from Bruce
Anecdotes
Good Deeds
• In February 2011, a single mother with four children cried after losing $2,500 (her income tax refund) following a trip to the Sierra Central Credit Union in Yuba City, California. Fortunately for her, some Good Samaritans saw $100 bills blowing in the wind and collected them, along with her wallet. Among the Good Samaritans were 27-year-old Yvette Carino and 32-year-old Sam Yath. Ms. Carino, an employee of the credit union, was driving when she saw money blowing in the wind. She stopped her car, and she telephoned the police. The Good Samaritans were able to recover $2,100, which Yuba City police returned to the single mother, whose name was not released. When a police officer knocked on her door, she opened it and exclaimed, “Oh, no, not more bad news!” She told the police officer that she had lost her wallet, and the police officer asked, “This wallet?”
• A person who posts using the name “Mitchell” wrote on Helpothers.org, “I know that my kids have always been kind-hearted and would do whatever they could for anyone else, but when I learned about a recent act of kindness my teenage son did for a friend, it has really touched my heart.” Mitchell’s son would go to school with lunch money in his pocket, but he would come home hungry. Mitchell found out that his son was sharing his lunch money with a friend who never had money for lunch. Now Mitchell makes sure that the son leaves for school with lunch money for two in his pocket. Mitchell says, “The pride I carry in my heart is knowing my sons are growing up to be such fine young men and my daughter a fine young woman. The one thing we have always taught our kids, and it has carried them through their lives, is to ‘start at the heart.’”
• Tyrone Curry, an African-American janitor and track and field coach at Evergreen High School in Washington state, had wanted a new track for a long time: “Ten years ago, I said if I win some money, I’m going to put a track here.” He did win some money in the state lottery: almost $3.4 million. He gave his school district $40,000 — which is matched with a $75,000 youth sports grant — for a brand-new track. Mr. Curry appreciates the students: “Kids do things for you. They keep you young.” The students also appreciate him. Devante Botello, a senior, says, “Tyrone goes above and beyond in the sports he coaches. It’s a deep feeling. All I can say is thanks.”
• In Hunt, Texas, a standard poodle named Leo rescued Lana Callahan’s two children, 11-year-old Sean and nine-year-old Erin, from a rattlesnake they came across while playing. Leo leapt between the two children and the 5½-foot diamondback rattlesnake that bit Leo six times in the head. Leo survived, and he was named the Ken-L Ration Dog Hero of the Year for 1984.
Heroes
• Fifth-grader Evan Siegel is a crossing guard and a hero. In Vancouver, Washington, he saved the life of a little girl by pulling her out of the path of a car moving quickly toward her. The driver was texting and not watching the street. Evan says, “I was like, you know, I can’t let her get hit, so I had to pull her in. It really didn’t matter to me at that point. I just wanted to keep her safe.” Carol Stein, patrol adviser at Salmon Creek Elementary School, gives the crossing guards a week of training in how to do their jobs. She saw the near-accident: “When I saw it, I was in a position that I couldn’t reach it in time, and thank goodness he was, and he acted exactly like I would have hoped.” She points out, “It’s a horrible crosswalk. Everyone agrees it’s not a good situation, but this is how they designed it, and so we have to deal with it.” She adds about Evan, “He’s very responsible. He is one of the more mature fifth-graders that we’ve got.” Because he is so responsible and mature, Ms. Stein handpicked him to work at that crosswalk. Evan takes his job seriously. He says, “A lot of kids think it’s just fun and games, but it’s really not when it comes to safety for these little kids and stuff.” In April 2011, Evan and six other crossing-guard heroes were awarded Lifesaving Medals given by the AAA’s nationwide School Safety Patrol program. AAA spokeswoman Jennifer Huebner-Davidson says, “Every year we have more than 600,000 patrollers nationwide in 31,000 schools who are volunteering their time before and after school to get kids to school safely.” She adds, “Occasionally, we will have a case where a patroller has saved the life of another student [or other person] while on duty.” In 1949, the AAA began awarding the Lifesaving Medal to each of these crossing-guard heroes. Evan says about his life-saving heroism, “It kind of let me feel like I was a hero, kind of, a little bit. Like Superman saving someone from the streets.”
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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
Track: "Borderline"
Album: MERRY-GO-ROUND
Artist: Mighty Violets
Artist Location: California
Record Company: Aldora Britain Records
Record Company Location: Rothley, UK
Info:
“Borderline is also available on the Mighty Violets’ five-track EP CONSOLATION PRIZE. Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE).
