Obituaries

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Tennis star Maria Bueno

Maria Esther Andion Bueno (11 October 1939 – 8 June 2018) was a professional tennis player from Brazil. During her 11-year career in the 1950s and 1960s (plus a two-year comeback in 1976–77), she won 19 Major titles (seven singles, 11 women's doubles, one mixed doubles), making her the most successful South American female tennis player in history. Bueno was the year-end number-one ranked female player in 1959 and 1960 and was known for her graceful style of play.

In 1960, Bueno became the first woman ever to win all four Grand Slam double titles in one year (three with Darlene Hard and one with Christine Truman).

Bueno began playing tennis at a very young age at the Clube de Regatas Tiete in Sao Paulo and, without having received any formal training, won her first tournament at age 12.[1] She was 14 when she captured her country's women's singles championship.
She first went abroad in 1957 at age 17 and won the Orange Bowl juniors tournament in Florida.[2][3] Joining the international circuit in 1958, Bueno won the singles title at the Italian Championships[a] and the first of her Grand Slam titles, capturing the women's doubles at Wimbledon with Althea Gibson.
The following year, Bueno won her first singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Darlene Hard in the final. She also won the singles title at the U.S. Championships after a straights set victory in the final against Christine Truman, earning the World No. 1 ranking for 1959 and the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award.[5] Bueno was the first non-North-American woman to capture both Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships in the same calendar year. In her native Brazil, she returned as a national heroine, honored by the country's president and given a ticker-tape parade on the streets of São Paulo.[6]
According to Lance Tingay of the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail and Bud Collins, Bueno was ranked in the world top ten from 1958 through 1960 and from 1962 through 1968, reaching a career high of World No. 1 in those rankings in 1959 and 1960.[7] The International Tennis Hall of Fame also lists her as the top ranked player in 1964 (after losing the final at the French Championships and winning both Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships) and 1966.

Bueno won the singles title at Wimbledon three times and at the U.S. Championships four times.[1] She was a singles finalist at the Australian Championships and the French Championships, losing both finals to Margaret Smith. Bueno reached at least the quarterfinals in each of the first 26 Grand Slam singles tournaments she played. This streak ended at Wimbledon in 1967 when she lost in the fourth round because of an arm injury.

As a doubles player, Bueno won twelve Grand Slam championships with six different partners. In 1960, she became the first woman to win the women's doubles title at all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same calendar year, partnered by Christine Truman at the Australian Championships and Hard at the French Championships, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Championships.[8]

At the 2006 US Open, Maria Bueno was invited to attend the rededication ceremony of the USTA National Tennis Center as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which took place on the first day of the event. Bueno and King were rivals in singles and, on occasion, doubles partners. According to Bueno, the only players invited were those who had won the US Open "more than twice" (she won it four times). At the same event, Bueno debuted as a commentator for SporTV, a Brazilian cable television sports channel. She commentated on the women's singles semifinals and final and the men's singles final as well as offering opinions during the live broadcast of the USTA's induction of Martina Navratilova and Don Budge in the "Court of Champions".

Bueno died on 8 June 2018, aged 78, at a hospital in São Paulo, Brazil where she was admitted for mouth cancer.[9]


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

[Bad Dog]

Here comes the state funeral. Good thing I don't work downtown.

[beechnut79]

Surprised there has been no mention here yet of Anthony Bourdain, host of TV's "Parts Unknown" who took his own life last week at age 61. Many didn't know that he had been suffering from mental health issues. Can envision a suicide prevention center bearing his name someday soon.

[David Horn]

(06-11-2018, 10:46 AM)beechnut79 Wrote: Surprised there has been no mention here yet of Anthony Bourdain, host of TV's "Parts Unknown" who took his own life last week at age 61. Many didn't know that he had been suffering from mental health issues. Can envision a suicide prevention center bearing his name someday soon.

… or Kate Spade for that matter.  At their level, I guess getting help with mental issues is career ending, so they run hard until they can't.

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(06-11-2018, 05:05 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(06-11-2018, 10:46 AM)beechnut79 Wrote: Surprised there has been no mention here yet of Anthony Bourdain, host of TV's "Parts Unknown" who took his own life last week at age 61. Many didn't know that he had been suffering from mental health issues. Can envision a suicide prevention center bearing his name someday soon.

… or Kate Spade for that matter.  At their level, I guess getting help with mental issues is career ending, so they run hard until they can't.

Such a condition as depression should not itself be shameful.

