from Bruce
Anecdotes
Politics
• As a magician, Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller fame knows that it is possible to “force” a card upon a member of the audience when doing a card trick — that is, to make audience members choose the card the magician wants them to choose, although they think they are freely choosing that card. Occasionally, after Penn explains this, a member of the audience will protest that he really did freely choose a particular card. When this happens, Penn responds, “You must have loved the last election.” (The book Mr. Jillette’s quotation comes from was published in 1988.)
• In 1948, Harry S. Truman won the election for President of the United States. He was already living in the White House, having become President after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death. (Mr. Truman was Mr. Roosevelt’s Vice President.) Many people had expected President Truman to lose the Presidential election and to have to move out of the White House. Following President Truman’s upset victory, comedian Bob Hope sent him this short telegram: “UNPACK!”
• Satirist Al Franken regularly made fun of disgraced President Richard Nixon, but when he produced a Saturday Night Live “Presidential Bash” in 1992, he sent a letter to Mr. Nixon, hoping that he would make a personal appearance on the show. Unfortunately, as a reply, he received a letter saying no. No problem. Mr. Franklin happily framed the letter and now proudly displays it in a room that he has devoted to his collection of Nixon memorabilia: a bathroom.
• Satirist Al Franken ran seriously for the United States Senate in 2007 in his native state of Minnesota. How seriously? Seriously enough to win. Even when he was in the 7th and the 8th grades, he was interested in politics, In the 8th grade, he gave weekly reports in his social-studies class about what was going on in politics, and in the 7th grade, he ran for Class President with the slogan, “Never spit in the face of a man unless his mustache is on fire.”
• Lewis Black and Ron, his brother, occasionally had arguments about politics. For example, Lewis was shocked when Ron told him that he was going to vote for H. Ross Perot for President. They started shouting at each other, and the argument ended with Lewis shouting, “Okay, you do that. You vote for H. F**king Ross Perot. And you know what I’m going to do? I’M GOING TO TELL MOM!”
• Even back when he was a stand-up comic, Minnesota Senator Al Franken was interested in politics. Henry Kissinger once personally telephoned the offices of Saturday Night Live to request tickets to the show. Mr. Franken answered the phone and told him, “No.” When Mr. Kissinger asked why he couldn’t get the tickets, Mr. Franken told him, “Because of the bombing of Cambodia.”
• At an airport, lesbian comedian Kate Clinton was wearing a “John Kerry: A Stronger America” button during the 2004 Presidential election when a fundamental Christian couple came up to her and said, “A vote for John Kerry will hasten the Second Coming.” Ms. Clinton replied, “Does that mean you will be leaving soon?”
• While in high school, satirist Stan Freberg ran for student office and was elected on the strength of two campaign promises: 1) he would improve the principal’s office by turning it into an automatic car wash, and 2) he would improve the girls’ locker room by installing an 80-foot picture window.
Practical Jokes
• Soon after he started working for MAD magazine, writer Dick DeBartolo needed an answer to a financial question, and only MAD publisher William M. Gaines, whom he had never met, could answer that question. His boss, Nick Meglin, called up Mr. Gaines — while Mr. DeBartolo was still on the telephone line — to arrange an appointment. Unfortunately, Mr. DeBartolo could hear every word Mr. Gaines said on the telephone: “DeBartolo’s on the phone? Who the h*ll wants to speak to him? Did you tell him I’m in? Oh, Christ, what the h*ll does he want? He’s a pain in the *ss!” Fortunately, when Mr. DeBartolo began speaking on the line, Mr. Gaines said, “Dick, I’m pulling your leg. Relax. I do that to all the new guys. I like to scare them. Welcome to MAD.”
***
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***
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Michael Egan
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In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "La Vie en Rose"
Single: This is a one-sided single.
Artist: Lia Rose
Artist Location: San Francisco, California
Record Company: Firebrand Records
Record Company Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Info:
“La Vie en Rose” means “My Life in Rose”: The singer is in love.
“Lia Rose creates music and tours with projects focused on making a positive impact. She writes songs that are intensely honest and at times unmistakably autobiographical.
“In addition to her solo releases, Rose is a founding member of “Experimental/Electronic/Ambient duo Built for the Sea", signed to Tom Morello & Ryan Harvey's record label Firebrand Records whose aims are sharply focused on social justice. Both solo and with bands, Rose's music has been featured widely in TV & Film, including features in trailers & sizzle reels from HBO to NBC, MTV to Netflix.”
On Spotify: here
On Patreon: here
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE)
Genre: Pop.
