Obituaries

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Shirley Fry, female tennis star


Shirley June Fry Irvin (née Fry; June 30, 1927 – July 13, 2021) was a world No. 1 tennis player from the United States. During her career, which lasted from the early 1940s until the mid-1950s, she won the singles title at all four Grand Slam events as well as 13 doubles titles. In 2021, Fry Irvin was the longest surviving female Grand Slam and Wimbledon singles champion.

Fry was raised in Akron, Ohio and started playing tennis competitively at age nine.[1][2] She was educated at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida where she graduated in 1949.[1][3]


Fry is one of 10 women[a] to have won each Grand Slam singles tournament at least once during her career. She was also one of seven women (with Hart, Court, Navratilova, Pam Shriver, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams) to have won all four Grand Slam doubles tournaments. At the U.S. National Championship (precursor of the U.S. Open) in 1942, Irvin reached the singles quarterfinals at the age of 15. At Wimbledon in 1953, Fry and Hart lost only four games during the entire women's doubles tournament and won three matches without losing a game, including the semifinals and finals, the latter over Connolly and Julia Sampson. Fry won the last three Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered, including wins over Althea Gibson in the Wimbledon quarterfinal and U.S. Championship final in 1956 and the Australian Championships final in 1957.

Fry was ranked in the world top 10 in 1946 and 1948 and from 1950 through 1955 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), and No. 1 in 1956.[4] The United States Lawn Tennis Association ranked her in the U.S. top 10 from 1944 through 1955 and No. 1 in 1956.[5] She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1970.



From 1951 through 1956 she participated in the Wightman Cup, the women's team competition between Great Britain and the United States, and contributed to the U.S. victory during each of these editions with the exception of 1954, when her final doubles rubber was not played. She compiled a 10–2 W/L record.[3]



Fry married Karl Irvin in Australia, in February 1957 after which she retired from top-level tennis. The couple had four children.[2][3]
Gr

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William Regnery II, heir who funded fascistic organizations in America:

William H. Regnery II, a racist, reclusive multimillionaire who used his inherited fortune to finance vile white supremacist groups in the hopes of one day forming an American whites-only ethnostate, died earlier this month, his family and associates confirmed. He was 80 years old. 

Regnery, whose family amassed riches from its right-wing publishing empire, died on July 2 in Florida after a “long battle with cancer,” his cousin Alfred, the former head of Regnery Publishing, confirmed to HuffPost.

Asked if he’d like to comment on his cousin’s life and legacy, Alfred Regnery replied: “No, it’s all been said before.” 



In the final two decades of his life, William Regnery funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars — and likely much more — to extremist groups. He is often credited with being one of the main funders of the so-called alt-right, the resurgent fascist movement that gained momentum during the rise of former President Donald Trump.



“William Regnery’s sordid influence was felt from the deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right rally to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol,” said Tarso Luís Ramos, executive director of Political Research Associates, a social justice think tank that monitors the far right. 



“His patronage of white nationalists over more than two decades helped popularize a genocidal vision for a white ethnostate on North American soil and sinking fear of racial replacement in the hearts of a growing portion of the white American population,” Ramos added. “This vision will not prevail, but it won’t either be easily extinguished.”


HuffPost first learned of Regnery’s death on Twitter, where some of the many avowed white nationalists permitted on that platform mourned their benefactor’s passing.

 “Bill Regnery was a good man, who cared about the future, and, as they say, ‘did something’ about it,” tweeted Richard Spencer, the racist who led the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist organization Regnery founded. 

“I’ll light a cigar for Bill tonight,” added Spencer. “Rest in power, friend.” 



Kevin MacDonald — perhaps America’s foremost anti-Semite, who authored a series of books claiming that Jews are genetically hard-wired to destroy Western civilization — also tweeted that he hoped Regnery would “rest in peace.” 



MacDonald and Spencer are both members of the Charles Martel Society, a secretive organization of prominent American fascists founded and funded with nearly $90,000 donated from family charities and other tax exempt organizations affiliated with Regnery. (Nonprofits are not legally required to identify individual donors, so it’s possible Regnery personally donated much more.) The society publishes The Occidental Quarterly, a journal for which MacDonald serves as editor. 



Other white nationalists who weren’t direct beneficiaries of Regnery’s largesse also expressed sadness at his passing.  

“Extremely sad to hear that the heroic William H. (“Bill”) Regnery has passed,” tweeted Peter Brimelow, the founder of the white nationalist foundation VDare. 


“My friend and a true hero,” wrote James Edwards, host of the white nationalist radio show “The Political Cesspool.” “He set a sterling example for the rest of us to follow and upon his shoulders we stand.” 

Regnery, who went by Bill, was born Feb.  25, 1941, into a prominent Republican family. 

His grandfather and namesake, textile magnate William H. Regnery I, was a founding member of the infamous America First Committee. The organization, led by anti-Semitic aviator Charles Lindbergh, opposed America’s intervention in World War II and counted many Nazi sympathizers among its ranks. 


In 1947, Bill Regnery’s uncle, Henry, founded Regnery Publishing, which would grow into one of  the most influential right-wing media dynasties in America. In its early years, the company published prominent conservative thinkers, including William F. Buckley, a racist and segregationist, and Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, the anti-communist conspiracist group.  

Regnery, who went by Bill, was born Feb.  25, 1941, into a prominent Republican family. 

His grandfather and namesake, textile magnate William H. Regnery I, was a founding member of the infamous America First Committee. The organization, led by anti-Semitic aviator Charles Lindbergh, opposed America’s intervention in World War II and counted many Nazi sympathizers among its ranks. 


In 1947, Bill Regnery’s uncle, Henry, founded Regnery Publishing, which would grow into one of  the most influential right-wing media dynasties in America. In its early years, the company published prominent conservative thinkers, including William F. Buckley, a racist and segregationist, and Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, the anti-communist conspiracist group.  


n 2004, Regnery tried to launch a whites-only dating website, an effort he hoped would increase the number of white families, “since the survival of our race depends upon our people marrying, reproducing and parenting.”  

And in 2005, he founded the innocuous-sounding National Policy Institute (NPI), a white nationalist think tank on a mission “to elevate the consciousness of whites” by studying “the consequences of the ongoing influx that non-Western populations pose to our national identity.” 

This paranoia over immigration from nonwhite countries into America and Europe — often called the “great replacement” theory — has animated multiple white supremacist massacres in recent years, including those in Pittsburgh, El Paso and Charleston, South Carolina. 


According to a BuzzFeed News tally, nonprofits and other tax-exempt organizations affiliated with Regnery poured nearly half a million dollars into NPI’s coffers from 2005 to 2015. (Though William Regnery himself could have personally donated more.) 

Regnery seemed content to be the moneyman behind NPI and the Charles Martel Society, working quietly behind the scenes.
“Where his relatives have headed corporations, held public office, and run high-profile civic groups, the younger William works hard to keep his activities out of the public eye,” the Southern Poverty Law Center once wrote of Regnery, adding that while his family members “worked to cultivate an air of mainstream respectability, William ran headlong into the fever swamps of white nationalism, where his familial and financial clout allowed him to set himself up as a major force shaping the entire movement.” 

Regnery tapped Richard Spencer to lead NPI in 2011. In Spencer, Regnery found someone who relished the limelight. Also from a wealthy conservative family, Spencer had pursued a doctorate at Duke University while making inroads among right-wing extremists, writing for numerous publications, including The American Conservative. 


Spencer launched two websites, AlternativeRight.com and RadixJournal.com, which eventually became important propaganda outlets for the so-called alt-right, a term Spencer claims to have coined himself to describe a growing online coalition of racists, including trolls and shitposters, neo-Nazis and Klansmen, Holocaust deniers and suit-and-tie fascists. 

 

When Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, he often mimicked “alt-right” talking points, such as calling Mexican immigrants rapists and proposing a ban on Muslims entering the United States. The chief executive of Trump’s campaign, Steve Bannon, had previously run Breitbart News, which he described as a “platform for the alt-right.” 



As Trump’s poll numbers rose and the size of his rallies swelled, the media clamored to explain what the alt-right was and often found a willing spokesman in Spencer, who gave interviews to almost anyone who would ask. He quickly became the face of the far right in America. 



In 2016, Regnery boasted in a speech that tapping Spencer to lead the NPI “secured my place in history.” 

Regnery and the American white nationalist movement were jubilant when Trump was elected president. At an NPI conference in Washington, D.C., a few weeks after the election, Spencer shouted “Hail Trump!” and “Hail victory!” — the English translation of the Nazi cry “Sieg Heil!” 


His supporters responded with Nazi salutes.

Cassie Miller, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told HuffPost that Regnery’s “material contributions helped to build networks of racist activists and a large body of pseudoscientific literature that, he hoped, would legitimize his calls to build a white ethnostate.” 

Miller said the two major organizations he built, the Charles Martel Society and the NPI, were “once highly influential” but noted that the NPI is now “in disarray.”

“It appears to no longer be operational, and its death knell likely came earlier this year when a judge ordered NPI to pay $2.4 million in damages to an Ohio man injured at the Unite the Right rally for his physical and emotional suffering,” Miller said. 

Spencer and the NPI helped organize the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, where some 1,000 white nationalists marched through the streets as clashes became increasingly violent. In the most vicious attack, a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. 



In the following months, the NPI organized a few “free speech rallies” on various college campuses but were often confronted and humiliated by counterprotesters. 



Widespread anti-fascist organizing, lawsuits and law enforcement crackdowns have started undoing much of the alt-right that Regnery and Spencer helped build, but their rise did not come without consequences. 



“Regnery’s real legacy is not what he built but the immense harm that he caused,” Miller said. 
His death was announced on the website of Lemon Bay Funeral Home & Cremation Services in Englewood, Florida, not far from his house in Boca Grande.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/william-regnery-dead-white-nationalist-millionaire-financier-richard-spencer_n_60f0f53ae4b01f118957ee93

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What curse do I have about people like that?

May he find that God is... black? Jewish? Muslim?

Roast in Hell, Mr. Regnery knowing that America will never become the racist, oppressive society that you dreamed of.

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A centenarian veteran aviator of the Royal Air Force during World War II:

 Lawrence Seymour Goodman (24 September 1920 – 18 July 2021) was a British airman and bomber pilot, who served in World War II.[1] He was the last surviving wartime pilot of the No. 617 Squadron RAF (a.k.a. the Dambusters) which carried out Operation Chastise.[2]

He completed 30 operations before the cessation of hostilities in May 1945. He then served with Transport Command. He was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 2016.

