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22 Apr, 7 tweets, 2 min read
No time like the present! Tonight, my daughter Tafv Sampson , storied the following on Instagram
So yes, that's her grandpa, Will Sampson. He died in 1987; I was with him when he died; I was also with Tafv's dad when he died, in 2019; this is all a little too much but some back story here nytimes.com/2017/09/29/sty…
As I alluded to in the NYT piece, Will was *not* an actor. He'd been a Navy SEAL and a lineman and was working at various and painting (he was a helluva painter) when he went to a powwow and heard the announcer call, "Sonny Sampson! If Sonny Sampson is in the arena, come on up."
Well, he didn't! How could it be good news? The way I was told, he'd jump in his truck and drive off. The people wanting him turned out to be actor Michael Douglas and producer Saul Zaentz, who were looking for someone to play the Chief in the movie version of "Cuckoo's Nest."
They finally wrangled Sonny (what Will's family and friends called him) and got him back to the set. Where, after a few days of the hurry-up-and-wait that is movie-making, he split. But they evidently got him back, the performance is iconic, and the movie, perfection
I knew Will. One of the smartest and least-bullshit and deeply wry and funny people I have known. I'm grateful for all of everything with the Sampson, and as a matter of fact! Seriously, guys, I'll be grateful if you read this nancyrommelmann.substack.com/p/indian-time-…
I'ma head back to Tulsa in May, write that story limned above, hang with the fam, here's one now, sorry if repeating from Substack but that's Tim's cousin Rusty, whispering to me, "Thank you for taking care of my brother Tim." Will called it xx

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More from @NancyRomm

Nancy Rommelmann Profile picture
18 Apr
To the people creeping onto my posts saying, “Everyone *I* know in Portland says this is all overblown, damage is to a few square blocks”: I don’t believe you. The people you know may *like* the direction the city is taking, but it is not normal, and it is not a few square blocks
The blocks around the federal building and Justice Center have incurred the most damage. This will never change. The movement, such as it is, needs enemies, needs rage calories, and the police, whether good or ill, will perennially supply these.
Every body needs fuel, needs calories, so you sup at Justice Center, at the federal building, for variety, ICE headquarters, the police station on MLK, and if the stores surrounding that last need to go out of business, maybe the Boys and Girls Club, well, sorry; I was hungry
Read 6 tweets
Nancy Rommelmann Profile picture
13 Apr
“Do you want to see it? Do you have time?” D asks. It’s the start of the Derek Chauvin trial and D, who works in finance in downtown Minneapolis, drives to the area around Lake Street, scene of the riots following the death of George Floyd.
“So the first one happens on Wednesday. On Thursday, Mayor Frey holds a press conference and says, ‘I understand your pain. Everything you do is probably justified’ – I’m paraphrasing – ‘and by the way… we’re pulling the cops.’ All hell’s gonna break loose, right?
"And that’s really what happened. They basically went down Lake Street like Godzilla. They burned up like six square blocks. It was like Dresden.
Read 23 tweets
Nancy Rommelmann Profile picture
6 Feb
This is adapted from last week's Substack; go ahead and subscribe, nancyrommelmann.substack.com.
Some of us have been writing and podcasting for a week about Donald McNeil, who left the New York Times today, after 45 years and a week of outrage from some of his colleagues, for using the n-word in context during a student trip to Peru in 2019.
I suggested the context might have been quoting from a book or song.

Bingo: McNeil told us as much in his resignation letter, though apparently he was also about to be fired.
Read 16 tweets
Nancy Rommelmann Profile picture
10 Nov 20
Portland to Progressives: Not So Fast

While the nation waits to see how badly presidential pollsters got things (again), Portlanders already know how far off local statisticians were: 11 points.
That was the spread touted several weeks ago, in terms of how far ahead Sarah Iannarone, openly pro-antifa and partial to skirts featuring murderous dictators, was in her bid for mayor.
That she was running against someone about as popular as a jar of moldy Velveeta did not dissuade citizens from giving Mayor Ted Wheeler a second-term, the first time in two decades voters have delivered such largesse.
Read 14 tweets
Nancy Rommelmann Profile picture
8 Nov 20
I am wearing a small black leather jacket, kind of a Patti Smith-1970s thing, I imagine, though maybe it’s because my friend has just sent me this image and it’s in my mind. Image
I think, maybe, what Smith was saying was in reference to the Chelsea Hotel. I can tell you that this guy I slept with, who lived in his mother’s brownstone (we were 23) on East 3rd, part of the Hell’s Angels encampment, told me he once had to jump out of a window at the Chelsea.
because he was sleeping with some guy’s girlfriend. He showed me what he said was a gun shot, or maybe a knife wound, in his gut. He was a little fat. I liked that. Also, that when I met him, he was the youngest guy in a construction crew and they made him jackhammer the ceiling.
Read 6 tweets
Nancy Rommelmann Profile picture
3 Nov 20
It's Election Night 2020 and we have no idea how calm or not calm it will be in Portland and other cities across the country.
There has only been one killing directly related to the protests in Portland, a killing the news cycle carried off quickly, for reasons talked and not talked about.
Some thoughts on, An Inconvenient Murder

Chandler Pappas was walking in downtown Portland on August 29th when he heard gunshots.

“The first reaction you have is like, ‘Did that really just happen?’” he says. “There was no altercation. We didn’t see anybody.
Read 38 tweets

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