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From the LA Times: Hollywood legend Lynn Stalmaster, whose name was synonymous with casting for more than 60 years, died at his home Friday of natural causes, according to a statement from his family. He was 93.

It can't be understated how important Stalmaster was. One example, according to the article, he was the first casting director to get a onscreen credit. He had almost 400 credits when he died.

@The Old Man posted:

From the LA Times: Hollywood legend Lynn Stalmaster, whose name was synonymous with casting for more than 60 years, died at his home Friday of natural causes, according to a statement from his family. He was 93.

It can't be understated how important Stalmaster was. One example, according to the article, he was the first casting director to get a onscreen credit. He had almost 400 credits when he died.

I guessing he didn't do it the Weinstein way.

@wine+art posted:

I offer Limbaugh the same sympathy he offered to people who were less fortunate than he, the same as he offered to people who didn’t pick their parents like he must have thought he did, the same as he offered and felt for minorities, or different faith’s and the same kindness and compassion he offer to the LGBT community.

Well said.

From the NY Times, "Kent Taylor, Texas Roadhouse Founder and C.E.O., Dies at 65
Mr. Taylor died by suicide after suffering from post-Covid-19 symptoms, including severe tinnitus, the company said."

As one with tinnitus since I was 20 I can understand. Fortunately mine is not severe enough to be heard during waking hours. Some of the stories about people who continue to have Covid symptoms are truly horrifying.

@flwino posted:

He deserves a high rep from the US.  At least Harris.  Harry better show up for his own skin, and bring his wife.  The family feud has gone on too long.

Harry is going, but Meghan not.  Apparently her doctor advised against travel given her pregnancy.

Given the restrictions on attendance, only family and friends are being invited.  Even Boris Johnson will not attend, so all the more unlikely that anyone from the Biden administration will go.

Laurent Vaillé, founder of Grange des Pères,  Friday April 30, apparently of an accident on the farm. He was only 57 years old. Apparently frosts with temperatures dropping to -12 resulted in the loss of this year's entire crop as well.

I've always loved Grange des Pères. I've always thought it was one of the purest definition of a cult wine there was. Small, under the radar, hard to get and wonderful.

Architect Helmut Jahn, hit while riding a bicycle in St. Charles. I can't tell you how important his career was to me during the 80s as a volunteer for the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Some of my favorite, lesser known works, include the not obvious until pointed out, Evanston office building with a nod to Wrigley Field, the U of C Chiller Plant and believe is or not the Student Resrouce Center at the College of Dupage.

And how many times has billhike driven by the big N?

N Building. Naperville IL by the tollway. In a sea of otherwise unimaginative office buildings this one stands out. | Naperville, Building, Commercial real estate

@The Old Man posted:

Architect Helmut Jahn, hit while riding a bicycle in St. Charles. I can't tell you how important his career was to me during the 80s as a volunteer for the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Some of my favorite, lesser known works, include the not obvious until pointed out, Evanston office building with a nod to Wrigley Field, the U of C Chiller Plant and believe is or not the Student Resrouce Center at the College of Dupage.

And how many times has billhike driven by the big N?

N Building. Naperville IL by the tollway. In a sea of otherwise unimaginative office buildings this one stands out. | Naperville, Building, Commercial real estate

Surely hundreds, and I’ve also seen it from hiking at nearby Herrick Lake forest preserve. Big loss for the architectural world, though 81 and still riding a bicycle is a pretty decent run. I wonder what the draw to St. Charles is for non-local celebrities. Thinking Donnie Wahlburg and Brian Wilson.

@sunnylea57 posted:

Oh no! I thought he’d last forever.

I was stunned to read this in the LA Times this morning about Hitchcock's TV show, “While Hitchcock oversaw production, Lloyd and fellow producer Joan Harrison were largely responsible for the creative quality of that show." This is a quote from Mark Quigley, manager of research and study center for the UCLA Film and Television Archive and it's not remotely true. Hitchcock was mostly a figurehead in the show who came in to do the intros and the outros. He did direct a number of episodes but he was hardly involved with the day to day operation of the show--he was busy making his greatest movies including Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho.

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13 US service personnel and all those Afghans. I do believe we had to get out but it was certainly piss poor planning.

Not that it matters but my office was near Camp Pendleton.  I've seen a lot of Marines over 20 years. As a Chicagoan for half my life, and being a middle class Jew from Skokie, I really never came in contact with anybody in the military. Since then I've become friends with a number of Marines through board gaming.  Two of them I'm continuing to be friends with for about 10 years now. Also my daughter is dating a Marine. So when I used to hear of these things I never really thought about anything but the number; I never put a face to it. But now I can see those faces and it's very sad.

@The Old Man posted:

13 US service personnel and all those Afghans. I do believe we had to get out but it was certainly piss poor planning.

Not that it matters but my office was near Camp Pendleton.  I've seen a lot of Marines over 20 years. As a Chicagoan for half my life, and being a middle class Jew from Skokie, I really never came in contact with anybody in the military. Since then I've become friends with a number of Marines through board gaming.  Two of them I'm continuing to be friends with for about 10 years now. Also my daughter is dating a Marine. So when I used to hear of these things I never really thought about anything but the number; I never put a face to it. But now I can see those faces and it's very sad.

About the first post I would agree with you on.  God Bless them.  Great individuals.  I hope their families and friends can find peace.

Anti Vax radio hosts:

"Marc Bernier died Saturday of COVID-19 after a three-week battle, his bereft radio station announced. He was 65.

Bernier had been afflicted three weeks earlier after hosting radio talk shows in Daytona Beach for 30 years, and after dubbing himself 'Mr. Anti-Vax.' He also said the U.S. government was 'acting like Nazis' for insisting people get the shot.

Bernier’s death was the third this month among conservative talk show hosts outspoken against the coronavirus vaccine.

He was preceded eight days earlier by Phil Valentine, a 61-year-old conservative talk radio host in Tennessee who mocked coronavirus vaccines but changed his tone after getting sick. He battled the disease for a month.

Also having a change of heart, before his stopped, was Dick Farrel, a former Newsmax commentator and all-around coronavirus-denying, vaccine-resistant right-wing radio talk show host. The South Florida radio host died of COVID-19 complications on Aug. 6, at age 65, after exhorting fans not to get the vaccine, calling the entire coronavirus crisis as scam-demic.'”

Both Farrel and Valentine urged friends and followers to get the vaccine as the disease closed in on them and said they regretted not doing it themselves.

Bernier, speaking to a guest about a week after the Pfizer jab was approved for emergency use in December, was adamantly against it, though it wasn’t clear how he felt at the end.

'Are you kidding me? Mr. Anti-Vax? Jeepers,' Bernier said in answer to the question of whether he would take the shot. 'I’m not taking it.'"

@Rothko posted:

He apparently had multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells that suppresses the body's immune system.  So, although fully vaccinated, he was in a high risk category, at greater risk of harm from Covid.

Yeah, the initial stories all just said covid or associations with covid, but I would imagine that the cancer made it such that even the vaccine wasn't enough to save him.

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Dean Stockwell. To get an idea of how long he's been around he was Nick Charles Jr. in Song of the Thin Man.

Last edited by The Old Man