from Bruce
Anecdotes
Money
• A man once tried to borrow £5 from Irish playwright Brendan Behan, but Mr. Behan declined to give him the money. The man angrily said that he remembered a time when Mr. Behan had not had even a farthing to his name. Mr. Behan replied, “That may be, but you don’t remember it half as well as me.”
• Brendan Behan, a notorious Irish playwright and alcoholic, once asked the Bishop of Knaresborough, “What’s your f**king business, Mac?” The Bishop replied, “Not as profitable as yours, I’m afraid.” Mr. Behan appreciated the reply, and he shook the Bishop’s hand.
Nudity
• A production of Bohème in Hamburg involved nudity. A young woman playing Euphémie, Schaunard’s girlfriend, appeared completely nude to model for a picture and donned clothing only when Rodolfo worried that she might catch cold. At a dress rehearsal, things went fine until the nude actress appeared and the members of the orchestra tried to play their instruments in strange positions so they could turn around and look at the nude actress. Of course, this caused havoc with the music. The conductor, Nello Santi, solved this problem by asking the nude actress if she would walk to the end of the stage for a few moments so the members of the orchestra could look at her. She didn’t mind, the members of the orchestra got a good look, and then the rest of the rehearsal proceeded smoothly.
• In 2001, actor Anthony Flanagan revealed his naughty bits in a scene in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s A Russian in the Woods. He says, “It happened right at the end of the play. My character was centre stage, and he was made to drop his trousers so the soldiers could see if he was circumcised. So I spent what felt like three hours — although it was probably about two or three minutes — with my trousers down.” The other actors were professionals about it — during rehearsals. However, when the play was acted in front of a real audience, they sometimes made the scene drag on much longer than it should have — especially when the audience included Mr. Flanagan’s mother.
Politics
• While serving in Parliament at a time when a man named John Robinson was Secretary of the Treasury, playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan once said that a certain man was corrupting politicians so he could buy their votes. When asked to name the man, Mr. Sheridan replied, “Sir, I shall not name the person. It is an unpleasant and invidious thing to do. But don’t suppose that I abstain because there is any difficulty in naming him. I could do that, sir, as easily as you could say ‘Jack Robinson.’”
• The famous English actor David Garrick was asked to run for election to Parliament, but he replied, “I prefer to play the part of a great man on the stage than the part of a fool in Parliament.”
Practical Jokes
• When he was a young man acting in England, Jerome K. Jerome played a practical joke on his friends when they came to see him in a play in which his role was very brief and unremarkable. First, he informed his friends that since he was now a master of makeup and of changing his voice, they would find it difficult to tell who he was on stage. He also told his friends that he had taken a stage name — but the name he gave them was that of an old actor in his troupe who specialized in playing old men. He then hinted to his friends that in the play his character would be concerned about long-lost children. Finally, he bought a cane similar to that used by the old-man character in the play, and he made sure that his friends saw it. The joke worked. Mr. Jerome’s friends thought that the old actor was he, and they applauded the old actor’s every move.
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy The Paperback
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Kindle
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Apple
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Barnes and Noble
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Kobo
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PDF
Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "In My Teens"
Album: BIGGER FUCKIN' FAMILY PARTY (2LP)
Artist: The Bo Derek’s
Artist Location: GA, Spain and Vigo, Spain
Record Company: Family Spree Recordings
Record Company Location: Spain
Band Motto: Old School R’n’R
Info:
“The Bo Derek's, sex symbols of rock'n'roll from as rías baixas, are the result of joining Oscar Avendaño (Total Sinister, The Professionals) with the Martín Brothers -Jorge Lorre and Rufus el Guarro- (Los Wavy Gravies, The Allnight Workers), bass and drums respectively, to give way to its most pub-rock side: rock'n'roll in Spanish to have fun, drink and dance.” — Google Translate (But Not Well)
In this 20-track album, 20 bands cover each other’s songs. For example, The Bo Derek’s cover Heatwaves’ “In My Teens,” and Heatwave covers Lestrade’s “Propos coquins [Naughty Words].”
Bigger Fuckin 'Family Party - 20 Family Spree bands cover another 20 Family Spree bands
“Well yes, friends! This double LP is exactly that: 20 bands from the label that have had the luxury of doing a cover of other friendly bands also in the Family Spree catalog.
