from Bruce
Anecdotes
Animals
• While she was in the second grade, children’s book illustrator Lane Smith entered her pet, Okie, in a dog show at school. Surprisingly, Okie was given a ribbon, and Lane’s mother praised Okie and told Lane that everyone was proud of Okie. Lane then looked at the ribbon — it said, “Participation.”
• Children’s book author and illustrator Dr. Seuss read one newspaper each day. For a while, he subscribed to two newspapers, but the family Irish setter, Cluny, was used to bringing only one newspaper into the house, so she buried the second newspaper.
• Children’s book illustrator Maira Kalman is allergic to dogs, so when her children decided that they wanted a dog as a pet, they had to settle for getting a talking bird and teaching it how to bark.
Art
• When American artist Donald Sultan was 11 years old, his parents took him to see the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. At the circus museum, he saw a work of art titled “The Giant.” His mother told him that she had sat on the giant’s knee when she was a little girl and that his ring was so big that a half-dollar could pass through it. Mr. Sultan says, “It was at that moment that the art and the magic merged and I decided to be an artist myself.”
• Some artists suffer — as do their families. To become an artist, Paul Gauguin gave up a career as a stockbroker. Due to financial difficulties, his wife moved back to her native Denmark. Only occasionally was Mr. Gauguin able to see his children, and when he did, only his two oldest children were able to speak his language: French.
Babies
• As a man of some experience with children, Texas actor Marco Perella knows how to calm babies. One trick he uses is to put the baby’s head against his chest, then to hum “Old Man River” in a deep bass. The vibration mesmerizes the baby, making it quiet. While he was doing a TV movie scene for Murder in the Heartland with Renée Zellweger, the baby she was holding started crying. Marco took the baby, hummed “Old Man River” and quieted it, then gave it back to Renée. The baby started crying again. This happened a couple of times, and the director asked what was going on. Renée replied, “This baby hates me.” No problem, the director said, they could use a back-up baby in the scene. Unfortunately, the back-up baby behaved exactly the same way as the first baby. Marco hummed “Old Man River” and quieted the baby, then handed it to Renée, and the baby started crying. Eventually, the scene was filmed with Marco holding the baby, and if you listen carefully during the scene, you can hear the humming of “Old Man River.”
• Early in her career, when soprano Rita Hunter had a young child, a situation arose suddenly where she needed to be at an important rehearsal and her husband needed to be in a hospital. Having no babysitter because they were so new to the neighborhood, but needing one desperately, she gathered her baby’s things, knocked on the door of a neighbor, explained the situation hurriedly, shoved the baby into the neighbor’s arms, and ran off. Luck was with her. She hadn’t left her daughter in the hands of a dangerous person, but in the hands of a most excellent babysitter, whom she thanked by name — Auntie Symes — in her autobiography, Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie.
• When Lois Lowry, author of the children’s book Anastasia Krupnik, was seven years old, she wanted a puppy, so her family arranged to have a puppy delivered as a surprise for her when young Lois was alone at their house. When her family returned home, they discovered Lois sitting on a chest of drawers, afraid of the sharp-toothed puppy. Later, Lois grew used to the puppy, but when it bit her baby brother, her parents said that they had to get rid of it. Lois agreed, but she was surprised when her parents got rid of the puppy — she had thought they were going to get rid of her baby brother.
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
The Funniest People in Relationships — Buy
The Funniest People in Relationships -- Buy The Paperback
The Funniest People in Relationships -- Kindle
The Funniest People in Relationships -- Apple
The Funniest People in Relationships -- Barnes and Noble
The Funniest People in Relationships -- Kobo
The Funniest People in Relationships -- Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PDF
Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. was first, and correct, with:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Startin’ to Get It"
Album: HEADLIGHTS IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR
Artist: The Gravel-Aires
Artist Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Info:
“Here's a collection of songs influenced by styles and eras of music that poured out of dance halls, juke boxes and living room radio speakers in days gone by. We did some livin' back in the previous century and a lotta stuff found its way into our DNA, our bloodstream on occasion and a bit trickled into our music, too.
“Seems as hard as you run to move into the here, the now, and the future, the past is still lingering back there with its stories, some complete and irreversible, some still with a few loose ends dangling.
“Hope you enjoy our tunes and thanks for having a listen!”
Mark Branscombe - vocals, guitars, harmonica
Michael Mahoney - vocals, guitars, mandolin
Steven Huston - bass
Simon Kendall - piano, electric piano
Paul Rigby - pedal steel guitar
Recorded at Woodlands Studios, Vancouver Canada
Jesse Waldman - recording engineer, mixing
Jaime Estalella - mastering engineer
Price: $1 (CAD) for track; $7 (CAD) for seven-track album
Genre: Country
Links:
HEADLIGHTS IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR
The Gravel-Aires
The Gravel-Aires on YouTube
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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
The marine layer was back but burned off by mid-afternoon.
