from Bruce
Anecdotes
Alcohol
• Dodgers president Branch Rickey used to talk to all the Dodgers once in a while, even the minor leaguers. One thing he stressed in his talks with the players was the importance of leading a good, morally pure life. One day, he talked to Chuck Connors, a minor-league Dodger first baseman. He asked Chuck, “Son, do you smoke?” Chuck answered, “No, sir, Mr. Rickey.” He then asked, “Chuck, do you run around with fast women?” Chuck answered, “No, sir.” Next, Mr. Rickey asked, “Do you drink hard liquor?” This time Chuck answered, “Mr. Rickey, if I have to drink to play for you, I want to be traded.” (And yes, this is the Chuck Connors who later starred in the TV series The Rifleman.)
• When brothers Glen and Les Charles and friend James Burrows set about creating Cheers, they did research in bars. They discovered that often people go to bars for the companionship, not for the alcohol, and that is the kind of bar they chose for Cheers to be set in. At one bar, they heard the regulars discussing soup. Les Charles remembers, “We were sitting there, listening to them have this extended conversation about soup. They were all really into it. … They were having the time of their lives.” For an episode of Cheers, they had the regulars discuss the world’s sweatiest movie — another topic of conversation they had heard discussed in a friendly neighborhood bar.
• At a BBC Light Entertainment Christmas party, Monty Python member Graham Chapman started crawling around the floor biting people’s ankles. This joke started to get out of hand, so Monty Python TV director Ian MacNaughton went over to him and said, “Graham, can you just select whose ankles you bite?” Mr. Chapman stood up, brushed himself off, said, “I get the picture, old boy,” and behaved like a gentleman during the rest of the party.
• Cavalcade of America once devoted an entire broadcast to Alcoholics Anonymous, but ran into a problem with the name of the announcer: Tom Collins. He was able to help disguise the problem by using a middle initial when he stated his name at the sign-off.
• The then-President of CBS, Bill Paley, once came into the dressing room of George Burns and Gracie Allen with a bottle of champagne. He poured glassfuls all around, then said, “Bottoms up.” Gracie asked, “Isn’t that an awkward position for drinking?”
• Ernie Kovacs used to own a watch on which every hour — instead of being 1 through 12 — was 5. In other words, no matter what time it was, it was the cocktail hour.
Animals
• Early in her career, actress Betty White lived in an apartment where pets weren’t allowed. However, she fell in love with a dog and brought him home. To get her dog past the security guards so he could take his morning walk, she used to hold him on her arm and throw a coat over him. For a long time, she thought she was fooling everyone, until one day a security guard said to her, “Miss White, your tail is wagging.” She looked down, and sure enough, her dog’s tail was sticking out from under the coat and wagging. The security guard grinned and allowed her to keep her pet. (Betty White came from a family who loved pets. In her family, it was the parents who brought a dog home, then begged, “Betty, he followed us home. Please, can we keep him?”)
• Vincent Price once appeared in a comic skit on TV in which his co-star was a trained chimpanzee that was supposed to mix a martini and then light a cigarette. The chimp mixed the martini without any problem but ignored the cigarettes in take after take. Finally, the chimpanzee’s trainer figured out what the problem was — the cigarettes used in the filming weren’t the chimp’s brand! Once the chimp’s preferred brand of mentholated cigarettes were used in the scene, the chimp lit the cigarette.
• Many people enjoyed listening to Milton Cross as he announced the radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera — so did some animals. A letter to the Met reported, “I’m not particularly fond of Milton Cross’ voice, but my dog loves it. As soon as I turn on the radio and Cross comes over the airwaves, the pooch remains glued to the set. When the music starts, he leaves. As soon as Cross is on again, the dog is back — all ears.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. responded:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "The Dredger"
Single: This is a one-sided single.
Artist: Satan’s Pilgrims
Artist Location: Portland, Oregon
Info:
Bob Pilgrim - Guitar
Dave Pilgrim - Guitar
John Pilgrim - Bass
Scott Pilgrim - Guitar
Ted Pilgrim - Drums
“Satan's Pilgrims formed in 1992 during a series of house parties hosted by the members of the band, and were playing shows in their hometown of Portland, Oregon by 1993. Twisting their name from the 60's AIP film SATAN'S SADISTS and donning their now familiar matching outfits complete with vampire capes, they became a band. The Pilgrims are one of the most influential surf instrumental bands around and while much of their sound has a definite Southern California influence, what sets them apart is the legacy of their Pacific Northwest rock 'n' roll ancestors and other influences, creating their own sub-genre of surf instrumental that many fans call ‘Pilgrim Rock.’ This, along with three distinct guitarists and a relentless rhythm section, gives their live set a dazzling variety of dance party sounds to choose from, while maintaining their patented haunted sound.” –
"Creature Feature" by Satan's Pilgrims
Bryan Irby, a fan, wrote, “Outstanding! I've been playing this tune over & over for the past week, a little louder each time :-) Very much looking forward to the new album.”
