from Bruce
Anecdotes
Hair
• 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.
• When he was a youngster, Billy Crystal loved the Beatles, and he wanted to grow his hair long like the Beatles wore their hair. Therefore, when he went to the barbershop, he always asked his barber to leave his hair long in back. Unfortunately, every time he went to the barbershop, the barber cut his hair short everywhere, including in back. When Billy complained, the barber would explain, “Your mother called.”
Illnesses and Injuries
• On April 19, 2005, George Lopez received a new kidney that was transplanted from his wife’s body into his. After the operation, he joked, “Some people say that my wife and I are joined at the hip, but we’re really joined at the kidneys!” His wife, Ann, denies that she is a hero because she gave one of her kidneys to her husband. Instead, she says that someone who gives a kidney to a person he or she does not even know is the real hero. Of course, Mr. Lopez, the star of the TV sitcom The George Lopez Show, is a very famous person. Even though he checked into the hospital under a pseudonym, Tom Ace, he was recognized. When someone called him by his pseudonym, the janitor said, “Hey, loco, that’s George Lopez.” Actually, Mr. Lopez himself was fooled by his own pseudonym. After the operation, the nurses were yelling, “Mr. Ace, wake up!” Mr. Lopez thought at first that they were yelling at someone else to wake up.
• In January 1960, Zero Mostel nearly lost his left leg after an accident in which a city bus skidded into him. Doctors wanted to amputate, but Dr. Joseph Walker, Chief of Surgery for Joint Diseases at Knickerbocker Hospital, managed to save the leg. Later, Dr. Wilder gave a presentation to a group of surgeons and Mr. Mostel was present to show the results of the surgery. Wilder asked Mr. Mostel, “Please show the leg,” and Mr. Mostel promptly pulled up his right pajama leg, showing a perfect leg. The surgeons had begun a standing ovation, when Dr. Wilder said to Mr. Mostel, “I’ll kill you.” Mr. Mostel then raised the left pajama leg, revealing a leg covered with scars. Dr. Wilder then received only light applause.
• Nightclub comedian Joe E. Lewis got sick, was rushed to the hospital, and had to have an operation. His friend Frank Sinatra was there as Mr. Lewis was being wheeled into the operating room. Mr. Lewis asked him, “What’s the prognosis? Don’t b*llsh*t me.” Mr. Sinatra replied, “You’ve got about a 50-50 chance.” Mr. Lewis yelled, “Get me out of here! I want better odds than that!” Everyone laughed.
• Steve Moore is an HIV-positive gay comic who laughs at the dark side of life. Once, a woman friend had a mastectomy. Of course, after her operation she was surrounded by very sorrowful and excessively solicitous friends, so it was a relief when Mr. Moore walked in to visit her and said, “Hey, Nancy — nice tit.” She laughed.
Language
• Comedian Lenny Bruce took comedy into controversial areas it had never ventured into before. He was concerned about language, and he once asked a nightclub audience, “Are there any niggers here tonight?” Of course, the crowd was shocked, but Mr. Bruce argued that such words as “nigger” were shocking and insulting because they had been suppressed. According to Mr. Bruce, “If President Kennedy said, ‘I’m considering appointing two or three of the top niggers in the country to the cabinet,’” the n-word would soon lose both its shock value and its ability to insult. (In the audience was a shocked African-American comedian named Dick Gregory, who later titled his own autobiography Nigger. He also told Mr. Bruce’s publicist, “This guy is the eighth wonder of the world. You have to go back to Mark Twain to find anything remotely like him. And if they don’t kill him or throw him in jail, he’s liable to shake up the country.”)
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has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Surf A.D."
Single: This is a one-sided single.
Artist: The Creature Preachers
Artist Location: Warner Robins, Georgia
Info:
Mastered by Punk/Surf Rock heavy weight Dave Klein (The Ghastly Ones, The Bomboras, Agent Orange) this is a remastered version of the band’s debut single for Altered State Of Reverb available here for the first time.
Creepy Surf Rock from the darkest depths of the Georgia swamps
The Creature Preachers are:
Greg Regular-drums, bass, guitar
Scary Gary-guitar, bass, keys, drums
Written by Greg and Garrick Burger
Influences include: The Ghastly Ones, The Ventures, The Misfits, Samhain, Danzig, The Cramps, The B-52’s, The Pixies, The Toadies, CCR, Type O Negative, Ghost, White Zombie, Angelo Badalamenti
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE) for one-sided single.
Genre: Horror Surf.
Links:
“Surf A.D.”
The Creature Preachers on Bandcamp
The Creature Preachers on YouTube
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Reader Comment
Current Events
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Grand Sumo returns - LIVE tonight!
