from Bruce
Anecdotes
Easter
• On Easter, worshippers at McMasters United Methodist Church in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, saw two large red letters — M and T — behind the altar. Of course, the letters stood for the good news about Jesus’ tomb — that it was eMpTy. The pastor, Reverend Jeffrey D. Sterling, wanted to quiz the children about the meaning of the letters during the children’s lesson, so after all the children had gathered at the front of the church, he asked them, “What’s different about the church today, kids?” His own daughter answered the question. Ignoring the large red letters, she said, “It’s full, Dad!”
• Country comedian Jerry Clower is a devout Christian who attends Baptist church each Sunday, and sometimes he gets a little upset at Christians who attend church only on Easter. One year, while driving to Easter services, he told his wife, Homerline, “Darling, if there’s a lost man sitting in the pew where I usually sit this morning, on Easter Sunday, I’ll kneel by him and pray or stand outside in the rain. He can have my seat. But if a Baptist is in my seat that ain’t been there since last Easter, he’s getting up.”
Education
• When the scholar Rabbi Bun died at an early age, Rabbi Zera spoke highly of his scholarly labors, comparing him to a worker in a king’s vineyard who worked hard for two or three hours. The king called the worker to him, and they walked together. At the end of the day, the king paid all his laborers, including the man who had worked for only a few hours, the same wage. The other workers complained, saying that they had worked for the entire day, and they asked, “Is it right that he should receive the same wages we do?” The king responded, “Why are you angry? This man has done as much work in two or three hours as the rest of you have done in a whole day.” And so, Rabbi Zera said, “Thus, too, Rabbi Bun has accomplished more in the realm of the Torah during his 28 years than a diligent student could ordinarily accomplish in 100 years.”
• A university professor visited Japanese Zen master Nan-in. The professor was supposed to be there to learn about Zen from Nan-in, but it quickly became apparent from the professor’s comments that he believed that he was already an expert in Zen. Therefore, when Nan-in served the professor tea, he filled the professor’s teacup full and then continued pouring so that the tea ran to the ground. The professor cried out, “Stop! It is already full! No more will go in!” Nan-in replied, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
• A Buddhist teacher from India visited the United States. When he was asked what he thought of Buddhist practices in America, he said that they reminded him of a person in a rowboat rowing and rowing, yet getting nowhere because the rowboat is tied to the dock. Many people in the United States devote much time and effort to meditation about lovingkindness, he said, but they forget to practice lovingkindness toward other people in the course of their daily activities.
• Peter Cartwright was a pioneer circuit-riding preacher who was suspicious of educated preachers. He met an educated preacher who addressed him in Greek in order to humiliate him. Not to be outdone, Mr. Cartwright spoke to him in German. The educated preacher, who did not know Hebrew, concluded that Mr. Cartwright had replied to him in that language, and he said that Mr. Cartwright was the first educated Methodist preacher that he had ever seen.
• Governor Wang questioned the teaching methods of Zen master Rinzai. Governor Wang asked if the monks read sutras. Rinzai said they did not. Governor Wang asked if the monks learned meditation. Rinzai said they did not. Governor Wang then asked, “If they don’t read sutras or learn meditation, what are on earth are they doing here?” Rinzai replied, “All I do is make them become Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.”
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Somewhere Down the Road"
Album: HORIZON DISRUPTED
Artist: Andy Pratt
Artist Location: Chicago, Illinois
Info: Andy Pratt's 2017 debut album.
Andy Pratt: Vocals & Guitars
Joe Policastro: Bass & Vocals
Mikel Patrick Avery: Drums & Percussion & Quartet Parapluie
Rebekah Cope: Violin
Inger Petersen Carle: Violin
Andra Kulans: Viola & Violin
Melissa Bach: Cello
Kelly Bayer Langenberg: French Horn (track 8 only)
Price: $1 for track; $8 for eight-track album
Genre: Singer-Songwriter
Links:
HORIZON DISRUPTED
Andy Pratt on Bandcamp
Andy Pratt 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 rolled back in so there wasn't a whole lotta sun.