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A New York Times article might offer some hints on Anthony Bourdain:

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

The world of the chef and high-end eater has its glamour and mystique, but the business is far seedier than you might wish to recognize. The less that you know, the more you will like the reality. The truth is that the high-profile chefs are not nice people, most people in the business are the line cooks and dishwashers who do the grunt work under horrid conditions for low pay and with no recognition, and that there are inside secrets that owners and 'celebrity' chefs prefer that customers not know. Dining out? Any repast involving an animal recently alive involved cruelty, death, and decay. Bourdain was more journalist than chef, and journalists often know the dirty little secrets of business, politics, law, and sports that the general public would prefer to be blind to.

Quote:Anthony Bourdain entered the literary stage with an inside tip, delivered in the gruff whisper of a racetrack tout: Don’t order fish on Mondays.

It was the part that everybody remembered from his first published work, a long essay about the unglamorous and sometimes unsavory work of cooks and dishwashers that ran in The New Yorker in 1999 and that made it almost impossible for waiters to sell seafood between Sunday and Tuesday for at least a decade.

A close reader of Orwell, he modeled that first essay and the book that grew out of it, “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,” on Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London.” While other restaurant writers had helped build the cult of the creative, artistic chef, Mr. Bourdain made folk heroes out of the dishwasher and the line cook — a job description previously known only to restaurant employees. He described their lives and their day-to-day work in concrete, indelible detail.

.......

When kitchens were being wrapped in a shimmering gauze of glamour, Mr. Bourdain got busy unwrapping them, revealing the injuries and addictions, low wages and high tempers that took a toll on workers.

Among other things, he was one of the first writers to tell the dining public that many high-profile New York restaurants would cease to function without the work and talents of Mexican employees. It was almost a casual aside, yet it suddenly opened new subjects to the purview of food writing: immigration policy, labor conditions, racism.

......

And once he left kitchens behind for a career in travel television, he didn’t lead his camera crews on a tour of the world’s most luxurious resorts. He went to Detroit and the Bronx, Libya and Beirut.

... and as I best remember, Vietnam. As one who typically must resort to the ersatz experience of cooking something prepared for heating in a microwave oven, I could never quite relate to the experience of haute cuisine.

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Versatile Soviet/Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky

Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky, CBE (Russian: Генна́дий Никола́евич Рожде́ственский; 4 May 1931 – 16 June 2018[1]) was a Soviet and Russian conductor. People's Artist of the USSR (1976). Hero of Socialist Labour (1990).

(my comment: I loved his conducting when I was a conservative and was quite anti-socialist)

Gennady Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. His parents were the noted conductor and pedagogue Nikolai Anosov and soprano Natalya Rozhdestvenskaya. His given name was Gennady Nikolayevich Anosov, but he adopted his mother’s maiden name in its masculine form for his professional career so as to avoid the appearance of nepotism. His younger brother, the painter P.N. Anosov, retained their father's name.[2]

He studied conducting with his father at the Moscow Conservatory and piano with Lev Oborin. Already known for having conducted Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre at the age of 20, he quickly established his reputation. He premiered many works of Soviet composers, including Edison Denisov's Le soleil des Incas (Sun of the Incas) (1964),[3] as well as giving the Russian premiere of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Western premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony at the 1962 Edinburgh Festival.

He became general artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre in 2000, and in 2001 conducted the world premiere of the original version of Sergei Prokofiev's opera The Gambler.[4]

Not long afterwards he resigned, citing desertion by singers, production problems and hostile coverage by the Moscow press.[5]
Among the works dedicated to Rozhdestvensky are Sofia Gubaidulina's symphony Stimmen... Verstummen... and several of Alfred Schnittke's works, such as Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 8, and Symphony No. 9. Schnittke wrote of him:

"I once calculated that there are now some forty compositions written for Rozhdestvensky—either derived from his ideas or else he was the first to conduct them. I could not believe it, but it really is so. I could even say that nearly all my own work as a composer depended on contact with him and on the many talks we had. It was in these talks that I conceived the idea for many of my compositions. I count that as one of the luckiest circumstances of my life."[6]

Rozhdestvensky is considered a versatile conductor and a highly cultured musician with a supple stick technique. In moulding his interpretations, he gives a clear idea of the structural outlines and emotional content of a piece, combined with a performing style which melds logic, intuition and spontaneity.[2]

Conductor Rozhdestvensky is featured in the documentary Notes interdites: scènes de la vie musicale en Russie Soviétique (Bruno Monsaingeon, 2004, 55m 44s, English title: "The Red Baton") [1], which examines the hardships faced by musicians in the Soviet Union under Stalinism. In it, he describes the political situation and its impact on his life, as well as those of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Richter and other colleagues. The role of Tikhon Khrennikov, Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, is discussed extensively.

