Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Helaine Olen: Elizabeth Warren and the double standards for female leaders (Washington Post)
Women are asked to prove their qualifications again and again and again.
Tom Danehy: Tom imagines how the USS Trump would perform in combat (Tucson Weekly)
I sincerely lament what Donald Trump has done to people who used to be respectable Republicans. I used to enjoy listening to them and usually disagreeing with them. They were people with ideas and passions. Now they're empty vessels, unable to take a stand and unwilling to think for themselves. The Emperor has no clothes, but he puts women in their place and he stands up to the dark-skinned people, so maybe naked and stupid is the place to be.
Kari Paul: Adult performers picket Instagram HQ over company's nude photo rules (The Guardian)
Artists, activists and models join in condemning confusing guidelines leading to account suspensions.
Stuart Heritage: Sexists assemble! Someone has 'defeminised' Avengers: Endgame (Guardian)
An anonymous 'fan' has made a new edit of the Marvel hit with fewer women, fewer feelings, less male hugging and less entertainment.
Kate Mossman: How to write a "good" bad sex scene: the ins and outs of erotic fiction (New Statesman)
It's thought that men are worse than women at writing sex scenes because they're afraid of being nominated for the Bad Sex Award.
Michael Heath: The death of political cartoons isn't funny (Spectator)
People used to want to laugh at magazines. They don't now.
Toby Young: Oberlin College and the rise of social justice vengeance (Spectator)
Could a bakery's court win over a liberal arts school be the turn of the tide?
Joseph Epstein: The Man with the Leaden Ear (Commentary)
Nelson Algren's America.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• When Walter Damrosch's Cyrano de Bergerac was presented by the Metropolitan Opera, many opera-knowledgeable people discerned passages that seemed more than reminiscent of passages written by other composers. At a rehearsal, Frances Alda finished singing an aria, then asked, "Where do we go from here?" The assistant conductor, who was named Hageman, replied, "From Gounod to Meyerbeer." (Charles-Françoise Gounod and Giacomo Meyerbeer each had composed operas.) At another rehearsal, Ms. Alda saw another singer listening to the score of Cyrano de Bergerac and frequently bowing to the air. Curious, she asked him, "What are you doing?" He replied, "I am saluting the spirits of the dead masters." (The opera was not a success.)
• Oldtime Church of Christ preachers felt no compunction about borrowing sermons from other preachers - and were often encouraged to do so. A young preacher, Cornelius Abbott, once borrowed a sermon from an older preacher, H. Leo Boles, and used it as needed. One Sunday, the young preacher was giving the sermon when he noticed preacher Boles sitting in the congregation. He broke off giving the sermon, and said to preacher Boles, I did not see you in the audience, and if I had I would not be here delivering your sermon." Preacher Boles stood up and said, "That's all right. The fellow I got it from said you could preach it, too."
• Stand-up comedian Rodney Dangerfield writes much of his own material, but he also buys material from writers. Once, he bought some jokes from stand-up comedian John DeBellis. Shortly afterward, Mr. DeBellis heard Mr. Dangerfield doing some jokes that Mr. DeBellis used in his own act but had not sold to Mr. Dangerfield. Mr. Dangerfield explained that he had bought the jokes, and then he called up the man from whom he had bought them and asked where the jokes had come from. The man explained, "I was at the Improv the other night and I got a lot of them there."
• Nahum Sokolow (1859-1936) was the editor of the Hebrew daily Ha-Zifirah. Once a young man saw him and submitted a poem for publication. Sokolow read the poem, and then he asked, "Did you write this poem yourself?" The young man said he had written it. Sokolow then said, "In that case, I am delighted and surprised to see you, because I was under the impression that Judah L. Gordon, the author of this poem, had been dead for 10 years."
• English entertainer Joyce Grenfell had a problem with amateurs stealing her material. Frequently, she received letters from people asking for her sketches so that they could perform them before other people. Of course, as an entertainer, she made her living by performing that material, and so she used to write back, suggesting as kindly as possible that the amateur ought to write her own original material.
• John Grant did a lot of comedy writing for Abbott and Costello, furnishing some of the best comic routines for their movies. Once, he turned in an excellent comic routine after having only one day to work on it. The routine seemed familiar to Abbott and Costello movie producer Alex Gottlieb, so he started through the books in his library. In the 1870 book A Compendium of Humor for All Occasions, he found the routine.
• Comedy writer Goodman Ace once wrote down several jokes, and then he looked in a 100-year-old book of jokes to see if it would inspire some new ideas. However, he found in the book a joke that he had thought he had just written. Because of this experience, Mr. Ace believes that no matter what comedic idea you have "somewhere, somebody must've thought of it before."
• Beatrice Lillie despised pretension. Often, she would go to a fancy restaurant filled with haughty headwaiters, then order, "Rice Krispies."
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast.
