William Smith, R.I.P.

Character actor William Smith, who had nearly 300 acting credits to his name, passed away on July 5th. No cause of death was disclosed. Smith was 88. 

A Korean War veteran with a muscular physique, Smith generally played villains although he occasionally played good guys such as when he was in the cast of Laredo and the final season of the original Hawaii Five-O as well as in the opening scene of Conan The Barbarian (video above) or in Clint Eastwood's Any Which Way You Can.

Perhaps Smith's best known role as a villain was in the 1970's mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man opposite Nick Nolte. Though some would make an argument for the Russian general he played in Red Dawn. I remember him from shows like Columbo, The Rockford Files, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Some of his other TV credits include Batman, I Dream of Jeannie, Gunsmoke, Alias Smith & Jones, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco, The Six Million Dollar Man, Mod Squad, Mission: Impossible, Kung Fu. Smith was the very definition of a working actor. R.I.P.

 

The Walden Pond Open Water Swimming Ban Has Not Been Reversed

My landlady informed me this evening that the open water swimming ban at Walden Pond had been reversed. 

Well, not quite. The ban is still in effect from 10 a.m. thru 6 p.m. while lifeguards are on duty. Open water swimming hours are from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekends with evening swims from 6 p.m. until closing (probably no later than 8 p.m.)

So if I wanted to swim at Walden Pond I would have to catch a train to Concord on a weekend at 7:30 a.m., arrive in Concord at 8 a.m., walk to Walden Pond, arrive around 8:40-8:45 and have maybe an hour and change to swim. 

Well, that might be nice to have a swim in the morning but it wouldn't be easy to pull off and the pond might be crowded with swimmers. Walden Pond might be worth getting up at 5:30 a.m. for once but it isn't something I could do with any kind of consistency. But if we do have another heatwave where it's 80 degrees by 8 a.m. then it might be worth it. Either that or I would go later in the afternoon, hang out in Concord and then make my to Walden for 6 p.m. Under both scenarios, going to Crystal Lake in Newton would probably be less of a hassle. 

In other words, Massachusetts DCR is going to have make us a better offer. Of course, Massachusetts DCR is hoping we will chew on the bone they've thrown at us. Let's hope the bone gets thrown back.

Is Wells Fargo Shuttering Its Credit Line a Harbinger of Things to Come?

I feel sorry for anyone who has an account with Wells Fargo because of its decision to shutter all personal lines of credit thereby damaging a lot of credit scores through no fault of the borrower. 

Yet what scares me is if other financial institutions follow suit. If that happens then it could make the 2008 financial crash look like a Sunday school picnic. We'd be making our way out of the pandemic only for another crisis to hit us between the eyes. 

I can only hope this is a result of Wells Fargo being a really shady financial institution. After all, this was the same entity which less than five years ago paid billions in fines for creating fake bank accounts without the knowledge of its account holders. Still, that is cold comfort to Wells Fargo customers especially those who were convinced to stick with the company and now they've been burned yet again.

Yet I cannot help but wonder if customers of other financial institutions will find ourselves in the same sinking boat. And if we do then what will the Biden Administration and Congress do about it? I hope it's a question they don't have to answer.

COVID-19 Deaths Top 4M Worldwide as Death Rate Falls in U.S.

COVID-19 has now killed 4 million people worldwide. 

While no other country has suffered more deaths from COVID-19 than the U.S. its share of the global percentage has dropped. When the world reached 3 million COVID-19 deaths back in April, the U.S. accounted for 18.8% of all fatalities. Today, that figure is 15.1% based on 606,217 deaths out of 4,000,767 worldwide.

Despite the drop in deaths in the U.S., the overall death rate is getting faster. Whereas it took 92 days to get from 2 million to 3 million COVID-19 deaths worldwide, it has only taken 82 days to get from 3 million to 4 million deaths. India and Brazil account for more than 40% of those deaths over this period. Other South American countries such as Argentina, Colombia and Peru have also seen a significant number of deaths during this period. 

Unfortunately, as COVID-19 becomes less of a problem in the United States a great many Americans will not care if COVID-19 gets worse in the rest of the world. For them that's their problem. The Biden Administration is trying to alleviate the situation globally, but is still striving to get Americans vaccinated. 

COVID-19 might be more manageable than it was earlier in 2021 but it is still killing people and so long as it does it will remain a public health problem in the U.S. and the entire world whether we want to admit it or not.

Lightning Strikes Twice in Stanley Cup As Canada Must Wait Another Year

The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup to win their second consecutive title and third in franchise history.

Meanwhile, Canada's Stanley Cup drought continues. The last Canadian team to win Lord Stanley's Cup were the Canadiens in 1993. This year's edition of the Habs were the first Canadian team to make to it a Stanley Cup Final in a decade when the Vancouver Canucks fell to the Boston Bruins. I didn't mind it so much that year as I got to witness my first Stanley Cup parade. 