Links:
“La Vie en Rose”
Lia Rose on Bandcamp
Lia Rose Official Website
Firebrand Records on Bandcamp
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BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommended
Ukraine Wedding
Ukrainian Soldiers Tie The Knot In Ceremony Performed By Their Commander
Help Line in Ukraine
Taking Calls On Ukraine's Help Line For Russian Military Moms (Radio Free Eueope; Paid for in part or in whole by USA Government)
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Bonus Links
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Reader Comment
Current Events
DC cyclist
LOVE this story about the DC cyclist trolling the wretched trucker convoy idiots. Honk HONK! WHAT? I can't hear you!
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Yep - looks like we're gonna skip spring and barrel full bore into summer.
‘A Symbol of Solidarity and Hope’
‘Kyiv Calling’
A Ukrainian punk band has rerecorded the Clash’s classic “London Calling” as a protest song and a resistance anthem against the Russian invasion.
Beton, a punk-hardcore trio, received permission from the surviving members of the Clash before recording “Kyiv Calling,” which changes the lyrics of the 1979 single as a call-to-action to fellow Ukrainians and the rest of the world. The track was recorded in a studio in Lviv, Ukraine on March 17 and 18, the same day Russians fired missiles at the city that’s become a hub for displaced citizens.
“Many Ukrainian musicians are now on battlefields or in territorial defense,” Beton singer Andriy Zholob told the Guardian. “They’ve changed guitars to guns. We hope this song shows Ukrainians’ spirit and our defiance to Russian aggression. We are glad it is going to be played around the world as a symbol of solidarity and hope.”
“Kyiv calling to the faraway towns / Now war is declared and battle come down,” Zholob sings on the updated version. “Kyiv calling to the whole world / Come out of neutrality, you boys and girls / Kyiv calling, now don’t look to us / Phony Putinmania has bitten the dust.”
Danny Saber, a former Joe Strummer collaborator, mixed “Kyiv Calling,” all proceeds of which will go to the citizen-led organization Free Ukraine Resistance Movement (FURM).
‘Kyiv Calling’
Beton - Kyiv Calling (official cover version of London Calling by The Clash) YouTube
Has A Message
Rita Moreno
In accepting the Stanley Kramer Award at the PGAs tonight, EGOT winner and West Side Story actress Rita Moreno, reflected on the time she first heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech near the Lincoln monument in Washington D.C. She was invited to the event by Harry Belafonte.
“I’m 90 now and working in this business has taken tenacity, hard work, advocating for issues of social justice for the last 60 years, it’s been exhausting, exhilarating, and life giving. Had it not been for those steps, that fire inside me as a young woman, I would not be here tonight receiving this wonderous honor,” said the 90-year old actress.
“We are in the throes of yet another award season. Some in our tribe have been known to use the spotlight to advocate for issues addressed in their nominated works –climate change, universal health care, voting rights, LGBTQ advocacy and others– and I know for some in the audience, in some audiences, have been known to create, how should I say, a mild discomfort. For others, heart palpitations,” said Moreno.
“After all, who are these actors, these Hollywood types think they are? Citizens in a democracy?” she added before exclaiming, “Well, F**k ’em!”
“Freedom of Speech belongs to all of us, actors,” said Moreno before switching to the war abroad, “And let’s not forget comedians are patriots, too. Just look in the direction of Mr. Zelensky in the Ukraine.”
Rita Moreno
Weekend Box Office
‘The Batman
“The Batman” is still going strong three weeks into its theatrical run, with a tight grip on the top spot at the box office.
The horror film “X” also debuted this weekend on 2,865 screens and is projected to gross around $4.4 million. Directed by Ti West and distributed by A24, “X” is about a group of people who are terrorized while shooting a pornographic film.
Focus Features launched the crime drama “The Outfit,” starring Mark Rylance in 1,324 locations. It made an estimated $1.5 million. And outside of the top 10, Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions had “Alice,” the Sundance breakout about an enslaved woman who gets transported to 1973, which made $176,120 from 170 locations.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “The Batman,” $36.8 million.
2. “Jujutsu Kaisen O,” $17.7 million.
3. “Uncharted,” $8 million.
4. “X,” $4.4 million.
5. “Dog,” $4.1 million.
6. “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” $3.2 million.
7. “Death on the Nile,” $1.7 million.
8. “The Outfit,” $1.5 million.
9. “The Kashmir Files,” $1.5 million.
10. “Sing 2,” $1.5 million.
‘The Batman
“Bittersweet” Retirement
‘Maury’
NBCUniversal on Sunday confirmed that its daytime syndicated talk show Maury will be wrapping with the current season, saying that it was a mutual decision between the studio and veteran host Maury Povich to end the talker made when Maury was most recently renewed in 2020 through the 2021-22 season.
“Maury and I decided two years ago that this season would be the farewell season for the show, and while his retirement is bittersweet, we are so happy for him to be able to spend more time on the golf course,” Tracie Wilson, EVP, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, said in a statement to Deadline. “Maury is a television icon, a pop culture legend and we couldn’t be more proud to have been a part of his incredible career.”