Shortly after the outbreak of the war, Goodman volunteered for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and was accepted for aircrew training. He joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1940.[4]
He was initially posted to RAF Abingdon as a ground gunner, before being posted to RAF Bridgnorth for general training. His initial flying training was conducted on a de Havilland Tiger Moth at Peterborough between June and August 1941.

Goodman completed his training at No. 33 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) at Carberry, Manitoba, and was awarded his flying badge on 24 April 1942, and commissioned as a Pilot Officer. He later became a flying instructor and trained at No. 8 Flying Instructor School, Reading before being sent as an instructor to No. 31 SFTS at Kingston, Ontario, to train Fleet Air Arm pilots on the North American Harvard.

Goodman returned to the UK in September 1942 after an eventful passage across the Atlantic. He departed Halifax on a New Zealand vessel carrying women and children in addition to troops. A day or so out from Halifax, an escorting American destroyer was torpedoed by a U-boat, and Goodman's vessel was holed, his kit (including his flying logbook) being temporarily lost in the incident.

He arrived back in the UK on 11 September 1942, destined to train as a bomber pilot, after conversion to twin-engined aircraft, flying the Airspeed Oxford at No. 12 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit, Grantham. Promoted to flying officer, he graduated to the larger Vickers Wellington at No. 14 Operational Training Unit (OTU), Cottesmore, before transferring to No. 17 OTU at Silverstone to form his own crew.
Goodman was then promoted to flight lieutenant and was transferred to No. 1660 Conversion Unit at Swinderby.

No. 617 (Dambusters) Squadron was a special duties Squadron within No. 5 Group, based at Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire. Composed of experienced bomber crews, it was equipped with Barnes Wallis's 12,000 lb “Tallboy” Deep Penetration bomb and a precision bombsight that required high flying skills and crew teamwork to achieve extreme accuracy. Goodman and his crew were part of an experiment by Air Vice-Marshal Sir Ralph Cochrane, Air Officer Commanding No. 5 Group, taking a few novice crews who were rated above average and who might quickly be able to assimilate the skills required to achieve No. 617 Squadron's high standards.

His first operation with No. 617 Sqn was on 18 August 1944, against the U-boat pens at La Pallice. Flying as a second pilot with one of the squadron's veteran crews, he familiarised himself with operational procedures. His first operation with his own crew, to Brest on 27 August, began eventfully when, shortly after takeoff, the wireless operator announced that his set was on fire. It was soon extinguished without significant damage and the crew continued on to their target.

Goodman flew on many notable operations. While waiting to take off for the squadron's second attack against the German battleship “Tirpitz”[5] (29 October 1944) his aircraft narrowly avoided being hit on the ground by another aircraft which swung severely on takeoff. Returning from a deep penetration raid on the oil refinery at Politz (21/22 December 1944), Goodman alone brought his aircraft safely back to a fog-shrouded Woodhall Spa while the remainder of the squadron was forced to divert to other airfields, one of them subsequently crashing owing to poor visibility. During an operation against Hamburg (9 April 1945), the squadron was attacked by Messerschmitt 262 jet fighters.

While most of these operations were carried out using the Tallboy 12,000 lb bomb, Goodman got the opportunity to drop a 22,000 lb Grand Slam Deep Penetration bomb during an attack against the Arnsberg Viaduct (19 March 1945). His bomb scored a direct hit.

At the end of the war in Europe and completion of his first tour, Goodman transferred to Transport Command, serving with Nos. 51 and 53 Squadrons, flying Short Stirlings. After demobilization, he became a member of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force in 1946, flying Spitfire XVIs with No. 604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron. He re-joined the RAF in August 1949 as a Flight Lieutenant, and after a course flying Wellingtons at the Pilot Refresher Flying School, Finningley underwent further conversion to the Handley Page Hastings. Goodman joined No. 53 Sqn at Lyneham in March 1950, flying trooping movements to the Middle East and returning Korean War casualties, including Turkish, from Singapore. During a period spent on duties in Vienna and at the Air Ministry, London, Goodman maintained his flying rating on a variety of types, including the Avro Anson, de Havilland Chipmunk, and Percival Provost. He also experienced his first jet types, the de Havilland Vampire and Gloster Meteor.
Goodman was introduced to the Canberra at No. 231 Operational Conversion Unit, Bassingbourn, in September 1957, transferring to No. 237 (Photographic Reconnaissance) Operational Conversion Unit at Wyton prior to joining No. 80 (Photographic Reconnaissance) Sqn at Bruggen in Germany in November 1957. After completion of his tour, he was posted to the Air Ministry in London in 1960 and promoted to Squadron Leader in 1961. He retired from the Service in 1964.

Goodman held the Bomber Command Clasp, 1939-1945 Star, The Arctic Star, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939–1945 , and the Légion d’honneur.

On leaving the RAF, Goodman re-joined the family business.
He obtained his British and American civil pilot's licences and flew a Piper Comanche, of which he was part-owner until he was 93 years old.

He was an active member of the No. 617 Squadron Association, meeting current service personnel and the public to talk about his RAF experiences and to raise funds for charitable causes, including the RAF Benevolent Fund. He also spoke at the Defence Academy, which enrolls officers from air forces around the world.


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

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Not familiar with her acting, but I am impressed:


Mary Ward (6 March 1915 – 19 July 2021), also known as Mary Ward Breheny, was an Australian actress of stage, television, and film, and a radio announcer and performer and commercial spokeswoman and media personality[1],her career spanned five decades. Ward trained in England and Australia, and worked in both countries.


Ward during the outbreak of World War II, was in high demand as a stage actress in England, before returning to Australia where she worked in local theatre, and became one of the first female radio announcers at the ABC in Australia, billed as the Forces Sweetheart on Radio Australia[1]
At ABC Television, she appeared in a number of filmed stage plays, as well as featuring in Australian films, both made-for-television and theatrical.
She is perhaps best known—both locally and internationally—as an actress portraying elderly characters in television soap opera roles, including the original character of convict "Mum" (Jeanette) Brooks in the cult series Prisoner, in which she appeared sporadically from 1979 and 1981,[3] and as devious Dee Morrell in the soap opera Sons and Daughters in 1983. Ward also had smaller roles in Neighbours and Blue Heelers. In 2020, Ward, who resided in Melbourne, turned 105 years old, and was at the time the oldest living actress in Australia.[4]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ward_(actress)

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Steven Weinberg (/ˈwaɪnbɜːrɡ/; May 3, 1933 – July 23, 2021) was an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles.


He held the Josey Regental Chair in Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments. His research on elementary particles and physical cosmology was honored with numerous prizes and awards, including in 1979 the Nobel Prize in Physics and 1991 the National Medal of Science. In 2004 he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society, with a citation that said he was "considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive in the world today." He was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences and Britain's Royal Society, as well as to the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Weinberg's articles on various subjects occasionally appeared in The New York Review of Books and other periodicals. He served as a consultant at the U. S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, President of the Philosophical Society of Texas, and member of the Board of Editors of Daedalus magazine, the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress, the JASON group of defense consultants, and many other boards and committees.[5][6]

After completing his PhD, Weinberg worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University (1957–1959) and University of California, Berkeley (1959) and then he was promoted to faculty at Berkeley (1960–1966). He did research in a variety of topics of particle physics, such as the high energy behavior of quantum field theory, symmetry breaking,[11] pion scattering, infrared photons and quantum gravity.[12] It was also during this time that he developed the approach to quantum field theory that is described in the first chapters of his book The Quantum Theory of Fields[13] and started to write his textbook Gravitation and Cosmology.


In 1966, Weinberg left Berkeley and accepted a lecturer position at Harvard. In 1967 he was a visiting professor at MIT. It was in that year at MIT that Weinberg proposed his model of unification of electromagnetism and nuclear weak forces (such as those involved in beta-decay and kaon-decay),[14] with the masses of the force-carriers of the weak part of the interaction being explained by spontaneous symmetry breaking. One of its fundamental aspects was the prediction of the existence of the Higgs boson. Weinberg's model, now known as the electroweak unification theory, had the same symmetry structure as that proposed by Glashow in 1961: hence both models included the then-unknown weak interaction mechanism between leptons, known as neutral current and mediated by the Z boson. The 1973 experimental discovery of weak neutral currents[15] (mediated by this Z boson) was one verification of the electroweak unification. The paper by Weinberg in which he presented this theory is one of the most cited works ever in high-energy physics.[16]

After his 1967 seminal work on the unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions, Steven Weinberg continued his work in many aspects of particle physics, quantum field theory, gravity, supersymmetry, superstrings and cosmology. In the years after 1967, the full Standard Model of elementary particle theory was developed through the work of many contributors. In it, the weak and electromagnetic interactions already unified by the work of Weinberg, Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow, are made consistent with a theory of the strong interactions between quarks, in one overarching theory. In 1973, Weinberg proposed a modification of the Standard Model which did not contain that model's fundamental Higgs boson. Also during the 1970s, Weinberg proposed a theory later known as technicolor, in which new strong interactions resolve the hierarchy problem.[17][18][19]
Weinberg became Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Harvard University in 1973.

In 1979 he pioneered the modern view on the renormalization aspect of quantum field theory that considers all quantum field theories as effective field theories and changed the viewpoint of previous work (including his own in his 1967 paper) that a sensible quantum field theory must be renormalizable.[20] This approach allowed the development of effective theory of quantum gravity,[21] low energy QCD, heavy quark effective field theory and other developments, and it is a topic of considerable interest in current research.

In 1979, some six years after the experimental discovery of the neutral currents – i.e. the discovery of the inferred existence of the Z boson – but following the 1978 experimental discovery of the theory's predicted amount of parity violation due to Z bosons' mixing with electromagnetic interactions,[22] Weinberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, together with Sheldon Glashow, and Abdus Salam who had independently proposed a theory of electroweak unification based on spontaneous symmetry breaking.

In 1982 Weinberg moved to the University of Texas at Austin as the Jack S. Josey-Welch Foundation Regents Chair in Science and founded the Theory Group of the Physics Department.

Steven Weinberg is frequently among the top scientists with the highest research effect indices, such as the h-index and the creativity index.[23]

More at Wikipedia.

