from Bruce
Anecdotes
Wit
• Wilson Mizner was a great scoundrel and a great wit: 1) During a hard winter in New York, when con men were preying on each other, Mr. Mizner recommended that con men wear roses in the lapels of their coats so they could be identified by other con men. 2) Mizner once read a story to Jim Tully, who liked the story so much he wired an editor, who immediately offered $1,000 for it. Mr. Mizner complained, “It took me over eight hours to write that.” 3) Mr. Mizner was with fighter-author Jim Tully when Mr. Tully’s secretary gave him the news that Calvin Coolidge, who was noted for seldom speaking, had died. Without even looking up, Mr. Mizner asked, “How can they tell?” 4) Mr. Mizner was once told by his host to leave the house. He replied, “A gentleman never leaves a house until told to do so by a gentleman.” 5) Mizner liked to get up late in the afternoon — he often boasted that he had never seen a sunrise.
• Three short witty anecdotes: 1) Hillaire Belloc could be very imposing. He once arrived late at a lecture he was giving, but told everyone present, “I am half an hour late. It is entirely my fault. I do not apologize.” 2) At the end of their career, authors sometimes publish a collection of their writing and title it The Works of …. However, The Works of Max Beerbohm appeared when Max was all of 23 years old. 3) James McNeill Whistler, the famous painter, was once asked, “Do you think genius is hereditary?” He replied, “I can’t tell you; heaven has granted me no offspring.”
• Actor Peter Ustinov had a cigarette in his mouth when director Fred Zinnemann told him, “You can’t concentrate with a cigarette in your mouth.” Mr. Ustinov replied, “You mean, you can’t concentrate with a cigarette in my mouth.” By the way, Mr. Ustinov received very poor critical notices for his play No Sign of the Dove. According to Sir Peter, “Yes, I had to fight like a stag to get the critics to attack me.” Also by the way, Mr. Ustinov’s preferred way of shutting up bores is to say to them, “Now, Singapore — does that mean anything to you?”
• Prime Minister David Lloyd George was a small man. At a political meeting, he was once introduced in this way: “I had expected to see Mr. Lloyd George a big man in every sense, but you see for yourself he is quite small in stature.” Mr. Lloyd George replied, “In North Wales we measure a man from the chin up. You evidently measure from the chin down.”
• In the 18th century, Richard Porson was Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University. He had a number of enemies, one of whom told him, “Dr. Porson, my opinion of you is most contemptible.” Dr. Porson replied, “Sir, I never knew an opinion of yours that was not contemptible.”
• Society lady Helen Choate Bell of Boston disliked the great outdoors. Hearing that some friends were going to spend a day in the woods, she said, “Kick a tree for me.” She was also against automobiles, saying that they would divide Humankind into two groups: the quick and the dead.
• Critics denounced Arthur Wood’s performance as Bottom in Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream, so Mr. Wood wrote an angry letter to a newspaper. The editor printed the letter, but added this note: “Mr. Wood seems rather thin-skinned about his Bottom.”
Work
• Singer/songwriter Jack White used to make a living as an upholsterer. As you may expect, he was an unusual upholsterer. Everything in his business — clothing, tools, even his van — had to be yellow or white or black. Why? He explained that it was “an aesthetic presentation.” When he made out his bills, he used crayon. When he restored furniture, he hid in the upholstery poems for the next upholsterer who would restore the furniture. Mr. White said, “I thought, we’re the only ones to see inside this furniture, we should be talking to each other, like the Egyptian masons might leave a message on the stone they were putting in the pyramid.” He even formed a band with another upholsterer. The band, obviously, was called the Upholsterers. They recorded a single, made 100 copies, and hid them inside the furniture they restored. Mr. White said, “Not one’s been found yet. They were on clear vinyl with transparency covers, so even if you x-rayed the furniture you wouldn’t be able to find them. I know where a couple of them might be, but it’s very funny in that sense.”
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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: "Love is Love"
Album: PLEASE DEAR SUN
Artist: Amanda Grace
Artist Location: Winona, Minnesota
Info:
“Amanda does not claim a particular genre of music, and in doing so enjoys variety in her music and audiences. In 2010 she released TRAINS, CARS + A TRIP TO MARS in memory of her nephew. Soon after his father also passed away and Amanda released, EMBRACE in 2012. Since then she’s released KEEPING HEARTS & BETTER LIFE. She plays solo + in two bands; Amanda Grace band + Wildflower.“
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $12 (USD) for 12-track album
Genre: Pop.
