July 20, 2022

The 50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time

The 50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time
The most tearjerking, hilarious, satisfying, and shocking death scenes in 2,500 years of culture.

BY DAN KOIS
JULY 20, 20225:57 AM


(Slate) “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done,” Sydney Carton thinks on his way to the guillotine. That far better thing is dying tragically, for many reasons: to save an innocent man, to fulfill his own redemption, and—of course—to make us cry at the end of A Tale of Two Cities. The death scene is one of the sharpest tools in a writer’s toolbox, as likely to wound the writer themself as the reader—for if a well-written death scene can be thrilling, terrifying, or filled with despair, so can a poorly written one be bathetic, stupid, and eye-rolling.

But let’s not talk about those. Let’s talk about the good ones, the deathless death scenes. We’ve assembled the 50 greatest fictional deaths of all time—the most moving, most funny, most shocking, most influential scenes from books, movies, TV, theater, video games, and more. Spoilers abound: It’s a list that spans nearly 2,500 years of human culture, from Athens to A24, and is so competitive that even poor Sydney Carton and his famous last words couldn’t make it. (We even split Mafia movie deaths into their own list, because who can choose?) We’ve also talked to many of the creators behind the scenes on our list to ask them how they wrote them, why they killed off characters we loved, what makes a great death scene, and what final moments from fiction have stuck with them all their lives.

We’ve made this list during a pandemic, as real-life death has stalked us all, more tangible than ever. After all, one of the many things art can do is to help us navigate the pitfalls of life, and there’s no deeper pitfall than the final one. Here are the scenes that have shown us all what the big goodbye might actually be like, when it comes.

....(snip)....

Grendel in Beowulf

Author: The Beowulf poet
Year: Circa 975
Original medium: The oral tradition
Also: Book, movie, opera

-The great warrior Beowulf stakes his claim as the English tradition’s first recorded superhero in a bloody battle against a worthy foe: Grendel, a man-eating monster from the marshes, descendant of Cain, whose skin cannot be pierced by human swords. Beowulf rips off his freakin’ arm and sends the beast back to the marshes, “beaten in battle, bloodying the path,/ Hauling his doom to the demons’ mere.” The hell spawn gets to tell his side of the story in John Gardner’s remarkable 1971 novel Grendel, where his death is not a moment of heroism but of dumb luck and blunt tragedy.

....(snip)....

Marion Crane in Psycho

Author: Joseph Stefano (screenplay) and Alfred Hitchcock (director)
Year: 1960
Original medium: Movie

People Peopleremember the death of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) because it takes place in a shower, and because of Bernard Herrmann’s music, and the editing, but it’s really none of these things that makes it the most shocking horror death there ever has been and the most shocking horror death there is ever likely to be. It’s that when Marion Crane dies, Alfred Hitchcock kills off his movie’s only protagonist, halfway through the movie. (The novel, by Robert Bloch, focused on Norman Bates.) Some movies since have attempted to do the same thing—to frightening or sometimes hilarious effect—but none of them will ever be able to re-create the shock of when Hitchcock pulled this trick for the very first time. ..........(more)

https://slate.com/culture/2022/07/best-death-scenes-movies-tv-books-theater-songs.html

July 20, 2022

How did the Secret Service lose its Jan. 6 texts? So far, the explanations won't wash

How did the Secret Service lose its Jan. 6 texts? So far, the explanations won't wash
Secret Service denies it "maliciously" deleted Jan. 6 texts. But they're gone, and our republic needs them

By NORMAN EISEN - FREDERICK BARON - DENNIS AFTERGUT


The U.S. Secret Service motto is "Worthy of Trust and Confidence." Recent events, including the apparent deletion of Jan. 6 evidence, have put a large question mark after that phrase, and the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is moving to answer the question. Producing a complete inventory of the agency's texts around Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, is vital to the committee's search for truth.