Previously Unreleased
Freddie Mercury
In October 1985, mere months after Queen's iconic performance at Live Aid, Freddie Mercury was recruited by his dear friend, British Invasion pioneer Dave Clark, to record the track "In My Defence" for a star-studded concept album based on Clark's sci-fi/rock musical Time. The session at London's Abbey Road Studios went so swimmingly that, Clark tells Yahoo Entertainment, Mercury asked him, "'Have you got any other songs?' I said, 'Well, I have got the title track.' And that was called 'Time.' I played it to him. He was totally committed, which is where this all came from. He was amazing."
So, three months later, Mercury returned to Abbey Road to record that second song, and Clark describes the day as absolutely magical. "Before any musicians came in, it was just Freddie and [session musician Mike Moran playing] piano. He sang, and it gave me goosebumps. Nobody was there. It was just amazing. I can't even explain it. Then of course, when everybody came in, we ended up with 48 tracks of backing vocals. … And the end result, with all the musicians and production, ended up at 96 tracks."
But now, for the first time ever, Mercury's original, pared-down "Time" - captured that day in January 1986 when Mercury was, as Clark puts it, still "buzzing" from his Live Aid triumph - is being released under the song's full title, "Time Waits for No One," stripping back those 96 tracks to a version with just one: Freddie Mercury.
Clark finally retrieved the audio from his tape archive last year and restored it at Moran's studio in Buckinghamshire, England - though he sat on it for while longer, because he though it would be "wrong" to release it while the publicity campaign for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was still in overdrive. Eventually, when the time was right, he surprised Queen manager Jim Beach with the track. "He came over to my house, and before we started talking, I said, 'I've got something I'd like to show you that might make you smile.' I didn't say what it was. He loved it."
Freddie Mercury's "Time Waits for One" can be streamed and downloaded here.
Freddie Mercury
Backs AOC
George Takei
Actor and activist George Takei is weighing in on the treatment of undocumented immigrants and backing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's description of migrant detention centers as concentration camps. "I know what concentration camps are. I was inside two of them, in America. And yes, we are operating such camps again," Takei wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
Takei's tweet comes after Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram live video that "The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border and that is exactly what they are."
Takei, who rose to fame in "Star Trek" and became a gay rights activist, spent part of his childhood held with his family at the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas, an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II.
In an interview with the Television Academy, Takei opened up about life in the camp. "Childhood is amazing adaptable. By the time we went to the Rohwer camp in Arkansas, I was 5 years old," he remembered. "The barbed wire fence, the guard tower ... the machine guns, they became a normal part of my landscape."
He recalled how his family was forced out of their home at gunpoint and moved into their new "home" at Rohwer, which was a small, single room in a tar-paper barrack. Records at the National Archives show Takei, born Hosato G. Takei, and his family were transferred to the Rohwer camp after being held at the Santa Anita Assembly Center in California.
George Takei
Loses Latest Malibu Battle
The Edge
U2 guitarist The Edge has lost the latest round in his 14-year battle to build a series of mansions on an untouched mountainside in Malibu.
The musician - real name David Evans - had been hoping to build five eco-friendly homes on the 151 acres of land, which he purchased in 2005 for $9 million (£7 million).
However, California's Supreme Court has now denied his petition to have the case reviewed.
Local residents and conservationists have long opposed the project, citing concerns about heavy traffic, the risk of landslides and the destruction of habitats.
The Edge
25-Year Anniversary
'Today'
The "Today" show celebrated a huge milestone on Thursday - its 25th anniversary -by reliving many of the best memories from the popular morning show, but one very prominent past "Today" anchor was noticeably absent from the nearly six-minute montage… Matt Lauer.
NBC has been erasing Matt from its history ever since he was fired in November 2017 for inappropriate sexual workplace behavior. Still, the fact that the disgraced former anchor was MIA raised some eyebrows, especially considering he manned the helm at "Today" for more than 20 years, or 80 percent of the show's existence.
Perhaps it's not surprising that Matt's highlights ended up in the cutting room floor considering the extent of Matt's alleged behavior -- women claimed he trapped them in his office and made sexual advances toward them, often scolding them if they objected; some allege that he gave them sexually explicit gifts; he was allegedly known for making lewd comments verbally or over text messages.
Interestingly, former anchor Ann Curry, who claims she alerted NBC to Matt's alleged sexual misconduct in 2012, was also nowhere to be seen in the video. Matt was said to have squeezed her out of the show and essentially orchestrated her firing.
'Today'
Headliner & Caterer
Pay To Play
When President Trump (R-Unfit) finished the first official rally of his reelection campaign this week, he got on Air Force One. But he didn't go home to Washington. Instead, he flew 190 miles in the opposite direction - to visit his own Doral golf resort, outside Miami.
The resort's profits have fallen since Trump took office. But it had a major event planned for the next day, a fundraiser for Trump's reelection campaign.
