Question Hugh Hefner passed last night

Well Hugh Hefner passed last night!

I remember meeting him working one of the many shows I did at his home back in the 90's
As us crew worked under a huge tent in the backyard readying the lights for a party for one of his nieces and the singer was to be Mel Torme.
He came out of the house at 3 am or so after having a night out, and in typical Heff fashion, he showed up in silk jams and smoking jacket with a scotch in one hand and in the other a cigar!

He shook hands with everyone on our small crew and said he would have some coffee sent out for break.

When the coffee tray was dropped off, I whispered out "I prefer tea?"

And not 15 min later the butler came out with a full English tea service on silver tray jut for me and the Butler of the home said "glad to hear one American is civilized here!

I had to keep the tray with cookies away from my crew "MINE DARN IT...go drink your swill!"

I so could get used to that type of life and WHAT a nice house ---woooffffff!!! $$$$$$

then there was the rainy night were I was getting supplies for one of the events and a limo came sliding up at my trucks rear in the rain and barely missed me! The driver pulled into the left run lane to 'just' miss me!
As the limo pulled off, I read the plate----HHH
Ohh shit he almost hit me! I said nothing when I got back to the mansion, why ruin the drivers day???

I never met him, but I wanted to.

He did more for the field of writing, science fiction, and equality and meritocracy in general than he will ever get credit for. Despite his many accomplishments and good deeds, he never grandstanded or sought press for it; he was humble. He was an unapologetically gallant and chivalrous man in an age where such actions are now frowned upon. One of the people that readily springs to mind when I hear the phrase "They don't make 'em like they used to."

I'm still toasting his memory. He made an impact on people he never met, just by existing, and he will be missed.

Nagrij wrote: He did more for the field of writing, science fiction, and equality and meritocracy in general than he will ever get credit for.

He serialized Fahrenheit 451 in Playboy.

Also included? Margaret Atwood, Roald Dahl, and Arthur C. Clarke!

Martin Luther King Jr. also gave an interview and what he was fighting for. It would be several years later, but he knew he could lose his life with his cause.

One of the first things I thought of, was I wonder if Tia's author will have him die in the Whateley Universe too, then I realise that 2nd Gen is set in 2016, so this event is a year away.

konzill wrote: One of the first things I thought of, was I wonder if Tia's author will have him die in the Whateley Universe too, then I realise that 2nd Gen is set in 2016, so this event is a year away.

And he'd have a lot of options in the Whateley universe that are not available in ours. If he's as mutant friendly as he seems he might have had his life boosted by a well wisher, or fan.

peter wrote:

konzill wrote: One of the first things I thought of, was I wonder if Tia's author will have him die in the Whateley Universe too, then I realise that 2nd Gen is set in 2016, so this event is a year away.

And he'd have a lot of options in the Whateley universe that are not available in ours. If he's as mutant friendly as he seems he might have had his life boosted by a well wisher, or fan.

Heff comes back to life as a Jobe Drow bunny!!!

On another discussion forum someone pointed out that Playboy was the first American publication to put a black woman on the cover. It was something like six years later that Vogue did it.

I wonder if he went against the black list and put mutant ladies on the cover, and inside way before any special publications did so.

I know that he wanted Tia to be the figurehead? likely the wrong term, Mascot? of the company. So he clearly expected to get away with it. Mind you, he could market her as the victim of a devisor and would not have to face the stigma of placing a mutie in such a position.

Still, from what our Hugh did I don't see him being too concerned about such things.

Hefner was amazingly in touch with the zeitgeist of the 1950s and 60s. He was one of the GIs who set so much of the tone for that period. He especially understood the desire of GI Bill educated men who'd grown up with only the most meager hope for graduating high school, let alone college, for a loftier viewpoint. The message of Playboy was, and to a lesser extent still is, 'you can live the high life'. Alas, he didn't GET the Baby Boomers the way he did the 'Greatest Generation', and seeing the downward slope of Playboy from 1973 (ish) on, it shows.

Still, while not as much as it was back in its heyday, Playboy IS the lad rag that you can read for the articles.

peter wrote: I wonder if he went against the black list and put mutant ladies on the cover, and inside way before any special publications did so.
.