On a lighter note, the documentary features Rozhdestvensky discussing the art of conducting, and includes footage of masterclasses, rehearsals with students from the Moscow Conservatory and Zürich's Tonhalle orchestra, as well as snippets of Rozhdestvensky conducting Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, and Alfred Schnittke's Dead Souls.

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

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Richard Valeriani, television journalist

Richard Valeriani (August 29, 1932 – June 18, 2018) was a White House correspondent and diplomatic correspondent with NBC News in the 1960s and 1970s. He previously covered the Civil Rights Movement for the network and was seriously injured when hit in the head with an ax handle at a demonstration in Marion, Alabama, in 1965[1] in which Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler.[2]
In July 1962, he interviewed Marion King, the wife of Slater King, who had been beaten by policemen in Camilla, Georgia, while trying to take clothes to jailed civil rights protesters from Albany, Georgia.[3]

Valeriani portrayed himself as a reporter for CNN from the deck of the French aircraft carrier Foch in the 1995 film Crimson Tide, providing the opening newscast which sets up the plot.

As a participant in the events portrayed in the 2014 film Selma, Valeriani considered the film excellent and substantially accurate in presenting the role of media such as Roy Reed of The New York Times, but found the role of television underplayed.[4]


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

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Dutch Rennert, MLB umpire with a theatrical style of calling strikes.

Laurence Henry "Dutch" Rennert, Jr. (June 12, 1930 - June 17, 2018)[1][2][3] was an umpire in Major League Baseball who worked in the National League from 1973 to 1992.

Considered one of the game's most colorful characters,[by whom?] best known for his animated and loud strike calls;[4] similar to the NFL's colorful referee Red Cashion. A 1983 New York Times poll resulted in his selection as the NL's best umpire.[5] He wore uniform number 16 throughout his career.

Reaching the major leagues after umpiring in the Pacific Coast League from 1965 to 1973, Rennert umpired in six National League Championship Series (1977, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1990), two All-Star Games (1979, 1984), and three World Series (1980, 1983, 1989); he was behind the plate when the Oakland Athletics won the 1989 World Series.

He was also the home plate umpire on August 3, 1989 when the Cincinnati Reds set a major league record with 16 hits in the first inning of an 18-2 home victory over the Houston Astros,[6] and the first base umpire who ejected Cincinnati manager Lou Piniella in August 1990, causing Piniella to pull the first base bag from its mooring and fling it into right field twice.[7] After retiring, he headed a group of instructors which held baseball clinics in Paris and Munich in January 1993.[8] He has since participated regularly in the Los Angeles Dodgers' Adult Baseball Camp.
On called strikes to right-handed hitters, Rennert's style was to turn and face in the direction of the first-base dugout, raise his right hand and call "Strike!", take an exaggerated step forward with his left foot (keeping his right planted), and drop to his right knee as he pointed in that direction and called "one!" (or however many strikes there were, even on a called third strike). With left-handed hitters, he wouldn't step forward; he would squat to his right knee as he made the call.

In an April 20, 2012 interview on Comcast TV in Philadelphia, former National League President Bill White told local TV personality Larry Kane that an eye exam revealed that Rennert could not see out of his left eye and it couldn't be adjusted with glasses, and "I retired him nicely." White went on to say that he later saw Rennert in Vero Beach, Florida and White said Rennert told him he had done the right thing.

On September 26, 2015, umpire Tom Hallion paid tribute to Rennert (who was in attendance) by calling the first strike in the game between the Miami Marlins and the Atlanta Braves using Rennert's classic strike mechanic.[9]

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

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Koko, gorilla who established that Man is not the only Great Ape to use language:

Patterson reported that Koko's use of signs indicate that she mastered the use of sign language.[2] Koko's training began at the age of 1, and according to Patterson, she was able to use more than 1,000 signs, including giving people the finger.[17]

Patterson reported that Koko made several complex uses of signs that suggest a more developed degree of cognition than is usually attributed to non-human primates and their use of communication. For example, Koko was reported to use displacement (the ability to communicate about objects not currently present).[18] At age 19, Koko was able to pass the mirror test of self-recognition, which most other gorillas fail.[19][20] She had been reported to relay personal memories.[21] Koko was reported to use meta-language, being able to use language reflexively to speak about language itself, signing "good sign" to another gorilla who successfully used signing.[22] Koko was reported to use language deceptively, and to use counterfactual statements for humorous effects, suggesting an underlying theory of other minds.[23]

