Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lucy Mangan: "Money can reveal a lot about your partner" (Stylist)
Beware of a man who feels threatened by your success, says Lucy Mangan.
Hadley Freeman: Can't speak Flemish? Hate Nutella? There'll be no room for you in remainiac Britain (The Guardian)
Let's have a second Brexit referendum - and show Farage and Rees-Mogg what extremism really looks like.
Daniel Politi: "NRA Says it Is Facing a Financial Crisis, Twitter Users Send 'Thoughts & Prayers'" (Slate)
"Thoughts and prayers to the NRA who is saying they're in a deep financial crisis and may be unable to exist. Maybe they could ask some of the Republicans they donated millions to for a loan: Richard Burr - $7M. Roy Blunt - $4M. Cory Gardner - $3M. Marco Rubio - $3M" - Chelsea Handler
CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI: Laws Banning Catcalling Won't Stop Street Harassment in France, the U.S., or Anywhere Else (Slate)
Shaming the harasser didn't work for Laguerre, whose snappy comeback was met with a punch to the head. Her case demonstrates the cost-benefit analyses women are forced to make while moving through public spaces. Do I talk back to this guy, and possibly embarrass him enough that he never harasses a woman again? Or will he follow me down the street and put me in physical danger if I do? If a restaurant full of witnesses wasn't enough to stop Laguerre's attacker from striking her when she spoke up, the threat of a monetary fine probably wouldn't have stopped him from wolf whistling, either.
Matthew Dessem: Patrick Stewart Will Return to the Role of Jean-Luc Picard in a New CBS All Access Star Trek Series (Slate)
"During these past years, it has been humbling to hear stories about how The Next Generation brought people comfort, saw them through difficult periods in their lives or how the example of Jean-Luc inspired so many people to follow in his footsteps, pursuing science, exploration, and leadership. I feel I'm ready to return to him for the same reason-to research and experience what comforting and reforming light he might shine on these often very dark times." - Patrick Stewart
CAITLIN FLANAGAN: How Lolita Seduces Us All (Atlantic)
A new book about a terrible crime sheds light on the novel's enduring allure.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Military parades can be dangerous
Hope someone keeps playing footage of the Venezuelan "assassination attempt" at the military parade on a constant loop for Predator.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
QAnon.
THE POPINJAY.
WHY DO WE WANT TO KILL EACH OTHER?
GOOD THINKING. A DESERT WONT BURN.
'OUR CARS ARE TOAST'
'BURN BABY, BURN.'
SUCCESS!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot. Supposed to get hotter. Sigh.
'The Americans' Wins Big
TV Critics Awards
FX's The Americans on Saturday ended its run on a high, taking home Television Critics Association Award wins in three of the four categories in which it was nominated, including program of the year.
Star Keri Russell took home the honor for individual achievement in drama as the dearly departed FX spy series, which headed into the 34th annual TCA Awards with the second-most nominations, was also recognized for outstanding achievement in drama as well as being named program of the year.
The Americans was the night's only multiple award winner. BBC America's Killing Eve - which entered the night with a leading five noms - was tapped as outstanding new program.
NBC's Mike Schur comedy The Good Place collected the prize for outstanding achievement in comedy, while Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan took home the individual achievement in comedy award.
HBO's Last Week Tonight With John Oliver won for achievement in sketch/variety shows (a new award this year), while CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown was recognized for achievement in news and information.
TV Critics Awards
Aykroyd Delivers
National Comedy Center
Dan Aykroyd has brought his Harley Davidson motorcycle to the new National Comedy Center, and left it there for permanent display.
The "Saturday Night Live" alum is one of numerous celebrities who have traveled to the western New York city of Jamestown this week to celebrate the grand opening of the center.
He has delivered the motorcycle, which he used to ride to "SNL" studios, on Friday before a performance by Amy Schumer.
The National Comedy Center is full of comedic artifacts including costumes and scripts. Dozens of interactive exhibits let visitors explore decades of humor and their own comedic tastes.
National Comedy Center
Reunites At Sturgis
Foreigner
Foreigner is the band everyone doesn't know, except for every one of their hits.
