from Bruce
Anecdotes
Letters
• When Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, was a kid, he wrote his hero, Floyd Gibbons, who went on adventures and wrote a column for the Chicago Tribune. Mr. Gibbons wrote him back, something that truly impressed the young Stan Lee. Working at Marvel, he encouraged fan mail and he often wrote fans back, either in person or on the pages of the comic books he wrote. Mr. Lee says, “I wanted the fans to feel that they were part of the Marvel family. If I received a letter that started ‘Dear Editor’ and was signed […] ‘Charles Smith,’ I would write back, ‘Hiya Charlie!’ I wanted it to sound friendly, and I signed all my replies ‘Stan,’ not ‘the Editor.’ I think it worked because when I met fans at conventions, they came up to me as though we were old friends. ‘Hi, Stan, how are ya? I’ve always wanted to meet you.’” Actually, it was Mr. Lee’s creations that got Marvel Comics fan mail. He says, “Before the Fantastic Four, we hardly ever got fan mail. Occasionally I might get a letter from somebody that said, ‘I bought one of your comic books and one of the staples is missing. I’d like my ten cents back.’ I would tack that letter up on the bulletin board and say, ‘We’ve got a fan letter.’ But after the Fantastic Four came out, we started to get genuine fan mail. At the start, a lot of the letters were written in pencil. After a few months, they were written in ink. A few months after that, we were getting typewritten letters and the return addresses were high schools and colleges.”
• In 1960, Madeleine L’Engle finished her novel A Wrinkle in Time. She knew that it was her best novel yet, but over 40 publishers rejected it, and she and her agent gave up sending it to publishers. Fortunately, Ms. L’Engle threw a tea party that was attended by John Farrar, part of the publishing company Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, and at a meeting after the party he took her manuscript. He read it, loved it, and agreed to publish it, even though his publishing company did not even have a juvenile line of books at the time. The novel became an immediate success, winning the prestigious Newbery Medal, which is given for the most distinguished children’s book published during a year, and afterward Ms. L’Engle met many publishers who said to her, “I wish I’d gotten my hands on that book!” Frequently, Ms. L’Engle pointed out that the publishing company had looked at the book — and rejected it. One publisher refused to believe her until she showed him the rejection slip his company had sent her.
• When asked who her guest at the Ritz would be if she could have anyone as a guest, crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, creator of the Scarpetta series, replied that she would have Allen Ginsberg as a guest, although the restaurant would actually be “Il Cantinori in New York or Davide in Boston.” She explains that she is a fan of poets, and when she was a college student she wrote letters to several poets — “and darn if some of them didn’t write me back. [Mr. Ginsberg’s] letter in particular was outrageous, profane, and long, and I couldn’t believe he would take the time to write a little nothing college student like me. I wish I could take him to dinner and thank him, and explain that his various uses of the f-word wouldn’t shock me now the way they did back then.”
• Even as a young woman, American poet Emily Dickinson suffered from a lack of privacy in her own home. For example, her father made her read any letters she received out loud. After receiving a letter from her brother, she wrote him back about reading his letter out loud to the family. First, she had gone through the letter and self-censored it, marking through the places she didn’t want to read out loud, then with her heart beating wildly, she read the letter to her family, pretending that she had not self-censored it, and her heart didn’t stop beating wildly until she had finished reading the letter.
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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: "Lo mismo de ayer" [“Same As Yesterday”]
Album: DECIR TODO DE NUEVO [SAY IT ALL AGAIN]
Artist: Bõas Teitas
Record Company: Scatter Records
Record Company Location: Ciudad Autónoma De Buenos Aires, Argentina
Info:
“Since 2003 Scatter Records has been a member of the emerging scene in Argentina, working and trusting in the exchange between bands and independent artists. We are a record label, producer of shows and events, we do press, dissemination and content generation.
“Scatter Records: We Work for the Monkey!”
Price: FREE DOWNLOAD
Genre: Pop.
Links:
DECIR TODO DE NUEVO
Bõas Teitas on Bandcamp
Bõas Teitas on YouTube
Scatter Records on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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New Venture
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Current Events
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Toasty day by either summer or winter standards.
