Marc Dion: "Mouse-demic Response: Failure and Success" (Creators Syndicate)
As the government of an extremely small nation/house, our first mistake was ignoring the experts. For days, our two cats, Maggie and Jack, had spent their evenings in the kitchen, staring fixedly at a cabinet. "Maybe we have a mouse," my wife, Deborah, said.
Mark Shields: Frank Advice From a Close Friend (Creators Syndicate)
Trump's self-absorbed performances at the White House briefings - the abusing of reporters whose questions he does not want to or cannot answer, the whining about the appreciation he deserves and does not get, the self-congratulations for the superb job he and his administration are doing - are hurting him politically. Public trust and confidence in the president's leadership are falling. It's not working. The question: Is Donald Trump wise enough and big enough to accept the brutally frank advice of a close friend?
Pamela Hutchinson: "My streaming gem: why you should watch My Man Godfrey" (The Guardian)
Sometimes escapist films only need to take the audience a few steps, or city blocks, from reality. Gregory La Cava's My Man Godfrey, a peerless comedy from Hollywood's Golden Age, is a screwball with a social conscience. This 1936 classic is a glamorous 90 minutes of frivolity that doesn't so much explore the divided society of the Great Depression, as take the imbalance between the haves and have-nots as the launchpad for a series of grimly bitter jokes. With slammers of punchlines.
Devils Tower (also known as Bear Lodge Butte) is a butte, possibly laccolithic, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet above sea level.
Devils Tower was the first United States national monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The monument's boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Devils Tower, in Wyoming.
Alan J answered:
Devils Tower.
Cal in Vermont wrote:
Devil's Tower in Crook County, Wyoming. It was first climbed on the Fourth of July in 1893 by two white men named William Rogers and Willard Ripley. Believe it or not.
Dave said:
Devils Tower. Teddy wasn't a bad president- for a Republican. Every last one since has been a worthless piece of shit though.
Roy the Snowflake, quarantining in Tyler, TX replied:
Our nation's first National Monument was Devils Tower, also known as Bear Lodge Butte, in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills of Wyoming. It looks eerily similar to the place where Richard Dreyfuss hooked up with the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
DEVILS TOWER IN WYOMING
zorch wrote::
Devil's Tower in Wyoming was the 1st.
Mac Mac said:
Devils Tower
Adam answered:
Devils Tower- Crook County, Wyoming
Ed K replied:
Betty White
Billy in Cypress U$A responded:
Devils Tower National Monument
Deborah wrote:
The first national monument was Devil's Tower, also known as Bear Lodge Butte. I don't believe I've seen it.
Another unseasonably warm day…perfect gin & tonic with extra lime weather.
DJ Useo said:
Devil's Tower. Rumor is the Monument can't be seen if you're drinking Dr. Pepper, due to a local curse. ;)
Daniel in The City answered:
Devil's Tower
Rosemary in Columbus responded:
Devil's Tower in Wyoming
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~~~~~
• Claude Debussy listened to the very first playing of his String Quartet, then told the musicians, "You play the movement twice as fast as I thought it should go." He paused and let the faces of the musicians fall, then added, "But it's so much better your way."
• Arturo Toscanini respected the intention of the composers whose music he conducted. Once, a musician asked him if he wanted a crescendo at a certain point in the music. Toscanini replied, "Brahms wants that crescendo - not Toscanini!"
Concerts
• Cellist Pablo Casals and organist Gabriel Pierné were once supposed to do a concert at which the Dvorak Concerto for 'Cello would be played, but Mr. Casals withdrew from the concert when Mr. Pierné insulted the concerto by calling it "dirty music." Because Mr. Casals had signed a contract to perform at the concert, he was sued, and he lost the lawsuit. Nevertheless, Mr. Casals had a lot of support from the music community for his refusal to perform with Mr. Pierné. Conductor Pierre Monteux told him, "The adagio of the Dvorak 'Cello Concerto is one of the most beautiful slow movements ever written. You were quite right in your refusal, cher ami."
• Tenor Richard Lewis and some colleagues were going to sing at a concert in Wales. The concert committee had set the program, and when Mr. Lewis looked at it, he noticed that it was exactly the same program that they had sung there the previous year. When he inquired why they wanted the singers to perform the same songs as last year, the committee replied, "Oh, we just wanted to see if you could sing them any better!"
