• David Jenkins has twice been used as a character in a book, including a character who is balding, portly, and American in The Paradise Trail by his friend Duncan Campbell, although Mr. Jenkins had a full head of flowing locks, a flat stomach, and a Welsh heritage — a heritage he still has. Therefore, Mr. Jenkins asks, “But however grand a role you play in however important a book, does it encapsulate the real person?” For example, Hubert Duggan is a real person who appears (under names other than his own) in two important novels: A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell, and Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. In A Dance to the Music of Time, he is “dashing but doomed.” And Mr. Waugh helped Mr. Duggan return to the Catholic faith when Mr. Duggan was on his deathbed, a scene that appears in Brideshead Revisited. It seems that Mr. Duggan must be inspiring, as he inspired two novelists to write about him. So what was he like in real life? The late 6th Marquess of Bath, who knew Mr. Duggan well, says, “He was the most boring man I met in my entire life.”
• Brian Garfield is the author of Death Wish, a novel about a man who becomes a vigilante after hoodlums rape his daughter and murder his wife. It became a very popular film starring Charles Bronson, who also starred in four sequels. Mr. Garfield got the idea for the novel after discovering that someone had used a knife to slash the canvas top of his convertible. The night was cold, he had a two- or three-hour drive home, and as he drove, he was thinking, “I’ll kill the son of a b*tch.” Mr. Garfield says, “Of course by the time I got home and thawed out, I realized the vandal must have had a strong sharp knife (convertible-top canvas is a very tough fabric to cut) and in reality I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. But then came the thought: What if a person had that kind of experience and got mad and never came out of it?” Writing the novel came easy to him — it took two weeks. Mr. Garfield jokes, “Several alleged friends asked, ‘What took so long?’”
• When he was a young boy, Samuel Langhorne Clemens saw a piece of paper flying down the street. He chased after it, caught it, and discovered that the page came from a biography of Joan of Arc. He asked his brother who she was, discovered that she was a French heroine who had died by being burned at the stake, and started reading as much as he could about her. As an adult, he wrote a book titled Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, using his world-famous pseudonym, Mark Twain.
Insults
• An Irishwoman asked William Makepeace Thackeray for alms. He put his hand in his pocket and she said, “May the blessing of God follow you all your life” — but when she saw that Mr. Thackeray was taking only his snuff box out of his pocket, she added, “and never overtake you!”
• Jonathan Swift was walking along a narrow pathway when he met a young man who stood in the middle of the pathway. The young man sneered at Dean Swift and said, “I never get out of the way of fools.” Dean Swift replied, “I always do,” and walked around the young man.
Language
• According to Mem Fox, the Australian author of the children’s book Possum Magic, Americans don’t swear as much as Australians do. In an American elementary classroom, Mem was talking about her writing process, saying that her first drafts were “crappy,” but she didn’t give a “damn” because she knew that she could rewrite the first draft and make it better. Hearing these two words, the shocked schoolchildren covered their mouths with their hands and looked at their teacher to see how she would react. Mem’s reaction was to blush, knowing as she did that she could have used two words much worse than the two she did use.
Four Thieves Vinegar (also called thieves’ oil, Marseilles vinegar, Marseilles remedy, and acetum quator furum) is a concoction of vinegar infused with herbs, spices or garlic that was believed to protect users from what misfortune?
Four thieves vinegar (also called thieves’ oil, Marseilles vinegar, Marseilles remedy, prophylactic vinegar, vinegar of the four thieves, camphorated acetic acid, vinaigre des quatre voleurs and acetum quator furum) is a concoction of vinegar (either from red wine, white wine, cider, or distilled white) infused with herbs, spices or garlic that was believed to protect users from the plague.
This specific vinegar composition is said to have been used during black death epidemic of the medieval period, to prevent the catching of the plague. Similar herbal vinegars have been used as medicine since the time of Hippocrates.
Plausible reasons for not contracting the plague was that the herbal concoction contained natural flea repellents, since the flea is the carrier for the plague bacillus, Yersinia pestis. Wormwood has properties similar to cedar as an insect repellent, as do aromatics such as sage, cloves, camphor, rosemary, and campanula. Meadowsweet, although known to contain salicylic acid, is mainly used to mask odors like decomposing bodies.
