Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Amen

He was an African-American actor who starred and impressed in three successful television shows. You knew that. But you probably didn't know he was a jazz pianist, and was a self-described "music nerd," a huge fan and public proponent of the progressive rock music of bands like Yes and Nektar. He never married, had no kids, and though he kept working until the end, lived far outside of the Hollywood spotlight that had largely typecast him, and farther away still from his childhood home of Philadelphia-- in the Texas border town of El Paso. Sherman Hemsley-- just an incredibly talented and unique man.

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NCAA president Mark Emmert said on Monday that the punitive actions taken against Penn State were intended to "(establish) an athletic culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing, and protecting young people." College football recruiters today showed how much they took those words to heart by gathering in bunches in the parking lot outside the Penn State football building looking to pilfer Nittany Lion scholarship players for their own programs. Said new Penn State head coach Bill O'Brien, probably in a sorrowful tone, "Our players are in our building right now and they don't want to leave the building because there are coaches from other schools in the parking lot waiting to see them."

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Quote of the day: The late great Alexander Cockburn, who died Saturday, writing about New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in 2000, "It would be inaccurate to compare him to the lunatic on the corner. Friedman's is an industrial, implacable noise, like having a generator running under the next table in a restaurant. The only sensible thing to do is leave."

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Paraphrase of the day: Huggy Lowdown, this morning, "George Jefferson has died. Weezie Jefferson has died. Lionel has died. Helen Willis and Tom Willis have died. The maid did it."

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