Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lucy Mangan: "In 1995 I learnt the truth about privilege" (Stylist)
At school I had been the posho, the lucky one, the privileged one; I had a safe home with two parents still together who loved me and my sister and who always put us first, and we didn't have to live hand to mouth. When my dad got ill and lost his job, we had a spare room and could take in lodgers until he got better. There was slack in our system, where I knew most of the children in my classroom had none. To find myself at university where this seemed the equivalent of me having emerged from a Dickensian hovel was, once I was past the initial shock, hilarious.
Jonathan Jones: "Takis review - the lovable Greek and his mind-boggling magnetic marvels" (The Guardian)
Takis has been tapping into the forces that govern our universe since the 1950s. Who would have thought electromagnetism could be so joyful? … It's hard not to use the word "magic" about the art of Takis. A nail floats motionless in space. A cylinder and a ball dance jerkily with each other. Angelic music is played withno sign of a human hand. Yet none of this is the work of the supernatural, nor is Takis trying to fool anyone into thinking that it is. The force that gives his art its innocent joy is part of the fabric of the universe.
Alison Flood: Crime writers react with fury to claim their books hinder rape trials (The Guardian)
Novelists have condemned the Staunch prize - for thrillers without violence against women - as a 'gagging order', after organisers said the genre could bias jurors.
Inkoo Kang: Bob's Burgers Is the Perfect TV Show to Binge This Summer (Slate)
Despite its distinct and inventive characters, fantastic voice cast, wonderfully weird setting, and surprisingly consistent quality, Bob's Burgers continues to fly under the radar.
Peter Bradshaw: Don't Look Now review - Roeg's scary movie can still make you jump (The Guardian)
From its red stalker to its eerie strangers, this suspenseful classic set a template for horror - but its sexual intimacy adds a dramatic counterpoint few films can match.
Joe Queenan: "The queen of evil dolls: why Annabelle's work ethic makes her a great role model" (The Guardian)
Amid the glut of bad films about possessed toys, kids can learn a lot from Annabelle - the devil doll with an impressive can-do attitude.
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Michael Egan
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from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Robert Benchley was the drama critic for Lifefor several years. He detested Abie's Irish Rose, which set a record with 2,327 performances over several years. Unfortunately for Mr. Benchley, Life ran capsule reviews of plays previously reviewed, so each week he had to find a new way to write "awful" in his capsule review of the play. After running out of ideas, he began to fill the space with such "reviews" as "There is no letter 'w' in the French alphabet" and "Flying fish are sometimes seen at as great a height as 15 feet" and "In another two or three years, we'll have this play driven out of town" and "Closing soon. (Only fooling.)" Eventually, he held a contest for suggestions to fill the space. Harpo Marx's suggestion was "No worse than a bad cold."
• While performing in the play Angel Streetin New York, Vincent Price had the misfortune to bite into a well-frozen ice cream treat during intermission, dislodging a cap on a front tooth. Determined that the show must go on, Mr. Price lodged a wad of adhesive tape into the gap in his front teeth, then continued his performance. Unfortunately, the gap of adhesive tape came loose, flying out of his mouth during an impassioned speech and hitting his co-starring actress on her cheek. For the rest of what was supposed to be a stirring scene, Mr. Price lisped his speeches.
• Young inexperienced actors sometimes get stage fright and forget their lines. Appearing with Ada Rehan was a young actor suffering from a bad case of the nerves. The actor was supposed to ask Ms. Rehan a question, then as she hesitated, say, "You don't reply." Unfortunately, when Ms. Rehan hesitated, the actor forgot his line. A prompter from the wings of the theater whispered, "You don't reply," and the actor whispered back, "How the hell can I, when I don't know what to say?"
• Richard Dennis appeared in the play Murder by Murder. At the end of Act II, his character was punched in the jaw, so each night he secreted a pouch of stage blood in his mouth so that during the fight scene he could let a trickle of blood run down his chin. Unfortunately, one night he accidentally bit into the pouch too early, and he was forced to cover up the accident by apologizing to the other characters about his bleeding gums.
