Garrison Keillor: "A note to my peers: Let us disappear"
After a week in Corona Prison with my loved ones, I must say - if I were to croak tomorrow, I'd look back on the week as a beautiful blessing. Feeling closer than ever to friends, the complete loss of a sense of time, the intense gratitude for the wife and daughter. We should make it an annual event. A week of isolation. Call it Thanksgiving. The one in November we can rename Day of Obligation.
In Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", each character is represented by a corresponding instrument in the orchestra. What instrument represents the duck?
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26 May 1967 in the United Kingdom and 2 June 1967 in the United States, it spent 27 weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart and 15 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the US. It was lauded by critics for its innovations in production, songwriting and graphic design, for bridging a cultural divide between popular music and high art, and for reflecting the interests of contemporary youth and the counterculture. It won four Grammy Awards in 1968, including Album of the Year, the first rock LP to receive this honour.
The front of the LP includes a colourful collage featuring the Beatles in costume as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, standing with a group of life-sized cardboard cut-outs of famous people. Each of the Beatles sports a heavy moustache, after Harrison had first grown one as a disguise during his visit to India. The moustaches reflected the growing influence of hippie style trends, while the group's clothing, in Gould's description, "spoofed the vogue in Britain for military fashions". The centre of the cover depicts the Beatles standing behind a bass drum on which fairground artist Joe Ephgrave painted the words of the album's title. In front of the drum is an arrangement of flowers that spell out "Beatles". The group are dressed in satin day-glo-coloured military-style uniforms that were manufactured by the London theatrical costumer M. Berman Ltd. Next to the Beatles are wax sculptures of the bandmembers in their suits and moptop haircuts from the Beatlemania era, borrowed from Madame Tussauds.
The cover collage includes 57 photographs and nine waxworks that depict a diversity of famous people, including actors, sportsmen, scientists and - at Harrison's request - the Self-Realization Fellowship gurus Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda. Inglis views the tableau "as a guidebook to the cultural topography of the decade", demonstrating the increasing democratisation of society whereby "traditional barriers between 'high' and 'low' culture were being eroded". The final grouping included Stockhausen and Carroll, along with singers such as Bob Dylan and Bobby Breen; film stars Marlon Brando, Tyrone Power, Tony Curtis, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, and Marilyn Monroe; artist Aubrey Beardsley; boxer Sonny Liston and footballer Albert Stubbins. Also included were comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and writers H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde and Dylan Thomas, as well as the Eastern deities Buddha, Lakshmi and Kali.
Cal in Vermont was first, and correct, with:
Sonny Liston.
Mark. wrote:
Sonny Liston.
Stephen F said:
Sonny Liston
Alan J answered:
Sonny Liston.
Randall responded:
Sonny Liston
mj replied:
Without going over to the vinyl collection
I'm pretty sure it was Muhammed Ali.
Dave responded:
Sonny Liston. There is no record of the birth of Charles "Sonny" Liston, born to a sharecropper couple. Incredibly Sonny had 24 full or half siblings, only one who was younger. According to Sonny's mother he was born in 1930, although he later claimed 1932 (possibly so he would be thought of as younger for his boxing career). After his 2 years as World Heavyweight Champion, the 32 or 34 year old Liston was famously upset by the young Cassius Clay in 1964.
Photos: Hard hitting Sonny Liston so thoroughly dominated heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson for the title, he was considered unbeatable | A beat up Liston quit between rounds 6 and 7 in his title defense against Clay, claiming his shoulder was injured. Skeptics figured Liston was paid by organized crime to throw the fight, in which Clay was a 7-1 betting underdog. I believe that an exhausted Liston probably quit to save himself more punishment | In the rematch against Ali, Liston fell to the canvas after being hit (or not) by the infamous 'phantom punch' and was counted out with 30 seconds left in the first round. Naturally, that also caused more speculation that Liston threw the second fight as well. Ali maintained he hit Liston hard and the camera angle missed it. People still argue about it.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, replied:
Sonny Liston
Billy in Cypress U$A wrote:
Wiki says it was Sonny Liston
Daniel in The City said:
Sonny Liston
DJ Useo answered:
That'd be Sonny Liston. My first ( of 7 ) Sgt Pepper vinyl album's came with a numbered insert that told who all the cover people were.
Some people thought the numbers were the celebrities' ages, but those people who thought that were all Pat Boone fans. Ha ha ha.
I literally just played the Sgt Pepper's album again this last Tuesday. I urge you to hear the most recent remastered 2017 version.
The comparison to the original pressing reveals the newest one to be startlingly superior. It's never sounded this good.
Kenn B took the day off.
John I from Hawai`i took the day off.
Jacqueline took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame took the day off.
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
Deborah took the day off.
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) took the day off.
