from Bruce
Anecdotes
Language
• At one time, Yiddish theater was alive and well in the United States and featured Yiddish translations of classic plays. Anita Loos once was watching As You Like It at a free Shakespeare festival in New York’s Central Park when an elderly lady got up to leave and asked her for directions to the nearest subway. Ms. Loos asked the woman why she was leaving so early. The elderly woman replied, “I saw it 40 years ago in Yiddish, and frankly, it loses something in translation.”
• As a youth, Wilson Mizner decided that he wanted to travel with Dr. Slocum’s medicine show. Because Dr. Slocum needed a spieler — a talker who could use Latin phrases to impress the rural customers — Mr. Mizner told him that he knew Latin. He then reeled off a steady stream of Spanish curses and vulgarities that he had learned while in Guatemala. Dr. Slocum said, “By God, you can speak Latin. You’re hired.”
• English entertainer Joyce Grenfell once spent several months entertaining troops in India and the Middle East. At one place she sang several songs, which were appreciated, but there was total silence — except for a few coughs — during her comic monologues. After the performance, she learned that she had been performing in front of people from Yugoslavia, who couldn’t understand English.
• Carl Laemelle fought the motion picture trust in courts of law early in the 20th century. He was out of town when the court made its decision, so he asked his lawyer to wire him the result. Mr. Laemelle’s case was decided in his favor, so his lawyer wired him, “JUSTICE HAS TRIUMPHED.” Mr. Laemelle wired back, “APPEAL AT ONCE.”
• Theatrical maven George Abbott both wrote and directed plays. Therefore, he was very particular about language. When he was in his late 90s, he fell while on a golf course. His wife pleaded, “George! George! Get up, please. Don’t just lay there!” Mr. Abbott looked up at his wife and corrected her: “Lie there.”
Mishaps
• Adrian C. “Cap” Anson was a professional baseball player of the late 19th century. He was also an occasional theatrical actor. At the climax of the baseball play The Runaway Colt, Mr. Anson used to hit a baseball into the wings of the stage, run offstage (to first base), then reappear on the other side of the stage and slide into home plate for a game-winning homer. It was an exciting finish, with the actor playing an umpire yelling “SAFE!” as the curtain descended. One day, Mr. Anson ran into a friend of his, professional umpire Tim Hurst, and suggested that he appear on stage with him and play the bit part of the umpire. Umpire Hurst agreed, and that night he stepped on stage to participate in the exciting conclusion of the play. However, once an umpire, always an umpire — when Cap Anson slid into home plate for what was supposed to be the game-winning homer, the ball arrived just ahead of Mr. Anson, and as the stage curtain fell, Umpire Hurst yelled, “YOU’RE OUT!”
• During a theatrical presentation of Bulldog Drummond, the villain was supposed to gain possession of a gun, then fire it at Bulldog — but no shot was supposed to fire. Bulldog was supposed to then say, “My good man, I would scarcely have let you amuse yourself with that toy had I not known it was unloaded.” However, one night the villain grabbed the wrong gun, which was loaded with blanks, then shot twice at Bulldog. Real bullets were not used, of course, but the gun sprayed powder onto Bulldog’s chest. The actor playing Bulldog couldn’t say his line about the gun’s being unloaded, and since Bulldog was the hero of the play, he couldn’t “die,” so he looked at the villain and said, “My good man, you’re a d*mned bad shot.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Um"
Album: MY ANIMAL
Artist: Mary Lynn
Artist Location: Columbus, Ohio
Info: Mary Lynn is a band from Columbus, Ohio. This Columbus pop-rock band led by Mary Lynn Gloeckle (vocals) includes Joe Camerlengo (guitar/backing vocals), Jeremy Skeen (drums), Corey Montgomery (bass/backing vocals) and Austin Wyckoff (guitar).
Written by Mary Lynn Gloeckle (“Um” is track 1)
*Tracks 3 & 5 written by Mary Lynn Gloeckle & Joe Camerlengo
Joe Henson, a fan, wrote, “I wish I had the words to articulate how good this album is. Through and through my favorite of this year. Favorite track: ‘Um.’”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $10 (USD) for 11-track album
Genre: Alternative. Indie Pop Rock
Links:
MY ANIMAL
Mary Lynn on Bandcamp
Mary Lynn on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
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David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
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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
Sumo is over until November.
Forced Birth Fantasies
David Simon
David Simon isn’t backing down from his decision to film his next HBO series outside of Texas, engaging in a heated Twitter exchange with evangelical writer and TV host James Randall Robison over the move.
Earlier this week, Simon announced his decision in protest of a new law passed in the state that bans abortions after six weeks, before most women even know they are pregnant. Though Simon says the nonfiction miniseries he is working on is based on events in Texas, he “can’t and won’t ask female cast/crew to forgo civil liberties to film there” and asked followers to suggest film sites that look like the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
“Dallas doesn’t look like Fort Worth, so it’s hard to take this seriously. Maybe you should take a real stand and forgo profits from China,” Robison replied.
