from Bruce
Anecdotes
Children
• A Sunday School teacher once told her class the story of the Prodigal Son, in which a bad son takes his inheritance while his father is still alive, leaves his family, wastes his inheritance, and driven by hunger, returns home, where his father rejoices to see him and calls for his servants to kill the Fatted Calf and prepare a welcoming feast for his long-lost son. The teacher asked her class this question: “But in the midst of all this joy and excitement, there was one to whom the Prodigal’s return meant not good times and laughter, but bitterness — one who hated the thought of attending the feast. Can anyone tell me who this was?” One child suggested, “The Fatted Calf?”
• When Ruthie, the nine-year-old daughter of Quaker humorist Tom Mullen, had a bike accident that resulted in six stitches in her chin, Mr. Mullen was surprised that she didn’t cry. He was further surprised when Ruthie told the doctor, “My daddy told me once when I was hurt not to be a crybaby!” Worried that he might have taught her the wrong thing, Mr. Mullen explained that it is OK to cry when you have an accident that requires six stitches. Ruthie listened, then told her father, “It’s all right, daddy. You can cry if you want to.”
• During church when he was a child, Stan Banker, who is now a Quaker preacher, used to play games whenever a sermon grew boring. For example, one game was “Quick Add.” He and a competitor would open their hymnals at random, then add the individual digits of the number of a hymn — whoever added the digits first (and accurately) won. Another game with hymnals was to pick a number at random, then see how many turns of the pages it took to open the hymnal at that numbered hymn.
• A Sunday School teacher once told her class the story of the Good Samaritan, in which a man is robbed, beaten, and left for dead. Some members of society see the man and pass him by, but a despised, lowly Samaritan takes him to an inn and pays the innkeeper to take care of him. The teacher then asked her class, “If you saw a person lying on the roadside all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?” A little girl answered, “I think I’d throw up.”
• In the Talmud appears the story of a King whose subjects came to offer him any gifts he might choose. The King replied that he already had possession of a kingdom, so ordinary gifts would be useless to him. However, he added, “If you would show love for me, attend to my words. I have children, and I cherish them dearly. If you would show your love for me, then go forth and serve my children.”
• During World War II, Germaine Belinne and Liliane Gaffney (who are mother and daughter) rescued over 30 Jews by hiding them or giving them false papers. Once, they hid a small Jewish boy named Willie. He was born in 1943, but because of the war, he wasn’t circumcised until 1946. After his circumcision, he pulled his pants down in front of Liliane and said, “Liliane, look! Isn’t it pretty now?”
• Will, the young son of Walter and Jamie Tevis, wanted to wear sneakers to church, but his mother told him that sneakers were not appropriate for church. When they went to church, two people sitting in the pew in front of them were wearing sneakers. Will pointed to the sneakers and said, “See.”
• Taking her young pupils to church, a Sister urged them to be quiet, saying, “Try to be so quiet that even Jesus will be surprised we’re coming.” The children were quiet and even walked on tippy-toes, but when they entered the church, one of the children shouted, “Surprise!”
• When the Dalai Lama was a child, he was fascinated by clocks and often took them apart in an attempt to discover how they worked. The few Tibetans who had clocks quickly learned to hide them when the Dalai Lama was near.
• According to the Irish mother of 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan, a baby smiles for the first time because it sees angels.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. responded:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "We Dance"
Album: SMOKE AND MIRRORS
Artist: Stone Poets
Artist Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Info:
Price: $1 (CAN) for track; $7 (CAN) for 6-track album
Genre: Folk
Links:
SMOKE AND MIRRORS
Stone Poets on Bandcamp
Stone Poets on YouTube
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.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and extra toasty.
Trucker Doppelgänger
Amy Schumer
Stand-up comedian and actor Amy Schumer found herself trending on Twitter this week when a picture of a lookalike ostensibly winning a prize at a truck stop went viral.
However, it wasn’t long before various elements of the story were debunked by Snopes.
The story began with a Facebook post by the Celina 52 Truck Stop, showing a picture of a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Schumer collecting a Monster Energy-branded mini-fridge from a truck stop.