Roy, still Blue in Bright Red Tyler, TX took the day off.
Michelle in AZ took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, took the day off.
Rosemary in Columbus took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
PGW. 94087 took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque took the day off.
Peter W took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
• Enrico Caruso was so popular that audiences kept applauding him long after he wished to leave the opera house, thus forcing him to come up with hints for the members of the audience to go home. He sometimes appeared at the final curtain carrying his wig in his hand - or dressed in an overcoat, with his hat and his walking stick in one arm and a lit cigar in the other hand. He was so famous that whenever he went for a walk, he was forced to have a car follow him so that he could be driven away if mobs of admirers tried to surround him.
• Tom Jones, the male sex symbol and singing star, once was on tour in Mobile, Alabama. A limousine with a woman driver picked him up and drove away. They drove and drove, but the nightclub where he was to perform was still not in sight. Finally, Mr. Jones asked the driver, "Where are you taking me?" She replied, "I'm taking you to my house." She wasn't kidding. When they arrived at the driver's house, 25 of her women friends were waiting to meet Mr. Jones.
• Susannah Cibber sang at the first performance of George Frideric Handel's Messiah on April 23, 1742, in Dublin. Her emotion as she sang was overwhelming, and after she finished singing "He was Despised," the chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dr. Patrick Delany, shouted, "Woman, for this, be all thy sins forgiven." (According to music historians, Ms. Cibber had quite a few sins to be forgiven for.)
• Herman's Hermits was a very popular pop group in the 1960s, recording such hits as "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter," "Dandy," and "I'm Henry VIII, I Am." In 2000, they performed before nostalgic audiences often consisting of women in their 40s and 50s. According to lead singer Peter Noone, "Girls used to throw underwear at us. We still get some, but it's bigger than it used to be."
• There was so much screaming at the early Beatles concerts in the U.S. that the Beatles couldn't hear themselves play. Once, the Beatles were discussing their performance after a concert. When the name of a certain song came up, Ringo said, "We didn't play that song tonight." The other Beatles looked at each other, and then said, "We did."
• After singing the part of Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre, American soprano Olive Fremstad was cornered by a fan who told her, "I used to be so confused by Wagner, but tonight I really believe I understand it all!" Ms. Fremstad replied, "You are more fortunate than I, who have given my whole life to the study and still know so little."
• At a party given by George Gershwin, the composer spent a lot of time talking about himself. During a pause in the Gershwin monologue, Oscar Levant asked, "Tell me, George, if you had to do it all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?"
Fathers
• Songwriter Sammy Cahn ("Love and Marriage," "Three Coins in the Fountain," "Call Me Irresponsible," and "I'll Walk Alone") remembers attending Yom Kippur services with his father. Like the other Jews, his father was beating his breast and saying the Al Chet, a long list of sins that is recited on Yom Kippur. Suddenly, his father, who was not known to be a funny man, turned to him and whispered, "I don't know why I'm beating my breast. I haven't done anything."
• Early in her career, Melissa Etheridge was given a lot of support by her father. She picked up early experience singing in bar bands, and her father would sit all night at whatever bar she was performing in because young Melissa was underage.
Sure am glad pot shops are considered 'essential' during these dark days.
Tonight, Saturday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS: The Expendable One', followed by a RERUN'SEAL Team', then '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with the movie 'Trolls', followed by an old 'SNL'.
Of course, 'SNL' is a RERUN with Scarlett Johansson and Niall Horan.
ABC starts the night with a RERUN'Shark Tank', followed by a RERUN'American Idol'.
The CW has some local crap and some '2½ Men'.
Faux has a RERUN'Lego Masters', followed by a RERUN'9-1-1'.
MY recycles an old 'Major Crimes', followed by another old 'Major Crimes'.
A&E has 'Live PD', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'Rocky II', followed by the movie 'Rocky III', then the movie 'Rocky IV'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Seasonal Seas
[7:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - The Blue Planet
[8:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - The Deep
[9:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - The Open Ocean
[10:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Frozen Seas
[11:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Seasonal Seas
[12:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Coral Seas
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Tidal Seas
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Coasts
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Ice Worlds
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Great Plains
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Jungles
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Shallow Seas
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Seasonal Forests
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH - Ocean Deep
[9:00PM] SEASONAL WONDERLANDS - Extended
[10:25PM] PLANET EARTH - Ice Worlds
[11:25PM] PLANET EARTH - Great Plains
[12:25AM] PLANET EARTH - Jungles
[1:25AM] PLANET EARTH - Shallow Seas
[2:25AM] PLANET EARTH - Seasonal Forests
[3:35AM] SEASONAL WONDERLANDS - Extended
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH - Ocean Deep (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has the movie 'Friday', followed by the movie 'Next Friday', then the movie 'Friday'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Wedding Crashers', followed by the movie 'Grown Ups'.