• Some actresses act even when they are not on stage or in front of a camera. Tallulah Bankhead once complained about a young actress who had a bit role in one of her plays. Ranting and raving, Ms. Bankhead strode up and down her dressing room complaining about the actress. The play's director, John C. Wilson, told her, "We've already fired that girl." Ms. Bankhead replied, "I know that, but for heaven's sake, let me have my scene."
• While Eve Arden was appearing in a play, Tallulah Bankhead and her date watched from the audience and tried to break up the cast with laughter. Her date was wearing a wide red ribbon across his chest. At a crucial moment in the play, white lights shone in the ribbon, spelling out the words, "Call for Phillip Morris," the slogan of the sponsor of Tallulah's radio show.
• A man named Waxey Gordon once wanted a big-time star like Jimmy Durante, who was then featured in movies, to appear in a Broadway show. Informed that he would have to go through Irving Thalberg (a movie producer) to get Durante, he asked, "Who the hell is Thalberg?" After learning that Thalberg was a Hollywood big shot, Mr. Gordon said, "The hell with Durante. If Thalberg is that big, I want Thalberg."
• Frank Benson was the manager of a traveling Shakespearean troupe and a lover of sports. He once sent a wire to an actor, asking, "Can you play Rugby tomorrow?" The actor wired back, "Yes," and arrived the next day expecting in play in a Rugby match - and was startled to learn that Mr. Benson wanted him to play the character of "Rugby" in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
• In 1894, people were shocked by vice portrayed on the stage. When Constance Benson portrayed the prostitute Doll Tearsheet in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, shocked ministers preached against the immorality of the stage. In addition, all the schoolchildren in the audience were escorted from the theater by their shocked parents or teachers.
• Playwright Eugene O'Neill is the son of actor James O'Neill. Early in his career, Eugene O'Neill's plays were rejected by George C. Tyler, who didn't even bother to read them because, he explained, "Plays by actors' sons are never any good."
• George Bernard Shaw once gave English entertainer Joyce Grenfell a present - seven postcard-sized photographs of himself that he had signed. When he gave her the present, he told her, "One for every day in the week and all out on Sunday. And don't sell them until I'm dead."
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan scored an immediate success when his comic play The School for Scandal was first performed on May 8, 1777. There was so much applause and laughter that a pedestrian walking by the theater thought it was collapsing and fled to safety.
• George White was a producer of revues during the Roaring Twenties. Often, he sat in the ticket office and sold tickets for his revue and was amused whenever someone he had never met demanded good seats because of being "a personal friend of George White's."
• At Smith College, President William Allan Neilson attended a play in which one of the college's undergraduates played a prostitute. Later he congratulated her on her performance. "You acted very well," he said. "That was acting, wasn't it?"
• Actor Balliol Holloway was once asked why he didn't accept an offer to perform in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He replied, "I'm not quite sure what part to play - Mercutio, and get off early, or the Friar, and keep my trousers on."
• W.S. Gilbert once visited the dressing room of an actor who, in his opinion, had acted poorly, and said, "My dear chap! 'Good' isn't the word!"
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Last Night
June Gloom in July. But not for long.
Surprise Asbury Park Performance
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen made a surprise appearance Saturday evening near the end of Southside Johnny's annual July 4th weekend concert at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He came onstage to join his old friend on a spirited rendition of "Sherry Darling" and stuck around for seemingly unrehearsed takes on "The Fever," "Talk to Me," "Kitty's Back," 'I Don't Wanna Go Home," 'Mona/Not Fade Away" and "Having a Party."
Southside Johnny and Springsteen rose out of the late Sixties Asbury Park rock scene and have played together countless times over the years, but this was their longest set in many years. E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent played earlier in the night on the Stone Pony Summer Stage, and Springsteen joined him for his original song "Dirty Rotten Shame" even though he barely seemed to know it. It was the first time Springsteen had ever played with Tallent at one of his solo shows. (Remember Jones was on the bill as well.)
"I want to thank Bruce for coming out tonight," Southside Johnny told the crowd near the evening of the evening. "Remember Jones, too. They were good. And Mr. Garry W. Tallent from Neptune, New Jersey. He's got a new album out [More Like Me]. We don't. [Bruce] has a new album [Western Stars] out. We don't. Thanks for making us look bad, Bruce."
