Saturday

RIP actor Peter Crombie, 71, who died after a brief, undisclosed illness. There is very little personal info on him at IMDb. His ex-wife pays tribute in an article at people.com. There are 35 titles under his name at IMDb, career spanning 1987–2000. The highlight of his canon is his five episode run as Crazy Joe Davola on Seinfeld, culminating in perhaps my favorite episode, The Opera, Season Four, Number Nine. I chuckle whenever I recall the character weeping as he’s doing bench presses, moved by the Vesti La Giubba aria from Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci playing in the background. Most of Crombie’s work was in TV, including the title character in the 1988 American Playhouse production of The Trial of Bernhard Goetz. He also played the creature in the 1997 two-part miniseries House of Frankenstein. He did five episodes of L.A. Firefighters, and did guest shots on many popular primetime programs including Law & Order, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue. On the big screen he had roles in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), The Doors (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994) and Se7en (1995), among others. Thanks for the laughs, Sir. Photo from nypost.com:

Here’s another new term: “loud budgeting,” a concept in which one makes a frugal mindset obvious. I keep mine low key.

Interesting news out of Iceland. Headline from foxnews.com: “Scientists aim to drill into a volcano’s magma chamber to unleash powerful energy.” If it works, it would be clean geothermal. Kudos just for trying.

Briefing from FN: “California stores go to extreme lengths to prevent underwear from being stolen.”

From FN, fodder for sci-fi writers: “AI wearable contraption gives you superhuman strength.”

China given green light. From FN: “Biden stresses US ‘does not support’ Taiwan independence after ruling party wins election.” I wouldn’t want the USA to go to war over Taiwan, but why not say: No comment?

Light rain terminated today’s session of the floating book shop about two-thirds of the way through. My thanks to The Quiet Man, who bought three CDs I burned long ago. Special thanks to the hardy woman unbothered by the precipitation, who purchased three hardcover romances in Russian. Can’t complain, as it wasn’t snow.

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