from Bruce
Anecdotes
Art
• Students at MIT have occasionally hacked (that is, pranked) the school’s works of art. Actually, one hack really wasn’t a hack — it really was a work of art. Artist Scott Raphael Schiamberg installed what appeared to be a field of wheat in Lobby 7. On a Monday in May 1996, students and faculty strolled through the wheat. Mr. Schiamberg received much media publicity, and he received many congratulatory emails. One MIT employee emailed him, “It took my breath away. All Mondays should be so beautiful.” Of course, MIT students added a few touches of their own to the work of art — such as a cow and a scarecrow. However, MIT students liked the field of wheat, and they did not like some of the other works of art on the MIT campus, such as Louise Nevelson’s Transparent Horizons, which MIT students criticize as being like much other MIT art: In the students’ word, the art is “ugly.” MIT hackers once installed a desk and a study light in the top of the sculpture, and they once rededicated it with this plaque: “Louise Nevelson / b. 1990 / Big Black Scrap Heap / 1975.” And occasionally MIT hackers will install authentic-looking but satiric “works of art” in MIT galleries. For example, in 1985 MIT hacking group James E. Tetazoo installed “NO KNIFE: A STUDY IN MIXED MEDIASEARTH TONES, NUMBER THREE” in MIT’s List Visual Arts Center. The “work of art” consisted of a large plate, small plate, fork, two spoons (one a soup spoon), and glass on a tray placed on an upside-down trash receptacle. A statement accompanying the “art” satirized art criticism. The first sentence read, “The artist’s mode d’emploire lies upon minimalist kinematic methods; space and time are frozen in a staid reality of restrained sexuality.”
• Do modern angels wear jeans and use mobile phones? How about statues of modern angels? In the city of Hertogenbosch (aka Den Bosch) in the south of the Netherlands is the Roman Catholic St. John’s Cathedral. Dozens of statues are in the medieval cathedral, and some of the statues are recently created. Sculptor Ton Mooy sculpted 25 new angels for the cathedral, and among them he sculpted one modern angel. The artist wanted to create a jet-pack-wearing angel, but that design was rejected, so he created an angel wearing jeans and using a mobile phone. The artist points out, “The phone has just one button. It dials directly to God.” (It’s also interesting to note that the cathedral also has a large stained-glass window depicting Hell — the window depicts 9-11.)
• British artist Sir Joshua Reynolds looked through some drawings at a second-hand picture dealer’s, then asked how much one of the drawings cost. Astonished to hear that the price was 20 guineas, he asked, “Twenty pence, I suppose you mean?” The dealer replied, “No, sir. It is true that this morning I would have taken 20 pence for it, but if you think it is worth looking at, all the world will think it worth buying.” Sir Joshua paid the 20 guineas for the drawing.
Audiences
• Sometimes, stand-up comedians face very hostile audiences. Once, an audience kept shouting at George Calfa, “Get off! Get off!” He told the audience that the only way he would leave would be for the audience to give him a standing ovation. but after the audience had given him a standing ovation, he told them, “This is the first standing ovation I ever got — I’d better do an encore.”
• The recitals of modern dance pioneer Martha Graham were so different from classical ballet that many people had trouble relating to them. A woman attended a Graham recital, then went backstage afterward and asked her, “Martha, how long do you expect to keep up this dreadful dancing?” Ms. Graham replied, “As long as I have an audience.”
• CBS executives detested the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island; however, when they tested the pilot, they discovered that audiences loved it. This so amazed the CBS executives that they tested the pilot more than once, because they were afraid that something was wrong with the first audience.
• Following the premiere of Rodeo: The Courting at Burnt Ranch, choreographed by Agnes de Mille, the cast had 22 curtain calls and was showered with bouquets. Most of the bouquets consisted of flowers, but one was made of ears of corn and red, white, and blue ribbons.
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
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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
Music: "Spooks"
Album: MINNIE THE MOOCHER AT THE MORGUE
Artist: Louis Armstrong
Other Artists: Various, includes Louis Armstrong, Spike Jones, Boris Karloff and Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, Anita O’Day and many more.