Springsteen has kept a low profile throughout 2019 despite releasing Western Stars last month. His only live performances have been a pair of brief appearances at Steve Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul shows, two songs at a Netflix promotional event in Los Angeles and three songs with the Tangiers Blues Band at the Kristen Ann Carr Fund gala. This Southside Johnny set was, by far, his longest performance since the end of Springsteen on Broadway in December 2018.
Bruce Springsteen
Chants Interrupt Broadcast
World Cup
Fox "News" senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot was broadcasting live from Lyon, France, after the U.S. Women's national team claimed victory in the championship game against the Netherlands when chants from the bar turned political.
"History has just been made! We are here in a sports bar in Lyon, France. Listen to it," Palkot said before he realized the bar's patrons were excitedly shouting a chorus of "Fuck Trump! Fuck Trump! Fuck Trump!"
Trying to talk over the chants, Palkot launched into an explanation of why he was reporting from inside the bar. "We are inside a sports bar, we were going to be outside, we were going to be at a screen of the football [match]." But the damage was already done, our dear leader's favorite channel had just broadcast a bar chanting "Fuck Trump!"
Trump started a feud with one of the U.S. team's stars and co-captain Megan Rapinoe when she said she would turn down any invitation to visit the White House if they won the World Cup, saying, "I'm not going to the fucking White House." This, of course, prompted a Twitter attack from President Don-Old Trump (R-Grifter), who said, "Megan should WIN before she TALKS! Finish the job!"
World Cup
Heat Wave
Alaska
Alaskans who routinely pack knit caps and fleece jackets in summer on Friday were swapping them for sunscreen and parasols amid a prolonged heat wave.
Residents of Anchorage and other south-central cities completed a fifth week of above-normal temperatures, including a record high 90 degrees (32.22 Celsius) on Thursday in the state's largest city.
On Friday, as temperatures dipped just slightly, Anchorage resident Lucy Davidson sought relief with her grandchildren at a beach at Goose Lake. She said she picked up a portable air conditioner at a garage sale six years ago. It had not been used some summers, but it's getting a workout lately.
The temperature Thursday in Anchorage hit 90 degrees (32.22 Celsius) at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, 5 degrees higher than the city's previous recorded high of 85 degrees (29.44 Celsius).
Three other Alaska locations, Kenai, Palmer and King Salmon, set or tied all-time high temperature records on Thursday.
Alaska
World Heritage Sites
Frank Lloyd Wright
Eight of architect Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on Sunday, elevating them to the same status as Machu Picchu, the Pyramids of Giza and the Statue of Liberty.
The new additions to the list were announced in Baku, Azerbaijan at UNESCO's annual conference, include Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, the Jacobs House in Wisconsin, the Robie House in Chicago, Taliesin in Wisconsin, Taliesin West in Arizona and the Unity Temple in Illinois.
"Each of these buildings offers innovative solutions to the needs for housing, worship, work or leisure," wrote members of the World Heritage Committee in a press release announcing the designation. "Wright's work from this period had a strong impact on the development of modern architecture in Europe."
Joining a list of over 1,000 other sites, the committee said it added Wright's works for their "organic architecture" and lauded his open plans and utilization of materials like steel and concrete.
After Sunday's announcement, Wright's buildings will be the 24th American site included on the World Heritage List. It marks the United States' first designation since the Trump administration withdrew from UNESCO in 2018 citing an anti-Israel bias.
Frank Lloyd Wright
One-Quarter Can't Afford To Retire
Americans
Nearly one-quarter of Americans say they never plan to retire, according to a poll that suggests a disconnection between individuals' retirement plans and the realities of aging in the workforce. Experts say illness, injury, layoffs and caregiving responsibilities often force older workers to leave their jobs sooner than they'd like.
According to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 23 percent of workers, including nearly two in 10 of those over 50, don't expect to stop working. Roughly another quarter of Americans say they will continue working beyond their 65th birthday.
According to government data, about one in five people 65 and older were working or actively looking for a job in June.
When asked how financially comfortable they feel about retirement, 14 percent of Americans under the age of 50 and 29 percent over 50 say they feel extremely or very prepared, according to the poll. About another four in 10 older adults say they do feel somewhat prepared, while just about one-third feel unprepared. By comparison, 56 percent of younger adults say they don't feel prepared for retirement.
