User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Page 3 of 6 FirstFirst 123456 LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 53

Thread: 2017 Obituaries of Note

  1. #21
    Original Ranter
    Points: 388,252, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 0.2%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassOverdriveTagger First Class50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    MMC's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    70166
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Chicago Illinois
    Posts
    89,892
    Points
    388,252
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    54,131
    Thanked 39,163x in 27,727 Posts
    Mentioned
    243 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    William Peter Blatty, 'The Exorcist' Author and 'The Exorcist III' Director, Dies at 89.....





    William Peter Blatty, the novelist and Oscar-winning screenwriter most famous for landmark horror film The Exorcist as well as the director of two films, The Ninth Configuration and The Exorcist III, has died. He was 89.


    Blatty’s 1970 novel The Exorcist remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 57 weeks, and he subsequently adapted it for the 1973 big-screen version directed by Friedkin. That film was not only an enormous box office success, playing in theaters for months, but was Oscar nominated for best picture (becoming the first horror film ever so nominated) and won for Blatty’s adapted screenplay.


    The film won several polls for scariest horror movie ever, and the Library of Congress designated The Exorcist for preservation as part of the National Film Registry in 2010.


    Blatty’s other film credits prior to The Exorcist were broad political comedy John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!, starring Shirley MacLaine and Peter Ustinov, adapted from Blatty’s novel of the same name; Arthur Hiller’s romantic comedy Promise Her Anything, with Warren Beatty and Leslie Caron; and comedy Western The Great Bank Robbery, with Zero Mostel and Kim Novak.


    Blatty was born in New York City to parents who had immigrated from Lebanon. After a stint in the Air Force, he entered the Foreign Service, serving as editor of News Review, a United States Information Agency publication, in Beirut. He graduated from Georgetown University (whose environs later become the setting for The Exorcist), then received a master’s in English literature from George Washington University in 1954......snip~


    https://www.yahoo.com/movies/william...172135625.html
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

  2. #22
    Points: 74,650, Level: 66
    Level completed: 66%, Points required for next Level: 800
    Overall activity: 43.0%
    Achievements:
    50000 Experience PointsSocialVeteran
    Standing Wolf's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    314975
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Posts
    25,628
    Points
    74,650
    Level
    66
    Thanks Given
    5,718
    Thanked 21,092x in 12,286 Posts
    Mentioned
    415 Post(s)
    Tagged
    1 Thread(s)
    The Ninth Configuration is a very underrated film, and Blatty also wrote the novel it was based on - also quite good.
    Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” - Robert E. Howard

    "Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas and not eat a chicken fried steak." - Larry McMurtry

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to Standing Wolf For This Useful Post:

    MMC (01-13-2017)

  4. #23
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Unhappy

    Man who revolutionized Chinese writing system passes on...

    China's Zhou Youguang, father of Pinyin writing system, dies aged 111
    Sat, 14 Jan 2017 - Zhou Youguang, who created a system to turn characters into words using Roman letters, dies aged 111.
    Mr Zhou and a Communist party committee spent three years developing the Pinyin system in the 1950s. It changed the way the language was taught and helped raise literacy rates. Mr Zhou, who was born in 1906 during the Qing Dynasty, later became a fierce critic of China's communist rulers. He died in Beijing on Saturday a day after his birthday, Chinese media reported.

    As a young man Mr Zhou spent time in the US and worked as a Wall Street banker. He returned to China after the communist victory in 1949 and was put in charge of creating a new writing system using the Roman alphabet. "We spent three years developing Pinyin. People made fun of us, joking that it had taken us a long time to deal with just 26 letters," he told the BBC in 2012. Before Pinyin was developed, 85% of Chinese people could not read, now almost all can.


    Pinyin has since become the most commonly used system globally, although some Chinese communities - particularly in Hong Kong and Taiwan - continue to use alternatives. It is also widely used to type Chinese characters on computers and smartphones, leading some to fear it could end up replacing Chinese characters altogether. The achievement protected Mr Zhou from some of the persecution that took place under former leader Mao Zedong. However, he was later sent to the countryside for re-education during Mao's Cultural Revolution.

    In his later years he became strongly critical of the Chinese authorities and wrote a number of books, most of which were banned. In a 2011 interview with NPR he said he hoped he would live long enough to see the Chinese authorities admit that the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 had been a mistake. He said ordinary people no longer believed in the Communist Party, and that the vast majority of Chinese intellectuals were in favour of democracy.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38621697

  5. #24
    Original Ranter
    Points: 388,252, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 0.2%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassOverdriveTagger First Class50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    MMC's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    70166
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Chicago Illinois
    Posts
    89,892
    Points
    388,252
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    54,131
    Thanked 39,163x in 27,727 Posts
    Mentioned
    243 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka has passed away, family reports......