It would be his 126th visit to one of his properties since taking office. And this visit - like more than a dozen before it - would bring paying customers, allowing Trump to play a double role.
The president would be the headliner and the caterer.
Trump has bigger designs for the Doral club: He has suggested holding next year's Group of Seven meeting - a gathering of world leaders - at Doral or another of his luxury resorts, current and former White House staffers said.
Pay To Play
Hackers Extort
Riviera Beach
A city in Florida has voted to pay $600,000 to hackers who took over its computer systems three weeks ago with the apparent intention of extorting money from the local government.
Hackers stole the city's records and encrypted the data before demanding ransom for its property.
Officials said the incident remained under investigation, but members of the Riviera Beach City Council reportedly felt they no longer had a choice but to intervene.
Earlier this week, the council voted unanimously to approve the hackers' payment demands in the form of 65 Bitcoins. The money would be pulled from the city's insurance funds, local news station WPEC reported.
The local police department was forced to begin writing reports of emergency 911 calls on paper - nearly 300 are reportedly received daily - due to the computer outages. Fire departments were also without proper computer functioning since the hacks took place.
Riviera Beach
Lost Wallets
Honesty
People are more likely to return a lost wallet if it contains money - and the more cash, the better.
That's the surprising conclusion from researchers who planted more than 17,000 "lost wallets" across 355 cities in 40 countries, and kept track of how often somebody contacted the supposed owners.
The presence of money - the equivalent of about $13 in local currency - boosted this response rate to about 51%, versus 40% for wallets with no cash. That trend showed up in virtually every nation, although the actual numbers varied.
Researchers raised the stakes in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Poland. The response jumped to 72% for wallets containing the equivalent of about $94, versus 61% for those containing $13. If no money was enclosed, the rate was 46%.
The wallets in the study were actually transparent business card cases, chosen so that people could see money inside without opening them. A team of 13 research assistants posed as people who had just found the cases and turned them in at banks, theaters, museums or other cultural establishments, post offices, hotels and police stations or other public offices. The key question was whether the employee receiving each case would contact its supposed owner, whose name and email address were displayed on three identical business cards within.
Honesty
Religious Sheep
Good Omens
A religious Christian group in the US called Return to Order recently launched a petition calling for Netflix to cancel the series Good Omens. Their reasoning is that the show is blasphemous to the extent that it "mocks God's wisdom" and "presents devils and Satanists as normal and even good, where they merely have a different way of being…"
"This is another step to make Satanism appear normal, light and acceptable," the organization notes on its website. "We must show our rejection. Please sign our petition, telling Netflix that we will not stand silent as they destroy the barriers of horror we still have for evil."
Now the petition at issue here - which has already garnered 35,000 signatures - isn't exactly newsworthy in and of itself. After all, people sign petitions urging Netflix to cancel shows on a regular basis. What makes this story so comical, though, is that Good Omens isn't a Netflix show. It's an Amazon original.
Naturally, some folks on Twitter had a field day with the mixup.
Hardly a surprise, the petition will undoubtedly bring even more attention to the Amazon series and could ultimately serve to boost overall viewership. It's essentially the Streisand effect at work. For those unfamiliar, the Streisand effect refers to the phenomenon when an effort to block, cancel, or censor a piece of information has the opposite effect. The term was coined after Barbara Streisand tried to keep photographs of her house from becoming public. Her efforts, though, only got people more curious about what her house looked like and generated a ton of publicity as a result.
Good Omens
Invocation Prompts Protest
Kenai Peninsula
A member of the Satanic Temple offered an invocation at Tuesday's Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting, prompting walkouts from about a dozen attendees and borough officials, and a protest outside the building.
The invocation was the first given by the Satanic Temple since the borough changed its invocation policy in November. The new policy allows for anyone in the borough to offer an invocation, no matter their religion. The change in policy came after the Alaska Superior Court found the former policy unconstitutional and in violation of the state's constitution's establishment clause.
In her invocation, Iris Fontana - a member of the Satanic Temple and the prevailing plaintiff in the lawsuit against the borough - called the room to be present, and for attendees to clear their minds. She asked listeners to embrace the impulse to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
No one is required to participate in assembly invocations. Assembly members Norm Blakeley and Paul Fischer stepped out of the assembly chambers, along with chief of staff James Baisden and Mayor Charlie Pierce - as well as a handful of audience members.
In October, the borough lost a lawsuit against plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska in a fight over its invocation policy, which allowed certain groups and individuals to offer an invocation at the beginning of each meeting. The plaintiffs, Lance Hunt, an atheist, Fontana and Elise Boyer, a member of the Jewish community in Homer, all applied to give invocations after the policy was established in 2016. All three were denied because they didn't belong to official organizations with an established presence on the peninsula. They sued and the ACLU Alaska agreed to represent them.
Kenai Peninsula
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