Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Tom remembers that time a Silicon Valley company exploited Navajo workers (Tucson Weekly)
In February of 1975, members of the American Indian Movement occupied the building in protest of the fact that workers weren't even being paid minimum wage by Fairchild and that all of the top salaries were being paid to non-Natives. The occupation lasted eight days, after which Fairchild showed the Navajos and AIM what was what by closing down the Shiprock plant and moving the entire operation to Asia, where they could pay workers even less.
Helaine Olen: Juliαn Castro and the predatism of private equity (Washington Post)
Of all the places for an aspiring Democratic candidate to muff a question about private equity firms, close to the worst right now would be Philadelphia, host of the recent Netroots Nation conference. Many conference attendees joined a rally Thursday to protest the scheduled closing of the city's Hahnemann University Hospital. The hospital's crime? It's low income population apparently isn't lucrative enough for the private equity firm that owns it. It's also widely rumored the site would make its owner more money if sold off for the value of its real estate. About 2,000 people are expected to lose their jobs.
Alexandra Petri: Why I have yet to denounce the president's racist remarks (Washington Post Satire)
I had a very busy week, and I forgot.
Oh, yes, I am sure I would certainly very loudly denounce them as would my colleagues, but you see I cannot yet, because I died.
Also I don't know what a tweet is.
Alexandra Petri: I have no racist bones, but this exoskeleton has propped me up for decades (Washington Post Satire)
To be clear: I have not a single racist bone in my body! My body is a cartilaginous mass. I have no bones at all! I am a soft grub. I am a tender worm. If it were not for the enormous, thick exoskeleton of racism that has been constructed around me over the course of centuries, people would not keep accusing me personally of having this racist bone. I am very sorry that they keep feeling the need to do so. I have grown as best I could within this carapace, and I, personally, carry no ill will toward anyone. I don't see color!
TERRY TEACHOUT: The Sad Tale of Charlie Movie Star (Commentary)
Rock Hudson, never himself.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas: Florida city constantly plays "Baby Shark" to deter homeless from civic building (The Guardian)
Official praises 'effective temporary measure' using looped children's song to drive away people from banqueting venue.
Nicola Davis: "'We don't need to bleed': why many women are giving up on periods" (The Guardian)
With recent confirmation that periods have no health benefit, an increasing number of women are using contraception to stop them altogether.
Aditya Chakrabortty: "The lesson from the ruins of Notre Dame: don't rely on billionaires" (The Guardian)
The French super-rich promised to dig deep, but such philanthropy comes at a steep price.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
A riverboat pilot named Stephen was out of money and in New Orleans. Aware of Stephen's plight, a steamboat captain offered him the job of piloting a steamboat up the Mississippi - but at a salary of $125 instead of Stephen's usual salary of $250. Having no choice, Stephen accepted the offer, but he piloted the boat up the middle of the river so that it had to fight the current instead of seeking the easier water nearer the shore. Much slower boats sped past the steamboat that Stephen was piloting. When the captain remonstrated with Stephen, he replied, "I know as much as any man can afford to know for $125." On hearing this, the captain raised Stephen's salary to $250, and Stephen began to seek easy water and make that steamboat fly upstream.
In my opinion, even people who believe in the one true God should be allowed to poke fun at Him. (I hope that God has a sense of humor.) Once a man went to a tailor and ordered a pair of pants. Week after week, the man came back, but the tailor said the pants weren't ready. After a month had gone by, the tailor finally said the pants were ready. The man put on the pants and was very pleased because they fit perfectly. However, as he paid for the pants, he said, "God made the World in only six days, yet you took an entire month to make these pants." "That's true," replied the tailor. "But look at the quality of those pants, and compare them to the shape the World's in."
Thomas Edison used to test the quality of job applicants by giving them a curiously shaped glass with lots of curves and asking them to figure out its volume, adding that the job applicants could use anything they found in his laboratory. One mathematician spent three hours measuring the cup and figuring out its volume. Mr. Edison listened to the mathematician's answer, then said, "Your answer is correct, but I can't hire you because your methods are too slow." He then walked over to the laboratory sink, filled the glass with water, then poured the water into a measuring cup, which told him the volume of the glass.
