Henry Segerstrom Dies at 91

Henry Segerstrom, a Costa Mesa farmer, land developer, and philanthropist from a Swedish immigrant family, has passed away.

He built South Coast Plaza into one of the world's premier luxury shopping centers, and he was the principal benefactor to the development of the Orange Country Performing Arts Center, which built the O.C.'s reputation as a major regional center for the fine arts.

At the Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, "Henry Segerstrom, South Coast Plaza and arts center pioneer, dies at 91."

And at the O.C. Register, "Henry T. Segerstrom, 91, saw bean fields and grew style, creating world-class shopping, arts centers in South Coast," and the L.A. Times, "Henry Segerstrom, O.C. developer and philanthropist, dies at 91."

David Carr, New York Times Columnist, Dies at 58

It's pretty bizarre, but he died just hours after appearing with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras in a panel discussion, including Edward Snowden by live feed, on the documentary "Citizenfour."

I liked Carr's columns, and routinely blogged his stuff. Some of my commenters objected --- mainly because they object to anything from the far-left Old Gray Lady. But I'm like Althouse when it comes to leftist media bias: you go to political war with the mainstream journalism that you have.

In any case, at the New York Times, "David Carr, Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58," and "David Carr, a Journalist at the Center of the Sweet Spot."

Also at Memeorandum.

Anita Ekberg, Requiescat in Pace

Guaranteed NOT halal.

At Astute Bloggers, "RIP: ANITA EKBERG - MISS SWEDEN 1950, AND A NATIVE OF MALMO WHO WAS GAURANTEED NOT HALAL - CROSSES OVER."

Also at the New York Times, "Anita Ekberg, International Screen Beauty and Fellini Star, Dies at 83."

Terry Keenan Dies at 53

I remember when she used to appear on Lou Dobbs' show years ago, on CNN. Cute as a button.

She was my age --- in other words, way too young to go. RIP.

At Fox News, "Former Fox News anchor Terry Keenan dies at 53, according to Hollywood Reporter."

Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier Dead at 63

One of the most revolting dictators of my lifetime.

At the New York Times, "Jean-Claude Duvalier, ‘Baby Doc’ of Haiti, Dies at 63":

Jean-Claude Duvalier, a former president of Haiti known as Baby Doc who ruled the country with a bloody brutality and then shocked the country anew with a sudden return from a 25-year exile in 2011, died on Saturday.

Mr. Duvalier, 63, died of a heart attack at his home, his lawyer told The Associated Press. President Michel J. Martelly announced the death on Twitter.

Mr. Duvalier continued to defend what human rights workers called one of the most oppressive governments in the Western Hemisphere, following in the footsteps of his father, François, known as Papa Doc, who also died suddenly, in 1971. The son was 19 when he assumed the post “president for life,” as he and his father called it, becoming the youngest head of state at the time.

He never apologized for atrocities, including brutal crackdowns on opponents at the hands of the feared Tonton Macoutes, a civilian militia that left a thousand people, if not more, dead, disappeared or illegally detained in harsh prisons.

Indeed, he defended himself as victims of his government pursued cases in Haitian courts on charges of corruption and human rights abuses. Mr. Duvalier had appeared in court and calmly denied any wrongdoing and even asserted the country was better off when he ruled.

“Were there deaths and summary executions under your government?” a judge asked him at a hearing in March 2013.

“Deaths exist in all countries,” Mr. Duvalier replied almost inaudibly. “I didn’t intervene in the activities of the police.”

He regularly dined in restaurants in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, and attended events at the invitation of Mr. Martelly, whose administration has included relatives and allies of people associated with Mr. Duvalier.

This year, his old political party announced that it would field candidates in elections and opened an office, though analysts were not sure if it was a serious move or a thumb in the eye of the rival he loathed and who succeeded him, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, another formerly exiled president who also returned and still is a political force.

Mr. Duvalier fled the country in 1986, as political repression and worsening economic conditions set off violent unrest in what was then and still is the hemisphere’s poorest country. He asked France for asylum and the United States for the plane that would take him there, an American official said at the time.