• The orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera is made up - as you would expect - of highly skilled and educated musicians, and it has been for a long time. Gabriel Peyre, a violinist for the Met during the mid-1950s, remembered that the lights went out during a concert where the orchestra performed the Semiramide Overture. No problem. The orchestra finished the piece from memory.
Conductors
• Meredith Willson, author and composer of The Music Man, once played in a symphony orchestra that used to hire itself out to anyone with money and the desire to say that he had been a guest conductor of the Philharmonic. Many of these guest conductors were not only monied and proud - they were bad. One such guest conductor used to insist on personally tuning each instrument before the concert. So he would tell the first cello to play his A string, then tell him, "Ah-ah-ah-ah, it's juuuuust a little sharp - that's better. There we are. Thenk yo veddy much. Next!" However, the guest conductor didn't realize that the cello section was on to him. All 10 members of the cello section, one after another, brought the exact same cello - just tuned by the guest conductor - out to the guest conductor, and each time the guest conductor had the cellist retune the cello.
• At one time, many operas were performed with many cuts so that they would end quickly; however, Arturo Toscanini wanted the operas to be performed with every note intact exactly as the composer had written them. One day, he was rehearsing the Metropolitan Opera orchestra when the musicians played the music as they were accustomed to play it - with deep cuts. Mr. Toscanini stopped them, crying, "But you do not play your parts!" The musicians stated that they were playing their parts, and when Mr. Toscanini looked at their sheet music, he said, "True, true. You play what is written - only it is not what the composer wrote. Let us open up those cuts, now, and hear the music as the composer intended it to be."
This tidbit from Politico's summary of a Washington Post article is pretty disgusting:
BY THE NUMBERS -- WAPO'S PHILIP BUMP and ASHLEY PARKER: "13 hours of Trump: The president fills briefings with attacks and boasts, but little empathy": "The president has spoken for more than 28 hours in the 35 briefings held since March 16, eating up 60 percent of the time that officials spoke, according to a Washington Post analysis of annotated transcripts from Factba.se, a data analytics company.
"Over the past three weeks, the tally comes to more than 13 hours of Trump - including two hours spent on attacks and 45 minutes praising himself and his administration, but just 4½ minutes expressing condolences for coronavirus victims. He spent twice as much time promoting an unproven antimalarial drug that was the object of a Food and Drug Administration warning Friday. Trump also said something false or misleading in nearly a quarter of his prepared comments or answers to questions, the analysis shows."
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'The Neighborhood', followed by a RERUN'Bob Hearts Abishola', then a RERUN'All Rise', followed by a RERUN'Bull'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are John Mulaney and John Fogerty.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are Joe Jonas and Yungblud.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'The Voice', followed by a FRESH'Songland'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Kate Hudson and Alessia Cara.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers is Maya Rudolph.
Scheduled on a FRESHLilly Singh are Sara Foster and Erin Foster.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'The Bachelor', followed by a FRESH'The Baker & The Beauty'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Elizabeth Banks and Dave Grohl.
The CW offers a FRESH'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', followed by a RERUN'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', then a FRESH'Roswell, New Mexico'.
Faux has a FRESH'9-1-1', followed by a FRESH'Prodigal Son'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: SVU', followed by another old 'L&O: SVU'.
AMC offers the movie 'Gladiator', followed by a FRESH'Dispatches From Elsewhere'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Assignment
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Let He Who Is Without Sin ...
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Things Past
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Ascent
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Rapture
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Darkness and the Light
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Begotten
[1:00PM] AVP: ALIEN VS. PREDATOR
[3:00PM] PREDATOR
[5:30PM] PREDATOR 2
[8:00PM] PREDATORS
[10:30PM] PREDATOR
[1:00AM] PREDATOR 2
[3:30AM] PREDATORS (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Below Deck Sailing Yacht', followed by a FRESH'Below Deck Sailing Yacht', then another FRESH'Below Deck Sailing Yacht', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
FX has the movie 'Daddy's Home, followed by the movie 'Daddy's Home 2'.
History has 'The Curse Of Oak Island', 'The Curse Of Oak Island: Drilling Down', followed by a FRESH'The Curse Of Oak Island'.
