billw55 Posted June 30, 2015 Report Share Posted June 30, 2015 Walter Shawn Browne, Chess Grandmaster, Dies at 66 Sad. He was one of a kind.He was a gambling man as I have heard. One story: At one time, before the advent of delay clocks, there was a "no losing chances" rule for some endgames. Roughly speaking, it said that if a C player could hold the position against a GM without thinking, then the trailing side could not lose on time in sudden death. This was meant to address silly spectacles in (say) opposite bishop endings, where the player with more time just moves around until the other guy flags. Browne reached an odd but pretty static ending in a big swiss event. The opponent claimed a draw under this rule, and the TD granted it. Browne promptly slapped several hundred dollars cash on the table, and said he would bet it that he could win the position against any C player they could furnish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted July 1, 2015 Report Share Posted July 1, 2015 Sir Nicholas Winton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton a true hero 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diana_eva Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 Ben Beever (BnBeever on BBO) From his obituary: Ben was well known in the juggling world for a number of reasons. He was one of the innovators in the area of siteswaps and was the first person to do db97531. He was the second person to flash 12 balls on video (see video below) and formerly held several ball passing world records, which can also be seen below. He was the author of Siteswap Ben’s Guide To Juggling Patterns, which can be read online by clicking here. He was also well known in the world of bridge playing, having developed several new systems and conventions in the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterAlan Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Omar Sharif Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMB1 Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Omar SharifFrom that BBC link: "I'd rather be playing bridge than making a bad movie". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr1303 Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Ben Beever (BnBeever on BBO) From his obituary: And he went well before his time. He was a good friend a few years back, and his systems live on in Manchester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 From that BBC link: "I'd rather be playing bridge than making a bad movie".Although WIkipedia quotes him as saying in 2006:I've stopped altogether. I decided I didn't want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work. I had too many passions, bridge, horses, gambling. I want to live a different kind of life, be with my family more because I didn't give them enough time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovera Posted July 10, 2015 Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 This afternoon around 5 pm I was in a doctor's practice. Through the radio in the room I felt Chuck Berry singing Johnny Be Good . At 5 news radio: "Mourning in the movie business: is dead Omar Sharif". Besides his fascinating presence in "Dr. Zhivago" which gave him great success we have to remember that him created the" Omar Sharif Bridge Circus " where professional players turned the world to see how they played bridge at some good level. He will miss a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y66 Posted July 15, 2015 Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 Michael Masser, Composer From his obituary: “I was working as a stockbroker in New York and had the seemingly perfect life,” Mr. Masser told The Chicago Sun-Times in 1988. That life included an office atop the Pan Am Building, a nine-room apartment and a farm in Vermont. “But I was unhappy, and someone I knew convinced me to see a shrink. I walked in and told the doctor I wanted to write music. He said, ‘What’s the problem with that?’ I told him that didn’t go over well in my family. He listened, took my money and said: ‘Here’s a note of permission to write music". 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 Frances Oldham Kelsey I confess I had forgotten her, but my older daughter was born in 1961. Thalidomide was a very big deal back then. As the story makes clear, she was quite remarkable. I am sure that many parents are very grateful for her successful efforts. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y66 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 Ms. Kelsey was assigned to review the application for thalidomide, a morning sickness drug, a month after she joined the FDA in 1960. Despite "glowing claims for safety and effectiveness", widespread popularity among pregnant women in Canada and Europe where it had already been approved (it was developed in West Germany) and tremendous pressure from the drug company which included complaints to her bosses of petty bureaucratic delays, Ms. Kelsey, who understood that some drugs are capable of passing through the placental barrier and affecting fetus development, refused to approve the drug without sufficient evidence of its safety at a time when such approvals were often routine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y66 Posted September 20, 2015 Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 The Forgotten Battalion “The death of my brothers consumes me,” Mr. Guerrero said between breaths. “It gives me this dark energy. I don’t know what to do, so I run. I run all the time. I pray I never run out of trails to run.