His departure set the stage for democratic, though tumultuous, elections. Human rights groups have said that he looted Haiti’s treasury of millions of dollars and has largely lived off ill-gotten gains ever since.

His presence in the country, and the fact that he will now escape trial, appalled victims and human rights workers.

“On Duvalier’s death I’m thinking of the look in my mother’s eyes when she talks about her brother Joel who was disappeared by that dictator,” Patrick Gaspard, a Haitian-American who is the American ambassador to South Africa, said on Twitter. “News of the passing of Duvalier makes me honor my father and generations of Haitians who resisted that vicious dictatorship.”

More.

Bob Crewe Dies: Was Songwriter for Frankie Valli and Four Seasons

At LAT, "Bob Crewe dies at 83; songwriter behind Frankie Valli, Four Seasons":

Bob Crewe — the songwriter and producer behind dozens of hits, including standards like "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," which boosted Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons into pop posterity — died Thursday in Scarborough, Maine. He was 83.

Crewe, a four-decade resident of Los Angeles, had been in worsening health since injuring his brain in a fall four years ago. In 2011 he moved to Maine to be closer to his brother, Dan Crewe, who confirmed his death.

With no formal music training, Crewe parlayed natural talents into a long and successful career, helping to advance the fortunes not only of Valli and the Four Seasons but also Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, Bobby Darin, Lesley Gore and Oliver.

Most of Crewe's songwriting hits were in the 1960s, but the 1970s brought one of his last chart-toppers, the soul hit "Lady Marmalade" for Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash of the vocal group LaBelle. The song, written with Kenny Nolan, launched a sexually suggestive line — "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)? — into the vernacular of a generation.

"He was an enormous talent," Valli said Friday. "He was making records from the early '50s to the '60s and '70s. He had his own record company for a while. Sometimes I wonder if the industry really realized what a talent he was. He was surely one of the most creative people I ever worked with."

Crewe, portrayed in the movie and Tony-winning Broadway musical "Jersey Boys," frequently collaborated with Bob Gaudio, the singer, songwriter and keyboardist who was one of the original members of the Four Seasons.

Although Crewe couldn't play an instrument or read music, "he sort of had a way of painting a picture of what he wanted," Gaudio told The Times. "He had a way of communicating with people — and they got it. He'd say, 'I want to hear some blue streaks here.' He's noted in the show as saying, 'I want to hear sky blue; you're giving me brown.'"

More.

Joan Rivers Talks to Her Daughter Melissa Before Surgery

Video, from 2011, "Joan Rivers Moments Before Surgery - No Makeup."

Via Ann Althouse, "'I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents'."

'Joan Rivers, circa-1965, had a fire-and-reload style of joke telling that seemed both establishment and cutting edge...'

The caption at the Los Angeles Times' photo of Joan Rivers:



And the L.A. Times' Rivers obituary is the best I've read so far, much better, for example, than the Old Gray Lady's: "Joan Rivers dies at 81; driven diva of stand-up comedy, TV talk."

Joan Rivers, 1933-2014

I find myself surprisingly --- and sadly --- shaken up by her death.

A gallery of stories, at the Los Angeles Times.

Robin Williams Oscar Acceptance Speech for 'Good Will Hunting'

I think the whole world is hurting this morning:



PREVIOUSLY: "Robin Williams Dead at 63."

Fouad Ajami Has Died

At the Wall Street Journal, "Fouad Ajami" (via Google):

Perhaps in part because he was an immigrant, Fouad was also more optimistic about American purposes than most of his academic colleagues. He supported the war in Iraq and refused to abandon the effort even when it would have been advantageous for his career. He appreciated American idealism even as he saw it run up against the cynical realities of the Arab world and radical Islam. He thus fulfilled one obligation of the public intellectual, which is to take responsibility for the consequences of his views. His elegant prose adorned our pages for 27 years and the world will miss his wisdom.

