from Bruce
Anecdotes
Fathers
• Theatrical producer Jed Harris and his daughter once hopped together down a sidewalk. A friend saw them from across the street and later asked Mr. Harris what they had been doing. Mr. Harris replied, “We were rabbits.”
Food
• Early in his married life, L. Frank Baum, who later wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, brought home a dozen filled doughnuts. This made his wife unhappy, and she asked him if he disliked the kind of food she bought. Mr. Baum said that he liked her cooking, but that doughnuts were good to eat, too. He ate two doughnuts the first day, and two the second day, but on the third day he said that they were stale and so he didn’t eat any. Nevertheless, his wife served them to him again on day four, so he took the doughnuts, wrapped them up, and hid them in a cupboard. His wife, however, found them and served them to him the next day, so this time he dug a hole and buried the doughnuts. His wife still had a point to make, so she dug up the doughnuts, brushed the dirt off them, and served the rock-hard doughnuts to him again. Eventually, they made a truce. Mr. Baum did not have to eat the doughnuts, but he did have to leave the grocery shopping to his wife.
• Opera singer Leo Slezak was forced to diet for most of each year because, being a huge man (he was 6-foot-7), he had a large appetite and gained weight easily. (One of the few days of the year that he didn’t diet was his birthday.) When he was dieting, his wife carefully measured out portions of food on a scale and those portions were all he had to eat. Of course, Mr. Slezak ate the food quickly and then muttered that the food scale had to be wrong. Once, for a few meals in a row, Mr. Slezak didn’t complain about the portions of food he was doled out. His wife praised his will power and suspected nothing until she walked into her husband’s den and discovered that the family dog was very interested in the middle drawer of her husband’s desk. Opening the drawer, she found a large salami.
• Malcolm Glenn Wyer once worked as a librarian in Iowa City, the location of the State University of Iowa. Later, while working at another library Mr. Wyer met an exchange professor from Austria who had taught for a while at the State University of Iowa. The professor asked Mr. Wyer to clear up a puzzle for him—he had dined at the homes of several Iowa professors, and he wondered why the servants always looked alike. Mr. Wyer was able to clear up the puzzle. The professors did not have any servants—when they entertained, they hired the Kasper sisters to cater the affair.
• Comedian Flash Rosenberg’s mother brought her up to be analytical. For example, if she refused to eat her peas, her mother wouldn’t just let her say that she didn’t like peas. She had to have a reason why she didn’t like peas. So she would say, “I don’t like the way the skin is kind of tough and the inside is kind of mushy. I just don’t know how to get my teeth ready.” And her mother would reply, “That’s a good reason,” and so young Flash didn’t have to eat her peas.
• Wavy Gravy (aka Hugh Romney) met his wife when he ordered a hamburger. Her name was Bonnie Jean Beechie, aka Country Pie, and she ran a restaurant named the Fred C. Dobbs on Sunset Boulevard. Her beauty was definitely noticeable, but the other thing that got her noticed by Wavy Gravy was that when he ordered the hamburger, she put a few peanuts in the center of the patty before cooking it.
• One evening at the dinner table, Amy, Charles M. Schultz’ daughter, was making a lot of noise, so he asked her, “Amy, couldn’t you be quiet for just a little while?” Amy stopped making noise, and she started buttering a piece of bread. She then looked up and asked, “Am I buttering too loud for you?” This situation made its way into a Peanuts comic strip starring Linus.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Track: "Now You Hate Me"
Album: RUMOURS OF LIGHT IV: A 60 SONG DIGITAL BOXSET IN SUPPORT OF THE DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE AND THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE
Artist: Beechcraft Bonanza
Artist Location: Almere, Netherlands
Record Company: Aldora Britain Records (“The worldwide hub of independent and underground music since 2013.”)
Record Company Location: Rothley, UK
Info: Rockabilly.
“He is the rolling rocker of the rough ragtime riedja riedja, the masterly minstrel of the fine melodies on miniature musical instruments, ‘the high strung, unsung ukulele underdog’ of the Almere rockabilly, the one and only: Beechcraft Bonanza. With green guitar, tenor ukulele and stompbox, Beechcraft plays a 50's inspired repertoire of mainly uptempo singer/songwriter songs.” — Google Translate
“Aldora Britain Records proudly presents the fourth installment of RUMOURS OF LIGHT, our fundraiser compilations for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the people of Ukraine.
“Through the power of music, we are aiming to raise as much money as possible to benefit innocent men, women and children who are fleeing the conflict. The main areas that the DEC help with are food, water, shelter, healthcare and protection.”