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiros Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 Yogi Berra takes the final fork in the road Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted November 25, 2015 Report Share Posted November 25, 2015 Surprised nobody posted this one even though it happened a week ago Jonah Lomu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Lomu We're used to the fast 6'5" wide receiver in the NFL, he was the man that introduced this to Rugby union as the first wing of this sort of build (he weighed around 260 pounds). He burst on the scene for many people destroying England with 4 tries in a world cup semi final in 1995. He also was rarely fully fit due to a chronic kidney complaint that necessitated a transplant, making his achievement all the more remarkable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y66 Posted December 8, 2015 Report Share Posted December 8, 2015 Holly Woodlawn, Transgender Star of Underground Films, Is Dead at 69 Ms. Woodlawn had been in the outer orbit of the Factory, Andy Warhol’s studio headquarters, when she caught the attention of Paul Morrissey, Warhol’s partner in making experimental films like “Chelsea Girls” and “Flesh.” Mr. Morrissey cast her in “Trash” as the long-suffering paramour of a heroin addict who lives in squalor on the Lower East Side, played by Joe Dallesandro. Her sassy, improvised dialogue and her vulnerability touched audiences and critics, many of whom were desperate to find a glint of redeeming light in a relentlessly sordid film. “Holly Woodlawn, especially, is something to behold,” Vincent Canby wrote in his review for The New York Times, “a comic book Mother Courage who fancies herself as Marlene Dietrich but sounds more often like Phil Silvers.” Ms. Woodlawn was born Haroldo Santiago Franceschi Rodriguez Danhakl on Oct. 26, 1946, in Juana Díaz, P.R., the child of a Puerto Rican mother and an American soldier of German descent who fled the marriage almost immediately after the wedding. In New York, where she had moved to find a better-paying job, Ms. Woodlawn’s mother married a Polish immigrant, Joseph Ajzenberg, a waiter at the Catskills resort where she was working as a waitress. The three moved to Miami Beach, where Mr. Ajzenberg found work at the newly opened Fontainebleau hotel. Haroldo took his stepfather’s surname and Americanized his first name to Harold. At 16, Harold left home and hitchhiked to New York, a moment memorialized in the 1972 Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side.” From Guy Trebay's Remembering Holly Woodlawn, a Transgender Star of the Warhol Era “You can’t take everything too heavy in life,” Holly [once said to me], musing aloud about how she would attend memorial services for Mr. Reed when she hardly had bus fare. “Listen, you have to have a real sense of humor to get through this life,” she said then. “I mean, honey, get real.” Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo dooDoo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo dooDoo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo dooDoo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo dooDoo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo dooDoo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo dooDoo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 Jimmy Hill, a man who did absolutely everything in British domestic football. PlayerManagerPlayers' union chief that negociated the end of the maximum wageClub directorTV pundit/analyst (plus some controller roles)Caused the introduction of the "3 points for a win" points systemBuilt the first all-seater stadium in the UKLinesman (he was at a match as a spectator when the referee was injured, a linesman replaced the ref and they needed a qualified ref which he was to run the line) He has left a huge legacy in football and will be sadly missed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted December 29, 2015 Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy I saw Motorhead a few times in concert and listened to a fair bit of Hawkwind in my student days, he will be sadly missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike777 Posted December 29, 2015 Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 Meadowlark Lemon, "Clown Prince" of Harlem Globetrotters, dead at 83 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/meadowlark-lemon-clown-prince-of-harlem-globetrotters-dead-at-83/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nullve Posted December 29, 2015 Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy I saw Motorhead a few times in concert and listened to a fair bit of Hawkwind in my student days, he will be sadly missed.I used to play "Iron Fist" on the bass when I was 14. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinidad Posted January 3, 2016 Report Share Posted January 3, 2016 Michel Delpech, French singer, composer and actor. Rik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike777 Posted January 11, 2016 Report Share Posted January 11, 2016 Legendary Artist David Bowie Dies at 69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y66 Posted January 11, 2016 Report Share Posted January 11, 2016 http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/1987/article/david-bowie-the-rolling-stone-interview-19870423/195534/large_rect/1431355767/1401x788-163441746-2.jpg Photo: Rolling Stone Stardust Memories: Reflections on a life of wit and style by Kurt Loder April 1987 Lay me place and bake me PieI'm starving for me GravyLeave my shoes, and door unlockedI might just slip awayJust for the Day, Hey!Please come Away, Hey!Nothing Remains: David Bowie's Vision of Love by Simon Critchley. Talk about leaving it all on the field. Iggy Pop on David Bowie. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike777 Posted January 15, 2016 Report Share Posted January 15, 2016 Alan Rickman star of Die Hard and Harry Potter movies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winstonm Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 Glenn Frey - founding member of The Eagles. There's gonna be a heartache tonight, I know. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 How are Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger doing, health-wise? They're both in their mid 70's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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