from Bruce
Anecdotes
Clothing
• Groucho Marx once knew a comedian named Doc Rockwell who took an odd approach to saving money. He used to buy several new suits at one time to get a discount, then he would wear a suit for a month, throw it away, and wear one of his other suits for a month, repeating the process until he ran out of suits. He would then buy several new suits at a discount and start the process again. He once explained to Groucho, “This way, I don’t have to pay for any cleaning and pressing and, besides, I’m always wearing a brand-new suit.”
• Caroline Otéro and Liane de Pougy were members of the 19th-century French glitterati. Their rivalry was on display at a great ball they were both invited to attend in Paris. Ms. Otéro arrived wearing a beautiful black dress and every piece of jewelry she owned. Arriving a few minutes later was Ms. de Pougy, who wore the same style of dress — but in white — and no jewelry. Trailing Ms. de Pougy was her maid — who was wearing every piece of jewelry that Ms. de Pougy owned.
• The first time country music star Bill Anderson saw country comedian Jerry Clower, he got mad at him because Mr. Clower was wearing exactly the same kind of coat that he was wearing. Mr. Anderson thought, “How dare him to have a coat exactly like mine!” Fortunately, Mr. Clower’s reaction kept Mr. Anderson from staying mad at him. Mr. Clower said, “You mean I got the good taste to buy a coat exactly like the [coat of the] great Bill Anderson?”
• In 1924, the Prince of Wales visited Fanny Brice’s apartment in New York. She told him, “Sit down, kid, and take off your shoes. While you’re relaxing, I’ll whip up a couple of smoked sturgeon sandwiches on rye with some marvelous pickles a guy on Delancey Street puts up for me.” The Prince of Wales told her, “Miss Brice, I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” then he took off his shoes.
• Comedians George Burns and Harpo Marx were members of the Hillcrest Country Club in Beverly Hills, as so many Jewish comedians were. Unfortunately, the Hillcrest Country Club once briefly considered kicking them out. Why? On an especially hot day, the two comedians had played a round of golf wearing only their underwear.
• Sharon Linkletter, Art’s daughter, made a lot of her own clothing. Once she made a bikini from a pattern, then showed the bottom of the bikini to her mother. Her mother asked, “Where are you going to wear that?” Sharon said, “On the bottom, of course.” Her mother replied, “I mean — are you going to wear that in public?”
Competition
• W.C. Fields was so competitive that watching movies by other good comedians made him ill. He once started to watch a movie by Charlie Chaplin, but he grew so ill that he had to leave the movie theater. When he was asked his opinion of Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Fields snarled, “The son of a bitch is a ballet dancer — and if I get a good chance, I’ll kill him with my bare hands.”
• Comedian Sid Caesar, star of Your Show of Shows, was good — very good. How good was he? While fellow comedian Robin Williams was watching some of the old episodes of Your Show of Shows, a woman who was also in the audience told him, “You’ll never be that good.”
Critics
• A bad review can give birth to a good joke. David Woods and Jon Haynes make up the anarchic theatrical group known as Ridiculusmus, although it used to have more members. In 1993, critic John O’Mahony was very impressed with Mr. Woods, and he wrote about him, “He transforms every bit-part into a central character, while showing up the paucity of talent in the rest of the group.” For years after the review appeared, whenever Mr. O’Mahony saw the group, Mr. Woods would be genial — but nervous — and the other members of the group would glower at Mr. O’Mahony and hiss at him. By the way, the group now consists of just two people, but that has nothing to do with Mr. O’Mahony’s review. The two remaining members do work well together. Mr. Woods says, “I think we complement each other.” Mr. Haynes adds, “Some like his exuberance. Others prefer my intensity. And a lot don’t like either of us.” At the very beginning of their careers, they had a comedy venue called the Tomato Club. They invited bad comedians to perform, and they gave audience members overripe tomatoes to throw at the bad comedians. With good reason, Mr. Haynes is concerned about critical notices: “Critical success would upset our equilibrium. Who can we bribe at the [British newspaper] Guardian to give us a one-star review?”
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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: “Para No Decirte” [“Not to Tell You”]
Single: This is a one-sided single.
Artist: El Globo Oscuro [The Dark Globe], Ft. Ricardo 'Ziggy' Anthés
Artists Location: Coro, Venezuela
Info:
Evelio Gómez: Letra+Concepto
Samuel Mitchell: Guitarra
Gustavo Restrepo: Bajo
Piero Fradiani: Batería
Ricardo "Ziggy" Anthés: Voz [Voice]
“The Dark Globe is a Rock/Noise/Post Punk oriented project founded by Evelio Gómez (vocals, lyrics) in 2005, Falcón /Venezuela. They were later joined by Samuel Mitchell (guitar, bass) Gustavo Restrepo (keyboard, bass) becoming over time an artistic collective where other musicians and creators of various genres intervene for the conceptual objectives of the band.”
