from Bruce
Anecdotes
Olympics
• At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, gymnast Bart Conner attended the opening ceremonies, where he saw thousands of people smiling and waving flags. After the Olympics, he received a letter from a young girl, who asked, “Did you see me that day in the Los Angeles Coliseum? I was the one smiling and waving the flag.” Mr. Conner says that in fact he did see her: “If only for an instant, I actually did feel and ‘see’ every face.” In addition, looking around at the thousands of people in the Coliseum, Mr. Conner said to fellow gymnast Jim Hartung, “Wouldn’t it be great to spot somebody you knew in this mob?” At that moment, Mr. Hartung said, “Bart, look. There’s your mom.” Mr. Conner did look, and he saw his parents in the crowd.
• On April 10, 1896, a Greek named Spyridon Louis won the marathon race at the Olympics held in Greece. He had trained by running after his mule as he carried water from village to village. After winning, he became famous, but he declined to take advantage of his celebrity even though his fellow Greeks offered him such things as free dinners and free haircuts. However, when King George I of Greece asked if there was anything he would like to have as a reward for winning the marathon, he replied, “Yes, please, a cart and a horse so I won’t have to run after my mule any more.”
• Winning an Olympic gold medal can be exhausting, both physically and mentally. After winning her gold medal in women’s figure skating at the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, Tara Lipinski fell asleep so soundly that the next morning, Megan Faulkner was able to braid her hair without waking her. In fact, Tara was so soundly asleep that she slept through a moderate earthquake. When a reporter asked her what she thought about the earthquake, Tara replied, “What earthquake?”
• The life of a world-class gymnastics coach may not be what you think it is. At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Mary Lou Retton, who was born in West Virginia but was coached by Bela Karolyi in Houston, Texas, won the gold medal in the all-around. Mr. Karolyi, however, was not the coach of the United States team, so he was not given a pass into the Olympic Village. For part of the Olympics, he slept in the hotel room of a friend, but once his friend left LA, he slept in a car.
• The finals in the broad jump at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, featured a fierce competition between the American Jesse Owens and the German Luz Long. During the finals, they tied the Olympic record once and beat the record five times, but when the contest was over, Mr. Owens held both the new Olympic record and a gold medal. In defeat, Mr. Long was a good sportsman. He congratulated Mr. Owens, and the two athletes became friends.
• After ice skater Peggy Fleming won her gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games, she was given both her medal and a kiss by Avery Brundage, the aged chair of the International Olympic Committee, who was vigilant in making sure that the athletes participating in the Olympics were amateurs. After Ms. Fleming got her medal and kiss, reporters asked her what Mr. Brundage was like as a kisser. She replied, “He was an amateur.”
• At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, John Walker, the 1,500-meter track champion from New Zealand, drank a few beers in order to come up with enough urine for his mandatory drug test following his gold medal-winning performance. Finally succeeding in his objective, he held the bottle up and said, “I’m very proud of this. It was harder than running the race.”
• At the 1912 Olympic Games, Jim Thorpe won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon events. At the awards ceremony, King Gustav V of Sweden told him, “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.” Mr. Thorpe replied, “Thanks, King.”
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. was first, and correct, with:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Santiago"
Album: ANTHROPOCENE
Artist: The Cholla
Artist Location: Irvine, California
Info: “The Cholla is a one-man musical project that explores exotic territories with reverb-drenched surf guitars.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $7 (USD) for 12-track album
Genre: Instrumental. Surf Instrumental.
Links:
ANTHROPOCENE
The Cholla on Bandcamp
The Cholla 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
Stephen Suggests
Twofer
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
Around noon, a tow truck deposited a re-purposed cop car (someone bought it at auction) on the side street, outside my window.
About 10 minutes later a car parked behind it, 5 guys got out, and played shade-tree mechanic on the re-purposed cop car for a little over 7 hours, but never got it running.
Within 10 minutes of their leaving, the tow truck shows up again and carted the car away.
Four-Day Protest
Willie Nelson
Country music star Willie Nelson has headlined the close of a four-day march in Texas in support of voting rights.
Texas is one of several GOP-led states that has introduced voting and elections bills following the 2020 election - and masses have come out to protest as Democrats call them an attack on voting rights.
Nelson played a short set to close out the rally staged in Austin to close out the rally, which featured the star's 2018 song, "Vote 'Em Out."
"It is important that we ensure the right for EVERY American to vote and vote safely," Nelson said in a statement through the Poor People's Campaign when he announced his participation in the rally in support of Democratic state legislators who bolted for Washington two weeks ago to block GOP-backed voting restrictions.
"Laws making it more difficult for people to vote is un-American and are intended to punish poor people, people of color, the elderly, and disabled - why? If you can't win playing by the rules, then it's you and your platform - not everyone else's ability to vote."