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comedian Jackie Mason

Jackie Mason (born Yacov Moshe Hakohen Maza; June 9, 1928 – July 24, 2021) was an American stand-up comedian and film and television actor.
His 1986 one-man show The World According to Me! won a Special Tony Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, an Ace Award, an Emmy Award, and earned a Grammy nomination. Later, his 1988 special Jackie Mason on Broadway won another Emmy Award (for outstanding writing) and another Ace Award, and his 1991 voice-over of Rabbi Hyman Krustofski in The Simpsons episode "Like Father, Like Clown" won Mason a third Emmy Award. He wrote and performed six one-man shows on Broadway.[1]

Known for his delivery and voice, as well as his use of innuendo and pun, Mason's often culturally grounded humor was described as irreverent and sometimes politically incorrect.[2][3] A critic for Time magazine wrote that, throughout his career, Mason spoke to audiences: ".. with the Yiddish locutions of an immigrant who just completed a course in English. By mail."[



His father Eli Maza and his mother, Belle (Gitlin), were born in Minsk, and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s with the rest of Mason's family; his father died in 1959.[10][3][5][6][11][12] A Jewish refugee organization helped his father find a position in Sheboygan, as it needed a rabbi.[11] When Mason was five years old his family moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, largely so that he and his siblings could pursue a yeshiva education, where he grew up on Henry Street, Rutgers Street, and Norfolk Street.[3][5][6][11] There, his parents and their friends all spoke Yiddish.[11]



As a teenager, Mason worked as a busboy at resorts in the Borscht Belt in New York's Catskill Mountains.[3] He recalled: "Twenty minutes, at the Pearl Lake Hotel. I broke all the dishes. They made me a lifeguard. 'But I can't swim', I told the owner. 'Don't tell the guests', he says."[5]



In 1953 Mason graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in his double major of English and Sociology from the City College of New York.[4][13] At age 18 he became a cantor, and at age 25[14] he received semikhah and was ordained a rabbi (as his three brothers, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had been).[3][8][15] He led congregations in Weldon, North Carolina, and at Beth Israel Congregation in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.[16][17] He said that in synagogue, "I started telling more and more jokes, and after a while, a lot of gentiles would come to the congregation just to hear the sermons."[8] Three years later, after his father died, he resigned from his job as a rabbi in a synagogue to become a comedian because, he says, "Somebody in the family had to make a living."[5][14]


Mason wrote most of his own material.[4] A sampling of his humor is his commentary on doctors: "That's a great profession, a doctor. Where else can you ask a woman to get undressed and then send the bill to her husband?"[8] And his commentary on what is important in life: "Money is not important. Love is important. Fortunately, I love money."[18] As well as his ruminations on pleasing people: "You can't please everyone. I have a girlfriend. I think she's the most wonderful person in the world. That's to me. But to my wife ..."[19][20] And on trust: "My grandfather always said that I shouldn't watch my money. That I should watch my health. So while I was watching my health, someone stole my money. It was my grandfather."[20] And on fidelity: "Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe."[20]

He was a comedian at the Fieldston Hotel in Swan Lake, New York, in the summer of 1955.[21] Mason was let go because his act was considered too far ahead of its time. The patrons had not been exposed to a comic who seemed to be ridiculing them. A few years later, Don Rickles came along, but at that point audiences had become open to this type of humor throughout the Borscht Belt. He adopted his stage name after appearing on the Barry Gray radio show.[7] He performed at New York City nightclubs (where he was earning as much as $10,000 ($83,000 in current dollar terms) a week), and on The Steve Allen Show, his first national TV appearance, in 1962, and the Tonight Show with Steve Allen, as well as on The Perry Como Show, The Dean Martin Show, and The Gary Moore Show.[2][4] The William Morris Agency advised him in 1962 to take elocution lessons so that he could shed his heavy Jewish accent, but he refused.[7][8][18]

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1968 ad for The Jackie Mason Show at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio

Mason made several appearances as a guest on The Ed Sullivan Show during the 1960s.[3] He claimed to have been on the episode which featured the American television debut of the Beatles, although research does not bear this fact out.[22] Mason revealed during his appearance on the BBC show Desert Island Discs that at the time he did not think much of the group, referring to them as "four kids in search of a voice who needed haircuts". In 1962 he came out with his initial LP record, a best-seller entitled I'm the Greatest Comedian in the World, Only Nobody Knows It Yet, followed by I Want to Leave You with the Words of a Great Comedian.[7][23]




On October 18, 1964, in an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Mason allegedly gave host Ed Sullivan the finger on air. Footage of the incident shows Mason in the middle of doing his stand-up comedy act and then looking toward Sullivan, who had placed himself directly behind the camera, commenting that Sullivan was signaling him.[4][8] Sullivan was reportedly letting Mason know (by holding up two fingers) that he had only two minutes left, and to cut his act short, as the program was about to cut away due to having been partly pre-empted by an impromptu speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson that the show carried.[4][5]
Mason began working his own fingers into his act to make fun of the situation, and pointed toward Sullivan with an index finger, a thumb, but not, as Sullivan mistakenly believed, his middle finger.[4] Sullivan was infuriated by this, and banned Mason from future appearances on the show, canceling Mason's six-appearance contract worth $45,000 (equivalent to $375,000 in 2020).[4][8] Mason denied knowingly giving Sullivan the middle finger; he later said that he had not heard of the middle finger gesture at that time.[5]
To clear his name, Mason filed a libel suit on the grounds that Sullivan had defamed him at the New York Supreme Court. That court dismissed most of Mason's complaint. Both Mason and Sullivan appealed to the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division (which reinstated three additional causes of action against Sullivan) in June 1966.[2][24][25]
Mason was nevertheless banned from the show for a period of time. Sullivan asserted that Mason was unpredictable and could not be trusted. Because of Sullivan's influence, he was branded as unreliable, volatile, and obscene, and he failed to get substantial television work for the next two decades.[2][4][5][6]
Mason was given a single comeback appearance on Sullivan's television program two years later, and Sullivan publicly apologized to him, but the damage was done.[4] At that time, Mason opened his monologue by saying, "It is a great thrill ... and a fantastic opportunity to see me in person again."[24] Mason later appeared on the show five times: April 23, 1967; February 25, 1968; November 24, 1968; July 22, 1969; and August 31, 1969.[26] Mason later said: "It took twenty years to overcome what happened in one minute".[4]
1965–1985[edit]
In 1969, Mason made his Broadway theater debut as Jewish widower Nat Weiss in the comedy play A Teaspoon Every Four Hours, which he wrote with Mike Mortman.[1] It held the Broadway record of 97 previews and closed after its official opening performance (a preview record succeeded by Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark with its 182 previews prior to opening). He also appeared in the films The Jerk (1979) and History of the World, Part I (1981).[27]
1986–2011[edit]
In 1986, Mason made a triumphant return to Broadway in the two-year run of The World According to Me! which ran for 367 performances in its first run and 203 performances in its second run at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, his first of several one-man theatrical shows.[5][28] It was well received both by critics and the public; Frank Rich, the sometimes harsh reviewer of The New York Times, wrote: "So sue me ... Mason was very, very funny".[7] It won a Special Tony Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, an Ace Award, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy nomination.[29][30] His special Jackie Mason on Broadway won an Emmy Award for outstanding writing and an Ace Award.[29][30]
Mason starred in the movie Caddyshack II (1988), where his character had the same surname, Hartounian, as his character in The Jerk.[27] In 1990 and 1991, Mason again was on Broadway, this time with his successful two-act show Brand New, which ran for 216 performances at the Neil Simon Theatre, which won him his second Outer Critics Circle Award.[7][28][31] Critic Clive Barnes of the New York Post praised the "brilliant" comic and his "totally new from top to tuchis" humor.[28] Critic Mel Gussow of The New York Times remarked on the "exact meeting" between performance and material in which Mason engaged in a comic attack on everyone, including himself, cutting them all down to size.[28]
In 1992, Mason won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his voice-over of Rabbi Hyman Krustofski in The Simpsons episode "Like Father, Like Clown",[32] making him the first guest star to win an Emmy for his role. Mason also appeared in The Simpsons episodes "Today I Am a Clown", "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution", "At Long Last Leave", and "Clown in the Dumps"; the last episode focuses upon Rabbi Krustofski's death and its effects on his son, Krusty the Clown.[33]

Mason in April 2016

One of his Broadway shows, his two-act Politically Incorrect (1994–95) ran for 347 performances at Broadway's [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Golden_Theater]John Golden Theater.[2][28] Critic John Simon of Time wrote: "His method is hyperbole and reductio ad absurdum, but always informed by bitter reason. His irony is a spotlight illuminating our absurdities; his zingers are scalpels laying bare the sickness under the skin. There is a unifying thrust, a focus, a structure: an attack on both liberal hypocrisy and conservative apathy, and on the climate of political correctness that makes it impossible to attack anyone but WASPs. ... Mason is a true satirist in the mold of ... Mark Twain . ... "[34] It was performed during the same period that Bill Maher's late-night, half-hour political TV talk show Politically Incorrect was on the air.[2][28] Maher brought a lawsuit against Mason's production, which was dismissed as frivolous. Mason was able to use this show title, and it is one of his most successful road productions. Between these shows, Mason played the lead in a short-lived television interfaith sitcom called Chicken Soup alongside Lynn Redgrave.[4]

Mason also put on the Broadway one-man shows Love thy Neighbor (1996–97) which ran for 225 performances at the Booth Theatre (critic Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times described Mason's routines as "roaringly funny"), Much Ado About Everything (1999–2000) which was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for its run in London) and ran for 183 performances at the John Golden Theatre (in this effort Van Gelder described Mason as "convulsing audiences"), Prune Danish (2002; nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event), Jackie Mason: Freshly Squeezed (2005; for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance), and The Ultimate Jew (2008).[4][28][31][35][36]

In a 2005 poll to find the Comedian's Comedian, Mason was voted #43 among the top-50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.[30] He was also ranked #63 in "Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time".[37] He holds the record for the longest-running one-man show in Broadway history and the longest-running stand-up show in the history of London's West End.[38]
His full-length courtroom dramedy motion picture One Angry Man was released in 2010 throughout the US and Canada. Mason's most recent film Jackie Goldberg: Private Dick (2011) was a direct-to-DVD production, released by FilmWorks Entertainment.[39]

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Robert Parris Moses (January 23, 1935 – July 25, 2021)[4] was an American educator and civil rights activist, known for his work as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee on voter education and registration in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, and his co-founding of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. He was a graduate of Hamilton College and completed a master's in philosophy at Harvard University.