The Secret Service was already embroiled in controversy about whether former agents may have been involved in witness intimidation targeting star committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson for her testimony about Trump's violent intent on Jan. 6. Then, on July 13, it emerged that the agency had deleted text messages relating to what happened on Jan. 5 and 6, and apparently did so after Inspector General Joseph Cuffaris requested them. Next, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote that some of the agency's phone data had been lost due to a "pre-planned, three-month system migration" requiring agents to reset their mobile phones. His statement "confirmed to [the Inspector General] that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration."

The committee subpoenaed the texts. According to committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, the Secret Service said "they, in fact, had "pertinent texts." But on July 19, the Service announced it had nothing further to produce, apparently contradicting the statement that "none of the texts . . . had been lost." The Service has vigorously denied the IG's charges that it obfuscated or "maliciously" deleted texts. But when an agency cannot seem to keep its story straight, it is Congress' oversight responsibility to penetrate the fog of facts.

That the agency has offered shifting explanations about the disappearing texts is alarming — their relevance would have been obvious to any law enforcement agency. Without question, any scheduled data deletion or device-replacement program should have been immediately suspended due to the paramount importance of preserving evidence regarding the historically unprecedented events of Jan. 6. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/20/how-did-the-secret-lose-its-jan-6-texts-so-far-the-explanations-wont-wash/

July 20, 2022

Ron DeSantis, culture war king, suspiciously silent on the biggest culture war battle of our time

Ron DeSantis, culture war king, suspiciously silent on the biggest culture war battle of our time
While Republicans like Ted Cruz push for the end of same-sex marriage, DeSantis remains relatively mum on abortion

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
PUBLISHED JULY 18, 2022 8:35AM


(Salon) The GOP's most aggressive culture warrior, Ron DeSantis, gave the keynote address at the first annual "The Liberty Moms" meeting in Tampa, Florida last weekend. He was there to lend his explosive star power to their self-described agenda of "battling mask mandates in schools, banning library books that address sexuality and gender identity, and curtailing lessons on racial inequity and discrimination." He is, in fact, their one true leader, using their authoritarian intimidation platform as his re-election agenda and possible springboard to the White House.

Considering his position as a general in the culture war, you'd think that DeSantis would be first in line with abortion bans and fugitive pregnant women laws like so many of his fellow GOP leaders. Instead, he stood by silently while the Attorney General of Ohio rushed right into the fray to doubt the now confirmed story of a 10-year-old rape victim who had to be transported to Indiana by her mother to obtain an abortion because she missed the 6-week deadline by 3 days. Not to be outdone, the Attorney General of Indiana immediately declared that he would investigate the doctor who performed the procedure even though abortion is still legal in the state (for the time being.) The state of Texas, meanwhile, got the conservative judiciary involved by suing the Biden administration over its guidance that emergency rooms are still obligated to perform abortions in case of a medical emergency, calling it an "attempt to use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic" and forcing "hospitals and doctors to commit crimes and risk their licensure under Texas law." And with a bracing amount of clarity even Texas can't claim, Idaho Republicans voted to reject a "life of the mother" exception from its party platform.

And at the federal level, Senate Republicans helpfully blocked a bill that would have protected the right of pregnant people to travel from one state to another. It's probably only a matter of days before a state passes a law restricting such movement.

These and other actions in red states all over the country show that DeSantis is behind the right-wing curve. He defended the state's ban on abortions after 15 weeks, without exception for rape and incest, and blandly offered to "work to expand pro-life protections" — but that's about it. Beyond that, he's been uncharacteristically reluctant to wade into the greatest culture battle of our time. The New York Times explained that he is under pressure from Republicans to adopt the draconian measures that have electrified the anti-abortion zealots throughout the country but remains reluctant because he feels it might hurt his chances at re-election and a possible presidential run. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/18/ron-desantis-culture-king-suspiciously-silent-on-the-biggest-culture-battle-of-our-time/

July 20, 2022

Central Florida man with Nazi memorabilia arrested after explosives found in home

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Lake County deputies said they found live bombs and 50 pounds of ammonium nitrate in a home after the suspect’s roommate tipped deputies off because she was scared for her own life.

