Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Wong: Vote Like The Fate Of The World Depends On It (Cracked)
… the early news doesn't look promising. Among voters 18-29, […] only 48 percent understand why it matters which party is in control (among voters 65 and older, it's 83 percent). So far, early voting is actually higher in heavily Republican areas, though of course we don't know who they're voting for. I can guess. Hey, did I mention that Trump's approval rating is approaching his all-time high? And that it's been steadily climbing for the last year? Is that the impression you'd get if you only followed politics on Twitter?
David Christopher Bell: The 6 F**king Stupidest Reasons Why People Don't Vote (Cracked)
"The World Is Screwed So None Of This Matters"
Marilyn Preston: "Polls and Poles: Exercise Your Vote, Save Your Knees" (Creators Syndicate)
Nov. 6 looms large. As your most personal trainer, I'm always badgering you to exercise - running, swimming, pingpong, whatever. Today, I'm being uber-specific: Exercise your right to vote. Why? Because feeling powerless, hope-free and deeply cynical stresses your health and attacks your well-being. Taking action is the antidote. Let your voice be heard, even if it's singing "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow."
Dominic Rushe: "'He said jobs were coming back': the Trump voters who feel cheated" (The Guardian)
'I wanted to believe in Mr Trump,' one manufacturing worker laid off after 30 years says. 'This has been a slap in the face'.
Arwa Mahdawi: Ivanka Trump shows yet again she's no friend to women (The Guardian)
The first daughter is supporting Republican Kim Reynolds in Iowa - the acting governor whose record on women's rights i[s] horrific.
Lee Moran: "Michael Moore: Fox News Helped Create Generation Of 'Violent Conspiracy Theorists'" (Huffington Post)
"Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel and right-wing radio have preyed upon those who've seen their American Dream go up in smoke."
Alison Flood: Growing up in a house full of books is major boost to literacy and numeracy, study finds (The Guardian)
Research data from 160,000 adults in 31 countries concludes that a sizeable home library gave teen school leavers skills equivalent to university graduates who didn't read.
Hanna Hanra: "Joan Jett: 'When I'm away I FaceTime my two cats'" (The Guardian)
Something hit me physically, hearing a guitar. When I reached pre-puberty, 11, 12, rock'n'roll started to break through on the radio, and my ears picked up where they didn't before. I started to notice songs like Bang a Gong by T Rex, or All Right Now by Free. I wanted to make those sounds. That was how it started.
Alison Flood: "Tamora Pierce: 'Everybody thinks fantasy is so safe. Are you kidding?'" (The Guardian)
"I'm very happy with fantasy. I can say almost everything I need to say. I've sneaked in a lot of what I think about the modern world, about modern politics," she says. "Most of us fantasy writers do. JK Rowling is absolutely brilliant on the failures of justice in human society. Everybody thinks fantasy is so safe, because we don't deal with heavy modern issues. Are you kidding? We do this stuff all over the place."
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
took the day off.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• While working at Darmstadt, Rudolf Bing knew a comedian who was completely bald, but had three wigs with different lengths of hair. The comedian would wear the short-haired wig for a while, then the medium-haired wig. When he finally put on the long-haired wig, he would tell everyone he needed a haircut. Whenever the comedian began to wear the short-haired wig again, everyone complimented him on his haircut.
• Fred Astaire wore a hairpiece - which he hated - throughout his career. In 1946, he thought that he would retire after filming a movie titled Blue Skies. After filming the final scene of the movie, Mr. Astaire took off his hairpiece, threw it on the floor, and started jumping on it, shouting, "Never, never, never - never will I have to wear this blasted rug again!"
• Kelly McCormick won silver and bronze medals in the Olympics in the 1980s as a springboard diver. While training at Ohio State University, she was coached by Vince Panzanno. As a joke on him, she and the other divers on the team colored their hair bright pink, but the joke fell flat. Later, they discovered why - Mr. Panzanno was colorblind.
• At one time, Quaker men did not let their facial hair grow because that was regarded as vanity. Some Quakers talked to fellow Quaker Henry T. Humphries because he had a mustache and a beard - one Quaker advised Mr. Humphries, "Put away childish things"!
• When Linda Thorson joined the cast of the British tongue-in-cheek spy series The Avengers, the producers felt that she should be a blonde. Unfortunately, after the dye job, Ms. Thorson's hair broke off, leaving a large bald spot. (Through necessity, she wore a wig in the series.)
