Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Leo Benedictus: Torn apart: the vicious war over young adult books (The Guardian)
Authors who write about marginalised communities are facing abuse, boycotts and even death threats. What is cancel culture doing to young adult fiction?
Suzanne Moore: Why are male playwrights rushing to write about Harvey Weinstein? Spare us (The Guardian)
David Mamet has written some great stuff in his time - but rape and harassment are not some kind of interesting philosophical exercise.
Alison Flood: "'Ghosts shaped my life': out-of-print children's classic to be resurrected" (The Guardian)
The macabre guide counts Reece Shearsmith and Nick Frost among its diehard fans. What's so creepy about a 1970s children's book?
Jonathan Jones: Kiss My Gendersreview - a sinful, sensational walk on the wild side (The Guardian)
You can't fail to be seduced by this show's glorious assault on all of our assumptions. It shows that gender is mobile because we live in our heads, not our biology. "Candy says I've come to hate my body …" sang Reed about Candy Darling. Obviously a lot of artists here love theirs, and it's a love without limits. When Jennifer Miller poses as Marilyn Monroe for Zoe Leonard's camera, it's hard to stop admiring her body, or her beard.
Connie Schultz: Reworking the Language of Women (Creators Syndicate)
I don't want to scold here, but look, too many of us have fallen for this notion that our opinions are incidental. If we weren't raised to believe this, we have plenty of opportunity to learn it in the workplace. We don't want to be "pushy" or "arrogant" and so we become walking apologies for having an independent thought. These throwaway phrases - "I believe," "I think," "I feel" and, the worst, "I'm sorry but" - telegraph uncertainty and give others permission to ignore us.
Oliver Burkeman: Honk if life's moving too slowly? That's not the answer (The Guardian)
Technology should leave us more free time, but we're more impatient than ever. Is there a solution?
Hadley Freeman: I'm off to have a baby, and I'm taking no tips from the new pregnancy influencers (The Guardian)
Where once just not vomiting in my hair was enough, now I'm supposed to wonder how cute my bump looks in my lingerie selfies.
Froma Harrop: Finding People to Fill Empty Spaces (Creators Syndicate)
The population of "L'Hospi" fell to 90. The village had already lost some public services, and there was talk of closing its grade school, which had only 10 students left.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Idioso
"I meet and talk to 'foreign governments' every day. I just met with the Queen of England (U.K.), the Prince of Whales, the P.M. of the United Kingdom, the P.M. of Ireland, the President of France and the President of Poland," Trump tweeted.
"We talked about 'Everything!' Should I immediately call the FBI about these calls and meetings?"
(The parenthetical (PM) and "Whales" faux pas aside)
If they offered dirt on your political opponents then YES.
You HAVE to.
It is illegal NOT to.
You incredible buffoon . . .
Randall
Thanks, Randall!
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Mel Blanc, the voice of such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Daffy Duck, once was caught speeding. He was not speeding on purpose. He liked good cars, and he explains, "The car, a brand-new Rolls Royce, handled so smoothly I hadn't even realized I was speeding." Of course, the police officer asked for his driver license, and recognizing the name, asked, "Are you theMel Blanc?" Mr. Blanc replied-using Bugs Bunny's voice-that yes, he was. The police officer grinned and said, "Well, I guess I'm going to have to let you off with a warning. My kids would never forgive me if I gave a ticket to Bugs Bunny." Bugs also saved Mr. Blanc in a much more serious situation. On 24 January 1961 he was involved in a very bad two-car accident-the fault of the other driver-and was in a coma for three weeks. People kept saying his name to him, but he never responded. On Valentine's Day, a cartoon starring Bugs Bunny was playing on the TV, and his doctor, Louis Conway, said to him, "How are you feeling today, Bugs?" Mr. Blanc has no memory of this, but witnesses say that he came out of the coma and replied in Bugs' voice, very weakly, "Eh, just fine, Doc. How're you?" One of the people who kept Mr. Blanc laughing during the months of recovery was one of his employers, Jack Benny, a comedian who got laughs by pretending to be a cheapskate. In the hospital Mr. Benny once gave Mr. Blanc one-half of a candy bar, saying, "I didn't think you were in shape to eat the whole thing, so why waste it?" (By the way, Noel got his name in honor of his grandfather, Grandpa Nachum, who had been renamed Nolan when he came to the United States. Because someone else had recently been named Nolan in the grandfather's honor, the Blancs searched for a name variant they liked, deciding on Noel in part because of Noel Coward. Afterward, they realized that Noel Blanc means "White Christmas" in French, which is a strange name for a Jewish kid.) Mr. Blanc also received another gift, this one from Warner's: a 3-foot-high card depicting 14 of the cartoon characters he voiced. Their doctor was saying to a nurse, "It's a baffling case, nurse. They all seem to have temporarily lost their voices." Mr. Blanc recovered from the accident and gave voice to cartoon characters until the year 1989, when he died at age 81.