    The family of wrestling star Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka has reported via Instagram that he has passed away. No cause of death was immediately released, although he had been in hospice care since mid-December. Tamina Snuka posted the following image on Instagram on January 15:


    Snuka was one of the early stars of the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE), and his theatrical, daredevil style set the stage for much of wrestling’s current image and persona. Here he was as The Undertaker’s first “victim” in Wrestlemania VII:


    Snuka’s career began tapering off in the mid-1990s, and by the 2000s he was only appearing in cameo and non-wrestling roles. However, in 2015 even those appearances were halted when a legal matter from Snuka’s past resurfaced.


    Snuka was 73, and is survived by his wife and four children......snip~


    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jimmy-s...201832708.html


    R.I.P. Jimmy Snuka.
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

  6. #25
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Unhappy

    Gene Cernan, last astronaut to walk on the moon passes away...

    Gene Cernan, last astronaut to walk on the moon, dies at 82
    Jan. 16, 2017 — Astronaut Gene Cernan traced his only child's initials in the dust of the lunar surface. Then he climbed into the lunar module for the ride home, becoming the last person to walk on the moon.
    It was a moment that defined the Apollo 17 commander in both the public eye and his own. "Those steps up that ladder, they were tough to make," Cernan recalled in a 2007 oral history. "I didn't want to go up. I wanted to stay a while." His family said his devotion to lunar exploration never waned, even in the final year of his life. Cernan died Monday at age 82 at a Houston hospital following ongoing heath issues, family spokeswoman Melissa Wren told The Associated Press. "Even at the age of 82, Gene was passionate about sharing his desire to see the continued human exploration of space and encouraged our nation's leaders and young people to not let him remain the last man to walk on the Moon," his family wrote in a statement released by NASA.

    On Dec. 14, 1972, Cernan became the last of only a dozen men to walk on the moon. Cernan called it "perhaps the brightest moment of my life. ... It's like you would want to freeze that moment and take it home with you. But you can't." Decades later, Cernan tried to ensure he wasn't the last person to walk on the moon, testifying before Congress to push for a return. But as the years went by he realized he wouldn't live to witness someone follow in his footsteps — still visible on the moon more than 40 years later. "Neil (Armstrong, who died in 2012) and I aren't going to see those next young Americans who walk on the moon. And God help us if they're not Americans," Cernan testified before Congress in 2011. "When I leave this planet, I want to know where we are headed as a nation. That's my big goal."


    US Navy Commander and Astronaut for the upcoming Apollo 17, Eugene Cernan, is pictured in his space suit. NASA announced that former astronaut Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, surrounded by his family. He was 82.

    Cernan died less than six weeks after another American space hero, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Their flights weren't the first or last of the Mercury and Apollo eras. Yet to the public they were the bookends of America's space age glory. Cernan guided the lander, named Challenger, into a lunar valley called Taurus-Littrow, with Harrison "Jack" Schmitt at his side on Dec. 11, 1972. He recalled the silence after the lunar lander's engine shut down. "That's where you experience the most quiet moment a human being can experience in his lifetime," Cernan said in 2007. "There's no vibration. There's no noise. The ground quit talking. Your partner is mesmerized. He can't say anything. "The dust is gone. It's a realization, a reality, all of a sudden you have just landed in another world on another body out there (somewhere in the) universe, and what you are seeing is being seen by human beings — human eyes — for the first time."

    Three days earlier, Cernan, Schmitt and Ronald Evans had blasted off atop a Saturn rocket in the first manned nighttime launch from Kennedy Space Center. Evans remained behind as pilot of the command module that orbited the moon while the other two landed on the moon's surface. Cernan and Schmitt, a geologist, spent more than three days on the moon, including more than 22 hours outside the lander, and collected 249 pounds of lunar samples. "In that whole three days, I don't think there's anything that became routine," Cernan recalled. "But if I had to focus on one thing ... it was just to look back at the overwhelming and overpowering beauty of this Earth." "To go a quarter of a million miles away into space and have to take time out to sleep and rest ... I wished I could have stayed awake for 75 hours straight. I knew when I left I'd never have a chance to come back."

