[url=https://www.stripes.com/joseph-c-wilson-diplomat-caught-in-dispute-over-iraqi-weapons-of-mass-destruction-dies-at-69-1.600827]Joseph C. Wilson[/url][quote]Joseph C. Wilson, a former diplomat who incurred the wrath of the administration of George W. Bush for undermining a key tenet of the rationale for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and who saw his then-wife, Valerie Plame, exposed as a clandestine CIA officer in an apparent act of retaliation, died Sept. 27 at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 69.
<snip>
In 2006, Wilson and Plame filed suit against Vice President Richard B. Cheney and Cheney's onetime chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove, among others, charging that they had illegally disclosed Plame's identity to Novak. The suit was dismissed, but in 2007 Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and other charges. Bush commuted Libby's prison sentence, and President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2018.[/quote]

An in-law lost a parent Friday to their first heart attack. They were less than the standard retirement age.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;526952]An in-law lost a parent Friday to their first heart attack. They were less than the standard retirement age.[/QUOTE]

Sorry

[QUOTE=petrw1;526954]Sorry[/QUOTE]
Thanks. Their immediate family is taking it hard. It is very hard to lose good, well loved people.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;526945][url=https://www.stripes.com/joseph-c-wilson-diplomat-caught-in-dispute-over-iraqi-weapons-of-mass-destruction-dies-at-69-1.600827]Joseph C. Wilson[/url][/QUOTE]

This is very sad. He did a great service to his country.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;526560][URL="https://www.apnews.com/13f6193070c84a47be23aa40ecd16615"]Robert Hunter[/URL][/QUOTE]
It has taken me a while to process Hunter's demise. While other original members of The Dead remain, the loss of [URL="https://jerrygarcia.com/jerrys-story/"]Jerry Garcia[/URL] years back, and now Robert Hunter being gone gives me a sense of finality. The first to go was [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_%22Pigpen%22_McKernan"]Ron “Pigpen” McKernan[/URL], who became a member of the "27 Club" in 1973 as a result of his heavy alcohol consumption. Too bad he wasn't into psychedelics, like the others.
Here is a short, long-time favorite of mine from Robert Hunter.
[YOUTUBE]wCi_O_S1ucI[/YOUTUBE]

[url=https://www.apnews.com/b486761f80434b1f8d963c41090ad57d]Jessye Norman, international opera star, dead at 74[/url]

[quote=]NEW YORK (AP) — Jessye Norman, the renowned international opera star whose passionate soprano voice won her four Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honor, has died, according to family spokesperson Gwendolyn Quinn. She was 74.[/quote]

Back in 1990 (June 18 - 21) I watched the PBS broadcast of Wagner's 4-opera "cycle" [i]Der Ring des Nibelungen[/i]. Jessye Norman sang the role of Sieglinde.

I remember wondering at the time what Richard Wagner would have thought of a black woman taking [i]any[/i] role in his operas. (She took other roles in his operas, too.) But my, oh my, what a beautiful soprano voice!

There was a certain comic effect, since the characters Sieglinde and Siegmund (played by Gary Lakes) were supposed to be twins. [i]Ah[/i]nold and Danny DeVito, eat your hearts out!

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;527027]There was a certain comic effect, since the characters Sieglinde and Siegmund (played by Gary Lakes) were supposed to be twins. [i]Ah[/i]nold and Danny DeVito, eat your hearts out![/QUOTE]

Not so uncommon as one may think: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_twins[/url]

[QUOTE=Bolero;527070]Not so uncommon as one may think: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_twins[/url][/QUOTE]But how common were they in north west Europe a thousand years or more ago?

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;527027]Back in 1990 (June 18 - 21) I watched the PBS broadcast of Wagner's 4-opera "cycle" [i]Der Ring des Nibelungen[/i]. Jessye Norman sang the role of Sieglinde.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I recall watching/VHS-taping that NY Met extravaganza, was in grad school at U. Michigan at the time. For several years around the same time a housemate of mine and I had season tickets to the classical music series at Hill Auditorium. One of those featured Jessye Norman, and another was a night with the NY Metropolitan Opera orchestra. That was about a year after the PBS Ring broadcasts, which my parents had loved, so I splurged and got a pair of extra (and extra-hard-to-get) tickets for them to the NY Met show. They drove up from Ohio for the show (which ISTR was on a Friday evening) and spent the night afterward. For the aftershow I had also reserved a table for us at one of Ann Arbor's fanciest dining establishments, Escoffier, right across the little side street from Hill Auditorium. About a half-hour after we sat down, there was a small hubbub around the entry door - None other than NY Met conductor James Levine and several colleagues came in for a late dinner, they sat a few tables away from us. If there is a middle-aged-classical-music-fan equivalent of Beatlemania, my parents exhibited it at the sight of said entourage. :)

R.I.P. Jessye - I always wondered if she might have been at least the partial inspiration for the 1981 French cult film [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diva_%281981_film%29]Diva[/url].

[QUOTE=ewmayer;527101]R.I.P. Jessye - I always wondered if she might have been at least the partial inspiration for the 1981 French cult film [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diva_%281981_film%29]Diva[/url].[/QUOTE]
I don't know, but I saw that movie when it first came out. Wearing a snorkeling mask is one way to avoid eye irritation when cutting onions...