Price: $1 (USD) for one-sided single
Genre: Rock. Pop. Spanish Language.
Links:
“Para No Decirte”
El Globo Oscuro on Bandcamp
El Globo Oscuro on YouTube
Other Links:
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Reader Suggestion
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TwoFer
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Michael Egan
Bonus Links
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
For most of the last month the mail has been delivered as late as 8pm.
Little Sister Stella Speaks
Dolly Parton
Country singer and actress Stella Parton derided Kentucky Sen. Stephen Meredith Thursday following comments he made regarding the Imagination Library program her sister — American icon Dolly Parton — established to give free books to kids.
Lawmakers including Meredith, R-Leitchfield, discussed Senate Bill 164, which proposes a state partnership with the program, during a legislative committee meeting in Frankfort on Wednesday.
Meredith spoke in favor of adding safeguards to ensure children receive appropriate content through the program.
"I’m outraged this morning that anyone, let alone a GOP Sen. Meredith from the great state of Ky. Would question my sister Dolly or even insinuate something sinister about the 'Imagination Library' program for children," Stella Parton tweeted. "Appalachian people have been maligned as uneducated and to have a Senator from an Appalachian state even think much less say anything derogatory about this incredible program is appalling."
"My big sister stays out of politics but this is an outrage!!" she continued. "I would like to see your IQ score Sen. Meredith along with at least a dozen more of you GOP nimrods. The next thing you know, you will be trying to burn children’s books!"
Dolly Parton
Joni Mitchell, Amy Tan
American Academy of Arts and Letters
Joni Mitchell’s latest honor finds her in company with some giants from other fields.
The celebrated singer-songwriter and musician has received honorary membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the venerable institution based in Upper Manhattan where general inductees have ranged from Henry James and Hannah Arendt to Dizzy Gillespie and Jasper Johns. She now shares honorary status with a peer she knows well, Bob Dylan, along with Meryl Streep, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Martin Scorsese among others.
On Thursday, the academy announced 18 new general members, voted in by the current membership. They include such ground breakers as 88-year-old author N. Scott Momaday, the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize, and 82-year-old avant-garde musician and composer Annea Lockwood, a New Zealand native who said her election reaffirmed the “welcoming generosity of spirit” she had felt since moving to the U.S. in 1973.
Founded as an honor society in 1898, the academy announced last year that it was expending its core membership of 250 artists in literature, music, art and architecture to 300 by 2025. Mostly restricted to male, white artists in its early years, the academy now includes an increasingly broad range of members and has committed itself to reflecting the general population.
American Academy of Arts and Letters
‘Slap Shot’ Organist
Rod Masters
The name Rod Masters didn’t immediately resonate with Jonny Greco and Lamont Buford, who are in charge of overseeing entertainment and game production for the expansion franchise, though they would soon make a connection.
“I remember (Lamont) looking at me ... and he’s like, ‘The dude from ‘Slap Shot’ just sent me an email,’” Greco recalled. “And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? What dude?’”
That dude would be Masters, and if the name still doesn’t ring a bell, that’s fine. Just know he may be the most famous organist to ever appear on the big screen in a sports movie, and now nearly a half-century after he made a lasting impression in “Slap Shot,” Masters is the first organist for the Kraken.
His name never appeared in the credits of the iconic 1977 movie starring Paul Newman. But anyone who’s seen the movie knows Masters as the organist plunked in the head by a wayward puck and abruptly asked by Newman’s character Reggie Dunlop to never play “Lady of Spain” ever again.
While he played a hockey organist in the movie, Masters had never done that kind of performing in his long musical career. At the time the movie was being filmed in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Masters was playing regularly at the Sheraton Hotel where the cast and crew were staying.
Rod Masters
Halts Production
RT America
RT America, the sister network to Russia’s state-sponsored RT, is ceasing production after being dropped by DirecTV and Roku following the invasion of Ukraine.
T&R Productions, the production entity, sent a note to employees announcing the shutdown.
RT America had locations in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York and Miami. In the memo, Solodovnikov wrote that employment would end around May 3.
T&R Productions, the Russian-owned media company that runs RT America, was required to register as a foreign agent for the Russian government in 2017. T&R was tasked with producing English-language programming for RT, formerly known as Russia Today.