Also, "Fouad Ajami on America and the Arabs: Excerpts from the Middle Eastern scholar's work in the Journal over nearly 30 years."

I just blogged his WSJ Iraq essay the other day, "Obama's Rush for #Iraq Exit and Maliki's Autocratic Rule Ensured Much Hard-Won Progress Would Be Lost."

The press statement is here, "Statement by John Raisian, Director of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University."

Requiescat in pace.

Maya Angelou Has Died: Delivered 'On the Pulse of Morning' at Clinton Inauguration

At the Los Angeles Times, "Maya Angelou, poet and civil rights advocate, dies at 86."

Her speech, the post-colonial leftist's dream poem: "Maya Angelou's Poem "'On the Pulse of Morning'."

Vincent Harding Dies: Advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., Wrote Anti-American Speech Attacking the Vietnam War

At the Los Angeles Times, "Vincent Harding dies at 82; historian wrote controversial King speech":

Exactly a year before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, he delivered a speech that alienated ordinarily sympathetic politicians, liberal commentators and even some of his fellow leaders in the civil rights movement.

In a blistering address at Riverside Church in New York City, King denounced the Vietnam War, likened U.S. bombings to Nazi atrocities, and called for unilateral withdrawal. The problems eroding America, he said, were "the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism," and as a Christian, he had to "speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation."

King advisor Vincent G. Harding, a historian and lay minister who wrote what is said to be the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's most controversial address, died Monday in a Philadelphia hospital from the effects of a heart aneurysm, according to the University of Denver's Iliff School of Theology, where Harding taught for many years. He was 82.

Years after King's April 4, 1967, speech, Harding recalled its explosive reverberations. Other black leaders, he said, were concerned about offending President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had pushed through landmark advances in civil rights.

"All the keepers of the conventional wisdom, especially in the New York Times and the Washington Post, simply vilified and condemned Martin," he said in a 2007 interview with Sojourners magazine. "They spoke about the fact that he had done ill service, not only to his country, but to 'his people'."

The Riverside speech — known as "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" — was pilloried by 168 newspapers, said commentator Tavis Smiley, who produced an hourlong PBS special on it in 2010.

It "led to the demonization of King," Smiley told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution that year. "The speech caused black leaders to turn against him. It got him disinvited by LBJ to the White House. He couldn't get a book deal. It's fascinating, given the adulation and adoration we have for MLK today." ...

In 1965, Harding, then chair of the history and sociology department at Atlanta's Spelman College, wrote an open letter about Vietnam to King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"I raised the question as to whether or not we could, in conscience, keep still about what was going on in Vietnam," Harding recalled in 2007, describing the war's origin as an "anti-colonial struggle."

King and other black leaders wrestled with the question for two years.

"Down deep within all of it," Harding said, "was America's racist attitude, which essentially said, 'It's all right, King, for you to talk about colored things but, when it comes to foreign policies, that's our business. We really don't want to hear anything from you about it because that's our business."

More.

Shoot, Noam Chomsky would have had nothing on MLK's anti-Americanism. Indeed, Life Magazine denounced King at the time, calling the Riverside speech "a demogogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi."

Frankly, I never liked MLK's views on Vietnam, and the record here tarnishes an otherwise noble legacy on civil rights. Clearly, those who then attacked MLK as a tool of global Communism were on firm ground when they referenced Dr. King's bankrupt anti-Americanism on Vietnam.

At the video, Vincent Harding is interviewed by Tavis Smiley, and notice how the far-left '60s radicalism bleeds through. These are the kind of people who have destroyed the moral firmament of America. They have created a cut-and-run ideology in which America is always questioning the rightness of its cause. Tavis Smiley himself has compared Vietnam to Afghanistan, a move besmirching American national security policy and the war on terror as a "racist imperialist paradigm." In short, what people thought was the extreme radicalism of MLK in the 1960s has become the mainstream of the Democrat Party left today. It's a shame that we're not honest enough as a nation to recognize the roots of treasonous national destruction in the coterie of advisers, speechmakers and friends who influenced the 20th century's greatest leader on civil rights.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Dead at 95

An interesting obituary at the New York Times, "Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Star of ‘77 Sunset Strip’ and ‘The F.B.I.’, Is Dead at 95."

