Cleaning out the inbox

We start the inbox with another goodbye as former N.C.State center Charles Shackleford was found dead in his home in Kinston NC at the age of 50.
Shackleford was a well traveled center in the NBA,playing for several teams,but was better known for his days as the center for the Wolfpack in the mid 1980's.
Shackleford was an imposing rebounder and big body,but was never able to develop the type of scoring skills away from the basket to be anything more than a role player at the next level.
It was the off court antics of Shackleford and another talented yet disappointing big man Chris Washburn that drew attention to N.C. State basketball under Jim Valvano and the eventual dismissal of Valvano with the dreaded tag "Lack of Institutional Control" to the basketball program...

Recently,we observed the 50th anniversary of the Apollo One fire and two interesting notes found their way into the inbox.
Motherboard offers a look titled "Heat and Ashes" in which one of the men that tried to pry the hatch to the capsule off (Henry Rogers) is part of the story by his grandchild-the author of the piece,Kaleigh Rogers.

The other note is that NASA has finally put a piece of the capsule out for public display.
Not the entire capsule,which remains in storage in Virginia,but the hatch that couldn't be released in the fire has been placed for the public to see at their Cape Canaveral museum.
It had often been mentioned with NASA displaying pieces from the two Space Shuttle tragedies that the Apollo One mission had never been represented.
The hatch is something to share with the public and allow them to pay tribute to...

Mark Arbour writes on the SABR Baseball Card blog about a mid-1980's trip for work in the defense industry than saw him use his per diem (in travelers checks,remember those?) on baseball and two baseball cards bought in a shop near his hotel.
Going chintzy on food and expenses in order to buy something for the collection sounds exactly like something I would do (and have done!)!!!!

I've written before about my LPGA fandom and my favorite player in Jessica Korda,but this season brings an added twist to the tour with the arrival of Jessica's younger sister Nelly.
The 18 year Korda was one of the top 10 players on the Symmetra tour (the LPGA's farm system) and automatically moved up to the main circuit.
The article talks about the sisters and shows a video of a shootout between the pair on the course....

Rachel has begun to bowl occasionally lately and she was surprised to hear that the game of her choice,Duckpin Bowling is a regional game,not a national one.
As I looked this up for more information,this blog turned up with a post on not only Duckpin Bowling,but something called Candlepin Bowling as well.
I've never heard of this game,but apparently it too is a regional thing,mostly in the New England states.
The interesting part for me was that I always grew up with Duckpin Bowling with three lanes offering it just in this town,but there are now just 41 alleys left that offer this game compared to over 400 in 1963.
Bowling itself might be scuffling along,but duckpin appears to be a dying game....

That completes the inbox,I'm hoping to finally get the Mary Tyler Moore piece finished for the next post!!

Cleaning out the inbox-Non-Sports Version

We return to the inbox for a non-sports cleaning out and we start with a article on one of my favorite films that never was a huge hit.

Bulletproof Action writes on Remo Williams-the Adventure begins.
The 1985 film is based on the Destroyer series of novels and stars Fred Ward,who as Remo Williams was attempting to break loose from character actor status into leading man roles.
After the film disappointed at the box office,Ward would never get another shot at carrying his own films,although he was still sought after for character positions.
The post is very detailed in covering the film with facts on the stars,locations and on the plot.
I always was a fan of this movie and I never understood why it wasn't a bigger hit.
It's currently playing on the Starz networks and if you haven't seen the 1985 film,see what you think....

Megyn Kelly is leaving Fox News for NBC and despite my long-time fandom for Kelly,I'm not sure that this is a great idea.
Kelly will receive a daily show in the afternoons,a Sunday night interview (not sure how that's going work for the network that has Sunday Night Football) and will be involved with political coverage in election years.
Several careers have been damaged by getting away from the genre' that made them successful and so many have failed with daytime talk shows-usually the audience watching network television isn't always interested in substantive topics and that makes it difficult to attract an core group.
Kelly turned down 20 million per year from Fox to stay with them (and they say athletes are overpaid),but Kelly claimed that the easier schedule with NBC was a major factor in her moving on.
It'll be interesting to see if she can succeed where so many have failed....

What has been rumored and thought to have occurred without concrete proof for almost 50 years finally has some teeth behind the claim as a new book about Richard Nixon by author John Farrell (not the manager of the Red Sox) has discovered notes from Nixon chief of staff Bob Haldeman that confirm that Nixon did know about a clandestine partnership to keep South Vietnam from going to the negotiating table faster with the Lyndon Johnson administration.
Had those talks started,they might have swung a hairline election in the direction of Johnson's Vice President and Nixon opponent in the race-Hubert Humphrey.
The New York Times article even shows the notes that Farrell was able to find at the Nixon library among other information about the dealings with South Vietnam and envoy Anna Chennault.
Assuming that these are legitimate and they certainly seem to be,working against your country is beyond my understanding of what a presidential candidate should be doing.
When it comes to politics,the old adage is true-the more things change,the more they stay the same.

We are getting closer and closer to various 50 year anniversary celebrations from the different Apollo missions over the next few years.
The first one to hit the big 5-0 comes in a few weeks with the 50 year mark for Apollo One,which is the mission that caught fire in a test mission and cost the lives of three astronauts.
Over the next five years,we'll have all the Apollo missions being over fifty years old and not a trip to the moon since....

Quick Update

Sorry that I haven't been around for the last few days.
It took me that long to recover (and my driveway still isn't finished) from a 72 hour shift from the snowstorm...

I'm planning on a podcast tonight and I have a neat blog planned for later in the week as we return to the forgotten superstars universe!

Two quick notes as well

Today is the 49th anniversary of the fire inside Apollo 1 during a test procedure.
It was the first tragedy in the American space program and it shouldn't be forgotten as it cost the lives of Gus Grissom (second American in space),Ed White (first American to walk in space) and Roger Chaffee.
The sacrifices that are made in exploration of space and the knowledge gained from such should always be remembered..

The wrestling world lost Archie "the Mongolian Stomper"Gouldie at the age of 79 after not waking up from surgery on a broken hip.
The Stomper was the top headliner for years in Calgary's Stampede territory and the Tennessee/Georgia areas as a heel.
The Stomper would never speak in the United States as he would use a manager to play the monster heel,but would give pretty strong interviews in Stampede.
Why? Well,Gouldie was from Calgary and knew that putting on a facade of being unable to speak would expose the business in a time that it didn't want to be exposed.....