Rich

Before I move on to things I did in August, let’s make an attempt to get more up to date on the ever popular celebrity death watch. This will cover May through July. I intend to do August and September next week and then I’ll be caught up for, uh, maybe a few hours.

Celebrity Death Watch - May 2025: Ruth Buzzi was a comedian, best known for appearing on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Jill Sobule was a singer-songwriter, whose biggest hit was “I Kissed a Girl.” James Baker was the drummer for various punk rock groups, including Beasts of Bourbon. Stephen Fabian was a fantasy and science fiction illustrator. Nate Holden was a member of the Los Angeles City Council. John Edward sang with The Spinners. Richard Garwin was the author of the first hydrogen bomb design. Junior Byles was a reggae singer. Norma Meras Swenson co-founded the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and co-authored Our Bodies, Ourselves, a book that was essential reading for women of my generation. Roger Nichols was a songwriter whose songs included “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Times of Your Life.” George Wendt played Norm on Cheers. Mary Katharine Gaillard was the first tenured female physicist at Berkeley. Susan Brownmiller wrote the book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape which raised awareness of the impact of rape on our society. Phil Robertson was the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty Robertson family. Robert Jarvik developed an artificial heart. George E. Smith was a co-inventor of the charge-coupled device and shared in the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics. Loretta Swit played “Hot Lips” Houlihan on M*A*S*H.

David Souter was a Supreme Court Justice from 1990 through 2009. George Bush appointed him, thinking he’d be a reliable conservative and he was opposed by both NOW and NAACP at the time. However, in part because of his respect for precedent and because of his recognition that all Supreme Court decisions have impacts on actual people, he came to be considered a liberal justice. He was probably the greatest intellectual of the people who’ve served on the Supreme Court in my lifetime and I had a lot of respect for him.

Charles Strouse was the composer of several musicals, including Bye Bye Birdie , Applause, and Annie. My favorite of his collaborations with Lee Adams was It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman. An interesting bit of trivia is that he was Frank Loesser’s rehearsal pianist.

George Leitmann was a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. I studied optimal control and game theory with him.

Gerry Connolly was my Congresscritter, starting in 2009. While I generally agreed with his positions, I detested his use of autodialers.

Celebrity Death Watch - June 2025: Fred Espenak was an astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center, known for his eclipse predictions. Dennis Waitley was a motivational speaker. Frederick Forsyth wrote thrillers, including The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File. David H. Murdock owned Castle & Cooke and Dole Food Company. Sly Stone was a musician and songwriter. Jonathan Mayers co-founded the Bonnaroo and Outside Lands music festivals. John Robbins wrote Diet for a New America, which seems ironic for a descendant of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream dynasty. Mary Alice Torrance Malone was the heiress to the Campbell Soup Company. Ron Taylor was a relief pitcher for the 1969 “Miracle” Mets and later went to medical school, ending up a team physician for the Toronto Blue Jays. Charles Burrell was a bass player who was the first African American to be a member of a major American symphony. Sir Francis Graham-Smith was the astronomer royal from 1982-1990. Frederick W. Smith founded FedEx. Mick Ralphs played guitar for Mott the Hoople and Bad Company.

Surely you don’t need me to tell you who Brian Wilson was. But, in case you forgot, he sang with The Beach Boys (and on his own) and wrote songs like “Good Vibrations” and had a couple of very well publicized mental breakdowns. During a short period of the time that I lived in Venice, California (in the late 1980’s), there was a club a block or so from my apartment that played surf music for dancing on weekend afternoons. I still miss that place.

Bobby Sherman was an actor and pop singer. I had a huge crush on him when I was a pre-teen. My best friend and I would rush home to watch him in the TV show Here Come the Brides. And I am sure my whole family was sick of listening to me playing the 45 of “Julie, Do Ya Love Me.”

Bill Moyers was a journalist and political commentator. He had also been White House press secretary for most of a year under LBJ.