“Aldora Britain Records is an e-zine and record label that promotes the music and work of authentic independent or underground artists from all around the world. Originally established in 2013, they revamped themselves in 2018 with a brand-new approach. Their first weekly compilation, aptly titled THE SECOND COMING, was released in late 2019. They now also release original singles, EPs and charity projects.”
Price: £0.50 (GBP) for 17 tracks by various artists.
Genre: Singer-Songwriter
Links:
MERRY-GO-ROUND
Aldora Britain Records on Bandcamp
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommended Reading
Marc Dion: Brave Little Soldier (Creators Syndicate)
If there's one thing Vladimir Putin's mob has in common with the warriors of the American white nationalist movement, it's that both groups like killing civilians, and neither group does well against soldiers.
"We'll take Kyiv in six weeks!" the manifesto of war declares.
They do not. They start killing old ladies and 11-year-old girls because the soldiers on the other side are too tough to kill.
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
A western Maryland race track has evicted the remnants of a trucker protest that had used the site as a staging ground.
After a hiatus, a smaller group of truckers returned Wednesday to the Hagerstown Speedway.
But The Herald-Mail in Hagerstown reported Saturday that Speedway General Manager Lisa Plessinger asked the group to leave amid infighting over its next steps.
She compared the convoy to "like when your mother-in-law comes to visit and decides to stay.”
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lots of weird ads late at night - just saw one with Larry King.
Bird Watcher To Host Show
Christian Cooper
Christian Cooper, a Black man who was falsely reported to police by a white woman while bird watching in Central Park, is set to host his own television show.
"Lifelong birder Christian Cooper (@blackburniannyc) will take us into the wild, wonderful and unpredictable world of birds in his new show, The Extraordinary Birder," National Geographic said in an announcement on Twitter on Thursday.
According to a press release obtained by NPR, the show will take the viewers on a journey with Cooper, "whether braving stormy seas in Alaska for puffins, trekking into rainforests in Puerto Rico for parrots, or scaling a bridge in Manhattan for a peregrine falcon, he does whatever it takes to learn about these extraordinary feathered creatures and show us the remarkable world in the sky above."
In May 2020, Cooper was birdwatching in the Ramble of Central Park when he asked Amy Cooper, no relation, to put a leash on her dog. The woman called the police and said she was being threatened by an "African-American man." The confrontation was captured by Christian Cooper and later went viral on social media.
Christian Cooper
Staying Fit
Mick Jagger
Ahead of their upcoming 14-date tour — which marks 60 years since the Rolling Stones formed — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are sharing how they stay spry in their 70s. Both Jagger and Richards are 78, while Wood will celebrate his 75th birthday on June 1.
In a new interview with the Sunday Times, Jagger acknowledges that the band's exhaustive touring schedule defies expectations about aging, though it's a challenge he welcomes.
"Rock ’n’ roll, or any kind of pop music honestly, isn’t supposed to be done when you’re in your 70s,” the British rocker says. “It wasn’t designed for that. Doing anything high-energy at this age is really pushing it. But that makes it even more challenging. So it’s, like, ‘OK, we’ve got to f***ing do this right,’ but it’s got to be as full-on as possible. Of course you could do another type of music — we’ve got lots of ballads. I could sit on a chair.”
Though he now travels with a cardiologist after undergoing heart valve replacement surgery in 2019, the famously limber frontman is committed to keeping up his workout routine. One would expect nothing less of the man who inspired "Moves Like Jagger."
Mick Jagger
Weekend Box Office
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”
Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” was the top-earning film of the weekend for the third straight week, bringing in $31.6 million in 4,534 North American theaters, according to studio estimates released Sunday.
“Downtown Abbey: A New Era” made a strong opening showing for Focus Features with $16 million from 3,820 theaters, but there was no real blockbuster competition for “Doctor Strange.”
Holdover family films “The Bad Guys” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” took the third and fourth spots. Universal’s “The Bad Guys” added $6.1 million in its fifth week. “Sonic 2” earned $3.9 million in its seventh.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” $31.6 million.
2. “Downtown Abbey: A New Era,” $16 million.
3. “The Bad Guys,” $6.1 million.
4. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” $3.9 million.
5. “Men,” $3.3 million.
6. “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” $3.1 million.
7. “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” $1.9 million.
8. “Firestarter,” $1.9 million.
9. “The Lost City,” $1.5 million.
10. “The Northman,” $1 million.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”
Guitar Sells for $4.5 Million
Kurt Cobain
One of Kurt Cobain’s most beloved guitars, seen in Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video, sold for $4.5 million at auction Sunday in New York, Julien’s Auctions announced.