• One of the people with whom Roy Clark worked on Hee Haw was Junior Samples, who was a country boy who made his own moonshine-for real. Junior became famous through accident. His brother had caught a big sea bass in the Gulf of Mexico and brought its head back home to Georgia. Junior showed the head of the sea bass to people, but he told them that he had caught it right there in Georgia in a fresh-water lake. People marveled at the size of the fish head and thought that it must have been the biggest fish ever caught in Georgia. Junior even went on a radio show and talked about the fish. Country comedian Archie Campbell heard a tape of the radio show, liked what he heard, wrote a script based on Junior's story, and hunted up Junior and made a recording that became a country comedy hit. The producers who were creating Hee Haw heard about Junior, liked what they heard, and signed him up to be on TV. Shortly after joining the Hee Haw cast, Junior asked Roy, whom he had seen often on TV, how he had come to be on Hee Haw. Roy told his story of a long apprenticeship in music and many years of experience entertaining people. Junior said, "Huh! I just told a lie about a fish and here I am!" On Hee Haw and in real life, Junior always bib overalls, a tee shirt, and a baseball cap. Back in the days when Spiro Agnew was Vice President of the United States, Junior was invited to a fancy party in a penthouse in Nashville, Tennessee. For such a fancy party, Junior was expected to dress properly and he was given a tuxedo jacket-which he wore over his bib overalls and tee shirt. At the party, he was introduced to the Vice President of CBS, and as you may expect, he said, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Sparyou Agnew."
• Early in his career, comedian Jeff Foxworthy rode a New York subway while carrying $100 he had been paid for a show. He was worried about being mugged, so he messed up his hair, pulled out his shirt, and pretended to be drunk and mentally ill as he loudly babbled. The only bad thing that happened was that when he returned to his hotel room, his wife, Gregg, was scared by the way he looked. By the way, Mr. Foxworthy has done good deeds. He once received an advance to do a TV show, but he decided not to do it because he disagreed with the producers about the format of the show. Although he was not legally obligated to do so, he refunded the advance. He then went on to do The Jeff Foxworthy Show, and when that show was cancelled, he helped many of the show's employees to get new jobs.
• The Reverend Warren Debenham, a San Francisco-area minister, collects comedy records-many thousands of them. He says that good comedy "puts down the people in power, whereas bad comedy puts down the guy who's powerless. For that reason, I really don't like Andrew Dice Clay: He puts down women and gays." He also says that many religious people have hobbies outside of their ministry. For example, he knows a clergyman who is an expert on photographing wildflowers. Reverend Debenham says that this clergyman will "fiddle for hours just getting the right light and focus. [The clergyman] said, 'That's how I get the urge to manipulate out of my system-so I don't manipulate people.'"
• "If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all." - Joey Adams
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
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Selected Readings
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer hung around most of the day. Very nice.
Takes Aim At Mitch
Jon Stewart
Former late night host and 9/11 first responders advocate Jon Stewart said Sunday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has never been compassionate in his congressional dealings when it comes to passing health care packages for first responders.