RT America drew such names as Dennis Miller and William Shatner to the lineups, as well as Larry King before be died last year. Ora.TV, the company that supplied the Miller and Shatner shows to RT, said earlier this week that it was pausing production on those shows given the “invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis.”
RT America
State Secrets
Gitmo
The Supreme Court sided with the government Thursday and dismissed a case involving a Guantanamo Bay detainee captured after the Sept. 11 attacks and tortured by the CIA abroad who has sought information about his treatment. The United States insisted that the information Abu Zubaydah sought must remain secret even though much has been widely reported.
Zubaydah, who was seized in Pakistan in 2002, was once thought to be a high-ranking member of the al-Qaida terrorist group that carried out the 2001 attacks. He was tortured while being held at so-called CIA black sites abroad before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.
Zubaydah was seeking to get the testimony of two former CIA contractors as part of an investigation into his treatment in Poland, where it has been widely reported he was once held. But six justices agreed his case should be thrown out.
Many details about Zubaydah's treatment have been reported, including that he was held in Thailand and Poland. The U.S. has allowed the disclosure of some information about his treatment. According to a 2014 Senate report, among other things Zubaydah was waterboarded more than 80 times and spent over 11 days in a coffin-size confinement box. Such techniques are now widely viewed as torture.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing in a dissent for himself and liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said Zubaydah's detention in Poland is no secret. Nothing in the case “suggests that requiring the government to acknowledge what the world already knows to be true” would endanger national security, he wrote. “What was once a secret can, with the passage of time, become old news."
Gitmo
World’s Best
Cheese
A Gruyere from Switzerland was named Thursday as the top cheese for the second consecutive time in the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin.
The cheese from Bern, Switzerland, made its maker, Michael Spycher of Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus, a three-time winner. Spycher also won in 2020 and 2008. The cheese, called Gourmino Le Gruyère AOP, earned a score of 98.423 out of 100.
The award-winning product comes from a small dairy working with 12 farmers within a 3 mile (5 kilometers) radius, a Gourmino AG spokesman said. Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus produces about 85 tons (77 metric tons) of the Gruyere each year out of a total 32000 tons (29,000 metric tons) of the cheese produced annually in Switzerland.
Wisconsin cheesemakers fared well with seven of the 20 finalists and winning 45 best-of-class categories. In addition, cheese curds debuted in this year’s contest and the state swept both the regular and flavored categories.
Cheese
Le Principe du Plaisir
René Magritte
A painting by René Magritte, a juggernaut within the modern art market, sold for £59.4 million ($79.8 million) at Sotheby’s on Wednesday, setting a new auction record for the Belgian Surrealist. That price is more than triple his previous record of $26.8 million, paid for the artist’s Le Principe du Plaisir (1937) at Sotheby’s in 2018.
Sold during an evening sale at the house’s London location, three bidders competed for L’empire des lumières (1961). Secured with an in-house guarantee, it was expected to fetch £45 million ($60 million). With bidding starting at £40 million ($53 million), the work hammered for a price of £51.5 million ($68.9 million), going to buyer on the phone with Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s chairman of modern and contemporary art in Asia. That buyer beat out two other determined ones on the phone with Katia Nounou Boueiz, Sotheby’s head of United Arab Emirates, and Sam Valet, a senior Impressionist and modern art specialist based in London.
The painting depicts a streetscape that appears to be set during the day and night simultaneously. Its composition is one that the artist returned to several times throughout the 1950s and ’60s.
The work was sold from the holdings of Anne-Marie Crowet Gillon, a French baroness and the daughter of one of Magritte’s key patrons, the lawyer Pierre Crowet. Gillon, who met the artist at the age of 16, went on to pose for several of Magritte’s works. It has been on loan at the Musée Magritte in Brussels since 2009.
René Magritte
Shipwreck Discovered In Lake Superior
The Atlanta
After searching more than 2,500 miles of the bottom of Lake Superior, the Atlanta — a 172-foot schooner-barge that sank during a terrible storm — has been found, preserved in the icy water just as it was when it went down more than 130 years ago.
Even the gold letters of the ship's nameplate are still visible.
"It is truly ornate and still beautiful," Bruce Lynn, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, said. "It is rare that we find a shipwreck that so clearly announces what it is and the nameboard of the Atlanta really stands out."
The shipwreck is sitting 650 feet below Lake Superior's surface, about 35 miles away from Deer Park in Luce County in the Upper Peninsula.
Records show the ship sank on May 4, 1891.
The Atlanta
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