Rest In Peace

[Simon of the Playa]

One Helluva Woman

[lucky420]

One Helluva Woman

That was delightful. What a great tribute

[gaminwench]

I hope, when it is my time to go, that someone (it won't be my daughter) writes a tribute such as this one.

[Patsh]

Now, there's someone I wish I had met!

Great tribute, indeed!

[lucky420]

A woman in Reno did this same type of obit several years ago for her mom. Only it wasn’t a nice tribute at all. Seems her mom was an awful abusive bitch to her gets. Welp, they let everyone know how awful she really was.

[^Rhino!]

This year, attendance at Burningman, or a trip to the Black Rock Desert is an absolute MUST for me. On December 7, 2021, the world became a colder and more inhospitable place for me when my father died. He was 91, but he knew something was afoot. His final quote in the obituary he wrote was simply, "It was a good life, and a lot of fun!" What courage! He was a PhD in physics, specializing in metals and ceramics at first, then in solid state physics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He did the theoretical calculations necessary for low-energy electron diffraction, a tool to determine the surface characteristics of conductors and semiconductors while energized. An often-heard quote from him in my presence: "The next time you use a calculator, phone, or home computer, thank a solid-state physicist!"

I know as a fact he was a great Dad, a good husband, and reliable as sunrise. His generosity with his time and efforts paid big dividends to my Scout troop, arranging the necessary transport to and from troop outings. He had a green thumb and grew stunning roses in soils never intended for roses through a program of regular watering. weeding, and soil amendments of sand and cypress mulch.

I miss him terribly, and am comforted only by the fact that the hurt will pass with time.

[burner von braun]

^Rhino!, I'm sorry to hear about your dad. It sounds like he lived a very fulfilling life. I hope, in time, all of the good memories you've shared together relieve the sadness of the moment.

[ygmir]

RIP Rhino's dad. So sorry for your loss.

[some seeing eye]

Thanks for the note Mr Rhino. What an excellent father!

[mmsj2u]

Rhino, so sorry for the loss of your father! Meeting you at the meet and greet, tells me alot about you dad. May he rest in peace until you meet again.

[^Rhino!]

burner von braun, ygmir, some seeing eye, and mmsj2u, thank you for your obvious sincere condolences, It means the world to me to know I still have friends here and on the playa. Writing that short notice was a tear-filled effort for me. I still tear up when I read it. Let it be known, from me that means it's from my heart

[goathead]

Rhino
My Condolences. Make sure you stop by camp and say Hello to GaWd, I will let him know also.

[^Rhino!]

Thank you, my friend goathead.

[Simon of the Playa]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/europe/u ... index.html

[Simon of the Playa]

a friend from high school died suddenly from covid.

he was "getting better" 2 days ago and i just found out this morning he passed.

rip john, you were a gentle man, and will be terribly missed.

everyone, please be careful out there, i don't want to lose any more friends.

[goathead]

Sorry for your loss.
Hope his memory brings a smile to you for years to come.

[Token]

Hugs my man Simon.

[some seeing eye]

So sorry Simon

[ygmir]

tough to lose a friend like that, so sorry Simon. sorry for your loss.

[Simon of the Playa]

thank you. everyone.

getting to the age where you recognize more and more people in the obituaries is a constant momento mori.

enjoy today, and be thankful you are above ground.

it might be all you got.

[ygmir]

thank you. everyone.

getting to the age where you recognize more and more people in the obituaries is a constant momento mori.

enjoy today, and be thankful you are above ground.

it might be all you got.

I remember a poignant conversation with my dad, while we were both carving tombstones. He lamented that as he ages, he makes more and more for people born around the same time as him, and quite a few younger, and how you knew you were ahead of the "curve", as that ratio changed to most all younger...

[Elderberry]

Sorry for your loss Simon.

[Dr. Pyro]

A long time burner and close friend of mine, Chuck Revell (AKA Dyna-Lite) passed last night. My prayers and love to his lovely wife Zanni and many, many friends in the burner community. Chuck my friend, you are already missed.

[ygmir]

A long time burner and close friend of mine, Chuck Revell (AKA Dyna-Lite) passed last night. My prayers and love to his lovely wife Zanni and many, many friends in the burner community. Chuck my friend, you are already missed.

Oh damn, Doc. Chuck was a peach! Knew him on 3 playa, as well.
That is a damn shame. A superior photographer, and all around good person.
I'm sorry for your loss.

[Elorrum]

RIP Emilio Delgado, portrayed Luis who ran the fix it shop on Sesame St. 1971-2016.

[FIGJAM]

William Hurt

One of my favorite roles he played was in "I Love You To Death".

[some seeing eye]

Madeleine Albright

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/opin ... raine.html

OPINION
GUEST ESSAY

Putin Is Making a Historic Mistake
Feb. 23, 2022

By Madeleine Albright

Dr. Albright served as the U.S. secretary of state from 1997 to 2001.

Update: Madeleine Albright died on Wednesday, March 23 in Washington. She was 84. This was her final piece for Times Opinion, published Feb. 23.

In early 2000, I became the first senior U.S. official to meet with Vladimir Putin in his new capacity as acting president of Russia. We in the Clinton administration did not know much about him at the time — just that he had started his career in the K.G.B. I hoped the meeting would help me take the measure of the man and assess what his sudden elevation might mean for U.S.-Russia relations, which had deteriorated amid the war in Chechnya. Sitting across a small table from him in the Kremlin, I was immediately struck by the contrast between Mr. Putin and his bombastic predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.

