27.01.1908 - 27.09.2006

Dan C. Turrentine Dan C. Turrentine, who retired as manager of the Wine Advisory Board at age 60 to start his own wine brokerage business, died Wednesday at his home in San Rafael. He was 98 years old. Turrentine is remembered in the California wine business for founding Turrentine Brokerage, which is located in Novato and employs 15 people including his son Bill and his grandson, Matt. Turrentine is also remembered for innovative promotions at the Wine Advisory Board, including six winemaker cookbooks which sold over a million copies. Prior to running the Wine Advisory Board, Turrentine joined the staff of the Wine Institute where he became assistant manager. He obtained rail rate reductions on wine and collaborated with the U.C. Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology to start an industry-wide program of certified vines that has provided generations of wine grape growers with superior plant materials. Turrentine was born in New York City. His mother died when he was six years and he was sent to live with relatives in New Orleans. He helped them run a boarding house and eventually worked his way through Tulane University. A fascinating year working as a tutor for the two sons of Robert Scripts, proprietor of the Scripps Howard Newspaper chain, helped him to launch a career as a newspaper reporter. His first newspaper job was for the El Paso Herald-Post but he was determined to make his way to San Francisco, the only city that he thought was comparable to New Orleans. He finally snagged a spot with the San Francisco News and later with the San Francisco Chronicle. He left the Chronicle to join the Wine Institute in 1941. After Pearl Harbor, he took a leave of absence and joined the U.S. Navel Reserve. By the end of the war, he had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander. He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence as an administrative officer with Bombing Squadron 22. One week before the Independence was torpedoed, he was transferred with his squadron to the Island of Munda in order to participate in the attack on Rabaul, the hub of Japanese air power in the South Pacific. As U.S. forces tightened the noose around Rabaul, his air group was transferred first to the small section of Bougainville heroically captured and defended by U.S. Marines, and later to Green Island. He received a bronze star for service in this campaign. Eventually he was ordered stateside for a short break at the Naval Air Station, Seattle, where he met and married Barbara Ewart, now his widow, living in San Rafael. He is also survived by two sons, Dennis Turrentine of San Rafael and Bill Turrentine of Fairfax, and by five grandsons, Matt (and his wife Erin), Donal (and his wife Emma), Peter, Joseph and John. He was a member of the Unitarian Fellowship of Marin and for 33 years a member of the San Rafael Elk's Lodge. There will be a Memorial Mass at St. Rita Catholic Church in Fairfax on Saturday, September 30th, 2006 at 11:00 AM. There will be a Celebration of His Life on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 3:00 PM at the Unitarian Fellowship of Marin, 240 Channing Way, San Rafael. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Hospice of Marin Foundation, 17 E. Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Larkspur, CA 94939 or to Homeward Bound of Marin, 199 Greenfield Avenue, 2nd Floor, San Rafael, CA 94901-2622.

Published in the Marin Independent Journal on 9/29/2006.

London - A British couple recognised as having had the world's longest marriage ever recorded were celebrating their 80th anniversary on Wednesday, and revealed the secret to wedded bliss as never letting arguments fester.

Or, as 105-year-old Percy Arrowsmith put it more succinctly, the regular use of two words: "Yes, dear".

Arrowsmith and his 100-year-old wife, Florence, were married on June 1, 1925, around the time a little-known politician, Adolf Hitler, was putting the finishing touches to Mein Kampf.

A series of newspapers featured their story on Wednesday, with Mrs Arrowsmith attributing the success of their union to hard work and never going to bed with an argument unresolved.

"It has not been easy, but worth every minute because he is much more than my best friend: he is the love of my life," she said.

"We don't argue much these days, only when I want to watch the soaps (soap operas) on television, which he hates."

The Arrowsmiths have been certified as record-holders by the Guinness Book Of World Records, the reports added, beating a Japanese couple who stayed together for 78 years and 296 days from 1926.

With two shaky steps and a wave to a cheering crowd, American adventurer Steve Fossett claimed on Thursday what many consider the last great aviation milestone: the first solo, non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world.
...
He faced a number of challenges over the course of his latest feat, not the least of which was sleep deprivation.
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Fossett only managed a handful of three to four minute naps over the course of his three-day journey...
...

He sustained himself with water, sports drinks and diet milkshakes and was forced to relieve himself into a bottle for lack of a toilet.
...

Being to advicse or reprove anyone, consider whether it ought to be in public or private, presently or at some other time, in what terms to do it, and in reproving show no sign of cholar, but do it with all sweetness and mildness.

"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."

19.06.1920 - 13.01.2005

The Dominican Friars (Order of Preachers) of the Vicariate of Eastern Africa announce with deep sorrow the death of their beloved Brother, Father Thomas Richard Heath, on Thursday, 13 January, 2005. Father Tom died just before midnight at Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu, from complications resulting from injuries sustained when robbers attacked the Dominican House near Kisumu, the night of Tuesday, 04 January. A faithful servant of God, who had been in Kenya for the past 13 years, after 10 years of ministry in South Africa and Leshoto, he was renowned both as a preacher and a teacher. He was mentor to a whole generation of young Catholic clergy of Kenya, who have recently studied theology in the Regional Seminary of Tindinyo. Men and women, both religious and laity, looked to him as the wisest of counselors in their spiritual journey. Finally, his own Dominican Brothers venerated him as an outstanding example of fidelity in their contemplative way of life, and a most joyful and compassionate member of their community. A vigil will take place the night of Monday, 17.01, at the Dominican Community of St. Martin de Porres, Mkendwa. The funeral Mass will be celebrated in the St. Theresa’s Cathedral, Kibuye, at 10:00 on Tuesday, 18.01, followed by interment in the Dominican Community’s cemetery.

Though of their names in Heav'nly records now
Be no memorial, blotted out and razed
By their rebellion, from the Books of Life

''He knew there was more to life than getting a job and making a living," his father, Chris, said yesterday, sobbing on the living room couch. ''Our only consolation is that he went for a noble cause."

I was raised differently. I remember a story that my father told me many times of a union strike in the coal mines in "Bloody Harlan" County, Kentucky many years ago. My grandfather, who died long before I was born, was in management and he crossed the picket line every day to keep the mine running. That pissed off the strikers and they came to give him a "Miner's Baptism" one day.

About thirty of the drunken bastards showed up at the house one afternoon and announced their intention of taking "Pete," as my grandfather was known, down to the Cumberland River where they intended to beat his ass and throw him in the water. My grandfather told the rest of the family to get under the bed and DO NOT come outside, no matter what happened. He went out to sit in his porch swing with a hog-leg .45 pistol in his hand.

"Pete, we're gonna whip your ass and throw you in the river," the leader of the mob announced.

My grandfather cocked that pistol and said, "Six of you won't. Who wants to be the first one through the gate?"