Garrison Keillor: So where do we go from here?
I shouldn't be sitting reading stories about victims of the plague but I do and a great one was in the Sunday New York Times, by Pam Belluck, an epic about a healthy young father of three, 49, struck down hard and suddenly by COVID-19 who was kept alive on a ventilator for a month by doctors at Massachusetts General and almost given up for lost, but somehow, by extraordinary means and technology and dedicated doctors and God's mercy and a visit from his wife who sat and held his hand for three hours when he seemed to be a goner, he came back to life, and in the online edition of the Times, there's a video of the hospital staff in blue scrubs lining a hallway and applauding as the gentleman is wheeled out of the ICU. I don't cry easily but it brings tears to my eyes.
Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, the sixth-smallest nation in Europe is officially a Principality where the official language is Catalan, but Spanish, Portuguese, and French are also commonly spoken. What is the name of this microstate?
Pee-wee's Playhouse is an American children's television program starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman which ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens' popular stage show and the TV special The Pee-wee Herman Show, produced for HBO, which was similar in style but featured much more adult humor.
Jambi - John Paragon - A blue-faced (later green) genie who lives as a disembodied head in a jeweled box, he usually appears once per show to grant Pee-wee a wish, often with unexpected results. To power his magic, he makes the group and audience chant, "Mecca lecca hi, mecca hiney ho".
Source
Cal in Vermont was first, and correct, with:
Pee Wee's playhouse. Cowboy Curtis gave me the creeps.
Mark. said:
Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Mac Mac wrote:
Pee Wees Playhouse
Alan J answered:
Pee Wee's Playhouse.
mj responded:
Although a bit after my time
For a target audience. It aired during our weekly shopping expedition.
I'm pretty sure Jambi was a regular on Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Randall replied:
Mik-a-lika-hi-mikka-hinee-ho
Dave wrote:
Pee-Wee's Playhouse. My youngest son loved that program. We got him a playset and he played with it so much it wore out so we bought him another. Fortunately he outgrew the program by the time of Paul Reuben's disgrace.
Jacqueline said:
Jambi the Genie appeared on Pee-Wee Herman's show. Pee-Wee would make a wish.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, replied:
PEE WEE Herman
Micki said:
PeeWee's Playhouse with Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Ruebens).
David of Moon Valley wrote:
ooooh oooh
i know i know....Pee-Wee's Playhouse...(or something like that)????
Harry M. answered:
Pee Wee's Playhouse
Daniel in The City responded:
Pee Wee's Playhouse
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, replied:
Pew-Wee's Playhouse.
Deborah wrote:
PeeWee's Playhouse, which I watched with my kids, until his downfall as a pervert.
Another lovely seasonal spring day. This feels like the longest year I've ever spent, and it's just a weird feeling.
DJ Useo said:
He was on "Pee Wee's Playhouse". Such a silly show, yet utterly entertaining.
Todays secret word is "bleach". rofl
Billy in Cypress U$A answered:
I had to look it up since I am way too old for that series:
Jambi is a blue-faced (later green) genie who lived in a jeweled box, first appearing in The Pee-wee Herman Show.
MY THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I learned that ten percent of all the world's species are parasitic insects. It is hard to believe. What if you were an inventor, and you made ten percent of your inventions in such a way that they could only work by harnessing, disfiguring, or totally destroying the other ninety percent? -Annie Dillard, author (b. 30 Apr 1945)
And I now realize that tRump is just one of those parasitic insects, like Edgar in "Men in Black", only he has yellow hair and orange skin now..
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame took the day off.
Rosemary in Columbus took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
John I from Hawai`i took the day off.
Michelle in AZ took the day off.
Roy the Snowflake, quarantining in Tyler, TX took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) took the day off.
Stephen F took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
PGW. 94087 took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Peter W took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
• Choreographer George Balanchine was known for his even temper; he declined to get upset over most things. He once presented "Sixteen Delightful Balanchine Girls" at the London Coliseum; unfortunately, at the first rehearsal he learned that the orchestra could not play satisfactorily the modern music he had written dance steps for. No problem. The orchestra's conductor was Dennis Stoll, the son of Sir Oswald. Mr. Balanchine simply asked, "Sir Stoll! What tunes does your little boy know?" He then wrote dance steps for the new tune.