• Francis Hodgson Burnett, author of A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, used to tell her two young sons "hair-curling stories." These weren't stories that frightened the two boys - they were stories to keep the boys quiet and still so she could curl their hair.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
For Election Day 2018
With a nod to Guy Fawkes:
Remember, remember
This sixth of November,
The Halloween pumpkin's got rot!
I know of no reason
The fascists should keep control of fucking Congress
(And I don't care if that rhymes or not).
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
R.I.P. "BIG MAC."
WATCHING 'TRUMPY' BLOW!
THIS IS HOW FASCIST REPUBLICANS STEAL ELECTIONS.
KICK HIS ASS DOWN THE STAIRS!
THE LIAR!
"HEAL THE SICK, HELP THE POOR, FEED THE HUNGRY…"
THE PLUTOCRATS JOURNEY.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Foggy, foggy morning.
Takes Aim
Jimmy Buffett
While President-for-now Trump (R-Yeti Pubes) took shots at Democrats in conservative Pensacola, Florida on Saturday, Jimmy Buffett hurled musical insults at Republicans in West Palm Beach during a Democratic campaign rally for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and gubernatorial candidate and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.
While singing his hit "Come Monday" at the "Get Out the Vote" rally, Buffett tweaked its lyrics to make a dig at Trump changing "Come Monday" to "Come Tuesday, things will change. Come Tuesday, we're making a change. It's been two insane years and it's time to really switch gears." The musician's show at the Meyer Amphitheatre took place just three miles from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Buffett didn't stop there: During his performance of "Margaritaville," he called out Scott for the state's environmental issues: "Some people say that there's a red tide to blame, but I know that it's all Rick Scott's fault."
During the last several months, red tide algae have killed millions of fish off the southern Florida coasts, which happens naturally but worsens from pollution. It's not surprising that Buffett, who resides in Palm Beach, spoke out about the subject as he is a longtime environmentalist, founding his charity "Save the Manatee" in 1981.
In August, Buffett hosted a free concert just before the Florida Democratic primary after backing gubernatorial hopeful Gwen Graham, who placed second to Gillum in the race.
Jimmy Buffett
'Loopholes'
Axl Rose
Axl Rose, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, turned to Twitter Saturday to explain why Guns N' Roses' music has played at the president's recent rallies.
"Just so ya know… GNR like a lot of artists opposed to the unauthorized use of their music at political events has formally requested r music not b used at Trump rallies or Trump associated events," Rose tweeted.
"Unfortunately the Trump campaign is using loopholes in the various venues' blanket performance licenses which were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters' consent."
Rose quipped, "Can u say 'shitbags?!'"
"Personally I kinda liked the irony of Trump supporters listening to a bunch of anti Trump music at his rallies but I don't imagine a lot of 'em really get that or care," Rose added.
Axl Rose
Memorabilia Fetches $7.5 Million
Neil Armstrong
Memorabilia that belonged to the first man to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong, has fetched more than $7.4 million at auction.
Dallas-based Heritage Auctions says the item that sold for the highest price, $468,500, at Saturday's auction was Armstrong's spacecraft ID plate from Apollo 11's lunar module Eagle. Also sold were a fragment from the propeller and a section of the wing from the Wright brothers' Flyer, the first heavier-than-air self-powered aircraft, which each sold for $275,000.
The flight suit Armstrong wore aboard Gemini 8, the 1966 mission that performed the first docking of two spacecraft in flight, brought the astronaut's family $109,375.
Meanwhile, in a separate auction, a gold-colored Navy aviator's helmet once owned by John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, sold for $46,250.
Neil Armstrong
'Trademark Misuse'
HBO
Donald Trump's (R-Grabby Grifter) social media team decided to try and piggyback on the success of Game of Thrones on Friday, tweeting a poster of the president styled like one for Game of Thrones.
Complete with the show's recognisable font, it read: "SANCTIONS ARE COMING", a play on the iconic "winter is coming" phrase from GoT.
"NOVEMBER 5" was added below it, aping a release date but referring to the day on which sanctions on Iran will come back into effect after Trump pulled out of a deal suspending them in May.
HBO was clearly less than impressed, tweeting from its official Twitter account: "How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki?"
The Dothraki are a powerful tribe in Game of Thrones, and a violent one at that.
HBO
Jury Awards $105 Million
pH Miracle
A San Diego jury ordered the author of the bestselling pH Miracle books to pay $105 million to a cancer patient who said the author held himself out as a doctor and counseled her to forego traditional medical treatment.
The award - more than double what the woman had sought - was ordered about 16 months after a criminal case ended with the author, Robert Oldham Young, going to jail for a few months for practicing medicine without a license.
Young - who Friday called the judgment "a fraud" - has written several books, including the bestselling "The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health." First published in 2002, the book has been translated into several languages.
