Cindy Williams, R.I.P.

Actress Cindy Williams, best known for her portrayal of Shirley Feeney on the ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley from 1976 to 1982, passed away on January 25th following a brief illness. She was 75. 

Prior to Laverne & Shirley, Williams had appeared in critically acclaimed movies such as American Graffiti and The Conversation. But after a well-received guest spot with Penny Marshall on Happy Days, the two received their own series and quite literally became an overnight sensation. The pair would become among the biggest stars in television during the late 1970's and early 1980's. 

While Marshall transitioned to a career as a successful director following Laverne & Shirley, Williams did occasional guest appearances on TV shows and TV movies such as Perry Mason: The Case of the Poisoned Pen, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Touched by an Angel, 7th Heaven and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as well as musical theater.

Williams' passing comes a little over a year after the death of Laverne & Shirley co-star Eddie Mekka and leaves Michael McKean as the show's last surviving cast member. R.I.P. 

John Adams Was a Baseball Revolutionary

If you say the name John Adams in Boston and most places in America, then chances are it will conjure up images of one of our Founding Fathers and the second President of the United States.

However, if you utter the name John Adams in Cleveland and surrounding area then you are likely to get a very different response. For nearly half a century, John Adams was a fixture at Cleveland Indians games banging his drum slowly. 

Today, the Cleveland Guardians announced Adams' passing at the age of 71. In December 2020, Adams underwent heart surgery and never was able to resume his duties which he began during the 1973 season. 

On personal note, I got to see Adams in action when I saw a game in Cleveland in August 1999. Aside from seeing a grand slam HR from future Hall of Famer Jim Thome, Adams drumming was about the only enjoyable part of my experience in Cleveland. But that is another story for another time.

Last year, Adams was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame. He also was bestowed with the Hilda Award by the Baseball Reliquary for his contributions to baseball as a fan. John Adams was truly a baseball revolutionary. R.I.P.

Floyd Sneed, R.I.P.

Floyd Sneed, the drummer for Three Dog Night, passed away on Friday. No cause of death has been released. He was 80.

Sneed was the drummer for Three Dog Night on 10 albums released between 1968 and 1976 as well as an EP during their brief reformation in 1983. He sang the line, "I want to tell you," on the group's biggest hit "Joy to the World".

I did not know that Sneed was born and raised in Canada. He was born in Calgary and would later move to Vancouver where he would play drums in a group called Little Daddy and The Bachelors. This group included his then brother-in-law, Tommy Chong. Yes, that Tommy Chong. Little Daddy and The Bachelors later became Bobby Taylor and The Vancouvers, but Sneed would leave for the U.S. to find fame and fortune and succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.

In recent years, Sneed made occasional appearances with Three Dog Night singer Chuck Negron. I leave you with a brief interview Sneed did prior to one of these shows in 2016. R.I.P.

A Note on The Louisville Courier-Journal's Defamatory Op-Ed on The Holocaust

On Friday, in observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Louisville Courier-Journal ran an editorial which ought not to have been run:

Jews do not have a monopoly on persecution and atrocities.

For one group, for one person, to claim that the hate and violence towards them is more important than another’s, only encourages more acts of violence against others, including Black people, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, LGBTQ+, trans-gender and Native Americans. This list is not all-inclusive. 

Good Lord!!!

Jews have never claimed such a monopoly. If anything, Jews have demonstrated a strong solidarity with other groups who have been subject to persecution and atrocities. But if we are to never forget The Holocaust then we must never forget that the aim and objective of The Holocaust was to eliminate Jews from the face of the Earth. Instead, the writers of this op-ed claim, "Hitler was just one of many dictators." Hitler nearly conquered all of Europe and sought global domination. It took nearly the entire world to stop him.

While Hitler's aims and objectives ultimately did not succeed, the global Jewish population has never reached its pre-Holocaust levels, and this will remain a part of the Jewish psyche for centuries to come. To suggest that acknowledging this fact somehow encourages violence against Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, LGBTQ+, trans-gender and Indigenous people is not only defamatory but represents a profound ignorance of how the horror of The Holocaust came to pass. 

With fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors among us to help set the opinion writers of the Louisville Courier-Journal straight, I am afraid we can look forward to a lot more articles casting aspersions on Jews while minimizing the evil of Hitler and trivializing the memories of the men, women and children who were murdered because they were Jewish.

Barrett Strong, R.I.P.