Artist Location: Various
Record Label: Moochin’ About
Record Label Location: England
Info: 129 track collection of spooky Jazz, Blues & Rock & Roll …”
Bosquet Bailes, a fan, wrote, “Mortuorios Para Vuestros Oídos. [Mortuaries For Your Ears.] Favorite track: ‘Frankie and Igor At a Rock and Roll Party.’”
moggydon, a fan, wrote, “Ah, the wonder of Spike Jones! I want one of his suits!
How can yo not sleep at ghost? (Honestly, the above is what autocorrect made of my not typing ‘how can you not smile at this?’ carefully enough! How apt!)
Steve Lake, a fan, wrote, “Moochin' About is just an excellent label; epic EVERYTHING! and they're all great!”
collidascope, a fan, wrote, “Just epic collection. Little jewels from my youth and the radio and the night. Favorite track: ‘The Shadow Knows.’”
No, Vincent Price is not in the collection, but Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “Monster Mash” is.
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE)
Genre: Jazz. Novelty. Various.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
3-Fer
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
POVERTY: PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
POVERTY: PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
CHAPTER 2: MY UNCLE
My mother’s brother wanted to escape from poverty, so he tried to run away from it. He stole a car so he could drive up north where he hoped to find opportunity, but he got caught and ended up on a Georgia chain gang for several months. In a chain gang, prisoners are shackled every few feet by the ankles to a long length of chain to keep them from escaping. They work in the hot sun while shackled to the chain, and when they sleep, they are shackled to the bed. No freedom, hard work, hot sun, no pay, bad food, and some mean guards.
When my uncle got released from the chain gang, he hitchhiked up north. He did what a lot of people trying to escape from poverty do: He drifted. He drifted from town to town, seeking opportunity and not finding it. He worked when he could, but the jobs were temporary and low pay. My uncle slept rough often, and he was hungry often. Once, when he was completely broke and completely hungry, he saw a restaurant with a buffet and went inside and asked to speak to the manager. He said, “I am very hungry, I don’t have any money, and I would appreciate it very much if you would give me any food that the restaurant is going to throw away. I will be happy to wait by the rear entrance until you are ready to throw away food.”
The manager told him to sit down at a table, and then the manager went to the buffet, loaded a big plate high with food, and gave it to him free of charge.
One way out of poverty is to get a good job, and my uncle got out of poverty by getting a job working with sheet metal.
My uncle’s work ethic helped him. His employer sent him to California to do some special sheet-metal work, and the people in California wanted to keep him there. They explained that their California employees liked to come to work late, leave early, and take many days off. It was difficult to get someone who would show up and do the work they were supposed to do and were paid to do.
My uncle was also good with money. He got married, bought a house, and raised six children. Each time he made a mortgage payment, he paid extra money so he could pay off the mortgage faster.
If there was a sale on food, he bought lots of it. He had a large pantry, and if there was a sale on peanut butter, two jars for the price of one, he would buy twelve jars and sometimes go back the next day and buy six more jars.
If you went in his pantry — a closet set aside to store food — you saw that it was packed with food. If you went in his kitchen, you saw that he had taken off the doors of the high cabinets in which he stored food so that he could see the food. If you went in his bedroom, you saw that he had all the regular bedroom furniture, but he also had lots of shelves he had installed. The shelves were loaded with things that he had bought on sale that he knew his family could use: food (of course), light bulbs, toothpaste, toilet paper, etc. His bedroom looked like a warehouse.
Once he made a bad purchase: he bought a case of baked beans. Beans are beans, but the sauce they came in can taste good or bad, and the sauce these beans came in tasted bad. His kids told him, “Dad, throw those beans away! They’re awful!”
But when you grow up poor, you don’t throw beans away. For a long time, whenever my uncle and his family ate baked beans, they ate a mixture of one can of good baked beans and one can of bad baked beans.
My uncle’s kids never had to eat lard sandwiches, and neither did I.
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Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
From Bruce
Comment
ONE OF THESE SEEMS TO BE A BETTER USE OF MONEY THAN THE OTHER
Top and Middle:
You can buy a pair of $495 socks
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For $50, you can give someone the gift of eyesight
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that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Much warmer than seasonal.
Painted Over Banksy Artwork
Christopher Walken
An original Banksy artwork was painted over by Christopher Walken in the final episode of The Outlaws.
The US actor stars in Stephen Merchant’s BBC comedy-drama about a group of unlikely misfits completing community service.