But remaining in the workforce may be unrealistic for people dealing with unexpected illness or injuries. For them, high medical bills and a lack of savings loom large over day-to-day expenditures.
Americans
Hikes At 5 Times Inflation
Drug Prices
Price hikes on prescription drugs are surging in 2019, despite vows from lawmakers and the Trump administration to rein in pharmaceutical costs.
So far in 2019, more than 3,400 drugs have boosted their prices, a 17% increase compared with the roughly 2,900 drug price increases at the same time in 2018, according to a new analysis by Rx Savings Solutions, a consultant to health plans and employers.
The average price hike for those 3,400 drugs stands at 10.5%, or about 5 times the rate of inflation, the study found. About 41 drugs have boosted their prices by more than 100%, including one version of the antidepressant fluoxetine -- also known as Prozac -- whose cost has surged 879%, Rx Savings Solutions said.
The price increases come at a time when lawmakers and consumers are increasingly concerned about the escalating cost of medications, which are far outpacing wage growth and the cost of living. Four of 5 Americans believe the cost of prescription drugs is unreasonable, according to a study earlier this year from the Kaiser Family Foundation. About one-third of patients say they're skipping prescription medicine because of the cost, the survey found.
To be sure, the hikes on more than 3,400 drugs represent a small share of the overall pharmaceutical market. But for patients who rely on one of those medicines, the costs can add to rapidly rising health care expenditures and create dilemmas about how to pay for their care.
Drug Prices
Fungus Found in California
Bats
A fungus that causes a deadly disease in bats has been detected in California for the first time.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife refuge specialist Catherine Hibbard said Friday that samples collected this spring from bats on private land in the Northern California town of Chester tested positive for the fungus.
The fungus causes white-nose syndrome, which can lead to dehydration or other conditions that kill bats.
She says the fungus was first detected in New York in 2006 and has spread incrementally.
Bats that have contracted the disease have now been confirmed in 33 states and seven Canadian provinces.
Bats
US 2020 Census
320,000 Trees
We've only just passed the halfway mark in 2019. Just a bit under six months left in the year, about six months before 2020 arrives.
It seems, to the layperson, like a lot of time in which to accomplish something as seemingly trivial as printing out the forms needed for the next census, which will be completed next year.
So when the Trump administration claimed last week that it had to abandon its fight over adding a question about citizenship to next year's census questionnaire due to the urgency of getting the documents printed, it could seem a bit overwrought.
It's going to take you more than six months to print the questionnaires?
Well, maybe not exactly six months, but it's not going to be quick. The reason is a simple one: Scale.
320,000 Trees
Weekend Box Office
"Spider-Man: Far From Home"
"Spider-Man: Far From Home," the first Marvel movie after "Avengers: Endgame," swung past any franchise fatigue to dominate the July Fourth holiday weekend, raking in an estimated $185.1 million since opening Tuesday and earning $93.6 million from Friday to Sunday in North American theaters.
After two weeks atop the box office, "Toy Story 4" slid a modest 43% to second place, with $34.3 million. It has now taken in $650 million globally. Universal Pictures' Beatles-themed romantic comedy "Yesterday" dropped only 37 percent in its second weekend, with $10.8 million.
The Warner Bros. "Conjuring" spinoff sequel "Annabelle Comes Home" snagged $10.8 million in its second weekend. And Disney's "Aladdin," with $7.6 million in its seventh week of release, has accumulated $921.7 million worldwide.
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.
1. "Spider-Man: Far From Home," $93.6 million ($238 million international).
2. "Toy Story 4," $34.3 million ($43.1 million international).
3. "Yesterday," $10.8 million ($7.9 million international).
4. "Annabelle Comes Home," $10.8 million ($20.4 million international).
5. "Aladdin," $7.6 million ($16.2 million international).
6. "Midsommar," $6.6 million ($761,000 international).
7. "The Secret Life of Pets 2," $4.8 million ($22.4 million international).
8. "Men in Black International," $3.6 million ($3.7 million international).
9. "Avengers: Endgame," $3.1 million ($1.3 million international).
10. "Rocketman," $2.8 million ($1.5 million international)
"Spider-Man: Far From Home"
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