• Lev Ivanov, the assistant of Marius Petipa, choreographed the swan dances in Swan Lake. As a young man, he demonstrated remarkable musical abilities. Pianist Anton Rubinstein once played through the ballet The Grapevine in a rehearsal hall. Listening to the music for the first time was Mr. Ivanov. After Mr. Rubinstein had finished, Mr. Ivanov sat at the piano and played much of the music back by ear - Mr. Rubinstein was delighted and astonished.
Death
• Ramones bass player Dee Dee Ramone had a rough life. He started taking illegal drugs as a child, and he eventually died from a heroin overdose. (He did write some very good songs during his life, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before he died.) He remembers that when he got his driver license the female police officer didn't even give him a driving test; instead, she simply gave him a driver license and told him, "Have a nice day, kid!" Years later, he talked to her in a bar. Both were drinking heavily, and according to Dee Dee, she admitted that she had given him the driver license simply because she had hoped that he would end his miserable life quickly in a car accident. When he left, she told him, "Boy, it's too bad you're still around."
• When Fanny Mendelssohn, the sister of Felix, was born, her mother looked at her hands and announced that she had "Bach fugue fingers." Sure enough, Fanny played much of Bach's difficult piano music during her lifetime. She and Felix were close during their childhood, though they saw much less of each other during adulthood. However, Felix kept his final promise to her. He had promised to be with her on her next birthday - November 14, 1847 - and although she died on May 14, he was with her on her next birthday. Felix died on November 4, and he was quickly buried by his sister's side in a Berlin churchyard.
• Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla once created a new kind of tango music by combining jazz and classical music with traditional tango music. Some people did not like the result, and Mr. Piazzolla even received death threats as a result of his new music - people threatened to kill him if he ever again wrote that kind of music. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, however, is able to look at the positive side of this story. He exclaims, "Imagine people caring so much about music!"
• When Lotte Lehmann's mother died, Lotte was devastated. However, she was scheduled to sing at an important premiere, Richard Strauss' Arabella, and no one was able to take over for her. Ms. Lehmann sang the part, and afterwards she wrote, "It seemed impossible, but the great blessing was granted me of becoming for a few hours a different person, of being able to forget for a few hours what had been taken from me."
Between the defective rooster and raccoons hosting an orgy on the roof, not a lot of nighttime sleep.
Tonight, Friday:
CBS begins the night with a FRESH'MacGyver', followed by a FRESH'Magnum FU', then a FRESH'Blue Bloods'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Thandie Newton, Ina Garten, and John Mulaney.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 3/5/20) are Liv Tyler, Norman Reedus, and Blackbear.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'The Blacklist', followed by 'Dateline'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Jon Hamm, Brené Brown, and Hailee Steinfeld.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 1/7/20) are Rachel Maddow, JB Smoove, Jean-George Vongerichten, and Caitlin Kalafus.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 4/13/20) is Tan France.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Shark Tank', followed by '20/20'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel it's TBA.
The CW offers a FRESH'Charmed', followed by a FRESH'Dynasty'.
Faux fills the night with FRESH'WWE Friday Night SmackDown'.
MY recycles an old 'CSI: Miami', followed by another old 'CSI: Miami'.
A&E has 'Live PD', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'US Marshals', followed by the movie 'Top Gun', then a FRESH'Friday Night In With The Morgans', followed by the movie 'Cocktail'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Cost of Living
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - The Perfect Mate
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Imaginary Friend
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - I, Borg
[10:00AM] THE GODFATHER, PART II
[2:30PM] THE GODFATHER
[6:30PM] THE GODFATHER, PART II
[11:00PM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW
[11:40PM] THE GODFATHER
[3:42AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II
[5:44AM] HIDDEN HABITATS - Serengeti (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Shahs Of Sunset', followed by a FRESH'Shahs Of Sunset', then another FRESH'Shahs Of Sunset', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens: Live'.
Comedy Central has 3 hours of old 'Tosh.0', then 'Kevin Hart: Laugh At My Pain'.