IFC -
[6:00A] The Three Stooges - Woman Haters
[6:15A] That '70s Show
[6:45A] That '70s Show
[7:15A] That '70s Show
[7:45A] Life of Brian
[9:45A] Monty Python and the Holy Grail
[11:45A] Hot Tub Time Machine
[2:00P] That '70s Show
[2:30P] That '70s Show
[3:00P] That '70s Show
[3:30P] That '70s Show
[4:00P] That '70s Show
[4:30P] That '70s Show
[5:00P] That '70s Show
[5:30P] That '70s Show
[6:00P] Two and a Half Men
[6:30P] Two and a Half Men
[7:00P] Two and a Half Men
[7:30P] Two and a Half Men
[8:00P] Two and a Half Men
[8:30P] Two and a Half Men
[9:00P] Two and a Half Men
[9:30P] Two and a Half Men
[10:00P] Two and a Half Men
[10:30P] Two and a Half Men
[11:00P] Two and a Half Men
[11:30P] Two and a Half Men
[12:00A] Two and a Half Men
[12:30A] Two and a Half Men
[1:00A] That '70s Show
[1:30A] That '70s Show
[2:00A] That '70s Show
[2:30A] That '70s Show
[3:00A] That '70s Show
[3:30A] That '70s Show
[4:00A] That '70s Show
[4:30A] That '70s Show
[5:00A] That '70s Show
[5:30A] That '70s Show (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00am] Hogan's Heroes
[6:30am] Hogan's Heroes
[7:00am] Hogan's Heroes
[7:30am] Hogan's Heroes
[8:00am] Hogan's Heroes
[8:30am] Hogan's Heroes
[9:00am] Hogan's Heroes
[9:30am] Hogan's Heroes
[10:00am] Hogan's Heroes
[10:30am] Hogan's Heroes
[11:00am] Hogan's Heroes
[11:30am] Hogan's Heroes
[12:00pm] Hogan's Heroes
[12:30pm] Unforgiven
[3:30pm] Pale Rider
[6:00pm] The Spy Who Loved Me
[9:00pm] For Your Eyes Only
[12:00am] A View to a Kill
[2:30am] The General's Daughter
[5:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:30am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Edge Of Tomorrow', followed by the movie 'Constantine'.
Brad Pitt's not just an Oscar-winning actor and a viral weatherman: he's also the world's sexiest medical expert. The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star opened the second episode of the Saturday Night Live At Home as National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has emerged as America's most trusted scientific mind during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The top-secret cameo fulfilled the wishes of the real Dr. Fauci, who told CNN earlier this month that Pitt would be his first choice to play him on SNL. It's also appropriate casting considering the widely-circulated Change.org petition nominating Fauci as People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive - a title that Pitt has held twice in the past 35 years.
Believe it or not, this is technically the first time that Pitt has hosted SNL... even though it wasn't a conventional hosting gig since he filmed his cold open in his home instead of Studio 8H, just as Tom Hanks did on the first remotely-produced show two weeks ago. (For the record, Pitt has only appeared on the show twice before: once in 1998 opposite host David Spade, and again in 2002 via a vocal cameo in an animated sketch.) Donning a grey wig and adopting Fauci's thick Brooklyn accent, Pitt first thanked "all the older women in America who have sent me supportive, inspiring and sometimes graphic e-mails." He then went on address the "misinformation" about the coronavirus disease that's keeping much of the country indoors. Some of that misinformation can be traced back to the White House and President Donald Trump, who - as Pitt's Fauci diplomatically noted - "has taken liberties with some of our guidelines."
MSNBC cable news anchor Chris Matthews has admitted that his remarks about women and others justified his abrupt retirement last month.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in his first interview since that exit, the former Hardball host admitted that an account by a female journalist in GQ Magazine alleging Matthews made inappropriate remarks happened.
That story led to resurfaced reports on prior Matthews misconduct, including news that he had been reprimanded in 1999 after a similar incident with an MSNBC employee. That reportedly resulted in a settlement with that employee.
Tom Hanks says the blood that he and wife Rita Wilson donated after recovering from the coronavirus, should go toward a "Hank-ccine."
During a recent episode of NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" Hanks, 63, explained that him and Wilson are feeling "dandy," although Wilson, 63, had a rough bout of the illness. "She had a very high temperature," he said. "And we were isolated so that we would not give it to anyone else."
When asked whether Hanks has been approached to harvest his blood, Hanks replied, "We have not only been approached; we have said, do you want our blood? Can we give plasma? And, in fact, we will be giving it now to the places that hope to work on what I would like to call the Hank-ccine..."
The cellphone-shot clip, uploaded by the team behind the Quentin Tarantino documentary QT8: The First Eight, opens with members of Madsen's family with bloodied bandages over their ears, a nod to gruesome, darkly comic scene from Tarantino's debut 1992 film.