The caption read: “Who says only men drive trucks?? Big Rig driver Amelia stopped in this morning to redeem her Cranking The Hog Reward Points for this brand new mini fridge valued at over $500 due to the Monster Energy branding. Thanks for continuing to let us service you!”
The picture soon went viral on both Facebook and Twitter, as users noted not just the similarities between Amelia and Schumer, but also other unusual elements in the photograph such as a sign reading: “STOP Pooping In Our Parking Lot” and the teardrop tattoo below Amelia’s left eye.
Amy Schumer
Box Office
“A Quiet Place — Part II”
The box office resurgence that began on Memorial Day weekend is wearing off as Warner Bros.’ “In the Heights” has fallen far short of expectations with an $11.4 million opening from 3,456 screens. The musical, which debuted simultaneously on HBO Max, lost the No. 1 spot at the box office to the third weekend of Paramount’s “A Quiet Place — Part II.”
Analysts had expected Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical would earn at least a $20 million opening, with hopes that a diverse Latino cast and upbeat tone would bring audiences back to theaters. Rave reviews from critics with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score, along with event film-level marketing from Warner Bros. that constantly proclaimed the film’s connections to “Hamilton” and “Crazy Rich Asians,” was supposed to give the new release even greater momentum.
Instead, audience turnout has been far lower than the horror and blockbuster sequels that have come out so far during this pandemic recovery period. “A Quiet Place — Part II” earned $11.6 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $108.7 million. Combined with the $10 million earned by Warner/New Line’s “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” ($43.6 million total), horror has had a much stronger impact on this week’s charts than a brand new, critically acclaimed musical.
Sony’s “Peter Rabbit 2” also opened this weekend, earning $10.4 million from 3,346 screens to take the No. 3 spot on the charts between “Quiet Place II” and “Conjuring 3.” The result is consistent with Sony’s projections of a $8-10 million opening and well below the $25 million opening of the first “Peter Rabbit,” as family turnout at theaters continues to lag behind pre-pandemic levels.
“A Quiet Place — Part II”
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow has endured a lot throughout her multi-decade career in the music industry. But the singer-songwriter, 59, will never forget the sexual harassment she experienced while on tour with Michael Jackson.
Just 25 when she joined the iconic performer's tour in 1987, Crow is tremendously grateful for the experience. However, she isn't holding back about its downsides.
Crow said she faced repeated incidents of sexual harassment by Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, who promised to make her famous and threatened that if she said no or reported him, he would destroy her career. During the tour, tabloids began reporting that Jackson was romantically involved with his “sexy backing singer” and that he had offered her $2 million to have his child. In her audiobook memoir Words + Music, Crow shared that she now believes these stories were intentionally planted by DiLeo, who died in 2011, “to make Mike look like he was interested in women.”
Looking back on the experience, Crow says it's “really interesting" to revisit this history, and see how much things have changed (or not) since then. “To be able to play that stuff about the long bout of sexual harassment I endured during the Michael Jackson tour and to talk about it in the midst of the #MeToo movement... it feels like we’ve come a long way, but it doesn’t feel like we’re quite there yet," the singer mused.
Sheryl Crow
Tooth Return Delayed
Patrice Lumumba
The return of the remains of Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba has been delayed by a new wave of Covid-19.
Tributes had been planned from 21 June, starting with the return of what are believed to be his only remains - a tooth - from Belgium.
"We have to prioritise the health of our compatriots," President Félix Tshisekedi said.
Last year, a Belgian court ordered the tooth to be returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo even though no DNA tests had been carried out to confirm it was Lumumba's. An official said that such a test would have destroyed the tooth.
President Tshisekedi has said a mausoleum will be built to the independence hero and a series of ceremonies are planned around the vast country.
Patrice Lumumba
"Stolen" Election
The Big Lie
Just a few days after the polls closed in Florida’s 2018 general election, Rick Scott (R-Medicare Fraud), then the state’s governor, held a press conference outside the governor’s mansion and made a stunning accusation.
Scott was running for a US Senate seat, and as more votes were counted, his lead was dwindling. Targeting two of the state’s most Democratic-leaning counties, Scott said there was “rampant fraud”.
