[solvegas]

Born on New Year's Eve on December 31, 1959, and he died on April Fool's Day, April 1, 2025. I remember first seeing him in the 1986 movie TopGun as Iceman as the main character that Maverick, aka Tom Cruise, had issues with and years later, 1993, he was alongside Kurt Russell who was playing Wyatt Earp, a real Old West man and legend in the movie Tombstone as western legend Doc Holiday. I'm amazed this thread didn't mention him three days ago. 

[rtpoe]

Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Michigan
Staff Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois
Staff Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California
Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam

These four soldiers, part of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, were on a tactical training exercise in Lithuania when they and their vehicle went missing a week ago, the Army said. It was fond that their truck sank in a peat bog, and they were unable to escape.

https://apnews.com/article/lithuania-us-missing-soldiers-ceremony-b1877203ae467c5028d1916f1f3fa63e

The government of Lithuania had a special ceremony in Vilnius to honor them on their final journey home. President Gitanas Nausėda and other dignitaries were among those who attended. “For us, it is more than a duty, it is an emotion. We have experienced trials in our history and therefore we understand well what loss is, what death is, what honourable duty is,” Nausėda said in a speech to those gathered.

[MaxBigfoot]

Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Michigan
Staff Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois
Staff Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California
Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam

These four soldiers, part of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, were on a tactical training exercise in Lithuania when they and their vehicle went missing a week ago, the Army said. It was fond that their truck sank in a peat bog, and they were unable to escape.

https://apnews.com/article/lithuania-us-missing-soldiers-ceremony-b1877203ae467c5028d1916f1f3fa63e

The government of Lithuania had a special ceremony in Vilnius to honor them on their final journey home. President Gitanas Nausėda and other dignitaries were among those who attended. “For us, it is more than a duty, it is an emotion. We have experienced trials in our history and therefore we understand well what loss is, what death is, what honourable duty is,” Nausėda said in a speech to those gathered.

What a terrible way to go.  My deepest sympathies to their families.   

[rtpoe]

RUTH BUZZI (1936-2025)

Born in Westerly, Rhode Island in 1936, she began performing in musical and comedy revues as a college student. After moving to New York City, she worked in off Broadway productions and made her way into TV, appearing in shows like The Garry Moore Show, The Entertainers, The Monkees, and That Girl. In 1966, she was part of the original cast of Sweet Charity, her only role on Broadway. In 1967, she was cast on Laugh-In, where she delighted audiences with characters like Gladys Ormphby, Flicker Farkle, and Doris Swizzler. She appeared in every episode of the show’s run through its final season in 1973, the only cast member to do so.

In later years, she was a regular guest on Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts and was cast as the shopkeeper Ruthie on Sesame Street. She was also a voice actor who worked on shows like The Berenstein Bears, The Smurfs, The Addams Family, Darkwing Duck and more. Buzzi reportedly suffered a disabling stroke in 2022, but continued to interact with fans online and was still replying to fan mail earlier this year.

[solvegas]

RUTH BUZZI (1936-2025)

Born in Westerly, Rhode Island in 1936, she began performing in musical and comedy revues as a college student. After moving to New York City, she worked in off Broadway productions and made her way into TV, appearing in shows like The Garry Moore Show, The Entertainers, The Monkees, and That Girl. In 1966, she was part of the original cast of Sweet Charity, her only role on Broadway. In 1967, she was cast on Laugh-In, where she delighted audiences with characters like Gladys Ormphby, Flicker Farkle, and Doris Swizzler. She appeared in every episode of the show’s run through its final season in 1973, the only cast member to do so.

In later years, she was a regular guest on Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts and was cast as the shopkeeper Ruthie on Sesame Street. She was also a voice actor who worked on shows like The Berenstein Bears, The Smurfs, The Addams Family, Darkwing Duck and more. Buzzi reportedly suffered a disabling stroke in 2022, but continued to interact with fans online and was still replying to fan mail earlier this year.

Well, it is a shame she passed away, but then, we will all do. My fondest memory of her when she was at the Laugh-in show and it is now hard to believe that 50+ years have passed since I saw it on NBC. That show was not, for the time, a traditional comedy.

[MaxBigfoot]

She was well liked in every role she did.  Judging from the posts I'm seeing on my f@cebook feed, almost everyone she worked with will miss her.   

[solvegas]

She was well liked in every role she did.  Judging from the posts I'm seeing on my f@cebook feed, almost everyone she worked with will miss her.   

She was a great comedy and Hollywood asset that in reality can't be replaced. 