FX has the movie 'Spider-Man: Homecoming', followed by the movie 'Iron Man 2', then the movie 'Maze Runner: The Death Cure'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Evil Dead
[8:00A] Mission: Impossible II
[11:00A] Mission: Impossible III
[2:00P] That '70s Show
[2:30P] That '70s Show
[3:00P] That '70s Show
[3:30P] That '70s Show
[4:00P] That '70s Show
[4:30P] That '70s Show
[5:00P] That '70s Show
[5:30P] That '70s Show
[6:00P] Two and a Half Men
[6:30P] Two and a Half Men
[7:00P] Two and a Half Men
[7:30P] Two and a Half Men
[8:00P] Two and a Half Men
[8:30P] Two and a Half Men
[9:00P] Two and a Half Men
[9:30P] Two and a Half Men
[10:00P] Two and a Half Men
[10:30P] Two and a Half Men
[11:00P] Two and a Half Men
[11:30P] Two and a Half Men
[12:00A] Two and a Half Men
[12:30A] Two and a Half Men
[1:00A] That '70s Show
[1:30A] That '70s Show
[2:00A] That '70s Show
[2:30A] That '70s Show
[3:00A] Mission: Impossible III (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:30am] Mystic Pizza
[1:00pm] Law & Order
[2:00pm] Law & Order
[3:00pm] Law & Order
[4:00pm] Law & Order
[5:00pm] Law & Order
[6:00pm] Law & Order
[7:00pm] Law & Order
[8:00pm] Law & Order
[9:00pm] Law & Order
[10:00pm] Law & Order
[11:00pm] Law & Order
[12:00am] Law & Order
[1:00am] Law & Order
[2:00am] Mystic Pizza
[4:30am] Liar
[5:30am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'The Scorpion King', followed by the movie 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'.
David Letterman hasn't hosted the Late Show in five years, so he doesn't have a nightly monologue, but he continues to offer his take on issues of the day. Take, for instance, his opinion on Vice President Mike Pence's decision to forgo a mask during a visit Tuesday the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"Now if you go to the Mayo Clinic because you have COVID-19, you really have it," Letterman told Howard Stern on the Wednesday episode of Stern's SiriusXM show. "[Pence] takes time off from his gig as a mannequin, and he's walking around without a mask taunting these poor people who are bedridden and wearing a mask. To me, that is just taunting people who are ill, to see that guy walking around in his $40 suit walking around in the Mayo Clinic without a mask."
Pence said that he's undergone regular tests for the coronavirus and maintained that it was necessary that he attend the meetings without a mask. The BBC reported that the clinic posted and deleted a tweet that said Pence was told in advance that it required masks.
Letterman said the move was "particularly a thorn in my side," because Pence is the former governor of the comedian's home state of Indiana.
The host of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction also revealed that the wife of Paul Shaffer, his longtime musical director at his former show, had been hospitalized with COVID-19.
James Corden has been hosting The Late Late Show from his garage for the past couple of weeks, but the CBS late-night host is taking some time off. Corden said today that had "minor eye surgery" Tuesday and "won't be able to film new episodes for a few nights."
He didn't elaborate on the procedure but thanked folks for watching his remote show and added: "I am doing well and recovering. … I'll be back soon."
Corden has been home-showing amid the coronavirus shutdown since April 13, with guests joining him online. His garage-based Late Late Show follows his primetime special Homefest, which CBS aired on March 30. That show featured home-based performances from the likes of Dua Lipa in London; K-pop heroes BTS, who were all quarantined together in South Korea; as well as Andrea Bocelli singing from his house in Italy, one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk's coronavirus tweets from last month sure haven't aged well, but he's still got even more to confidently declare about the pandemic.
Musk on Twitter this week criticized lockdown measures put in place in the United States to slow the spread of COVID-19, demanding in one, "FREE AMERICA NOW." He applauded Texas for its plan to begin reopening the state's economy, and said the U.S. should "reopen with care and appropriate protection, but don't put everyone under de facto house arrest."
Musk also replied to a user who claimed the "scariest thing" about the pandemic isn't the coronavirus but seeing Americans willing to give up freedom, to which the Tesla CEO responded, "true."
These tweets, as Gizmodo points out, come after Musk previously downplayed the threat of the coronavirus and in March predicted that by the end of April, there would be "close to zero" new coronavirus cases in the United States. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. continues to rise and just passed one million on Tuesday.
When the coronavirus lockdown left a group of transsexual street prostitutes in a beach town near Rome without work, they turned to a local Catholic priest for help to buy food.
But his parish's resources were already stretched by the health crisis so the priest turned to the cardinal known as "the Pope's Robin Hood" who runs the Vatican charities. He wired money to the parish for them.
"I don't understand why this is getting so much attention," Cardinal Konrad Krajewski told Reuters by phone on Thursday. "This is ordinary work for the Church, it's normal. This is how the Church is a field hospital."
