from Bruce
Anecdotes
Fathers
• When Frank DeCaro, Jr., was born, his father did what he was supposed to and stayed in the hospital waiting room. However, although Frank, Jr., was born at 8 a.m., his father didn’t learn about it until five hours later because the physician forgot to tell him.
• When artist Louise Bourgeois was growing up, her father had a bad temper. At family dinners, her father always had a stack of cheap saucers by his side. That way, if he ever got angry, he could break a saucer instead of yelling at one of his children.
• The English can be reserved. After English contralto Kathleen Ferrier had made a major stir in the world of opera, Bruno Walter congratulated her elderly father on Ms. Ferrier’s success. Old Mr. Ferrier replied, “Yes, Kath’s not doing too badly.”
• When Groucho Marx got married for the third time, he sent his son this telegram: “If you’ve heard about this, please refund the price of this telegram. Love from us both.”
• When Jack Benny was young, his father gave him two gifts: a violin, in case he had any musical talent, and a monkey wrench, in case he didn’t have any musical talent.
• Isaac Newton’s father was illiterate. When he made out a will leaving his property, Woolsthorpe Manor, to his wife, he signed the will with an X.
Father’s Day
• Scaredy Kate is the pet cat of children’s book illustrator Dyanne DiSalvo-Ryan. One Father’s Day, Scaredy Kate gave birth to five kittens by the athletic shoes sitting in a corner of Dyanne’s husband’s closet. They named the five Father’s Day gifts Adidas, Converse, Etonic, Nike, and Reebok.
Food
• When he was a child, the mother of young-adult book author Walter Dean Myers set up a tab for him at the local grocer’s — whenever young Walter was hungry, he could buy food and she would pay for it later. Walter, however, used the tab to buy chocolate, and soon all the neighborhood children knew that he could get “free” chocolate at the grocer’s. As you would expect, Walter ordered lots and lots of chocolate, and after his mother had spoken sharply to him and to the grocer, he didn’t have a tab anymore.
• Marilyn Hall’s mother-in-law once gave a dinner party for which the main course was a whole poached salmon. She instructed her new, foreign maid to bring in the salmon at a certain time “with a little parsley in the mouth.” The maid did as she was told, but the dinner guests were very surprised when she brought in the salmon — the maid had parsley in her mouth.
• Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller is still close to his old high-school teacher, Beverly C. Lucey. She remembers Penn and his friends sitting in the cafeteria eating their lunches — on the floor. This freaked out the vice principal, who wanted the students to sit in regular chairs at regular tables. Therefore, he ordered them to stand up. They did. Then he ordered them, “Sit down!” They did — back on the floor.
• Irwin Shaw’s son was raised in Paris and so was very sophisticated. After his first day in kindergarten, his nurse took him to a restaurant and asked what he wanted to order. He replied, “I’ll have a dozen oysters and a glass of white wine.”
Friends
• When children’s picture book creator Ezra Jack Keats was taking classes at the Art Students League, his best friend, Martin Pope, was taking science classes in college. Often, they would meet and have long discussions. Mr. Keats would walk Mr. Pope home, but since their discussion wasn’t finished, they would turn around and Mr. Pope would walk Mr. Keats home. Because their discussion still wasn’t finished, they would turn around again. Finally, they would say goodbye midway between their homes.
• A group of musical performers partied together, and guitarist Hermann Leeb said to composer Frank Martin, “What a pity that there isn’t any music that we could all play together!” The next morning, Mr. Martin called all the friends and asked them to come to his home. He had stayed up and written a piece for his friends and him to play together. “Berceuse” was written for piano four-hands, played by Madeleine Lipatti and Mr. Martin; guitar, played by Mr. Leeb; and voice, sung by the tenor Hugues Cuenod.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Han Solo"
Album: THE DEBASED STREET MUSIC OF THE VULGAR
Artist: Steve White & The Protest Family
Artist Location: UK
Info:
“[They] remind me of The Clash” - Basil Gabbidon (Steel Pulse)
“I love this band. Punk minstrels who chronicle our times with humour, passion and immense talent.” - Bob Oram, Morning Star
“Constructive political music” - Joe Solo
Gareth Williams, a fan, wrote, “Lyrically on point. And actually as catchy as f***! I can't get Han Solo out of my head. ‘Who's gonna tell Han Solo that no means no?’ Love this! (‘And don't get me started on James Bond.’) Favorite track: ‘Han Solo.’”
“The media are lying to you. They're telling you that the era of the protest song is over. They're telling you that folk music is what Mumford & Sons do; cuddly, commodified, unchallenging and sanctioned by the Prime Minister, no less.