[rtpoe]

SKYPE (2003-2025)

Founded in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2003, by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the service’s VoIP technology allowed free calls between its users, bypassing traditional phone companies and their expensive call rates. It was bought by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion, who added video calls. At its peak, it had some 300 million users.

“Skype was a broadening of horizons in my mind,” technology journalist and broadcaster Will Guyatt said in a phone interview Monday, recalling how he became a user when it first launched. At the time, he said, it was a novel way to keep in touch with friends who had moved abroad or were traveling. “It was quite eye-opening — the fact that you could make decent calls to people on computers and then pretty soon after that solid video calls,” he recalled. “It made it simple and easy to do.”

Microsoft purchased the service in 2011 for $8.5 billion - its largest acquisition to that time.

Usership declined as competitors like Zoom and WhatsApp provided better quality with an easier interface and better reliability.

The service is being folded into Microsoft's own "Teams" service / app.

The news of Skype’s closure prompted a flood of nostalgia from other users online. For some millennials, Skype’s heyday coincided with coming-of-age moments, and its familiar bubbly ringtone conjured up core memories:

“Many memories were shared through late-night calls and laughter. You connected us across miles and time zones. Goodbye, old friend.”

“Goodbye, Skype… You stuttered, you froze, and you disconnected… But, you served us well in times of need.”

[solvegas]

SKYPE (2003-2025)

Founded in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2003, by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the service’s VoIP technology allowed free calls between its users, bypassing traditional phone companies and their expensive call rates. It was bought by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion, who added video calls. At its peak, it had some 300 million users.

“Skype was a broadening of horizons in my mind,” technology journalist and broadcaster Will Guyatt said in a phone interview Monday, recalling how he became a user when it first launched. At the time, he said, it was a novel way to keep in touch with friends who had moved abroad or were traveling. “It was quite eye-opening — the fact that you could make decent calls to people on computers and then pretty soon after that solid video calls,” he recalled. “It made it simple and easy to do.”

Microsoft purchased the service in 2011 for $8.5 billion - its largest acquisition to that time.

Usership declined as competitors like Zoom and WhatsApp provided better quality with an easier interface and better reliability.

The service is being folded into Microsoft's own "Teams" service / app.

The news of Skype’s closure prompted a flood of nostalgia from other users online. For some millennials, Skype’s heyday coincided with coming-of-age moments, and its familiar bubbly ringtone conjured up core memories:

“Many memories were shared through late-night calls and laughter. You connected us across miles and time zones. Goodbye, old friend.”

“Goodbye, Skype… You stuttered, you froze, and you disconnected… But, you served us well in times of need.”

I remember Shara, BEA Princess, once showed me how to use it but i haven't used it for years. I had no idea it was/is officially dead. 

[rtpoe]

JOE DON BAKER (1936-2025)

Born in Groesbeck, Texas, he played football in high school, did a bit of acting in college, graduated with a busines degree, and served two years in the Army. He moved to New York, and was accepted into The Actors Studio.

In 1963 and ’64, Baker appeared on Broadway in Actors Studio productions of Marathon ’33 opposite Julie Harris and Blues for Mister Charlie, written by James Baldwin and directed by Burgess Meredith. He came to Los Angeles and made it to the screen, finding work on TV and in the films Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969). Baker first attracted mainstream attention in 1972 when he starred as the younger, business-minded brother of an aging Arizona rodeo rider (Steve McQueen) in Sam Peckinpah’s Junior Bonner (1972), then portrayed a sadistic mob hitman named Molly in Don Siegel’s Charley Varrick (1973), starring Walter Matthau.

He made it big with the lead role in Walking Tall (1973), based on the life of Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser. “In those days in the early ’70s, I think a lot of people wanted to take a stick to Nixon and all those Watergate guys,” Baker said in an interview from the mid-1990s. His movie “touched a vigilante nerve in everybody who would like to do in the bad guys but don’t have the power and would get in trouble if [they] did. But Buford was able to pull it off.”

Other film appearances included a Babe Ruth-like player in The Natural (1984), Cape Fear (1991), Mars Attacks! (1996), and The Dukes of Hazzard (2005). He also has the rare distinction of playing both a bad guy and a good guy in Bond movies: the megalomaniacal arms dealer Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights (1987), and then CIA agent Jack Wade in GoldenEye (1995) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).

A key moment in Walking Tall:

[Jack59]

We lost Loretta Swit today.   

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/loretta-swit-dead-mash-hot-lips-houlihan-1236233958/

[solvegas]

We lost Loretta Swit today.   