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. "received the Purple Heart after being wounded in the battle of Hürtgen Forest" in WWII. http://t.co/OlNomF7TSK #TCOT

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 3, 2014

Arthur Smith, Composer of 'Dueling Banjos', Dies at 93

"Deliverance" came out in 1972 and I was too young to see it at the time. It's been awhile now, but I watched is sometime back on cable. I can see why it got an "R" rating.

At NYT, "Arthur Smith Dies at 93; Wrote ‘Dueling Banjos’":

Arthur Smith, a country musician known for the hit “Guitar Boogie” and for “Feuding Banjos,” a bluegrass tune that became “Dueling Banjos” in the film “Deliverance,” died on Thursday at his home in Charlotte, N.C. He was 93.

His death was confirmed by his son Clay.

A nimble guitarist and banjo-player, Mr. Smith was a virtuoso with an approachable manner. Inspired by Broadway show tunes, the gospel tradition and jazz artists like Django Reinhardt as well as by country music, he became popular playing on Southern radio stations as a teenager.

“Guitar Boogie,” an instrumental with a deft solo released in the late 1940s, was his first major hit, recorded when he was 24 and serving in the Navy. The song, a precursor to the rock ’n’ roll of the coming decades, has been covered by musicians like Les Paul, Chuck Berry and Alvino Rey.

Mr. Smith recorded the call-and-response banjo song “Feuding Banjos” with Don Reno in 1955. Another version of it appeared as a deceptively amiable musical duel in “Deliverance,” the 1972 film starring John Voight and Burt Reynolds.

Mr. Smith was not credited as the writer and filed suit against Warner Brothers after a version of the song reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart in 1973. The studio offered a $15,000 settlement, Clay Smith said in an interview, but Mr. Smith wanted to go to trial. The judge ruled in his favor.

“He recouped all past royalties and all future royalties, and the credit was changed” to show he had written the song, Clay Smith said. He added that the song has since been used in many commercials advertising, among other things, the Mini Cooper and Mobil and Mitsubishi products.

Arthur Smith was born on April 1, 1921, in Clinton, S.C. His father, a mill worker, taught music and played in a band. Arthur grew up in Kershaw, S.C., and was playing cornet with his father’s band by the time he was 11. By 14 he had a radio show in Kershaw, and by 15 he had made his first record, for RCA Victor.

More.

Irony: No Funeral for Hate-Preaching, Funeral-Protesting Westboro Church Founder Fred Phelps

I despise Westboro Baptist. Their funeral protests against America's service personnel are probably the most evil form of free speech this side of the KKK. But it's their right to do it, and frankly, Phelps has never been a model for conservatives on opposition to the radical left's homosexual agenda.

So it's pretty ironic that Phelps' own family won't hold a funeral for the old man. At WIBW Topeka, "No Funeral, After Death Of Westboro Church Founder Fred Phelps."

And a rare expression of decency on the left, from Erica Cook, at Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, "Show love to Fred Phelps's family instead of hatred":

The very post I saw his death reported also had a call to picket his funeral as he has done to so many. This was by a friend who has seen his hate, and understandably wants to exact revenge. But if the actions of his life have shown anything it is that the funeral is no place for revenge or the spirit of hate. We may not feel sorrow at his death. It may even be a day of relief. But this is the time to show why he was wrong to protest the funerals of our family.

This is the chance to show the world how we are better people. We aren’t people who make the death of a man the reason to celebrate, no matter who that man is. We are the better people. And no matter who he is to us, he was someone’s father, grandfather, brother, and uncle. We may still be fighting against them, but today they need the respect they didn’t have the capacity to give when it was us. If we act in any way other than respectful we become no better than them. In stooping to that we relinquish the right to call what they do wrong.

Like I said, a rare example of leftist decency.