Patterson reported that she documented Koko inventing new signs to communicate novel thoughts. For example, she says that nobody taught Koko the word for "ring", but to refer to it, Koko combined the words "finger" and "bracelet", hence "finger-bracelet".[24]

Criticism from some scientists centered on the fact that while publications often appear in the popular press about Koko, scientific publications with substantial data are fewer in number.[25][26][27] Other researchers argued that Koko did not understand the meaning behind what she is doing and learns to complete the signs simply because the researchers reward her for doing so (indicating that her actions are the product of operant conditioning).[28][29] Another concern that has been raised about Koko's ability to express coherent thoughts through signs is that interpretation of the gorilla's conversation is left to the handler, who may see improbable concatenations of signs as meaningful. For example, when Koko signed "sad" there is no way to tell whether she meant it with the connotation of "How sad." Following Patterson's initial publications in 1978, a series of critical evaluations of her reports of signing behavior in great apes argued that video evidence suggested that Koko was simply being prompted by their trainers' unconscious cues to display specific signs, in what is commonly called the Clever Hans effect.[30][31][32][33][23][34]

A bonobo named Kanzi, who had learned to communicate using a keyboard with lexigrams, picked up some sign language from watching videos of Koko; Kanzi's researcher, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, did not realize he had done so until Kanzi began signing to anthropologist Dawn Prince-Hughes, who had previously worked closely with gorillas.[35]

Researchers at The Gorilla Foundation said that Koko asked for a cat for Christmas in 1983. Ron Cohn, a biologist with the foundation, explained to the Los Angeles Times that when she was given a lifelike stuffed animal, she was less than satisfied. She did not play with it and continued to sign "sad." So on her birthday in July 1984, she was able to choose a kitten from a litter of abandoned kittens. Koko selected a gray male Manx and named him "All Ball". Penny Patterson, who had custody of Koko and who had organized The Gorilla Foundation, wrote that Koko cared for the kitten as if it were a baby gorilla. Researchers said that she tried to nurse All Ball and was very gentle and loving. They believed that Koko's nurturing of the kitten and the skills she gained through playing with dolls would be helpful in Koko's learning how to nurture an offspring.[36][37]

In December of that same year, All Ball escaped from Koko's cage and was hit and killed by a car. Later, Patterson said that when she signed to Koko that All Ball had been killed, Koko signed "Bad, sad, bad" and "Frown, cry, frown, sad". Patterson also reported later hearing Koko making a sound similar to human weeping.[37]

In 1985, Koko was allowed to pick out two new kittens from a litter to be her companions. The animals she chose, she named "Lipstick" and "Smoky", were also Manxes.[38] Koko picked the name after seeing the tiny orange Manx for the first time. When her trainer asked the meaning of the name, Koko answered, Lips lipstick. Dr. Patterson was confused until she realized that Lips had a pink nose and mouth, unlike All Ball's gray markings. Koko picked Smoky's name because the kitten looks like a cat in one of the gorilla's books.

More recently, to celebrate her birthday in July 2015, Koko was presented another litter of kittens. Picking two, she named them Miss Black and Miss Grey.[39]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koko_(gorilla)

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Patriarch of the musical Jackson 5 family, Joe Jackson.

Joseph Walter Jackson (July 26, 1928 – June 27, 2018) was an American talent manager and patriarch of the Jackson family of entertainers that includes his children Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 2014.

Jackson began working with his sons' musical group in the early 1960s, first working with his three eldest sons, Jackie, Tito and Jermaine.[7] Younger sons Marlon and Michael eventually joined the backing band.[7] Joseph began enforcing long and intense rehearsals for his sons. At first, the group went under The Jackson Brothers.[7] Following the inclusions of Marlon and Michael in the group and Michael's increased vocal presence within the group, their name was changed to The Jackson 5.[7] After a couple of years performing in talent contests and high school functions, Joseph booked them in more and more respectable venues until they landed a spot at the renowned Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City.[8][9] On November 21, 1967, The Jackson 5 were signed by Jackson to their first professional contract with Gordon Keith, owner and first president of Steeltown Records in Gary, Indiana. The group's first single "Big Boy," with Michael as the lead singer, was released by Keith on January 31, 1968 on the Steeltown label.[10] "Big Boy" became a local hit and brothers became local celebrities after it was played on radio stations in the Chicago-Gary area.[7][11] Within the year, Jackson helped to land his sons an audition for Motown Records in Detroit.[7] The Jackson 5 were signed with Motown in March 1969.[12]