In 1982 Moses began developing the nationwide Algebra Project in the United States. He received a MacArthur Fellowship and other awards for this work, which emphasizes teaching algebra skills to minority students based on broad-based community organizing and collaboration with parents, teachers and students.

Robert Parris Moses was born January 23, 1935, in New York City.[4] His parents, Gregory H. Moses, a janitor, and Louise (Parris) Moses, a homemaker, raised their three children in the public housing complex Harlem River Houses, with frequent visits to the public library.[4] He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1952[5] and received his B.A. from Hamilton College in 1956.[6] At Hamilton he majored in philosophy and French and played basketball.[4] In 1957, he earned an M.A. in philosophy at Harvard,[1] and was working toward a PhD but his mother’s death and father’s hospitalization brought him back to New York City, and in 1958[6] began teaching at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx of New York City.[4] Also in 1958, he was private tutor to singer Frankie Lymon, of The Teenagers, and credited his experience visiting Black sections of numerous towns with the doo-wop group for his recognition of the emergence of a distinct urban Black culture scattered across the nation.[7]
Moses became one of the influential black leaders of the civil rights struggle, and he had a vision of grassroots and community-based leadership. Although Moses’ leadership style was different from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, King appreciated the contributions that Moses made to the movement, calling them inspiring.[8] Moses initiated and organized voter registration drives in the South, sit-ins, and Freedom Schools for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.[9]

He ran the Algebra Project, which is a continued effort to improve math education in poor communities with the goal of sending more students to the workforce.[9] Starting as a civil rights leader and transitioning into an advocate for the poor through his work with the Algebra Project, Moses revolutionized the ideal of equal opportunity and played a vital role in making it a reality.[10]

Civil rights movement[edit]

External video
 “Eyes on the Prize; Interview with Robert Moses” conducted in 1986 for the Eyes on the Prize documentary in which he discusses the reasons he joined the civil rights movement and his working relationships with other activists.
Moses began working with civil rights activists in 1960, becoming field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As director of the SNCC's Mississippi Project in 1961, Moses traveled to Pike County and Amite County to try to register black voters. Comprising a majority in both counties, despite many people leaving in the Great Migration in the first half of the century, they had been utterly closed out of the political process since 1890. He pushed for the SNCC to engage in a "tactical nonviolence," a matter he discussed in an interview with Robert Penn Warren for the book Who Speaks for the Negro?.[11]

White Democrats had disfranchised Mississippi's blacks in their 1890 constitution, which required poll taxes, and other barriers, such as residency requirements, and subjective literacy tests. It was nearly impossible for blacks to register and vote. After decades of violence and repression under Jim Crow, by the 1960s most blacks did not bother trying to register. In 1965, only one African American among 5500 in Amite County was registered to vote.[12]
Moses faced nearly relentless violence and official intimidation, and was beaten and arrested in Amite County. He was the first African American to challenge white violence, and filed assault charges against his attacker. The all-white jury acquitted the man, and the judge told Moses he could not protect him, providing him an escort to the county line. The next month in September 1961, E.H. Hurst, a white state legislator, killed Herbert Lee, a 56-year-old married local farmer in Liberty, Mississippi, who had been in a voter registration class. Hurst murdered him in front of a dozen witnesses and was cleared at the inquest that day, claiming self-defense; the courtroom was filled with armed white men. Witness Louis Allen was murdered in early 1964 after being boycotted and harassed for discussing the Lee murder with federal officials. [13]

By 1964 Moses had become co-director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), an umbrella organization for the major civil rights groups working in Mississippi. A major leader with SNCC, he was the main organizer of COFO's Freedom Summer project, which was intended to achieve widespread voter registration of blacks in Mississippi, and ultimately, end racial disfranchisement. They planned education and organizing, and a simplified registration system, to demonstrate African-American desire to vote. Moses was one of the calm leaders who kept the group focused.[14]

On June 21, as many of the new volunteers were getting settled and trained in nonviolent resistance, three were reported missing. They were James Chaney, a local African American, and his two Jewish co-leaders Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, both from New York City. These three young men had gone to investigate a church bombing near Philadelphia, Mississippi. They were arrested on alleged traffic violations and released that night. After an FBI investigation, their decomposed bodies were found six weeks later, buried in an earthen dam. The volunteers were frightened. Moses gathered them together to discuss it; he told the group this was the risk they faced. He said that now that they had seen first-hand what could happen, they had every right to go home. He assured volunteers that no one would blame them for leaving.[15]

This was not the first murder of activists in Mississippi or the South, but the Civil Rights Movement had attracted increasing notice from the national media. Many African-American volunteers were angered that publicity appeared to be based on two of the victims being white Northerners. Moses helped ease tensions. The volunteers struggled with the idea of nonviolence, of blacks and whites working together, and related issues. These tensions were enormous, but arguably, Moses's leadership was a major cohesive factor for a number of volunteers staying.[16]
Moses was instrumental in the organizing of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a group that challenged the all-white regular Democratic Party delegates from the state at the party's 1964 convention.[4] Because the Democratic Regulars had for decades excluded African Americans from the political process in Mississippi, the MFDP wanted their elected delegates seated at the convention. Their challenge received national media coverage and highlighted the civil rights struggle in the state.[17]

Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic leadership nonetheless prevented any of the MFDP delegation from voting in the convention, giving the official seats to the Jim Crow regulars. Moses and the rest of the SNCC activists were profoundly disillusioned by this decision.[4] Moses was also disturbed by the machinations of liberal Democrats, whom he had invited into COFO, to centralize the Council's decision-making, an effort that seemed to undermine the grassroots participatory democracy of SNCC.[18]

Moses resigned from COFO in late 1964. He later commented that his role had become ‘‘too strong, too central, so that people who did not need to, began to lean on me, to use me as a crutch’’.[4] He temporarily dropped his surname, going by his middle name, Parris,[19] and began participating in the campaign against the Vietnam War.[4] Speaking at the first massive anti-war demonstration on April 17, 1965, at the Washington Monument, Moses linked his opposition to the war to the civil rights struggle.[4] As his involvement in the anti-war movement increased, he took a leave of absence from SNCC to avoid criticisms from fellow members who did not support his stance.[20] Following a trip to Africa in 1965, Moses came to believe that blacks must work independently of whites, and by 1966 Moses had cut off all relationships with whites, even former SNCC activists.[8]

Following his engagement with anti-war activism, he received a notice that he had been drafted, though he was five years too old for the age cutoff and suspected the intervention of government agents.[4] He and his wife moved to Tanzania, where they lived for eight years and had three of their four children.[4] Moses worked as a teacher.[4]
In 1976 Moses returned to the United States and Harvard, doing graduate work in the philosophy of mathematics.[citation needed] He taught high school math in a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after learning from his daughter that the school was not offering algebra.[21]


In 1982 Moses received a MacArthur Fellowship. He used the award to create the Algebra Project, devoted to improving minority education in math, starting with his daughter's classroom in a Cambridge, Massachusetts public school. Moses also taught math for a time at Lanier High School in Jackson, Mississippi. He used the Lanier classroom as a laboratory school for developing methods and approaches for the Algebra Project, enlisting the support of parents and the community in the project.

In 2005 Moses was selected as one of twelve inaugural Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellows by the Fletcher Foundation, which awards substantial grants to scholars and activists working on civil rights issues.[22]
Since 1982, Moses expanded the Algebra Project from teaching math in one school, to supporting these methods for teaching math in over 200 schools across the country by the late 1990s. The Algebra Project's unique approach to school reform intentionally develops models that are sustainable and focused on students. This is achieved by building coalitions of stakeholders within the local communities. The historically underserved population is a big portion of these coalitions.[23]

The Algebra Project works to change common attitudes of our society that routinely promote the exclusion and regression of minorities. The goal of the Algebra Project is to take the students who score the lowest on state math tests and prepare them for college level math by the end of high school.[23] This is done by doubling up on math courses for the four years of high school.[24] The Algebra Project is based in research and development, school development, and community and site development.[23]

In October 2006, the Algebra Project received an award from the National Science Foundation to improve the development of materials for Algebra I.[25] In terms of school development, the Algebra Project strives to provide culturally sensitive, context-based, and site-specific professional development opportunities to teachers. It promotes collaboration of teaching methods and knowledge. The Algebra Project partners with local higher education and research institutions to help teachers develop professionally, trains teachers on new materials, and provides them with programs to get certified.
The Algebra Project collaborates with the Young People's Project to help engage students in their learning process. “YPP uses mathematics literacy as a tool to develop young leaders and organizers who radically change the quality of education and quality of life in their communities so that all children have the opportunity to reach their full human potential.” [25] At its peak, the Algebra Project has provided help to roughly forty-thousand minority students each year. Contributions include curricula guides for kindergarten through high school, the training of teachers, and peer coaching.[10]

Moses believed that Algebra was a critical “gatekeeper” subject because mastering it was necessary in order for middle school students to advance in math, technology, and science. Without algebra, students would not be able to meet the requirements for college. Fifty-five percent of the students following the Algebra Project's curriculum passed the state exam on their first attempt, compared to 40 percent of students following the regular curriculum. More students at junior high school sites who followed the Algebra Project curriculum scored higher on standardized tests and continued to more advanced math classes than did their schoolmates who followed standard curriculum. Thus, they could better meet requirements for college admission and future entry into good jobs.[10]

Continued work in education[edit]

In 2006 Moses was named a Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor at Cornell University.[26] As a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University, he taught an African American Studies class with Professor Tera Hunter in the Spring 2012 semester.[27]

Moses taught high school math in Jackson, Mississippi, and Miami, Florida.
He was identified as a Teaching hero by The My Hero Project.[28]

from Wikipedia

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The "Dating Game (serial) Killer" just died. At least 8 murders, and compared to Ted Bundy.

The fellow studied film under Roman Polanski. He obviously had the talent with which to make something desirable out of himself.

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Ron Popeil, inventor and pitchman. "It slices! It dices! But wait -- there's more!