Another plausible reason for its effectiveness may be the antimicrobial properties of its constituents. Scientists have found wormwood, meadowsweet, wild marjoram, sage, cloves, campanula, angelica, rosemary, horehound and camphor to have antimicrobial properties.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
The plague.
Billy in Cypress said:
Four thieves vinegar was believed to protect users from "the plague".
Whereas, "400 crooks/con-men/republicans" Trump snake oil was sold to the American public as a cure for COVID-19.
Alan J answered:
The Black Plague.
Randall wrote:
the PLAGUE
Cal in Vermont replied:
It is for warding off The Plague. The World can always use a good Plague Warder Offer. Right now it is being used on politicians of the most virulent stripe with increasing efficacy. It also contained horehound. A question was asked in the research I did " What does a horehound plant look like?" No problem. The fishnet stockings and bottle green bustier give them away.
Deborah, the Master Gardener responded:
Four Thieves’ vinegar was alleged to protect the user from the plague. How about that.
Sunny and seasonal weather; the trees are right about at peak color, and in some ways it stills feels like April. Sure am tired of the shenanigans in D.C.
David of Moon Valley wrote:
survey says...
(at least My survey says)…the plague…surprised Hair Fuhrer hasn’t pushed injecting this along wiht a bleach chaser….the fuckwit….
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
Four thieves vinegar is a concoction of vinegar (either from red wine, white wine, cider, or distilled white) infused with herbs, spices or garlic that was believed to protect users from the plague.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame replied:
The the answer is the plague.
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) wrote:
Black plague? As good a guess as any. That's all I got to say about that.
Dave said:
The Plague.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'The Neighborhood', followed by a FRESH'Bob Hearts Abishola', then a FRESH'All Rise', followed by a FRESH'Bull'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Glenn Close, and Kane Brown featuring Swae Lee & Khalid.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, is Michael J. Fox.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'The Voice', followed by a FRESH'Weakest Link'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Emma Stone, Ben Falcone, and Josh Groban.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Mandy Moore and Jeff Tweedy.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 11/18/19) is Constance Wu.
ABC starts the night with LIVE'Monday Night Football', followed by a FRESH'Dancing With The Stars'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Amy Adams, Jack Huston, and Jewel.
The CW fills the night with 'Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life'.
Faux has a FRESH'LA's Finest', followed by a FRESH'Filthy Rich'.
MY reycles an old 'L&O: SVU', followed by another old 'L&O: SVU'.
AMC offers the movie 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory', followed by the movie 'Elf'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - RULES OF ACQUISITION
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - NECESSARY EVIL
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - SECOND SIGHT
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - SANCTUARY
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - RIVALS
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - THE ALTERNATE
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - CLUES
[1:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - FIRST CONTACT
[2:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - GALAXY'S CHILD
[3:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - NIGHT TERRORS
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - IDENTITY CRISIS
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE NTH DEGREE
[6:00PM - 12:00AM] LAW & ORDER
[1:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - FIRST CONTACT
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - GALAXY'S CHILD
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - NIGHT TERRORS
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - IDENTITY CRISIS
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE NTH DEGREE (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has 'Below Deck', followed by a FRESH'Below Deck', then another FRESH'Below Deck', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens: Live'.
FX has the movie 'Halloween', followed by a FRESH'Black Narcissus', then another FRESH'Black Narcissus', followed by still another FRESH'Black Narcissus'.
History has 'Pawn Stars', another 'Pawn Stars', followed by a FRESH'Pawn Stars'.
IFC -
[6:00am] Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return - The Beast Of Hollow Mountain
[8:00am] A Walk Among The Tombstones
[10:30am] Bad Boys II
[1:30pm] Bad Boys
[4:00pm] Hancock
[6:00pm - 12:30am] Two And A Half Men
[1:00am - 5:30am] Parks And Recreation (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:00am - 1:30pm] hogan's heroes
[2:00pm] deep impact
[4:30pm] 2012
[8:00pm] the last samurai
[11:30pm] the outsiders
[1:30am] the last samurai
[5:00am] gomer pyle, u.s.m.c.