Price: $1 (USD) for one-track single
Genre: Instrumental Surf
Links:
“The Dredger”
Satan’s Pilgrims on Bandcamp
Satan’s Pilgrims Official Website
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.
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Bonus Links
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Raccoons cooing and trilling outside the window. Ack.
Wants Her Royalties
Cher
Cher is suing Sonny Bono's widow over royalties to songs the pop icon made famous with her ex-husband as the musical duo Sonny and Cher.
Cher filed a $1-million federal lawsuit Wednesday against former Rep. Mary Bono, a trustee of the Bono Collection Trust and other individuals, accusing them of breach of contract.
The 75-year-old entertainer claimed that Bono's fourth wife has tried to terminate provisions that entitle Cher to 50% ownership of the duo's musical composition royalties, record royalties and other assets from their marriage.
Some of the hits cited in the filing include "I Got You Babe," "The Beat Goes On," "Baby Don't Go," "Little Man" and "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)."
"The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" stars began performing together in 1964, married in 1967 and divorced in 1975. Cher went on to become a solo superstar, making new hits with "If I Could Turn Back Time" and "Believe" and winning an Oscar for her role in "Moonstruck."
Last month, the Bono Collection Trust told Cher's representatives that the heirs’ notice of termination also terminated the stream of composition royalties that Sonny Bono assigned to her in 1978. As a result, the heirs’ statutory termination ends her right to those royalties and would no longer pay her or her Veritas Trust, the lawsuit said.
Cher
Interruptions
SCOTUS
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said on Wednesday that the Supreme Court changed its oral arguments structure partly because studies showed that female justices were interrupted more by their male counterparts than vice versa.
One such study found that during arguments in the 2015 term, Justices Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg were interrupted at double-digit rates far more often than their male colleagues.
"We observe only two instances of a male Justice being interrupted by another single Justice at a double-digit rate (ten or more times), but seven instances of a female Justice being so interrupted. Note that this disproportionate rate of the female Justices being interrupted occurred despite the fact that there were only three women," the researchers wrote.
The data also showed that Sotomayor, for example, was interrupted a total of 57 times that term, roughly double the amount of times that four male justices were interrupted.
She went on to point out that women generally face the issue, saying: "Most of the time women say things and they are not heard in the same way as men who might say the identical thing."
SCOTUS
Very Safe Place
Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig says that he’s always preferred going to gay bars because it’s a “safe” environment where he could avoid getting in fights.
The Bond and Knives Out star explained his bar-hopping habits during a recent episode of the Lunch With Bruce podcast, telling host Bruce Bozzi — who is Craig’s friend and has been out to gay bars with him — that he historically preferred these spaces. The actor chalked it up to “the aggressive dick-swinging in hetero bars,” which was something he “got very sick of.”
“I’ve been going to gay bars for as long as I can remember. One of the reasons: because I don’t get into fights in gay bars that often,” he recounted. “It was like … ‘I don’t want to end up in a punch-up.’ And I did. That would happen quite a lot.”
But there was also one other perk for Craig when it comes to his bar type of choice. Not only was the atmosphere more laid back, but it was also a good place for him to meet interested women, as they were there for similar reasons.
“It would just be a good place to go. Everybody was chill, everybody. You didn’t really have to sort of state your sexuality. It was OK. And it was a very safe place to be,” Craig explained. “And I could meet girls there, because there are a lot of girls there for exactly the same reason I was there. It was kind of an ulterior motive.”
Daniel Craig
Shredded Artwork At Auction
Banksy
A work by British street artist Banksy that sensationally self-shredded just after it sold at auction three years ago fetched almost 18.6 million pounds ($25.4 million) on Thursday — a record for the artist, and close to 20 times its pre-shredded price.
“Love is in the Bin” was offered by Sotheby’s in London, with a presale estimate of 4 million pounds to 6 million pounds ($5.5 million to $8.2 million).