Ronald M. Popeil (/poʊˈpiːl/;[1] May 3, 1935 - July 28, 2021), was an American inventor and marketing personality, and founder of the direct response marketing company Ronco. He has made appearances in infomercials for the Showtime Rotisserie and coined the phrase "Set it, and forget it!" as well as popularizing the phrase, "But wait, there's more!" on television as early as the mid-1950s.

Popeil was born  in New York City in 1935. When he was six, his parents divorced and he and his brother went to live in Florida with their grandparents. At age 17 in 1952, he went with his grandparents to work for his father, Samuel Popeil, at his company's (Popeil Brothers) manufacturing facility in Chicago. His grandparents later returned to Florida and Ron Popeil remained with his father.


Popeil learned his trade from his father, who was also an inventor and salesman of numerous kitchen-related gadgets such as the Chop-O-Matic and the Veg-O-Matic to major department stores. The Chop-O-Matic retailed for US$3.98 and sold over two million units. It indirectly spurred Ron Popeil's move into television, as it was so efficient at chopping vegetables it was impractical for salesmen to carry all they needed for their pitches. The solution was to tape the demonstration.



Popeil initially operated as a distributor of his father's kitchen products and later formed his own company, Ronco, in 1964. He continued as a distributor for his father and added additional products from other manufacturers.[4] Ron Popeil and his father became competitors in the 1970s for the same retail store business.



Popeil received the Ig Nobel Prize in Consumer Engineering in 1993. The awards committee described him as the "incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman of late night television"[5] and awarded the prize in recognition of his "redefining the industrial revolution" with his devices. He was a past member of the board of directors Mirage Resorts where he served for 22 years under Steve Wynn as well as a past member of the board of directors of MGM Hotels for seven years under Kirk Kerkorian. He became the recipient of the Electronic Retail Association's Lifetime Achievement award in 2001[6] and he is listed in the Direct Response Hall of Fame.


He was previously[when?] a member of the advisory board for University of California Los Angeles' Business, Management and Legal Programs. In August 2005, he sold his company, Ronco, to Fi-Tek VII, a Denver holding company, for US$55 million, with plans to continue serving as the spokesman and inventor while being able to spend more time with his family.

Popeil is noted for marketing and in some cases inventing a wide variety of products. Among the better known and more successful are the Chop-O-Matic hand food processor ("Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to show you the greatest kitchen appliance ever made ... All your onions chopped to perfection without shedding a single tear."), the Dial-O-Matic successor to the Veg-O-Matic ("Slice a tomato so thin it only has one side."), and the Ronco Pocket Fisherman. Popeil is also well known for his housewares inventions like his Giant Dehydrator and Beef Jerky Machine, his Electric Pasta Maker and his Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ. His Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ sold over eight million units in the US alone, helping Ronco's housewares sales exceed $1 billion in profits.[citation needed] After retiring, Popeil continued to invent products including the 5in1 Turkey Fryer & Food Cooking System which he has been[when?] developing for over ten years.




Popeil is noted for marketing and in some cases inventing a wide variety of products. Among the better known and more successful are the Chop-O-Matic hand food processor ("Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to show you the greatest kitchen appliance ever made ... All your onions chopped to perfection without shedding a single tear."), the Dial-O-Matic successor to the Veg-O-Matic ("Slice a tomato so thin it only has one side."), and the Ronco Pocket Fisherman. Popeil is also well known for his housewares inventions like his Giant Dehydrator and Beef Jerky Machine, his Electric Pasta Maker and his Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ. His Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ sold over eight million units in the US alone, helping Ronco's housewares sales exceed $1 billion in profits.[citation needed] After retiring, Popeil continued to invent products including the 5in1 Turkey Fryer & Food Cooking System which he has been[when?] developing for over ten years.

Popeil's success in infomercials, memorable marketing personality, and ubiquity on American television have allowed he and his products to appear in a variety of popular media environments including cameo appearances on television shows such as The X-Files,[a] Futurama,[b] [c] King of the Hill,[d] [e] The Simpsons,[f] Sex and the City[g], The Daily Show[h] and The West Wing[/url]. Parodies of Popeil's infomercials were done on the comedy show [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live]Saturday Night Live by Dan Aykroyd[j] and Eddie Murphy[8] and the "Veg-O-Matic" may have provided comedian Gallagher inspiration for the "Sledge-O-Matic" routine since the 1980s. The animated series "VeggieTales" once featured a parody of the "Veg-O-Matic" dubbed as the "Forgive-O-Matic".[k] "Additionally, the professional wrestling tag team The Midnight Express dubbed their finishing move the Veg-O-Matic.
Popeil was voted by Self magazine readers as one of the 25 people who have changed the way we eat, drink and think about food.[9]
Popeil has been referenced in the music of Alice Cooper, the Beastie Boys, and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Yankovic's song "Mr. Popeil" was a tribute to Popeil's father, Samuel (and featured his sister Lisa Popeil on backing vocals). Ron Popeil later used this song in some of his infomercials.
In Malcolm Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, Popeil is interviewed and many of his products, most notably the Veg-O-Matic and Showtime Rotisserie, are discussed. Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker piece "The Pitchman" about Popeil won Gladwell the 2001 National Magazine award. The article was first published in The New Yorker in 2000.[10]

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Two former US Senators:

Mike Enzi (R-WY)

Michael Bradley Enzi (/ˈɛnzi/ EN-zee; February 1, 1944 – July 26, 2021) was an American politician and accountant who served as a United States Senator from Wyoming from 1997 until 2021. He was a member of the Republican Party.


Raised in Thermopolis, Wyoming, Enzi attended George Washington University and the University of Denver. He expanded his father's shoe store business in Gillette, Wyoming, before being elected the city's mayor in 1974. In the late 1970s, he worked for the United States Department of the Interior. He served as a state legislator in both the Wyoming House of Representatives (1987–1991) and Wyoming Senate (1991–1997). During the 1980s and 1990s, he worked as an accountant and executive director in the energy industry.

Enzi was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 with 54% of the vote and reelected in 2002 with 73% of the vote, in 2008 with 75% of the vote, and in 2014 with 71% of the vote.[2] During his tenure, he was consistently ranked one of the Senate's most conservative members. He was a member of the 2009 Gang of Six that attempted to negotiate health care reform. From 2015 until his retirement from the Senate, he chaired the Senate Budget Committee, during the 114th, 115th, and 116th Congresses.

More at Wikipedia.

Carl Levin (D-MI)

Carl Milton Levin (June 28, 1934 – July 29, 2021) was an American attorney and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. He was the chair of the Senate Committee on Armed Services and was a member of the Democratic Party.


Born in Detroit, Michigan, Levin was a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School. He worked as the General Counsel of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1964 to 1967, and as a special assistant attorney general for the Michigan Attorney General's Office. Levin was elected to the Detroit City Council in 1968, serving from 1969 to 1977, and was president of the City Council from 1973 to 1977.

In 1978, Levin ran for the United States Senate, defeating Republican incumbent Robert P. Griffin. Levin was re-elected in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008. On March 7, 2013, Levin announced that he would not seek a seventh term to the Senate.[1] On March 9, 2015, Levin announced he was joining the Detroit-based law firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP.[2] At the same time, he founded the Levin Center at Wayne State University Law School, dedicated to "strengthening the integrity, transparency, and accountability of public and private institutions by promoting and supporting bipartisan, fact-based oversight; advancing good governance, particularly with respect to the legislative process; and promoting civil discourse on current issues of public policy".[3]

Levin became Michigan's senior senator in 1995, and he is the longest-serving senator in the state's history. At the time of his retirement Levin was the fourth longest-serving incumbent in the U.S. Senate.[4] He released his memoir, "Getting to the Heart of the Matter: My 36 Years in the Senate," in March 2021. It was published by Wayne State University Press.[5]

Much more at Wikipedia.

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Dusty Hill, bassist for ZZTop.


Joseph Michael "Dusty" Hill (May 19, 1949 – July, 2021) was an American musician who was the bassist of the rock band ZZ Top. He also sang lead and backing vocals, and played keyboards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ZZ Top in 2004. Hill played with ZZ Top for over 50 years; after his death, he was replaced by the band's longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis, in line with Hill's wishes.


Hill, his brother, and future fellow ZZ Top member Frank Beard played in local Dallas bands the Warlocks, the Cellar Dwellers, and American Blues.[5] From 1966 to 1968, American Blues played the Dallas-Fort Worth-Houston circuit. In 1969, Hill was a member of a fake version of the British band the Zombies with Beard.[6] Hill recalled, "Being a musician in Texas had its own set of risks ... and at that time we had long, blue hair – in the 60s in Texas. I got probably less shit about having blue hair than about having long hair, because I believe they thought I was crazy."[3]
In 1968, American Blues relocated to Houston. At this time, Rocky wanted to focus on "straight blues", while Dusty wanted the band to rock more. Rocky left the band and Dusty and Beard moved to Houston, joining guitarist/vocalist Billy Gibbons of Houston psychedelic-rockers Moving Sidewalks, in the recently formed ZZ Top, just after they released their first single "Salt Lick", in 1969.[7]

With the band's leader, Gibbons, as main lyricist and arranger, Hill played bass and keyboards and sang lead on some songs.[8][9] With the assistance of manager Bill Ham and engineer Robin Hood Brians, ZZ Top's First Album (1971) was released and exhibited the band's humor, with "barrelhouse" rhythms, distorted guitars, double entendres, and innuendo. The music and songs reflected ZZ Top's blues influences. Following their debut album, the band released Rio Grande Mud (1972), which produced their first charting single, "Francine".[10]
On 1973's Tres Hombres, ZZ Top perfected its heavy blues style and amplified its Texas roots. The boogie rock single "La Grange" brought the band their first hit, with it just missing the Billboard Top 40. In 1975 Hill sang lead vocal on "Tush", the band's first Top 20 hit and one of its most popular songs.[11][12] On the 1976 album Tejas Hill took the vocal lead on "Ten Dollar Man" and duetted with Gibbons on "It’s Only Love".[12]
The mid-1970s saw the band busy recording and touring extensively and toward the end of the decade the band took a break, during which Hill worked at Dallas Airport to keep himself active and grounded.[13] In 1979, when the group returned with the album Degüello in 1979 Gibbons and Hill revealed their new image of matching massive beards and sunglasses. Their hit singles from this period, "Cheap Sunglasses" and "Pearl Necklace", showed a more modern sound.[12]

Hill's on-screen appearances include Back to the Future Part III, Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme, the July 20, 2009 episode of WWE Raw and Deadwood, and as himself in the 11th-season episode of King of the Hill, "Hank Gets Dusted", in which Hank Hill is said to be Dusty's cousin.[3] He also made an appearance on The Drew Carey Show as himself auditioning for a spot in Drew's band, but was rejected because of his attachment to his trademark beard which he refers to as a 'Texas Goatee'.[12][14]
In 2000 he was diagnosed with hepatitis C and so ZZ Top canceled their European tour.[15][16] Hill resumed work in 2002.[15]

Hill was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ZZ Top in 2004.[17]
In 2019, Netflix released a documentary, ZZTop: That Little Old Band from Texas.[18]
In July 2021, Hill was forced to leave a ZZ Top tour after a hip injury. The band performed without him at the Village Commons in New Lenox, Illinois, with the band's guitar tech Elwood Francis on bass.[19]

More at Wikipedia.