Price: £9.15 (GBP) for 60-track charity album by various artists
“Now You Hate Me” is also on Beechcraft Bonanza’s album BLUE HONEY DEVIL. Price: €15 (EURO) for 18-track album.
Genre: Blues. Rockabilly. Various.
Links:
RUMOURS OF LIGHT IV: A 60 SONG DIGITAL BOXSET IN SUPPORT OF THE DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE AND THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE
BLUE HONEY DEVIL
Beechcraft Bonanza on Bandcamp
Beechcraft Bonanza on YouTube
Beechcraft Bonanza Official Website
Aldora Britain Records on Bandcamp
Aldora Britain Records on YouTube
Other Links:
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Plumeria
Marty,
I enjoyed your beautiful plumeria picture at the end of yesterday's post. I have several in different colors but I am struggling to keep them watered due to the drought in my area.
Billy
Thanks, Billy!
After the gray winters of PA, I love that there's always something colorful blooming here year round.
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
Marine layer still hanging around.
“Completely Stolen” From ‘Gremlins’
Baby Yoda
“I think the longevity of [the films] is really key to this one character [Gizmo], who is essentially like a baby,” director Joe Dante recently told the San Francisco Chronicle of the star of his classic Gremlins films. “Which brings me, of course, to the subject of Baby Yoda, who is completely stolen and is just out-and-out copied. Shamelessly, I would think.”
It’s quite a charge, but the two cuddly creatures with extraordinary powers, big eyes and expressive ears do look a lot alike when seen side by side. However, the initial inspiration for The Mandalorian’s Grugu — Baby Yoda’s actual name — undoubtedly predates the first Gremlins, which came out in 1984. Yoda made his debut four years prior, as a seemingly impish little swamp creature who bugged Luke Skywalker while he was bogged down on Degobah.
Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau explained to Deadline last year that he was thinking more about E.T. than Gizmo when conceiving the character.
“Dave [Filoni] had done a sketch of kind of a Michelangelo/E.T. moment, and that was a source of inspiration,” Favreau shared about the Child’s first scene. The sketch shows Grugu’s cradle afloat with his little hand reaching up out of it and Mando reaching back down to touch fingers. You can see that actual drawing in this Disney Gallery episode on The Mandalorian. The drawing combines Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” and echoes Steven Spielberg’s famous alien.
Baby Yoda
Court Documents Ordered Released
Roman Polanski
A California appeals court on Wednesday ordered the unsealing of some documents in the criminal case against renowned director Roman Polanski, who has been a fugitive since pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl decades ago, a California prosecutor announced.
The court ordered the unsealing of the conditional deposition transcript of Roger Gunson, who was the original prosecutor in the Los Angeles County case, the county district attorney’s office said.
There was no immediate word, however, on when the documents would be made public.
Harland Braun, Polanski’s attorney, told the Los Angeles Times that his client was “ecstatic” over the order by the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
Polanski has long argued that there was judicial misconduct in his case. In 2010, a Los Angeles court took sealed testimony from Gunson about his recollections of promises made to the director by the judge in 1977.
Roman Polanski
Self-Portrait Found
Vincent Van Gogh
A previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered behind another of the artist’s paintings, the National Galleries of Scotland said Thursday.
The self-portrait was found on the back of Van Gogh’s “Head of a Peasant Woman” when experts at the Edinburgh gallery took an X-ray of the canvas ahead of an upcoming exhibition. The work is believed to have been hidden for over a century, covered by layers of glue and cardboard when it was framed in the early 20th century.
Van Gogh was known for turning canvases around and painting on the other side to save money.
The portrait shows a bearded sitter in a brimmed hat. Experts said the subject was instantly recognizable as the artist himself, and is thought to be from his early work. The left ear is clearly visible and Van Gogh famously cut his off in 1888.
Visitors to an upcoming Impressionist exhibit at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh can see an X-ray image of the self-portrait through a lightbox.
Vincent Van Gogh
The Believer Raises $300,000
McSweeney’s
McSweeney’s has raised just over $300,000 — exceeding its goal by $25,000 — in the two months since announcing it was buying back The Believer, the acclaimed literary publication that nearly went out of business last year.
Around 1,500 people gave money for the Kickstarter campaign, averaging roughly $200 per contribution.
The money will help McSweeney’s, an independent publisher based in San Francisco, pay for staffing, operations and contributing writers, according to Uhle.