Big Misstep
Di$ney
Disney CEO Bob Chapek is facing a major test of his leadership, after the company’s botched response to an anti-gay bill in Florida sparked a staff revolt among LGBTQ employees and their supporters.
Chapek apologized to the staff on Friday, saying he should have been “a stronger ally.” But for some employees, who found the company’s silence on the bill profoundly alarming, the statement came too late.
“This is a CYA [cover your ass] for Chapek — this is a weak statement,” one Disney staffer told Variety. “We should have gotten this apology on March 1, not weeks after — and after this bill was passed in Florida.”
For Chapek, the apology capped a full week of attempted damage control. On Monday, he explained in an internal memo that the company had not condemned the bill because it might be “counterproductive.” By Wednesday, Chapek was acknowledging missteps and publicly opposing the bill for the first time. But the opposition came a day after the Florida state senate passed the bill, and weeks after the controversy first erupted.
Those comments also did nothing to quell internal outrage from employees who felt the company had failed to stand up for the LGBTQ community. Disney usually manages to contain its internal disputes, making the public dissent all the more striking.
Di$ney
Hit-and-Run on Camera
South L.A.
A hit-and-run was caught live on camera as a reporter filmed a story about a separate hit-and-run that occurred just a month prior.
Gene Kang, of California television station KTLA, was in South Los Angeles on Thursday to cover a deadly collision that took place at the intersection of 84th and Hoover on Feb. 26.
During his live shot, two cars can be seen colliding directly behind Kang. The news crew then filmed one of the vehicles immediately speeding away from the scene.
"Crazy crash! I was covering a fatal hit & run story yesterday," Kang said of the incident in a tweet on Friday.
"I was pointing out one of the most dangerous streets in #LosAngeles (Hoover & 84th Street) - then this happened!" he added. "We called 911, helped the victims and @LAPDHQ has this video and the license plate. Stay safe! @KTLA."
South L.A.
Ernest Tubb Record Shop For Sale
Nashville
The downtown Nashville, Tennessee record store that was opened by Opry legend Ernest Tubb in 1947 and has been a landmark in country music for decades will close as the building is being put up for sale.
The owners of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop said in a statement on Friday they were heartbroken that the store, which has been in its current location on Broadway since 1951, will close in the spring. The building and store is owned by the Honky Tonk Circus, LLC and the David McCormick Company, Inc.
“Our goal has always been to protect, promote and preserve the great history of the record shop and building. That desire remains as strong today as ever,” the owners said in a statement. “However, due to changes in circumstances out of our control, it’s now clear the best way forward is to sell the business and the real estate.”
The record store was the original home of the Midnite Jamboree, a late-night radio show that aired after the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast and would feature artists who crossed the street from the Ryman Auditorium to the record shop to keep playing in front of a live audience. It often featured up-and-coming new artists showcasing their songs and the shop was well-known for stocking a wide variety of country records.
Nashville
Alaska Flag Designer
John Ben Benson Jr.
The state of Alaska has issued a corrected birth certificate for the teenage designer of the Alaska flag after researchers who were looking into his heritage found records indicating he was born more than a year earlier than previously believed.
The change means he designed the flag featuring the Big Dipper and the North Star on a simple field of blue when he was 14, not 13.
Superior Court Judge Adolf Zeman last week ordered the state to issue a birth certificate for John Ben Benson Jr. with the birth date of Sept. 12, 1912 and for his mother’s maiden name to be corrected.
The order followed a petition by researcher Michael iqyax^ Livingston, who was part of the team studying Benson’s heritage that uncovered church and other records supporting the changes.
Benson is known as Benny Benson, and in 1927, he won a territory-wide contest with his flag design, which became the state flag after Alaska was admitted to the union in 1959. Benson is believed to be the only Indigenous person to design a state flag. He died in 1972.
John Ben Benson Jr.
Relatives Seek Renewed Probe
Emmett Till
Relatives of Emmett Till joined with supporters Friday in asking authorities to reverse their decision to close an investigation of the Black teenager's 1955 lynching and instead prosecute a white woman at the center of the case from the very beginning.
Authorities have known for decades that Carolyn Bryant Donham, now in her 80s and living in North Carolina, played a key role in Till's slaying, and they need to act immediately to bring her to justice before time runs out, said Deborah Watts, a cousin of Till.
The Justice Department announced in December it was ending its renewed investigation into the killing of Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed after witnesses said he whistled at Donham, then known as Carolyn Bryant, at a family store where she worked in rural Money, Mississippi.