Honorees At White House
Kennedy Center
President Joe Biden spent Thursday morning in a star-studded meeting with this year’s Kennedy Center honorees.
The president met at the White House with the recipients of the lifetime artistic achievement awards: country music legend Garth Brooks, dancer and actress Debbie Allen, violin virtuoso Midori, folk music icon Joan Baez and actor Dick Van Dyke. They were joined by the honorees’ guests, the chairman of the board of trustees and the president of the Kennedy Center, and Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens.
The meeting marked a return to tradition after former President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) avoided the celebration during his tenure. He dropped the traditional White House invitation for honorees and skipped the ceremony after a number of the 2017 honorees said they would boycott the White House reception in protest against Trump’s policies.
The event itself will be much different from those in years past. The centerpiece event for Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts normally happens in December, but it was postponed last year amid the pandemic.
The event will air on CBS on June 6.
Kennedy Center
Seized Phone Records
DOJ
The Trump administration Justice Department secretly obtained the 2017 phone records of a CNN correspondent, the network said Thursday in revealing the existence of another apparent leak investigation.
The revelation comes two weeks after The Washington Post disclosed that the Justice Department had last year seized phone records belonging to three current and former journalists.
CNN said the Justice Department informed Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr in a May 13 letter that it had obtained phone and email records covering a two-month period between June 1 and July 31, 2017.
The Justice Department confirmed that the records were formally sought last year, though it did not reveal anything else about the investigation and what it might pertain to. CNN said that in the two-month period listed in the letter, Starr’s reporting included stories on Syria and Afghanistan and coverage of U.S. military options in North Korea that were being offered to President Donald Trump.
The letter indicated that the government sought records of Starr’s Pentagon phone extension, the CNN Pentagon booth phone number and her home and cellphone records. The government also said it had obtained “non-content information” from her emails, which would include information about the senders and recipients but not the actual content of the communications.
DOJ
Groundbreaking
Universal Hip Hop Museum
Musical luminaries including Nas, LL Cool J, and Fat Joe came out Thursday to the birthplace of hip-hop for a ground-breaking ceremony to launch the capital campaign for the new Universal Hip Hop Museum.
They joined a slew of politicians in the Bronx, where the now-global cultural force that is hip-hop has its roots.
“Hip hop made me believe that anything was possible,” said LL Cool J. “This was like the first time where I felt like, ‘Wow, it’s possible to be powerful. It’s possible to be somebody. It’s possible to have meaning in this world.’”
The museum is part of a $349 million mixed-use project along the waterfront in the South Bronx.
Universal Hip Hop Museum
Sequel
‘Hocus Pocus’
The Sanderson sisters are officially returning to Salem. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy will reprise their roles in “Hocus Pocus 2,” a sequel to the 1993 Disney classic.
Disney initially revealed plans for a follow-up film in 2019 with the hopes that the trio of actors would return, but Midler, Parker and Najimy hadn’t formally confirmed their participation until now. Production is expected to begin this fall with “Hocus Pocus 2” set to debut on Disney Plus sometime in 2022.
Midler celebrated the news on Twitter, writing, “Sistaaaahs! It’s been 300 years… But we’re BACK!”
Filmmaker Adam Shankman will no longer direct the movie due to scheduling conflicts. However, he will remain on the project as an executive producer as he shifts his attention to directing “Disenchanted,” a sequel to the 2007 fairytale comedy “Enchanted” with Amy Adams, for the studio.
Disney isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel for the follow-up. The sequel centers on three young women who accidentally bring the Sanderson sisters back to modern day Salem and must figure out how to stop the child-hungry witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on the world.
‘Hocus Pocus’
World's Largest Iceberg
Antarctica
A giant slab of ice bigger than the Spanish island of Majorca has sheared off from the frozen edge of Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg afloat in the world, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday.
The newly calved berg, designated A-76 by scientists, was spotted in recent satellite images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, the space agency said in a statement posted on its website with a photo of the enormous, oblong ice sheet.
Its surface area spans 4,320 square km (1,668 square miles) and measures 175 km (106 miles) long by 25 km (15 miles) wide.