Heated Exchange
Maxine Waters
Outspoken Republican Gym Jordan (R-Predator Enabler) entered into a heated exchange with Dr Anthony Fauci on the House floor about Covid-19 restrictions, and it resulted in Democrat Maxine Waters (D-Brass Ovaries) telling the congressman to "shut his mouth."
During a House subcommittee hearing about the federal government's response to the pandemic, Mr Jordan asked the infectious disease expert when Americans could expect a relaxation to physical-distancing and mask-wearing guidance.
Specifically, the Ohio conservative wanted to know when Americans could get their "liberty and freedom" back.
Despite the representative’s time expiring, he continued to yell at Dr Fauci to answer his question on how many would need a vaccine before life could return to normal. This encouraged Ms Waters to lash out against the representative.
“You need to respect the chair and shut your mouth,” the California congresswoman told Mr Jordan.
Maxine Waters
Podcast Conversation With Shonda Rhimes
Bill Clinton
In a conversation for Bill Clinton’s iHeart podcast Why Am I Telling You This?, the former president and Shonda Rhimes talked about Regé-Jean Page’s recent departure from Bridgerton, as well as her support of Time’s Up and other organizations.
But they also got to talking about the polarized environment that has greeted the early days of Joe Biden’s presidency and the prospects of bipartisanship.
As Rhimes lamented that a problem is that the news “stopped being the news and started being a certain form of entertainment, almost like just more reality television,” Clinton suggested that Biden has handled the hyper partisan environment well.
“I think Biden has been almost pitch perfect in what he’s said and done,” Clinton said. “I think the problem he has is, first of all, the last election was very close. And I think that it’s now a performance art for the Democrats. If we can produce positive results that cross those divides by lifting everybody, giving everybody a chance, then we have a chance to psychologically change. It’s very hard to change the political standoff that exists today, because the Republicans believe it’s working for them, and that’s the big challenge.”
Clinton said that he thinks Biden has “made good decisions economically and good decisions on the staff and good decisions to have an inclusive policy economically and socially and politically. And you just have to keep reaching out to the Republicans, and at the moment they believe they have more to gain by making a deal than just saying no all the time, then he should show a little leg too, and they can maybe do something. But he’s been doing this a long time and he’s knows that they think they’re winning, even though he won, and even though he’s popular. So he can only get back to bipartisanship when they’re willing to do it.”
Big Dog
Sue To Reclaim Rights
‘Predator’ Screenwriters
“Predator” screenwriters Jim and John Thomas, who wrote the original 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi classic, have filed a lawsuit in California federal court against Disney in an effort to recapture the rights to the franchise.
The Thomas brothers are specifically trying to use copyright law’s termination provision, which allows authors to cancel transfers after waiting a period of time, and are asking a judge to “provides authors with the inalienable right to recapture the copyright to their creative work,” according to legal documents obtained by TheWrap. The original spec of “Predator,” originally titled “Hunters,” was acquired in 1986 by Twentieth Century Fox (and now owned by Disney after the merger), and the Thomas brothers are seeking a termination date of April 17, which is this Saturday, according to the complaint.
In the original “Predator,” Schwarzenegger played the leader of an elite special forces team on a mission to rescue hostages from guerrilla territory in Central America — before being hunted down by an advance alien life form. The film spawned three sequels plus the spin-off franchise, “Alien vs. Predator.” Dan Trachtenberg is set to direct the fifth installment of the “Predator” franchise.
The Thomas brothers say in 2016, they served a notice of termination to Disney and didn’t hear any objections for four-and-a-half years. It wasn’t until Jan. 2021 that they say “Defendants’ counsel unexpectedly contacted Plaintiffs’ counsel, contesting the Termination Notice as supposedly untimely, based on a theory that the 1986 Grant of the Screenplay underlying their ‘Predator’ films allegedly qualified for the special, delayed termination time ‘window’ in 17 U.S.C. § 203(a)(3), intended for ‘book publication’ grants.”
The Thomas Brothers are asking a judge to rule in their favor and terminate the copyright. They are also asking for legal costs and attorney fees.
‘Predator’ Screenwriters
‘I Slept with Joey Ramone’
Pete Davidson
Pete Davidson is set to star in I Slept with Joey Ramone, a biopic chronicling the life of the king of punk that is being produced by Netflix and STXfilms. Jason Orley, who directed the SNL star in Hulu’s Big Time Adolescence as well as his Netflix comedy special Pete Davidson: Alive from New York, is directing the pic.
Davidson and Orley penned the screenplay, which is based on the Mickey Leigh memoir of the same name (Leigh is Ramone’s brother). Davidson, Leigh, Rory Rosegarten, and David Spiegelman will serve as executive producers. The project has the cooperation and support of the Estate of Joey Ramone and with the assistance of Rosegarten Films.
Netflix and STX previously teamed on the Netflix series Rise of Empire: Ottoman as well as the film, Work It starring Sabrina Carpenter.