Weekend Box Office
‘Jackass Forever’
Not even a global pandemic or a 12-year hiatus could stop the Jackass guys at the box office. “Jackass Forever,” the fourth movie in the anarchic series earned $23.5 million in ticket sales in its first weekend in theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
It not only exceeded expectations but also easily bested its other main competitors, the big budget sci-fi spectacle “Moonfall” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which has 6 of its 8 weeks in theaters at No. 1.
In art house releases, Neon debuted “ The Worst Person in the World ” on four screens this weekend to $135,042. The Norwegian film about a young woman finding herself is shortlisted for an Oscar nomination (which will be announced on Tuesday), topped many critics’ best of lists in 2021, and has gotten a fair share of celebrity endorsements (from Nancy Meyers to Paul Thomas Anderson). Its per-theater average ($33,760) is the highest of 2022. Neon will add theaters in the coming weeks.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Jackass Forever,” $23.5 million.
2. “Moonfall,” $10 million.
3. “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” $9.6 million.
4. “Scream,” $4.7 million.
5. “Sing 2,” $4.2 million.
6. “The King’s Man,” $1.2 million.
7. “Redeeming Love,” $1 million.
8. “American Underdog,” $800,000.
9. “The 355,” $700,000.
10. “The Wolf and the Lion,” $675,027.
‘Jackass Forever’
Quietly Removes 113 Episodes
Spotify
Spotify has quietly removed more than 110 episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast following criticism from celebrities.
Despite Young’s initial ultimatum, Spotify has remained loyal to Rogan, who has a $100m deal with the platform. However, the platform said it would add Covid-19 content advisory labels in response to the backlash. Rogan has supported this move.
Now, though, JRE Missing – a website that automatically detects deleted episodes of podcasts – has found that Spotify has quietly removed 113 episodes of Rogan’s podcast.
Deleted episodes include ones featuring far-right commentators, including Alex Jones, and former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
Spotify
Sex Doll
'Inspiration'
An Israeli model says a Chinese company named and modeled a after her down to her 'beauty mark,' but taking legal action could be tricky, a lawyer says
It was 2018 when Yael Cohen Aris first received a message from an Instagram follower who said a sex doll company made a doll that resembled her. She brushed it off as a coincidence.
But when she saw the creator appeared to talk about her in an online forum, explaining the doll was inspired by her real social media photos, "it could not be mistaken," she said.
Cohen Aris, who lives in Israel and has more than 1 million Instagram followers, said she realized the doll wasn't just in her likeness, but it was connected to her identity too. This, she said, felt strange, violating, and invasive.
Leonard Liu, the CEO of the manufacturer Irontechdoll, which is based in China and makes and sells sex dolls to retailers around the world, told Insider in an email that "Yael" was designed "according to the taste of Westerners."
'Inspiration'
Medieval Gold Coin Worth $875,000
England
When his children were born, Michael Leigh-Mallory gave up his passion for metal detecting. Now, 10 and 13, they encouraged him to take up the hobby again. On the first day he used his new metal detector, he found the oldest gold coin in England, dating back to the 13th century.
The 52-year old ecologist and amateur historian had dug up the rare gold penny as it glistened in a field in Devon, South West England, and was advised to take it to the British Museum. It was discovered to be one of only eight in existence, and the last one was found 260 years ago, according to The Metro.
The coin, made from North African gold, was minted in the reign of Henry III, who was the English king between 1217-72.
Not only did it bring immense joy to Leigh-Mallory and his family, but also a record-breaking hammer price of £540,000 – with extra fees taking the total £648,000 ($878,778) – when the coin was sold at Spink and Sons auctioneers in London, last week.
England
‘Snake-Oil Salesmen’
Blame
A top deputy to Mike Pence (R-OfMother) in the White House who has remained his close ally unloaded on the inner circle cultivated by former President Donald Trump on Sunday, who he likened to “snake-oil salesmen” for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Marc Short treaded a fine line on the issue of the 2020 election during an interview with Meet the Press on NBC. He backed up the assertions made by the former vice president last week at the Federalist Society, where Mr Pence argued that he never had the constitutional authority to halt the certification of some states’ election results by the Senate.