Krajewski, whose formal title is "papal almoner," or distributor of alms, said the transsexuals most likely were undocumented, making it difficult for them to seek help from Italian state welfare offices.
Krajewski, at 56, one of the youngest cardinals in the world, said it was what Jesus would have done.
Roger Stone bought hundreds of fake Facebook pages in 2016, which he used to circulate news articles that would damage his political rivals and, later, to defend himself against charges of Russian collusion, according to newly unsealed FBI records.
The FBI unsealed over 30 search warrants into Stone' s communications this week in response to a joint petition from The New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and Politico. Stone was under investigation as part of a federal probe into Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election.
Stone, a longtime friend and former top adviser to President Donald Trump (R-Unfit), was never found guilty of colluding with Russia but was sentenced to 40 months in prison for lying to Congress and witness intimidation during the probe. He recently said he's "praying" that Trump will pardon him before he begins serving his prison sentence.
According to the FBI records, a source who described himself as a former "right hand man" to Stone told law enforcement that in 2016, Stone told him to buy hundreds of fake Facebook accounts, including both new and existing accounts, with instructions to make them seem like real accounts.
In the years that followed, the accounts bought dozens of ads on Facebook to promote stories including Wikileaks' publication of emails stolen from Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. Later, as Stone himself became a focus of the federal Russia probe, the fake Facebook accounts bought ads defending Stone.
Three skeletons belonging to African individuals have been uncovered at a mass grave in Mexico City. They represent some of the first African people to arrive into slavery in the New World. An interdisciplinary analysis of these remains is shedding new light on this grim period of history and the harsh conditions endured by the first wave of enslaved Africans in the Americas.
Found in Mexico City, the three skeletons were buried in a mass grave near the former site of the Hospital Real de San José de los Naturales. This early hospital dates back to the early colonial period of New Spain and was primarily used to treat indigenous peoples. All three skeletons date back to this early colonial period in the 16th century, which means these individuals were among the first wave of Africans to be kidnapped and brought to the Americas via the transatlantic slave trade.
An interdisciplinary analysis of these remains paints a bleak picture of their lives, showing evidence of forged migration, physical abuse, and exposure to infectious diseases.
To analyze the three skeletons, the authors combined genetic and isotopic evidence, along with physical evidence gleaned from the remains.
Analysis of the skeletons suggests these people were subjected to physical abuse and intense manual labor, such as muscle-derived patterns on bones and signs of hernia on vertebrae. Other evidence pointed to "nutritionally inadequate diets, anemia, parasitic infectious diseases, and blood loss," wrote the authors.
The land masses of Japan shifted from east to west to east again in the months before the strongest earthquake in the country's recorded history, a 2011 magnitude-9 earthquake that killed more than 15,500 people, new research shows.
Those movements, what researchers are calling a "wobble," may have the potential to alert seismologists to greater risk of future large subduction-zone earthquakes. These destructive events occur where one of Earth's tectonic plates slides under another one. That underthrusting jams up or binds the earth, until the jam is finally torn or broken and an earthquake results.
The findings were published today (April 30) in the journal Nature.
"What happened in Japan was an enormous but very slow wobble - something never observed before," said Michael Bevis, a co-author of the paper and professor of earth sciences at The Ohio State University.
The wobble would have been imperceptible to people standing on the island, Bevis said, moving the equivalent of just a few millimeters per month over a period of five to seven months. But the movement was obvious in data recorded by more than 1,000 GPS stations distributed throughout Japan, in the months leading up to the March 11 Tohoku-oki earthquake.
The hailstone is so massive it even stunned meteorologists.
"It's incredible," said meteorologist Matthew Kumjian from Penn State University in the US. "This is the extreme upper end of what you'd expect from hail."
The hefty ice lump smashed down from a supercell thunderstorm in Argentina two years ago, in the heavily populated town Villa Carlos Paz. In a recently published study, Kumjian and colleagues have concluded the hailstone is possibly the largest ever recorded - estimated to be up to 23.7 centimetres (over 9 inches).
However, as its dimensions were only gleaned from video evidence, and not direct measurements, they can't conclusively say it's the largest to be recorded.
Another hailstone from the same storm, recorded by local Victoria Druetta, came in at 18 centimetres (7.1 inches), after she saw chunks of it smash off during the impact of its landing.
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