Sir Creep

David T. Shidle, a retired National Security Agency crypto-mathematician who was also a pig fancier, died Monday from cancer. The Ellicott City resident was 75. David Thomas Shidle was born and raised in Commodore, Pa., where he graduated in 1960 from Purchase Line High School and was his class valedictorian. He attended Michigan State University on a scholarship, and in 1964 received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. That same year he became an intern at the NSA’s headquarters at Fort Meade in crypto-mathematics — the use of advanced math in ciphers to protect information. Mr. Shidle “achieved the maximum score on the math test that we were required to take,” said his wife, who was a NSA cryptanalyst. Mr. Shidle developed an interest in pigs after his son and his daughter-in-law purchased a pig and named it Rainbow. “He started studying everything he could about pigs, and he visited Rainbow once a week,” Mrs. Shidle said. In 2016, another pig that caught his interest was Wee Wee, a two-week old piglet that fell off a truck during a snowstorm on Route 40 near Hagerstown. Wee Wee had been heading to auction and a likely destination to a slaughterhouse. A couple had been driving along the highway with their children when they spotted Wee Wee in a snowbank. The family rescued the pig and later donated it to Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary in Poolesville. Mr. Shidle heard about the pig and “visted Wee Wee several times, one time with my son,” his wife said. She also noted that one of his philanthropic interests was the Ironwood Pig Sanctuary in Marana, Ariz. SC

David G. Carter, who oversaw the transformation of Connecticut’s higher-education institutions as chancellor of the Connecticut State University System and former president of Eastern Connecticut State University, died Saturday in Arizona. He was 75 and had been ill with cancer. SC

The Taiwanese writer and social commentator Li Ao has died of brain cancer at the age of 82. He passed away at Veterans General Hospital in Taipei on Sunday morning, doctors said. A vocal critic of both the mainland-friendly Kuomintang and the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, Li was diagnosed with a brain tumour in July 2015 and his condition worsened in January. He is the anti-scrabble name of all-time! 4 points includes full first and last name! SC

They tip-toed around the DNA issue. Which also explains the shoe size.

Her wristwatch in photo 1 has slid back to her bony elbow photo 2. Actually I think it's just her new hairdo and bad lighting.

Preparing for round 3. Working from Z to A lol. Who is Ken Whalen? I'm assuming it's not THIS guy, and otherwise google isn't my friend (can't find another one who is remotely important). FTR 'this' guy isn't even sick AFAIK. DDT how about a little help. Is there a spelling error? (Will edit this as I go, though I suspect there won't be any more). SC Edit: And Tiffany Youngs' claim to fame is: __________ ? Edit 2: Tony Kleese is what....an organic farmer? Or wrong guy? I'm hoping it's the wrong guy. Edit 3: Couldn't find a JW Leonard of note. The scientist? Edit 4: I think there is a bit of a misnomer 'golf pro' re: Warren Grant, but it is what it is. For the record (I do not mean to condescend), anyone who plays in the amateur tourney to get one's pro tour card, and is successful, is by definition a 'pro golfer'. Doesn't mean they play on the tour necessarily. Just means they have their 'card'. Most every golf course (every one worth a damn) in the USA has a 'club pro', meaning a person who achieved obtaining a tour card at one point. It basically legitimizes the course. (Note, if they don't use it on tour at all, or even do and don't win much $ at all, they can and do lose it after like 5 years). If I read this correctly, Warren Grant was a local club pro, not a 'professional golfer' as we may use the term colloquially. In other words, he's a complete nobody. That's just his job title. There is no proof in any article I see that he ever played in a single PGA event. But he passed muster for this round so is good for the rest of this year's Cup. OK that's all, I'm done. Bolduc is a joke, his health is ok though so irrelevant. I ran for city council in a city twice the size of Bolduc's, and had I received 400 more votes I'd have been a celeb! :-) Fame is fleeting.

