from Bruce
Anecdotes
Prejudice
• In 1936, the Nazis invited modern dance pioneer Martha Graham to perform at the International Dance Festival, an event they were holding in conjunction with the Olympic Games. She declined, pointing out that many members of her dance company were Jewish and that she would not dance in a country that persecuted Jews. After World War II was over, Ms. Graham’s name appeared on a list of people the Nazis were going to “take care of” once they had conquered the United States.
• Many teenagers, and especially gay teenagers, have a difficult time in high school. After high school, a gay man attended a Forgiveness Workshop, where he was told to bring photographs of the people who had hurt him in his youth so that he could throw the photographs into a pink, heart-shaped wastebasket. The gay man threw his high school yearbook into the wastebasket.
• Bert Williams was a famous black comedian who performed in the Ziegfeld Follies early in the 20th century. While touring in a southern city, Mr. Williams walked into a bar and ordered a drink. The bartender said, “OK, but it will cost you $50.” Mr. Williams reached into his pocket, took out three $100 bills, laid them on the bar, and said, “I’ll take six.”
Problem-Solving
• Michael Wigge, a German television personality, is able to come up with good ways to make money when needed. In San Francisco, California, he wanted to raise money so that he could fly to Costa Rica. He raised the necessary $300 with pillows. He says, “I took two pillows from my couch-surfing hosts and offered pillow fighting to passersby for a little donation. San Franciscans really seem to be in need of a good pillow fight. A young man in Dolores Park took a pillow and hit me in my face as hard as he could — I didn’t even have a chance to fight back. Two businessmen opted to fight each other on their lunch break and gave me $20 to stay out of it. People started queuing up in Golden Gate Park to take part.” This worked: He raised enough money to fly to Costa Rica. Other ways that he has raised money to fund his travel is by acting as a human sofa: He gets on all fours and lets people sit on him and catch their breath. His sign said, “Relax for one dollar by sitting on the human sofa!” In addition, he has worked as a hill helper. San Francisco has steep hills, and he helps people climb up hills. He says, “As the Hill Helper, I pushed groaning tourists up the incline [of Lombard Street] by holding their back with my hands. They leaned back and put their entire weight on my hands to be pushed uphill. It was real backbreaking work (my back, not theirs).”
• Early in Marilyn Monroe’s career, when she was a model, a photographer told her that her nose was too long. Emmeline Snively, owner of the Blue Book Agency, examined Ms. Monroe’s face and told her that she needed more space between her nose and her upper lip. One way to solve the problem would be to develop a new smile — one in which as she smiled she pulled down on her upper lip. Ms. Monroe developed the new smile, but the effort of smiling in this way made her lips tremble. By the way, in 1953, both Ms. Monroe and Jane Russell, co-stars of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, had the honor of being immortalized outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater by putting their handprints and writing their autographs in wet cement. Ms. Monroe signed her name, then dotted the “i” in “Marilyn” with a rhinestone in honor of her song “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Unfortunately, a souvenir seeker quickly stole the rhinestone.
• Screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charlie MacArthur once had a hard time dealing with their mail — reading and answering it took too much time away from their work. Finally, they found a way to solve their problem. They hired someone to dump their mail — still unopened — into the fireplace each morning. By the way, Mr. Hecht once said, “A town without a newspaper is a dead town. Without newspapers, without their daffy headlines, their pontificators and buzzing columnists and pictures to look at, a town loses its identity. You don’t realize how important papers are when they’re rolling off the presses, but when the presses stop, you feel Scheherazade has left town. One can’t help but yearn for the fellow who writes the daily mad-hatter drama of the town, Mr. Journalism.”
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© 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: "Shoot the Moon"
Album: LIVE AT UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
Artist: Ryan Cryst and the Rough Cuts
Artist Location: Denver, Colorado
Info:
“Singer/Songwriter Ryan Chrys has rhythm that will move your body, a voice that will touch your soul, and a song that will touch your heart. His songwriting and live performances have lead him to become a Westword Music Showcase Awards winner, and a respected name throughout Colorado.”
Price: FREE Download
Genre: Country
Links:
LIVE AT UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
Ryan Cryst and the Rough Cuts
Ryan Cryst and the Rough Cuts Official Site
Ryan Cryst and the Rough Cuts on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce's Blog #1
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David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Contribution
Piebald Deer
My Piebald Deer appeared again this morning
As I was walking down to fetch the morning paper, she was
prancing around my front pasture.I am surprised that she has
survived this long with all the illegal poaching going on around
these parts. Nevertheless, she is a welcome sight on this sunny
Thursday morning.