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I got to meet Senator Levin. There's a story behind it. My local county Democratic Party was looking for a name for its fund-raising dinner. Most of the prominent names of Democrats were taken, but his was available. I suggested his name.

He came to pay us a visit, which is amazing in view of the smallness of our county. He seemed to be a very likable person and not particularly self-centered (narcissism is common among politicians above a certain level -- probably becoming very common among small-town city councilmen). He was quite ebullient.

I have suggested that had Al Gore tapped him for Vice-President, we might have had President Gore instead of the mediocrity (or worse) George W. Bush. In a super-close election any edge can make a difference. Carl Levin, who like Joe Lieberman is Jewish, might have been more effective in consolidating the Jewish vote in such states as Florida and New Hampshire, making a difference by swinging one or the other... and the election. My impression of Joe Lieberman was of a funeral director.

I think of how different the world would be. There would have been no 9/11 and likely no wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (OK, Satan Hussein was likely to do something stupid because evil people do that sort of thing when they think that they can get away with it). I'm guessing that any indication that the hijackers would have been detected and caught, and we would have prevented 9/11 and given fair warning to all on how to prevent such an attack. There would have been an international crackdown on al-Qaeda, and the best safety measure against hijacking a jetliner (denying access to the cabin) would have been enough to prevent jetliners from being transformed into weapons of mass destruction. Flights would have been diverted to places such as Rochester and Pittsburgh, with the US Armed Forces or state troopers waiting should anyone have tried something stupid.

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Charles Connor (January 14, 1935 – July 31, 2021) was an American drummer, best known as a member of Little Richard's band.[1] Richard's shout of "a-wop bop-a loo-mop, a-lop bam-boom" at the beginning of "Tutti Frutti" is said to be a reference to Connor's drum rhythms.[2] James Brown described Little Richard and his band, with Connor as the drummer, as "the first to put funk into the rhythm."[3][4]



............................


Charles “Keep-A-Knockin” Connor, original drummer for Little Richard and 2010 Louisiana Hall of Famer, created the unique “Choo Choo Train” style of successive eighth notes with a loud backbeat used by nearly all subsequent Rock 'n' Roll drummers. In fact, his drumsticks are on display at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
     The son of a chief chef Merchant Marine seaman from Santo-Domingo and a Louisiana-born mother, Connor reveals, "I was born in New Orleans, in the heart of the French Quarter, the very hub of Cajun, Blues and down-island rhythms. My mother told me that whenever music was played, I kicked really hard in her womb.” He grins and exclaims, “I was born to be a drummer!” He winks and continues, “Probably 'cuz of that exotic Creole and Dominican blood coursing through my veins,” then laughs mischievously.
     As a toddler, Connor was drawn to marching parades and the “second-line funeral bands” playing Dixieland jazz through the streets of New Orleans and loved to hear his father, home on a three-month leave, sing Calypso songs around the house. Imitating the drums, Connor banged on pots and pans all-day and cried hard when his mother had to take them away to cook family meals.
     Although his parents had two other sons and a daughter and could not afford expensive gifts, they saved enough money to buy Connor his first drum set when he was five. When his drumming became “a loud nuisance” to the neighbors, he practiced with his drumsticks four to five hours a day on a practice pad.
     Inspired by such notables as Bob Alden, Art Blakey, Charles Otis, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Max Roach, Connor dreamed big and diligently spent all his spare time working towards his goal of becoming “a professional drummer.” His hard work paid off at age 12 when he began playing drums for local parties and wedding receptions, but his “professional” career began at 15 when Roy “Professor Longhair” Byrd hired him as a last-minute replacement for the 1950 Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
     With family blessings and his mother's sage advice, “never use your skin color as an excuse; never doubt yourself; if you believe in yourself, everybody else will, too,” Connor went on to drum for Smiley Lewis, Guitar Slim, Jack Dupree then Shirley and Lee.
     At 18, Connor joined flamboyant Little Richard's original road band, The Upsetters, his joy marred only by the deep racial intolerance the band had to endure. Connor says, “[Black] musicians back then didn't have Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to motivate them. We had to find inspiration from our faith and within our hearts.”
     Connor cocks his head and says, “Little Richard was an ingenious promoter. To draw attention to his band and ensure they could perform on stage, he had to show bigots that the band wouldn't threaten their way of life. Little Richard promoted the band and avoided racial prejudice by insisting the musicians wear thick pancake makeup and act effeminate!”
     Connor pulls at his chin, and then smiles as he admits, “I really had fun. I worked with artists like Lloyd Price during vacations from Little Richard and, since Little Richard and James Brown shared the same booking agent, on "off-nights" I appeared with “The Godfather of Soul,” who coined the phrase, “Connor was the first to put the funk in the rhythm!”
     Connor continues: “I was 20 when Little Richard's band toured the United States in 1955. We played all the major theaters, including such prestigious venues as the Turner Arena and Howard Theater in Washington, D.C.; the Royal Theater in Baltimore, Maryland; the Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Paramount Theater with Alan Freed in Brooklyn.” He says in awe, “In New York, the white teenagers saw blacks having so much fun that they would dance in the aisles with them! Man, those were heady times,” and chuckles aloud.
     While on a 1955 tour of Japan and the Philippines, a young girl approached Connor, and asked for an autograph, but he had no idea then that she would later influence his life. The years disappear as he grins and, in wonderment, says “[For some reason] I wrote: I hope you come to America someday. Keep Rock 'n' Roll in your life.”
     Gaining momentum in 1956, Little Richard's band appeared in such popular feature films as “The Girl Can't Help It” with actress Jayne Mansfield; “Don't Knock the Rock” and “Mr. Rock 'n' Roll.” Then, as Rock 'n' Roll exploded on the music scene, the band recorded several hit songs like “Keep-A-Knockin',” featuring Connor’s first four-bar drum intro on a Rock 'n' Roll record; “Ooh! My Soul,” also featuring Connor’s distinctive "Choo Choo Train" beat; and “She's Got It,” with a regular backbeat. Connor reminisces, “The Civil Rights Act may have been passed in 1964, but Rock 'n' Roll music brought young people and the world together a decade earlier.” He concludes proudly, “We got respect and power; our popularity cut across racial lines.”
     When Little Richard “retired” for the ministry in 1957, legendary performer Sam Cooke took over The Upsetters and Connor again toured the United States. During breaks between bookings, Connor toured with other talented artists like Jackie Wilson, the original Coasters, and “Big” Joe Turner. He recorded with “Champion” Jack Dupree, Larry Williams, Don Covay, “Papa” George Lightfoot, Christine Kitrell, Larry Birdsong, and Dee Clark.
     Connor married in 1959, and fathered two sons and two daughters, but life on the road took its toll and the marriage subsequently ended in divorce. A later marriage to Peggy Penneman, Little Richard's sister, culminated in divorce for the same reason.
     Then, as if sensing Connor’s loneliness, providence stepped in one day when Connor, shopping at the market, met a beautiful young lady who seemed vaguely familiar. As they talked, she suddenly remembered he was “the man with the Rock 'n' Roll band” who gave her such an unusual but prophetic autograph in the Philippines. “My heart skipped a beat, flip-flopped and I've been hooked on her ever since,” he says as his eyes light up. Then, grinning like a teenager, he reveals “Although I had moved to Los Angeles in 1970 and later formed the “The West Coast Upsetters,” I wanted this marriage to last, so I limited our bookings to local gigs!” He and wife Zenaida, now married for over 30 years, have a beautiful daughter named Queenie.

     To show more respect for his family, himself and enjoy a healthier, self-empowered lifestyle, Connor stopped using profanity and alcohol years ago. He now credits walking and jogging with his daughter as his way of “keeping slim, trim and still 29.”
     In October 1994, Connor received a Certificate of Special Recognition from Congresswomen Maxine Waters, “In grateful appreciation for outstanding contributions and efforts on behalf of our community and government as a musical pioneer in the early years of the 5-4 Ballroom in South Central Los Angeles.” Accordingly, Connor joined the esteemed ranks of other 5-4 Ballroom honorees such as Billy Eckstine, Dinah Washington, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.
     Connor appeared with Little Richard at Los Angeles' House of Blues, Greek Theater and in 2002, along with Chuck Berry, played to a sold-out audience at the Universal Amphitheater. His influence and distinctive four-bar drum intro can still be heard on such songs as Led Zeppelin's “Rock 'n' Roll” from the “Led Zeppelin IV” album.
     Media interest in Connor continues with interviews in the BBC [television] documentary, “American Money;” the E! Channel special, “Hollywood True Stories: The Little Richard Story;” “Kid's Talk” for cable television; Charles “Dr. Rock” White's BBC syndicated radio show; as a guest on KABC's high-profile “Talk Radio” show and press coverage in “The Chicago Tribune,” “Rock 'n Blues News,” “Blue Suede News,” “The Los Angeles Sentinel,” “Now Dig This Magazine” and “Not Born Yesterday.”
     Once a popular stellar performer, friends felt Connor was unfairly denied recognition for his body of work and contributions to Black musical heritage. Encouraged by a long-time friend and his family, a couple of years ago Connor realized he still had something special to offer but just needed to empower himself.
     Multi-talented Connor is now an Active Musician, Songwriter, Entrepreneur, does Voice-overs, gives Private Drum lessons and makes Personal Appearances. He's also a Motivational Public Speaker with several issues particularly close to his heart, like sharing his experience and anecdotes on the African and down-island origins of Black popular music to stimulate public awareness and appreciation of Rock 'n' Roll and Rhythm and Blues.
     Although interested in world affairs, the human condition and deep philosophical subjects, Connor’s primarily concerned for the youth of today who face an apparent bleak future. He believes it “imperative for adults to mentor youth, give them good values and hope for tomorrow especially to stem the tide of teen suicide.” Connor fervently continues, "I favor school literacy and after-school programs. I tell young people they don't need drugs, alcohol or cigarettes to live or perform. They just need to connect with God to “turn-on” their natural gifts, then live with honor and integrity."
     Connor pauses, and then declares, “I also encourage people of color to exercise their hard-won civil rights. There's no excuse now. Instead of complaining what they don't like about government, they need to say what they do want by voting in every election!” He chuckles, and then seriously reveals, “If I hadn't become a drummer, I would have been a preacher.”
     Musing in silence before he speaks, Connor tilts his head then humbly admits, “I'm very grateful for all my Blessings and the life I lead. A man's actions show others his character and I'd like to inspire others.” He plays his hands, leans closer and confides, “Answering audience questions has given me inspiration and new insight. Connecting with the Community of Man makes me feel so good right here,” and taps his heart. “Now I realize that age plays no role whatsoever in the overall scheme of things. One man can make a difference,” he exclaims jubilantly.
     The focal point of Connor’s book, “Don't Give Up Your Dreams: You Can Be a Winner Too!” is “Be a good person. Set your goals, aim high and achieve. Surround yourself with positive, encouraging people who will help you to achieve those goals. Empower yourself; then go out and do something special for yourself and others!”

