Walt changed the game of college and probably pro basketball with his style of play. With his huge hands and brilliant dribbling and passing he was able to move the ball in what would have been called "palming" in years prior to his playmaking. He had such control over the ball between dribbles that he was able to make lightning moves and pin point passes in the middle of a dribble. He was the first of a breed now called point guards. His backcourt partner, Gail Goodrich, was what we now call a shooting guard.

One of my favourite authors, Anne McCaffrey (Wiki), has passed way.

I lived in Pern as a kid. My life was better because Anne McCaffrey was on the planet. I'm sad tonight that she is gone.

I moved there after college. Namaste, Anne.

What a wonderful legacy. She made a difference in my life.

Paolini's Alagesia is not the warm, human place that Pern is. The dragons are every bit as nice, however. Novik's Temeraire is a whole different kind of dragon and the series an interesting alternate history line.

I once read (but cannnot confirm) that almost every human culture has had the mythos of the dragon embedded somewhere in its past.

She once wrote that her book that she loved the most and often cried when reading was The Ship Who Sang. In a way, the concept of that series seems more realistic to me than does Pern.

She also wrote about cats. Special cats.

Her son Todd has co-authored with her and is now writing single-author novels of Pern. They are the same but very different. Maybe he can grow into her humanity. She left a lot of herself with us.

Yes, her books are for "young adults." They can be enchanting if one is somewhat older, however. The social structure and mores of the weyrs of Pern are particularly interesting. I think that she might be among the first writers for high school kids who wrote of the varieties of human sexuality as freely and compassionately as she did.

I'm still digesting this news.

Anne McCaffrey was and is my all time favorite author. At one time I had all of her books. Every one that she ever wrote. I may have to restock my collection.

If any of you read the blog "Outside The Beltway", James Joyner's wife died on Sunday.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/kimber ... 0-to-2011/

and an update:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/kim-update/

How tragic! 41, died unexpectedly in her sleep. There but for the Grace of God... (I'm in tears...Pandora is in a particularly tragic string of depressing women, which didn't help.)

Harry Morgan died. He was 96. You remember him as Col. Potter in MASH. I loved him in that role. RIP.

One of the greatest things about the iTunes store and AppleTV is that I can download entire seasons of Dragnet and watch them to my heart's content here. My Singaporean and Philippino friends think we're a little crazy (and it's funny to hear them say, "hey, they copied the "dum, di dum dum" theme music), but me and my American friends here love it.

RIP Officer Gannon.

Christopher Hitchens
1949-2011

He was dead wrong on the Iraq war, but right on just about everything else. Ironic he died on the day the war "officially" ended.

I'll miss his scathing takedowns of religions - all of em. Chris, I hope you're kicking Jeebuz in the nuts somewhere tonight.



http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/ ... s-19492011
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/n ... ce=dlvr.it

.

Christopher Hitchens left us much by which to remember him and learn from him. In this series of videos, Hitchens makes a point that needs repeating: Mother Teresa of Calcutta sustained poverty, maltreated the ill or failed to treat them at all, and cherished their suffering. The money that was donated to her could have gone towards buying antibiotics and other medicines that would have saved lives that were lost within her Houses for the Destitute and Dying. Catholic Charities would have been a worthy and effective recipient. Indeed, many orders of nuns would have been worthy recipients. Instead, Mother Teresa is now on the fast track to sainthood. It is this sort of message that Hitchens would like to be perpetuated after his death: there is much cruelty done under the guise of religion.

Part 1 of 3

I have always been wary of religious missionaries. They ain't doing what they do simply out of the goodness of their hearts, IMO, it's all a big membership drive, in most cases.

Need a hospital? Need a water treatment plant? Here's some food, but first, read this bible, conveniently translated into your heathen language. Sign this acceptance of the items set down in it, and we'll get right on that food, hospital and water thing.

The fundies hate the UN because they see it as competition, IMO. "Hey, these starving brown people are ours!!!"

Sorry for the cynicism, just one of the things that burns my ass. Don't get me started on Catholic Charities and their some of their adoption practices, either.

Religion and war were two of man's worst inventions. And each feeds the other.

I loved reading his books and listening to him speak.

I feel a great loss today.

RIP, Hitch. I hope you are finally at peace.

What I would give to be a flower in the room when he passed. I read that at the moment of Steve Jobs' phasing* he said "Oh, wow! Oh, wow!". My dad, an agnatheist, said "Oh my god!". What, oh what did Hitch say?




* fascinating autocorrect of passing

I do not think that Hitch wanted us to be at peace. He wanted us to be constantly aware of the lies, hypocrisy, manipulations, and deceptions that surround us every day. If he had felt that we had a good chance of doing that, then he died in peace.

Vaclev Havel, leader of the Velvet Revolution, has died.

That would be a loss for the world at any age.

One thing you have to give the old Soviet thugs, though, is they always had excellent taste in what enemies to persecute to look as bad by comparison as possible.

I've been kicking around something very similar in my head for a while, that the two great failings of humans are armies and religion.

Just as two great glories of humans are altruism and spirituality. We see them in armies and sometimes in religion.

For some reason that reminded me of Forever: a Novel by Pete Hamill.

Man's greatest atrocities also seem to bring the best out in him. A reason why the species is not long for this Earth. And why Man's passing will be both celebrated and mourned.

Cheetah





Throwing poop! He was a TeaBagger!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101411267

.

Wow, 80. Good going, Cheetah. RIP