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.

Saturday Reads

 JD Vance continues to brag about his sex life with his wife instead of his rumored couch.

He still looks like a couch potato with a beard and moustache.

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Obituary:  Former FBI head Robert Mueller, who was the sixth director of that agency (thanks to J. Edgar Hoover hogging the job for 48 years (1924-1972) until his death), died yesterday.  He was 81, and while no cause of death was given, he had been dealing with Parkinson's disease for years.

Snip:

Mueller spent much of his adult life in public service. At a time when many young men were trying to avoid serving in Vietnam, Mueller not only volunteered for the U.S. Marines Corps after graduating from Princeton University, but spent a year waiting for an injured knee to heal so he could serve. He was awarded a Purple Heart after being shot while leading a platoon to rescue American soldiers under attack by the Vietcong.

Mueller later earned a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He worked as a litigator in San Francisco before serving in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco, then as an assistant U.S. attorney in Boston.

A Few Reads for Friday

Yes, those who voted for him really are that stupid. 

They are just like their cult leader, and they identify with him.

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Obit:  Martial arts icon and actor Chuck Norris, 86, has died.  He just celebrated his birthday ten days ago.

I never saw his films or paid much attention to him, let alone paid much attention at all to his political beliefs.  He was a lightning rod in some quarters.

Snip:

Though a mostly non-verbal tough guy was his go-to role on screen, offscreen he established philanthropies for children and veterans, became a nationally-syndicated health and fitness columnist, got active in Republican politics, and wrote about 10 books including not just martial arts manuals, but two memoirs, two novels, and a conservative activist handbook called Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America.

At his home in Texas, he continued to work out and train well into his 80s. And though mostly retired in recent years, he was amused to find himself the subject of internet memes, "Chuck Norris Facts" that celebrated his supposed toughness with hyperbole and exaggeration.

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No cause of death was given.  He had been in good shape as recently as his birthday a couple of weeks ago, but he had a sudden hospitalization in Hawaii and died.

Some Thursday Reads

 Lots of people are still in denial about the late Cesar Chavez being a piece of shit rapist.

During his lifetime, he might have been the most politically powerful Latino in the United States and certainly one of the most visible.  It would have been impossible for any woman to have spoken out against him, especially Dolores Huerta, who was every bit as important a figure in organizing farm workers has Chavez.

There should be lessons to be learned from these allegations.

Snip:

It shouldn’t have taken 60 years for these women to be heard. It shouldn’t have taken decades for these women to feel as though their experiences could be validated. We certainly shouldn’t have waited until 30 years past Chavez’s death to learn of their abuse and their trauma—a point at which real justice and accountability are rapidly diminishing prospects. These women have watched as the country has venerated a man they knew to be their abuser and elevated him to the highest annals of our civil rights history. They should never have carried such a terrible burden for so much of their lives.

I can’t think of a single woman in my life who hasn’t been assaulted, manipulated, or groomed by men they’ve trusted. Just this last week, I have read through conversations of women detailing their own assaults, sharing deeply painful memories in an effort to get readers to understand how this culture of violence and manipulation invades every space we walk into. I, myself, have been assaulted by people I thought I could trust on numerous occasions since I turned 18. Just as was the case for Dolores Huerta, two of the assaults I suffered resulted in pregnancies. My most recent assault was in 2022. This happens with startling regularity.

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Wednesday Reads

 Peter Thiel is literally one of the biggest scumbags in the world, if not THE biggest.  Frank Schaeffer, in one of his podcasts, talked about the latest antics this batshit crazy billionaire of Palantir notoriety pulled in Rome.

By the way, Thiel has his degrees, including a law degree, from Stanford University (his Palantir partner in crime, Alex Karp, also has a JD from Stanford).   Not that it confers intellect, for it certainly doesn't in his case.

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Although long dead, Cesar Chavez has taken a beating as of late.  His reputation is probably shot to shit for good.

Dolores Huerta is an unimpeachable source.  Of course, there are many others.

NYT article

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Some Reads for Monday

 What a hell of a thing for Trump to say, even for him.

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Well, some people are getting some good information about those tariffs.

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In case you missed it, and I did because I lost the antenna connection, here is the list of the Oscar winners.

This year marked the 98th event.  

The first was held in 1929, two years following the release of The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson.   It was a part-talking picture but it was mostly silent.  The inaugural awards covered films that were released between August 1, 1927 and August 1, 1928.  Wings, an excellent war film and late silent (with synchronized sound), was the first to win Best Picture.  It was also believed to have been lost for decades, but fortunately it was found years ago (1992 to be exact) at a Paris archive and has been released on home video.

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Cathedral Hills Hike

 After about three years, I returned to the Cathedral Hills network of hiking trails, located just outside of Grants Pass, Oregon.  I was in a group of eight who signed up for the hike as part of the Medford Parks and Recreation hiking program.  I included the hike leader and driver of the van in the count.

Some photos I took today.  The wildflowers were just starting to come out.