https://web.archive.org/web/20141013142416/http://legendarydrummer.tv/index.php/biography.html#

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

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Polish jazz musician Jerzy Matuszkiewicz

Jerzy "Duduś" Matuszkiewicz (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjɛʐɨ matuʂˈkʲɛvit͡ʂ]; 10 April 1928 – 31 July 2021) was a Polish jazz musician and composer, playing saxophone, clarinet and piano. Between 1950 and 1958, he was leader of the jazz group Melomani. From 1965, he focused on composing music for films. He was a pioneer of the post–World War II jazz movement in Poland, regarded as a "Founding Father" of Polish jazz.[1]

Matuszkiewicz was born in Jasło and began playing jazz as a youth. He founded a jazz club at the YMCA in Kraków at age 20,[2] and played with the orchestra of Kazimierz Turewicz.[3]

A club Melomani (Music enthusiasts) was founded in 1947 at the Łódź YMCA, a hang-out of nonconformist thinkers during the late 1940's.[1] Musicians of the first years included Marek Szczerbiński-Sart, trumpeter Andrzej "Idon" Wojciechowski, drummer Witold "Dentox" Sobociński, and Marian and Tadeusz Suchocki [pl].[3] Matuszkiewicz came to Łódź to study at the new Łódź Film School. He came to the club and joined the sessions. After only a few concerts, the YMCA was closed because the organisation was criticised for "debauching the youth and promoting imperialistic ideology using jazz music" at the end of the year. [3]

Matuzkiewicz founded and lead a band in 1950, playing saxophones and clarinet with the former players and additionally pianist Andrzej Trzaskowski and bassist Witold Kujawski.[3][4] Polish musicians were separated from developments of Western jazz,[1] because the Stalinist regime considered jazz music as part of decadent American culture.[2] They had no recordings and publications, therefore they played a repertoire that did not compare to Western standards. Critic Elliott Simon noted:

Quote:Melomani played a series of standards with enthusiasm exceeded only by their fans' obvious adoration ... it is however, the historical circumstance - when Jazz was a high energy outlet for the creativity of a culturally repressed society."[1]

The band was offered space to practise at the Film School, and during the first year, performed informal concerts at the Film School, in bars and for private events, around once a week. When they received an invitation to play a concert in Warsaw at the Academy of Fine Arts, they named themselves Melomani. In 1952, pianist Krzysztof Komeda joined the band who had connections and made more concerts beyond Łódź possible, which made the band known and popular. They played at major music events and at the first jazz festivals in Sopot in 1956. On 1 January 1958, they were the first Polish jazz band invited to perform at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. The group disbanded that year.[3]

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Performing at jazz club Tygmont in December 2006

Until 1964, Matuszkiewicz performed both in Poland and abroad. In 1965, he began to mainly compose and conduct music for movies and commercials.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Matuszkiewicz#cite_note-Polandin-2][2][5] He later resided in Warsaw with his wife, Grażyna, where he died, aged 93.[2][6]




Matuszkiewicz received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for outstanding achievements. In 2006, he was awarded the Gold Helikon medal from the Krakow Jazz Club. In 2021, he received an award for his life achievements at the Polish Film Awards gala.[2]

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Belarusian dissident Vitaly Shishov



italy Vasilyevich Shishov (Russian: Виталий Васильевич Шишов; 1995 – 2/3 August 2021), or Vital Vasilyevich Shyshou (Belarusian: Віталь Васільевіч Шышоў),[1] was a Belarusian activist. He was the head of the Belarusian House in Ukraine, an organization which helps people escape repression in Belarus following the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests. At the age of 26, Vitaly went missing from his home in Kyiv and was found dead, hanging from a tree in a park near where he lived.[2][3][/url]

Following the re-election of president [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lukashenko]Alexander Lukashenko in August 2020, who has been president of Belarus since 1994, Vitaly decided to leave Belarus. [4]

On 2 August 2021, Vitaly was reported missing in Kyiv by his partner after going for a run. By the next day, he was found hanged in a forested area of a park near his home.[5] Ukrainian police opened a criminal case into his death and would investigate whether it was a suicide or "premeditative murder meant to look like suicide." The head of Ukrainian police highlighted that his body has been found with abrasions and peeled skin in several places.[6]

Prior to his death by a week, Shishov helped in organizing a rally in Kyiv that marked the 31st anniversary of Belarus's independence from the Soviet Union.[2] Shishov had received threats as well as the Belarusian House in Ukraine. "(...) Ukrainian security officers and police had privately warned the BHU about threats to activists. 'They said we should watch ourselves because a Belarusian KGB [secret police] network was active here' (...) 'We were warned repeatedly by local sources and our people in Belarus about possible provocations, going as far as kidnapping and assassination. Vitaly reacted to those warnings with stoicism and humour.' "[3]



(Yes, Belarus' secret police is still called the KGB, and this KGB may be even more ruthless and dangerous than the Soviet version. 

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard Trumka, the powerful president of the AFL-CIO who rose from the coal mines of Pennsylvania to preside over one of the largest labor organizations in the world, died Thursday. He was 72.

The federation confirmed Trumka’s death in a statement. He had been AFL-CIO president since 2009, after serving as the organization’s secretary-treasurer for 14 years. From his perch, he oversaw a federation with more than 12.5 million members and ushered in a more aggressive style of leadership.

“The labor movement, the AFL-CIO and the nation lost a legend today,” the AFL-CIO said. “Rich Trumka devoted his life to working people, from his early days as president of the United Mine Workers of America to his unparalleled leadership as the voice of America’s labor movement.”

Further details of Trumka’s death, including the cause and where he died, were not immediately available.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Trumka’s death from the Senate floor. “The working people of America have lost a fierce warrior at a time when we needed him most,” he said.

President Joe Biden called Trumka a close friend who was “more than the head of AFL-CIO.” He apologized for showing up late to a meeting with Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander civil rights leaders, saying he had just learned Trumka had died.

A burly man with thick eyebrows and a bushy mustache, Trumka was the son and grandson of coal miners. He grew up in the small southwest Pennsylvania town of Nemacolin. He worked as a coal miner while attending Penn State University.

Trumka was tough and combative, a throwback to an old guard of union leaders from the labor movement’s heyday. But he rose in a distinctly different era, as trade union membership declined and labor’s political power dwindled. He often focused on making the case for unions to the white working class who have turned away from Democrats.

He met with then-President Donald Trump but also forcefully criticized him, calling Trump a “fraud” who had “deceived” the working class.

Trump shot back, criticizing Trumka as ineffectual. “No wonder unions are losing so much,” Trump tweeted.

Trumka was also a forceful voice in the labor movement who at times challenged blue-collar workers to confront their own racism. During then-Sen. Barack Obama’s first winning campaign for the White House, Trumka forcefully denounced racism in the union ranks.

“We can’t tap dance around the fact that there’s a lot of white folks out there ... and a lot of them are good union people, they just can’t get past this idea that there’s something wrong with voting for a Black man,” he said during an impassioned 2008 speech in which he exhorted them to vote for Obama.

Until his sudden death, he used his power to push for health care legislation, expanded workers rights and infrastructure spending.

Trumka burst into national union politics as a youthful 33-year-old lawyer and former coal miner when he became the United Mine Workers of America’s president in 1982. Pledging the economically troubled union “shall rise again,” Trumka beat sitting president Sam Church by a 2-to-1 margin and would serve in the role until he became the AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer in 1995.

There, he led a successful strike against the Pittston Coal Company, which tried to avoid paying into an industrywide health and pension fund.

“I’d like to retire at this job,” Trumka said in 1987. “If I could write my job description for the rest of my life, this would be it.”

At age 43, Trumka led a nationwide strike against Peabody Coal in 1993. During the walk-off, he stirred controversy.

Asked about the possibility the company would hire permanent replacement workers, Trumka told The Associated Press, “I’m saying if you strike a match and you put your finger on it, you’re likely to get burned.” Trumka insisted he wasn’t threatening violence against the replacements. “Do I want it to happen? Absolutely not. Do I think it can happen? Yes, I think it can happen,” he told the AP.

As AFL-CIO president, he vowed to revive unions’ sagging membership rolls and pledged to make the labor movement appeal to a new generation of workers who perceive unions as “only a grainy, faded picture from another time.”

“We need a unionism that makes sense to the next generation of young women and men who either don’t have the money to go to college or are almost penniless by the time they come out,” Trumka told hundreds of cheering delegates in a speech at the federation’s annual convention in 2009.

That year, he was also a leading proponent during the health care debate for including a public, government-run insurance option, and he threatened Democrats who opposed one.

“We need to be a labor movement that stands by our friends, punishes its enemies and challenges those who, well, can’t seem to decide which side they’re on,” he said.

During the 2011 debate over public employee union rights in GOP-controlled statehouses, Trumka said the angry protests it sparked were overdue.

