Second, from Derek Hunter on the meltdown of the Democrats. I know I seem to be beating a dead horse with my reporting of what I see my “normal” democratic friends are saying, but his last paragraph is worth considering:
“Let them melt, let them freak. Enjoy it while you can. But be on guard – the lunatic arguing with the garbage can be amusing to watch from afar, but the odds are high they will turn violent toward anyone they see as taking the garbage can’s side at some point. Unstable people rarely pull up from that nosedive, they more frequently hit the side of the mountain and take as many people as they can with them.”
On the passing of actor Gene Hackman, his wife, and dog under strange circumstances, it occurred to me how much I liked the man no matter what role he played. If the eyes are indeed a window into the soul, his were intelligent and kind. While he played a villain very well, his eyes never really convinced me. RIP old man.
he was only really a villain in superman, and he did give a wry turn as Lex Luthor, well perhaps the Poseidon adventure where he was another scoundrel, they tried to make him a villain in Crimson Tide, when he was as seasoned as Denzel is now,
physicsguy, that Schlichter article summarizes the American situation with Ukraine very well.
In the last appeal of leftist lawfare to reach scotus, Roberts left open the temporary restraining order gambit. Now a leftist district judge, played this gambit with a “temporary” restraining order requiring the president to spend money. Roberts finally had to step in and issued a temporary delay of the temporary delay.
I first saw Hackman in The Conversation, when it was released. An unconventional film for Hackman was Heartbreakers (2001). It’s a sex comedy wrapped in a con artist story. Hackman plays a complete goof of a confidence artist’s mark. Sex comedies can be a little creepy sometimes IMO, but I found this one to be fun.
________
My late wife & I lived in Carmel by the Sea in the 90’s and we used to walk Carmel beach with our dog, often. If one continues northward over some rocks, you end up on the Pebble Beach Links beachfront. Just before you cross over to Pebble Beach, there is this huge property with a castle-like mansion built along the low cliff’s edge. We wondered, “Who lives there?” Years later, after moving out of Carmel, there was a newspaper article that the property had been owned by Gene Hackman for many years and had just been sold. It’s at the end of the street Carmel Way.
Hackman as Little Bill Daggett in Unforgiven was pretty villainous.
physicsguy – Of the 10 things that Schlicher sets out, I think that 3 is debatable, but the rest have been true for at least 18 months, most for longer than that.
Newsmax has run profiles of hackman recently growing up in the depression his lifelong friendship with dustin hoffman and one other who were counted out as stars in acting achool his regrets of his mother passing before he hit the big time
Chris Plante told this story on his radio show today:
Decades ago, a friend was visiting Plante in LA (his first trip there), and Plante was showing his friend a ritzy area near Santa Barbara, driving a little above the speed limit. A Mercedes 450SL roared up behind at a very high speed, laid on the horn, and almost hit Plante’s Honda Civic. Still laying on the horn, the Mercedes passed extremely close, then paused, and the driver glared and made a forceful gesture with his middle finger. There was no other traffic around.
Recognizing the driver, Plante calmly remarked “That’s Gene Hackman.”
Plante said that was his only encounter with GH, and described him as “fun, but kind of intense.”
That Hackman dropped out of school at 16 and lied about his age to join the Marines, was among the last to be stationed in China before Mao took over, watched as his father waved good bye and abandoned the family at age 13, and lost his mother to alcoholism when she burned up in a house fire, maybe all those things was what I mistook for kindness in his eyes, but was instead sad acceptance and perseverance.
Re: Gene Hackman
I didn’t realize he lived in Santa Fe when he died. The story doesn’t sound right.
I’m sad to hear it. Hackman was one of my favorite Hollywood actors.
I loved him in “Heist” (2001), a great twisty film by David Mamet with Hackman as the criminal mastermind.
The same year he played the eccentric father in Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums,” which seemed to be Anderson’s tribute to J.D. Salinger’s Glass family.
Then, there’s “Hoosiers,” where Hackman played a basketball coach on his last chance, trying to bring his team together and make a comeback. A great sports film.
And “French Connection” I and II.
Boy, once I start remembering Hackman’s films…
Hackman’s death is now labeled “suspicious.”
EPSTEIN FILES JUST DROPPED, FBI Has Gone ROGUE, AG Letter Says FBI COVERING UP Epstein CRIMES
As a young chess player I was riveted by Spassky’s climb to winning the World Championship in 1969, then his epochal match with and loss to Bobby Fischer in 1972.
Spassky was truly a brilliant, all-around player. Not as good as Fischer at Fischer’s best, but in 1972 no one was. Fischer’s Patton-like march through the candidate matches, then the championship has never been equaled.
Spassky was my favorite player and he was the most human of chess grandmasters I can think of. Great sense of humor. He was also a class act.
Fischer was doing his prima-donnaish best to self-destruct in 1972 and Spassky could have won on a technicality when Fischer didn’t show for the second game. But Spassky insisted on playing the full match.
Not only that, when Fischer won Game 6 with perfect, remorseless play, Spassky stood and joined the applause for Bobby. Spassky stood by his friendship with Fischer even after Fischer more or less went mad.
