from Bruce
Anecdotes
Good Deeds
• On 5 November 2012 in Southfield Township, Michigan, Ty Houston, age 48, a home care registered nurse, was filling out his absentee ballot when a medical emergency occurred. He said, “I was filling out the form as were an elderly couple sitting at a nearby table. His wife, who was helping him fill out the ballot, asked him a couple of questions but he didn’t respond. She screamed for help, and I went over to see what I could do.” Mr. Houston laid the elderly man, who had a tracheotomy, on the floor and gave him emergency medical assistance. Mr. Houston said, “He was dead. He had no heartbeat and he wasn’t breathing. I started CPR, and after a few minutes, he revived and started breathing again. He knew his name and his wife’s name.” Then he said something that showed what was important to him. Mr. Houston said, “The first question he asked was ‘Did I vote?’” His wife said, “Your life is my concern.” The elderly man told his wife that two things were important to him: “That I love you and that I finished what I came here to do: vote.” He did vote, and he was taken to William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, after he had thanked Mr. Houston, who said, “It was God’s divine word that I be there. Originally, I was just going to skip the ballot and just go to lunch that day.” Clerk Sharon Tischler said, “It was definitely a 911 scenario. It was great there was someone around to render aid.”
• On Sunday, 25 January 1931, two days after Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) had died after a brief illness while on tour, a spotlight lit an empty stage—the Apollo Theater in London—and moved around as if seeking the missing ballerina while the orchestra played “The Dying Swan” in her memory. By the way, Ms. Pavlova supported her mother with a liberal allowance in her native Russia, but occasionally the Soviet government returned the money to her, saying that it would not tolerate “bourgeois charity.”
Husbands and Wives
• Artists Otto and Gertrud Natzler, a husband-and-wife team, worked in ceramics, and they lived in a part of California in which earthquakes were frequent—living there was not a good idea. During one earthquake, the lights went out and they could hear crashes coming from a closet in which they had stored many of their ceramic pieces. Of course, falling ceramic pieces were making the crashes. Gertrud listened to the crashes, and then she said to her husband, “Here goes our life’s work.” Fortunately, only a few works of art of art were totally destroyed. Many were unscathed, and others could be repaired.
• As an international celebrity, Plácido Domingo occasionally receives romantic letters from women who don’t know how devoted he is to his wife and three sons. One letter suggested that he and the letter writer ride away on a white horse “just like Don José and Carmen in the second act. After reading the letter, Mr. Domingo commented, “She has conveniently forgotten what happens to Carmen in the fourth act!”
Language
• Businesspeople need to take into account different cultures. Comic singer Anna Russell had an American agent, Eastman Boomer, but she toured frequently in England, necessitating that letters be written back and forth between Boomer and an English business manager. Boomer used to complain, “I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about. He writes two pages about the weather, the London scene, and enquires after my health, and he mentions business in the last paragraph as though it were an afterthought.” Meanwhile, the Englishmen complained about Boomer’s letters, “What’s the matter with Boomer? He writes when he wants the tour, how much, yours faithfully. Hasn’t he got any manners?” Ms. Russell was able to convince the Englishman to write more about business in his letters to Boomer, and she got Boomer to throw in some non-business paragraphs in his letters to the Englishmen, with the result that the two men ended up liking each other.”
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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: “Paraiso” [“Paradise”]
Album: SURF THE WAVES OF MUSIC WITH …
Artist: Los Reverb
Artist Location: Maldonado Department, Uruguay
Info: Many excellent tracks on this album: “Tetris,” “3:33 AM,” “Because,” “El Secuestro del Tridente” [“The Kidnapping of the Trident”].
Instagram: instagram.com/losreverb
Facebook: facebook.com/losreverb
Discogs: discogs.com/artist/8696680-Los-Reverb
Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/1BZFjeWqDQpITx1Rcd75j0
YouTube: youtube.com/losreverb
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/losreverb/
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $7 (USD) for 23 tracks
Genre: Surf Instrumental
Links:
Los Reverb on Bandcamp
Los Reverb on YouTube
Other Links:
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Ukraine
Betty Bowers
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Full-Time Executive Producer Named
‘Jeopardy!’