Singer-songwriter Barrett Strong, best known for giving Motown its very first hit with "Money (That's What I Want)", has passed away at the age of 81. No cause of death has been released.

Ironically, "Money" did not earn Strong a lot of money as Berry Gordy, Jr. removed his name from the songwriting credits with Strong insisting he co-wrote the song. 

However, Strong did earn some money through his songwriting partnership with Norman Whitfield. Strong wrote the lyrics for songs such as "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" (recorded by both Gladys Knight and The Pips and Marvin Gaye and then later by Creedence Clearwater Revival), "War" by Edwin Starr and "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by The Undisputed Truth. 

The team of Whitfield and Strong also collaborated on some of The Temptations biggest hits - "Cloud Nine", "Ball of Confusion", “I Wish it Would Rain,” “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “Psychedelic Shack,” “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone" - the latter of which earned Strong a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.

But songwriting credit or no songwriting credit, it was Barrett Strong who first put Motown on the map. R.I.P.

A Tale of Two Videos - The Attempted Murder of Paul Pelosi & Murder of Tyre Nichols

Yesterday saw the release of two disturbing videos. 

The first video was the attempted murder of Paul Pelosi, the husband of then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, back in October. The second video was of the violent beat down of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers earlier this month. Aside from being repeatedly punched and kicked, Nichols was also repeatedly hit with a baton, pepper sprayed and tased. Nichols died of his injuries three days later.  

There are some differences between the two videos. One victim is an 82-year-old white man and the other is a young black man who would have turned 30 this year had police exercised a modicum of good judgment. In the Pelosi video, the police responded appropriately and subdued Pelosi's attacker after he was hit over the head with a hammer whereas in the Nichols video, they broke every rule and seemed determined to break every bone in Nichols' body. Despite his injuries and the trauma he will endure for the rest of his life, he is still with us. The same cannot be said for Nichols.

The two common denominators of these videos are cruelty and a loss of trust. 

In the Nichols video, the cruelty is obvious with every punch, kick, tase, pepper spray and use of a weapon. In the Pelosi video, the cruelty lies mainly with people not in the video - Republicans and Trump supporters. Let us remember how instead of showing compassion, Republicans and Trump supporters gleefully mocked the attack on Pelosi and engaged in conspiracy theories. Donald Trump, Jr., Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Dinesh D'Souza all derived pleasure in Pelosi's suffering and their fans loved every moment of it. Worse still, if not for their insistence that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, then Paul Pelosi would never have been attacked in the first place as his attacker went to Pelosi's home to make her confess that the 2020 election had been stolen.

Then there is the loss of trust. How can the public trust police officers if a critical mass of them are prepared to beat someone to death or wantonly deploy violence? Even if Nichols had been guilty of reckless driving (and there's no evidence at this point to suggest that he did so), the crime did not fit the punishment and did not warrant the loss of his life much less any bodily harm. 

When it comes to Pelosi, how can the public trust a political party and advocates of its two time (possibly three time) presidential standard bearer for cheering on an act of attempted murder or at the very least make excuses for it?

The awful truth is that the world is full of a lot of cruel and untrustworthy people. Even worse these cruel and untrustworthy people hold positions of power, authority and influence. But what I fear more than anything else is despite the cruelty and untrustworthiness of these people coming into view (whether on camera or not) that there is a very good chance that they will not be held to account for their cruelty and untrustworthy behavior. In which case, there will be more cruelty and untrustworthy behavior to come.

Far Right Swedish Politician Does Russia's Bidding By Burning Koran in Front of Turkish Embassy

When I learned that Rasmus Paludan, the Danish born far right Swedish politician, had burned a copy of the Koran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm last Saturday, it immediately occurred to me that one country stood to gain from this heinous act - Russia.

After all, Sweden is seeking to join NATO along with Finland in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But Sweden and Finland's ascension into NATO requires unanimous consent including from Muslim majority Turkey. Needless to say, Russia doesn't want any kind of NATO expansion. And what better way to prevent NATO expansion than having a useful idiot do a usefully idiotic thing? Turkish President Erdogan reacts predictably and Russia gets what it wants. 

Yes, Russia condemned the burning of the Koran. But make no mistake. Russia couldn't be happier. 

Now comes word that a Swedish journalist affiliated with Russia Today organized the Koran burning. The Russian government doesn't have its fingerprints on it, but they are pulling the strings.