Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lucy Mangan: "Why you shouldn't let fear stop you from doing the right thing" (Stylist)
So. A story. I was on the train with my little boy, when, as is sadly quite common, someone started walking along the aisle asking for change. Less commonly, it was a woman. A girl, really, I thought as she got closer. Thin, very pale, shambling along and so softly spoken you could hardly hear her. I went through the usual internal monologue as she approached: Physical threat? No. do I have change? Yes. Where? Left pocket. To give, because there's a human being standing in front of me who has incalculably less of everything than I do? Or not to give, because people (including, to be fair, some who work with the homeless and whose takes I trust) say you shouldn't? Give. I catch her eye, offer her a fiver, she looks desperately grateful for an amount I would spend in a coffee shop, she thanks me, moves on.
Alexandra Petri: "This is exactly what I meant by 'Make America Great Again'" (Washington Post; Satire)
This, specifically, is exactly what I thought of when I wanted to Make America Great Again. To the letter. Donald Trump has delivered on his promise, to me and to other voters. I wanted a president who would stand up to our greatest threats (journalists, White House Correspondents' Association Dinner comedians, the institution of First Dog, the French, generals, John McCain) and embrace America's truest allies (Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia in general, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, anyone with a cool new trick for voter suppression).
Jared Bernstein: Trump and the slowing economy: A wounded tiger is a dangerous tiger (Washington Post)
What with the stock market and the price of oil tanking, chaotic trade policy, Brexit uncertainty, slower global growth, and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, I'm hearing a lot more recession chatter. I tend not to go there because economists have little reliable sense as to when the next recession will hit. (Instead, I've stressed recession-readiness, or, more precisely, our lack thereof.) But I'm not here to simply tell you, "Who knows?" In fact, I think there is something that we do know, or, at least, two things we should expect. First, the economy is highly likely to slow down significantly by the end of next year, and second, that is going to seriously annoy the president.
Matthew Yglesias: The time Nancy Pelosi saved Social Security (NY Mag)
But more fundamentally, her reputation as a shrewd and effective leader dates back to the huge fight over privatizing Social Security in the mid-aughts. At the time, the Democratic Party's fundamental political position looked more precarious - and Pelosi successfully held her party together against chipping away at one of the greatest party achievements in American history. All this helps explain why the anti-Pelosi sentiment is among a fairly marginal group of centrist Democrats who are completely detached from the anti-establishment movement on the left.
Alison Flood: Chinese writer Tianyi sentenced to decade in prison for gay erotic novel (The Guardian)
Pseudonymous author was charged under law that makes it an 'especially serious' crime to sell more than 5,000 copies of a work classed as pornographic.
Hadley Freeman: Jonathan Franzen was mocked for sharing his writing tips. Me? I'm all ears (The Guardian)
These tips invariably say a lot more about the author than they do about writing.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Shameful Double Standard
I'm embarrassed that this is an issue in our time. I'd hoped we'd progressed past questioning why a woman would want to work/serve outside the home. It's still the 1960s, in Louisiana, anyway.
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• While running his dog sled team one day, using a wheeled cart instead of a sled because it was spring, children's book author Gary Paulsen came across a dead ruffled grouse and a nest of her eggs. He took the 14 eggs home and put them in the nest of a banty hen named Hawk. This simple action may have been a mistake, as it brought down what his wife called a "summer of terror" on the Paulsen household. The eggs hatched, and Hawk devoted her life to protecting her chicks. However, ruffled grouse can fly much further than banty hens, which meant that Hawk had to patrol a wide area to protect the young grouse. Hawk therefore sat on top of a woodpile and whenever the grouse were threatened - or Hawk thought they were threatened - she charged down the woodpile and attacked whatever she thought needed attacking. A fox once grabbed a chick and Hawk slammed into the fox so hard that spit flew from the fox's mouth as it let go of the chick. Unfortunately, Hawk attacked some things that didn't need to be attacked - such as Mr. Paulsen's wife, son, cat, and dog. On one occasion, his wife went to get some tomatoes from the garden, and when she returned, the tomatoes were smeared on her shirt - this despite the bicycle helmet she had worn for protection from the attack that she knew was coming. Smeared with tomatoes, she announced to her husband, "The Hawk strikes again." After the ruffled grouse grew up, Hawk calmed down - but the Paulsen pets were still very careful when they were near her.
• During World War II, German soprano Elizabeth Schumann raised money for the Allies, but her son was a pilot for the Nazis. In 1945, while she was in London, she learned that during the Sicilian campaign her son had lost a leg after his plane was shot down. Being a mother, she wanted to help her son, even if he was on the wrong side in the war, so she tried to enlist the help of a friend in getting a well-made prothesis to her son. The friend - who was bitter because of the many deaths that had occurred due to the Nazi bombing of London - replied that since her son had fought for Hitler, he would not help him. Ms. Schumann never again spoke to the former friend.
• While Tim Conway was appearing on TV in the sitcom McHale's Navy, his mother called him to say, "You know, one of the Schutt boys is leaving the hardware store. There's an opening. You know the other boys, so if you could apply for that job, it would probably be to your benefit." He asked if she wanted him to work in a hardware store instead of on TV. She replied, "Yes - because the hardware store is a much steadier job. At least you know where you're going to work in the morning and how long you're going to be there."
• Adelina Patti's mother was willing to use underhanded methods to help her to succeed. Once, Ms. Patti was singing with a rival who had shaved her real eyebrows and put on false eyebrows. Ms. Patti's mother wanted to make the rival look ridiculous, so she began to stare at the rival. Under her breath, the rival asked, "What is the matter?" Ms. Patti's mother lied, "Your right eyebrow has fallen off!" Immediately, the rival tore off her left eyebrow and for the rest of the act wore only a right eyebrow.
• Ezra Stone played the part of teenager Harry Aldrich on The Aldrich Family radio program. Following World War II, because space was lacking, he shared his dressing room with singer Jo Stafford. One day, his mother came to visit and was surprised to find his dressing room closet filled with frilly feminine garments. Mr. Stone, a happily married man, had to convince his mother that he was not keeping a mistress on the side.
• When she was a very young gymnast, Tracee Talavera's worst-scoring event was the vault; however, she did receive five perfect scores of 10 from the judges of this event at the final trials for a United States World Championship team. When Tracee called home with the good news, her astonished mother asked, "Tracee, did the vaulting judges have seeing-eye dogs?"
• As a young, unknown musician in Paris, cellist Pablo Casals made little money, so his mother took on such jobs as sewing to bring in more money. One day, Mr. Casals was saddened to learn that his mother had sold her long, beautiful hair to a wigmaker. However, she said, "It is only hair, and hair grows back."
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
WINDING UP THE IMPEACHMENT MACHINE.
"AMERICA WAS NEVER WHITE."
THE LIARS!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny and seasonal.
Mocks
Fox Rupert NewsAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has mocked Fox News for using a primetime television slot for a panel discussion centred around the newly elected Democrat's clothing.
Ed Henry, Fox News' chief national correspondent, and three political pundits talked about the fact a pair of Ms Ocasio-Cortez's shoes are set to go on display at a Cornell University exhibition entitled Women Empowered: Fashions from the Frontline.
After a viewer alerted the incoming congresswoman to the debate, she responded with Spanish song lyrics by musical act Aventura translating as: "No, it's not love, what you feel is called obsession."
The rising political star said non-Spanish speakers could play Mariah Carey's hit song "Obsession" instead - taking aim at the network for its frequent coverage of her.
The newcomer has been engaged in a war of words with Fox News ever since the network made jokes about her finances and clothing choices earlier this month.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Chicago Defends Location
Obama Library
The city of Chicago made its first full-throated response this week to a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of the Obama Presidential Center, saying the buildings would sit on land that wasn't subject to restrictive public-trust laws.
City attorneys made those and other legal arguments in a federal court motion to dismiss a May lawsuit filed by an environmental group opposed to the project in Chicago's historic Jackson Park, chosen as the site for the $500 million presidential museum and library by former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.
The filing asking Judge John Robert Blakey to toss the suit highlights City Council and state legislative approval for the complex it said will foster economic development on the city's South Side, upgrade the parkland and tell "the story of our Nation's first African-American President." It's slated to open in 2021.
Protect Our Parks contends in its complaint that the land was once under Lake Michigan water, putting it in the public trust under court precedent and extending additional protections. The city's filing argues that's historically inaccurate and that while nearby areas were submerged, the Obama Presidential Center site was not.
The center has widespread backing in Chicago, where Obama began his political career. But lakefront projects over the decades have always prompted fierce resistance in some quarters. A similar suit helped scuttle "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' plans for a Chicago museum in 2016.
Obama Library
She Hopes
Jameela Jamil
Jameela Jamil has often spoken out about body shaming in her social media posts, but now she's calling out fellow celebrities who are endorsing detox teas.
Detox teas have been around since humans realized that senna, a natural medicine, causes bowel movements. These "miracle" detox teas are mainly hyped as laxatives, and they are not a safe way to lose weight or to keep it off long-term.
And The Good Place actor is not here for diarrhea-causing teas, especially when it preys upon people's self-esteem.
"I hope all these celebrities all s*** their pants in public, the way the poor women who buy this nonsense upon their recommendation do," Jamil tweeted. "Not that they actually take this s***. They just flog it because they need MORE MONEY."
Specifically, Jamil mentioned rapper Cardi B, who recently gave birth to her daughter, Kulture. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Cardi posted a sponsored Instagram pushing a brand of detox tea and claimed it helped her lose weight after childbirth.
Jameela Jamil
Malware Apps Downloaded
Google
Google has taken swift action after it was discovered that more than a dozen apps that install malware on user devices were found in the Google Play store.
The company has yanked the 13 Android apps, which included car and truck driving simulations as well as a couple that actually got featured in the store's trending section. However, that removal came after a researcher claimed that at least 500,000 users had download the apps in total, risking the installation of malware on their devices.
From a report via NDTV Gadgets: "The apps not only showed no legitimate functionality but also hid in the handsets to make it easier to install malware … In a tweet [which you can read below] ESET security researcher Lukas Stefanko revealed details about the 13 malicious apps discovered in the Google Play Store. He claimed that these apps containing Android malware were downloaded over 560,000 times. Interestingly, all the apps listed a single developer named Luiz Pinto."
The NDTV report goes to note the apps were basically disguised as games, but they didn't work, and actually crashed every time they were launched. They included a luxury car driving simulator, and their thumbnail images showed graphics that made them seem legitimate. According to the tweet above, the apps would ask to install an additional APK, and Stefanko went on to post videos showing how they operate.
"It is not the first time that a huge number of Android users have been affected by malicious apps containing malware," the NDTV piece rightly concludes. "Last year, an auto-clicking adware called Judy was discovered on 41 apps and said to have affected between 8.5 million and 36.5 million Android devices. Also, another botnet malware called FalseGuide had reportedly infected millions of Android devices via Google Play."
Google
Swallowed For Science
LEGOs
Here's some good news for worried parents whose small children have ingested a LEGO (or two). A new study by pediatric researchers has concluded that the toy should re-emerge in their poo within a couple of days. They know this because their test subjects voluntarily swallowed LEGO figurine heads and monitored how long it took to retrieve them.
Yes, this is an actual scientific paper, published in the reputable Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health with the title, "Everything is Awesome: Don't Forget the LEGOs." It's by the same group of pediatricians behind the popular blog Don't Forget the Bubbles. "We've finally answered the burning question: how long does it take for an ingested LEGO head to pass?" DFTB co-founder and paper co-author Tessa Davis tweeted. "This is dedication to pediatrics. But it was worth it to advance science and pediatric emergency care."
We jest, but this really is addressing a valid concern. As Bruce Y. Lee, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, pointed out at Forbes, small children love to swallow things, particularly coins. There have been prior studies examining the passage of coins through the digestive tract, notably a 1971 paper that found most coins passed through harmlessly within three to six days.
But no one had looked closely at the second most commonly swallowed item: small toy parts. And LEGO figurine heads are particularly tempting for the gastronomically curious toddler.
Each subject kept a "stool diary," recording their bowel movements before and after swallowing the LEGO heads. They evaluated the frequency and looseness of their stool based on the research team's Stool Hardness and Transit (SHAT) score. (Who says pediatricians don't have a sense of humor?) After swallowing the toy, they spent the next three days sifting through their own poo to determine when the LEGO head reappeared. The number of days it took to pass and retrieve it was dubbed the Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score.
LEGOs
'Driven By Pathology'
Self-Destructive
Many have questioned President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Yeti Pubes) mental health and overall stability over the years, citing reckless and erratic behavior, implying that the president is mentally unstable and therefore harming the country. At least once, criticism got to the president, prompting him to proclaim via Twitter that "mental stability" and being "like, very smart" are two of his greatest assets.
But some psychiatrists beg to differ. One of them, Yale psychiatry professor Bandy X. Lee, claims to not diagnose lightly, but she has nonetheless repeatedly, and publicly suggested that Donald Trumpshould be evaluated by psychiatrists, as she did in a September interview with Salon. Apart from suggesting that Trump should willingly undergo psychiatric evaluation, Professor Lee has developed a theory of her own: A theory about the mental state of Donald Trump, which she concisely laid out in a recent interview.
In a conversation with Raw Story's Tana Ganeva, Lee explained that psychiatrists look for patterns in an effort to develop theories about one's mental health. When it comes to Donald Trump, Lee claims, his behavior fits the pattern "of someone acting that is driven by emotional compulsions." The president has found a way to capitalize on this, managing to reframe losses - like the recent midterm election, for instance - as victories, therefore convincing his supporters that he is indeed winning.
Emotionally-driven, relatively uninformed, and dependant on Trump, his supporters don't question him and tend to take his claims at face value, according to the psychiatrist. She adds, however, that emotionally manipulating his supporters is not a matter of strategy for President Trump. Rather," this can be explained through their emotional wounds."
President Trump himself, in Lee's assessment, is "driven by pathology rather than healthy choices." According to her, Trump sometimes makes seemingly effective choices, without realizing that they are actually self-destructive. He is manipulative, demeaning, deceptive, and destructive, she asserts.
Self-Destructive
Biggest Blockbuster Bomb of 2018
'Robin Hood'
Lionsgate's "Robin Hood" is turning out to be this year's biggest blockbuster bomb, with a $14 million five-day opening against a budget of just under $100 million.
This year's Thanksgiving weekend has provided the most lucrative box office ever. But even with all the record-breaking success, there have been some failures in 2018. Most of those bombs, like Paramount's "Annihilation" and Fox's "The Darkest Minds," have had low-to-mid-level budgets that have reduced how much of a financial hit their studios have taken.
With a global launch of just $22.8 million, "Robin Hood" has had the worst start for any film this year with a budget of $90 million or higher. It's another flop on top of several for Lionsgate, including the sci-fi film "Kin" ($9.9 million grossed against a $30 million budget), and the Kate McKinnon/Mila Kunis spy comedy "The Spy Who Dumped Me" ($75 million/$40 million budget). So far this year, the studio has only grossed $358 million domestically, down 54 percent from this point last year.
Until now, there hasn't been a bomb as big as ones seen in 2017, like "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword," which failed to make back its $175 million budget.
Even the most recent flop, the $120 million "Nutcracker and the Four Realms," didn't do as poorly as "Robin Hood" with a $20 million domestic opening. But this critically panned take on the hero of Sherwood Forest needed the extended holiday weekend just to post a start above $10 million, having just made an estimated $9.1 million from Friday through Sunday. Overseas, it has done even worse with $8.7 million from 33 countries. The U.K., home of Robin Hood, was the top country with a mere $1.7 million grossed.
'Robin Hood'
Freaky Weirdness
Cat Tongues
If you want to design something right, look to nature for inspiration - that's the message from scientists who have produced a new type of brush, based on a detailed analysis of a cat's tongue and its ultra-effective grooming capabilities.
In particular, the team looked at certain types of papillae on the tongues of cats, tiny scoop-shaped structures made of keratin that help give the tongue its texture. With high-speed videos, CT scans, and other measurements, the researchers investigated how these little spines work - and create their prototype hairbrush.
What they found was that papillae on cat tongues wick (or draw up) saliva from the mouth via their hollow endings, and do so exceptionally well - up to 4.1 microlitres each time (about one-tenth of the liquid in a single eyedropper drop).
Nearly half of that saliva gets deposited on the fur with each lick, the research showed, which means fur can be rapidly cooled or cleaned.
The study covered six different species of cat - from domesticated cats to lions - and identified four stages in a grooming lick: tongue extension, tongue expansion and tissue stiffening, a sweep of the tongue through the fur, and tongue retraction.
Cat Tongues
Weekend Box Office
'Wreck-It Ralph'
"Ralph Breaks the Internet" and "Creed II" took the top two spots on the North American charts, beat the openings for the original films and helped the five-day Thanksgiving box office totals cross the $300 million mark for the first time ever.
Studios on Sunday said Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph" sequel earned an estimated $55.7 million over the three-day weekend and $84.5 million since its Wednesday opening to take first place and become one of the biggest Thanksgiving openings of all time.
The Rocky spinoff "Creed II," starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, placed second with $35.3 million from the weekend and $55.8 million since Wednesday, far surpassing the first film's Thanksgiving debut in 2015. The sequel directed by Steven Caple Jr. has Jordan's Adonis Creed fighting the son of Ivan Drago.
There was little left at the table for the latest version of "Robin Hood," starring Taron Egerton. The poorly reviewed pic from Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment grossed only $9.1 million over the weekend and $14.2 million in its first five days in theaters against a reported production budget of nearly $100 million.
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. "Ralph Breaks the Internet," $55.7 million ($41.5 million international).
2. "Creed II," $35.3 million.
3. "Dr. Seuss' The Grinch," $30.2 million ($7.6 million international).
4. "Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald," $29.7 million ($83.7 million international).
5. "Bohemian Rhapsody," $13.9 million ($38 million international).
6. "Instant Family," $12.5 million.
7. "Robin Hood," $9.1 million ($8.7 million international).
8. "Widows," $8 million.
9. "Green Book," $5.4 million.
10. "A Star Is Born," $3 million ($3.5 million international).
'Wreck-It Ralph'
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