Jackson later relocated his family to California and supervised every recording session the group made for Motown.[7] The group began to receive nationwide fame after their first single for Motown, "I Want You Back", hit #1 following its release on October 7, 1969, followed by their first album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 in December 1969.[13] After the Jackson 5's first four singles, "I Want You Back" (The Jackson 5, 1969), "ABC" (The Jackson 5, 1970), "The Love You Save" (The Jackson 5, 1970), and "I'll Be There" (The Jackson 5, 1970) sold 10 million copies in 10 months, setting a world record for sales, it became clear to Jackson that his dream to make his sons the first African-American teenagers to become internationally known recording stars had come true.[13]

In 1973, wanting to reassert his control, Jackson had his family, including youngest son Randy, and daughters Rebbie, La Toya and Janet perform at casinos and resorts in Las Vegas, inspired by the success of fellow family act, The Osmonds.[14]

Joseph had also formed his own record label, Ivory Tower International Records and signed artists under his management in which they toured internationally with The Jackson 5 as opening acts in 1974.[15] In 1975, the Jackson 5, with the exception of Jermaine, left Motown and signed a lucrative deal with Epic Records. Michael Jackson had brokered a deal where they could eventually produce their own songs, leading to Motown retaining the Jackson 5 name, so they renamed themselves The Jacksons in 1976.[16]
In 1978, Joseph's youngest son, Randy, released his solo single "How Can I Be Sure" on Joseph's record label.[17] In 1982, Joseph established Janet Jackson's career at age 16 as a recording artist while managing her.[18] He financed the recording of his daughter's first demo then, arranged her a recording contract with A&M Records and began recording her debut album, overseen by him.[18]



More here.

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author Harlan Ellison



Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 27, 2018[5]) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in speculative fiction,[6] and for his outspoken personality.

His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. He was editor and anthologist for two science fiction anthologies, Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). Ellison has won numerous awards including multiple Hugos, Nebulas and Edgars.

Ellison moved to California in 1962, and subsequently began to sell his writing to Hollywood. He wrote the screenplay for The Oscar, starring Stephen Boyd and Elke Sommer. Ellison also sold scripts to many television shows: The Loretta Young Show (using the name Harlan Ellis),The Flying Nun, Burke's Law, Route 66, The Outer Limits,[14] Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Cimarron Strip, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Ellison's screenplay for the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" has been considered the best of the 79 episodes in the series.[citation needed]

In 1965, he participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.[15]
In 1966, in an article that Esquire magazine would later name as the best magazine piece ever written, the journalist Gay Talese wrote about the goings-on around the enigmatic Frank Sinatra. The article, entitled "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", briefly describes a clash between the young Harlan Ellison and Frank Sinatra, when the crooner took exception to Ellison's boots during a billiards game. Talese wrote of the incident, "And three minutes after it was over, Frank Sinatra had probably forgotten about it for the rest of his life—as Ellison will probably remember it for the rest of his life: he had had, as hundreds of others before him, at an unexpected moment between darkness and dawn, a scene with Sinatra."[16]

Ellison was hired as a writer for Walt Disney Studios but was fired on his first day after Roy O. Disney overheard him in the studio commissary joking about making a pornographic animated film featuring Disney characters. Ellison recounted this incident in his book Stalking the Nightmare, as the final part of an essay titled "The 3 Most Important Things in Life".[17][18]

Ellison continued to publish short fiction and nonfiction pieces in various publications, including some of his best known stories. "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (1965) is a celebration of civil disobedience against repressive authority. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (1967) is an allegory of Hell, where five humans are tormented by an all-knowing computer throughout eternity; the story was the basis of a 1995 computer game; Ellison participated in the game's design and provided the voice of the god-computer AM. Another story, "A Boy and His Dog", examines the nature of friendship and love in a violent, post-apocalyptic world and was made into the 1975 film of the same name, starring Don Johnson.[2]

Ellison served as creative consultant to the 1980s version of The Twilight Zone science fiction TV series and Babylon 5. As a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), he has voiceover credits for shows including The Pirates of Dark Water, Mother Goose and Grimm, Space Cases, Phantom 2040, and Babylon 5, as well as making an onscreen appearance in the Babylon 5 episode "The Face of the Enemy".[citation needed]

Ellison's 1992 short story "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" was selected for inclusion in the 1993 edition of The Best American Short Stories.[19]

In 2014 Ellison made a guest appearance on the album Finding Love in Hell by the stoner metal band Leaving Babylon, reading his piece "The Silence" (originally published in Mind Fields) as an introduction to the song "Dead to Me."[20]
Ellison and others have maintained his official website (harlanellison.com) for several years, however Ellison himself did not post there after 2015.[citation needed]

More here.