New Venture
Michael Egan
Reader Comment
Christmas tree
Gary in PA
Thanks, Gary!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Deadly pub food
Everyone makes fun of British cooking and pub food...until someone dies! Friend Karen shared the below. She and Dave, Lenny and I all went to that pub several times when we were living in Northamptonshire:
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another extra foggy night.
‘Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: Facts Of Life’
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart joins ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience that’ll see the characters from Diff’rent Strokes and the Facts of Life back to life by a new, all-star cast of talent. The special airs Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. ET.
Stewart will appear as part of the Facts of Life cast in a surprise role. He will work opposite Jennifer Aniston, Kathryn Hahn, Gabrielle Union, and Allison Tolman who will play private school teens from the Facts of Life‘s fictional Eastland School: Blair (originally played by Lisa Whelchel), Jo (Nancy McKeon), Tootie (Kim Fields), and Natalie (Mindy Cohn), respectively.
Diff’rent Strokes (created by Bernie Kukoff and Jeff Harris) follows the lives of an unconventional family brought together by circumstance. Arnold (Gary Coleman) and his older brother Willis (Todd Bridges) were two Black brothers from Harlem who moved to a Park Avenue penthouse to live with their mother’s rich employer after her demise.
The cast for the Diff’rent Strokes re-do includes John Lithgow as Mr. Drummond, Kevin Hart as Arnold, and Damon Wayans embodies Willis.
Jon Stewart
Turning 75
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton has absolutely made the most out of the last two years. The 75-year-old superstar released her first fragrance in July 2021, she teamed up with bestselling author James Patterson to co-author a novel, Run, Rose, Run, about a young singer on the run, out this March, and she even wrote an album inspired by the novel. If that’s not enough, she also won her 11th Grammy award, released her first duet with country singer Reba McEntire, and most recently was named one of People Magazine’s 2021 People of the Year.
And there’s a lot more to come from the iconic country musician, who insists age is nothing but a number and it has no bearing on what you can accomplish. “I’ve learned that being 75 is not as bad as I thought it might be when you think about numbers,” she said in her interview with People. “I think I’ve been surprised at how excited I still am and how motivated I still am and how I didn’t let the number slow me up any. I think I was just surprised at the number that I could actually be 75 years old.”
She added the caveat, “Of course you’d like to stay young forever, but you can’t. But you can stay young in thought, in spirit, and not dwell on the number.”
Parton confirmed to fans that from fragrances and theme parks, to books and new music, there’s a lot more up her sleeve when it comes to building her empire. "I keep dreaming myself into a corner!" Parton said. “But I can't stop now. I've learned you can't just say, ‘Oh, my dream's come true and I'm walking out of here.’ No, you've got to show you're grateful and show that you're not going to just leave it all in the hands of other people. So, I'm going to be right here, doing what I'm doing, ’til I fall over dead.”
The singer is especially interested in contributing to society in any way she can. Like many of us, the COVID-19 pandemic left Parton feeling the need to help. So, the 9 to 5 singer decided to donate one million dollars to the Vanderbilt University medical center in late 2020 to support research.
Dolly Parton
Auf Wiedersehen
Angela Merkel
Germany's military on Thursday honoured outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel with their highest ceremony for a civilian, playing an eclectic mix of music of her own choosing that has intrigued the nation.
In the "Großer Zapfenstreich" ceremony, pared back due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Bundeswehr staff music corps played a hymn, a 1960s song that includes the words "I can't acquiesce, can't make do, I still want to win", and a 1970s punk rock hit.
The hymn, "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name", is a nod to Merkel's Protestant upbringing, the '60s song "Red roses are to rain for me" perhaps reflects her youthful ambition, while the rock hit, "You Forgot The Colour Film", was first performed by East German punk artist Nina Hagen.
Born in the northern port city of Hamburg as the daughter of a Protestant pastor, Merkel grew up in Communist East Germany before taking the helm of a predominantly male, Catholic western German party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
Angela Merkel
Academy Removes Grammy Nomination
Manson
Marilyn Manson — who, as a co-writer and performer on Kanye West’s Donda, was controversially nominated for a pair of high-profile Grammys despite an ongoing sexual assault investigation — lost one of his nominations Thursday as the Recording Academy revised its list of nominees.
