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AKA "2016, don't you be getting any more ideas... "

We've lost so many great influences and stars, and rather than purely lament this week, I thought it may be worth thinking about the positive side of things.

Family, friends, authors, musicians, people you value(d) greatly... They don't have to be famous, you don't even have to name them. But please, give a reason.

Celebs, I think I'd have to say Ron Perlman. I know very little of his acting outside Hellboy, but every interview, every news article I've seen in recent years has him penned as a really cool guy who has a lot of time for fair play and charity.

I'll post my family hero later, I thought for a while and then felt a strong urge to call my parents and check in.

Mohamed Ali, for showing the way.
we are all equals.

Kurt Vonnegut.

I started reading his work in high school, right about the time when I was starting to realize there was so much more out there in the world outside of my gakky town (Las Vegas, NV). His sarcasm, dark humor, and political views influenced me on almost every level. I even have two tattoos inspired by his work.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Kurt Vonnegut.

I started reading his work in high school, right about the time when I was starting to realize there was so much more out there in the world outside of my gakky town (Las Vegas, NV). His sarcasm, dark humor, and political views influenced me on almost every level. I even have two tattoos inspired by his work.

What are they?
(Not asking for pics, 'cause that's rude, I'm just curious what meant that much to you)

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Kurt Vonnegut.

I started reading his work in high school, right about the time when I was starting to realize there was so much more out there in the world outside of my gakky town (Las Vegas, NV). His sarcasm, dark humor, and political views influenced me on almost every level. I even have two tattoos inspired by his work.

What are they?
(Not asking for pics, 'cause that's rude, I'm just curious what meant that much to you)

I have Kilgore Trout's tombstone on my chest (taken from A Man Without a Country):


On my wrist, I have "So it goes" from Slaughterhouse-Five.

My wife.

She's been through a lot.

My father. For too many reasons to list here.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

I have Kilgore Trout's tombstone on my chest (taken from A Man Without a Country):

On my wrist, I have "So it goes" from Slaughterhouse-Five.

Only familiar with the latter. I think that's an amazing choice.

I think you all know my answer already




<--





Apart from that I admire my father and grandfather. They are always a great example to me. There is also a whole lot of historical figures, writers, philosophers etc. that I admire for a variety of reasons, but I am too lazy to make a list of it.

I'm sure that they would be...proud?

I value the people who made America what it is, even if we are on a gradual decline due to rap music and too much sugar

I am also a fan of Kurt Russel, may 2016 keep it's hoary grip off of him.

Ronald Reagan.

After the Viet Nam war, Nixon (enemies list & impeachment), Carter (energy crisis & misery index), and the 70s in general, he reminded everyone that America was still a great country and that being American was something to be proud of. He did the heavy lifting that caused the breakup of the Soviet Union without firing a shot and never engaged in a major war during his administration. He stood tall and acted like a man instead of some sort of whiny metro-sexual caricature on South Park and was as warm and friendly to those who opposed him as those who supported him.

You may disagree and that's your right but these are my reasons.

I admire my grandmas. Both of them. One was a radio worker for the RAF during WWII. She also worked radios on land, running a service for injured soldiers and networking from across the country. She would read messages for those without radio licenses, even though you weren't supposed to. And the family home was always open to those who turned up, sometimes from across country. Sometimes she would receive phone calls in morse code because the soldiers were so injured they could not speak. She could understand and reply, and taught her children similarly.
After she died, we were clearing her home and found that she had declined an honour from the Queen for this work. A copy of her typewritten reply was stored, "We worked as a team. I cannot accept because either you honour all of us, or none of us." to paraphrase.

My other grandmother was a mother of two who gave up her whole working life once married, as was expected. Her entire life was raising her family, which to me is a tremendous thing to do; to accept you are making a life for those who come after you. She taught valuable skills to her children, from tailoring to cooking from scratch. Without her, my mother and aunt would not have become the string and capable people they did. I deeply regret not getting to know her more.

Kronk, for obvious reasons.

Christopher Hitchens, for his style and his honesty.

 Bromsy wrote:
I value the people who made America what it is.....

So Brits then. It makes me proud it does....

Cheers mate.

I want to say this is an interesting topic and it would be useful to allow people to state their opinions on who they admire and why before we descend to the level of trashing said opinions.

Therefore I think it would be a good rule that you should not post to disagree with someone else unless you have made a positive contribution to show your own most admired person first.

Ben Smith comes to mind.... He's a New Zealand All Blacks player who was recently in the rugby media when a neighborhood kid left a note on his porch or in the mail... In response to this note, he blasted out on social media that he'd be at the local park and invited everyone to come out and work on their rugby skills.

I think that, as sporting figures go, rugby players tend to be head and shoulders above other professionals when it comes to giving "real" time to others, especially kids.


I'll have to give it some time, but there is a short-list of past presidents, writers and other folks out there that I would say definitely fit this category...

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I want to say this is an interesting topic and it would be useful to allow people to state their opinions on who they admire and why before we descend to the level of trashing said opinions.

Therefore I think it would be a good rule that you should not post to disagree with someone else unless you have made a positive contribution to show your own most admired person first.

Definitely. It wasn't intended to be a debate topic.
May update the OP some time, but everyone's been really cool this far.