“I never asked WarnerMedia to cease marketing in Texas. And I’ve never filmed in China. And you couldn’t manage an honest analogy for love or money. This is singularly about putting my cast in crew in jurisdictions where civil liberties are intact,” Simon fired back.
“The pertinent question for ethicists and legal scholars is not when life begins, but when life is self-sustainable and constitutes sentient personhood,” he continued. “We understand you slept through Roe and regard women as easy-bake ovens beholden to your forced-birth fantasies.”
David Simon
Box Office
‘Shang-Chi’
“Dear Evan Hansen” may have been a hit on Broadway, but the filmed adaptation of the Tony-winning show is off to a slow start at the box office in its first weekend in theaters. The Universal musical that’s playing exclusively in theaters grossed an estimated $7.5 million from 3,364 locations, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
First place again went to Disney and Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” which added $13.3 million in ticket sales in North America, bringing its domestic total to $196.5 million. The superhero pic has topped the charts for four consecutive weekends and this weekend surpassed “Black Widow” to become the highest domestic earner of the pandemic.
With little in the way of high-profile competition this weekend, “Dear Evan Hansen’s” $7.3 million was enough to land it in second place. While critics were less than impressed, audiences that did turn out this weekend were fans and gave it an A- CinemaScore. Women made up an estimated 62% of the audience according to exit polls. Directed by Stephen Chbosky and written by Steven Levenson, “Dear Evan Hansen” is about a high school student with social anxiety disorder.
Aside from “Shang-Chi,” September has been slow for most movies. The No. 3 movie this weekend was “Free Guy,” which has been in theaters for seven weeks and the sixth place spot went to “Jungle Cruise,” in its ninth week. But bigger blockbusters are coming to North American theaters starting in October, with the “Venom” sequel out this upcoming Friday, the James Bond film “No Time to Die” following on Oct. 8 and “Dune” on Oct. 22.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” $13.3 million.
2. “Dear Evan Hansen,” $7.5 million.
3. “Free Guy,” $4.1 million.
4. “Candyman,” $2.5 million.
5. “Cry Macho,” $2.1 million.
6. “Jungle Cruise,” $1.7 million.
7. “Malignant,” $1.5 million.
8. “Copshop,” $1.3 million.
9. “Paw Patrol,” $1.1 million.
10. “Love Story,” $893,765.
‘Shang-Chi’
50 Years
Bob Uecker
As expected, the ceremony honoring popular Brewers announcer Bob Uecker’s half-century at the microphone involved remembrances, appreciation — and a heavy dose of humorous stories.
At least the ones Uecker said he could share with an audience of family, friends, former players and team employees that spanned generations.
Uecker, a Milwaukee native affectionately known as “Mr. Baseball,” was honored Saturday with Bob Uecker Day in the city of Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin.
Uecker, now 87, joined the Brewers broadcast team in 1971 after a six-year career as a catcher with the hometown Milwaukee Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves that included a World Series championship with the Cardinals in 1964 and a .200 career batting average.
His post-playing career also included numerous appearances on “The Tonight Show” with the late Johnny Carson, who dubbed Uecker “Mr. Baseball”; acting in the TV sitcom “Mr. Belvedere”; the iconic humorous Miller Lite beer commercials of the ’80s, including Uecker’s now-famous line, “I must be in the front row”; and as hilarious announcer Harry Doyle in the movie “Major League.”
Bob Uecker
Claps Back
Ana Navarro
After leaving the set of “The View” mid-show on Friday due to a positive COVID-19 test, guest host Ana Navarro on Saturday reported that she doesn’t actually have the virus — and she had some choice words for Donald Trump Jr. (R-Grifter Lite), who took opportunity to insult her weight.
“Thanks for your concern. I don’t have COVID,” Navarro tweeted on Saturday. “Fortunately for you, if you want to have a conversation about the effects of obesity on people with COVID, your dad is a phone call away…assuming he answers your calls. Or just ask your sister to call him for you.”
Navarro was clapping back at Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted about Navarro just a few hours after she and co-host Sunny Hostin left the show’s set. He chose to ignore Hostin altogether, instead targeting Navarro, a longtime Republican operative who has been highly critical of Donald Trump. “Given the Ana Navarro news, I think it’s time for a national conversation about the dangers of Covid-19 & obesity,” Trump Jr. wrote.
On Friday night, Navarro appeared on “Andersen Cooper 360” to reassure fans that she was “feeling great” and that she had actually tested negative twice in the hours since the ruckus on “The View.”
Ana Navarro
Bring Lethal Skills
Campaigns
Thousands of police and soldiers – people professionally trained in the use of violence and familiar with military protocols – are part of an extremist effort to undermine the U.S. government and subvert the democratic process.
According to an investigative report published in the Atlantic in November into a leaked database kept by the Oath Keepers – one of several far-right and white supremacist militias that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 – 10% of Oath Keepers are current police officers or military members. Another significant portion of the group’s membership is retired military and law enforcement personnel.