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Danseuse, choreographer of stage and screen Dane Gillian Lynne, OBE

Dame Gillian Barbara Lynne, DBE (née Pyrke; 20 February 1926 – 1 July 2018)[1] was a British ballerina, dancer, choreographer, actress, and theatre-television director, noted for her popular theatre choreography associated with two of the longest-running shows in Broadway history, Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. At age 87, she was made a DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2014 New Year Honours List.



Gillian Barbara Pyrke was born in Bromley, Kent, and was a precocious dance talent from an early age, teaming with her childhood friend Beryl Grey while still at school, and dancing to blot out the tragedy of the violent death (in a car crash along with Edward Turner's first wife) of her mother on 8 July 1939 in Coventry, when Lynne was just 13 years old.[2][3]

Lynne's gift for dancing was discovered by a doctor. She had been underperforming at school, so her mother took her to the doctor and explained about her fidgeting and lack of focus. After hearing everything her mother said, the doctor told Lynne that he needed to talk to her mother privately for a moment. He turned on the radio and walked out. He then encouraged her mother to look at Lynne, who was dancing to the radio. The doctor noted that she was a dancer, and encouraged Lynne's mother to take her to dance school.[4]

While dancing for Molly Lake's Company at the People's Palace, Lynne was spotted by Ninette de Valois and asked to join Sadler's Wells Ballet during World War II. With the opening of the Royal Opera House after the War she received her first major solo in Sleeping Beauty on the night of her 20th birthday. She went on to become an admired dramatic ballerina in the soon to be renamed Royal Ballet, renowned for her Black Queen in de Valois's Checkmate, Queen of the Wilis in Giselle and in roles created for her by Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpmann[citation needed].[5]

Leaving Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1951 she was an instant success at the London Palladium as the star dancer and subsequently in the West End in such roles as Claudine in Can Can at the Coliseum Theatre. She appeared in the film The Master of Ballantrae as Mariane, in which she was cast opposite Errol Flynn and directed by William Keighley.[6] She also appeared as both dancer and actress on early British Television.[7]


In her long career as a choreographer and director,Lynne worked on many productions including those from the Royal Opera House, Royal Shakespeare Company and English National Opera as well as many West End and Broadway shows.[3] In 1970 she choreographed and directed the Nottingham Playhouse production of the musical, Love on the Dole. Originally a novel by Walter Greenwood, it was made into a musical starring Eric Flynn and Angela Richards. In 1975 she arrived in Australia to create The Australian Ballet's first work expressly commissioned for television, The Fool on the Hill.[8] She may be best known for her work on the Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals Cats (1981), The Phantom of the Opera (1986) and Aspects of Love (1990).

She was also a prolific television choreographer and director notably for The Muppet Show series and winning the 1987 BAFTA Huw Wheldon Award for her direction and choreography of A Simple Man, which starred Moira Shearer. She choreographed the Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Secret Garden, which ran at Stratford in 2000 and then transferred to the West End, running at the Aldwych Theatre from February 2001 to June 2001.[9]
In 2002, along with Keith Rosenberg, Lynne choreographed the Sherman Brothers' stage musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (based on the 1968 film). It played in London, and later on Broadway in 2005, both times successfully. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang brought her back to the London Palladium after 50 years and she rehearsed cast changes for the show's National UK Tour. Lynne choreographed the 90 Minute Las Vegas Production of The Phantom of the Opera which opened in the Summer of 2006, directed I Want to Teach the World to Sing! Gala at Her Majesty's Theatre and musically staged The Imaginary Invalid for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in 2008. In September 2009, she was in New York City celebrating a Phantom of the Opera milestone at the Majestic Theatre. During this visit, she worked in a rehearsal with the company of the 2009–2010 international tour of Cats, produced by Troika Entertainment.[citation needed]

In October 2011, Lynne choreographed the 25th Anniversary production of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall. She was both choreographer and director for the musical Dear World, which played an engagement at The Charing Cross Theatre, London, in February and March 2013, and starred Betty Buckley.[10] Her production company[11] continues to produce television, film and stage productions.


More at Wikipedia.

[Marypoza]

RIP to Duke the Bush Beans dog. I guess now we'll we'll never know what the Secret Recipe is 

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Ed Schultz, left-wing commentator:

FARGO – Longtime broadcaster Ed Schultz died of natural causes Thursday, July 5, at his home in Washington, D.C., according to RT America, where he was the host of “The News With Ed Schultz.” He was 64.