Willie Nelson
Annoyed
Seth MacFarlane
“Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane said that he’s getting so fed up with Fox News’ star host, Tucker Carlson, that he’s toying with moving his animated adult comedy show to another network.
After broadcasting “Family Guy” on Fox for 19 seasons, MacFarlane said that Carlson’s antics on Fox News has him rethinking Fox Broadcasting Company as the home for “Family Guy” and his other animated sitcom, “American Dad!” where it has been since its 2005 launch. Although it’s not the same division as Fox News, it is under the same corporate umbrella.
“Tucker Carlson’s latest opinion piece once again makes me wish Family Guy was on any other network. Look, Fox, we both know this marriage isn’t working anymore,” MacFarlane joked in an Aug. 1 tweet. “The sex is only once a year, I don’t get along with your mother, and well… I’ve been having an affair with NBC.”
The mastermind behind over 360 episodes of the Griffin family’s antics referenced “Carlson’s latest opinion piece” in his tweet. While it’s unclear exactly which segment he’s referring to, there have been plenty of moments on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” recently that could have rubbed MacFarlane the wrong way — like Carlson repeatedly suggesting that Dr. Anthony Fauci created the pandemic, likening vaccines to “sterilization” or lobbying for teachers to wear body cams to ensure they don’t teach critical race theory.
Truth be told, we don’t know the minutiae of MacFarlane’s and the show’s contract with the network; the show might be locked in to a spot there for a while longer depending on broadcast agreements. All that said, a Fox Entertainment spokesperson confirmed that, as of now, the network has no plans to change its carriage of “Family Guy.”
Seth MacFarlane
Walking Again
Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd is walking again after shattering her leg in an accident in the Congo nearly six months ago.
The actress and activist went hiking through the Swiss National Park in eastern Switzerland this weekend, going slowly as she continues working on her recovery.
“Dear Friends, It is with reverence and quiet awe I offer this update,” she captioned a video from her hike via IG. “Today, five months and three weeks after the accident in the Congolese rainforest, I walked again, and in what fashion! I hiked in the #SwissNationalPark. Stepping in, I felt in my ease, my natural garment of self, at home in my spirit. My leg and foot, worked beautifully. I walked up hill on uneven surfaces for an hour confidently and came down carefully and easily. I rested in a meadow on God’s fecund earth for hours.”
Judd was walking in a Congo rainforest in February when she tripped over a fallen tree, shattering her leg. Judd, a frequent visitor to Congo, was doing work to track the Bonobos, an endangered great apes species.
Ashley Judd
Weekend Box Office
‘Jungle Cruise’
Despite growing concerns over the delta variant, “Jungle Cruise” still drew moviegoers out to theaters during the film’s opening weekend to sail atop the North American box office.
The Disney film starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt exceeded expectations by pulling in more than $34.1 million over the weekend. The adventure movie was estimated to open with around $25 million to $30 million domestically, but it outpaced those numbers despite the surge in the coronavirus cases.
“Jungle Cruise” also earned five times more than “The Green Knight,” which came in at No. 2 with $6.78 million. The A24 film starring Dev Patel barely edged M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old,” which had $6.76 million after scoring the top spot last weekend.
“Black Widow” placed fourth after a past week of turmoil between Disney and the film’s lead, Scarlett Johansson. The actor sued the studio over the film’s streaming release, which she said breached her contract and deprived her of potential earnings.
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. “Jungle Cruise," $34.1 million.
2. “The Green Knight," $6.78
3. “Old,” $6.76 million.
4. “Black Widow,” $6.4 million.
5. “Stillwater,” $5.1 million.
6. “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” $4.2 million.
7. “Snake Eyes,” $4 million.
8. “F9: The Fast Saga," $2.6 million.
9. "Escape Room: Tournament of Champions,” $2.2 million.
10. “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” $1.3 million.
‘Jungle Cruise’
Distorting Events
Counternarrative
In the hours and days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, rattled Republican lawmakers knew exactly who was to blame: Donald Trump. Loyal allies began turning on him. Top Republicans vowed to make a full break from his divisive tactics and dishonesties. Some even discussed removing him from office.
By spring, however, after nearly 200 congressional Republicans had voted to clear Trump during a second impeachment proceeding, the conservative fringes of the party had already begun to rewrite history, describing the Capitol riot as a peaceful protest and comparing the invading mob to a “normal tourist visit,” as one congressman put it.
This past week, amid the emotional testimony of police officers at the first hearing of a House select committee, Republicans completed their journey through the looking-glass, spinning a new counternarrative of that deadly day. No longer content to absolve Trump, they concocted a version of events in which accused rioters were patriotic political prisoners and Speaker Nancy Pelosi was to blame for the violence.