"In terms of getting the 9/11 bills passed, Mitch McConnell has been the white whale of this since 2010," Stewart said on "Fox News Sunday." "This has never been dealt with compassionately by Sen. McConnell." Stewart appeared to reference the character Capt. Ahab's inability to capture the notoriously hard-to-catch albino whale in Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick."
"He has always held out until the last minute, and only then after intense lobbying and public shaming has he even deigned to move on it," he said.
McConnell, who has not come out on either side of the proposed legislation, said at a news conference that day, "We've always dealt with that in the past in a compassionate way, and I assume we will again."
"Not all Republicans oppose this, but everyone who has opposed it is a Republican, and it's unacceptable," Stewart said Sunday.
Jon Stewart
Found on Mars
Star Trek Symbol
Earlier this week, NASA released a photograph of what looks like the Starfleet delta insignia from Star Trek carved onto the landscape of Mars. While fans appreciate the cosmic nod to the Star Trek, Star Wars star Mark Hamill wasn't impressed. This led to some tweet trading with Star Trek star William Shatner.
Hamill didn't see the resemblance in the Mars Starfleet delta. Instead, he tweeted, "Looks like a boomerang to me. #Meh." Shatner responded to Hamill's apathetic tweet by tweeting, "Don't be jelly, Mark." Hamill retorted "Actually- it looks more like a crescent roll, which are yummy with jelly! #LiveLongAndUnfollowMe."
Shatner hasn't replied back.
This isn't the first time that Shatner and Hamill have traded tweets lately. Shatner got into Hamill's timeline with some commentary on Hamill's role as Chucky in the Child's Play reboot.
"Happy to know that the next generation of youth will be deathly afraid of you," Shatner tweeted. "You have become your father! Seriously, congratulations on the role."
Star Trek Symbol
Fallen Tree
'The Lorax'
The Lorax would be devastated to hear that the tree that inspired Dr. Seuss' 1971 children's book has fallen.
The Monterey Cypress tree was at Ellen Browning Scripps Park in La Jolla, California, the seaside community where author Theodor Seuss Geisel lived from 1948 until his death in 1991.
Geisel could see the tree from his mountaintop home, according to the city's website.
The tree was estimated to be about 80 to 100 years old, said Tim Graham, a spokesman for the San Diego Parks and Recreation Department.
Most of the tree was removed Friday and the remaining large trunk is expected to be removed later this week. The city will be looking at planting a replacement in the area, Graham said.
'The Lorax'
Dolly Parton Outfit
Post Malone
Just one day after Post Malone took the main stage at Bonnaroo, Dolly Parton took to twitter and applauded his attire online.
"Love the outfit from head toe @PostMalone," the country superstar from Tennessee tweeted, complete with a winking emoji face.
During his hour and 15 minutes set Saturday night on the What Stage at Great Stage Park, the pop star donned a black and white shirt and pants combo with Parton's face all over it.
Post Malone was among this year's headliners at the four-day music festival at Great Stage Park in Manchester. Other artist slated to perform Sunday on the final day of Bonnaroo include Cardi B, The Lumineers and Phish.
Post Malone
Gulf Coast
Dolphins
Federal scientists are trying to determine why an extraordinary number of dolphins have turned up dead along the Gulf Coast.
A vast majority of the 279 common bottlenose dolphins discovered stranded along the Gulf in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana since Feb. 1 have died, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.
The number of deaths is about three times the normal stranding rate for the time period, NOAA officials said. About 78 percent of the carcasses were too decomposed for study, they said.
Suspects so far include the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, which has had a lasting impact on wildlife along the Gulf shore, and spring's historic Midwest river flooding, which has sent freshwater rushing into the Gulf.
At the same time, scientists studying dolphin carcasses have discovered "visible skin lesions consistent with freshwater exposure," said Erin Fougères, administrator for the marine mammal stranding program in NOAA Fisheries' southeast region.
Dolphins
Crown Prince Warns
Saudi
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has warned against "exploiting" the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi for political gains, in what appeared to be a veiled attack on Turkey.
Turkey's ties with Saudi Arabia have come under strain since the brutal murder last October of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which tarnished the international reputation of the crown prince.