I'm sure there was plenty of leftist joy around today, for example:

Yes, this queer person is happy phelps is dead. He made life harder for people. May he rot.

— aliceinthewater (@aliceinthewater) March 20, 2014

Leftists dance on conservative graves every time a right-winger dies. And leftist hatred of conservatives hasn't abated in recent years (Duck Dynasty anyone?). But hey, leftists always need someone to hate. Might as well be Fred Phelps.

L'Wren Scott, Fashion Designer and Girlfriend to Mick Jagger, Has Died

She was millions in debt, apparently.

At the New York Times, "L’Wren Scott, Whose Designs Melded Daring and Sophistication, Dies at 49":

L’Wren Scott, a fashion designer whose creations were known for their discreet elegance, though with a soupçon of daring and glamour evoking her days as a celebrity stylist in Hollywood and her romantic partnership with Mick Jagger, was found dead on Monday in her Manhattan apartment. She was 49.

Pierre Rougier, a spokesman for Ms. Scott, confirmed the death. Two police officials said that the cause appeared to be suicide, but that the medical examiner had not yet made a determination.

Ms. Scott had earlier texted an assistant, asking her to come by the apartment, The Associated Press reported, quoting police officials. She was found kneeling with a scarf wrapped around her neck that had been tied to the handle of a French door, The A.P. said, adding that no note was found and that there was no sign of foul play.

Ms. Scott, whose work was sold in dozens of stores and included eyeglasses, handbags and fragrances, began marketing her own designs in 2006; they became known as especially suitable for the kind of leggy, statuesque woman she was herself.

Initially based on the idea of making the “little black dress” appropriate for women who want to appear both alluring and adult, her designs evolved to include wide variations on that theme.

Her signature gowns, worn by celebrities like Ellen Barkin, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman, were sheathlike, some with a chic, retro, businesslike flavor, others with a brassy, Op Art pattern or overlaid with a vivid embroidery winkingly drawn from various sources — the Victorians, say, or outer space — but always with an aura of sophistication. Ms. Scott’s designs, she said, were mindful of women’s sensitivity about their figures, something her clients appreciated.

“These dresses do extraordinary things to anybody,” Ms. Barkin told The New York Times in 2012, adding, “If I looked naked like I look in her dresses, I’d be very happy.”

More.

And at London's Daily Mail, "The moment Mick heard L'Wren was dead: Jagger's face is etched with grief after hearing 'embarrassed and millions in debt' fashion designer lover had killed herself." Also, "Tortured soul of a glamorous gazelle: L'Wren was only just recovering from 'self harm' incident a few weeks earlier."

Sherwin Nuland, the 'How We Die' Guy, Has Died

We all gotta go sometime, and it's rarely dignified. Frankly, this guy predicted his own undignified demise.

Kind of depressing, actually.

At NYT, "Sherwin B. Nuland, ‘How We Die’ Author, Dies at 83":

Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland, a surgeon and author who drew on more than 35 years in medicine and a childhood buffeted by illness in writing “How We Die,” an award-winning book that sought to dispel the notion of death with dignity and fueled a national conversation about end-of-life decisions, died on Monday at his home in Hamden, Conn. He was 83.

The cause was prostate cancer, his daughter Amelia Nuland said.

To Dr. Nuland, death was messy and frequently humiliating, and he believed that seeking the good death was pointless and an exercise in self-deception. He maintained that only an uncommon few, through a lucky confluence of circumstances, reached life’s end before the destructiveness of dying eroded their humanity.

“I have not seen much dignity in the process by which we die,” he wrote. “The quest to achieve true dignity fails when our bodies fail.”

In “How We Die, ” published in 1994, Dr. Nuland described in frank detail the processes by which life succumbs to violence, disease or old age. Arriving amid an intense moral and legal debate over physician-assisted suicide — perhaps the ultimate manifestation of the concept of a dignified death — the book tapped into a deep national desire to understand the nature of dying, which, as Dr. Nuland observed, increasingly took place behind the walls of the modern hospital. It won a National Book Award.