Celebrity Death Watch - July 2025: Alex Delvecchio was a Hall of Fame hockey player for the Detroit Red Wings. Jimmy Swaggart was a television evangelist. Richard Greenberg was a playwright, best known for Take Me Out. David Kaff was an actor, best known for playing the keyboard player in This Is Spinal Tap. Martin Cruz Smith wrote the novel Gorky Park. Dave Cousins was the lead singer of Strawbs. Robert Fuller co-founded The Hunger Project. Connie Francis was a pop singer, probably best known for covering “Who’s Sorry Now?” Jack McAuliffe founded New Albion Brewing Company, considered the first American microbrewery of the modern era. Edwin Feulneer founded the right wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation. Malcolm-Jamal Warner was an actor, best known for playing Theodore on The Cosby Show. Chuck Mansion was a flugelhornist and composer. Hulk Hogan was a professional wrestler. Cleo Laine was a jazz singer. Wallis Annenberg was a philanthropist who used her inherited wealth to support a variety of educational and arts organizations. Cecile Dionne was the fourth of the Dionne quintuplets to die, leaving just her sister Annette. Ryne Sandberg played second base, primarily for the Chicago Cubs, and later managed the Phillies.Allan Ahlberg wrote a lot of children’s books, many of which were illustrated by his late wife, Janet. Paul Mario Day was the original lead vocalist of Iron Maiden. Robert Wilson wrote the libretto for the opera Einstein on the Beach, which is probably better known for its music by Philip Glass.

Alan Bergman was a songwriter. He and his wife, Marilyn (who died in 2022), wrote lyrics for pieces by several composers, notably Marvin Hamlisch and Michel Legrand. Some of the songs they are known for include “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “The Way We Were,” “Yellow Bird,” and “In the Heat of the Night.”

Ozzy Osborne headed up the group Black Sabbath. I’d say he was a colorful character, but black is technically not a color. Incidents like him biting the head off a bat are, alas, more memorable than any of his music, in my opinion.

Tom Lehrer was best known for his humorous / satirical songs. I was raised on his work. My father regularly brought home comedy records and Lehrer was part of the rotation, along with Allan Sherman and various spoken word recordings like “You Don’t Have to Be Jewish.” Some of Lehrer’s most popular songs include “The Elements,” “The Vatican Rag,” and “The Masochism Tango.” I also saw the off-Broadway show “Tomfoolery,” based on his songs. By the way, I had forgotten at first that he was on my ghoul pool list but remembered in time to collect my 2 points.

After the conclusion of the NPL Con on Sunday morning, I got together with my friend, Melissa, who I’d met in December 2023 on the Aranui cruise to the Marquesas. We spent a lovely afternoon going to the Walker Art Center, which I had never managed to get to on my previous trips to Minneapolis.

Here’s a piece by Robert Rauschenberg, who is as famous for his relationship with Jasper Johns as for his art.



Edward Hopper is one of my favorite artists and I find his work instantly recognizable.




I had not heard of Gala Porras-Kim before, but I was quite intrigued by this series by her, which this is a small part of. These are all done with colored pencil, but they look 3-dimensional.



We did also go outside. The best known piece at the Walker is Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg, another artist whose work is easy to identify. We had to wait a little while to get a picture without a horde of people around it.



We also did plenty of non-art related talking, including reminiscing about the Aranui and talking about other travel things. And we had mocktails at the Cardamom Cafe at the museum. I had a very tasty drink called solea, which had pineapple, sumac, lime, and ginger beer. Overall, it was a lovely afternoon. Afterwards, Melissa drove me to the hotel near the airport where I was spending the next couple of nights.

I spent Monday going back to the Mall of America. Melissa had pointed out to me that it was previously the site of Metropolitan Stadium, which had been the home of the Twins (and the Vikings) from 1956 to 1981 when they moved to the Metrodome. In memory of that, there is a red chair bolted to the wall that marks the longest home run ever hit at that stadium (520 feet, hit by Harmon Killebrew).



There is also a marker showing where home plate had been.



I also did some general browsing. The only thing I was at all tempted by, however, was a yarn store, which had some high quality yarn, e.g. Malabrigo and Nori, but nothing I can’t get at home.

On Tuesday, I went to Saint Paul. I’ve been there before, so didn’t feel the need to go back to the state capitol and state museum. The weather was pleasant enough to spend some time walking around downtown. Another friend had mentioned the Peanuts statues in downtown Saint Paul, so I did photograph some of those. (Charles Schulz spent much of his childhood there.)





The main reason I went to St. Paul was, however, to go to a St. Paul Saints game. They’re the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins and play at CHS Field. The ballpark was pleasant and I enjoyed the game, especially since the WooSox (BoSox affiliate, based in Worcester, Massachusetts) won. I also ran into two NPL people there.



All in all, I had a nice trip. My flight home went smoothly, too. I wish I could say the same about some of my travels in August.