By comparison, Spain's tourist island of Majorca in the Mediterranean occupies 3,640 square km (1,405 square miles). The U.S. state of Rhode Island is smaller still, with a land mass of just 2,678 square km (1,034 square miles).
The enormity of A-76, which broke away from Antarctica's Ronne Ice Shelf, ranks as the largest existing iceberg on the planet, surpassing the now second-place A-23A, about 3,380 square km (1,305 square miles) in size and also floating in the Weddell Sea.
Antarctica
Only Half
Rural Voters
Americans have so far received three stimulus checks. The first two were distributed under President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up)'s watch and not a single Republican voted for the third round, and yet, only half of rural voters are giving Democrats the credit.
A poll conducted by Rural Objective PAC - a super PAC that works to build support for Democrats in rural areas - found that 50% of voters in rural areas associate providing COVID-19 stimulus checks directly to American families with the Democratic Party, while 32% associated the payments with Republicans, 11% with neither party, and 7% weren't sure.
The poll surveyed 2,149 voters in nine battleground states - Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin - and while 68% of those voters support stimulus checks, it's clear that Democrats aren't getting credit for a cornerstone of President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan.
The majority of rural voters did associate Democrats with extended unemployment benefits and state aid, though, and even as Democrats are calling for recurring stimulus aid, voters are not associating the already provided aid with Democrats. Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan passed using budget reconciliation without a single Republican voting for the plan, which included $1,200 checks.
Rural Voters
New Rainbow Set
Lego
You've heard of "Everything Is Awesome," the criminally catchy theme song of the "Lego Movie" franchise.
Now get ready for "Everyone Is Awesome," a new, rainbow-colored Lego set introduced Wednesday by the toy company ahead of LGBTQ Pride Month. The 346-piece collection, available for purchase starting June 1, includes a different figurine for each color of Lego's rainbow: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, dark blue, purple, light blue, white and pink.
In addition to their varying hues, each of the 11 figurines has a distinct hairstyle, ranging from curly and long to short and straight. The differing appearances of the characters are meant to "celebrate the diversity" of Lego consumers, according to a press release.
The vibrant collection, priced at $34.99, is also designed at a right angle to fit on a shelf or a window sill. When fully constructed, the colorful model measures 10.24 centimeters tall and 12.8 centimeters deep.
Other recently released Lego sets include dioramas of the iconic New York City apartments featured on the hit sitcom "Friends," as well as a model of a NASA space shuttle.
Lego
Flew 500 Miles a Day for 9 Days Straight
Common Swifts
Under ideal conditions, common swifts can cover more than 500 miles per day for more than a week, report scientists. Seems like an unimaginable feat for such a tiny bird, but swifts have adopted a clever strategy that makes these epic migrations possible.
As a migrating bird, common swifts (Apus apus) are aptly named. These highly mobile creatures spend more than 80% of their lives in the air when not in breeding mode, and a good portion of this time is spent migrating from northern Scandinavia to their wintering destinations in western and central Africa.
For these long-distance migrations, scientists had previously estimated average speeds of 310 miles per day (500 km/day), but new research published in iScience has updated this figure to 354 miles (570 km/day). More impressively—not that this isn’t impressive enough—the new study shows that swifts can travel farther and faster than previously thought. At their fastest, swifts can cover more than 500 miles (830 km) each day during a nine-day stretch. The new paper was authored by Susanne Akesson and Giuseppe Bianco from the Centre for Animal Movement at Lund University in Sweden.
The researchers used miniature geolocators to track 45 adult common swifts during migrations in 2010, 2012, and 2014 (the devices weighed less than 3% of the birds’ body mass, as to not slow them down). Of these, 24 were re-captured later; swifts almost always return to their specific breeding sites, making it possible to recover their trackers after a single migration season. Akesson and Bianco managed to recover 20 swifts who recorded their movements during a full year, including both autumn and spring migrations.
As the data showed, “common swifts breeding in the northernmost part of the European range” covered, on average, around 6,150 miles (9,900 km) during the autumn migration and around 4,900 miles (7,900 km) in the spring, “exceeding those recorded for populations in south and central Sweden,” according to the study.
Common Swifts
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