This is the second NBCUniversal syndicated daytime program to call it quits this spring, joining Judge Jerry. Other syndicated daytime talk shows that recently got canceled include Sony TV’s The Good Dish as well as Debmar-Mercury’s Nick Cannon and The Wendy Williams Show, the latter to be replaced by a new talker, Sherri.
The Maury Povich Show was launched in 1991 by Paramount Domestic Television. It shortened its name to Maury in the mid-1990s. In 1998, Studio USA took over the program. The company was subsequently acquired by NBCUniversal.
‘Maury’
Star Trek
Stacey Abrams
The Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights campaigner Stacey Abrams has been made president – of United Earth.
The honour, which a leading conservative website said Abrams did not deserve, was bestowed by the Paramount+ TV series Star Trek: Discovery, in its season four finale.
Abrams is a self-confessed Star Trek superfan. In 2019, she told the New York Times she binged on episodes during her last run for governor.
Michelle Paradise, executive producer of Star Trek: Discovery, told Variety the show decided it needed a figure of suitable gravitas.
“When the time came to start talking about the president of Earth,” she said, “it seemed like, ‘Well, who better to represent that than her?”
Stacey Abrams
New Investigation
Project Veritas
A new investigation is shedding light on how a right-wing group, known for its deceptive tactics and accusations of using doctored videos, got hold of a diary written by Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter.
A new investigation, published on Sunday by The New York Times, revealed that the diary passed through the hands of a Florida-area ally of Donald Trump the failed game-show host whose daughter then alerted the right-wing Project Veritas about its existence through a tip line.
Ms Biden’s writings in the diary are from when she was recovering from addiction and were eventually published by a fringe right-wing blog unrelated to Project Veritas.
It was previously reported that Project Veritas tried to leverage potential publication of the diary in discussions with Mr Biden’s team, in the hopes of securing an interview with the now-president, in a letter sent to his campaign less than a month before the election.
According to the Times, before reaching Project Veritas, the diary was passed around at a Trump loser's campaign fundraiser hosted at the home of Elizabeth Fago. A Palm Beach socialite, Ms Fago was appointed by the White House in the waning days of the Trump former administration to a largely ceremonial spot on the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Project Veritas
Name Removed From Fundraiser
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin, the first person to journey to outer space, has had his name removed from a fundraising event amid Russia's aggression towards Ukraine.
The US-based nonprofit Space Foundation announced on its website in a now-deleted note: "In light of current world events, the 2022 Space Foundation Yuri's Night is renamed 'A Celebration of Space: Discover What's Next.'"
It added: "The focus of this fundraising event remains the same – to celebrate human achievements in space while inspiring the next generation to reach for the stars."
The fundraiser aims to celebrate the wonders of space and the 10th anniversary of the organization at the Space Foundation Discovery Center. The programme includes astronaut meet and greets, a drone obstacle course, and a silent auction.
Yuri Gagarin
Daylight Saving Time
Geography
This week the U.S. Senate showed it can still put aside partisan differences and unite for a common goal on some issues. The question at hand: Daylight Saving Time.
Despite the proposal's overwhelming support in the Senate, however, American opinions on permanent DST are far from uniform and some Americans are already casting shade on it.
This is not new territory for Washington. Over the past 60 years, there have been more than a few proposals regulating how the nation sets its clocks. Washington even passed an earlier law making DST "permanent.”
And when you add in the latitude of where respondents live, the numbers shift a bit. People who live above the 42nd parallel (which, for reference, makes up most of the border between New York and Pennsylvania) are slightly more likely to want to keep DST the way it is.
Geography
Melting Glaciers
Norway
Glacial archaeologists in Norway have discovered weapons and secret hideaways on a remote mountain where stealthy hunters waited for reindeer more than a millennium ago.
While surveying part of the inland mountain peak Sandgrovskaret, the archaeological team recovered five arrows, three of which are up to 1,700 years old. The researchers also discovered 40 stone-built hunting blinds, which made the hunters "invisible" to nearby reindeer.
"When the reindeer had approached to within 10-20 meters [33 to 66 feet], the hunter would get up and start shooting arrows," said Lars Pilø, an archaeologist at the Department of Cultural Heritage, Innlandet County Council, Norway, co-director of the Glacier Archaeology Program and the editor of the Secrets of the Ice website.
For years, Pilø and his colleagues have trekked into the mountains to search for artifacts exposed by melting glaciers. They found this particular site in 2013, but they weren't able to return to do a large systematic survey there until 2018, when they found the weapons and hunting blinds. "There is a lot of melting going on due to climate change, and we had to prioritize other sites in the short time window for glacial archaeological fieldwork," he said.
Of the five arrows, three still have a preserved iron arrowhead. Based on an analysis of the arrowheads' shapes, these weapons likely date to between A.D. 300 and 600, Pilø said.
Norway
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