The guitar — a 1969 Fender Competition Mustang in a color known as Lake Placid Blue that was owned by the Cobain family — was previously displayed as part of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay’s extensive collection of rock memorabilia prior to the auction, the Associated Press previously reported. On Sunday, it was the Jim Irsay Collection that ultimately made the winning bid at the auction to officially take ownership of the guitar, with the Cobain family donating a portion of the sale to the NFL team’s Kicking The Stigma mental health awareness campaign.
“I am thrilled to preserve and protect another piece of American culture that changed the way we looked at world,” Irsay said in a statement. “The fact that a portion of the proceeds will go toward our effort to kick the stigma surrounding mental health makes this acquisition even more special to me.”
Kurt Cobain
Lies Take Root
Statehouses
At least 357 sitting Republican legislators in closely contested battleground states have used the power of their office to discredit or try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a review of legislative votes, records and official statements by The New York Times.
The tally accounts for 44% of the Republican legislators in the nine states where the presidential race was most narrowly decided. In each of those states, the election was conducted without any evidence of widespread fraud, leaving election officials from both parties in agreement on Joe Biden’s victory.
The Times’ analysis exposes how deeply rooted lies and misinformation about former President Donald Trump’s defeat have become in state legislatures, which play an integral role in U.S. democracy. In some, the false view that the election was stolen — either by fraud or as a result of pandemic-related changes to the process — is now widely accepted as fact among Republican lawmakers, turning statehouses into hotbeds of conspiratorial thinking and specious legal theories.
These fictions about rigged elections and widespread fraud have provided the foundation for new laws that make it harder to vote and easier to insert partisanship in the vote count. In three states, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, state lawmakers successfully pushed for investigations that sowed doubt about the results and tested the boundaries of their oversight.
Statehouses
Parliament Bans Russian War Symbols
Ukraine
Ukraine's parliament on Sunday banned the symbols "Z" and "V", used by Russia's military to promote its war in Ukraine but agreed to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's call to allow their use for educational or historic purposes.
Yaroslav Zheleznyak, an opposition member, announced the decision on the Telegram messaging app, saying 313 deputies had voted in favour in the 423-member Verkhovna Rada assembly.
Zelenskiy had vetoed an earlier version of the bill and called for the two symbols to be allowed in displays in museums, libraries, scientific works, re-enactments, textbooks and similar instances.
Neither of the two letters exists in the Russian alphabet. They have been widely used, particularly on Russian military vehicles and equipment, to promote the aims of the conflict.
Ukraine
Southern Baptists
Stonewalled
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over almost two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations, according to a scathing 288-page investigative report issued Sunday.
These survivors, and other concerned Southern Baptists, repeatedly shared allegations with the SBC’s Executive Committee, “only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC,” said the report.
The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm contracted by the Executive Committee after delegates to last year’s national meeting pressed for a probe by outsiders.
The report asserts that an Executive Committee staffer maintained a list of Baptist ministers accused of abuse, but there is no indication anyone “took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches.”
The most recent list includes the names of hundreds of abusers thought to be affiliated at some point with the SBC. Survivors and advocates have long called for a public database of abusers.
Stonewalled
Scientists Unravel Mystery
Elephants
Biologist Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel had only observed one example of Asian elephants mourning their dead in the wild after four years of fieldwork in India, according to Science.org — the American Association for the Advancement of Science's journal.
Some of her colleagues, who had spent decades observing wild elephants, only witnessed the creatures displaying grief a "handful of times," the journal said.
Struggling to capture first-hand footage for their research, a team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science's Centre for Ecological Sciences tried something new; they turned to YouTube.
By searching terms like "Asian elephant death" and "elephant response to death," Science.org said the team was able to find a wealth of new data.
They found 39 videos capturing 24 cases of elephants mourning their dead, per a paper published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Elephants
Post-Fire Future
US West
A New Mexico facility where researchers work to restore forests devastated by fires faced an almost cruelly ironic threat: The largest wildfire burning in the U.S. was fast approaching.
Owen Burney and his team knew they had to save what they could. Atop their list was a priceless bank of millions of ponderosa pine, spruce and other conifer seeds meant to help restore fire-ravaged landscapes across the American West.
Next were tens of thousands of tree sprouts, many of which were sown to make them more drought tolerant, that were loaded onto trailers and trucked to a greenhouse about 100 miles (161 kilometers) away.
New Mexico State University’s Forestry Research Center in the mountain community of Mora is one of only a few such nurseries in the country and stands at the forefront of a major undertaking to rebuild more resilient forests as wildfires burn hotter, faster and more often.
The center has provided sprouts for projects in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Texas and California, but experts said its capacity for turning out as many as 300,000 seedlings annually isn't enough now and certainly won't be in the future as climate change and drought persist.
US West
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