Guys like Rick Rescorla. Heroes who lived large every damned day, and even at the end went out doing their best to help others regardless of risk to self.





And guys like Audie Murphy who came from ordinary backgrounds, did extraordinary things, and then endured demons.



Guys like Billy Waugh who just define Tough.

Some people who's work has inspired me are...

Xenophon.... Old, dead greek guy who is most famous for the Anabasis 9also called the march up Country or the Persian Expedition) and pretty much wrote the book on leadership.

Sarte... as Theatre of the Absurd is so spot on. The only rational response to an absurd world is to laugh.

Now, for ones no one else has heard of....

My wife- Despite a terrible disease, keeps living her dream and doesn't stop. Plus, I can't count the number of people who thought they could just bowl her over due to her being, short, upbeat, friendly, and bubbly.... to only find out that you do not simply bowl her over. She. Will. Destroy. You!

My father-in-law- The man simply does not stop! He is a dynamo that has accomplished so much and is still super humble and grounded.

For public figures, I probably most admire the late Carl Sagan for the power of his intellect, his books and writing style, his demeanor towards others, and just his worldview overall.

Theodore Roosevelt

Because he set out to become the Noah of death....

Also was a pretty swell guy that could karate fight.

Rodney Mullen - a gifted flatland skateboarder that i strive to match tricks against his videos whenever i'm on a board: i watched an uncut interview with him and it made me realize how lucky i am to be able to socialise as well as i do(!). He paid a big price for the way he can focus on spacial reasoning and the currency was human interaction. It made me happy when he got a missus! if he can do that stuff then i surely can?

Myamoto musashi - the rules of the water scroll are hard to live by but have been very profound for me. especially #9: "do not do anything useless."

Bill Hicks - "How about a positive drug story in the news for a change? (puts on an American news presenter voice) Today a young man did acid and realized that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively - that life is a dream, there is no such thing as death and 'we' are the imagination of our-selves....
Now heres Tom with the weather."

Robert Crumb - cartoon writer who created 'fritz the cat', 'mr natural' and many others. His work would have numerous and frequent graphic depictions of sexual content and racist stereotyping but the manner in which it was done had a deeper, more subtle comment to make - usually about the nature of consciousness, the duality of man and the concealment of self-expression society corralls us into. In interviews for the film 'Crumb' he was open about things on camera which i definitely wouldn't have in his situation. Frequently he got harassed and abused over his attitude/opinion/life as his most notorious works were around the emergence of feminism and he was an easy target. It struck me while reading his material that this guy was being more honest with me as a reader than many people are with themselves and i've thought the guy is a legend ever since.
He eventually moved from America to France where he still lives now and does more 'family friendly' work - including a graphic version of the book of genesis.
Be Warned - before looking for his work on the internet, that it is usually pretty fethin' graphic and will definitely cause an awkward situation if found by someone else...

Robin Williams: his comedy was spot on for me, and the fact that he kept doing what he could despite his demons is worthy of respect.

Science educators like Sagan, DeGrasse Tyson and Nye, for fighting the good fight.

Christopher Hitchens, because no matter if you agreed with him or not, the man had a phenomenal memory and could argue a point very thouroughly.

 notprop wrote:

 Bromsy wrote:
I value the people who made America what it is.....

So Brits then. It makes me proud it does....

Cheers mate.

Good one, lol.

Bromsy wrote:
Good one, lol.

Stop that.

SD, I'd forgotten about Crumb. He and Hunt Emerson are a rare breed indeed.

 SirDonlad wrote:
Rodney Mullen - a gifted flatland skateboarder that i strive to match tricks against his videos whenever i'm on a board: i watched an uncut interview with him and it made me realize how lucky i am to be able to socialise as well as i do(!). He paid a big price for the way he can focus on spacial reasoning and the currency was human interaction. It made me happy when he got a missus! if he can do that stuff then i surely can?

Rodney Mullen is my all-time favorite skater. The guy was (and still is) just a wizard and he invented so many tricks, it's just flat out ridiculous.

Freddie Mercury, for a number of reasons.

He was a man who knew what he wanted, was honest about it, and didn't care what other people thought about it, had fun doing it, and made an amazing living out of it, but above and beyond everything else, dude was just a consumate professional, didn't let his personal life interfere with his professional life or vice versa (as much as is possible for someone in that business) and even in the worst of times for him, he still stepped up to do his job to the best of his abilities when called to do so, because "the show must go on".

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

Bromsy wrote:
Good one, lol.

Stop that.

I didn't say 'the founding fathers' or anything. I was thinking people like Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (cause screw Nazi werewolves), the various magnates that industrialized us, and of course Prince.

Ya know, people who made America what it is, not just the guys who put down the foundation. I assumed he was either making a joke about how our interconnections as anglophone powers means that all of our successes build upon and rely on each other, which is true and deserves a chuckle, or he was being serious and attributing the success of America as being dependent on it's major but only partial source in Britain and the fact that the first person I thought of when it came to people I admire was Andrew Jackson - who was a Scots Irish immigrant child who coasted into the White House based largely on the fact that he became a general and kicked the crap out of the Brits at New Orleans - also funny.