In the closing scene of The Outlaws series finale, which was released on BBC iPlayer on Wednesday (10 November), the cast were seen painting over a graffiti-covered wall.
Walken’s character Frank discovers a stencilled rat sitting on two spray cans signed by Banksy behind a wooden board and asks his probation officer (played by Jessica Gunning) if he should paint over it, as it’s “awfully good”.
However, she isn’t paying attention and tells Frank that he should paint over all the artwork, adding: “Less debating, more painting,” as the rat is covered up.
Christopher Walken
New Tournament For Professors Only
‘Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! will hold its first-ever Professors Tournament next month when host Mayim Bialik puts instructors from 15 colleges and universities through the answer-and-question paces.
Airing on consecutive weeknights beginning Monday, December 6, the champion prof will be determined on Friday, December 17.
“It was an unbelievable thrill to see so many brilliant professors from all kinds of schools and backgrounds come together on the Jeopardy! stage,” Bialik said in a statement. “There was a sense of kinship and academic camaraderie among the group, along with a healthy dose of competitiveness. That energy made this inaugural Professors Tournament incredibly special.”
The 15 professors will compete for a $100,000 grand prize and a spot in the upcoming Tournament of Champions.
‘Jeopardy!
‘Young Sheldon
Simon Helberg
Simon Helberg reunites with his fellow Big Bang Theory alums in an upcoming episode of Young Sheldon.
Helberg is set to reprise his role as engineer Howard Wolowitz (in voiceover form) to tell the origin story of Sheldon Cooper’s complicated relationship with engineering on the Thursday, November 18 episode. As part of Sheldon’s introduction to engineering, we also meet his first engineering professor played by Lance Reddick. Reba McEntire also guest stars in the episode. You can see a clip below, which includes part of the voiceover.
“We love being able to explore the origins of Sheldon Cooper every week on Young Sheldon,” said executive producer Steven Molaro. “But it’s always extra fun when we’re able to incorporate Big Bang Theory Easter eggs into the storylines. Getting to work with Simon again to help explain Sheldon’s long hatred of engineering was a dream come true. Jim and Simon – even in voiceover on Zoom – didn’t miss a beat in their banter as Sheldon Cooper and Howard Wolowitz. Plus, this episode sees the return of Reba McEntire and introduces Lance Reddick as Sheldon’s first engineering professor – it’s absolutely one of our best episodes.”
Simon Helberg
Tour Opener Dropped Out
Clapton
Eric Clapton’s friends and collaborators discuss the rock legend’s anti-lockdown stance — and defend him against allegations of racism — in a new report.
Following a string of anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown tracks, Rolling Stone detailed Clapton’s descent from just speaking about his vaccine skepticism to actually bankrolling it.
Clapton’s associates are similarly perplexed by his recent stance, with many labeling Clapton as largely apolitical. “He’s the anti-Bono,” Clapton’s former label manager Bill Oakes told the Washington Post. “He is the epitome of someone who is there for the music, and he’s never rubbed shoulders with world leaders and never wanted to.”
Producer Russ Titelman, who produced Clapton’s Unplugged as well as his pandemic-recorded Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions, told the Washington Post that the sessions were nearly derailed when Clapton wanted to perform his anti-lockdown song “Stand and Deliver” for the LP; the record label ultimately rejected that plan.
“Stand and Deliver” also caused a rift between Clapton and blues great Robert Cray, who was originally recruited to open on Clapton’s U.S. tour. The song lyrics that likened the Covid lockdown to slavery — “Do you wanna be a free man/Or do you wanna be a slave?/Do you wanna wear these chains/Until you’re lying in the grave?” — drew the ire of Cray, who got into a heated email exchange with Clapton over the track. Cray would eventually cease communicating with Clapton, and drop off his tour.
Clapton
Election Lies
Hitting Back
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R-Nelson Muntz) is now openly taunting former President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) over his loss to President Joe Biden and his refusal to stop lying about it.
In an interview to be aired on this week’s episode of Axios on HBO, Mr Christie – a potential 2024 presidential candidate – said he will not back down in the face of attacks from Mr Trump, who in a statement Monday said the ex-governor “was just absolutely massacred by his statements that Republicans have to move on from the past, meaning the 2020 Election Fraud”.
