Mancini Institute, now based at Miami’s Frost School of Music, which encourages young musicians; and was an honorary life director at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many music-related organizations and charities.

As Ginny O’Connor, she was one of the Mel-Tones, who sang with Mel Tormé’s band from 1943 to 1946. “We were very innovative,” she recalled for Michael Feinstein’s NPR show in 2015. “Mel treated the vocal group like a section in the band. His arrangements were so different and fresh.”

She regularly sang on radio shows and in the chorus of numerous films, including “The Harvey Girls” at MGM and “The Music Man” at Warner Bros. She was happy being a backup singer, she said. “I never wanted to be up front. Too much pressure,” she told Feinstein.



She moved on to become one of the Mello-Larks for Tex Beneke, who had taken over the Glenn Miller orchestra in 1946, and there she met a “tall, young, handsome Italian kid” named Henry Mancini, who was playing piano and writing arrangements for the band. They were married in September 1947.

While Henry Mancini launched a career as a film composer in the 1950s and early 1960s, Ginny raised their three children and sang part-time for the studios and on various TV variety shows including those of Red Skelton, Danny Kaye, Carol Burnett and Dinah Shore.
“You couldn’t pick a better partner for life,” she said of her composer-husband, who eventually won four Oscars and 20 Grammys for such classic songs as “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses” and TV and movie themes including “Peter Gunn” and “The Pink Panther.” “And even though his life was cut short, he’s still alive with me and always will be.” Mancini died of cancer in 1994. He dedicated his autobiography (“Did They Mention The Music?”) to her, writing “to Ginny – the journey could not have been made without our love for each other.”

She often said her favorite Mancini song was “Two for the Road,” written for the 1967 Stanley Donen film, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse (a frequent Mancini collaborator who died just last week).

She was born Virginia O’Connor in Los Angeles in 1924, the daughter of an Irish father and Mexican mother, and was raised by her grandparents. She auditioned for the glee club at Bret Harte Junior High, and, as she later recounted, “was relegated to the alto section where I found a world of harmony.” She later sang in the mixed chorus at Los Angeles City College, and with three classmates became part of the Mel-Tones.

She founded the Society of Singers in 1984, after learning that a professional colleague had fallen on hard times, “so that no singer would have to go through the humiliation she went through. That was the beginning of my life as a volunteer,” she said. The Society raised millions to help singers in need (as no union or guild represents the rights of singers exclusively).

From Variety Magazine.

The face of what passed as television news in eleven time zones

Igor Leonidovich Kirillov (Russian: Игорь Леонидович Кириллов, 14 September 1932 – 30 October 2021) was a Soviet and Russian news presenter, announcer and actor. He was a prominent former news anchor for Soviet Central Television (CT USSR) and an announcer for the 9:00pm CT USSR news program Vremya.[1] People's Artist of the USSR (1988).
Early life and career

Kirillov at the unveiling ceremony of A.M Prokhorov Statue (2015).

Kirillov was born on September 14, 1932 in Moscow in the family of a serviceman, engineer-major of his father Leonid Mikhailovich Kirillov (1904-1979) and his mother's profession of librarian, Irina Veniaminovna Kirillova (1901-1995). He entered the VGIK, graduated from the first year, but due to circumstances was forced to leave. In 1955 he graduated from the Higher Theater School named after M.S.
In 1955-1957 he was an actor at the Moscow Drama and Comedy Theater (now the Taganka Theatre). In July 1957, he began working on television at the Shabolovsky television center as an assistant director of the Musical Editorial Office of the Central Television of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting. He also worked as a stage director, literary critic, and film critic. Two and a half months after coming to television, he went on the air, winning the announcer competition. From 1961, he was admitted as a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[2]

In 1968, he was mainly the news presenter of news program Vremya till 1987 and served for at least 25 years on television, along with that he often gave the New Year's address to the people in the absence of the Soviet leader as in 1982; he alongside his colleague Nonna Bodrova, was the news frontman of the Soviet Union's state-owned network for all of the nation's pivotal events since the 1950s, covering the annual celebrations of state occasions, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Moscow Olympics, the death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev and his successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, and the Chernobyl disaster. Kirillov also accompanied dignitaries, notably Soviet leaders, on their official visits to foreign countries to do reporting on location. He retired from on-screen appearances in 1990, but he still appeared with his voice-over talent on various openings, television advertisements and radio bumpers and also he read the text for Minuyta Molenchanya from 1976-1983, 1990-91 and 1996 till 2011 and posthumously retained the conclusion till today. Periodically he appeared on television to this day, and participated in some numerous programs and made public appearances up to this day.[3]