Whereas Mr. Yeltsin had cajoled, blustered and flattered, Mr. Putin spoke unemotionally and without notes about his determination to resurrect Russia’s economy and quash Chechen rebels. Flying home, I recorded my impressions. “Putin is small and pale,” I wrote, “so cold as to be almost reptilian.” He claimed to understand why the Berlin Wall had to fall but had not expected the whole Soviet Union to collapse. “Putin is embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness.”

I have been reminded in recent months of that nearly three-hour session with Mr. Putin as he has massed troops on the border with neighboring Ukraine. After calling Ukrainian statehood a fiction in a bizarre televised address, he issued a decree recognizing the independence of two separatist-held regions in Ukraine and sending troops there.

Mr. Putin’s revisionist and absurd assertion that Ukraine was “entirely created by Russia” and effectively robbed from the Russian empire is fully in keeping with his warped worldview. Most disturbing to me: It was his attempt to establish the pretext for a full-scale invasion.

Should he invade, it will be a historic error.

In the 20-odd years since we met, Mr. Putin has charted his course by ditching democratic development for Stalin’s playbook. He has collected political and economic power for himself — co-opting or crushing potential competition — while pushing to re-establish a sphere of Russian dominance through parts of the former Soviet Union. Like other authoritarians, he equates his own well-being with that of the nation and opposition with treason. He is sure that Americans mirror both his cynicism and his lust for power and that in a world where everyone lies, he is under no obligation to tell the truth. Because he believes that the United States dominates its own region by force, he thinks Russia has the same right.

Mr. Putin has for years sought to burnish his country’s international reputation, expand Russia’s military and economic might, weaken NATO and divide Europe (while driving a wedge between it and the United States). Ukraine features in all of that.

Instead of paving Russia’s path to greatness, invading Ukraine would ensure Mr. Putin’s infamy by leaving his country diplomatically isolated, economically crippled and strategically vulnerable in the face of a stronger, more united Western alliance.

He’s already set that in motion by announcing on Monday his decision to recognize the two separatist enclaves in Ukraine and send in Russian troops as “peacemakers.” Now he has demanded that it recognize Russia’s claim to Crimea and relinquish its advanced weapons.

Mr. Putin’s actions have triggered massive sanctions, with more to come if he launches a full-scale assault and attempts to seize the entire country. These would devastate not just his country’s economy but also his tight circle of corrupt cronies — who in turn could challenge his leadership. What is sure to be a bloody and catastrophic war will drain Russian resources and cost Russian lives — while creating an urgent incentive for Europe to slash its dangerous reliance on Russian energy. (That has already begun with Germany’s move to halt certification of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.)

Such an act of aggression would almost certainly drive NATO to significantly reinforce its eastern flank and to consider permanently stationing forces in the Baltic States, Poland and Romania. (President Biden said Tuesday he was moving more troops to the Baltics.) And it would generate fierce Ukrainian armed resistance, with strong support from the West. A bipartisan effort is already underway to craft a legislative response that would include intensifying lethal aid to Ukraine. It would be far from a repeat of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014; it would be a scenario reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s ill-fated occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Mr. Biden and other Western leaders have made this much clear in round after round of furious diplomacy. But even if the West is somehow able to deter Mr. Putin from all-out war — which is far from assured right now — it’s important to remember that his competition of choice is not chess, as some assume, but rather judo. We can expect him to persist in looking for a chance to increase his leverage and strike in the future. It will be up to the United States and its friends to deny him that opportunity by sustaining forceful diplomatic pushback and increasing economic and military support for Ukraine.

Although Mr. Putin will, in my experience, never admit to making a mistake, he has shown that he can be both patient and pragmatic. He also is surely conscious that the current confrontation has left him even more dependent on China; he knows that Russia cannot prosper without some ties to the West. “Sure, I like Chinese food. It’s fun to use chopsticks,” he told me in our first meeting. “But this is just trivial stuff. It’s not our mentality, which is European. Russia has to be firmly part of the West.”

Mr. Putin must know that a second Cold War would not necessarily go well for Russia — even with its nuclear weapons. Strong U.S. allies can be found on nearly every continent. Mr. Putin’s friends, meanwhile, include the likes of Bashar al-Assad, Alexander Lukashenko and Kim Jong-un.

If Mr. Putin feels backed into a corner, he has only himself to blame. As Mr. Biden has noted, the United States has no desire to destabilize or deprive Russia of its legitimate aspirations. That’s why the administration and its allies have offered to engage in talks with Moscow on an open-ended range of security issues. But America must insist that Russia act in accordance with international standards applicable to all nations.

Mr. Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, like to claim that we now live in a multipolar world. While that is self-evident, it does not mean that the major powers have a right to chop the globe into spheres of influence as colonial empires did centuries ago.

Ukraine is entitled to its sovereignty, no matter who its neighbors happen to be. In the modern era, great countries accept that, and so must Mr. Putin. That is the message undergirding recent Western diplomacy. It defines the difference between a world governed by the rule of law and one answerable to no rules at all.

Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) is the author of “Fascism: A Warning” and “Hell and Other Destinations.” She served as the U.S. secretary of state from 1997 to 2001.

[Elorrum]

RIP Jeanne Reed. She and her family knew me from the third grade, gave me a home when I was floundering.

[burner von braun]

Sorry to hear this Elorrum. We have special people that make a difference in our lives, and Jeanne sounds like she was one of those people.

[ygmir]

Oh so sorry to hear this, Elorrum.
I've heard you mention her in the past, with great reverence.
"Fair winds and smooth seas" to her...