Turkish officials were the first to report the murder and have continued to press Saudi Arabia for information on the whereabouts of his dismembered body, which has yet to be found.
"Any party exploiting the case politically should stop doing so, and present evidence to the (Saudi) court, which will contribute in achieving justice," he added, without directly naming Turkey.
The CIA has reportedly said the murder was likely ordered by Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler and heir to the Arab world's most powerful throne.
Saudi
Poker Star
Russia
A 26-year-old Russian poker star has died after electrocuting herself in the bath with a hairdryer in her family's Moscow apartment, according to local media.
Lilya Novikova's body was found in the bathroom by a neighbour after her parents raised the alarm when they had been unable to get hold of her for several hours.
Russia's Investigative Committee, an official government body, said there were signs of electrocution injuries on Ms Novikova's body. An investigation has been launched but all reports suggest it was a tragic accident.
Ms Novikova was a design engineer and had graduated from the prestigious Bauman Moscow State Technical University - the second oldest educational institution in the country.
She filmed masterclasses in poker which were widely followed online and was also a keen cyclist and snowboarder.
Russia
Lyrics Embedded With Secret Morse Code
Genius
Lyrics website Genius has accused Google of stealing lyrics from its site and reposting them in search results without permission, with Genius claiming they caught the search engine "red handed" thanks to Morse code embedded in their lyrics.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Genius' web traffic has dropped in recent years as Google has posted lyrics on its search results page in "information boxes" instead of routing users to lyric sites like Genius; in March, 62 percent of mobile searches on Google did not result in a click-through to another site.
While Google posting song lyrics themselves is not a crime, Genius claims that Google has been lifting the song lyrics directly from Genius without permission and reposting them on the search result page. The evidence: Two forms of apostrophes embedded in Genius-housed lyrics.
Starting in 2016, Genius positioned both "straight" and "curly" apostrophes in their lyrics which, when converted into dots and dashes like Morse code, spelled out the words "Red Handed." Genius added that, using these apostrophes, they found over 100 instances of Google using Genius' own lyrics in the Google search results.
The Wall Street Journal corroborated Genius' accusations by matching the results of a randomly chosen three songs from the list of 100 instances - including Alessia Cara's "Not Today" - as well as Genius' lyrics for Desiigner's near-indecipherable "Panda," which the rapper himself submitted to the site.
Genius
Weekend Box Office
'Men In Black: International'
Brand familiarity isn't everything when it comes to attracting audiences to the multiplex, and Hollywood is learning that lesson the hard way this summer with a slew of underperforming sequels and reboots. That so-called franchise fatigue came to a head this weekend with the releases of "Men in Black: International" and "Shaft."
"Men in Black: International" took the No. 1 spot in North America, but it's a dubious distinction for the Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth-led reboot which isn't exactly the franchise-revitalizer it hoped to be. Sony Pictures on Sunday estimates the F. Gary Gray-directed film earned only $28.5 million over the weekend against a reported $110 million production budget. The three previous "Men in Black" films all opened to over $50 million not accounting for inflation.
"The Secret Life of Pets 2" got the No. 2 spot in its second weekend with $23.8 million. Disney's "Aladdin," now in weekend four, took third with $16.7 million. "Dark Phoenix" placed fourth with $9 million and "Rocketman" coasted to fifth with $8.8 million.
"Shaft," a Warner Bros. release, placed sixth on the charts, with a disappointing $8.3 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Men in Black: International," $28.5 million ($73.7 million international).
2. "The Secret Life of Pets 2," $23.8 million ($8.5 million international).
3. "Aladdin," $16.7 million ($47.5 million international).
4. "Dark Phoenix," $9 million ($24.2 million international).
5. "Rocketman," $8.8 million ($8.5 million international).
6. "Shaft," $8.3 million.
7. "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," $8.1 million ($14.1 million international).
8. "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum," $6.1 million ($6.2 million international).
9. "Late Night," $5.1 million ($255,000 international).
10. "Ma," $3.6 million ($2.3 million international).
'Men In Black: International'
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