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Post by carllove on Aug 24, 2022 12:19:25 GMT
Hall of Fame QB Len Dawson, who had entered hospice care earlier this month, died. He was a 7-time All-Star, 2-time All-Pro, and won Super Bowl IV over the heavily favored Vikings. He was 87 years old.
www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/article264533391.htmlReally big, sad news here in Kansas City. He was not only a great quarterback, but was also a wonderful person. He was so loved here.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 24, 2022 13:00:47 GMT
Hall of Fame QB Len Dawson, who had entered hospice care earlier this month, died. He was a 7-time All-Star, 2-time All-Pro, and won Super Bowl IV over the heavily favored Vikings. He was 87 years old.
www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kansas-city-chiefs/article264533391.htmlReally big, sad news here in Kansas City. He was not only a great quarterback, but was also a wonderful person. He was so loved here. I remember Len Dawson well. A great one. Some great Chiefs teams, too. R.I.P. Lenny.
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Post by kds on Aug 25, 2022 19:55:03 GMT
I just heard this morning that Len Dawson was originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
So that means the Steelers cut both Johnny Unitas and Len Dawson who each went to the HOF, and collectively won four championships.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 31, 2022 11:22:00 GMT
Mikhail Gorbachev, one of the most important figures of the late 20th century and the man who initiated freedoms in the USSR that led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union, died at age 91.
Because of him, every generation younger than me was cursed in geography classes, having to learn not to identify the Soviet Union, but Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belorussia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kyrgystan, and Kazakhstan on a map (not to mention a unified Germany).
He also helped open Russia to the Western world. Unfortunately, his project spiraled and devolved into something neither he nor the West hoped for, and within two decades Russia became the corrupt autocracy it is now.
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Post by jk on Aug 31, 2022 17:04:03 GMT
He also helped open Russia to the Western world. Unfortunately, his project spiraled and devolved into something neither he nor the West hoped for, and within two decades Russia became the corrupt autocracy it is now.
The poor man must have been pretty disillusioned when he died. He was the cause of so much optimism and hope at the time. May he rest in peace:
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 31, 2022 17:34:58 GMT
He also helped open Russia to the Western world. Unfortunately, his project spiraled and devolved into something neither he nor the West hoped for, and within two decades Russia became the corrupt autocracy it is now.
The poor man must have been pretty disillusioned when he died. He was the cause of so much optimism and hope at the time. May he rest in peace: From what I've read, he was. Of course, the current dictator and other top officials have been defaming him for decades by this point, too. I suspect Gorbachev would have been much more welcome in Europe or the US than in his homeland these past decades, though I can understand why he wouldn't want to leave.
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Post by kds on Nov 12, 2022 2:26:07 GMT
Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman / Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series (as well as several other Batman animated projects) passed away at 66, following a short battle with cancer.
Batman: The Animated Series, which aired from 1992-95, is probably the most universally beloved version of The Dark Knight among Batfans.
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Post by kds on Feb 6, 2023 14:29:13 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on May 20, 2023 1:15:24 GMT
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on May 20, 2023 12:03:06 GMT
I was too young to see Jim Brown play, but not by much. When I started playing youth football in the late 1960s, Jimmy Brown's aura and reputation was still fresh. Our coaches told us that he was the running back, the football player to emulate. The film clips were out there, but obviously not to the extent they would be, or are today. So, when you carried the football, you put your head down and tried to hit the tackler as hard as you could, maybe include a forearm shiver, always keeping your legs pumping (ha ha). The one thing I really liked about Jim Brown was when he scored a touchdown, he simply walked over to the referee and handed him the football. He didn't need the attention. Due to Brown retiring at age 30, and the NFL season being extended, some of his records were surpassed, but I'm pretty sure whenever the topic comes up about the greatest running backs of all-time, Jim Brown will always be near, if not at, the top.
Jim Brown did many great things off the field, too. He was one of the first professional athletes to speak out about racial issues and civil rights, and he started a foundation to work with troubled youths, gangs, and prisoners. Unfortunately, Jim Brown was also arrested seven times, and some of those were for assault and battery, including domestic violence against women. It is somewhat hypocritical how Jim Brown continued to be honored and glorified right through the end of his life, when other athletes with a similar record would be vilified and ostracized.