“They are wrong.
“Steve White & The Protest Family are East London's favourite folk punk political sing-along band. We may not be safe enough for the major labels, but we've definitely got something to say, and we're going to say it, with wit, a certain brash charm, guitars, banjos, mandolins and, dare we say it, moments of four-part harmony. Ours is a revolution that'll have you tapping your foot and smiling from ear-to-ear. Thinking, too, if we have our way.”
Price: £5 (GBP) for five-track album; tracks cannot be purchased separately
Links:
THE DEBASED STREET MUSIC OF THE VULGAR
Steve White & The Protest Family on Bandcamp
Steve White 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
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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
Sunny and a bit warmer than seasonal.
5 Arrested
Lady Gaga’s Dogs
The woman who returned Lady Gaga’s stolen French bulldogs was among five people arrested in connection with the theft and shooting of the music superstar’s dog walker, Los Angeles police said Thursday.
Detectives do not believe that the thieves initially knew the dogs belonged to the pop star, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement. The motive for the Feb. 24 robbery, investigators believe, was the value of the French bulldogs — which can run into the thousands of dollars.
The dog walker, Ryan Fischer, is recovering from a gunshot wound and has called the violence “a very close call with death” in social media posts. He was walking Lady Gaga’s three dogs — named Asia, Koji and Gustav — in Hollywood just off the famed Sunset Boulevard when he was attacked.
The dogs were returned two days later to an LAPD station by a woman who originally appeared to be “uninvolved and unassociated” with the crime, police initially said. The woman, identified Thursday as 50-year-old Jennifer McBride, had reported that she’d found the dogs and responded to an email address associated with the reward, police said.
McBride turned out to be in a relationship with the father of one of the suspects, the LAPD said Thursday. It was not immediately clear if she had received the reward.
Lady Gaga’s Dogs
Announce U.S. Tour
Genesis
English rock band Genesis is returning to the U.S. for their first tour in 14 years.
Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford announced The Last Domino? Tour on Thursday, which will kick off in Chicago on Nov. 15.
The 14-date tour will also visit Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia. The trek wraps in Boston on Dec. 15.
Genesis will play two shows in the New York area: They visit Madison Square Garden in New York City on Dec. 5 and will play the brand-new UBS Arena in Belmont Park on Dec. 10.
Genesis
Without Hallucinations
Psychedelics
In a new study this week, researchers describe their work with experimental compounds that could offer the mental health benefits of a psychedelic drug, without causing people to trip out. Their early research, so far only conducted in mice, might someday provide people with more first-line treatments for illnesses like depression.
Psychedelics are currently being looked at as possible treatments for mental illness. There are now ongoing clinical trials of drugs like LSD and psilocybin (the main ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms) for conditions including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, sometimes in combination with psychotherapy. Just this month, a new study found that psilocybin plus therapy appeared to be as effective as antidepressants in treating moderate to severe depression.
But while these drugs, long banned in the U.S., could soon be accepted as part of the toolbox for treating mental illness, their hallucinogenic side-effects will probably limit their potential for wide use, according to study author David Olson, a chemist at the University of California Davis.
“As a result, I think that psychedelics are likely to serve as the last line of defense if they are ever approved—reserved for patients who have tried everything else,” Olson told Gizmodo in an email. “In contrast, non-hallucinogenic analogs of psychedelics have greater potential for scalability, perhaps even becoming first-line therapies.”
Olson and his team have been at work trying to develop the next generation of psychiatric drugs—namely, drugs that can enhance the brain’s natural ability to rewire or create new connections when needed, known as neural plasticity. And because psychedelics have shown some promise in promoting neural plasticity, one aspect of their research has involved trying to create versions of these drugs that have fewer side effects and that wouldn’t require a long-term regimen.
Psychedelics
Blocking View
Space Junk
The night sky is becoming increasingly filled with shiny satellites and space junk that pose a significant threat to our view of the cosmos, as well as astronomical research, a new study warns.
The researchers found that the more than 9,300 tons (8,440 metric tons) of space objects orbiting Earth, including inoperative satellites and chunks of spent rocket stages, increase the overall brightness of the night sky by more than 10% over large parts of the planet.
Such an increase would mean large swathes of the planet are considered light polluted, making it increasingly difficult for astronomers to take accurate measurements, and increasing the likelihood that they will miss significant discoveries altogether, the researchers said in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
"We expected the sky brightness increase would be marginal, if any, but our first theoretical estimates have proved extremely surprising and thus encouraged us to report our results promptly," lead study author Miroslav Kocifaj, a senior researcher at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, said in a statement.