FX has the movie 'The Greatest Showman', followed by the movie 'Hidden Figures'.
History has 3 hours of old 'Ancient Aliens', followeed by a FRESH'The UnXplained'.
IFC -
[6:20A] Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Santa Claus
[8:30A] Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Naked Ant
[9:10A] Monty Python's Flying Circus - Intermission
[9:50A] Monty Python's Flying Circus - Dinsdale!
[10:30A] Monty Python's Flying Circus - Deja Vu
[11:15A] The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
[1:30P] Grease
[4:00P] There's Something About Mary
[7:00P] The Wedding Singer
[9:00P] Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
[11:45P] The Wedding Singer
[1:45A] Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
[4:30A] Life of Brian (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[11:00am] Hogan's Heroes
[11:30am] Hogan's Heroes
[12:00pm] Hogan's Heroes
[12:30pm] Hogan's Heroes
[1:00pm] Hogan's Heroes
[1:30pm] Hogan's Heroes
[2:00pm] Hogan's Heroes
[2:30pm] Hogan's Heroes
[3:00pm] Hogan's Heroes
[3:30pm] Hogan's Heroes
[4:00pm] Joe Kidd
[6:00pm] Unforgiven
[9:00pm] Captain Phillips
[12:00am] Unforgiven
[3:00am] Joe Kidd
[5:00am] Law & Order (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'John Wick: Chapter 2', followed by the movie '21 Jump Street', then the movie 'The Hitman's Bodyguard'.
One of the most famous streets in the world has had an unexpected makeover thanks to the coronavirus lockdown in the UK.
London's iconic Abbey Road, which is normally a tourist magnet thanks to its appearance on the Beatles album cover of the same name, is now empty as locals hunker down inside.
That has provided a rare opportunity for municipal employees in the UK capital to give the famous crossing a new coat of paint.
But there's more to caring for the legendary northwest London crosswalk -- or zebra crossing, as the Brits would say -- than simply waiting for the crowds to disperse.
In 2010, Abbey Road was given protected status in the UK, making it the first street crossing to get the same level of recognition as famous buildings and monuments.
There's a lot of coronavirus parody songs out there. We've chronicled a few ourselves, focusing primarily on ones that didn't snatch the low-hanging fruit that is rhyming "corona" with The Knack's "My Sharona."
Now, in a valiant effort to get you all to be at least a little more creative-like the guy who turned Nirvana's "Stay Away" into the excellent "Stay Inside"-founding guitarist Berton Averre (and his adorable dogs) have arrived to deliver the definitive version. Since the band's singer, Doug Fieger, passed in 2010, Averre recruits bassist Prescott Niles to join him for the chorus, which is here reimagined as "Bye, Corona!" Before they get there, though, Averre takes a moment to absolutely slay the 1979 hit's face-melting guitar solo.
Fox Business Network has parted ways with Trish Regan (R-Sock Puppet) days after her comments that the coronavirus was "another attempt to impeach the president" went viral.
"Fox Business has parted ways with Trish Regan - we thank her for her contributions to the network over the years and wish her continued success in her future endeavors. We will continue our reduced live primetime schedule for the foreseeable future in an effort to allocate staff resources to continuous breaking news coverage on the coronavirus crisis," the network said in a statement.
Regan added in her own statement, "I have enjoyed my time at Fox and now intend to focus on my family during these troubled times. I am grateful to my incredible team at Fox Business and for the many opportunities the network has provided me. I'm looking forward to this next chapter in my career."
Her show, "Trish Regan Primetime," as well as another, "Kennedy," were removed from the lineup at the outset of the coronavirus crisis, followed by "FBN am" and "Bulls & Bears" last week.
Disney is extending the shutdown of its U.S. theme parks in Anaheim and Orlando, saying Friday that Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort will remain closed until further notice. It also said it would "extend paying hourly parks and resorts cast members through April 18."
"While there is still much uncertainty with respect to the impacts of COVID-19, the safety and well-being of our guests and employees remains The Walt Disney Company's top priority," the company said in a statement, adding that it is following in line with direction "provided by health experts and government officials."
Disney previously shuttered Disneyland and California Adventure in Anaheim, Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and Disneyland Paris Resort on March 14 as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened. At the time, the closures were through the end of March, meaning the parks would have re-opened Wednesday.
The move to keep the parks closed indefinitely comes after NBCUniversal on Tuesday said it was extending the closures of its Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort and their respective CityWalks, with a target reopen date of April 19.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer hit back at President Donald Trump (R-Venal) on Thursday night after he made derisive comments about her in a TV interview.
"We've had a big problem with the young - a woman governor. You know who I'm talking about - from Michigan. We don't like to see the complaints," Trump said during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
"She doesn't get it done, and we send her a lot. Now, she wants a declaration of emergency, and, you know, we'll have to make a decision on that," the president added. "I don't know if she knows what's going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government."