"It's totally outrageous," Young said of the verdict Friday. "It's one-tenth of a billion."
pH Miracle
Rejects Independence
New Caledonia
Islanders on the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia rejected independence on Sunday in a referendum, but the results showed weaker-than-expected support for Paris in the resource-rich and strategic outpost.
Some 18,000 kilometres (11,000 miles) from the French mainland, New Caledonia is home to a quarter of the world's known supplies of nickel -- a vital electronics component -- and is a foothold for France in the Pacific where China is gaining influence.
On the final count, 56.4 percent of people rejected the proposition that New Caledonia become independent. Turnout was high at 80.63 percent.
But the winning margin on New Caledonia, sometimes referred to in France as "the pebble", might cause some concern in Paris, as well Australia which has been alarmed by Beijing's designs in the Pacific and its investment in island nations.
Polls beforehand had forecast an emphatic 63-75 percent of New Caledonians would vote "no" when asked if the archipelago should "attain full sovereignty and become independent."
New Caledonia
Diverse Gut Bacteria
Immigrants
An empire of germs dwells inside you, trillions strong. About a half-pound of bacteria plus their genes make up our microbiome.
Though each microbe is small, a healthy and diverse microbiome is mighty. Its influence, studies suggest, spans the human condition - from mood swings to weight gain.
The microbiome begins as a departing gift from mothers at birth, but many factors alter its composition.
Growing evidence shows location has a profound impact on the diversity of microbes, and some places are much less diverse than others.
A study published this week in the journal Cell follows multi-generation immigrants from Southeast Asia to the United States. As they moved, their microbes responded.
Immigrants
New Sauropod Species
Argentina
A team of Spanish and Argentine paleontologists have discovered the remains of a dinosaur that lived 110 million years ago in the center of the country, the National University of La Matanza revealed Friday.
The remains came from three separate dinosaurs from the herbivorous group of sauropods, the best known of which are the Diplodocus and Brontosaurus. This new species has been named Lavocatisaurus agrioensis.
"We found most of the cranial bones: the snout, the jaws, a lot of teeth, also the bones that define the eye sockets for example and, in that way, we were able to create an almost complete reconstruction," said Jose Luis Carballido, a researcher at the Egidio Feruglio museum and the national council of scientific investigations.
Parts of the neck, tail and back were also found.
The remains belonged to an adult of around 12 meters (39 feet) in length, and two minors of around six to seven meters.
Argentina
Weekend Box Office
'Bohemian Rhapsody'
"Bohemian Rhapsody," starring Rami Malek as the late Queen frontman, shrugged off production troubles and mediocre reviews to debut with $50 million in weekend ticket sales in U.S. and Canada, and another $72.5 million internationally, according to studio estimates Sunday. That was well beyond expectations, which had pegged the film closer to $35-40 million in its opening weekend.
In soaring to No. 1, the Fox release trounced one from Disney, which will soon own the studio. Despite a production budget of $125 million, the Walt Disney Co.'s lavish, big-budget "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" opened with just $20 million. Disney is set to merge with Fox in the coming months, effectively ending the 103-year-old Fox, one of Hollywood's six major studios.
"Nobody's Fool," which paired Tiffany Haddish with another box-office force in writer-director-producer Tyler Perry, opened in third with a so-so $14 million. While far from disastrous for a movie that cost $19 million to make, the muted performance of "Nobody's Fool" seemed likely a result of oversaturation. Two films starring Haddish - "Night School" and "The Oath" - have opened in the past six weeks, and "Night School" is still No. 12 at the box office.
In limited release, Joel Edgerton's acclaimed gay conversion therapy drama "Boy Erased," starring Lucas Hedges, opened with a strong per-theater average of $44,000 in five theaters.
Matthew Heineman's "A Private War," starring Rosamund Pike as war correspondent Marie Colvin, opened in four theaters with a per-theater average of $18,000.
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. "Bohemian Rhapsody," $50 million ($72.5 million international).
2. "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms," $20 million ($38.5 million international).
3. "Nobody's Fool," $14 million ($265,000 international).
4. "A Star Is Born," $11.1 million ($13.9 million international).
5. "Halloween," $11 million ($18.3 million international).
6. "Venom," $7.9 million ($15.6 million international).
7. "Smallfoot," $3.8 million ($12.1 million international).
8. "Goosebumps 2," $3.7 million ($9 million international).
9. "Hunter Killer," $3.5 million ($3.3 million international).
10. "The Hate U Give," $3.4 million.
'Bohemian Rhapsody'
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