According to the researchers, satellites and space garbage ruin astronomical images by scattering reflected sunlight, producing bright streaks that are indistinguishable from — and often brighter than — objects of astrophysical interest, making it difficult if not impossible for them to get a clear picture.
Space Junk
Police Incidents
979 People
Nearly 1,000 people in the US were allegedly killed in police encounters in the 11-months between the murder of George Floyd and the conviction of the officer, Derek Chauvin, who killed him, it has been reported.
An estimated 979 people died following an incident involving law enforcement between May 2020 and April 2021, according to data collected by the Mapping Police Violence website, including 181 Black people.
Of the total 1,127 deaths in 2020, which include some police staff, only 16 cases, amounting to 1.4%, resulted in criminal charges against officers, as reported by Newsweek.
The figures revealed that Black people are three times more likely to be killed by police in the US, making up 28% of the people whose deaths involved law enforcement in 2020, despite them making up 13% of the population of the US.
The data also revealed that US police had reportedly killed more than 100 children since 2015, including Adam Toledo in Chicago and Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, this year.
979 People
‘Unexplained Health Incidents’
Havana Syndrome
The White House has said it is investigating “unexplained health incidents” after a report that two US officials in the Washington area experienced sudden symptoms similar to the “Havana syndrome” symptoms suffered by American diplomats and spies abroad.
The wave of mysterious brain injuries, beginning in Cuba in 2016, are deemed by the National Academy of Scientists to be most likely the result of some form of directed energy device, and the CIA, state department and Pentagon have all launched investigations.
CNN reported on Thursday that two possible incidents on US soil are part of the investigation. One took place in November last year near the Ellipse, the large oval lawn on the south side of the White House, in which an official from the national security council suddenly fell sick.
The other was in 2019 and involved a White House official walking her dog in a Arlington suburb of Washington. That incident was reported in GQ magazine last year.
The symptoms of the Havana syndrome attacks include hearing strange sounds followed by dizziness, nausea, severe headaches and loss of memory which in some case can go on for years. There are dozens of victims, most of whom were stationed in Cuba and China with a handful of cases elsewhere.
Havana Syndrome
Climate Change
Earth's Axis
Climate change has been altering Earth's poles since at least the 1990s, new research finds.
The planet's spin on its axis is determined, in part, by the distribution of weight around the globe, in the same way the spin of a top is determined by its shape. Satellite data from 2002 and later had already shown that climate change is altering this weight distribution, largely because melting glaciers and ice sheets have caused the North and South poles to drift.
Scientists had also observed polar drift in the 1990s, but uncovering the cause of that drift was tricky, because there were no direct satellite observations of water distribution around the globe from that era. Now, researchers have compared possible scenarios of total water distribution around the world and found that the best explanation for the changes to the poles in the 1990s is human-caused climate change. Melting ice sheets, combined with groundwater pumping for agriculture, altered the water distribution on the planet enough to make the planet's axis shift.
Earth's axis shifts for a lot of reasons, ranging from long-term changes in the heat-driven process of convection within the mantle to annual changes in ocean currents and winds. In 2002, NASA and the German Aerospace Center launched the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, which used measurements of Earth's gravity field to monitor changes in ice, liquid water and Earth's crust. GRACE's precise measurements allowed geoscientists to break down the various causes of polar shifts in the post-2002 era. It was clear that ice melt, driven by climate change, was having an influence. In 2013, for example, researchers reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that rapid melt of the ice in Greenland had caused an eastward shift of the North Pole around 2005.
Figuring out what caused polar shifts before 2002, though, required creativity. Researchers knew that polar drift shifted eastward in 1995 and that it sped up by 17 times between 1995 and 2020 compared with 1981 to 1995. But they didn't know why.
Earth's Axis
'Turkey's Colosseum'
Mastaura
A Roman amphitheatre which would have hosted gladiator contests has been discovered in Turkey after lying hidden for centuries.
The huge site, similar in structure to the Colosseum in Rome, remained undetected because it is mostly buried underground.
The arena, which could seat around 20,000 spectators, was found near the ancient city of Mastaura in the western province of Aydin, inland from the Aegean coast.
The stone arches that formed the outer walls of the amphitheatre are visible but most of the structure is buried under centuries of soil deposits.
The hidden remains of the amphitheatre were found last summer after archeologists followed clues left in records that were written by travelers who explored the region 200 years ago.
Mastaura
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