from Bruce
Anecdotes
Mothers
• Although singer Ray Charles became blind when he was a child, his mother was determined that he would be treated like sighted children. One day, young Ray deliberately did a poor job of mopping the floor because he figured that since he couldn’t see, his mother would let him get away with it. She didn’t. Instead, she made him scrub the floor on his hands and knees. Ray didn’t let his blindness interfere with the things he wanted to do. As a teenager, he drove a car with his friends sitting beside him to tell him when he was going too far to the right or to the left; he also drove a motorcycle, riding behind a friend’s motorcycle and following the sound of its exhaust. In addition, he practically invented soul music by combining blues and gospel.
• During the mid-1950s, Mikie, the little son of Metropolitan Opera soprano Regina Resnik, learned to enjoy opera music after a brief time of telling his mother, “No more practicing! I don’t like opera music!” Soon his favorite music included “Three Blind Mice,” “Little Red Monkey,” and the overture from Carmen. Ms. Resnik frequently sang on TV, and her family would gather in the living room to watch her. Mikie would shout, “That’s Mommy! That’s Mommy!” That is, unless she was wearing a black wig over her own blond hair for a role. Then little Mikie would look at her and say sadly, “That’s not Mommy. It’s a different lady.”
• Sir James M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, helped make Kensington Gardens famous, and as a reward he was given a key so he could roam the gardens in solitude after other people had left. He was quite pleased to be able to do so, for after he had written about Kensington Gardens in his book The Little White Bird, mothers used to lie in wait for him so they could introduce him to their children in hopes that he would use them in a book. (Sir James also used to put his mother, thinly disguised, into every book he wrote. She would read the book, then tell her son, “I’m thinking I am in it again!”)
• At the start of the Depression, comedian Jack Oakie’s mother got worried about her son’s money, which was deposited in the Bank of Hollywood. She insisted that he take all of his money out of the bank. Being a good son, he obeyed. When a bank teller asked his mother why she wanted Mr. Oakie to withdraw his money, she replied, “No particular reason. I just have the feeling that this might be a good day to take all of Jack’s money out of the bank.” It was a good thing she had this feeling — the bank failed to open the very next business day.
• Frequently, when comic writer Robert Benchley wanted a plausible excuse for not completing a piece of writing by his deadline, he asked his mother to send telegrams, supposedly sent by himself, saying that she was ill and he was staying with her. However, sometimes he didn’t care if the excuse was plausible. Once, he asked his mother to send this telegram in his name: “SORRY I CANT ATTEND LUNCHEON TODAY BECAUSE I AM IN BOSTON STOP DONT KNOW WHY I AM IN BOSTON BUT IT MUST BE IMPORTANT BECAUSE HERE I AM.”
• While Tim Conway was appearing on TV in the sitcom McHale’s Navy, his mother called him to say, “You know, one of the Schutt boys is leaving the hardware store. There’s an opening. You know the other boys, so if you could apply for that job, it would probably be to your benefit.” He asked if she wanted him to work in a hardware store instead of on TV. She replied, “Yes — because the hardware store is a much steadier job. At least you know where you’re going to work in the morning and how long you’re going to be there.”
• When ballet dancer George Zoritch’s aged mother was in a nursing home, she called a friend and said, “I need you. Don’t ask questions. Just come here right away.” The friend did come, taking three buses in 98-degree heat. When he arrived, he found her sitting quietly on the side of her bed. He asked, “What is the problem? You sounded distraught on the telephone.” Mr. Zoritch’s mother answered, “I am working on a crossword puzzle, and I didn’t know what this word means, so I can’t fill in the squares.”
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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: "Don’t Need Your Love"
Album: TROUBLE
Artist: Shanda & the Howlers
Artist Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Info: “Shanda & the Howlers are a rhythm & blues revivalist band out of Las Vegas. Their sound is often described as ‘Rock n Soul,’ with influences traced to artists such as Big Maybelle, Ruth Brown, Otis Redding, The Marvelettes, Gino Parks, LaVern Baker, James Brown and Sharon Jones. In the band’s short history, they have played on bills with such legendary acts as The Blasters and Wanda Jackson.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $12 (USD) for 11-track album
Genre: Rock and Soul
Links:
Shanda & The Howlers
Shanda & The Howlers 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
Reader Suggestions
Twofer
A Beautiful Buddhist Ritual
I imagine the vibe at this event was both somber and uplifting.
