RIP

[shafnutz05]

Winnie Mandela died apparently. Special place in hell set aside for her. The tweets will describe her as an anti-apartheid campaigner, but she was a genuinely terrible person.

[tifosi77]

As I always say, the difference between a 'freedom fighter' and a 'terrorist' is which side of the boom you're on.

[count2infinity]

Strange day yesterday... my wife's biological father passed away. I've never met the man, and my wife hasn't seen him since she was 13 and that was just briefly at her grandfather's funeral. She hasn't actually spoken to him since she was about 10. By all accounts, he's a complete stranger, but I have a kid on the way and she's going to be 1/4 him, so to speak, so I have this weird sort of connection to him. My wife seems completely unphased by all of it, which I find even stranger than my weird pseudo connection to him.

I dunno really, just all sorts of weird in the situation.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Yeah, I had a somewhat similar situation in my family (my uncle). Most everyone in the family was fairly nonplussed about it and I was kind of disturbed about their "no-big-whoop" attitude. But I guess their closeness to the situation allowed them to be in a weird way.

[Viva la Ben]

My wife has the same situation, her mother left with the kids when she was 8, and I’ve never even seen a picture of her biological father. Our twins were born on his birthday, and even that didn’t warrant any kind of reaching out. Both of our sets of parents divorced and remarried so the kids still have 3 sets of grandparents.
My condolences.

[Dickie Dunn]

My “grandfather” died about five years ago. He skipped out when my dad was four and my dad saw him one time after that when he was about 15. When my grandmother called to tell him that his father had passed away my dad responded by saying he didn’t have a father. Truly zero shits given and by all accounts the world is a better place without him. I’ve never even seen a picture of the guy yet his genetic traits for addictive personality, alcohol abuse, and mental instability have crept their way into the family line. It’s weird, but whatever **** that guy.

[tifosi77]

My mom told me via text when my dad died. I know very well what lack of connection feels like; it feels like nothing. May as well have been a random obit in the paper.

Dont think of the new kidlet on the way as 1/4 passed dad. Think of her as 100% you and Mrs c2i.

[meow]

Dont think of the new kidlet on the way as 1/4 passed dad. Think of her as 100% you and Mrs c2i.

Came here to post this.

[count2infinity]

Sure... I think it's easy to say that, but I know genetically speaking 1/4 of this random dude is in there. Although, to be fair, I never met either of her grandfathers, or any great grandparents of hers or mine, and they're technically part of the genetic concoction as well.

[shafnutz05]

My biological dad lives in Boston...I saw him a fair amount as a kid as he would travel for visitation. I see him every few years, but it's one of those things now where if I don't call him, he doesn't call me. My daughter is his biological grandchild, and it is actually upsetting that he isn't more proactive in wanting to be in her life. It's one of those deals where I tell myself, "If he's not going to try, why should I?". With my Mom moving to Alabama to be with my sister, I am surprised at how upset I find myself that my daughter won't have frequent interaction with pretty much anyone in my family

[Gabe]

Shaf,
I'm in the same boat. My mother is still living, dad passed a decade ago, My wife's parents are divorced and her dad remarried long ago. Outside of my wife's biological mom, my kids don't really have any grandparents. The one that kinda tries, really only kinda tries and lives halfway across the country. So, my kids have a very different experience than I had growing up. I had a grandmother who loved me and cared for me. I miss that woman all the time. My kids never got that. For the most part, our parents are POS's, but I still feel this sense of remorse for what my kids are missing in the human experience.

[shafnutz05]

Yup...I hear you. Growing up, I only knew one grandparent, and that was my maternal grandmother. She died when I was 17. The rest all passed away before I was born, including my paternal grandfather who passed back in like 1955. I was always a little envious of my wife because she still has three living grandparents in her 30s, although one has Parkinson's.

I guess for me, it's more that all of the family interaction that my daughter has is with my wife's side of the family. Don't get me wrong, I love her parents and they are awesome grandparents, but I hate that she will never really know my side of the family that well. I am close with my cousins, so I'll probably try and get out to Illinois to see them (or vice versa) more often as she gets older.

[Freddy Rumsen]

This is depressing af.

[Kaiser]

This is depressing af.

My sister recently had a son come to life

[Ad@m]

RIP Johnny Valiant

The pedestrian who was struck and killed by a vehicle early Wednesday in Ross has been identified as a former professional wrestler.

Thomas Sullivan, known as “Luscious” Johnny Valiant, died after he was struck by a pickup truck about 5:30 a.m. on McKnight Road.


The 71-year-old from Ross was taken to Allegheny General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to his biography on the WWE website, Mr. Sullivan and his brother, “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant, joined WWE in the early 1970s.

Mr. Sullivan managed Hulk Hogan in the AWA in the 1980s before he returned to WWE, according to his bio.

He left wrestling and became a successful stand-up comedian and actor in New York City, where he had a one-man show called “An Evening with Johnny Valiant.”

https://mobile.twitter.com/WWE/status/9 ... 2078844928

[dodint]

Huh.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Fascinating

[llipgh2]

According to his biography on the WWE website, Mr. Sullivan and his brother, “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant, joined WWE in the early 1970s.

I read that Jimmy wasn't actually his brother. He was a Canadian wrestler that Sullivan teamed up with, and they decided to go with the brother angle.

EDIT: Here's the paragraph from the Post-Gazette:

Mr. Sullivan entered the sports-entertainment industry in 1967, three years after “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant, according to his biography on the WWE website. The two, who were promoted in the ring as brothers but who weren’t related, won several regional tag team championships and joined what was then known as the World Wrestling Federation in the early 1970s.

[NAN]

Wow.

[llipgh2]

Jonathan Pitre. The Butterfly Boy. I really thought he would get better after the stem cell transplant.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new ... than-pitre

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

Some one is cutting onions in here.

[blackjack68]

This is pretty awful. RIP

Canadian junior hockey team bus collided with semi, 14 dead.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cana ... SKBN1HE08J

[Freddy Rumsen]

That's happened a lot before, unfortunately.

[Tomas]

Milos Forman, 85. One of the greatest movie directors of all time - Hair, Amadeus, Valmont, Man on the Moon, People vs. Larry Flynt, Goya's Ghosts, but most importantly, her stare in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest...

[tifosi77]

Oh man, one of the absolute best. RIP