Embassy Row’s Michael Davies has been executive producing Jeopardy! on an interim basis since the departure of Mike Richards last year. He has now taken on the job full-time.
Davies revealed the news in a blog post on the Jeopardy! website.
New episodes of Jeopardy! are scheduled to air until July 29, 2022.
Richards, who had been named permanent host, succeeding the late Alex Trebek, pulled out as host the syndicated Jeopardy! after multiple controversies from his past emerged that prompted Jeopardy! producer Sony Pictures Television to launch a probe and proved to be too serious for Richards to recover from without tarnishing the iconic Jeopardy! brand.
‘Jeopardy!’
Dialogue Removed In China
'Fantastic Beasts 3'
References to a gay relationship in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” were edited out of the movie by Warner Bros. for the film’s release in China. Only six seconds of the movie’s 142-minute runtime were removed. Dialogue that was edited out alluded to the romantic past between male characters Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen). “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling revealed Dumbledore was gay in 2009, but the movies had never explicitly referenced the character’s sexuality until this third “Fantastic Beasts” entry.
Warner Bros. accepted China’s request to remove six seconds from the movie. The dialogue lines “because I was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love” were cut from “The Secrets of Dumbledore” release (via News.com.au). The rest of the film remained intact, including an understanding that Dumbledore and Grindelwald share an intimate bond.
“In the case of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,’ a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros. accepted those changes to comply with local requirements but the spirit of the film remains intact,” the statement added. “We want audiences everywhere in the world to see and enjoy this film, and it’s important to us that Chinese audiences have the opportunity to experience it as well, even with these minor edits.”
As reported by Variety, “The Secrets of Dumbledore” won the box office race in China during its opening weekend. The sequel opened in China on April 8, a week ahead of the film’s April 15 launch in the U.S. “The Secrets of Dumbledore” earned RMB62.2 million ($9.7 million at current exchange rates) over its first three days, giving it a huge 63 percent market share on a weekend worth just $15.5 million.
'Fantastic Beasts 3'
ABC Spinoff
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd is set to reprise the role of Lou from Roseanne in the ABC spinoff The Conners in the episode airing May 4.
The network reveals the episode titled “The Best Laid Plans, A Contrabassoon and A Sinking Feeling” will see Darlene (Sara Gilbert) as she struggles to cope with the stress of construction; and after a serious accident, she re-evaluates everything and makes a life-changing decision.
Elsewhere, Lou, a familiar face from the past, returns as Mark’s (Ames McNamara) combative contrabassoon teacher; but after he butts heads with Mark, Dan (Goodman) steps in, only to realize that their similarities may outweigh their differences.
Lloyd first appeared in the revived 10th season of Roseanne as Lou, Beverly’s (Estelle Parsons) new boyfriend.
Christopher Lloyd
Ditches Name
IMDb TV
When the world ends, and we’re thus all called before our creator to account for every single stupid streaming service name humanity allowed to exist on its watch, “IMDb TV” is going to pretty high up on the list of The Bad Ones. The Amazon-owned service—which tried to make a (terrible) name for itself by hosting new episodes of Leverage and old episodes of Mad Men at various points in its lifespan—was clearly a victim of the kind of thinking that suggests that any name that people on the internet recognize is game for cross-promotion. Even if it’s, y’know, just the web site people only ever go to to settle arguments about which Final Destination movie Mary Elizabeth Winstead is in. (Third one, FYI.)
Perhaps acknowledging this, Amazon announced today that it’s changing the name of IMDb TV, dumping that buzz-wordy-, largely meaningless title in favor of its new one… Amazon Freevee!
Jesus Christ.
First off: Let’s just acknowledge how dumb it is that Amazon has been running functionally two different streaming services for a couple of years now: IMDb TV (home mostly to various cheaply licensed syndicated material) and Amazon Prime Video, where most of its big original programming goes. Like, we get that modern tech companies want to get as many straws as they can into our precious data juice, but are they seriously going to make us remember two different logins in order to watch both Bosch and its spinoff, Bosch: Legacy? (Out this year…on Freevee!)