The suspect, 55-year-old Markus Fricke, remains locked up on no bond after investigators determined he had several explosive devices, some of which could be set off with a tripwire.

The ATF and the sheriff’s office are both working to learn more about the suspect and what he was up to.

Neighbors reported seeing and hearing more explosions in the yard with growing intensity in recent weeks.

Investigators said Fricke is from Germany and had Nazi memorabilia and anti-Semitic literature. But at this point it’s unknown why he was doing what he was doing or if he had any intended targets. ..............(more)

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/central-florida-man-with-nazi-memorabilia-arrested-after-explosives-found-home/XCJQ4QI3TBGBJLWYDMNAR6NEYM/

July 19, 2022

Ted Nugent Compares Himself To Rosa Parks As He Tries To Sell Autographs

This mfer....


Right-wing rocker Ted Nugent this week compared himself to civil rights icon Rosa Parks over his refusal to wear a mask to stop the spread of COVID-19.

While most mask mandates were lifted long ago, Nugent railed against them while he attempted to sell his autographed “I will not comply” merch during an appearance on Real America’s Voice.

“What a beautiful statement, ‘I will not comply.’ I’m like Rosa Parks with a Glock,” he said. “You try to give me a stupid, immoral, nonsensical, arbitrary, capricious, punitive, mandate mask puke, and I will not comply.” .............(more)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-nugent-rosa-parks_n_62d65348e4b0ed8ba4932992

July 19, 2022

Europe's heatwave is getting the attention, but look at the Weather Channel map for America today...

En fuego almost everywhere......

July 19, 2022

Abortion, racism and guns: How white supremacy unites the right

Abortion, racism and guns: How white supremacy unites the right
Do things change? An early version of the racist "great replacement" theory drove the campaign to outlaw abortion

By TAMARA KAY - SUSAN L. OSTERMANN
PUBLISHED JULY 19, 2022 5:45AM


(Salon) White supremacy was one of the primary motivations behind the first movement to outlaw abortion in the United States. In 1858, the American Medical Association (AMA), led by Horatio Storer, launched a crusade to end abortion across the country. Prior to this period, abortion was legal in all U.S. states. Storer and white male physicians not only wanted to push women midwives — often Black, indigenous and immigrant women — out of the newly developing medical profession, but also had another, more sinister aim: these men wanted white male Protestants to politically control the country.

They feared that the growing number of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany and other largely Catholic countries, whom they viewed as separate and distinct "races," would produce more babies and usurp the political dominance of white Protestant Anglo-Saxon men. The reproduction of Black women, the majority of whom were enslaved at that time, was controlled by systems of white supremacy, and was not seen as a threat. Later, at the turn of the century, the focus shifted to the reproduction of women of color, many of whom were subjected to forced and coerced sterilizations in the U.S. until 1973. The white supremacist core of the movement remained the same, however.

It's important to understand that the definition of "whiteness" did not remain constant throughout that period. In the early 20th century, immigration restrictions created the conditions for consolidating the category "white," while massive immigration a few decades earlier, in the 19th century, had fragmented it. Political scientist Rogers M. Smith argues that this led to the destabilization and fracturing of the category "white," and to its replacement by a racial scheme in which the white races of Europe were considered separate and differently suited for citizenship. Many Anglo-Saxons in the U.S. believed them to be inferior races who threatened the country.

....(snip)....

According to Storer and company, the problem was abortion: Specifically, too many white Anglo-Saxon women were choosing to terminate pregnancies. In the late 1800s, the New York Times ran stories about abortions performed by Ann Trow Lohman, also known as Madame Restell, who served New York's elite and ran a lucrative mail-order abortifacient business. She became so associated with abortion that the practice was often referred to as "Restellism." As one anti-abortion pundit noted: "Restellism is murder with the Roman Catholics. Half a dozen children in every Irish family. Only two in the modern American family. What is the matter? Answer — Restellism. That is why, shortly, the children of the Emerald Isle will be walking through the graveyards of the Puritans." How did Storer and the AMA decide to solve this "problem"? By criminalizing abortion.