The hate group – founded by a former Army paratrooper after Barack Obama’s 2008 election – claimed “an improbable 30,000 members who were said to be mostly current and former military, law enforcement and emergency first responders” in 2016, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Three Percenters, another militia present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, also draws a substantial portion of its members from law enforcement, both military and civilian. Larry Brock, a pro-Trump rioter arrested with zip-tie handcuffs, allegedly for taking hostages, is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who posted content from the Three Percenters online.
The militia movement is a militarized stream of the American far-right. Its members promote an ideology that undermines the authority and legitimacy of the federal government and stockpile weapons.
Campaigns
Whistleblower
DHS
A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower leveled a series of bombshell accusations Sunday in his first television interview, accusing his Trump administration superiors of pressing for manipulated intelligence on three critical subjects: Russian support for Donald Trump, the Mexican border, and the white supremacist threat inside the United States.
Brian Murphy, the former principal deputy undersecretary in DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, filed a whistleblower complaint last year — as well as a handful of internal complaints and reports — that all painted a frightening picture of how things were running in the department tasked with keeping Americans safe. “From the outset, there were three things that I was told that we would look to manipulate intelligence on and bend the truth about,” Murphy told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week. “And I told them upfront that I wasn’t going to do it.”
On Russia, the border, and white supremacy, Murphy said he felt “intense pressure to try to take intelligence and fit a political narrative” — accusing administration officials of demanding information be manipulated to burnish Trump’s image and help his messaging
In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved efforts to denigrate Democratic candidates in order to benefit Trump, an intelligence community report from March found. Putin also authorized a campaign “undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating socio-political divisions in the U.S” — something that Trump and some of his closest allies readily embraced during and after the election by making repeated false claims of fraud.
In regards to the southern border, the former FBI agent alleged, the DHS took a similar approach: fabricating a terrorist threat and misleading Congress to improve the political conditions for Trump’s coveted border wall.
DHS
Changed the Locks
'Sovereign Citizen'
The official-looking letters started arriving soon after Shanetta Little bought the cute Tudor house on Ivy Street in Newark, New Jersey. Bearing a golden seal, in aureate legalistic language, the documents claimed that an obscure 18th-century treaty gave the sender rights to claim her new house as his own.
She dismissed the letters as a hoax. And so it was with surprise that Little found herself in her yard on Ivy Street on a June afternoon as a police SWAT team negotiated with a man who had broken in, changed her locks and hung a red-and-green flag in its window. He claimed he was a sovereign citizen of a country that does not exist and for whom the laws of the United States do not apply.
Little was a victim of a ploy known as paper terrorism, a favorite tactic of an extremist group that is one of the fastest growing, according to government experts and watchdog organizations. Known as the Moorish sovereign citizen movement, and loosely based around a theory that Black people are foreign citizens bound only by arcane legal systems, it encourages followers to violate existent laws in the name of empowerment. Experts say it lures marginalized people to its ranks with the false promise that they are above the law.
The man who entered her house, Hubert John of Los Angeles, was arrested June 17 and charged with criminal mischief, burglary, criminal trespass and making terroristic threats. Prosecutors in New Jersey are preparing to take the case before a grand jury, according to Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. He was released on his own recognizance.
But the strange letters declaring that Little’s home is not her own still come. They arrive on faux-consular letterhead using the name Lenapehoking of the Al Moroccan Empire at New Jersey State Republic. Lenapehoking was the land between New York City and Philadelphia that includes New Jersey and was home to the Indigenous Lenape tribe before it was colonized by European settlers. John and his group refer to themselves as Moors.
'Sovereign Citizen'
Grounded
Flying Farmer
The first car jumping attempt in five years by North Dakota's version of Evel Knievel ended in disaster when the car driven my the man known as the Flying Farmer corkscrewed off the ramp and rolled.
Authorities said John Smith, 57, was alert after the crash Saturday at a rural gravel pit and that he even tried to pull himself out of the car while talking to rescuers. He was eventually cut out and taken by a medical helicopter to a hospital, according to firefighters. The extent of his injuries wasn't known.
The crowd of about 300 spectators went silent when Smith crashed. Family members, including his daughters and wife of 34 years, Melinda, reacted emotionally, running to the mangled car, The Bismarck Tribune reported.
Smith's previous jump was in 2016, when he rose over towering flames to clear a burning trailer.
Smith, who farms near Makoti, in western North Dakota, said he was inspired by the motorcycle daredevil Knievel while growing up. He has gained notoriety for his jumps at fairs and other attractions across the state. He has performed more than 100 jumps, even jumping on a frozen lake.
Flying Farmer
Takes Out Google Drone Mid-Air
Raven
A home drone delivery service in Canberra, Australia, was forced to temporarily shut down after its devices kept getting attacked by ravens guarding their nests, The Canberra Times reported.
Wing, operated by Google's overarching company Alphabet, has been delivering everything from coffee, medicine, and office supplies to Canberra residents since 2019.
But on Tuesday, it announced it would be pausing its services due to several reported incidents of ravens swooping down on the flying machines. This comes at a time where demand for drone deliveries is surging due to Canberra's ongoing coronavirus lockdown.
The latest attack was captured on video and posted online by Ben Roberts, a local resident who orders coffee every morning with the service.
You can watch the video here.
Raven
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