"We at RT America are sad to announce the passing of Edward Andrew Schultz. Ed Schultz passed quietly early morning on July 5 at his home in Washington, D.C. This announcement comes as a shock to all of us here at RT America," said the channel's official statement.
Schultz, a local and national radio and television personality who never shied away from controversy, got his start as a sports broadcaster for Fargo-Moorhead television stations in the early 1980s, including time as sports director at WDAY-TV. He eventually moved to talk radio, including WDAY radio, dominating the local airwaves as a conservative firebrand in the 1990s.
However, he later said his views changed and he became a Democrat.

In 2004, Schultz took his radio show nationwide. Then in 2009, he moved to national television, becoming a prime-time progressive voice on MSNBC.

“I’m back in prime time at 8 o’clock where I belong,” Schultz said at the time.

As news of his death spread, people shared their thoughts on a man who often waded into controversial issues.
“I am very sad to hear of Ed’s death,” Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in a statement. “He was one of the most talented and passionate broadcast personalities I’ve ever known. I appeared many times on his radio and television broadcasts, even filling in for him when he hosted a show on KFGO. Ed always treated me with respect and kindness and I will miss him. Kris and I extend our love to Wendy and their family and will be praying for God’s healing touch as they grieve and remember Ed.” 

“We are devastated by the news of the sudden death of our brilliant anchor, one of the best TV-Journalists in America, Ed Schultz,” said RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan.


“Ed was more than a colleague, he was a close and true friend. He was a big-time professional and a tough fighter. Between us I always called him a ‘gladiator.’ He would never give up; he was always a winner. He was tough on a lot of young journalists in RT America’s newsroom; he was a mentor to a few,” said RT America News Director Mikhail Solodovnikov. “My sincere condolences go out to his wife, family and all fans, who watched his amazing show every night. We lost one of the best and most honest journalistic voices in America. We lost a legend.”

With RT, Schultz hosted a half-hour broadcast called “The News With Ed Schultz.” The most recent episode of his program was available on the RT website on July 2.

Schultz was happy for the opportunity when he accepted the job.

WDAY-TV, ABC-6. Fargo

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French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann:

Claude Lanzmann (French: [lanzman]; 27 November 1925 – 5 July 2018) was a French filmmaker known for the Holocaust documentary film Shoah (1985).

Lanzmann was born in Paris, the son of Paulette (Grobermann) and Armand Lanzmann.[1] His family was Jewish, and had immigrated to France from Eastern Europe.[2] He was the brother of writer Jacques Lanzmann. He attended the Lycée Blaise-Pascal (fr) in Clermont-Ferrand. His family went into hiding during World War II.[3] He joined the French resistance at the age of 17 and fought in the Auvergne.[4] Lanzmann opposed the French war in Algeria and signed the 1960 antiwar petition Manifesto of the 121.[5]
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From 1952 to 1959 he lived with [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir]Simone de Beauvoir. In 1963 he married French actress Judith Magre. They divorced in 1971, and he next married Angelika Schrobsdorff, a German-Jewish writer.[6] He divorced a second time and married Dominique Petithory in 1995. He was the father of Angélique Lanzmann, born in 1950 and Félix Lanzmann (1993–2017[7]).
Lanzmann was the chief editor of the journal Les Temps Modernes, founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and lecturer at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.[8] In 2009 he published his memoirs under the title Le lièvre de Patagonie ("The Patagonian Hare").

Lanzmann died on 5 July 2018 at his Paris home, after having been "very very weak" for several days. He was 92. His death came one day after the theatrical release of Les Quatre Soeurs (The Four Sisters), which features testimonials from four Holocaust survivors not included in his Shoah.[9][10]

From Wikipedia.

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This murderous cult leader can roast in Hell!

Shoko Asahara, founder of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo and mastermind behind the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system — and a number of other horrific crimes in the 1980s and ’90s — was executed on Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

According to government sources, six other condemned Aum members — Tomomasa Nakagawa, 55, Kiyohide Hayakawa, 68, Yoshihiro Inoue, 48, Masami Tsuchiya, 53, and Seiichi Endo, 58, and Tomomitsu Niimi, 54, — were also executed.

In total, Asahara, 63, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto, was found guilty for his role in 13 crimes that led to the deaths of 27 people that later was increased to 29. In the Tokyo subway attack, 13 people were killed and more than 6,000 injured.

The death penalty for the guru of the now-disbanded cult was first handed down by the Tokyo District Court in February 2004 and finalized by the Supreme Court in September 2006.