“When you share a bed with someone – and not just a bed, but a childhood, a family, and a lifetime – you know that person better than anybody else,” said Adam Fogelson, Chairman STXfilms Motion Picture. “Mickey Leigh not only collaborated with his big brother’s band – he has irreplaceable memories of and insights into Joey Ramone, having supported him when no one else would and witnessed him overcome adversity in the most dramatic way. I Slept with Joey Ramone is a great rock anthem that will make an equally great rock biopic, set apart by a universal story of family. Pete is perfect for this role and we’re excited he and Jason will be bringing this icon of rock to life and thrilled to be collaborating once again with our friends at Netflix.”
Pete Davidson
Causes MAGA Meltdown
Ivanka
Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up)’s daughter Ivanka Trump (R-Karen) took to Twitter to announce that she got the Covid-19 shot and encouraged others to do the same, a move that has caused a meltdown among anti-vaxxers and conservative supporters of the former president.
The former first daughter broke her three months of social media silence on Wednesday posting a photo of her taking the coronavirus vaccine injection, with the accompanying note: “Today, I got the shot!!! I hope that you do too! Thank you Nurse Torres!!!”
Ms Trump’s enthusiastic tweet about the coronavirus vaccine met with several angry responses from Trump supporters who called it a disappointment and accused her of “virtue signalling.”
Some users also pointed out her delay in supporting vaccines. “You could have told people that covid wasn’t a ‘dem hoax.’ You could have told people Covid wasn’t going to ‘disappear like a miracle,’ or with the ‘warmer weather’,” user Jo wrote.
Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine sentiments have been dominant among Republican supporters since the beginning of the pandemic. About 25% of Trump voters told pollster Frank Luntz that they “definitely will not” get vaccinated and another 21% said they would wait for over a year to get the shot.
Ivanka
Traitorous Liar At Work
Missouri
A little more than three months after he led the effort to overturn the 2020 election, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley accused Democrats Thursday of seeking to retroactively overturn the 2016 election.
Hawley, a former clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts, panned a Democratic proposal to expand the U.S. Supreme Court from nine justices to 13 by arguing that it was an attempt to dilute the impact of three justices appointed to the court by former President Donald Trump during his one term in office.
“It’s a terrible idea,” Hawley told the Senate press pool. “It is a deliberate attempt to fundamentally change a core institution of American government and to overturn, effectively overturn the results of past elections. Quite openly and deliberately trying to undo the results of President Trump’s election in 2016 in terms of his ability to appoint three justices.”
But Hawley’s argument against the bill is particularly brazen given his lead role in challenging the results of the 2020 election.
The Missouri Republican was the first senator to announce plans to challenge President Joe Biden’s Electoral College votes, leading the unsuccessful effort to throw out Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes. Hawley also supported Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s challenge to Arizona’s 11 electors.
Missouri
Knife-Wielding Spider God Mural
Peru
An ancient ceremonial building that was built thousands of years ago in northwestern Peru's La Libertad region was decorated with a painting of a spider deity clutching a knife. Archaeologists discovered the mural in November 2020, after local farmers damaged the temple structure during the expansion of their sugar cane and avocado plantations.
When scientists inspected the monument ("huaca" in the Indigenous Quechuan family of languages), they found a figure painted against a white background on the southern wall, in shades of ocher, yellow and gray, the Peruvian national daily newspaper La República reported.
Régulo Franco Jordán, director of archaeological investigations for the Augusto N. Wiese Foundation, a Peruvian cultural nonprofit organization, recently told La República that the huaca was around 3,200 years old and likely had ritual significance. The figure in the mural was "a stylized zoomorphic being" — a human-animal hybrid deity — that could be part spider, which was an important animal in the pre-Columbian Cupisnique culture, Jordán said (translated from Spanish with Google Translate).
The wall holding the spider god mural faces a river bisecting the Virú Valley, according to La República. This likely meant that the deity had a connection to water, and that sacred ceremonies were probably performed in the temple during the rainy season between January and March, when water levels in the river would be highest, according to Jordán.
Cupisnique culture prevailed along Peru's northern coast from around 1250 B.C. to A.D. 1, and Indigenous people produced the region's first known temples during that time, according to the Larco Museum, a privately owned museum in Lima showcasing pre-Columbian art. Spider deities were frequently represented on pottery plates and cups, and were associated with fertility, the Peruvian national news agency Andina reported.
Peru
North Carolina Home For Sale
Aunt Bee
The stately home at 503 West Elk Street in Siler City is beautiful enough to sell on its own merits, without even knowing it’s the most famous house in town.
The 9,000-square-foot, three-story brick home with stone accents is best known as the former home of Frances Bavier, who herself is best known as Aunt Bee from “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Bavier purchased the home in 1972 and lived there until her death at age 86, in 1989.
The home is now for sale for $425,000. (The price was cut by $125,000 in early March, according to the real estate listing site Zillow.com.) Though there is a contract already, the realtor is accepting backup offers.
The updated kitchen has more than enough counter space for making a double batch of kerosene pickles, and the spacious dining room is large enough to have Barney, Helen and the preacher over for Sunday lunch. The Darling Family would have plenty of room to set up for a little show in the wood-paneled den.
Aunt Bee
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