[5:30am] gomer pyle, u.s.m.c. (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix', followed by the movie 'Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince'.
TBS:
On a RERUNConan (from 11/17/15) it's Conan in Armenia.
Al Pacino, Tina Fey and Eli Manning will join a star-studded lineup to celebrate the selfless acts of New Yorkers.
Robin Hood and iHeartRadio announced a collaboration Thursday to present “Heroes of New York,” which will air Dec. 1 on television and radio stations in New York. The one-hour show will share inspirational stories of generosity from individuals and organizations.
The show will feature musical performances from Mariah Carey, Tony Bennett and Andra Day. Carey will perform a medley, Bennett will sing “Smile” and Day will perform “Silent Night.”
Other special guests include Jon Stewart, Kevin Bacon, Mariano Rivera, Michael Strahan, Ryan Seacrest and Tracy Morgan.
The diaries of the late actor Alan Rickman — best known for playing Severus Snape in the “Harry Potter” movies — will be published as a book in fall 2022.
As reported by The Guardian, Rickman’s journals covered everything from his thoughts on acting to insights on friendships and politics. The avid theater-goer also reviewed plays he attended and shared behind-the-scenes stories from the set of “Harry Potter,” which he was a part of for a decade, between 2001 and 2011.
The 27 volumes of handwritten diaries, spanning more than 25 years of Rickman’s life and career, will be edited down into a single book. The British actor began writing his journals in the early ’90s with the intention of publishing them. When Rickman started this personal project, his career had taken off with roles that included Valmont in “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” at the Royal Shakespeare Company and on-screen as Hans Gruber in 1988’s “Die Hard.”
He continued documenting his career while appearing in the “Harry Potter” movies, “Love, Actually,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Galaxy Quest” and more. Rickman journaled until his death in 2016, when he died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 69.
Publisher Canongate has acquired the rights to the book, reportedly titled “The Diaries of Alan Rickman.” It will be edited by Alan Taylor, editor of the Scottish Review of Books, who also put together “The Country Diaries,” a collection of pastoral journalist from Beatrix Potter, Dorothy Wordsworth, John Fowles and more.
The weekend before Thanksgiving is one of the most lucrative ones on the calendar, last year bringing in $204.9M off the opening of Disney’s Frozen II, which posted November’s fifth-best domestic opening of all-time at $130.3M.
Who would ever think that the domestic box office would sink to such an atrocious level as this weekend? If last weekend brought in $10M for all titles with California theaters and other markets like Illinois open, this weekend is surely the lowest weekend for exhibition since theaters reopened back in September for Tenet, with an estimated $6.5M, a 35% drop.
At that level, how can a circuit like AMC, which has an estimated weekly burn rate of $25M, stay open? It’s hard times, as many theaters coast to coast were closed because of local safety ordinances or curfews.
There was only one wide release this past weekend, Jackie Chan’s Vanguard, and it wasn’t from a major studio, rather Gravitas Ventures, a distributor known for its theatrical day and date PVOD titles. The movie fizzled in the No. 7 spot, with a reported $400K at 1,375 theaters in 178 markets in what I’m told is a 90-day theatrical window. Vanguard‘s most notable numbers were in the West and the South. But, of course, they weren’t very strong. Critics hated the movie at 29% Rotten, but PostTrak audiences were a bit more positive at 72% and a 57% recommend. Older males showed at 64% guys, 55% over 35. Diversity breakdown was 51% Caucasian, 18% African American, 22% Asian/other and 9% Hispanic.
Universal/Blumhouse’s Freaky led the box office in its second weekend, with $1.2M, -65% for a running $5.6M. It is not a time for victory laps and bragging. Around the world, Freaky stands at $9.2M. Yikes. Freaky saw $410K on Friday, a lift on its second Saturday with $550K, +34%, and it’s expecting $260K today.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had harsh words for President Trump (R-Unchosen)’s legal team as it pursues its increasingly quixotic quest to overturn the November election.