I thought it was pretty much state that Iron Bunny had appeared in Playboy. and if it wasn't stated then it was very strongly implied.

konzill wrote:

peter wrote: I wonder if he went against the black list and put mutant ladies on the cover, and inside way before any special publications did so.
.

I thought it was pretty much state that Iron Bunny had appeared in Playboy. and if it wasn't stated then it was very strongly implied.

I was wondering, but was not sure.

While the Movie Industry has blacklisted mutants, it doesn't seem that the print or advertising media has. Fey has an agent, and contract to do advertising stuff, as does much of Venus Inc. Kayda and Debbie in NYC doing the whole Modeling thing.

Valentine wrote: While the Movie Industry has blacklisted mutants, it doesn't seem that the print or advertising media has. Fey has an agent, and contract to do advertising stuff, as does much of Venus Inc. Kayda and Debbie in NYC doing the whole Modeling thing.

Next thing you know, we'll have Eldritch posing for the cover of Guns & Ammo.

THAT issue is going to be sold out...

Sir Lee wrote: THAT issue is going to be sold out...

And the article will actually get read!!

Valentine wrote: While the Movie Industry has blacklisted mutants, it doesn't seem that the print or advertising media has. Fey has an agent, and contract to do advertising stuff, as does much of Venus Inc. Kayda and Debbie in NYC doing the whole Modeling thing.

I work in the movie biz

And I don;t see them ever banning anyone...because look at TV of today!! All the diversification and besides cute guys or girls put bodies in seats!!!

lighttech wrote:

Valentine wrote: While the Movie Industry has blacklisted mutants, it doesn't seem that the print or advertising media has. Fey has an agent, and contract to do advertising stuff, as does much of Venus Inc. Kayda and Debbie in NYC doing the whole Modeling thing.

I work in the movie biz

And I don;t see them e3ver banning anyone...because look at TV of today!! All the diversification and besides cute guys or girls put bodies in seats!!!

In one of the early Whateley Universe stories, it was stated that Exemplars at least were banned from working in Hollywood. I forget the reason why, it has been a long time since I read the particular story.

It was a move by the Stuntmen's Union, to keep baseline stunt actors in business. After all, even a level 3 Exemplar can do stunts on pure physical talent that would shame all but the very best stuntmen in the business. Above that? Landing pads? Nets? Safety measures? Who needs them?

Bek D Corbin wrote: It was a move by the Stuntmen's Union, to keep baseline stunt actors in business. After all, even a level 3 Exemplar can do stunts on pure physical talent that would shame all but the very best stuntmen in the business. Above that? Landing pads? Nets? Safety measures? Who needs them?

There is a better way to keep that from happening in Hollywood--make training for stunt players mandatory and that will cause most to stop. They use it now for some jobs

null0trooper wrote:

Valentine wrote: While the Movie Industry has blacklisted mutants, it doesn't seem that the print or advertising media has. Fey has an agent, and contract to do advertising stuff, as does much of Venus Inc. Kayda and Debbie in NYC doing the whole Modeling thing.

Next thing you know, we'll have Eldritch posing for the cover of Guns & Ammo.

I want that issue... You just know there would be some sort of insane machine gun/grenade launcher that somehow avoids the various laws on possessing such weapons (if I recall correctly it is the receiver that is technically restricted on automatic weapons, not the whole weapon itself)...

MM2ss wrote: (if I recall correctly it is the receiver that is technically restricted on automatic weapons, not the whole weapon itself)...

It depends. (The following is real world knowledge). In most instances, the receiver is the weapon legally, and everything else is parts. Machine guns become tricky. I could legally possess an M16 lower receiver:



See that little hole next to the word Division directly above Semi? That is for the pin that holds the Sear mechanism for burst or full automatic sear pieces. A normal AR15 lower does not have that hole and the cut out for the trigger group parts is slightly different. But if this lower was never put on the Machine gun registery it is not in and of itself a machine gun. I COULD put a regular AR15 trigger group in the lower and it would be semi auto only.