Spassky didn’t care so much for life in the Soviet Union. When he got the chance he moved to France and married a French woman. Good for him!
Here’s a great funny interview with Spassky:
________________________________________
Interviewer: In the second showcase match against Fischer in 1992 the two of you received an unheard of fee of five million dollars. What happened to that money?
Spassky: I bought my family and friends eight flats. Why did I need so much money? As long as I was fed and clothed. I’m a man of few needs.
Keep in mind that Spassky almost starved to death as a child in WW II.
Spassky has left this life??! Dear me.
Strange that you should mention this, huxley; I had been thinking of Karpov this morning.
With huxley on Fischer and Spassky, do spend rime with the former’s biopic, “Pawn Sacrifice.”
The NYTimes attempted to say the film argued that Fischer was Cold War’s victim. Because of the US government.
But watching this trip down memory lane means observing how very much Fischer’s madness was willful and a destruction self-induced. As so often, the Times is just needlessly tendentious.
Are the archives broken here? A saved comment from 2/16/2025 shows “Sorry, no such page.” All saved have been showing the same lately…have to do a search to find them.
The NYTimes attempted to say the film argued that Fischer was Cold War’s victim. Because of the US government.
TJ, Philip Sells:
Wow. What an uninformed, partisan opinion. It was so clear that Fischer was a troubled kid from a single-mother family and he seized upon chess with a ferocity which went beyond obsession. His adult chess friends and mentors kept quietly nudging Bobby, even as a teen, to seek help. Of course Fischer would have none of that.
Naturally I loved Bobby. His lone American stand against the Soviet Chess Machine wasn’t just a myth and it wasn’t paranoia that the Soviet players colluded against him. But the monumental effort did seem to break his fragile brain.
In retrospect I am persuaded Fischer would likely have lost to Karpov in 1975 and Fischer would have been absolutely shattered. Karpov was the hot young player with a cold positional style. Karpov just did not get rattled or make mistakes. He would have been Fischer’s most dangerous opponent in a match.
After beating Spassky and winning the World Championship, Fischer had nowhere to go but down and that was his all he had and he couldn’t risk it. If he had lost, I suspect he would have deteriorated even more quickly.
A truly tragic story.
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Two good articles over a townhall this morning.
First from the often excellent Kurt Schlichter on a realpolitik lesson vis Ukraine:
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2025/02/27/10-hard-facts-about-ukraine-and-nato-n2652796
Second, from Derek Hunter on the meltdown of the Democrats. I know I seem to be beating a dead horse with my reporting of what I see my “normal” democratic friends are saying, but his last paragraph is worth considering:
“Let them melt, let them freak. Enjoy it while you can. But be on guard – the lunatic arguing with the garbage can be amusing to watch from afar, but the odds are high they will turn violent toward anyone they see as taking the garbage can’s side at some point. Unstable people rarely pull up from that nosedive, they more frequently hit the side of the mountain and take as many people as they can with them.”
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2025/02/27/the-liberal-meltdown-continues-and-is-glorious-but-also-dangerous-n2652900
On the passing of actor Gene Hackman, his wife, and dog under strange circumstances, it occurred to me how much I liked the man no matter what role he played. If the eyes are indeed a window into the soul, his were intelligent and kind. While he played a villain very well, his eyes never really convinced me. RIP old man.
he was only really a villain in superman, and he did give a wry turn as Lex Luthor, well perhaps the Poseidon adventure where he was another scoundrel, they tried to make him a villain in Crimson Tide, when he was as seasoned as Denzel is now,
physicsguy, that Schlichter article summarizes the American situation with Ukraine very well.
In the last appeal of leftist lawfare to reach scotus, Roberts left open the temporary restraining order gambit. Now a leftist district judge, played this gambit with a “temporary” restraining order requiring the president to spend money. Roberts finally had to step in and issued a temporary delay of the temporary delay.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/02/u-s-forced-to-pay-2-billion-in-foreign-aid-by-midnight-under-district-court-order-unless-scotus-intervenes/
I first saw Hackman in The Conversation, when it was released. An unconventional film for Hackman was Heartbreakers (2001). It’s a sex comedy wrapped in a con artist story. Hackman plays a complete goof of a confidence artist’s mark. Sex comedies can be a little creepy sometimes IMO, but I found this one to be fun.
________
My late wife & I lived in Carmel by the Sea in the 90’s and we used to walk Carmel beach with our dog, often. If one continues northward over some rocks, you end up on the Pebble Beach Links beachfront. Just before you cross over to Pebble Beach, there is this huge property with a castle-like mansion built along the low cliff’s edge. We wondered, “Who lives there?” Years later, after moving out of Carmel, there was a newspaper article that the property had been owned by Gene Hackman for many years and had just been sold. It’s at the end of the street Carmel Way.
Hackman as Little Bill Daggett in Unforgiven was pretty villainous.
physicsguy – Of the 10 things that Schlicher sets out, I think that 3 is debatable, but the rest have been true for at least 18 months, most for longer than that.