Governor Whitmer did not take kindly to the president's comments, tweeting: "Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me ??."
"I've asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan - prove it."
Venezuela's only telecommunications satellite has veered off its orbit and stopped working, creating a logistical headache for the cash-strapped South American nation.
The Chinese-built satellite was launched among much fanfare in 2008 under the watch of former President Hugo Chavez, who said that the six-ton machine would help to "construct 21st century socialism" and contribute to Venezuela's "independence and sovereignty."
But as Chavez's socialist revolution decays under U.S. sanctions and years of economic mismanagement, the nation's prized satellite is tumbling in space and has become useless three years before its planned expiration date of 2023.
The satellite's problems were first noticed on March 13, when ExoAnalytic Solutions, a California company that tracks global satellite traffic, reported that VeneSat-1 had veered away from its position at 78 degrees west longitude above Venezuela and was tumbling westward.
The Great Barrier Reef has suffered its third mass bleaching event in five years as the Australian government aerial surveys have detected widespread bleaching throughout its boundaries.
Though the island nation has seen cooler temperatures lately, a buildup of heat stress over the Australian summer - particularly through February - has led to varying degrees of bleaching across the reef. In-water and aerial surveys conducted by the Australian Government Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in collaboration with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University have so far observed around 344,000 square kilometers (133,000 square miles) from more than 800 reefs. Such surveys have delivered a wide variety of results; some saw no bleaching, others were determined "very severe" with 80 percent or more of corals bleached. The worst bleaching has occurred on reefs that suffered the highest heat stress.
As concerning as many of these results are, it's definitely not all bad news, said Chief Scientist Dr David Wachenfeld in a weekly reef health update. Pockets of the reef remain unaffected and healthy areas of the reefs are still intact. In fact, all of the offshore reefs had little or no bleaching and there are still many reefs in the southern part of the park that saw little or no bleaching this year.
In the distance, it looked like a cloud of confetti.
Faisa Abdi Alleh had never seen anything like it. Neither had anybody else here in the tiny town of Beer in northern Somalia.
For the next week, she and several of her children used clothing, sticks and anything else they could find to fend off the invaders. But eventually they could only watch as the insects devoured every green leaf in sight, including all 14 acres of sesame and beans they planned to sell this season.
Schistocerca gregaria, better known as the desert locust, has smitten East Africa like a plague from the Bible.
On a continent that has suffered repeated outbreaks of Ebola and is now fighting the coronavirus, the locusts may pose no less of a challenge. Hundreds of billions of them have conquered territory in at least eight countries, overwhelming governments and aid organizations while consuming crops and grazing land so rapidly that experts fear widespread famine.
Bats have unusually proactive immune systems, which have a nasty habit of crafting viral strains that are hugely infectious and often deadly, as they're essentially trained up while incubating in the bat's body. They're known carriers of the two coronaviruses SARS and MERS and are the most likely source of the current SARS-CoV-2 currently sweeping the globe. However, it's thought that the COVID-19 coronavirus had to pass through a "middle man" before spreading to humans. A paper published in the journal Nature has identified closely related coronaviruses of the pandemic strain in pangolins. Although the research doesn't suggest pangolins are directly involved in the spread of the current outbreak, it does show them to be capable of hosting coronaviruses, and thus their trafficking and consumption should be halted to minimize the risk of potential future transmission.
Pangolins, or scaly anteaters, are mammals of the order Pholidota. These amazing armored creatures are covered in protective keratin scales and are the only known mammals to have them. Unfortunately, this unusual defensive feature has put them in harm's way as their meat and scales have become highly sought-after ingredients for Chinese traditional medicine. Pangolin products are wrongly believed to cure a host of ailments including anxiety and hysterical crying in children, women "possessed" by devils and ogres, malarial fever and deafness. They are the most trafficked mammals in the world.
In order to better understand the devastating SARS-CoV-2 pathogen, a search is underway to identify the "missing link" species that facilitated the transmission of this specific coronavirus from bats to humans. Owing to their unique immune systems, bats are a common reservoir host where a pathogen can develop before passing onto another animal. The outbreak of COVID-19 has been linked to a wet market in China that had a vast array of animal products on sale, meaning there's a lot to choose from in identifying the next step of spread. The search was made even more difficult as the market was cleared out shortly after news of the outbreak broke, preventing researchers from examining the specimens that were present at the time.
As one of the most commonly illegally trafficked animals in the world, it's likely pangolins made up a proportion of the market's stock. In light of this, a team of researchers from the University of Hong Kong investigated a small number of Malayan pangolins seized in anti-smuggling raids in China and discovered they were carriers of two close cousins of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