Links:
PLEASE DEAR SUN
Amanda Grace on Bandcamp
TheAnykindofmusic (Amanda Grace Music) on YouTube
“TheAnykindofmusic channel is directly linked to sharing new music videos and release info about artist Amanda Grace & Wildflower.”
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
Reader Comment
Wait, what?
Marty,
I keep reading about how some of those Qanon and other whacko Republicans believe that Donald Trump IS still president.
That Biden is just a figurehead and that REALLY Trump is president - behind the scenes.
If that is true . . .
Then, according to the 22nd amendment, Trump CAN’T BE ELECTED for another term.
Or am I reading the constitution wrong?
22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the US
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once.
Randall
Thanks, Randall
You make sense, but as someone recently told me "this is America and getting the most votes doesn't mean you win."
Here's what PolitiFact has to say:
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommended Video
I Don't Care (A rap about misinformation)
.
Other Links:
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.
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Got a copy of Absence of Mallets by Kate Carlisle today. I knew I had won the right to be a character in the book by being the highest bidder in the Mystery Loves Georgia auction (that raised funds for the campaigns of Georgia's two new Democratic Senators). But when I opened the book to read her inscription and see her autograph, I was blown away to see that she DEDICATED the book to me!
Congrats, Linda!
You also made the Kirkus Reviews Review!
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Gas was $4.29/gal (cash) at the no-name, cash-preferred station ($4.39/gal credit), while the local Chevron station sits at $4.79/gal (cash or credit).
Late-Night Appearance
Jimmy Fallon
Joe Biden will make his first late-night appearance as president when he guests on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday.
Fallon made the announcement on his show Thursday. A White House spokesperson said that the appearance will be virtual.
Biden’s appearance also will be the first of a sitting president on a major late-night show since 2016, when Barack Obama appeared on shows hosted Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Maher and Samantha Bee. Obama was the first sitting president to make an in-studio guest appearance on a late-night show when he did The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2009.
But Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) avoided late-night during his term, likely because of the hosts’ fusillade of humor at his expense, even though the 45th president guested on the shows during the 2016 campaign.
Jimmy Fallon
Settles Phone Hacking Claim
Sienna Miller
Actor Sienna Miller on Thursday accepted “substantial” damages from the publisher of British tabloid newspaper The Sun, which she accuses of hacking her phone and leaking news of her pregnancy.
Miller, a performer whose films include “Factory Girl,” “Black Mass” and “The Lost City of Z,” joins a list of dozens of people who have received payments from News Group Newspapers over illegal eavesdropping that took place over a decade ago.
News Group Newspapers has paid millions of pounds to settle lawsuits from hacking victims. Most of the cases have involved the now-defunct News of the World, which was shut down by owner Rupert Murdoch in 2011 after revelations that its employees had snooped on the voice mails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims in search of scoops.
News Group Newspapers has acknowledged hacking by the News of the World, but not by The Sun, which continues to operate.
Outside court, Miller said journalists and management at the newspaper “very nearly ruined my life. I have certainly seen how they have ruined the lives of others.”
Sienna Miller
Over 900 Instruments Donated
Pine Ridge
High schools across the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation have received more than 900 donated musical instruments as part of a program created by the rock band Widespread Panic.
A nonprofit organization, Conscious Alliance, brought the most recent delivery to Pine Ridge High School Wednesday where students in the music program helped unload the instruments.
The school’s music teacher, Ann Chesley, has been keeping the school’s music department alive any way she could.
“A lot of the instruments that we have I have put together, I’ve bought at garage sales and pawn shops — beg, borrow and steal anywhere we can get them,” Chesley said. “And these are new. These are specifically what we want, what we asked for. Nothing’s used. It’s all new, it’s the top of the line, it’s the very best.”
The collaboration between Widespread Panic’s “Tunes for Tots” program and Conscious Alliance began two years ago when they met with music teachers and Lakota culture teachers to expand students’ access to instruments.
Pine Ridge
Piano Renovated
Frederic Chopin
The last piano on which Frederic Chopin played and composed in Paris is being renovated by a U.S. expert who is giving it back its original mid-19th century characteristics.
Paul McNulty is spending days at the Frederic Chopin Museum in Warsaw filling in some cracks in the soundboard and putting in wire strings like the ones used by Paris piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel — Chopin’s favorite — in 1848.
Pleyel made the instrument, with serial number 14810, available to Chopin, already seriously ailing at the time, in the fall of 1848. After Chopin’s death in October 1849, the piano was bought by his Scottish student and friend, Jane Stirling, who then offered it to Chopin’s eldest sister, Ludwika Jedrzejewiczowa.