But hockey is Canada's game and going nearly 30 years without a Stanley Cup winner feels unnatural. As unnatural as having the Stanley Cup in Florida - even if plenty of Canadians spend part of their year downt there.

God & Cat at Harvard

 

A few months after moving out of Boston, I learned that an orange tabby named Remy was part of the campus life at Harvard University. Remy would attend classes and presentations, hang out in various libraries, visit academics in their offices and students in their dorms and bring good cheer wherever he would go and his adventures would be shared on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even LinkedIn. Among all the many reasons I missed Boston, this discovery made me want to come back. 

Not only have I moved back to the area, but I live in Remy's stomping grounds. Now finding an orange cat isn't as easy as it sounds. While the pandemic has limited Remy's ability to go inside campus buildings, Harvard is still a large campus with many nooks and crannies. 

But persistence is its own reward. Two days ago, the day after the Fourth of July, I was walking back home after having spent the afternoon in Boston. I decided to walk through Harvard Yard and out of the corner of my eye near Holworthy Hall I caught an orange flash out of the corner of my eye.

There was Remy - sound asleep. Well, perhaps he was working on his tan. In any event, I did not want to disturb him other than to discreetly take his picture. Needless to say, I hope when our paths cross again he will be fully awake and ready to engage.

Iris Berent, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University in Boston, wrote a book called The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature. Berent writes about Remy in her opening chapter:

Remy will never ponder his ontological and epistemological condition - that he exists in the world, that his life is short, and that his understanding of it is so limited. Remy will likely live and die without ever gaining an understanding of himself.

It doesn't take much effort for us humans to grasp that being born a cat predestines Remy to certain cognitive constraints. By "constraints" I don't simply refer to his limited memory and narrow attention span....But there are fundamental qualitative differences between the kind of conclusions that Remy extracts from his residence at Harvard and the ones that his human Facebook followers do. Remy views the world through the prism of his inborn cognitive capacities. What lies beyond that prism will always be beyond his grasp.

Frankly, I think Berent sells Remy short. Yes, Remy has feline instincts. He will be attracted to pets on the chin, tuna and toys with string. While it might be true that Remy will never be able to write a treatise on contract law, explain the fundamental conflict between form and function nor recite the thesis of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, but he may appreciate these things in his own way.

After all, it isn't every cat that of his own volition walks nearly a mile to one of the foremost academic institutions in the world much less observe its proceedings. Surely Remy has an understanding that people gather to learn and to work and return to their homes. No doubt Remy was as bewildered as the rest of us when the pandemic shut down everything including Harvard wondering aloud, "Where the hell is everybody?"

What Berent fails to consider is that Remy has a brother named Gus who is perfectly happy to stay at home. How does one explain such a pair of fraternal felines? While Gus might very well share Remy's charming personality he clearly does not share his curiosity let alone his willingness to engage people and to negotiate their environment. 

I also cannot help but wonder if there is some higher purpose in Remy's presence at Harvard. While cats choose their own company that choice seldom involves an entire student body, faculty, staff plus the community at large. In which case, I cannot help but wonder if God has chosen Remy to watch over Harvard. The Harvard community may pet, feed and let Remy in out of the rain, but Remy is also bringing them joy and comfort. Harvard takes care of Remy and Remy takes care of Harvard. I wonder if anyone at the Harvard Divinity School has pondered such thoughts. I also wonder what thoughts Remy has when he visits such sacred ground. One can dismiss such wonderings as silly. But if William F. Buckley could write God and Man at Yale then why can't I write about God and cat at Harvard?

Richard Donner's Superman Was The First Movie I Truly Remember

When I read of director Richard Donner's passing today all of my thoughts turned to Superman because it was the first movie I truly remember seeing on the big screen.

I was six years old when it was released in December 1978. My family was living in Victoria, B.C. as my Dad was on sabbatical for that academic year. This was about a year and a half after Star Wars was released but I was not allowed to see it and did not see it until nearly 10 years after it came out. So Superman was my Star Wars.

Whether it was the destruction of Krypton, Superman rescuing Lois Lane and catching the helicopter, Superman flying Lois around New York City or Superman turning back time to bring Lois back to life over the objections of Jor-El, I was witnessing something much larger than life. As great as the performances put on by Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty and Marlon Brando, it was Richard Donner who put it all together. 

While I enjoyed Superman II when it came out in 1981, the film had a much more disjointed feel to it. I would later learn that Superman producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler had fired Donner and replaced him with Richard Lester (who is probably best remembered for directing The Beatles' films A Hard Day's Night and Help!) who reshot much of the film. I never saw any of the subsequent Superman sequels after that. I've also never seen Donner's director's cut of Superman II which came out in 2006. 

Perhaps I should see it. It might augment my memory of Superman. On the other hand, it has been nearly 43 years since I first saw Superman and still remember much of it to this very day. That in of itself is much of a tribute that can be made to Donner. R.I.P.