from Bruce
Anecdotes
Mishaps
• People who use dog sleds a lot have to become used to accidents, since dogs take wrong turns, sleds tip over, and drivers fall off the sled and are left behind. Once, author Gary Paulsen was on a run with his sled dogs when he slipped and was dragged behind the sled. In a pocket, he carried wooden matches that lit and caught his pants on fire.
• Children’s book author Lois Lowry, a two-time winner of the Newbery Medal, appeared on Jeopardy! in the days when it was live. She remembers that the makeup artist darkened only one of her eyebrows, giving her a quizzical appearance.
Money
• William Blake made little money from his poetry and art, but he did not love money. He once said, “Were I to love money, I should lose all power of original thought. Desire of gain deadens the genius in man. My business is not to gather gold, but to make glorious shapes.” However, occasionally he realized that he needed to make money. His wife, Catherine, who had a spirit kindred to his own, used to put whatever food was available on their dinner plates and serve it. Occasionally, Mrs. Blake would put an empty plate in front of her husband. Mr. Blake also believed that schools all too often instill conformity: “Thank God I was never sent to school / To be Flogd into following the Style of a Fool.” Mr. Blake did have one other important opinion. He once showed a visitor the view through his window. Some children could be seen playing happily together, and Mr. Blake said, “That is Heaven.”
• In August 1966, Gabriel García Márquez finished writing One Hundred Years of Solitude. The manuscript consisted of 490 typed pages, and he and his wife went to a post office in Mexico City to mail it to a publisher in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, mailing the entire manuscript cost 82 pesos, and his wife had only 50 pesos. (The family had little money because while Mr. Márquez was writing the novel, he did not have a paying job.) They mailed half of the manuscript, went home and pawned a few items, including a hairdryer, and then returned to the post office and mailed the other half of the manuscript. One Hundred Years of Solitude made Gabriel García Márquez internationally famous.
• When Marvel Comics was acquired by a new owner, maven Stan Lee was worried about his job. Therefore, he was very happy when his new boss told him that he would be making triple what he had made before. However, being a worrier, he worried that perhaps he had misunderstood what his new boss had said, so he decided to wait until payday to see if he had understood his new boss correctly. Payday arrived, Stan Lee looked at his paycheck, the paycheck was triple what he made before, and Mr. Lee decided that he loved his new boss — and that he would still love his new boss even if someone told him that his new boss was an axe murderer!
• New York Times best-selling thriller author Sandra Brown has 70 million copies of her many novels in print. She regards her best purchase ever to be an IBM Display Writer, which she purchased after receiving a $12,000 loan from a bank. She remembers, “I’d published seven books that were written on a typewriter. I typed at least three drafts of each. I spent a lot of time typing, which is entirely different from writing. One day it occurred to me that I wasn’t being paid to type, so I trotted off down to the bank and made my pitch. That banker, now in his 80s, still brags about that loan to anyone who’ll listen. Bless you, Art.
• John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, tells a story about authors Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Joseph Heller. They attended a party together — a party hosted by a billionaire who could easily appear on one of the television programs dedicated to the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Mr. Vonnegut talked to Mr. Heller about their host, pointing out that their host had made more money that day than Mr. Heller had made from all of the many, many copies of the vastly successful book Catch-22 that had ever been sold. Mr. Heller replied that that was OK with him because he had one thing that their host would never have: “Enough.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Colina"
Album: LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS (2011)
Artist: Thes Siniestros
Artist Location: Argentina
Info:
“Thes Sinestros calls LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS his most personal work to date. Mutant band, this time the atmosphere becomes dense and — as if it were a journey into human miseries - the now quartet speaks to us about loneliness, madness, old age, streaks, exiles, death and , of course, love. ‘It’s the rage that moves the world,’ they say. The sound of the group has been transformed. There are no more anchors to get out of the expected, and the old labels and labels no longer serve to define this album, odyssey and oracle in the vast empire of the space age boys.” Von Halton, via Google Translate
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE); for $3.90 (USD) you can buy their entire discography
Genre: Pop.