This rendering of events — together with new evidence that Trump had counted on allies in Congress to help him use a baseless allegation of corruption to overturn the election — pointed to what some democracy experts see as a dangerous new sign in American politics: Even with Trump gone from the White House, many Republicans have little intention of abandoning the prevarication that was a hallmark of his presidency.
Rather, as the country struggles with the consequences of Trump’s assault on the legitimacy of the nation’s elections, leaders of his party — who, unlike the former president, have not lost their political or rhetorical platforms — are signaling their willingness to continue, look past or even expand his assault on the facts for political gain.
Counternarrative
Political Appointments Rile Career Diplomats
Ambassador Posts
Joe Biden is sticking to tradition as he slowly fills the vacancies in the ranks of ambassadors across the world, focussing on mixing longtime career diplomatic officials with figures with strong ties to himself and the Democratic party.
Among Biden’s expected picks is Caroline Kennedy, former US ambassador to Japan, daughter of the former president, and longtime Biden friend, ally and donor, to be ambassador to Australia. He has picked the Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, who was a prominent Biden surrogate on the presidential campaign trail, to be ambassador to India, despite a relative lack of foreign policy experience. And the president is also widely expected to name the former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel ambassador to Japan.
These choices, which are expected to be put forward for confirmation in the coming weeks, and the many others nominated so far, have gradually answered a persistent question hanging over Biden’s presidency: how he would approach filling out the ambassadorial ranks and follow through on his vow to reengage the world as president.
Biden’s selections appear to thwart the pressure from the progressive wing of his party to depart from tradition, in which new presidents give out plum roles to top donors and high-profile figures with strong ties to the president.
The Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Biden’s former progressive rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, is among those who have strongly argued that career civil diplomats and foreign affairs experts should get ambassadorial posts, regardless of how close they are to the administration in power or how much money they donate.
Ambassador Posts
See Surge
Survivalist Schools
Manhattanite David D’Alessio spent a recent Saturday cobbling together a shelter out of muddy leaves and twigs in a wooded stretch 75 miles north of New York City.
While the wilderness training on the 90-acre grounds of the Mountain Scout Survival School has traditionally attracted outdoor enthusiasts, the musician was among several of the 18 attendees who weren’t learning to drink water out of a vine or set traps for rabbits just for fun.
Those are skills D’Alessio, 49, the father of a 6-year-old girl, fears will become essential in the coming years — as the impacts of climate change continue to worsen.
“It’s an inevitability that we’ll be facing a crisis within our lifetime, within my lifetime and certainly within my daughter’s lifetime,” he said.
Survivalist school instructors across the country say there has been an increasing interest in their wilderness and urban-disaster preparedness courses from Americans worried about climate change. As rising temperatures bring more wildfires, droughts and destructive storms, those types of courses are no longer the domain of campers and hunters. One of these schools' fastest-growing demographics is now young families.
Survivalist Schools
Disastrous Impact
Heatwaves
When forecasts foreshadowed the Pacific north-west’s devastating heatwave at the end of June, marine biologist Christopher Harley was alarmed and intrigued.
Then came the smell, and his feelings somberly shifted.
“It was this putrid smell of decay,” Harley said. Across hundreds of miles of coastline the extreme heat baked the barnacles, seaweed, and small sea creatures exposed to the elements along the shore. Starfish that failed to crawl to shadier spots were cooked alive. Mussels laid agape along the rocks, the tissue crisped between their shells.
Armed with special equipment, Harley and his team of researchers at the University of British Columbia descended to the beaches to measure the body temperatures of the mussels, but it was too late – by the third day of the record-breaking heatwave they all had died. “We were just walking across carpets of dead mussels on the shore in awe,” he said.
Initial estimates show that over a billion creatures that live in the shallow waters across the Pacific north-west perished in the heat that week. Scientists expect the impact will have a trickle-down effect on the ecosystem and the other animals that rely on those that died for food and habitat.
Heatwaves
Teen Buddhist Lama
Jalue Dorje
In most ways, Jalue Dorje is a typical American teen — he grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, loving football, Pokémon and rap music.
Yet a few years from now, he’s expecting to say goodbye to his family and homeland and join a monastery in the foothills of the Himalayas — from an early age, he was recognized by the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders as a reincarnated lama.
Since that recognition, he’s spent much of his life training to become a monk, memorizing sacred scriptures (often rewarded by his dad with Pokémon cards), practicing calligraphy and learning the teachings of Buddha.
Now he’s 14 and entering his first year of high school. After graduation in 2025, he’ll head to northern India to join the Mindrolling Monastery, more than 7,200 miles (11,500 kilometers) from his home in Columbia Heights.
Following a period of contemplation and ascetism, he hopes to return to America to teach in the Minnesota Buddhist community. His goal? “To become a leader of peace,” he said. “Like the Dalai Lama or Gandhi or Nelson Mandela.”
Jalue Dorje
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