The crimes he was convicted of also include the murders of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and their 1-year-old son in November 1989 and another sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in June 1994. That attack killed eight and left about 600 injured.

Asahara’s execution was delayed while the lengthy court proceedings involving other key Aum followers accused of complicity in the crimes played out, all of which concluded on Jan. 25 of this year.

In addition to Asahara, 191 Aum members were indicted over a number of criminal acts — including murders, attempted murders, abductions and the production of deadly nerve gases and illegal automatic rifles. Twelve had their death penalty sentences finalized.

The hanging of Asahara has in some ways closed the curtain on the shocking crimes and dramatic events staged by Aum. But it also leaves several critical questions unanswered, because even during his trial, Asahara never explained the actual motivations for the crimes.

Japan Times.

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I don't understand even the names of his mathematical achievements, but he sounds important:



Andrei Suslin (Russian: Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Су́слин, sometimes transliterated Souslin) was a Russian mathematician who contributed to algebraic K-theory and its connections with algebraic geometry. He was a Trustee Chair and Professor of mathematics at Northwestern University.[1]

He was born on 27 December 1950 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He received his PhD from Leningrad University in 1974; his thesis was titled Projective modules over polynomial rings.[2]

In 1976 he and Daniel Quillen independently proved Serre's conjecture about the triviality of algebraic vector bundles on affine space.

In 1982 he and Alexander Merkurjev proved the famous Merkurjev–Suslin theorem on the norm residue homomorphism in Milnor K2-theory, with applications to the Brauer group.

Suslin was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1978 and 1994, and he gave a plenary invited address at the Congress in 1986. He was awarded the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Algebra in 2000 by the American Mathematical Society for his work on motivic cohomology.[3]

In 2010 special issues of Journal of K-theory[4] and of Documenta Mathematica [5] have been published in honour of his 60th birthday.

He died on 10 July 2018.[6]

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

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Retired NHL goalie on a championship team: drowned

Retired NHL goaltender Ray Emery, who helped the Ottawa Senators reach the final in 2007 and won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013, drowned in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. He was 35.

Hamilton Police said Emery was identified as the victim of a swimming accident Sunday morning. Staff sergeant Paul Evans said police received a call just after 6 a.m. that an adult swimmer did not surface and that the Niagara Police assisted in the recovery effort.
Emery’s body was recovered just before 3 p.m. Sunday. Hamilton Police said a cause of death would be confirmed after a post-mortem.

Nicknamed “Razor” for his aggressive style, Emery played parts of 11 seasons with the Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks from 2003-2015. He helped the Senators reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2007 and won it as a backup with the Blackhawks in 2013.

“Ray was an outstanding teammate and an extremely gifted goaltender,” Flyers president Paul Holmgren said. “Ray’s talent, work ethic and determination helped him enjoy a successful 11-year NHL career.”

Emery battled avascular necrosis, the same serious hip ailment that ended two-sport star Bo Jackson’s career. He and fellow Blackhawks netminder Corey Crawford combined to win the William Jennings Trophy for allowing the league’s fewest goals during the lockout-shortened 2013 season and finished seventh in Vezina Trophy voting.

https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2018/07...rt+News%29

(but it is off an AP wire. Breitbart is not a reliable source, but it is probably OK for a sports story).

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First wife of what may have been the greatest entertainer of the 20th century (FRANK SINATRA):

The church in Jersey City where they married held a portent in its very name: Our Lady of the Sorrows.

It was the thick of the Depression — 1939 — and they were poor, so poor that just two days after the wedding they returned to their jobs, she as a secretary in a printing plant, he as a singing waiter.

She was an ordinary young woman, a plasterer’s daughter from a large Italian-American family, born in Jersey City in 1917. Her given names were Nancy Rose, her maiden name Barbato.

He was a far-from-ordinary young man, a scrappy, skinny kid who played the ukulele and sang, born to a small Italian-American family in Hoboken in 1915. His given names were Francis Albert. By now you know his surname.

For a dozen tumultuous years Frank and Nancy Sinatra were man and wife — a swath of time that included hearth, home and children for her and, for him, unparalleled fame and fortune, record deals, motion pictures and a string of extramarital romances that were grist for the gossip columns.

What is surprising, given the circumstances, is that for nearly half a century — from the end of their marriage in 1951 until his death, at 82, in 1998 — Nancy Barbato Sinatra, who died on Friday at 101, remained her ex-husband’s cherished friend and quiet confidante, displaying a fealty that was noteworthy even for a woman of her time.

More at the New York Times.