This (google translated) article proves her a DL fraud. " "For a moment to enjoy (being home from hospital), because on 27 March I will be admitted again for a long time. Hope the pain becomes bearable again! " People planning a suicide don't hope for future events. Were she planning suicide her comment would translate 'I won't be going back, my pain will soon be over'. SC

Isn't that just an outgrowth of SNAFU?

Cloister. And I think I prefer the newly-coined 'misremembered over 'forgot'. If nothing else it's more amusing and quite dodgy. You can't get mad at someone for misremembering to pick you up from the airport -- but if they forgot they're in trouble.

Guilty. But having a toddler does it to you, you find yourself saying it a lot.

Oh no....many many people say 'irregardless', at least here in the dumbass States. I bet if you told them it isn't correct (or necessary) you'd get a confused look from a good 30% of Americans at least.

True the meaning, but I rather enjoy business-speak. It's amazing to hear people who have been programmed to talk like that. I used to TRY to do it as a joke and couldn't remember all the lexicon. Perhaps you don't like outsourcing -- how about rightsizing (now THAT'S when you've lost a job).

I had a boss that said at least once every 20 minutes 'the bottom line is...' and then whatever his point was. He would say it 20 times a day. Sometimes in consecutive sentences.

Irregardless. Because it really doesn't exist and is a superfluous form of 'regardless'.

He is also the losingest Lions coach

Don't forget the 'painting of the (Chicago) River in Chi-Town. Lovely event, fish just love it.

LOL yeah they dummy up the worst beers in the world (those created from drinking the Mississippi River) and put green food coloring in them and the idiots drink that shite. Me, I stick to a proper Harp or summat. I'm partial to Bushmill's (over Jameson's) but told I'm a heathen for supporting them (lol). Glenfiddich and I'm lost, confused, and nude with a goat in the morning, so that's out. Yeah the Irish Car Bomb but I'd have to look up what is in it...I don't partake. I think you drop a shot of ?? inside a pint o' beer and down the whole thing. Me, I prefer a few pints and a rousing chorus of 'The Men Behind the Wire'. SC

No one could have forecast the death of Christian Doppler 165 years ago (49). (Note: His Wiki entry says he lived next door to Mozart -- that's friggin incredible!)

Michael Getler, a Washington Post foreign correspondent and editor who later led the Paris-based International Herald Tribune and served as an incisive in-house media critic at The Post and PBS, died March 15 at a hospice center in Washington. He was 82. The cause was complications from bile duct cancer. SC

Agreed 'winningest' is a bit much, but we know what it means so I don't see the crime. What could possibly replace it: 'Most successful'? I think not. That would infer 'success' is a synonym for 'wins', and it isn't. (Wayne Fontes is the 'winningest' head coach for the Detroit Lions, his overall record 67-71), 'The coach with the most wins'? Only a stilted ass would prefer that version. I remember once at a train station I heard a guy say 'that motherfucking motherfucker's a motherfucker!" And I knew exactly what he meant. Was the winningest sentence I've ever heard. SC

kinda an e.e.cummings thing going on! i like it.

Does the Chief of the Fire Dept in Midland, TX count as a celeb? Just trying to establish the cut-off point for next round.

Hahaha....that made my morning, Spade.

Time to give this thread a re-boot what with the Amitabh Bachchan thread, as well as a few others what made me roll my eyes. Please read post #1 for reference if you are confused. Suffice, the minute you are 1) explaining who the person is or 2) typing the phrase 'is famous' or 'is a celebrity' in your opening paragraph, by definition they aren't. Maybe a wee bit, but not enough for their own thread. That honour should be sacrosanct, imho. SC

Who? I'm going to go out on a limb, cuz surely there is an exception to the rule, but I'm going to say if a person has the letters 'bh' consecutively in their name, they are not a celebrity under any definition. The minute you said 'Bhollywood' you pushed him into the outer circle of the diagram at best. Yours, etc., SC