Dith Pran, the Cambodian journalist who survived the massacres of the Khmer Rouge, and whose story was told in the book and movie The Killing Fields, has died at age 65. The cause was pancreatic cancer.Besides the obituary linked above, The New York Times coverage includes one of their “Last Word” videos of Pran, propped up on pillows, telling his story one more time.
With the recent addition of Cindy McCain, we now have profiles of all three of 2008’s potential presidential spouses: McCain, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton.What to call Clinton if he becomes the nation’s first male First Lady? He himself has the best idea so far: “My Scottish friends suggested ‘First Laddy.'”
Perhaps we spoke too soon about the delights of having Karen Allen return to star opposite Harrison Ford in the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Wait… Julie Stiles is only 27 today?That means she was just 21 when she played a CIA operative in The Bourne Identity in 2002?Surprising. Of course, only in Hollywood could crucial national security issues be put in the hands of a callow 21-year-old who… oh, wait.Stiles, as an aside, was born the same year the Beastie Boys were founded.
Lovely, warmhearted George Vecsey column today about Bob Sheppard, the Yankee Stadium announcer since 1951.Sheppard is cagey about his age, but Vecsey notes that he played football at St. John’s from 1928-32. (Wikipedia claims Sheppard was born in 1910.) Still, he just signed a two-year contract with the Yanks.
Russian space pioneer and superstud Yuri Gagarin died 40 years ago today.
“Choosing from the parachutes he had was like choosing whether to take a Cadillac or a Volkswagen to California… The one he didn’t use was padded and very good. The one he used would cut you in the crotch area when the parachute opened. It would have worked, but it wasn’t the best choice.”Skydiving instructor Earl Cossey, who packed the parachutes used by D.B.
A parachute that may have belonged to skyjacker D.B. Cooper has turned up in rural Washington state.The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that the parachute was uncovered in rural Clark County, where kids found the parachute while playing in a recently-plowed field.
“Since the publication of Repetition, I’ve gone to bookstores to sign books and there’s a crowd of only young people. No old people. Let’s put it this way: I was once fashionable. And when I was in fashion, nobody read my books.”-“Anti-novelist” Alain Robbe-Grillet in a juicy 2003 interview with Bookforum.
St. Catherine of Siena was born this day in 1347.She arrived about seven years after bawdy author Geoffrey Chaucer, who then outlived her by 20 years. Saint Catherine herself died at 33.There must be a saying to fit that juxtaposition.