"Juke Box Hero." "I Want to Know What Love Is." "Cold as Ice." "Head Games." "Hot Blooded." "Urgent."
For 40 years, the band has enjoyed generous airplay following hit after worldwide hit. They represent the kind of experience where you walk into a bar and "Feels Like the First Time" is playing in the background.
And that's where we are on Saturday night, at a hotel bar in South Dakota with most of the band. They've just finished crushing a concert during the Sturgis motorcycle rally and buckets of beer are being hoisted across by the bartender.
Minutes earlier, current frontman Kelly Hansen was sharing the stage with rock legends Lou Gramm and Mick Jones, who co-founded the band in 1976. Jones, 73, and Gramm, 68, co-wrote most of the band's biggest hits, and are members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Foreigner
Two German Fans
Wacken Open Air Festival
A pair of old German men had been so willing to swap the routine of their nursing home for "world's largest" heavy metal event, the Wacken Open Air festival, that they had to be evacuated from there with the help of police.
Two old gentlemen have disappeared on Friday night from a nursing home in Dithmarschen community in northern Germany, Deutsche Welle reported. A search operation started when the staff sounded the alarm and called the police.
These days, almost anything could happen to a missing elderly man, but this story had quite a happy end. The aging metalheads were found at Wacken Open Air, considered to be the world's biggest heavy metal festival which takes place every year in Germany.
This year's edition of Wacken fest was sold out, with more than 75,000 metal fans flocking to the venue from all across the world. Headliners included Clawfinger, Dimmu Borgir, In Extremo, Judas Priest, Nightwish, Oomph as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Unsurprising enough, the men were reluctant to leave the four-day event so police had to escort them home with the help of a taxi and a patrol car. "Both were disoriented and apathetic," Merle Neufeld, a local police spokesman, told NDR broadcaster.
Wacken Open Air Festival
Censoring Search
Googlers
Word that Google is crafting a search engine to meet China's draconian censorship rules has sparked widespread employee anger at the company which has responded by limiting workers' access to documents about the project, a report said Friday.
Google was scurrying to stop leaks and quell outrage inside the company over what had been a stealth project prior to a report this week by news website The Intercept.
"Everyone's access to documents got turned off, and is being turned on [on a] document-by-document basis," a source told the news site.
"There's been total radio silence from leadership, which is making a lot of people upset and scared. … Our internal meme site and Google Plus are full of talk, and people are a.n.g.r.y."
Google withdrew its search engine from China eight years ago due to censorship and hacking but it is now working on a project for the country codenamed "Dragonfly," an employee told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Googlers
Stolen Painting Discovered
Willem de Kooning
An iconic painting snatched from an Arizona museum more than 30 years ago was discovered in the bedroom of a quiet New Mexico couple following their deaths - bringing authorities ever closer to solving the decades-long mystery.
Willem de Kooning's iconic "Woman-Ochre" painting vanished from the University of Arizona Museum of Art on Thanksgiving day in 1985. Brian Seastone, who'd been lead investigator on the case said a man and a woman walked into the building and stole the piece in broad daylight.
"Apparently they had some kind of X-acto knife, cut it out completely," he told KOB4, noting that because there was no surveillance at the time, investigators were forced to rely solely on witness accounts.
The University Arizona police Department put out a sketch of the getaway car and suspect descriptions, but the painting remained missing until 2017, when David Van Aucker, the owner of a New Mexico antique store called Manzanita Ridge, phoned both experts and the FBI to tell them he was in possession of the stolen piece.
Earlier that summer, Van Aucker received a call from the nephew of Jerry and Rita Atler, who passed away in 2012 and 2017 respectively. Their relative reluctantly purchased their estate, but hoped to sell all of the belongings that remained in their home, according to the news station.
Willem de Kooning
Puppies Rescued
'Gilligan's Island'
A litter of puppies rescued from a deserted island in the middle of a lake in Canada have been nicknamed "Little Gilligan's Island Puppies," the CBC reported.