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
Yesterday, Frankie the shitten brought a lizard into the house and the lizard lost its tail.
We put the lizard in the old terrarium we used for Jo the Lucky Lizard, and now, he's Jo2.
Today, Frankie the shitten brought another lizard into the house and the lizard lost its tail.
He's now in Jo the Lucky Lizard's back-up terrarium, so I guess he'll be JoJo.
Next, a quest for fresh crickets.
MTV Movie & TV Awards’ Comedic Genius Award
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Baron Cohen is set to receive the Comedic Genius Award at the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards, MTV announced today.
On May 16, the Academy Award-nominated actor, screenwriter, producer and comedian will become the fourth recipient of the award, which honors an actor who has made incomparable contributions to the world of comedy. Past honorees include Melissa McCarthy, Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell.
At this year’s show, Baron Cohen is also nominated in three categories, including Best Performance in a Movie (for his turn as Abbie Hoffman in The Trial of the Chicago 7), Best Movie (for Borat sequel, Subsequent Moviefilm) and Best Duo. In the latter category, he is nominated alongside his Borat Subsequent Moviefilm co-star, Maria Bakalova.
Earlier this year, Baron Cohen garnered three Golden Globe nominations and two Oscar nominations for his work on Trial and his Borat sequel. At the Globes, he claimed the award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (as a producer), as well as Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy—both, for the latter title.
The 2021 MTV Music Awards, hosted by Leslie Jones, will be a two-night event kicking off live in Los Angeles on Sunday May 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Last year’s ceremony was canceled, due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a retrospective airing in December.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Ending On NBC
‘A Little Late With Lilly Singh’
NBC’s extremely late-night forays are coming to a close with the end of A Little Late With Lilly Singh.
The show, which airs at 1:30am, will be coming to an end with its second season and the network is moving out of original programming for the slot that it previously called a “creative playground”.
The move is a blow to the diversity of late-night television as Singh is the only woman hosting a show on a broadcast network, but it is unsurprising given the ratings attached to a show that airs so late. The final episode will air on Thursday June 3.
A Little Late with Lilly Singh launched in September 2019, a replacement for Last Call with Carson Daly, and followed The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers in the schedule. However, there was a large gap between seasons one and two due to the pandemic and Singh returned in January 2021 in a house rather than a studio.
Singh herself has struck a first-look deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio with her Unicorn Island Productions banner. The first-look deal will see her developing unscripted projects with the unscripted division of Universal Studio Group, which is run by President Toby Gorman, who called her a “creative visionary”.
‘A Little Late With Lilly Singh’
Features Fauci, Francis — and Aerosmith
Vatican Conference
An eclectic mix of participants are taking part in a unique three-day Vatican conference on COVID-19, other global health threats and how science, solidarity and spirituality can address them.
Along with Pope Francis, the event includes Dr. Anthony Fauci, soprano Renee Fleming, the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna and the lead guitarist of Aerosmith.
The conference, which begins Thursday and ends Saturday with a virtual audience with the pope, was planned well before the pandemic erupted last year. Organizers say it has only taken on more relevance amid a growing appreciation of the need for global access to health care, new advances in vaccine technology and greater understanding of the mental health cost of loneliness.
Fauci, who is leading the U.S. pandemic response, told the online conference in recorded remarks Thursday that the pandemic had confirmed to him that faith and science are constantly evolving — and that scientists in particular must humbly admit they don’t have all the answers all the time.
Vatican Conference
Comic Strip Artists
No Pants Day
Fans of newspaper comics will instantly notice something missing in many of the strips this Friday — pants.
More than 25 cartoonists behind strips from “Blondie” to “Zippy the Pinhead” are celebrating the quirky holiday No Pants Day in a way that helps charities get clothing to those in need.
Participating artists are drawing their characters without trousers and urging readers to donate clothing to thrift and second-hand stores hard-hit by COVID-19.
“This was a great way to help bring communities together but also have a little bit of a laugh,” said Tea Fougner, comics editor at King Features Syndicate. “Just the idea of No Pants Day, I think, is something that everybody can feel a little bit closer to this year than in previous years.”
No Pants Day, held on the first Friday in May, is believed to have been started by a group of students at the University of Texas who thought leaving the pants at home on the first Friday in May would be a fun way to end the semester. A winter spin-off was created called No Pants Subway Ride.