“And why crazy like this? We can say that the experience of confinement, with all its shadows, also had the occasional light and among these, surely the most notable, was the spirit of overcoming the boredom that was imposed among the members of the bands of the label through wasap, where various follies were raised among which the confinement themes crystallized (the ‘We're the worst’ or better known as ‘There is no rock'n'roll I stay at home’ and the ‘For the rock'n gambling dens 'roll’), with their respective horny videos and which were finally pressed into a single on vinyl.” — Google Translate (But Not Well)
Price: €1 (EURO) for track; €10 (EURO) for 20-track album.
Genre: Rock and Roll
Links:
BIGGER FUCKIN' FAMILY PARTY (2LP)
Family Spree Recordings
Family Spree Recordings on YouTube
The Bo Derek’s on Bandcamp
Also Bo Derek’s on Bandcamp
Heatwaves on Bandcamp
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
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
Stephen Suggests
“McCarthy Moment”?
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
Much warmer than seasonal.
‘Black Widow’ Profits Lawsuit Resolved
Scarlett Johansson
Just days after the first court hearing in Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow profits mega-bite lawsuit on Disney was pushed back to March 2022, the Oscar nominee and the House of Mouse have made peace and it was pricey for the latter.
“I am happy to have resolved our differences with Disney,” said Johansson in a statement released Thursday. ” I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together over the years and have greatly enjoyed my creative relationship with the team. I look forward to continuing our collaboration in years to come.”
Unlike in their vitriolic filings and their shaming PR statements over the past few, Marvel-owner Disney had nothing but love today for the actor who brought Natasha Romanoff to life for them in nearly 10 separate films.
I’m very pleased that we have been able to come to a mutual agreement with Scarlett Johansson regarding Black Widow, said Alan Bergman, Chairman, Disney Studios Content. “We appreciate her contributions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and look forward to working together on a number of upcoming projects, including Disney’s Tower of Terror.”
Neither side gave any indication of how much money was involved in the settlement, but the deal ran to more than $40 million, I’m told. Funds that not will be paid by Disney in a single lump sum, if you pick up the creative accounting I’m putting down.
Scarlett Johansson
Lil' Nas X
Dolly Parton
Country music legend Dolly Parton gave a heartfelt endorsement to singer Lil Nas X on Wednesday for his recent cover of her hit song “Jolene,” which he performed for BBC Radio One’s Live Lounge.
“I was so excited when someone told me that Lil Nas X had done my song “Jolene”. I had to find it and listen to it immediately…and it’s really, really good,” she wrote on Instagram. “Of course, I love him anyway. I was surprised and I’m honored and flattered. I hope he does good for both of us. Thank you.”
Lil Nas X dropped his new album, “Montero,” earlier this month, which includes a song with Miley Cyrus. His 2019 megahit, “Old Town Road,” featured her father, Billy Ray Cyrus.
Lil Nas X recently teased that he “will not rest until i’ve collected every cyrus stone to harness the ultimate power.” Perhaps this is part of his quest? Parton is Miley Cyrus’s godmother.
Dolly Parton
Dre, Snoop, Eminem, Blige, Lamar
Super Bowl
Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar will perform for the first time on stage together at the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show.
The NFL, Pepsi and Roc Nation announced Thursday that the five music icons will perform on Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Lamar are Southern California natives.
Dre emerged from the West Coast gangster rap scene alongside Eazy-E and Ice Cube to help form the group N.W.A., which made a major mark in the hip-hop culture and music industry with controversial lyrics in the late 1980s. Dre is responsible for bringing forth rap stars such as Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent and Lamar. Dre also produced Blige’s No. 1 hit song “Family Affair.”
The Super Bowl returns to the Los Angeles area for the first time since 1993. It’s the third year of collaboration between the NFL, Pepsi and Roc Nation.
Super Bowl
Blue Plaque At Former Home
Princess Diana
London finally honored the late Princess Diana Wednesday with a blue plaque at the place she called home in the two years before she married Prince Charles and her life in the goldfish bowl began.
For Diana, 60 Coleherne Court, an apartment near London’s fashionable King’s Road, was the start of a new adventure. Settling in the capital on reaching her 18th birthday, Diana shared the apartment with a number of friends from 1979 to 1981. It was there that she first started to court Charles.
One of her roommates then, Virginia Clarke, helped unveil the English Heritage plaque during Wednesday’s ceremony.
The renowned London blue plaque program began more than 150 years ago. The plaques commemorate people who achieved something worthwhile in their lives and who made London their home at some point. There are more than 900 official plaques in the capital.
Princess Diana
Another Fine Italian Whine
SCOTUS
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito (R-Bad Liar) said Thursday recent criticism of the court's decisions in cases involving abortion and evictions unfairly accuses the conservative justices of acting in secret and in haste.