The Believer, launched by McSweeney’s in 2003, has published works by Anne Carson, Nick Hornby, Leslie Jamison and many others. After McSweeney’s sold the magazine in 2017 to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), The Believer endured financial struggles, an editor-in-chief’s departure amid allegations that he exposed himself, its near closure in 2021 and the sale to a digital marketing company, that at one point included an article — the subject of much internet anger — titled “25 Best Hookup Sites for Flings, New Trysts, and Casual Dating” on The Believer’s website.
In May, McSweeney’s repurchased the magazine from Paradise Media and its CEO Ian Moe.
McSweeney’s
Ukraine Plays Special Role
Bastille Day
The war in Ukraine has even shaken up Bastille Day, a powerful political, historical and symbolic event in France.
France celebrated its national holiday Thursday with thousands of French troops marching down the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris alongside allies from Eastern Europe. The parade also featured warplanes, military vehicles and a drone in a performance showing off France’s might and its military efforts to support Ukraine.
The opening of this year’s Bastille Day parade was designed to demonstrate France’s commitment to NATO and to European allies touched most closely by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Troops from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary were assigned the front position, bearing their national flags. Multinational troops deployed in Romania after the Russian invasion of Ukraine marched after them.
Bastille Day
Conservatives Vilify
Doctors
Following the arrest of a man for allegedly raping and impregnating a 10-year-old girl, conservatives are leveling attacks at the doctor who treated her. Todd Rokita, Indiana’s Republican attorney general, announced Wednesday night on Fox News that his office is investigating Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana doctor who provided abortion services to the child, who traveled from Ohio to Indiana to terminate a pregnancy after being raped.
“First of all this is an illegal immigration issue,” Rokita told Jesse Watters. “Then we have the rape and then we have this abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report.” “So we’re gathering the information. We’re gathering the evidence as we speak, and we’re going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure. If she failed to report it in Indiana, it’s a crime for – to not report, to intentionally not report.”
The network aired Bernard’s name and photo, a tactic previously wielded against abortion providers by longtime Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.
Days before the arrest of 27-year-old Gerson Fuentes, Ohio Attorney General David Yost appeared on Fox News to say there was “not a damn scintilla of evidence” that the case was real, and attempted to shame the Star for running “this thing on a single source who has an obvious axe to grind.” Yost claimed that “we don’t know who the originating doctor in Ohio was, if they even exist, but the bottom line is that it is a crime if you’re a mandated reporter to fail to report.” Following Fuentes’s arrest, Yost did not acknowledge his previous comments, instead releasing a statement expressing condolences to the girl and indicating his support for law enforcement in their investigation.
Doctors
Weirdly Slow Radio Burst
Space
A team of astronomers recently detected a fast radio burst that persists about 1,000 times longer than the average burst and has a clear periodic pattern. The radio burst is an eclectic new addition to the running list of mysterious radio signals that emanate from various sources across the universe.
Fast radio bursts are fleeting pulses of radio waves, the sources of which remain unknown. All known bursts came from beyond the Milky Way until 2020, when the CHIME radio telescope discovered a signal that seemed to come from our galactic neighborhood.
The newly reported fast radio burst—detected in December 2019 and named FRB 20191221A—came from a source billions of light-years away and was also observed by CHIME. Unlike most fast radio bursts, which last a few milliseconds, the recent burst went on for a ponderous three seconds. A research team’s analysis of the signal was published this week in Nature.
“Not only was it very long ... but there were periodic peaks that were remarkably precise, emitting every fraction of a second — boom, boom, boom — like a heartbeat,” said Daniele Michilli, an astrophysicist at MIT and a co-author of the study, in an institute release. “This is the first time the signal itself is periodic.”
Space
New Hypothesis
Woodpeckers
Forced to spend their days slamming their tiny skulls into the sides of trees in search of buried morsels, woodpeckers should have evolved a trick or two to avoid brain damage. So you'd think.
A new study on woodpecker biomechanics has cast doubt on speculations that the small chisel-headed bird avoids turning its brain to mush through fancy shock-absorbing adaptations.
Rather, its brain might simply be too tiny for it to care.
Snapping their heads back and forth an astonishing 20 times a second, members of some species can experience forces of up to 1400 g. Compare that with the paltry 90 to 100 g that can give a human concussion, and it's easy to imagine the kind of trauma that might arise inside that tiny skull.
Past research has pointed to a variety of body modifications that could help lessen the impact on the woodpecker's brain tissue, such as spongy, shock-absorbing bones and neck muscles.
Woodpeckers
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