The piano arrived in Warsaw in 1850 — it still bears the red customs seal of Russia that ruled Warsaw at the time. It survived two world wars, including the destruction of the 1944 Warsaw Rising.
Texas-born McNulty says this is the “best preserved Pleyel piano in the world,” despite having quite a dramatic history. It was played, but treated well by Chopin’s family and was not used for concert performances, also because of a failed renovation attempt.
Frederic Chopin
U.S. Contractors Hack Phones
Saudi Arabia
A Saudi Arabian women's rights activist accused three former U.S. intelligence contractors of an illegal hack of her phone that was instrumental in her being arrested and later tortured in her home country, according to a lawsuit filed in a U.S. court.
Loujain al-Hathloul helped lead a campaign to allow Saudi Arabian women to drive by live-streaming herself violating the ban, which was lifted in 2018.
She spent almost three years in Saudi jails and is currently banned from leaving the Kingdom. The lawsuit was filed on her behalf on Thursday in a federal court in Oregon by the privacy non-profit organization Electronic Frontier Foundation.
It alleged that the surveillance operation run by the three ex-contractors and DarkMatter, a United Arab Emirates cybersecurity company, led to al-Hathloul's arrest by the UAE’s security services.
A 2019 Reuters investigation cited by the lawsuit, revealed that al-Hathloul was targeted in 2017 by a team of U.S. mercenaries who surveilled dissidents on behalf of the UAE under a program called Project Raven, which categorized her as a national security threat and hacked into her iPhone.
Saudi Arabia
Resumed Donations
Law Firms
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, some of the country’s biggest law firms joined blue-chip corporations and other industry trade groups by halting all political donations and rethinking their giving strategy altogether. In a few cases, law firms vowed they wouldn’t give money to any of the 147 Republican officeholders who had voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, riding the wave of good publicity by coming out strongly against the politicians who’d threatened American democracy.
But Big Law’s principled stand didn’t last a year.
Major law firms in Washington have resumed donations to those Republicans whose support for election-fraud theories and refusal to certify posed a grave threat to American democracy. According to a review of campaign-finance records by Rolling Stone and the clean-government groups Protect Democracy and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), more than two-dozen major law firms have donated nearly $500,000 to members of the so-called Sedition Caucus, referring to the 147 Republican officeholders who voted to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, or to party committees that take large donations and spend those funds solely to reelect Republican politicians.
The law firms in question made the donations through their in-house political action committees. Those PACs, which employees can contribute to, allow the firm to donate to a candidate’s campaign, a party-wide political committee, or a leadership committee that prominent politicians use to raise money that they can later spend to help reelect their friends and allies.
Campaign finance experts say the firms’ decision to resume giving illustrate the hollowness of their original pledge to freeze or reassess their giving. It’s also a reflection of a broken and money-rotted political system, in which companies and law firms with business before the government use campaign donations to buy access to policymakers.
Law Firms
Evil Bastids
Google
Google told employees at a virtual all-hands meeting Tuesday that it will not be adjusting workers' pay to match inflation. In other words, Google's rank and file will be effectively earning less, even while the company has thrived, achieving record profits for five consecutive quarters.
According to audio shared with CNBC, CEO Sundar Pichai read a question from his staff concerning the rising cost of just about everything, and the decision by some companies to offset those hardships with commensurate pay raises. The company's vice president of compensation, Frank Wagner, reportedly responded that: “As I mentioned previously in other meetings, when we see price inflation increasing, we also see increases in the cost of labor or market pay rate," and that "those have been higher than in recent past and our compensation budgets have reflected that.”
Raises of this kind are fairly standard for many businesses, and are typically referred to as "cost of living adjustments." Wagner, however, claimed any potential pay raises ought to reflect "performance" instead of a smaller but more broadly implemented increase.
Google has shown a willingness to adjust compensation related to the realities of the pandemic: by cutting pay for workers who chose to remain remote in locations with lower costs of living. In some cases these salary reductions were estimated to be as much as 25%, according to Reuters.
Google
PANTONE 17-3938
Very Peri
Pantone has revealed its Colour of the Year 2022 to be a new periwinkle blue that symbolises “a carefree confidence and a daring curiosity”.
The colour is a blended blue hue with violet red undertones to create the “happiest and warmest of all the blue hues”, said the global colour authority.
It comes as the world has lived through almost another year of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen the way people live change dramatically.
According to Pantone, the new colour – called PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri – is a “symbol of the global zeitgeist of the moment and the transition we are going through”.
It also marks the first time Pantone has created an entirely new colour for 2022. Previously, the company would select a colour from its pre-existing archive to be Colour of the Year.
Very Peri
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