“Quite frankly, the conduct of the president’s legal team has been a national embarrassment,” Christie said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Trump lost the Nov. 3 election to President-elect Joe Biden, but has launched a series of lawsuits seeking to claim victory in states narrowly won by the Democrat. But the cases have been largely dismissed, and judges have consistently rejected Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.
The Trump campaign lost one of its most important cases on Saturday night, when a federal judge in Pennsylvania both rejected a major Trump lawsuit in the state and excoriated the president’s legal team for its speculative arguments. In the decision, the Republican judge even mocked the Trump team for presenting a “haphazardly stitched together” argument, “like Frankenstein’s Monster.”
Despite the humiliating legal setback, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani issued a statement on Saturday claiming that the rejection “turns out to help us in our strategy to get expeditiously to the U.S. Supreme Court” through the appeals process.
An Iowa congressman known for making racist comments has asked Kamala Harris if she was descended from slave owners.
Republican Steve King, who has a long history of making offensive remarks about immigrants, questioned the vice-president-elect’s background on Twitter.
“I’m reading that @KamalaHarris made history as first woman, first black woman, first Asian woman, etc = a boatload of intersectionality points. But Kamala, are you descended from slaves or slave owners?” Tweeted Mr King on Sunday.
Mr King lost his bid for re-election after 18 years in Congress earlier this year in a surprise primary upset, and will be replaced on 1 January by fellow Republican Randy Feenstra.
The politician was stripped of his committee assignments by Republican leaders in 2019.
Judges appointed by Donald Trump (R-Crooked) have ruled to overturn Florida laws banning "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ minors.
The judges — who are both members of the conservative Federalist Society — determined that the laws violated the First Amendment.
Circuit Judge Britt Grant recognised that overturning the laws "allows speech that many find concerning — even dangerous" but said it was warranted because the First Amendment "does not allow communities to determine how their neighbors may be counseled about matters of sexual orientation or gender."
The ruling effectively dissolves 21 other bans on the practice passed by cities and counties throughout Florida.
It has been discredited as an effective therapeutic by virtually all major medical, psychiatric and professional counseling organisations in the US.
President Donald Trump (R-Grifter) positioned himself as a friend of New England's lobstermen, but members of the industry said they are looking forward to something that has been lacking in the crustacean business: stability.
Trump's trade war with China led to a rocky few years for the industry, which is based mostly in Maine. Trump, who campaigned hard in Maine and won an electoral vote in the state, touted economic aid and environmental reforms intended to benefit the business. The Republican Party even had Maine lobsterman Jason Joyce speak at its national convention.
What the industry really needs is assurance that it will be able to sell lobsters to other countries without punitive tariffs, said Stephanie Nadeau, owner of The Lobster Company, an Arundel, Maine, dealer. She and others said they are hopeful that assurance will arrive under Democratic President-elect Joe Biden.
“You can't plan. You can't live in chaos,” she said. “The trade war, was it going to last a week, was it going to last a month, was it going to last four years? How do you operate around that?"
U.S. lobster exports to China, a major buyer of seafood, fell off a cliff after the Trump administration escalated trade hostilities. That led to heavy tariffs on U.S. lobsters, and exporters saw a drop of more than 80% in the first half of 2019.
One fascinating quirk of the Universe is that shapes and patterns can be found in hugely different contexts: the Golden Spiral can be seen in the human cochlea and the shape of a spiral galaxy; the fractal geometry of veins echoed in the branching of lightning.
In a bold new pilot study, an astrophysicist and a neurosurgeon have bumped it up a notch, using quantitative analysis to compare two of the most complex systems in nature: the neuronal network in the human brain and the cosmic network of galaxies in the Universe.
It's actually not that peculiar a comparison. You may have seen an image that occasionally gets shared around, showing a human neuron and a simulated galaxy cluster, side-by-side; the two look startlingly similar.
But there's a lot more to the human brain - and the Universe - than how it looks.
So astrophysicist Franco Vazza of the University of Bologna in Italy and neurosurgeon Alberto Feletti of the University of Verona in Italy have spent the last few years investigating to determine if the similarities are more than skin-deep.
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said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