Speaking with Axios co-founder Mike Allen, Mr Christie said he won’t stop urging his GOP colleagues to move on and noted that he – unlike the former president – actually succeeded in his bid for reelection when he ran for a second term as the Garden State’s chief executive.
“I’m not gonna get into a back-and-forth with Donald Trump, but what I will say is this: when I ran for reelection in 2013, I got 60 per cent of the vote. When he ran for reelection, he lost to Joe Biden,” he said. “This is not an argument that I’ll walk away from – I think it’s much more productive to fight those policies than to fight with other Republicans.”
Hitting Back
Abandoned To The Sea
Fairbourne, Wales
Like many others who came to Fairbourne, Stuart Eves decided the coastal village in northern Wales would be home for life when he moved here 26 years ago. He fell in love with the peaceful, slow pace of small village life in this community of about 700 residents nestled between the rugged mountains and the Irish Sea.
“I wanted somewhere my children can have the same upbringing as I had, so they can run free,” said Eves, 72, who built a caravan park in the village that he still runs with his son. “You’ve got the sea, you’ve got the mountains. It’s just a stunning place to live.”
That changed suddenly in 2014, when authorities identified Fairbourne as the first coastal community in the U.K. to be at high risk of flooding due to climate change.
Predicting faster sea level rises and more frequent and extreme storms due to global warming, the government said it could only afford to keep defending the village for another 40 years. Officials said that by 2054, it would no longer by safe or sustainable to live in Fairbourne.
Overnight, house prices in Fairbourne nosedived. Residents were dubbed the U.K.'s first “climate refugees.” Many were left shocked and angry by national headlines declaring their whole village would be “decommissioned.” Seven years on, most of their questions about their future remain unanswered.
Fairbourne, Wales
"Cannibal Solar Storms"
The Sun
The Sun has awoken. After coming out of the solar minimum in December 2019 – thus beginning Solar Cycle 25 – our star has been quite active over the last several months, releasing powerful flares. Not even two weeks ago, a major flare and coronal mass ejection (CME) was sent towards Earth, creating days of geomagnetic storms. The road to the solar maximum of 2025 could be full of powerful events.
In an interview with Space.com, Bill Murtagh, a program coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), discussed the danger of multiple coronal mass ejections being released one after the other.
In this scenario, even if the CMEs are not incredibly powerful, a series of them would be more difficult to predict and prepare for. These waves of plasma cross the 150 million kilometers between the Sun and the Earth, before slamming into our planet’s magnetic field and then atmosphere. They can damage satellites and electronic devices, as well as mess with radio communication.
A "cannibal" CME of a certain power could damage critical infrastructures, and getting people ready for it might not be possible. Space weather prediction is notoriously complicated, and knowing how Eath's magnetic field will behave against the uncertain magnetic distribution of a CME requires observations that are not always readily available.
The Sun
Never-Before-Seen Mineral
Davemaoite
Within a diamond hauled from deep beneath Earth's surface, scientists have discovered the first example of a never-before-seen mineral.
Named davemaoite after prominent geophysicist Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, the mineral is the first example of a high-pressure calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) found on Earth. Another form of CaSiO3, known as wollastonite, is commonly found across the globe, but davemaoite has a crystalline structure that forms only under high pressure and high temperatures in Earth's mantle, the mainly solid layer of Earth trapped between the outer core and the crust.
Davemaoite has long been expected to be an abundant and geochemically important mineral in Earth's mantle. But scientists have never found any direct evidence of its existence because it breaks down into other minerals when it moves toward the surface and pressure decreases. However, analysis of a diamond from Botswana, which formed in the mantle around 410 miles (660 kilometers) below Earth's surface, has revealed a sample of intact davemaoite trapped inside. As a result, the International Mineralogical Association has now confirmed davemaoite as a new mineral.
Tschauner and his colleagues uncovered the davemaoite sample with a technique known as synchrotron X-ray diffraction, which focuses a high-energy beam of X-rays on certain spots within the diamond with microscopic precision. By measuring the angle and intensity of the returning light, researchers can decipher what's inside, Tschauner said. The sample of davemaoite within the diamond was just a few micrometers (millionths of a meter) in size, so less-powerful sampling techniques would have missed it, he added.
Davemaoite
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