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Post by Kapitan on May 21, 2023 12:28:59 GMT
British author Martin Amis died at 73. I stumbled across his Dead Babies around 2000, almost coincidentally. (The title, the sickly lime-green cover, and the fact that its imprint, Vintage International, had come through for me before.) It was like A Clockwork Orange, or the movie Kids, a surprisingly awful (but funny) look at the modern world. The above-linked BBC obituary describes it as "a weekend of debauchery [that] showcased his extraordinary, lacerating use of language." I tried a few of his other novels, and honestly none ever took hold. I also saw with some sadness as his reputation seemed to sink through the years, and he (like his good friends Saul Bellow and Christopher Hitchens) began being seen as a cranky, old conservative (even before he was particularly old). In the end, esophageal cancer took his life, as it had his friend Hitchens a decade earlier. Both were lifelong smokers. RIP to Martin Amis.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 7, 2023 19:21:50 GMT
RIP to Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, 81, better known by his pro wrestling moniker The Iron Sheik. He was one of many colorful characters my generation grew up watching every week, in my case first in the Minneapolis-based AWA and later in the eventually globally dominant WWF (now WWE). He was, as you'd guess, a "heel," or a bad guy. His character played on the then-new tensions between Iran and the USA, often competing against the All-American types like Sgt. Slaughter or Hulk Hogan. In real life, Vaziri had lived in America since the early '70s. Not just a pro wrestling entertainer, he was an accomplished wrestler (Greco-Roman wrestling), nearly making the 1968 Iranian Olympic team and working as an assistant coach for the 1972 U.S. Olympic team. A real-life tough guy, he was even a former bodyguard to the final pre-revolutionary Iranian shah. He married a Minnesotan in 1976 and as far as I know lived here at least part time ever since. www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/37812697/the-iron-sheik-pro-wrestling-legend-hall-famer-dies-81
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 31, 2023 17:54:37 GMT
RIP to Paul Reubens, best known for his childrens' character Pee-Wee Herman (and second-best known for being arrested masturbating in an adult theater), died of cancer at age 70. A statement from Reubens released by his publicist after he died said he privately had been battling cancer for seven years. His 1985 movie Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is, in my opinion, one of the greatest comedies of all time. Cowritten by Phil Hartman and directed by Tim Burton, I thought as a 9-year-old that it was one of the funniest things ever; and as a 47-year-old, I still think so. I also enjoyed to a lesser degree his Big Top Pee-Wee. His television series, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, was also both wildly popular and critically praised. If not for his aforementioned arrest, I suspect he'd have been held in high regard all of these past 40 years, rather than bubbling mostly just below the surface. apnews.com/article/pee-wee-herman-paul-reubens-dead-616484f62a62c4ac3e0cc46b02376dd8
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Post by kds on Jul 31, 2023 18:07:53 GMT
RIP to Paul Reubens, best known for his childrens' character Pee-Wee Herman (and second-best known for being arrested masturbating in an adult theater), died of cancer at age 70. A statement from Reubens released by his publicist after he died said he privately had been battling cancer for seven years. His 1985 movie Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is, in my opinion, one of the greatest comedies of all time. Cowritten by Phil Hartman and directed by Tim Burton, I thought as a 9-year-old that it was one of the funniest things ever; and as a 47-year-old, I still think so. I also enjoyed to a lesser degree his Big Top Pee-Wee. His television series, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, was also both wildly popular and critically praised. If not for his aforementioned arrest, I suspect he'd have been held in high regard all of these past 40 years, rather than bubbling mostly just below the surface. apnews.com/article/pee-wee-herman-paul-reubens-dead-616484f62a62c4ac3e0cc46b02376dd8Pee Wee Herman was a big part of my childhood. I have very fond memories of watching Pee Wee's Playhouse on Saturday Morning TV (it was the only show I watched on Saturday morning that was not a cartoon), watching Pee Wee's Big Adventure on TV and getting my very own VHS copy of it, and seeing Big Top Pee Wee in theaters when it was released. I haven't watched his TV show since I was a kid, but Pee Wee's Big Adventure holds up really well IMO. Big Top Pee Wee, not quite as much. It just didn't have that same sense of whimsy that Big Adventure did. There was a straight to Netflix Pee Wee movie a few years ago, but I never checked it out. He also had a bit part in Batman Returns, playing the father of Oswald Cobblepot (AKA The Penguin) alongside his Pee Wee's Big Adventure co-star Diane Salinger.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 31, 2023 18:35:02 GMT
I know who Pee Wee Herman was - I've seen clips, blips, and read articles - but I've never seen a complete movie or TV show. A quick question...I thought he rebounded after his "incident", though maybe never again reaching his previous popularity. I thought I remembered reading that a few celebrities came to his side and helped him with his comeback. Is that true?
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