Reads for Wednesday

 Obituary:  Jonathan the tortoise, the oldest living land animal, has died at the age of 193.  

Snip:

The tortoise spent most of his life living in St. Helena, a British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean.

According to Guinness World Records, Jonathan is thought to have been born around 1832, as he was estimated to be at least 50 years old in 1882 when he was brought to St. Helena from the Seychelles.

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Trump made a fool out of himself today when he attended a USSC hearing regarding so-called birthright citizenship.  He was so humiliated, he left the hearing early.

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Trump 

A Few Reads for Tuesday

 Here are a couple of cold cases that were solved through genetic genealogy:

A sixty-year-old cold case murder has been solved with the identification of the suspect.

Snip:

The San Rafael Police Department said in a press release that Laurel James Switzer was considered a suspect during the original investigation, but police could not conclusively connect him to the crime. Switzer knew Rudolphs, and investigators believed there had been a dispute between Switzer and the family, which may have led to the homicide, police said.

Cigarette butts believed to have belonged to Switzer were collected at the crime scene, but DNA testing did not exist at the time, and forensic science was limited. Switzer left the Bay Area for South Lake Tahoe and died by suicide just days after the killing, police said. 

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An arrest was made some 36 years after a notorious double murder case in Houston.

Snip:

On Thursday, the Harris County District Attorney's Office announced that 64-year-old Floyd William Parrott has been charged with murder in connection with the killings.

Court records show Parrott was 28 years old at the time of the murders. He is accused of slashing the throats of the young couple after they had spent time parked in the secluded area following a night out dancing.

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Some Sunday Reads

It's tough times when the GOP canvassers are being run off by GOP voters with threats to call the cops.

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Pope Leo has some harsh words for that dipshit Secretary of Whatever Pete Hegseth.

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Millions showed up at the "No Kings" demonstrations yesterday.

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Obituary:  Actress Mary Beth Hurt, 79, known for her stage work as well as film work, has died.  She had lived in an assisted living facility.  She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2015, when she was still in her sixties.

Snip:

Raised in Iowa, where one of her babysitters was future actress Jean Seberg, Hurt made her big-screen debut in Interiors (1978), Woody Allen’s first full foray into drama. She made a lasting impression as Joey, a would-be artist outshined by her sisters, successful poet Renata (Keaton) and well-known TV actress Flyn (Kristin Griffith). The daughters come together after their mother (Geraldine Page) suffers a mental breakdown.

Though it was Hurt’s first feature, she more than held her own in a powerhouse cast that included E.G. Marshall, Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston and Richard Jordan.

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No Kings, Southern Oregon

 A few pictures from the events in Medford and Ashland in southern Oregon:

Saturday Whatever

 There appears to be no limit to male depravity.

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Tiger needs to have a driver and get his driver's license revoked.

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Friday Whatever

 Obit:  Darrell "Dash" Crofts, 87, part of the popular 1970s soft rock duo Seals & Crofts, died Wednesday.  He died of heart failure in a hospital, having had heart issues for years.

There is some "controversy" over just which year Crofts was born.  Most sources say he was born in 1938, while some say he was born in 1940.  He was older than his partner Jim Seals, who died at the age of 80 in 2022.

It is most likely he was born in 1938 because he met Jim when he was a senior in high school while Jim was in the eighth grade.  That would check out as Jim was born in 1942.

Regardless, both of them had been around in the music business for many, many years, starting in the late 1950s, before hitting the big time in the early 1970s.  Crofts was born in Texas just as Jim had been.

People:

Born in Cisco, Texas, Crofts began playing the piano at the age of 5 before taking up the drums by the time he turned 10. By high school, he played drums in a band, where he met Jim Seals, who was playing saxophone at the time.

After high school, Crofts and Seals relocated to Southern California and became members of The Champs from 1958 to 1965.

The duo began working together under the name Seals & Crofts in 1969 and by the '70s, they landed hits including "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond Girl."

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Thursday Reads

 That development should stop the most blatant forms of cheating in the Olympics.

The DSDs are a way bigger problem, but this had to be done.  Certain countries were blatantly recruiting males in order to gain an edge in female Olympic competition.

Thank goodness the travesty is over with.

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The right just won't give up on trying to overturn Obergefell, and this is as good a reason to just let marriage die the hell out.

They always use kids as the excuse, but it is really all about their shameless conformity and think everybody should live the way they do.

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Monday on the Obituary Page

 Today her close friend, Stacey Souther, announced that actress Valerie Perrine, 82, had died after battling Parkinson's disease for 15 years.  She had a highly successful career as an actress following a number of years being a Las Vegas showgirl, with her peak acting years during the 1970s.  She starred in a pair of Superman films and had been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the biopic Lenny.  However, her career went south after being featured in one of the all-time worst films, Can't Stop the Music, where she was paired with then-Bruce Jenner as a romantic lead.  It was a stinker of a film, ideally watched in a double feature with the equally awful Xanadu.  Both flops were released in 1980 and have a cult following today among bad film fanatics.

Perrine when young.

Perrine said being featured in that turkey wrecked her career and she had moved to Europe in search of decent parts.  She eventually returned to the U.S. and continued her career  although on a much less prominent note until she couldn't work anymore following her 2011 diagnosis.  Despite having made a lot of money as an actress, every penny she ever saved went for medical expenses.  Souther now has a Go Fund Me to raise money to pay for her final expenses, including burial  so she can be laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.

Hollywood Reporter:

Valerie Ritchie Perrine was born on Sept. 3, 1943, in Galveston, Texas. Her mother, Renee, was a dancer from Scotland, and her father, Kenneth, was a career military man who would retire from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel.

She spent her childhood following her father’s military postings, which took the family to Japan, Paris and many stops in between

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Actor Nicholas Brendan, 54, died over the weekend from natural causes.  He had battled ill health for years.

Snip:

After suffering a heart attack in August 2022, Brendon revealed months later in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.

He also had cauda equina syndrome, which occurs when “an injury or herniated disk compresses nerve roots at the bottom of your spinal cord,” often causing pain, weakness and incontinence, according to the Cleveland Clinic. 

Here’s everything Brendon and his loved ones said about his congenital heart defect and cauda equina syndrome before his death. 

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Life sure as hell isn't fair.