Links:
LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
Thes Siniestros on Bandcamp
Thes Siniestros on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still middle-of-August hot.
Sells Songwriting Catalog
Sting
Sting is the latest artist to sell the share of their songwriting catalog for hundreds of millions of dollars, with the singer reaching a deal with Universal Music Group for both his solo hits and the ones he penned for the Police.
According to the New York Times, while financial terms weren’t disclosed, the deal is believed to be worth an estimated $250 million. The agreement covers Sting’s entire output as a songwriter, including Police songs like “Every Breath You Take” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” to solo singles like “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” and “Fields of Gold.”
Universal Music Group previously gained ownership of both the Police and Sting’s recorded output in addition to the new deal covering Sting’s songwriting; through mergers, both the Police and Sting have released all their albums under the Universal umbrella of labels.
Sting joins the ever-growing list of classic rockers to sell their catalog rights, joining artists like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, the members of Fleetwood Mac including Stevie Nicks, Paul Simon, the estates of David Bowie and Prince, and dozens more.
Sting
Space Diamond
Enigma
A billion-year-old diamond from space sold at auction for $4.3 million worth of cryptocurrency.
Sotheby's announced Wednesday that the Enigma — an extremely rare, black 555.55-carat diamond — sold to an unidentified buyer who paid in cryptocurrency. The Enigma, according to the Guinness World Record Book, is the largest cut diamond in the world.
While most diamonds are uncovered deep within the Earth, the Enigma is an "extremely rare carbonado," which is a type of diamond discovered near the Earth's surface and believed to have extraterrestrial origins, the London-based auction house said.
On Twitter, crypto entrepreneur Richard Heart made a video claiming he was the buyer of the rare space diamond. He said once the payment goes through, he'll rename the item the HEX.com diamond, a reference to a crypto platform he's part of.
In its rough original form, the diamond weighed more than 800 carats. It took three years to get it into its current form with 55 facets, aka flat surfaces, weighing exactly 555.55-carats and having a high degree of polish, Sotheby's said. The Enigma's chosen shape is a Hamsa, a Middle Eastern palm symbol representing protection, blessings, power, and strength.
Enigma
Trip To New Hampshire
“The Price Is Right”
A Massachusetts contestant on “The Price Is Right” was hoping to win a getaway to some tropical locale during a recent appearance on the game show.
Instead she won a trip to neighboring New Hampshire.
Catherine Graham had already won a firepit and a love seat when she was picked to go on stage and play “Side By Side” with host Drew Carey.
Then she found out she’d be playing for a trip to New Hampshire, just across the border from Massachusetts. She won by correctly guessing the value of the prize was $7,696 instead of $9,676.
“I just wish it was Tahiti or some place, or Bora Bora. A cruise around the world maybe,” Graham told WBZ-TV, laughing.
“The Price Is Right”
German Court Throws Out Comic’s Case
Jan Boehmermann
Germany’s highest court said Thursday that it has dismissed a television comedian’s complaint against rulings that prohibited him from repeating parts of a crude poem he wrote about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The legal battle goes back to 2016, when comic Jan Boehmermann recited the poem on public television to illustrate something he said wouldn’t be allowed even in democratic Germany. The poem described Erdogan as “stupid, cowardly and uptight” before descending into sexual references.
Then Chancellor Angela Merkel granted a Turkish request to allow possible prosecution for insulting a foreign head of state. A Hamburg court issued an injunction ordering Boehmermann not to repeat most of the poem.
An appeals court upheld that decision, rejecting both Boehmermann’s appeal and a bid by Erdogan’s lawyers to have the ban extended to the whole poem.
The case eventually went to the Federal Constitutional Court, which on Thursday published a curt Jan. 26 ruling dismissing Boehmermann’s complaint. It said that it wouldn’t consider the case “because it has no prospect of success,” and didn’t elaborate on its reasoning.
Jan Boehmermann
Despicable
Arizona
Arizona Senate candidate Jim Lamon's campaign released a Super Bowl ad on Thursday depicting him in an armed "showdown" with Democratic leaders including incumbent Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D).