Newsmax has run profiles of hackman recently growing up in the depression his lifelong friendship with dustin hoffman and one other who were counted out as stars in acting achool his regrets of his mother passing before he hit the big time
Chris Plante told this story on his radio show today:
Decades ago, a friend was visiting Plante in LA (his first trip there), and Plante was showing his friend a ritzy area near Santa Barbara, driving a little above the speed limit. A Mercedes 450SL roared up behind at a very high speed, laid on the horn, and almost hit Plante’s Honda Civic. Still laying on the horn, the Mercedes passed extremely close, then paused, and the driver glared and made a forceful gesture with his middle finger. There was no other traffic around.
Recognizing the driver, Plante calmly remarked “That’s Gene Hackman.”
Plante said that was his only encounter with GH, and described him as “fun, but kind of intense.”
That Hackman dropped out of school at 16 and lied about his age to join the Marines, was among the last to be stationed in China before Mao took over, watched as his father waved good bye and abandoned the family at age 13, and lost his mother to alcoholism when she burned up in a house fire, maybe all those things was what I mistook for kindness in his eyes, but was instead sad acceptance and perseverance.
Re: Gene Hackman
I didn’t realize he lived in Santa Fe when he died. The story doesn’t sound right.
I’m sad to hear it. Hackman was one of my favorite Hollywood actors.
I loved him in “Heist” (2001), a great twisty film by David Mamet with Hackman as the criminal mastermind.
The same year he played the eccentric father in Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums,” which seemed to be Anderson’s tribute to J.D. Salinger’s Glass family.
Then, there’s “Hoosiers,” where Hackman played a basketball coach on his last chance, trying to bring his team together and make a comeback. A great sports film.
And “French Connection” I and II.
Boy, once I start remembering Hackman’s films…
Hackman’s death is now labeled “suspicious.”
EPSTEIN FILES JUST DROPPED, FBI Has Gone ROGUE, AG Letter Says FBI COVERING UP Epstein CRIMES
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/02/epstein-files-just-dropped-fbi-has-gone.html
RIP Boris Spassky
As a young chess player I was riveted by Spassky’s climb to winning the World Championship in 1969, then his epochal match with and loss to Bobby Fischer in 1972.
Spassky was truly a brilliant, all-around player. Not as good as Fischer at Fischer’s best, but in 1972 no one was. Fischer’s Patton-like march through the candidate matches, then the championship has never been equaled.
Spassky was my favorite player and he was the most human of chess grandmasters I can think of. Great sense of humor. He was also a class act.
Fischer was doing his prima-donnaish best to self-destruct in 1972 and Spassky could have won on a technicality when Fischer didn’t show for the second game. But Spassky insisted on playing the full match.
Not only that, when Fischer won Game 6 with perfect, remorseless play, Spassky stood and joined the applause for Bobby. Spassky stood by his friendship with Fischer even after Fischer more or less went mad.
Spassky didn’t care so much for life in the Soviet Union. When he got the chance he moved to France and married a French woman. Good for him!
Here’s a great funny interview with Spassky:
________________________________________
Interviewer: In the second showcase match against Fischer in 1992 the two of you received an unheard of fee of five million dollars. What happened to that money?
Spassky: I bought my family and friends eight flats. Why did I need so much money? As long as I was fed and clothed. I’m a man of few needs.
–Boris Spassky, “I knew the openings badly” (2012)
https://www.chessintranslation.com/2012/01/spassky-i-knew-the-openings-badly/
________________________________________
Keep in mind that Spassky almost starved to death as a child in WW II.
Spassky has left this life??! Dear me.
Strange that you should mention this, huxley; I had been thinking of Karpov this morning.
With huxley on Fischer and Spassky, do spend rime with the former’s biopic, “Pawn Sacrifice.”
The NYTimes attempted to say the film argued that Fischer was Cold War’s victim. Because of the US government.
But watching this trip down memory lane means observing how very much Fischer’s madness was willful and a destruction self-induced. As so often, the Times is just needlessly tendentious.
Are the archives broken here? A saved comment from 2/16/2025 shows “Sorry, no such page.” All saved have been showing the same lately…have to do a search to find them.
The Putinization of America
The NYTimes attempted to say the film argued that Fischer was Cold War’s victim. Because of the US government.
TJ, Philip Sells:
Wow. What an uninformed, partisan opinion. It was so clear that Fischer was a troubled kid from a single-mother family and he seized upon chess with a ferocity which went beyond obsession. His adult chess friends and mentors kept quietly nudging Bobby, even as a teen, to seek help. Of course Fischer would have none of that.
Naturally I loved Bobby. His lone American stand against the Soviet Chess Machine wasn’t just a myth and it wasn’t paranoia that the Soviet players colluded against him. But the monumental effort did seem to break his fragile brain.
In retrospect I am persuaded Fischer would likely have lost to Karpov in 1975 and Fischer would have been absolutely shattered. Karpov was the hot young player with a cold positional style. Karpov just did not get rattled or make mistakes. He would have been Fischer’s most dangerous opponent in a match.
After beating Spassky and winning the World Championship, Fischer had nowhere to go but down and that was his all he had and he couldn’t risk it. If he had lost, I suspect he would have deteriorated even more quickly.
A truly tragic story.