Federal officials had reopened the investigation after a 2017 book quoted Donham as saying she lied when she claimed Till accosted her. Relatives have publicly denied that Donham recanted her allegations, and Donham told the FBI she had never changed her story, the Justice Department said.
Donham's then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were tried on murder charges about a month after Till was killed, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. Months later, they confessed in a paid interview with Look magazine.
Emmett Till
Victim To Sue
San Francisco
The woman whose DNA from a sexual assault case was used by San Francisco police to arrest her in an unrelated property crime plans to sue the city, her attorney said Thursday.
The woman has filed notice of a possible federal lawsuit because she feels betrayed by police officers who broke her trust and violated her rights, said her attorney, Adante Pointer.
The woman was tied to a burglary in late 2021 during a search of a San Francisco Police Department crime lab database, according to District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who said last month that the match came from DNA collected from her as part of a 2016 domestic violence and sexual assault case.
Boudin said he dropped felony property crime charges against the woman after becoming aware of a report, found in evidence of the property crime case, that referred to a DNA sample collected from her during the 2016 rape investigation.
The revelation prompted a national outcry from law enforcement, legal experts, lawmakers and advocates and led San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott to institute new guidelines so that victim DNA would no longer be used in unrelated investigations.
San Francisco
Grifters Gotta Grift
Small-Dollar Donors
The former President Donald Trump in recent weeks asked his supporters for money as part of a promotion to eat dinner with him in New Orleans last Saturday. The only problem was that no one actually got to eat dinner with Trump the loser, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing four people familiar with the matter.
A series of email pitches to small-dollar donors offered up what any loyal Trump gullible supporter would undoubtedly appreciate. “We’ll cover your flight. We’ll cover your very nice hotel. We’ll cover your dinner,” one email read. “All you have to do is enter.“
It’s unclear how much money the pitches raised for Save America PAC, the former president’s political action committee, or how many people donated. But similar contests brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars, people involved with them told the Post. A Trump spokesperson spokesliar chalked up the lack of a winner in this contest to an “administrative error.”
It’s certainly possible an “administrative error” is responsible, but this also isn’t the first time this has happened. The Post‘s story echoes a 2019 report by Popular Information which found that Trump’s campaign held at least 15 online contests for a chance to win a meal with him — but no one appeared to have actually done so. ( Trump’s The known liar's communications director claimed then that “people win the contests each time,” yet didn’t offer proof.)
Trump The shady fundraising tactics don’t end there. Trump The conman and the Republican Party were forced to refund millions of dollars they acquired last year through deceptive email blasts, specifically by having donors unwittingly opt in to recurring payments. The recurring donation box was pre-checked earlier this week, as well, when Save America PAC solicited supporters to fund a new private plane for the former president.
Small-Dollar Donors
How The Brain Reboots
Anesthesia
You may well have spent hours wondering what your laptop is up to as it takes its time to boot up. Scientists have asked the same question of the human brain: How exactly does it restart after being anesthetized, in a coma, or in a deep sleep?
Using a group of 30 healthy adults who were anesthetized for three hours, and a group of 30 healthy adults who weren't as a control measure, a 2021 study reveals some insights into how the brain drags itself back into consciousness.
It turns out that the brain switches back on one section at a time, rather than all at once – and abstract problem-solving capabilities, as handled by the prefrontal cortex, are the functions that come back online the quickest. Other brain areas, including those managing reaction time and attention, take longer.
"Although initially surprising, it makes sense in evolutionary terms that higher cognition needs to recover early," said anesthesiologist Max Kelz, from the University of Pennsylvania.
A variety of methods were used to measure what was happening in the brain, including electroencephalography (EEG) scans and cognitive tests before and after going under. These tests measured reaction speed, memory recall, and other skills.
Anesthesia
Tube Sealed Since 1972
Lunar Soil
NASA scientists are about to find out whether lunar soil ages like fine wine.
This month, researchers with the space agency are finally opening a container of lunar soil collected by Apollo 17 astronauts 50 years ago. The vacuum-sealed container, collected in December 1972, contains rocks and soil from a landslide deposit on the moon's Taurus-Littrow Valley – and, if scientists are lucky, may also hold some trace samples of lunar gas as well, the agency said in a statement.
Why open a 50-year-old sample now? Because even back then, the Apollo team knew that science and technology would continue to advance far beyond what was possible in the 1970s, even if manned lunar missions ceased. (Apollo 17 was, incidentally, the last time humans set foot on the moon).
Sure enough, the scientists were right. Now, researchers have begun a weeks-long process of slowly piercing the sealed 1.5-by-14-inch (4 by 35 centimeters) tube using a device that European Space Agency (ESA) scientists call the "Apollo can opener," designed for just this purpose.
Lunar Soil
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