The seven black, Labrador retriever-mix puppies have all been named after characters from "Gilligan's Island," the popular 1960s series about a group of castaways stranded on a remote island.
Their names include Gilligan, Skipper, Ginger, The Professor, Mary Ann, Thurston Howell III and Mrs. Howell, CBC reported.
It is unclear how the dogs ended up stranded on the remote island in Cross Lake, Manitoba.
Deb Vandekerkhove, director of the Norway House Animal rescue, told the CBC a boater found the puppies and lured them onto his boat with food.
'Gilligan's Island'
Mystery Solved?
Bermuda Triangle
Scientists believe they've solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle - and it's not UFOs or sea monsters.
It's another kind of monster: monster waves.
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the North Atlantic that is generally bounded by Miami, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Over time, a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared there under mysterious circumstances.
According to "The Bermuda Triangle Enigma" on Britain's Channel 5, scientists now believe conditions in that area were just right for massive rogue waves.
"There are storms to the south and north, which come together," said University of Southampton oceanographer Simon Boxall, per the Sun. "And if there are additional ones from Florida, it can be a potentially deadly formation of rogue waves."
Bermuda Triangle
Weekend Box Office
"Mission Impossible -- Fallout"
Tom Cruise sped past Winnie-the-Pooh at the box office to lead all films for the second straight week with an estimated $35 million in ticket sales for "Mission Impossible -- Fallout."
The success of Paramount Pictures' sixth, stunt-filled "Mission: Impossible" installment, along with muted enthusiasm for the Walt Disney Co.'s "Christopher Robin," made for a seldom-seen result: A Disney movie debuting in second place.
Comedy continues to struggle at the box office. The R-rated action-comedy "The Spy Who Dumped Me," starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, debuted in third with $12.4 million for Lionsgate.
And a pair of poorly reviewed releases sputtered in nationwide release. Fox's young-adult dystopian thriller "The Darkest Minds" (19 percent "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes) opened with $5.7 million on 3,127 screens. And right-wing filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza's "Death of a Nation" (0 percent "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes) debuted with $2.3 million on 1,032 screens.
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 also are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Mission: Impossible -- Fallout," $35 million ($76 million international).
2. "Christopher Robin," $25 million ($4.8 million international).
3. "The Spy Who Dumped Me," $12.4 million.
4. "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again," $9.1 million ($19.3 million international).
5. "The Equalizer 2," $8.8 million.
6. "Hotel Transylvania 3," $8.8 million ($18 million international).
7. "Ant-Man and the Wasp," $6.2 million ($11.2 million international).
8. "The Darkest Minds," $5.8 million ($4.1 million international).
9. "Incredibles 2," $5 million ($19 million international).
10. "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies," $4.9 million.
"Mission Impossible -- Fallout"
In Memory
Charlotte Rae
Celebrated stage and screen actress Charlotte Rae died on Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 92. Rae's death comes a year after the actress was diagnosed with bone cancer.
The talented actress gained nationwide acclaim for her role as Edna Garrett, first on Diff'rent Strokes, and then on the beloved spinoff The Facts of Life.
In her role, Rae played the house mother at the Eastland School for Girls on The Facts of Life, in a role that earned her an Emmy nomination in 1982. She'd previously been nominated in 1975 for her role in Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.
During her long career, which spanned over six decades, Rae appeared in dozens of movies, TV shows and stage productions -- which earned her two Tony Award nominations in 1966 and 1989 for her roles in Pickwick and Morning, Noon and Night respectively.
Rae starred on The Facts of Life from 1979 to 1986, and had recurring roles on beloved shows like The Love Boat, Car 54, Where Are You?, St. Elsewhere, 101 Dalmations: The Series and ER. Most recently, she appeared on Pretty Little Liars in 2011 and an episode of Girl Meets World in 2014, followed by a role in the Meryl Streep musical dramedy Ricki and the Flash in 2015.
She is survived by her sister, Miriam Guten as well as her son Larry, whom she shared with ex-husband John Strauss. She and Strauss also shared another son, Andrew, who died of a heart attack in his mid-40s.
Charlotte Rae
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