    MORE

  7. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to waltky For This Useful Post:

    Captain Obvious (01-16-2017),Don (02-23-2017)

  8. #26
    Original Ranter
    Points: 314,886, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 0.2%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second Class50000 Experience PointsOverdriveVeteranYour first Group
    Captain Obvious's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    773942
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    80,473
    Points
    314,886
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    30,199
    Thanked 40,087x in 27,208 Posts
    Mentioned
    1041 Post(s)
    Tagged
    1 Thread(s)
    He and Andy Kaufman are having a nice chat right about now.
    my junk is ugly

  9. The Following User Says Thank You to Captain Obvious For This Useful Post:

    waltky (01-16-2017)

  10. #27
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Unhappy

    One of last Pacific wave pilots passes on...

    Pacific ‘wave pilot’ kept ancient mariner skills alive
    Tue, Jan 17, 2017 - One of the Pacific’s last traditional navigators, or wave pilots, has died in Majuro, but not before passing many of his skills on to a younger generation of Marshallese.
    For thousands of years, Pacific Islanders have sailed between remote atolls without navigation aids such as maps and compasses, instead using wave motion and stars to guide them across vast distances. Captain Korent Joel, 68, was a master of the ancient techniques, which were recently highlighted in the animated Disney feature Moana. Joel was determined these skills would not die with him and worked with the non-profit organization Waan Aelon in Majel (WAM — Canoes of the Marshall Islands) to teach youngsters. He also collaborated with international researchers keen to document his uncanny abilities and see if they could find a scientific explanation for them.

    His knowledge was also featured in several publications, including the New York Times. “Theoretically, a wave-pilot, dropped blindfolded into a boat in Marshallese waters, could follow a set of seamarks — waves of a particular shape — alone to land,” the Times reported. Because Joel was also a licensed ship captain, he understood both traditional and Western navigation, giving him the ability to communicate his knowledge to outsiders as well as Marshallese. Stories about his navigation skills abound.


    Captain Korent Joel, 68, a master of maritime navigation using wave motion and stars, while out at sea in the Pacific.

    WAM director Alson Kelen was with Joel in a small yacht sailing between Kwajalein and Ujae atolls when they were hit by high winds which blew them off course. Joel woke from a sleep and immediately told the crew they were heading the wrong way, even though it was pitch dark and raining heavily with no stars visible. They followed his directions and were amazed when dawn broke a few hours later and Ujae came into view. Once when Kelen was lost and radioed Joel for advice, the veteran wayfinder told to him “feel it” and read the swells.

    Kelen said that navigators such as Joel were traditionally a vital part of the ocean-going society — with knowledge about how to plant seeds, build canoes, organize the community and protect the reef. He said the knowledge Joel has passed on was helping inspire young Marshallese to become marine biologists, oceanographers and take up other marine-related skills. “It’s amazing how much we lost... I hope what Captain Korent started with other navigators won’t stop now,” he said. “This is the blueprint not just for navigation, but for life in the Marshall Islands.” Joel was buried on Saturday, two weeks after he died in the capital, Majuro.

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../17/2003663274

  11. #28
    Original Ranter
    Points: 388,252, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 0.2%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassOverdriveTagger First Class50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    MMC's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    70166
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Chicago Illinois
    Posts
    89,892
    Points
    388,252
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    54,131
    Thanked 39,163x in 27,727 Posts
    Mentioned
    243 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Alan Colmes Passes Away At Age 66......





    Fox News broadcaster Alan Colmes passed away on Thursday at the age of 66. Colmes' death was announced on Fox.


    Colmes, a Democrat, was the co-host of Hannity and Colmes from 1996 until 2009.



    Our prayers are with Colmes' family at this time......snip~


    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/christ...ge-66-n2289606


    R.I.P. Alan Colmes.

    On Twitter, pundits mourned Colmes' passing, remembering him as a "good guy."
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

  12. #29
    Points: 16,225, Level: 30
    Level completed: 78%, Points required for next Level: 225
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    Social25000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Venus's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    18436
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Posts
    2,413
    Points
    16,225
    Level
    30
    Thanks Given
    609
    Thanked 1,057x in 742 Posts
    Mentioned
    43 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Mary Tyler Moore

    mary-tyler-moore.jpg


  13. #30
    Points: 16,225, Level: 30
    Level completed: 78%, Points required for next Level: 225
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    Social25000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Venus's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    18436
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Posts
    2,413
    Points
    16,225
    Level
    30
    Thanks Given
    609
    Thanked 1,057x in 742 Posts
    Mentioned
    43 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)


+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts