Tough day in the obits:
Richard Knerr, 82; co-founded Wham-O, maker of the Hula Hoop and Frisbee
paired with:
Chess master Bobby Fischer dies at 64
Take away frisbees and chess and I can't imagine how I would have misspent my youth.
I will not address Mr. Fischer's later years but folks of a certain age will laugh out loud and have fond memories of this name - Shelby Lyman.
MORE: You won't get it if you have to Google it but a little background on the Shelby Lyman Show is here. And the Times interviewed him for their blog.
The 165g Wham-O Frisbee made me an Ultimat star in HS!
Nothing flies so true, weather windy or fair.
Posted by: steveaz | January 18, 2008 at 10:11 AM
I can't get the Shelby Lyman link to work.
Posted by: clarice | January 18, 2008 at 10:26 AM
I had a Wham-O slingshot at age eleven, and it raised that toy to a whole new level--it was lethal.
Meantime, sorry to go so far off topic, but I wanted to share the letter I just fired off to Clark Hoyt, the "public editor" of the New York Times:
"Dear Mr. Hoyt:
"The excruciatingly long, front-page article about the 121 capital crimes committed by veterans cannot be anything but an effort at willful, dishonest propaganda.
"If the editor of a high-school newspaper had reviewed that article, his very first question would have been, 'how do these numbers compare with a comparable sample on non-veterans?' It is not conceivable to me that no editor at the Times considered that question. Either the answer did not comport with the message they sought to convey, or they decided not even to seek the answer. Anyone with access to Google could have done the comparison in twenty minutes.
"Given the performance of the Times in recent years, one hesitates to call this a new low, but it seems to me that it is precisely that. It should be a matter of great shame to everyone affiliated with that once-great newspaper. It was extraordinarily dishonest; it was a disgrace.
"Shame, shame on all of you.
[your most obedient servant, etc. etc.]"
Posted by: Other Tom | January 18, 2008 at 10:29 AM
I see like this, Richard Knerr's passing make the World a little sadder. Bobby Fischer's passing likely made him a bit happier.
Posted by: DavidL | January 18, 2008 at 10:45 AM
"Shelby, we have a move."
Posted by: EL Rider | January 18, 2008 at 12:46 PM
Another really remarkable person has passed.
I can see a novel in his obit
Posted by: clarice | January 18, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Well stated as always, Other Tom. Bravo.
Posted by: Elliott | January 18, 2008 at 01:17 PM
OT--Read Iowahawk's response
Homicidal Journalists
Posted by: clarice | January 18, 2008 at 01:24 PM
Iowahawk's "Homicidal Journalists" is an absolute hoot! Too bad a newspaper couldn't pick it up and print the whole dang thing, graphs and all!
Posted by: centralcal | January 18, 2008 at 01:34 PM
I love it--even the header:
An Iowahawk Special Investigative Report
With Statistical Guidance from the New York Times "
Posted by: clarice | January 18, 2008 at 01:40 PM
I think Iowahawks hockey stick graph based on absolutely zero underlying data would bring a tear to the Goracles eye for its sheer simplicity and beauty - and for the implicit nod to the inventor of hockey stick graphs.
Posted by: Bill in AZ | January 18, 2008 at 02:40 PM
Bravo, Iowahawk! But he left of the oleaginous twit Jim Lampley (who used a substitute gig on a sports talk radio show to plug "Fahrenheit 911"). Lampley was hit with a Randy Moss-style restraining order prohibiting him from approaching some woman, and was jailed ignominiously for violating it.
Posted by: Other Tom | January 18, 2008 at 03:56 PM
Wow. Thanks for the history on the PBS presentation ... I am a real chess enthusiast and did not know the story.
As for Bobby's passing. So sad. So very sad. Such a wonderful, very wonderful player. Such a trajic and sad human being.
Bobby - we will miss you as we have missed you for so long already.
RileyD, nwJ
Riley D. Driver
www.DaytonChessClub.com
Posted by: Riley Driver | January 21, 2008 at 12:24 AM
I want to toss in a Shelby Lyman story. In principle, he was advised of the moves and would update a blackboard type display which had all the pieces.
In practice, one never knew... sometimes he would try to move a piece while looking at the camera instead of the baord, and would knock the piece to the ground.
Other times he would move the piece to the wrong square. In either scenario I would sit at home listening to ten minutes of increasingly baffled commentary - "Fischer seems to have left himself incredibly vulnerable here... but Spassky is declining the sacrifice! What are these two great chess minds seeing that we are missing?" - and eventually Shelby would grasp his earpiece, get an incredibly red face, and correct the position.
Good times. Probably had to be there, but then you'd be one hundred and three today... never mind.
Posted by: Tom Maguire | January 24, 2008 at 02:53 PM