In the early days of radio, songs lasted only two or three minutes, and there were no long-playing records - most records were 78 rpm quickies. This meant that a radio announcer who had to visit the restroom had a problem. Early radio announcer James Kendrick of San Francisco was fortunate to have a huge disk, 16 inches in diameter, that played at 33 1/3 rpm for 15 minutes. To the amusement of his fellow broadcasters, he put a label in large letters on the disk: "CRAPPING RECORD."
Comedienne Tracey Ullman uses many wigs to transform herself into the characters she portrays in her TV shows. Once, after her Fox show The Tracey Ullman Show went off the air, she pulled out her box of wigs and started talking to them, addressing them as characters she had played on her show. Her daughter Mabel overheard and advised, "Go back to work - this is pathetic!" Shortly afterward, Ms. Ullman began her HBO series, Tracey Takes On.
Tracey Ullman is a comedienne who is known for her ability to create characters with her incredible acting talent and the aid of costumes, wigs, rubber masks, etc. While filming The Tracey Ullman Show for the Fox network, she changed characters so often that she once passed out in her dressing room from accidentally excessively inhaling the chemicals used to remove her makeup.
Phil Baker was both a comedian and an accordion player. Even though he was not a very good accordion player, a manufacturer of accordions once asked him to endorse its products. Mr. Baker asked, "How come you selected me? There are a lot of better accordion players." The answer came back, "I know, but you're the only one who's working steadily."
Sylvester "Pat" Weaver was such a busy radio broadcaster that he often came in to work on his day off, but he was frequently embarrassed when his boss would see him going to work at 10 a.m. because he was worried that the boss would think that he was arriving at work late. Finally, he solved his problem by putting a sign in his car's rear window: "GOING TO WORK ON DAY OFF."
Like everyone else, early in his life world-renowned women's gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi had to decide which career to pursue. Once, his mother gave him an appliance to repair. He did his best, but the appliance blew up in his face. Therefore, he decided not to be an engineer, but instead to pursue his interest in gymnastics.
James McNeill Whistler, the famous painter, held several jobs early in his career, at which he was always late - in the opinion of his co-workers. Mr. Whistler's opinion was different: "I was not too late; the office opened too early."
Canadian figure skater Kurt Browning performed a version of Gene Kelly's classic dance "Singing in the Rain" in his 1994 TV special, You Must Remember This. The four-minute program took 10 hours to film.
Pope John XXIII was once asked how many people worked at the Vatican. He replied, "No more than half of them."
Early in his career, Oscar Levant played piano at a little girls' ballet school. He later told his friends, "My work was child's play."
Robert Benchley's business motto, which he hung in a prominent position above his desk, was "The Work Can Wait."
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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
Sunny and a bit cooler than seasonal.
Class Of 2019
Kennedy Center Honors
Actress Sally Field and the long-running children's TV show "Sesame Street" are in the latest class of Kennedy Center Honors recipients.
Others chosen to receive the award for lifetime achievement in the arts include singer Linda Ronstadt, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the musical group Earth, Wind and Fire.
The recipients announced Thursday will be honored during a gala ceremony in early December. For the third straight year, the attendance of President Don-Old Trump (R-Nescient) seems likely to be a subject of speculation in advance of the event. Trump has skipped the past two celebrations. The first time , multiple recipients threatened to boycott the event if he attended.
The 42nd annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala will be held on Dec. 7. The presenters and performers are usually kept secret from the honorees until the show.
The event will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 15.
Kennedy Center Honors
Facebook Prankster Comes Forward
Area 51
The man behind Facebook's "Storm Area 51" page has come forward, calling it "kind of a joke," but expressing fears that government agents would come knocking on his door.
Matty Roberts spoke to Nevada's KLAS-TV via video call on Wednesday and expressed shock at how his humor has turned into a viral sensation.
"I posted it on like June 27th and it was kind of a joke," Roberts said. "And then it waited for like three days and like 40 people, and then it just completely took off, out of nowhere. It's pretty wild."
More than 1.5 million people have signed up on Facebook to storm the top secret military facility on Sept. 20th, with another 1.1. million expressing interest. The Air Force has warned the foolish that they will take all measures to defend the base if there is an attempt to breach its security. Conspiracy theorists have long believed the base houses alien remains and/or extra-terrestrial technology.