But, secondly: Freevee? That sounds like the name of a streaming service that runs exclusively on dishwashers in the 30 Rock universe. It conveys all the dignity of a hastily flung, dog-slobber-covered Frisbee. It sticks in the memory like a bad bout of food poisoning. It somehow lacks the simple elegance of “Quibi.”
IMDb TV
Loses Defamation Appeal
Moo
A federal appeals court said Devin Nunes, the former California congressman and an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump Individual #1, cannot revive his defamation lawsuit against CNN over reports he was involved in efforts to uncover damaging Ukraine-related information about Joe Biden.
In a 2-1 decision on Thursday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Nunes failed to seek a correction fast enough, or show he deserved "special damages" for economic loss.
Circuit Judge William Nardini said the trial judge "did not err" in finding that Nunes did not comply with applicable California law governing retractions, and thus his $435 million lawsuit should be dismissed with prejudice.
Trump An unindicted conspirator appointed all three judges on the appeals court panel.
Moo
Party Withdraws
Presidential Debates
The Republican National Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates, saying the group that has run the debates for decades was biased and refused to enact reforms.
"We are going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people," the committee's chairperson, Ronna McDaniel, said in a statement.
The RNC's action requires Republican candidates to agree in writing to appear only in primary and general election debates sanctioned by the committee.
The nonprofit commission, founded in 1987 to codify the debates as a permanent part of presidential elections, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was unclear what format future RNC-backed debates would take or whether they would take place as often as in recent decades.
Presidential Debates
Life Insurance Policy
Lee Harvey Oswald
The life insurance policy on the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy paid out less than $900 to his mother. Now, the death claim she filed to get that sum has sold at auction for almost $80,000.
The original Notice of Insurance Claim for Lee Harvey Oswald sold for $79,436 on Wednesday, Boston-based RR Auction said in a statement.
The one-page, 8.5-inch by 10.25-inch (21.5-centimeter by 26-centimeter) document came inside a frame alongside a photograph of Oswald. The Proof of Death certificate is signed by Marguerite C. Oswald, and is dated Dec. 26, 1963, just 32 days after Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby.
Issued by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company of Nashville, Tennessee, the document includes Oswald’s name, dates of birth and death, specifies the place of death as Dallas, and the cause of death as “gunshot wound.”
The insurance company honored its obligations by paying Marguerite Oswald $863.
Lee Harvey Oswald
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Sold For Over $500,000
Lunar Dust
Earlier this week, London-based auction house Bonhams sold off samples of lunar dust collected by Neil Armstrong during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. The anonymous bidder spent a total of $504,375 on the lot—a collection of five Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) sample tubes topped off with a small section of lunar dust-covered tape.
The sale is a controversial one, though. Traditionally, NASA has gone to great lengths to ensure that lunar samples remain government property and do not fall into private hands. Case in point: in 2011, the agency siezed a pea-sized portion of moon rock from a 74-year-old woman during a sting operation at a California Denny’s restaurant. The sample, she claimed, was a gift from Neil Armstrong, himself. In short, NASA means serious business.
In the case of this auction, Bonhams was able to skirt a series of rules that would have otherwise prevented the auction house from putting the lunar samples up for sale. The samples in question, which were originally collected from a sample-retrieval bag, have changed hands several times since they’ve returned to Earth.
Several decades ago, the sample-retrieval bag was donated to the Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, but went missing soon after, according to a report from National Geographic. The director of that museum, it turned out, had been selling off priceless artifacts and had moved the dust-covered sample bag into his own collection, which U.S. Marshalls subsequently seized and sold in an online auction for just $995.
The Illinois woman who purchased the sample bag, Nancy Lee Carlson, sent it over the NASA for appraisal, and the agency claimed it could not give the material back due to its rarity. She sued NASA for the samples and won the bag back—but that’s not the end of the story. When researchers verified the bag’s authenticity, they collected flecks of the lunar dust with six pieces of carbon tape for safekeeping. Carlson, in a later suit, argued that this had damaged the value of the bag. The agency was forced to return five of the dust-covered tape samples—the very samples auctioned off this week.
Lunar Dust
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