After a 10-minute bidding war involving nine bidders in the saleroom, online and by phone, it sold for three times the high estimate to an undisclosed buyer. The sale price of 18,582,000 pounds ($25,383,941) includes an auction-house fee known as a buyer’s premium.
The piece consists of a half-shredded canvas in an ornate frame bearing a spray-painted image of a girl reaching for a heart-shaped red balloon.
When it last sold at Sotheby’s in October 2018, the piece was known as “Girl With Balloon.” Just as an anonymous female European buyer made the winning bid — for 1 million pounds ($1.4 million) — a hidden shredder embedded in the frame by Banksy whirred to life, leaving half the canvas hanging from the frame in strips.
Banksy
WTF - Balance Holocaust Books
Texass
A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.
Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.
A Carroll staff member secretly recorded the Friday training and shared the audio with NBC News.
“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”
“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.
Texass
Pension Restored
Andrew McCabe
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has won back his full pension as part of a settlement of his lawsuit arising from his firing during the Trump administration more than three years ago, his lawyers announced Thursday.
McCabe, a frequent target of then-President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up)'s ire, was fired in March 2018 after the Justice Department's inspector general concluded he had authorized the release of information to a newspaper reporter and then misled internal investigators about his role in the leak. The termination by Jeff Sessions, the attorney general at the time, came hours before McCabe was due to retire, denying the FBI official his pension.
The settlement agreement vacates that decision, expunges from his personnel folder any references to having been fired and entitles McCabe, who joined the FBI in 1996, to his full pension.
McCabe has denied intentionally deceiving anyone, was never criminally charged and has blasted his firing as politically motivated and part of the Trump administration’s “ongoing war on the FBI.” Trump, who at the time was relentlessly railing against the FBI for its investigation into ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign, called the termination a “great day for Democracy" shortly after it was announced.
Though the settlement restores McCabe's pension, it does not undo the inspector general's finding that McCabe had displayed a lack of candor under questioning from investigators.
Andrew McCabe
Coast Guard: Wreck Found
U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear
The wreck of a storied military ship that served in two World Wars, performed patrols in waters off Alaska for decades, and at one point was captained by the first Black man to command a U.S. government vessel has been found, the Coast Guard said Thursday.
A wreck thought to be the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear, which sank in 1963 about 260 miles east of Boston as it was being towed to Philadelphia, where it was going to be converted into a floating restaurant, was located in 2019.
But it was only in August that a team of experts looking at the evidence came to the conclusion that they are “reasonably certain” that the wreck is indeed the Bear, officials of the Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said at a waterfront news conference in Boston.
The legend of the Bear is so ingrained in Coast Guard lore that the sports teams at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut are named the Bears, partly in honor of the vessel.
Built in 1874, the steam and sail-powered Bear was purchased by the U.S. in 1884 to take part in the search for the ill-fated Arctic expedition led by Lt. Adolphus Greely, a member of the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps.
U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear
Crash Lands In Bedroom
Meteorite
At 11:30 pm Pacific Time on October 4 a meteorite exploded over the British Columbia/Alberta border. For those awake and outdoors at the time this was a chance to see perhaps the brightest natural fireworks display they will ever witness. Ruth Hamilton, on the other hand, was fast asleep, so one of the pieces of space rock came to her instead.
“I just jumped up and turned on the light, I couldn’t figure out what the heck had happened,” Hamilton told the Agassiz-Harrison Observer.
Harrison had been showered with debris from a hole punched in her ceiling, and there was a hot rock on the pillow next to her. Harrison called 911, suspecting the rock was a consequence of blasting at a nearby construction site at Kicking Horse Canyon. A responding police officer was naturally keen to investigate such irresponsible behavior, but Hamilton said, “We called the Canyon project to see if they were doing any blasting and they weren’t, but they did say they had seen a bright light in the sky that had exploded and caused some booms.”
Having at first thought the sound that woke her could have been from a weapon or an intruder Hamilton added: “It’s almost a relief when we realized it could only have fallen out of the sky.”
The softball-sized meteorite will be returned to Hamilton once its type has been identified, although if it turns out to be a particularly rare or scientifically valuable sort scientists may wish to acquire it. Even an H chondrite, the most common meteorite class, might attract a high price from collectors, but so far Hamilton seems more interested in a memento than money.
Meteorite
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