The 30-second ad features actors depicting Kelly, President Biden, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
"The good people of Arizona have had enough of you. It's time for a showdown," Lamon, who plays himself in the ad, says.
The Democratic figures then draw their weapons and Lamon shoots at them, prompting them to run away.
The ad immediately prompted backlash online, given that Kelly's wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot during an assassination attempt in 2011. Giffords suffered a severe brain injury as a result and has since become one of the most prominent gun control activists in the country.
Arizona
Judge Restores Protections
Gray Wolves
A judge restored federal protections for gray wolves across much of the U.S. on Thursday, after their removal in the waning days of the Trump administration exposed the predators to hunting that critics said would undermine their rebound from widespread extermination early last century.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to show wolf populations could be sustained in the Midwest and portions of the West without protection under the Endangered Species Act. The service also didn’t adequately consider threats to wolves outside those core areas, White said.
Wildlife advocates had sued the agency last year. The ruling does not directly impact wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming and portions of several adjacent states. Those animals remain under state jurisdiction after federal protections in that region were lifted by Congress last decade.
Attorneys for the Biden administration defended the Trump rule that removed protections, arguing wolves were resilient enough to bounce back even if their numbers dropped sharply due to intensive hunting.
At stake is the future of a species whose recovery from near-extinction has been heralded as a historic conservation success. That recovery has brought bitter blowback from hunters and farmers angered over wolf attacks on big game herds and livestock. They contend protections are no longer warranted.
Gray Wolves
New Findings
The Black Death
In popular imagination, the Black Death is the most devastating pandemic to have ever hit Europe. Between 1346 and 1353, plague is believed to have reached nearly, if not every, corner of the continent, killing 30%-50% of the population. This account is based on texts and documents written by state or church officials and other literate witnesses.
But, as with all medieval sources, the geographical coverage of this documentation is uneven. While some countries, like Italy or England, can be studied in detail, only vague clues exist for others, like Poland. Unsurprisingly, researchers have worked to correct this imbalance and uncover different ways for working out the extent of the Black Death’s mortality.
In our new study, we used 1,634 samples of fossil pollen from 261 lakes and wetlands in 19 European countries. This vast amount of material enabled us to compare the Black Death’s demographic impact across the continent. The result? The pandemic’s toll was not as universal as currently claimed, nor was it always catastrophic.
If a third or half of Europe’s population died within a few years, one might expect a near collapse of the medieval cultivated landscape. By applying advanced statistical techniques to available pollen data, we tested this scenario, region by region.
We discovered that there were indeed parts of Europe where the human landscape contracted dramatically after the Black Death arrived. This was the case, for instance, in southern Sweden, central Italy and Greece. In other regions, like Catalonia or Czechia, however, there was no discernible decrease in human pressure on the landscape. In others yet, such as Poland, the Baltic countries and central Spain, labour-intensive cultivation even increased, as colonisation and agricultural expansion continued uninterrupted throughout the late Middle Ages. This means the Black Death’s mortality was neither universal nor universally catastrophic. Had it been, sediment records of Europe’s landscape would say so.
The Black Death
Yeltsin Center
“Three Figures”
A Russian gallery says one of its security guards has vandalized an avant-garde painting on loan from the country’s top art repository by drawing eyes on the picture’s deliberately featureless faces. It said the damage can be repaired.
The Yeltsin Center in Ekaterinburg said the vandalism of the painting “Three Figures” by Anna Leporskaya occurred Dec. 7. It said the suspected culprit worked for a private company providing security at the gallery.
The painting, dating from the 1930s, shows three torsos and heads with hair but no facial features; the vandal drew eyes on two of them with a ballpoint pen. The Yeltsin Center said the painting has been sent for restoration to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, which owns it.
The Russian news site RBK said a criminal case has been opened on charges that carry a sentence of up to three months in prison. The picture had been reportedly insured for 74.9 million rubles (roughly $1 million).
Leporskaya, who lived from 1900-1982, was a student of Kazimir Malevich, a seminal Russian abstract artist best known for his 1915 work “Black Square.”
“Three Figures”
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