“Every person in Florida knows exactly what is happening. Their goal is to mysteriously keep finding more votes until the election turns out the way they want,” he said, directing the state’s law enforcement agency to investigate. “I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of Florida.”
Scott eventually won the election, and his comments eventually faded. But the episode offered an alarming glimpse of the direction the Republican party was turning.
A little over two years later, fanned repeatedly by Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) throughout 2020, the myth of a stolen American election has shifted from a fringe idea to one being embraced by the Republican party. The so-called big lie – the idea that the election was stolen from Trump - has transformed from a tactical strategy to a guiding ideology.
The Big Lie
Incites Vigilantes
Lara
Lara Trump (R-Schtups Eric), Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up)'s daughter-in-law, has urged Americans living on the US southern border to “arm up and get guns and be ready,” in response to the influx of migrants crossing from Central America.
Mrs Trump, who has been linked with running for the US Senate in North Carolina next year, made her incendiary remarks on Fox News on Saturday night.
“I don’t know what you tell the people that live at the southern border. I guess they better arm up and get guns and be ready, and maybe they’re gonna have to take matters into their own hands,” she said.
“People should never make this dangerous journey here. It’s bad for Americans. It’s bad for the migrants. It’s bad all around."
Lara
Right-Wing Whinery
Fascist's Grandson
Perched in his gold-rimmed baroque-style armchair in the bay windows of his Madrid home, the grandson of General Franco offers his thoughts on attempts to seize his family's summer palace.
“The government is trying to rewrite history by decree," he says calmly. "But fortunately you cannot wipe out historical facts. And in the end people get angry when they realise they are being deceived and go the opposite way."
The Franco family’s Pazo de Meirás summer palace is the latest chapter of a growing conflict with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which has included digging up the dictator and removing his body from a vast mausoleum to a low-key grave.
Spanish courts have so far sided with the government's claim that the palace belongs to the state. A recent ruling, however, said the government was wrong to strip the family of all the mansion’s contents.
For 66-year-old Francisco Franco, the third-eldest of the seven children of Franco’s only daughter, who died in 2017, the Pazo de Meirás is the place of his brightest childhood memories. For Spain’s government and millions of Left-wing voters, it’s a symbol of a dictatorial privilege that was an anomaly after Spain’s return to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975.
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Mysterious ‘Eerie’ Hum
Golden Gate Bridge
Somewhere in a wind tunnel on the south-western side of Ontario, a group of the world’s leading bridge aerodynamics and acoustics experts are puzzling over a full-scale model of the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The experts have been contracted to solve the mysterious problem of a strange humming sound that has been emanating from San Francisco’s famous bridge for the past year, driving some nearby residents to a state of madness.
The sound, heard only on windy days, has been compared to a “ghostly harmonica”, “chanting monks” and a “wheezing kazoo”.
The strange whine has quickly become a legendary piece of San Francisco’s auditory landscape. Amateur sleuths have roamed the city’s hilly streets tracking the sound’s source and an electronic music producer claimed to have mixed it into a soundtrack of existential dread.
But – love it or hate it – some time this summer, according to a bridge spokesperson, the engineers will be announcing their plan to shut the sound up.
Golden Gate Bridge
Puzzled Archaeologists
Tunel Wielki Cave
Archaeologists are trying to solve the mystery of a girl who was buried with the head of at least one finch in her mouth hundreds of years ago.
Although the skeleton was discovered by archaeologist Waldemar Chmielewski in southern Poland in Tunel Wielki Cave during excavations in 1967 and 1968, the burial had not been analyzed in detail until now. New radiocarbon dating indicates that the girl died around 300 years ago.
People in Europe stopped burying their dead in caves during the Middle Ages, making the burial of this girl highly unusual.
The fact that she has at least one bird head stuffed in her mouth is also unusual, and no other examples are known from this time in Europe, the researchers wrote in the journal article.
After analyzing the skeleton, the researchers, from the University of Warsaw and other institutions in Poland, found the girl had died between 10 and 12 years of age. Her bones also showed signs of arrested growth in later years, possibly the result of a metabolic disease. They didn't find any evidence of trauma, nor any clues about how the girl died. No grave goods, aside from the bird head placed in her mouth, were found.
Tunel Wielki Cave
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