No Pants Day
Grifters Gotta Grift
Fundraising Tactic
The Federal Election Commission in a rare unanimous vote has urged Congress to ban a campaign donation tactic reportedly used by former President Donald Trump's team last year.
The FEC on Thursday unanimously voted to recommend Congress ban political campaigns from using prechecked boxes to steer supporters toward making recurring contributions by default, The New York Times reports.
"It's important that donors be able to exercise their choices freely," FEC Democratic commissioner Ellen Weintraub told the Times.
"If their money is being taken from them because of some reverse checkoff option they didn't notice, then they are not giving their money freely. It's almost like theft. I don't want to see donors tricked."
The Times previously reported that Trump's campaign in 2020 "deployed prechecked boxes to enroll every donor in weekly withdrawals — unless they unchecked the box," describing this as an "intentional scheme." The Trump operation also reportedly prechecked an additional box that doubled an individual's contribution unless it was unchecked, and they ended up having to refund over $122 million to supporters, according to the Times. This tactic has also been used by Democrats, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, The Hill notes.
Fundraising Tactic
8.5M Fake Net Neutrality Comments
FCC
The Office of the New York Attorney General said in a new report that a campaign funded by the broadband industry submitted millions of fake comments supporting the 2017 repeal of net neutrality.
The Federal Communications Commission’s contentious 2017 repeal undid Obama-era rules that barred internet service providers from slowing or blocking websites and apps or charging companies more for faster speeds to consumers. The industry had sued to stop these rules during the Obama administration but lost.
The proceeding generated a record-breaking number of comments — more than 22 million — and nearly 18 million were fake, the attorney general’s office found. It has long been known that the tally included fake comments.
One 19-year-old in California submitted more than 7.7 million pro-net neutrality comments. The attorney general’s office did not identify the origins of another “distinct group” of more than 1.6 million pro-net neutrality comments, many of which used mailing addresses outside the U.S.
A broadband industry group, called Broadband for America, spent $4.2 million generating more than 8.5 million of the fake FCC comments. Half a million fake letters were also sent to Congress.
FCC
Helluva Deal
Kevin
Tucker Carlson (R-Rupert's Catamite) was right: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Sock Puppet) is living in the Washington, D.C., penthouse of Republican pollster and messaging maven Frank Luntz, and it does sound like a pretty sweet deal. Carlson was tipped off to the roommate arrangement, and McCarthy confirmed it Tuesday, telling Fox & Friends he has "rented a room from Frank for a couple of months, but don't worry, I'm back to — going back to where I normally am, on my couch in my office. But, yes, we pay fair market rate"
Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler looked into Luntz's apartment, and it's actually a 7,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom, 16-bathroom amalgamation of 4 three-story penthouses Luntz purchased for nearly $4.3 million in August and September 2018 and merged in November 2019. The homeowner's association fees on the four units is $4,976 a month, Kessler calculates, citing Redfin.
Neither McCarthy nor Luntz responded to the Post's request for comment, but a McCarthy spokesman told the Daily Wire the minority leader "calculated the fair market value amount at $1,500/month" to rent an "approximately" 400-square-foot room in Luntz's penthouse. Kessler's Apartments.com search found that a comparable studio or one-bedroom would run about $5,000 a month. Regardless, he writes, "besides the 'room' he rented, McCarthy would have had access to a 24/7 concierge, a rooftop pool, a fitness center, a media room, a business center, and a party room with a bar and pool table."
"This is quite a deal, especially considering that Luntz has talked about how he's on the road all the time," Politico muses. "Imagine paying $1,500 a month for what is essentially a mansion carved into a high-rise? It's good to be the minority leader!"
Kevin
New Stand-Up Routine
Carlson & Greene
Firebrand US Rep Marjorie Traitor Greene (R-Lock Her Up) slammed her congressional colleagues in an interview with Tucker Carlson (R-Rupert's Catamite) on Wednesday, saying that many members are “not qualified to be there”.
The freshman lawmaker, who was stripped of her committee assignments after spouting conspiracy theories and endorsing violence against Democrats, made a curious case against her fellow members of Congress despite her own limited credentials.
At one point in the interview, Ms Greene and Mr Carlson discussed the relationship between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who has been critical of former president Donald Trump.
“Were you shocked to learn they share a toothbrush or are roommates or whatever?” Mr Carlson asked.
“I was more curious, like, who gets the top bunk and who gets the bottom bunk,” Ms Greene responded.
Carlson & Greene
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