Trumka said he hoped then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s bill to strip public employee unions of their bargaining power could renew support for unions after decades of decline. The move drew thousands of protesters to the Capitol in Madison.

Whether he meant to or not, Trumka said, Walker started a national debate about collective bargaining “that this country sorely needed to have.”

Eulogies poured in from Trumka’s Democratic allies in Washington.

“Richard Trumka dedicated his life to the labor movement and the right to organize,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Richard’s leadership transcended a single movement, as he fought with principle and persistence to defend the dignity of every person.”

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he was “heartbroken” to learn of the death of his friend.

“Rich’s story is the American story — he was the son and grandson of Italian and Polish immigrants and began his career mining coal. He never forgot where he came from. He dedicated the rest of his career to fighting for America’s working men and women,” Manchin said in a statement.

___

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Nemacolin is in southwest Pennsylvania, not southeast.

https://apnews.com/article/sports-busine...30a5d65f7f

[Eric the Green]

Another dose of bad news. I hope someone can step up and fill his shoes. I don't know who.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/rememb...and-unions

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James Rodney Richard (March 7, 1950 – August 4, 2021) was an American professional baseball starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Houston Astros from 1971 to 1980.


After graduating from high school, Richard was selected by the Astros as the second overall pick in the first round of the 1969 amateur draft.[1] From the time he made his major league debut with the Astros in 1971 until 1975, Richard had a limited role as an Astros pitcher, throwing no more than 72 innings in a season.[2] In 1975, Richard played his first full season in the majors as a starting pitcher.

From 1976 to 1980, he was one of the premier pitchers in the majors, leading the National League twice in strikeouts, once in earned run average, and three times in hits allowed per nine innings, winning at least 18 games a year between 1976 and 1979.[2] On July 30, 1980, Richard suffered a stroke and collapsed while playing a game of catch before an Astros game, and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to remove a life-threatening blood clot in his neck. His condition brought a sudden end to his major league career at the age of 30.[3] His 313 strikeouts in 1979 remained an Astros franchise record until Gerrit Cole surpassed it on September 24, 2019, and he held the team's record for career strikeouts (1,493) until 1987. Two-time National League MVPs Johnny Bench and Dale Murphy both named Richard as the toughest pitcher they ever faced.[4][5]
In 1981, Richard attempted a comeback with the Astros, however this failed because the stroke had slowed down his reaction time and weakened his depth perception. He spent the next few seasons in the minor leagues before being released by the Astros in 1984. After his professional baseball career ended, Richard became involved in unsuccessful business deals and went through two divorces, which led to him being homeless and destitute in 1994. Richard found solace in a local church and later became a Christian minister.

......much more on his strange career in baseball which ended for reasons not his fault, and post-career tragedy, at Wikipedia.

Richard died in a Houston hospital on August 4, 2021.[96] According to his family, he was experiencing complications from COVID-19 infection.[97]

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He ordered the iconic scaling of Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima.


Dave Elliott Severance (February 4, 1919 – August 2, 2021) was a United States Marine Corps colonel. During World War II, he served as the commanding officer of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines and led his company in the battle of Iwo Jima. During the battle, Severance ordered his 3rd Platoon to scale Mount Suribachi and raise the flag at the summit.



Severance was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on February 4, 1919.[1][2] He was raised in Greeley, Colorado before briefly attending college at the University of Washington.[1] When he ran out of money for school, Severance enlisted in the Marine Corps. Upon graduating from boot camp, he served on board a Navy ship at sea. He was then assigned to the 8th Marine Regiment in San Diego before attending Paramarine training in July 1941.[3]

After the United States entered World War II, Sergeant Severance was sent to Officer Candidates School and commissioned as a second lieutenant. In 1943, Severance was deployed to the Pacific Theater with the Paramarines, and by November, his unit was taking part in the Bougainville campaign. At Bougainville, Severance proved himself in battle by leading his cut off platoon out of a Japanese ambush with minimal casualties.[3][4]
In January 1944, the Paramarines withdrew from Bougainville and returned to San Diego. In February, the Paramarines were disbanded and Captain Severance was reassigned to 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, where he was appointed the Easy Company commander.[3][5]

In September 1944, Severance and the rest of the 5th Marine Division left San Diego for Camp Tarawa, Hawaii.[6] In January 1945, the division left Camp Tarawa, stopping for a brief liberty at Pearl Harbor, before sailing west across the Pacific Ocean bound for Iwo Jima.[7]

Battle of Iwo Jima

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Mount Suribachi (pictured in 2001) is the dominant geographical feature of the island of Iwo Jima

At approximately 09:55 on February 19, 1945, Severance led Easy Company ashore with the twelfth wave at Green Beach One during the battle of Iwo Jima.[8] Easy Company landed unopposed and was in the assembly area on the beach for roughly 20 minutes before the defending Japanese finally opened fire on the invasion force.[9]

Easy Company's 2nd Platoon, led by Second Lieutenant Ed Pennell, landed off course and became separated. When Severance told Colonel Harry B. Liversedge that his company was not ready to move out off the beach because his 2nd Platoon was missing, Liversedge threatened Severance with a court martial if he did not find his missing platoon in the next five minutes. Severance located the platoon shortly after.[10]

Severance led Easy Company off the beach under heavy fire and played a role in helping to cut Mount Suribachi off from the rest of the island before the day was over. By the end of February 21, Severance's company was positioned at the base of Suribachi.[11]

On February 22, Navy planes bombed Suribachi and mistook Severance and his Marines for the Japanese. Severance was unable to have his location marked with flares as the bombs continued to fall closer to his position, and he radioed to Colonel Liversedge to stop the bombing. The planes were called off and Severance spent the rest of the day preparing for the assault up Mount Suribachi.[12]

On February 23, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, 2/28's commanding officer, ordered Severance to send one platoon up the face of Suribachi. Severance decided to send his 3rd Platoon up the mountain, along with 12 Marines from his Weapons Platoon. Severance ordered his executive officer, First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, to lead the platoon up Suribachi. Just before Schrier left with the platoon, Johnson handed him a 54 by 28 inch American flag and said "If you get to the top, put it up." The flag had been taken from the USS Missoula (APA-211) by the battalion adjutant, First Lieutenant George G. Wells. Severance later admitted that he thought he was sending the platoon up Suribachi to certain death.[13]

Schrier led his platoon up Suribachi and raised the flag Johnson had given him. James Forrestal, the Secretary of the Navy, arrived at the beach just as the flag was raised. The morale among the Marines greatly increased upon seeing the flag and Forrestal said to General Holland Smith that "the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years."[14] Forrestal was so excited that he then decided he wanted to keep the flag as a souvenir.[15]

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press

Marine Corps photo of the two flags on [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Suribachi]Mount Suribachi

When Lieutenant Colonel Johnson received word of Forrestal's wish, he angrily remarked "The hell with that!" Johnson wanted to retrieve the flag as soon as possible since he believed the flag belonged to his battalion. Johnson then sent his assistant operations officer, Second Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, down to the beach to secure a larger flag to raise over Suribachi.[16]

Johnson then ordered Severance to have his Marines lay a telephone wire up to the top of Suribachi. Severance ordered four Marines from 2nd Platoon, Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon Block, and Private First Classes Ira Hayes and Franklin Sousley to reel a telephone wire up the mountain from the battalion command post. He then sent his runner, Private First Class Rene Gagnon, to the battalion command post to obtain radio batteries for Schrier. As the five Marines arrived at the command post, Tuttle also returned to Johnson with a 96 by 56 inch flag which he had acquired from USS LST-779. Johnson handed the flag to Gagnon and then told Strank to raise the second flag and have Schrier "save the small flag for me."[17]
Strank then led the small group up Suribachi; where Strank, Block, Hayes, Sousley, and Private First Classes Harold Schultz[18] and Harold Keller[19] raised the second flag. The second flag raising was captured in the famous photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal. The first flag was brought back down Suribachi and returned to Lieutenant Colonel Johnson, who promptly placed it in the battalion safe.[20]

Severance continued leading Easy Company in the battle after the flag raising, advancing over the northeast end of the island. On March 1, Severance led his company in capturing a heavily defended ridge south of Nishi Village. He then held the ridge with his Marines despite a heavy barrage of enemy fire. For his actions that day, Severance was awarded the Silver Star.[21] Mike Strank and Harlon Block were among those killed that day from Easy Company.[22]

On March 2, Lieutenant Colonel Johnson was killed by a mortar round.[23] On March 17, Severance began receiving requests to identify the Marines in the photograph of the second flag raising. He ignored the requests as his company was still fighting the battle.[24] One of the flag raisers, Franklin Sousley, was killed a few days later on March 21.[25] Shortly after Sousley was killed, Severance learned that his wife had given birth to a stillborn baby.[26]

On March 26, Severance led his battered company off Iwo Jima. A total of 310 Marines and Navy corpsmen served with Easy Company during the battle. Only 50 walked off the island, an 84 percent casualty rate. Severance was never wounded during the battle, and he was the only Easy Company officer to walk off the line once the battle concluded.[3][27]

After the battle, Severance returned to Camp Tarawa with the 5th Marine Division. He began training a new company in preparation of the invasion of Japan, but then the war ended. He then took part in occupation duty in Japan in late 1945 as the executive officer of 2/28.[3]

After returning to the United States, Severance attended flight training in April 1946. During the Korean War, he flew 69 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross along with four Air Medals.[21] Severance also served during the Vietnam War before retiring from the Marines with the rank of colonel in May 1968.[3][28][5][29]

Upon retirement, Severance and his wife settled in La Jolla, California.[5] In the 1980s, he began searching for surviving Easy Company Marines and organized multiple reunions.[28] In the late 1990s, Severance gave a number of interviews to James Bradley while he was writing his book, Flags of Our Fathers.[30] Bradley's father, John Bradley, served with Easy Company as a corpsman and was originally identified as one of the flag raisers. Severance had also recommended John Bradley for the Navy Cross for his actions at Iwo Jima.[31]

On February 4, 2019, Severance celebrated his 100th birthday. The Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Robert Neller, sent a letter to Severance on his birthday, stating "you played a crucial role in shaping the warrior ethos of our Corps."[29]
Severance died on August 2, 2021, at his home in La Jolla. He was 102 years old.[1]

Severance is featured in the 2006 movie Flags of Our Fathers. In the movie, Severance is played by American actor Neal McDonough.[29] American actor Harve Presnell also played Severance as an older man in the film.