Credited as “Brian Hugh Warner” on West’s “Jail Pt. 2,” Manson previously received songwriting credits — and thus, Grammy nominations — in both the Album of the Year and Best Rap Song categories; however, the New York Times reports that the Recording Academy has since updated the Best Rap Song nomination to recognize the West/Jay-Z collaboration “Jail,” which did not feature Manson as a songwriter, removing his nomination from that category.
However, Manson is still credited as a songwriter and featured artist on Donda, up for Album of the Year, making the shock rocker eligible for that award should West’s latest album win that category.
Manson
Sue Over Fraud Claims
Election Workers
Two Georgia election workers filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against a conservative website, accusing it of knowingly publishing and spreading false stories saying they engaged in ballot fraud during the 2020 general election.
Fulton County elections workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a mother and daughter, filed the lawsuit against The Gateway Pundit, its owner Jim Hoft and his brother Joe Hoft, a contributor to the site. Among other things, the lawsuit says the website and the Hofts conducted a “campaign of lies” that led to online and in-person harassment against the two women.
The falsehoods “have not only devastated their personal and professional reputations but instigated a deluge of intimidation, harassment, and threats that has forced them to change their phone numbers, delete their online accounts, and fear for their physical safety,” the lawsuit says
The Gateway Pundit and the Hofts perpetuated the debunked narrative, publishing stories and promoting them on social media even after they were aware it had been disproven, the lawsuit says. Among other things, the suit says, their stories accused Freeman and Moss of conspiring to get observers out of a room where ballots were being counted, adding illegal ballots to the count and running the same ballots through scanners multiple times.
The lawsuit filed in circuit court in St. Louis, where The Gateway Pundit is based, seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as legal costs. It also asks a judge to declare that the statements published by the website and the Hofts and mentioned in the suit are false and to order the false and defamatory statements removed from any website or social media accounts they control.
Election Workers
Linked To ED
Vaping
Erectile dysfunction (ED) may be over twice as likely in people who use electronic cigarettes compared to those who have never vaped, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. Significantly, this association between vaping and impotence appears to be completely independent of age, cardiovascular health, and other risk factors.
Cigarette smoking is well known to contribute to ED, although it remains unclear whether Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) – otherwise known as e-cigarettes or vapes – pose a similar risk. To investigate, the study authors gathered data on 13,711 US males over the age of 20 who had taken part in the nationwide Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study.
Just over 20 percent of participants had experienced some level of ED, although daily ENDS users were 2.4 times more likely to suffer from the condition than those who had never vaped.
The study authors then conducted a second analysis on a slightly smaller sample of 11,207 men between the ages of 20 and 65 who had no history of cardiovascular disease or other risk factors for ED. Within this group, 10.2 percent reported experiencing erectile dysfunction, although once again vapers were 2.2 times more susceptible to sexual misfiring than those who had never used ENDS.
While these findings are concerning, the authors concede that their study relies on self-reported data, which may not always be entirely accurate. They also did not take into account the potential influence of other medications like anti-depressants that may contribute to ED in some members of their sample.
Vaping
Bison Herd
Yellowstone
Officials have agreed to allow as many as 900 bison from Yellowstone National Park to be shot by hunters, sent to slaughter or placed in quarantine this winter in a program that seeks to prevent the animals from spreading a disease to cattle.
An additional 200 bison among the park's more than 5,000 bison could be captured or hunted in the late winter if those numbers are met, federal, tribal and state officials agreed in a meeting Wednesday.
Bison routinely leave Yellowstone and head north into Montana each winter, raising concerns that the animals could spread brucellosis to cattle. Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that can cause cows to abort their calves. The disease can spread to people but is rare in humans in the U.S.
Elk have spread the disease to livestock but there are no documented cases of bison spreading brucellosis to livestock in the wild, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.
Yellowstone
Fluctuating Orbit
Earth
As our living ark swings around the Sun, its current loop is fairly circular. But Earth's orbit isn't as stable as you may think.
Every 405,000 years, our planet's orbit stretches out and becomes 5 percent elliptical, before returning to a more even path.
We've long understood this cycle, known as orbital eccentricity, drives changes in the global climate, but exactly how this impacts life on Earth was unknown.
A team of scientists led by paleoceanographer Luc Beaufort, from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) have found clues that orbital eccentricity is driving evolutionary bursts of new species, at least in plankton of the photosynthesizing variety (phytoplankton).
Coccolithophores are microscopic sunlight-eating algae that create plates of limestone around their soft, single-cellular bodies. These limestone shells, called coccoliths, are extremely prevalent in our fossil records – first appearing around 215 million years ago during the Upper Triassic.
Earth
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