Thursday Reads

If you are in the medical field and have to work with patients with coronavirus, version 2019, you might just as well face cashing your chips and writing your will.
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Obituary:  Longtime Harlem Globetrotter Fred "Curly" Neal, 77, has died.

"Between 1963 and 1985 - before the internet and cable television really existed-it was Curly Neal and the Harlem Globetrotters who first introduced the sport of basketball to millions of people around the world for the first time," the Globetrotters tweeted. "It was Curly's magical ball-handling, shooting, charismatic smile and iconic bald head, in more than 6,000 games in 97 countries, that made them start to play and fall in love with the game."

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Another obit to note:  Noted architect and writer Michael Sorkin, 71, has died.  He died following a battle of the dread COVID-19:

Since the 1980s, Sorkin served as the architecture critic for The Village Voice in New York City while also contributing critical works to publications like Architectural Record and The Nation, among others. In 2009, Sorkin published Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, a set of reflections focused on the 20-minute walk Sorkin took everyday from his home in Greenwich Village to his studio in Tribeca. He has published nearly a dozen books in total, covering topics that range from urbanism to the Israeli border wall and issues of sustainability, urban planning, and urban history. Sorkin’s Variations on a Theme Park, a collection of contributed essays published in 1992 that highlights the changing nature of American urbanism, continues to be a touchstone of contemporary architectural theory and discourse read by architecture students across the globe.

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The U.S. is indeed number one--in total cases of the coronavirus.
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File this death under "believe it or not."

It isn't fake news.  Other sources reported his death, which is how Raw Story got it.
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Another obituary:  Singer and songwriter Phil Phillips, only 94, known for his hit song "Sea of Love," has died.

Born John Philip Baptiste in Crowley, Louisiana, Phillips recorded his most famous song in 1959 with his backing group, the Twilights. “Sea of Love” gained momentum after a Baton Rouge DJ gave it heavy airplay, and it eventually topped the R&B chart and made it to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. But Phillips never released it on an album, having been offered a record deal that he was unhappy with, and he only received $6,800 in royalties for the song. Phillips’ other songs include “What Will I Tell My Heart” and “The Evil Dope,” an anti-drug spoken word that became a cult classic.