BUT

If I possess that lower AND the full auto sear parts:



THEN I am in possession of an unregistered machine gun, even if the parts are not mounted in the receiver. So in this instance, because I COULD combine the parts the Sear parts are the machine gun. Make sense?

I don't track all the changes to firearms laws, but I do have the ATF number in my phone.

I think the cutoff is 1986 and earlier are legal to posses if you pay the $200 tax and agree to the terms for ownership that can include being inspected whenever the ATF feels like it... I'd have to check the details again to be certain. All my stuff in the collection is non-automatic (don't care for full-auto, it has very limited use, but I am working towards having one of each "standard issue" weapon, though I settled on a DPMS AR and a Springfield M1A instead of a proper M16/M4 and M14).

That being said, I do understand. I just don't track it all that closely, besides, I couldn't afford to shoot anything that had fully automatic capabilities for very long. Have you seen the price of ammo lately?

E. E. Nalley wrote: THEN I am in possession of an unregistered machine gun, even if the parts are not mounted in the receiver. So in this instance, because I COULD combine the parts the Sear parts are the machine gun. Make sense?

Under U.S. Code, it does make sense. It's roughly the same reasoning for why someone's neighbor who just loves the colors can have a field full of poppies, while it's illegal for me to plant even one. The persons having the knowledge of how to harvest them for certain uses is what the government feels it must control, because just as with handguns and Schedule 2 medications, there are legitimate and culturally traditional uses for the plants.

Yet they still allow us to grow castor bean plants. I guess they figure most folks don't want to make ricin. I often wonder about the thinking process of those in the government.

MM2ss wrote: Yet they still allow us to grow castor bean plants. I guess they figure most folks don't want to make ricin. I often wonder about the thinking process of those in the government.

Like poppies, it's mostly grown as a decorative plant. To start prosecuting every landowner on which they are found, based originally on completely legal sales, would be mind-bogglingly expensive, would require a LOT of innocent people to pay fines and disposal costs they can't afford (assuming RICO isn't used as a means of property seizure in place of emminent domain, or to render the defendants unable to afford competent defense counsel), and enforcement procedures would likely blow a massive legal hole through several key Amendments.

Unlike poppies, castor bean is invasive as hell in some horticultural zones. That odd 3-ft tall plant in NC becomes a small 3m tree in central Florida. Which multiplies the legal ramifications that no one gives a damn about as long as what's being banned/prosecuted/persecuted isn't theirs today..

Kind of like poinsettias. In most of the US they are pretty little plants. In Central America they are trees.

The US government has done a heck of a job getting around the no ex-post-facto law clause in the Constitution for a long time. Automative firearms got hit with the transfer taxes to cut down on possession. Hemp got caught by the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937...suddenly any possession without having paid taxes was an offense (even it you had been growing it for years before that). Even the Supreme Court has gotten into the act by ruling some ex post facto laws as constitutional as well as defining laws as "non-punitive", "regulatory", "retrospective, but not ex post facto", or that the law "does not impose a criminal punishment"...

Also, remember that the government is not limited to using RICO or eminent domain. They can proceed against individuals or against the property both under criminal forfeiture statutes and civil forfeiture statutes (which is a debate for another time, suffice to say civil forfeiture should be prohibited IMO).

MM2ss wrote: I don't track all the changes to firearms laws, but I do have the ATF number in my phone.

I think the cutoff is 1986 and earlier are legal to posses if you pay the $200 tax and agree to the terms for ownership that can include being inspected whenever the ATF feels like it... I'd have to check the details again to be certain. All my stuff in the collection is non-automatic (don't care for full-auto, it has very limited use, but I am working towards having one of each "standard issue" weapon, though I settled on a DPMS AR and a Springfield M1A instead of a proper M16/M4 and M14).

That being said, I do understand. I just don't track it all that closely, besides, I couldn't afford to shoot anything that had fully automatic capabilities for very long. Have you seen the price of ammo lately?

This right here is how one of my family amassed their collection of NFA weapons --they knew how to do all the paperwork correctly and sold the item with 'done' paperwork to those authorized to have the item or traded it---apparently just getting the initial paperwork done right is the hard part with the ATF ---then it helps when you are a Fed too!!! LOL