Eventually, the camera finds Madsen, in his "Mr. Blonde" persona with suit and pajama pants, dancing along to the Stealers Wheel track popularized by Reservoir Dogs. "Stay Safe. Stay home," the PSA warns.
Five million face masks ordered by the Veterans Health Administration to protect staff at the department's hospitals and clinics were taken by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Strategic National Stockpile, a top official told The Washington Post.
"I had 5 million masks incoming that disappeared," said Dr. Richard Stone, the executive in charge of managing the nation's largest health care system with 1,255 facilities that serve more than 9 million veterans. He told the Post that FEMA instructed vendors with protective equipment ordered by the Veterans Administration to send the shipments instead to the stockpile.
"The supply system was responding to FEMA," Stone, a former Army deputy surgeon general, told the Post. "I couldn't tell you when my next delivery was coming in." Veterans health care facilities were going through about 200,000 masks a day, according to Stone.
Stone acknowledged the problem after Veterans Administration officials had denied their facilities were grappling with shortages even amid mounting complaints from health care professionals.
After an appeal from Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to FEMA, the agency provided the VA with 500,000 masks this week, FEMA officials said in a statement to the Post. FEMA officials did not address the issue of diverting supplies ordered for veterans to the national stockpile.
Even as the U.S. small business relief program is set to reopen Monday with fresh funding, the full extent that public companies tapped the emergency facility is only now becoming clear.
More than 200 public companies applied for at least $854.7 million from the government program that was billed as for small businesses without access to other sources of capital, according to Washington D.C.-based data analytics firm FactSquared.
That includes $126.4 million for three public companies affiliated with Texas hotelier Monty Bennett. One of those firms, Ashford Hospitality Trust, applied for $76 million in 117 separate loans, the most by a single company, according to regulatory filings.
The government's Paycheck Protection Program sparked outrage after its initial $350 billion allotment quickly ran out and it was revealed that big public companies secured loans while hundreds of thousands of small businesses seeking relatively tiny amounts were left in limbo.
But the data from FactSquared, which uses a machine-learning bot to trawl regulatory filings to produce an overall picture of the PPP, shows the full extent that public companies have successfully navigated the government's program.
Hasbro, known for its popular boards games such as Monopoly and Scrabble, is shifting its efforts from creating games and toys for kids to making plastic face shields for health care workers.
On Saturday, the company announced its plan to partner with Cartamundi, a card and board game manufacturer, to produce 50,000 face shields per week for front line health care workers.
The news comes as nurses, doctors and other health care workers across the US face a shortage of personal protective equipment.
Hasbro said it plans to make 250,000 face shields, but will continue to evaluate the need. The personal protective equipment will be donated to local hospitals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
A structure critical to our brain's core language pathway, found only in humans and apes, has now also been identified in monkeys, according to a controversial new study - suggesting the origins of language may have appeared 20 to 25 million years earlier than previously thought.
Compared to other animals, the human brain is uniquely adapted to language. Our ability to produce speech, listen, and communicate with one another is unparalleled, and to understand why, we need to know how we got here.
Unfortunately, brain tissue doesn't survive over evolutionary timescales, so it's hard to know when the first building blocks for language appeared in our distant past. Today, if we want to locate this missing brain 'fossil', scientists must largely rely on our living cousins.
So far, brain imaging studies in chimpanzees have revealed a similar language circuit to humans, but the idea that monkeys may also contain something comparable remains highly disputed.
Scientists have mapped seismic stress across North America in unprecedented detail, revealing the areas most at risk of earthquakes.
By incorporating nearly 2,000 "stress orientations" - measurements indicating the direction that pressure gets exerted underground in high-stress areas - as well as 300 measurements not included in previous studies, the map provides a higher-resolution picture of regional seismic activity than ever before.
To make the map, the researchers compiled new and previously published measurements from boreholes (narrow shafts drilled into the ground), then used information about past earthquakes to infer which types of faults were likely to be found in different locations.
"If you know an orientation of any fault and the state of stress nearby, you know how likely it is to fail and whether you should be concerned about it in both naturally triggered and industry-triggered earthquake scenarios," Jens-Erik Lund Snee, a lead author of the study and postdoctoral fellow with the US Geological Survey, said in the release.
The term "Industry-triggered" earthquakes refers to seismic activity caused by humans, which is most common in parts of Oklahoma and Texas where hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," commonly occurs.
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