By George
RIP consummate pro George Segal, 87. Born on Long Island, he earned a degree in performing arts and drama at Columbia University in 1955. His career spanned 1960–2021. He was adept at both comedy and drama. There are 126 titles under his name at IMDb, but that figure doesn’t reveal how prolific he actually was. After his days as a leading man on the big screen ended, he became a fixture on TV. Several of his series lasted less than a season, but he found huge success on Just Shoot Me, 149 episodes, and The Goldbergs, 177. 1966 was a particularly big year for him, as he played Biff Loman opposite Lee J. Cobb in a terrific small screen adaptation of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, and he received a supporting actor Oscar nomination for the film adaptation of Edward Albee’s domestic warfare play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a work naturally suited for Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. He was the star of Carl Reiner’s madcap Where’s Poppa? (1970) and Robert Altman’s gambling opus California Split (1974). He was part of the large ensemble of Ship of Fools (1965). His character tracked down the serial killer played by Rod Steiger in No Way to Treat a Lady (1968). He paired with Robert Redford in the adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s heist novel The Hot Rock (1972). He co-starred with Jacqueline Bissett in Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), from the novel by Nan and Ivan Lyons. Here’s a quote attributed to him: “I have a dread of being considered bland, but I’ve had to reconcile myself to the fact that that’s what I am.” Hardly, sir. Thank you.
I never thought I’d see something like this again. Headline from foxnews.com: “West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice touts plan to repeal personal income tax.” From the article: “To pay for the repeal, the state consumer sales tax would be increased from 6.0% to 7.9%, while adding a small, single-item luxury tax for certain high-value items that cost $5000 or more.” It will be interesting to see how it plays out, if the average citizen will be paying less taxes.
How ‘bout this headline from FN: “Fisherman in Ukraine reels in boy, 11, who got himself stuck on sheet of ice.” There is video. Can’t tell if the incident was staged. Here’s a still:
While the weather was unpleasant, it was another positive day for the floating book shop. I set a one PM deadline, hoping the rain would hold off, and it did. My thanks to the old timer who bought a thick cook book, and to the elderly woman who parked her walker, sat down, made a thorough search of the inventory of Russian books, and took home 14; and to Ira, who purchased a thick pictorial on home improvement. That would have been more than enough. Then local porter Robert delivered more than 50 CDs, most from the Do-Wop era, several groups completely unfamiliar to me. I hoped The Quiet Man would come along. He did and selected six, and a young man with a guitar strapped to his back rolled up on a scooter and chose two; and an eagle eye gentleman came along and spotted the stylish keychain that had been at the bottom of one of the bags and jumped on it. My thanks to all.
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