....(snip)....

The Second Amendment also has white supremacist roots. When it was ratified in 1791, many states had laws to prevent enslaved and free Black people from possessing or bearing arms. Prior to the Civil War, Black people were targeted by armed slave patrols, and after the war and the failure of Reconstruction, Black Codes enacted across the Jim Crow South prohibited formerly enslaved people from possessing guns. Carol Anderson, chair of African American Studies at Emory University and author of "The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America," argues that long after the abolition of slavery, the Second Amendment has been used against Black people: &quot P)ervasive anti-Blackness, even after the civil rights movement, turned the Second Amendment's law for protection — the castle doctrine, stand your ground and open carry — against African Americans." She concludes that the Second Amendment "is lethal; steeped in anti-Blackness, it is the loaded weapon laying around just waiting for the hand of some authority to put it to use." .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/19/abortion-and-guns-how-supremacy-unites-the-right/

July 18, 2022

High temperatures caused section of UK airport's runway 'to lift'

(CNN) — One of the United Kingdom's largest airports suspended flights on Monday after high temperatures damaged a runway. Temperatures soared up to 37 degrees Celsius (about 99 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country.

London Luton Airport announced the situation via Twitter and updated its status when the airport resumed operations on Monday evening.

An "essential runway repair" was required "after high surface temperatures caused a small section to lift," the airport said on Twitter.

Full operations resumed just after 6 p.m. in London.
Luton Airport's announcement came hours after the Royal Air Force (RAF) paused all flights to and from Brize Norton, its biggest air base, in Oxfordshire after a report from Sky News suggested that the runway had "melted." ,..........(more)

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/uk-airport-suspends-flights-amid-melting-runway-reports/index.html

July 18, 2022

Meijer raising money much faster than Gibbs despite Trump's support

(Detroit Free Press) Presuming U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Grand Rapids, can turn fundraising support into votes in the Aug. 2 Republican primary, he may be on the verge of landing another blow to a certain former president's ego.

Former President Donald Trump targeted Meijer for defeat after the first-term congressman became one of only 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for instigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by spreading baseless and unproven claims that the 2020 election in Michigan and several other key states had been fraudulent.

But Trump's chosen candidate in the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District — John Gibbs, who has continued to support the former president's false claims — has been unable to use Trump's endorsement to raise nearly as much money as Meijer. The effects of that may be showing in the west Michigan race, too. Meijer has been airing several TV ads already while Gibbs' media presence has been far more limited. ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/07/15/peter-meijer-has-vast-cash-advantage-over-trump-supported-candidate/10071774002/

July 18, 2022

Aww, Alan Dershowitz feels "cancelled"

Alan Dershowitz was ridiculed on Saturday after invoking "cancel culture" to complain about how he has been treated on Martha's Vineyard after defending Donald Trump in the impeachment trial that could have removed Trump from office before the brunt of the pandemic and his Jan. 6 coup attempt.

"I have essentially been excluded from the Democratic Party," Dershowitz told Newsmax. "There was recently an event on Martha's Vineyard for Jewish Democrats – who would be the first person you would think of as a Jewish Democrat on Martha's Vineyard – me, but I wasn't invited because I'm now cancelled essentially from the Democratic Party."

"The library won't allow me to speak on Martha's Vineyard, the Community Center, the major synagogue, all of them have canceled me because I had the chutzpah to defend the constitution on behalf of a president of the United States that they all voted against – the fact that I voted against him, too, and then I remain — in my mind a Liberal Democrat doesn't much matter," he complained. "If I don't follow the party line down to the extreme, I am cancelled. People refuse to attend events if they know I'm gonna be there and that's why several friends of mine have who have invited me for years to events in their home or concerts that they've sponsored have apologetically said, 'We're sorry we can't invite you because if you come everybody will leave,' he added." ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/18/alan-dershowitz-feels-canceled-by-marthas-vineyard_partner/