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/loretta-swit-dead-mash-hot-lips-houlihan-1236233958/

I remember watching M.A.S.H. TV show when it first started in 1972 until 1983 and the finale show on February 28, 1983, was/is the most seen TV episode with over 100 million viewers. She was 87 years old. 

[rtpoe]

SHIGEO NAGASHIMA (1936-2025)

A native of Usui (now known as Sakura), Chiba Prefecture, Nagashima attended Rikkyo University and played for the school's baseball team. Signed by the Yomiuri Giants after graduation, he would play third and bat right behind Sadaharu Oh. An instant star, he'd be named the Central League Rookie of the Year in 1958, when he led the league in home runs (29) and RBIs (92). He also hit .305 and stole 37 bases that year.

The next year, he'd hit one of the most important home runs in Japanese baseball history. On June 25, 1959, Emperor Hirohito and his wife, Empress Nagako, attended teh game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Osaka (now Hanshin) Tigers at Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo. It was the first time a Japanese emperor had attended a pro game. With the score tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Nagashima stepped to the plate as the leadoff hitter. He crushed a high fastball from Tigers rookie Minoru Murayama over the left-field wall at 9:12 PM. It's a moment etched in time in the national heartbeat of Japan. With the Emperor and Empress in attendance, professional baseball became respectable.

Nagashima was a five-time Central League MVP and received four Japan Series MVP accolades. He also won six CL batting titles and led the league in RBIs in five seasons. When he retired at age 38 in 1974, he had played in 2,186 regular-season games, smacking 444 home runs and recording 1,522 RBIs. He had a .305 career batting average and scored 1,270 runs.

The next year, he'd take over as the Giants' manager, staying to 1980. "Mr. Pro Baseball" would take the helm again for 1993-2001, when he'd win two more Japan Series titles. The Giants would retire his number, and he was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.

That was not the end of honors. In 2013, he shared the spotlight with former Yomiuri and MLB slugger Hideki Matsui, when they were presented the People's Honor Award by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He was also given the Order of Culture in 2021. No baseball player had previously won the prestigious award, which was established in 1937. And at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Nagashima, Oh, and Matsui all helped carry the torch in the Opening Ceremonies.

And when his death was announced, newspapers published special "Extra" editions to be distributed on the streets.....

"I couldn't match him at all in terms of presence, so I had to show it with my bat. I could only compete with him with my numbers. Shigeo Nagashima was the man inside the head of every pro baseball player." - Sadaharu Oh

Japan Series managers Sadaharu Oh of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks and Shigeo Nagashima of the Yomiuri Giants in October 2000:

[solvegas]

Born on December 30, 1937, and died today on June 3, 2025, at age 87, one of the Minnesota Vikings all-star Defensive End who played in that team from 1961 until 1979 seasons for a record 282 games, he was part of the defensive line called The Purple People Eaters along with Alan Page, Gary Larsen and Carl Eller who are all Hall of Famers and he has the NFL record for most fumble recoveries, 30. I remember when I was young back in the 1960's and 1970's watching them especially when the Vikings played against my favorite team, The Dallas Cowboys. His number 70 has been retired by the Vikings. 

[rtpoe]

HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY (1670-2025)

That date is NOT a typo.

Chartered by King Charles II of England, the HBC began as a fur trading enterprise. Its royal charter granted it exclusive trading rights over the Hudson Bay watershed, which covers approximately 40 percent of present-day Canada. The company’s early trading posts, including York Factory, Fort Garry, and Fort Edmonton, were instrumental not only in commerce but in the westward expansion of European settlers.

As the fur trade declined in the 19th century, HBC transformed into a major landholder, selling large portions of its territory to the Canadian government in 1869. This transaction played a pivotal role in Canadian Confederation and western expansion. Over time, many of its trading posts evolved into general merchandise stores, setting the stage for its eventual transition into full-scale department store retailing.

By the 20th century, Hudson’s Bay had grown into Canada’s dominant department store operator, opening flagship stores across major cities. The chain became synonymous with Canadian family life, from back-to-school shopping and holiday gift-giving to bridal registries and household purchases. Its own private-label products, most notably the multistripe Hudson’s Bay point blanket, became recognized worldwide as Canadian icons.

But as the retail market began to change in the late 20th century, foreign investors started buying up shares in the company. Much of the rest was purchased by a private equity firm, which did to "HBC" what another private equity company did to Sears - sell off every profitable part, and leave the rest holding the debt.

The last few stores shuttered earlier this week; the company's remaining assets are in limbo.

One of their iconic wool blankets, and a version of the company logo showing the same four stripes: