from Bruce
Anecdotes
Acting and Actors
• Early in his career, actor David Niven received a bad review for his performance in the movie Dodsworth. He had the review framed and hung it in his bathroom: “In this picture we are privileged to see Mr. Samuel Goldwyn’s latest ‘discovery.’ All we can say about this actor is that he is tall, dark and not the slightest bit handsome.”
• Actress Ellen Terry once dumped the contents of her heavily filled pocketbook onto a table as she searched for a note she wanted to give to Harry Fiske. Mr. Fiske surveyed the contents of the purse, then asked, “No slingshot?” Ms. Terry replied, “No slingshot.”
• An actor in Nude with A Violin asked the playwright, Noël Coward, about the motivation of his character. Mr. Coward replied, “My dear boy, forget about the motivation. Just say the lines and don’t trip over the furniture.”
Activism
• In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street protest against corporate greed took off and Occupy protests spread around the United States. One remarkable photo that came out of the protests is that of a woman and three dogs standing in the deserted tundra of Alaska. The woman is holding a hand-lettered cardboard sign that has this message: “Occupy the Tundra.” The woman is Diane McEachern, a resident of Bethel, Alaska, a town of 6,400 people and one main street. Ms. McEachern, an assistant professor in the rural human service program at the Kuskokwim campus of the University of Alaska, posted the photograph on the Occupy Wall Street Facebook page with this caption: “I am a woman. The dogs are rescues. The tundra is outside of Bethel, Alaska. The day is chill. The sentiment is solid. Find your spot. Occupy it. Even if it is only your own mind.” The photo went viral. Ms. McEachern said about the protests, “When I saw that it was growing and there was Occupying Portland and Occupying New Hampshire, I thought, for goodness’ sake, what can I occupy? How can I get on this? And I thought, well, what’s my context? What’s important to me?” People in Bethel are hurting. In 2011, they were paying $6.87 a gallon for gasoline, and stove oil prices were also expensive. In addition, with the economic downturn, cuts were being made in social services to rural villages. Ms. McEachern said, “And right now, they’re proposing here the largest gold mine in human history, the Pebble Mine, that’s going to do catastrophic damage to the environment and the native community, in the premier wild salmon habitat in the world. So I’m not well-versed on the larger economic system, but I can relate to the idea of corporate wealth being lopsidedly in the hands of so few, when so many are struggling.” Ms. McEachern said she was surprised that the photo went viral: “I didn’t think anything was going to explode like this. I didn’t really quite get a clue until I opened my Facebook one morning, and there’s over 200 friend requests. I’ve got to tell you, I’m likeable, but not that likeable.” Of course, not everyone liked the photo, and some people posted negative comments. She said, “For those who ask about the [permanent fund dividend] that all Alaskans receive [based on oil revenues], I got mine and donated it to Greenpeace on behalf of Glenn Beck. To the suggestion I set myself on fire, [I wrote,] ‘I AM on fire!’”
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Shakin’ Down"
Album: SHAKIN’ DOWN
Artist: The Shakedown Combo
Artist Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Info:
“The Shakedown Combo's line-up consists of two girls (Gill on vocals and Kim on upright bass) and one guy (Davey Lee on guitar) who together blast out Red Hot Bass Slappin’ Beat Whackin' Rockabilly Twang! Put Your Cat Clothes On and Step Out Rockin’ with The Shakedown Combo! Canada's Number One Rockabilly Act.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track, $10 (USD) for 14-track album
Genre: Rockabilly
Links:
SHAKIN’ DOWN
The Shakedown Combo on Bandcamp
The Shakedown Combo ob YouTube
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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"A PhD In White-Trashology"
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Supposed to get some pretty good rain here the next couple of days.
Weekend Box Office
‘West Side Story’
Despite critical acclaim and two years-worth of anticipation, Steven Spielberg’s lavish “West Side Story” revival made little noise at the box office, debuting with $10.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday — a worrisome result for a movie industry struggling to recapture its finger-snapping rhythm.
Second place for the weekend went to Disney’s animated “Encanto,” which held strongly in its third week, dropping only 27% from the previous weekend. It grossed $9.6 from Friday to Sunday, bringing its cumulative total to $71.3 million domestically and $80.5 million internationally.
The weekend’s only other new wide release — STX Films’ college football drama “National Champions” — went largely unnoticed, pulling in $300,000 in 1,197 theaters.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “West Side Story,” $10.5 million.
2. “Encanto,” $9.4 million.
3. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” $7.1 million.
4. “House of Gucci,” $4.1 million.
5. “Eternals,” $3.1 million.
6. “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” $1.7 million.
7. “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” $1.3 million.
8. “Christmas With the Chosen,” $1.3 million.
9. “Dune,” $857,000.
10. “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” $850,000.
‘West Side Story’
Statue Unveiled
Frank Sinatra
Start spreading the news! Frank Sinatra's hometown in New Jersey honored the music icon with a brand-new statue.
The life-size bronze statue of the Hollywood legend was unveiled by Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla Sunday afternoon at the Sinatra Park Amphitheater.
The statue is courtesy of sculptor Carolyn Palmer, who has also created statues of Lucille Ball, Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and several popes.
The monumental figure is depicted in a three-piece suit leaning against a flickering lamp post with his hat tipped to one side.
Those who look closely will also see Sinatra wearing his pinky ring, as Sinatra's daughter Tina Sinatra, sent one of her father's rings to Palmer to incorporate in the sculpture.
Frank Sinatra
Moves To CNN+
Chris Wallace
Veteran anchor Chris Wallace has left Fox News after 18 years for CNN, dealing a significant blow to Fox’s news operation at a time that it has been overshadowed by the network’s opinion side.
Wallace delivered the surprising news that he was leaving at the end of the “Fox News Sunday” show he moderates, and within two hours CNN announced he was joining its new streaming service as an anchor. CNN+ is expected to debut in early 2022.
“It is the last time, and I say this with real sadness, we will meet like this,” Wallace, who is 74, said on his show, which airs on the Fox network and is later rerun on Fox News Channel. “Eighteen years ago, the bosses here at Fox promised me they would never interfere with a guest I booked or a question I asked. And they kept that promise.”
Wallace generally co-existed with Fox’s opinion side and infrequently took them on publicly, although in 2017 he said it was “bad form” when opinion hosts bashed the media.
But he had grown privately frustrated with the overall tenor at Fox, where conservative opinion hosts have been elevated and amplified, particularly after the network’s ratings took a brief hit following the 2020 election. The network ousted two news executives involved in the controversial — but correct — Election Night declaration that Biden had won in Arizona, a call that infuriated Republican Trump.
Chris Wallace
‘He’s Alive’
Peloton
Fans of Sex and the City will be thrilled to hear that the killing off of the mercurial Mr Big wasn’t the end – and he’s instead run off with his Peloton instructor. That is, according to a new advert for the fitness company.
The first episode of the revamped SATC series And Just Like That concluded with a shocking death scene, killing off Carrie’s beloved Big. The cause of his death? A heart attack following a particularly vigorous Peloton workout.
As well as crushing the dreams of Carrie and Big fans the world over, the scene also hit Peloton hard - the company’s shares dropped by 11 per cent overnight after the episode was released, prompting the company to comment on the character’s death.
The company has now rushed out an ad featuring Big actor Chris Noth, dropping it on Twitter with a line saying: “And just like that...he’s alive”.
The ad features Noth and a woman who appears to be a Peloton instructor sitting in front of a fire talking about “new beginnings” and deciding to take another ride on the Peloton bike.
Peloton
Probe Ends
Emmett Till
The investigation into the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago ended as it began, with a mystery that might never be solved. All these decades later, it’s still not even clear whether the gruesome homicide was the work of a pair of racist brutes or a larger group of conspirators.
Two white men publicly confessed to the slaying after being acquitted by an all-white jury in Mississippi in 1955, but a Justice Department report released last week said at least one more, unnamed person was involved in Till’s abduction. Experts who’ve studied the case believe others participated, from a half-dozen to more than 14.
The lack of answers to decades-old, nagging questions has created a void for Till’s family. Thelma Wright Edwards, a relative who recalled putting diapers on Till as a child, talked about the emptiness left by the decision to end what will likely be the final investigation into his death.
“Nothing was settled. The case is closed, and we have to go on from here,” she told a news conference in Chicago.
In a sense, the nation as a whole was denied a proper ending to an awful tale because the true story of one of the most infamous hate crimes of the last century may never be known.
Emmett Till
Employees Speak Out
Amazon
Amazon employees are speaking out about the return of a controversial mobile phone ban after devastating tornadoes ripped through the Midwest on Friday, destroying an Illinois warehouse and killing at least six employees.
Though the e-commerce giant had previously relaxed its strict rules prohibiting phones on the warehouse floor during the pandemic, it has been slowly reintroducing the ban across the country, Bloomberg reported. Amazon initially revoked the protocol to allow for staffers to get in touch with loved ones or health care providers in case of emergency.
However, as the ban returns to Amazon locations, several employees told Bloomberg they are once again questioning the policy and expressing fear for their safety after the collapse of an Edwardsville, Illinois, warehouse left at least six workers dead and an unknown number missing on Friday.
"After these deaths, there is no way in hell I am relying on Amazon to keep me safe," an Amazon worker from a nearby facility in Illinois told Bloomberg. "If they institute the no cell phone policy, I am resigning."
Amazon
Running Of The Bulls
Pedestrian Dynamics
People walking alone walk relatively quickly. A crowd walks slowly. But how does a crowd move when there is, say, a massive bull charging at them? To answer this, scientists analyzed the movement of a crowd of runners during the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, in 2019.
The San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Spain, hosts the world's best-known running-with-bulls event. Every morning for a week each year, festival officials send six bulls charging down a set of narrow, blocked-off streets toward waiting crowds of people.
In 2019, pedestrian dynamics researcher Daniel Parisi, from the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires, attended the festival -- though he was not running himself. Instead, Parisi was gathering data from a set of cameras roughly four or five stories above the route.
Pedestrian dynamics is the science of studying how crowds move and is useful for anyone designing or planning spaces like buildings or streets. Stadium exits that allow people to file out quickly without forming a human traffic jam may do so thanks to insights from pedestrian dynamics.
But there's a gap in scientists' knowledge. While scientists have a lot of data from crowds moving at walking speeds, when it comes to crowds running, there's much less out there. It's hard to predict when something will create a stampede of people in the real world. A running crowd can be dangerous if people start to trip each other.
Pedestrian Dynamics
The Time Of Year
Dino-Killing Asteroid
The gift that is possibly the most remarkable fossil discovery ever made keeps on giving, revealing the time of year at which the asteroid that made the Chicxulub Crater struck the Earth. The discovery could help us understand the forces that allowed a quarter of living species to survive, while the rest died.
A little over two years ago PhD student Robert DePalma and colleagues stunned the world with the announcement of a set of fossils that appeared to have died on the very day of the impact. As improbable as the discovery seemed, numerous lines of evidence support the claim.
Further research has continued at the site, located near Tanis, North Dakota. DePalma is now first author of a paper in Scientific Reports revealing the fish, turtles, and dinosaurs buried there were in the prime growth season when disaster struck. In other words, the winter that lasted many years once the asteroid hit was immediately preceded by a spring. Slightly different timing could have had important effects on the outcome.
At the end of the Cretaceous, the Tanis site was located near the shore of the Western Interior Seaway that once split North America. Fossils buried there appear to have drowned in seiches (standing waves in enclosed water bodies) triggered by earthquakes set off by the impact. Minutes later the area was blanketed in collision ejecta.
Many of the paddlefish and sturgeon fossils found at the site are young enough they must have been recently hatched. Assuming Cretaceous temperate zone fish followed the same seasonal breeding cycles as today, DePalma and co-authors conclude their deaths occurred in spring or early summer.
Dino-Killing Asteroid
Refuge In Serbia
Cuban Family
Belquis Gonzales and her family enjoy something close to celebrity status in a small town in Serbia, where they live after fleeing Cuba five years ago.
While most emigrants from the Caribbean island go to the United States or Spanish-speaking countries, Gonzales and her husband chose Serbia — a rare country in Europe for which Cubans do not need visas - and arrived there via Russia.
“We didn’t know anything about Serbia,” Gonzales told The Associated Press at the family's home in Lajkovac, a town about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of the Serbian capital, Belgrade. "We had many doubts and many fears as well, but things have been a lot better than we had expected.”
Still struggling with the aftermath of wars and sanctions in the 1990s, Serbia is far from a promised land for people seeking to build new lives after fleeing violence, repression or poverty at home.
Unfamiliar with the ways of life in Europe, the Cuban family initially worried whether they would find acceptance. Gonzales said they faced no rejection or racism though “people do stare at you, but it’s like out of curiosity.”
Cuban Family
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