Both decisions — allowing the new Texas abortion law to take effect but blocking the Biden administration's moratorium on evictions — were issued in a short time frame, without oral argument or the usual schedule to file written briefs. They were, instead, the products of what has come to be known as the court's "shadow docket."
Alito said the criticism is based on a misunderstanding of how the court handles emergency appeals.
"The catchy and sinister term 'shadow docket' has been used to portray the court as having been captured by a dangerous cabal that resorts to sneaky and improper methods to get its ways" by issuing decisions in the dead of night, Alito, who was nominated to the court by President George W. Bush (R-Mission Accomplished), said in remarks at Notre Dame Law School.
"We do the best we can under the time constraints," he said, comparing the process to what emergency responders do at the scene of an accident.
SCOTUS
17,000 Killings Gone Uncounted
Police
More than half of all police killings since 1980 do not appear in official government data, according to an explosive new study in The Lancet, a top medical journal. The researchers reveal how “systemic misclassification” in the federal database that tracks the causes of death in America has produced, over four decades, an undercount of more than 17,000 deaths at the hands of police. The proportion of undercounted police killings of Black Americans is even more extreme, the research shows, rising to 60 percent.
The Lancet study casts American police, unequivocally, as a threat to public health. The risk of death-by-cop for an American man in 2019, according to the paper, was higher than the risk of death by testicular cancer, appendicitis, or sexually transmitted disease. These dangers weigh disproportionately on the Black community, as the study emphasizes: “The police have disproportionately killed Black people at a rate of 3.5 times higher than white people.”
The research for The Lancet paper was conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which is housed at the University of Washington Medical School, and which catalogs global disease and injury, studying more than 200 leading causes of death.
The results of the study are staggering: Over the last four decades, nearly 31,000 Americans died at the hands of police, while fewer than 14,000 of those killings were properly recorded by the government — meaning the federal data “did not report 55.5 percent of all deaths attributable to police violence.” For police killings of Black Americans, the undercounting was greater still, with “5,670 deaths missing” from official federal statistics, “out of an estimated 9,540 total deaths.”
Despite recent scrutiny of police violence, federal underreporting of killings by police remains acute. In 2018, the most recent year of federal data studied, more than half of police killings were not accounted for, with “642 deaths missing out of 1,240 total estimated deaths.” The Lancet study also reveals that the prevalence of police killings has increased sharply during the timeframe of the study, jumping by more than 38 percent between the 1980s and 2010s, on a per capita basis.
Police
Yellow Star Pro-Covid Mayor
Anchorage
The mayor of Alaska’s largest city has criticized a proposed mask mandate under consideration by the Anchorage Assembly and defended the use of yellow Stars of David wore by people who oppose the proposal.
Four people were arrested during Wednesday’s assembly meeting about the mask mandate, two for disorderly conduct and two for trespassing. One also faces a weapons misconduct charge for allegedly carrying a concealed gun, Anchorage Police Sgt. Ken Bushue told the Anchorage Daily News.
The proposal would require people to wear masks in indoor public spaces and outdoors at large events. If approved as written, businesses and building owners would be required to deny entry to people not wearing masks, though there are exceptions for people including small children.
The proposal comes as Alaska experiences a spike in coronavirus cases. State officials said there’s been a 42% percent increase in newly confirmed cases over last week, and the state’s largest hospital, Providence Alaska Medical Center, has declared crisis standards of care that allow doctors to prioritize standards of care.
Anchorage instituted mask mandates under two different mayoral administrations. But Bronson was elected in May after pledging not to enact mask mandates.
Anchorage
Massive New Volcano
Underwater Eruption
A huge seismic event that started in May of 2018 and was felt across the entire globe has officially given birth to a new underwater volcano.
Off the eastern coast of the island of Mayotte, a gigantic new feature rises 820 meters (2,690 feet) from the seafloor, a prominence that hadn't been there prior to an earthquake that rocked the island in May 2018.
"This is the largest active submarine eruption ever documented," the researchers wrote in their paper.
The new feature, thought to be part of a tectonic structure between the East African and Madagascar rifts, is helping scientists understand deep Earth processes about which we know relatively little.
The seismic rumbles of the ongoing event started on 10 May 2018. Just a few days later, on 15 May, a magnitude 5.8 quake struck, rocking the nearby island. Initially, scientists were perplexed; but it didn't take long to figure out that a volcanic event had occurred, the likes of which had never been seen before.
Underwater Eruption
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