“President Trump is wrong,” Mr Pence said at the event on Friday. “I had no right to overturn the election”.
Mr Short laid blame for that effort to convince his boss of the opposite at the feet of Mr Trump’s closest advisers, who he said were giving the president “a lot of bad advice” regarding his options after the election was called in Joe Biden’s favour.
"Unfortunately the president had many bad advisers who were basically snake-oil salesmen,” said Mr Short.
Blame
Upholds Jail Sentences
Venezuela
A court in Venezuela has upheld long prison sentences for six American oil executives detained in the South American country on corruption charges for more than four years.
Venezuela's supreme court announced the ruling late Friday, disappointing family members who had hoped the surprise decision last fall to hear the appeal, and a recent jailhouse visit by a top State Department official, signified President Nicolás Maduro's government was looking to release the men as part of a gesture to engage the Biden administration in talks over U.S. sanctions.
The court didn’t provide any information on its decision, and the order itself was not immediately available. Venezuela’s judicial system is stacked with pro-Maduro officials who routinely issue decrees in accordance with the president’s viewpoints.
The men known as the Citgo 6 — for the Houston oil company where they worked — were lured to Caracas around Thanksgiving in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Citgo’s parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA. Once there, heavily armed masked security officers stormed the conference room where they were gathered and hauled them away. Later they were charged with corruption in connection to a never-executed plan to refinance billions in bonds.
The executives appeared in November before a three-judge appeals panel in the same week as the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention took up the case of Tomeu Vadell, one of the six detainees. Five of the men are dual Venezuelan-American nationals who had lived in the U.S. for many years, while one, former Citgo president Jose Pereira, is a permanent U.S. resident.
Venezuela
‘Something’s Coming’?
UFOs
Last year was a breakthrough time for UFOs, as a landmark government report prompted the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors to finally be taken seriously by everyone from senators, to a former president, to the Pentagon.
But 2022 could be even more profound, experts say, as the clamor for UFO disclosure and discovery continues to grow, and as new scientific projects bring us closer than ever to – potentially – discovering non-Earth life.
In June, the Pentagon released a highly anticipated report on unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP), the now preferred nomenclature by some in the extraterrestrial community, which found more than 140 instances of UAPs that could not be explained.
The report came after leaked military footage documented seemingly otherworldly happenings in the sky, and after testimony from navy pilots helped to somewhat destigmatize a subject that has long been defined by conspiracy theories and dubious sightings.
UFOs
Found By Archeologists
40 Roman Skeletons
About 40 beheaded skeletons were among 425 bodies found in a late Roman cemetery uncovered by archeologists in southern England.
The team of around 50 archeologists made the discovery during an excavation at Fleet Marston, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on the route of the multi-billion pound high-speed rail link that is currently under construction, HS2 said.
Around 10% of the bodies were decapitated. Many had their heads placed between their legs or next to their feet.
Archeologists said that one interpretation could be that the decapitated skeletons were criminals or outcasts, although decapitation was a "normal, albeit marginal, burial rite" during the late Roman period.
The team also uncovered over 1,200 coins at the site, along with several lead weights indicating that this was an area of trade and commerce.
40 Roman Skeletons
Have 'Talked' For 155 Million Years
Fish
All manner of croaks, chirps, and deep trombone moans permeate Earth's waters, just like the cacophony of sounds that fill its forest air. For example, reefs are surprisingly noisy places, and many of the noisemakers are fish.
"We've known for a long time that some fish make sounds, but fish sounds were always perceived as rare oddities,'' said Cornell University ecologist Aaron Rice.
It was likely assumed fish relied primarily on other means of communication, from color signals and body language to electricity. But recent discoveries have demonstrated fish even have dawn and dusk choruses, just like birds.
"They've probably been overlooked because fishes are not easily heard or seen, and the science of underwater acoustic communication has primarily focused on whales and dolphins," said Cornell evolutionary neuroscientist Andrew Bass.
"But fishes have voices too."
Fish
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