Roberts is now speaking out in an attempt to quell the beast he's unleashed.
Area 51
New Album
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop today confirmed the title and release date of his first new album in three years, "Free," which comes out Sept. 6 on Loma Vista Records.
While it follows 2016's "Post Pop Depression," a hard-rocking collaboration with Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme that was the highest-charting album of Pop's 50-year-plus career, according the the announcement, " 'Free' has virtually nothing in common sonically with its predecessor - or with any other Iggy Pop album."
Key collaborators include trumpeter Leron Thomas and guitarist Sarah Lipstate, who works under the name Noveller.
Iggy Pop
Arson Suspected
Kyoto Animation
A fire, suspected to be arson, at a Kyoto, Japan animation studio has left at least 33 people dead and hospitalized more with injuries. A man in his 40s, allegedly seen pouring a flammable liquid at the site and setting it on fire, has been taken into police custody.
The fire occurred at the Studio 1 building of Kyoto Animation, one of Japan's most popular producers of anime. At around 10 a.m. JST Thursday morning, residents living near the studio heard the sound of an explosion and saw smoke emitting from the building, which is located in Kyoto's Fushimi ward. One witness said the suspect was screaming "Die" as he lit the fire.
Kyoto Animation, founded in 1981, is known for anime like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star, K-On! and more recently, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid and Free!, among many others. While the building that was set on fire was its main animation studio, the company's head office is in Uji City, Kyoto, which is about 20 minutes away by car.
The company's co-founder and CEO Hideaki Hatta told reporters that for the past few years, death threats had often been sent to the company.
Kyoto Animation
Prosecutions & Fines Drop
White-Collar
A drop in white-collar crime prosecutions and corporate fines during the Trump administration has prompted a warning from a leading law firm.
New York-based Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz issued a memo to its clients noting the "significant" decrease in both the number of cases and the scale of penalties over the last two years.
The lawyers advised businesses not to relax their approach to laws and regulations, adding: "Our experience suggests that succumbing to such temptation would be a mistake."
It comes after data from the US Department of Justice revealed white-collar prosecutions - including offences of fraud, antitrust violations and identity theft - hit a 20-year low earlier this year.
Corporate fines from criminal prosecutions also plunged by more than 90 per cent, according to a study comparing the last year of the Obama administration and the first year under President Trump.
White-Collar
'Quite Phenomenal'
Arctic Heatwave
The planet's most northerly human settlement is in the midst of an "unprecedented" heatwave as parts of the Arctic endure one of their hottest summers on record.
Canada's weather agency confirmed on Tuesday that temperatures in Alert, Nunavut, peaked at 21C at the weekend - far exceeding the July average for the area of around 5C.
In a further alarm bell for the region, the mercury climbed above 20C for a second day on Monday - the first time Alert's climate station has recorded two consecutive days of 20C-plus temperatures in its history.
Alert is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world - with a population numbering less than 100 - and is far to the north of the Arctic Circle.
Anchorage, the state's largest city, sweltered in 32C on 4 July - shattering the seasonal high of around 24C.
Arctic Heatwave
Giant Nugget Turns Out To Be A Meteorite
Australia
Back in May 2015, an Australian prospector set off to scour the Maryborough Regional Park in search of his fortune, but instead of striking gold, he came across something that was - unfortunately for him - priceless. Intrigued by the density and weight of a slightly odd-looking reddish rock, David Hole spent the next four years attempting to crack open this seemingly impenetrable specimen, only to eventually discover that it was in fact a 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite.
Mr Hole stumbled upon the find with the help of a metal detector while digging for gold near Melbourne, in a region that had become synonymous with the precious metal during the 19th-century gold-rush. Hoping to find a nugget inside the rock, he later attempted to access its interior using everything from acid to a sledgehammer, without success.
Baffled as to why the rock was so reluctant to reveal its inner secrets, he decided to take it to the Melbourne Museum, where it was identified as a meteorite.
Scientists used a diamond saw to slice off a sliver of the ancient space rock, discovering that it was in fact an H chondrite. The most common type of meteorite, H chondrites contain a high percentage of iron and make up about 40 percent of all meteorites ever found.
Weighing 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds), the Maryborough meteor is the second largest ever to be found in the state of Victoria.
Australia
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