Dr. Nuland wrote that his intention was to demythologize death, making it more familiar and therefore less frightening, so that the dying might approach decisions regarding their care with greater knowledge and more reasonable expectations. The issue has only intensified since the book was published, and has been discussed and debated in the medical world, on campuses, in the news media and among politicians and government officials engaged in health care policy.

“The final disease that nature inflicts on us will determine the atmosphere in which we take our leave of life,” he wrote, “but our own choices should be allowed, insofar as possible, to be the decisive factor in the manner of our going.”

Continue.

Turns out this guy was Victoria "f-k the EU" Nuland's dad:

Dr. Nuland’s first marriage ended in divorce. In 1977, he married Sarah Peterson, an actress and director. Besides his wife, survivors include two children from his first marriage, Victoria Jane Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, and Andrew; two children from his second marriage, Amelia and William; and four grandchildren.

Suspected Heroin Dealers Busted in Philip Seymour Hoffman Investigation

At the Hollywood Reporter, "Four People Arrested; Police Investigating Connection to Philip Seymour Hoffman Case":

The NYPD has confirmed that four suspected heroin dealers were arrested in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday and that their connection to the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman is under investigation.

"Four people were arrested earlier this evening under suspicion of narcotics offenses but whether they are connected to the Hoffman death or not is still under investigation, and the case is still developing," said NYPD Detective Antonetti.

Earlier Tuesday, the NYPD's Detective Sessa told The Hollywood Reporter that there was "no truth" to the report on the New York Post website stating that a Manhattan address was raided on Tuesday after law enforcement officials received a tip that the dealer who sold heroin to Hoffman was there.

"More has been learned over the past few hours -- hour by hour," Antonetti later added. He said a "large quantity" of heroin was seized, but couldn't confirm how much or whether the police were led there by a tip tied to Hoffman, as the New York Times and other outlets are now reporting.

More at WeSmirch, "Philip Seymour Hoffman — Two Alleged Drug Dealers Targeted in Police Raid."

Philip Seymour Hoffman Planning for Massive Heroin Binge

At TMZ, "PLANNING FOR LONG HEROIN BINGE."

Also, "‘Deadly Heroin’ In Play in Philip Seymour Hoffman Death Investigation."

More from Robert Stacy McCain, "The Needle and the Spoon":

When I was a long-haired freak back in the 1970s, everybody knew heroin was a bad drug. There are no “recreational” heroin users, and a junkie will sell his soul to get another taste of slow-motion suicide. Somebody forgot to warn Philip Seymour Hoffman...

Well, either that, or the dude just couldn't give a f-k and threw it all away, like a loser.

See Bethany Mandel, at PJ Media, "Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Death: The Height of Selfishness":

Over the weekend, Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his apartment of an apparent drug overdose. Immediately stars and fans began to express their remorse over the loss of an incredibly talented, Oscar-winning actor. One star, however, bucked the trend. With Supernatural star Jared Padalecki tweeting:

He very quickly deleted the tweet after massive backlash, “clarifying” his stance by saying, “I didnt mean PSH is stupid or that addiction isnt a reality. I simply meant I have a different definition of “tragedy”"

It’s a shame that Padalecki buckled to the outrage police, because he was one of the few prominent voices calling Hoffman’s death what it was. While Hollywood and the media were mourning the loss of an actor, three children aged 10, 7 and 5 lost a father yesterday.

Hoffman’s friends and family were alerted to something being amiss yesterday morning when he didn’t arrive as scheduled to pick up his children. During the subsequent investigation by the NYPD it was found that Hoffman had 50 bags of heroin in his possession at the time of his death, with TMZ assuming that the star was planning to go on a long binge.

With all of the adjectives thrown around regarding Hoffman’s death: tragic, sad, and so on, I would suggest a politically incorrect alternative: selfish.

Still more at the link.

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Philip Seymour Hoffman dies amid major comeback of heroin in the U.S."

PREVIOUSLY: "Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead."