from Bruce
Anecdotes
Children
• In a 1967 interview with Mary Harrington Hall, Charles Schulz said that his children had given him a total of three lines that he had used in Peanuts, his comic strip. At dinner, Amy, his daughter, was talking quite a lot, and Mr. Schulz asked her, “Couldn’t you be quiet for just a little while?” Shortly afterward, she was buttering a piece of bread and asked, “Am I buttering too loud for you?” Craig, his son, often had dirty fingernails. One day, they were clean and his parents asked how he had gotten them so clean. Craig answered, “I used toothpaste.” And when Monty, another son, was in kindergarten, Mr. Schulz read him a bedtime story and tried to get him to go to sleep, and Monty said that he didn’t want to close his eyes. Why? “Because it’s dark in there.”
• Ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev paid little attention to time. When the young Alicia Markova was dancing for him, he invited her and her governess out for a ride in the country to see some Spanish dancing and to enjoy tea, but he arrived for the engagement late. Alicia and her governess waited an hour for him, then left, and he arrived an hour after they had left. The next day, young Alicia told him calmly, “You broke your appointment, Sergypop. I know that you are a busy man, but that is no excuse for not turning up when you invite a friend to go out with you.” Mr. Diaghilev apologized, then he made a new appointment for the following day, and when Alicia and her governess arrived, he was waiting for them.
• When Sir Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of England, was a child, he was cast as the Midshipmite in Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. One of the benefits of his role was that each night on stage he got a basket of goodies. One night, the basket was filled with especially large candies, and soon he became aware that all eyes were on him—and for good reason. Because of the large size of the piece of candy he had stuck in his mouth, one of his cheeks stuck out much farther than the other.
• Ruth Weisberg decided to become an artist at age six after taking just three classes at the Chicago Art Institute. She remembers telling her parents and she also remembers that they didn’t laugh; instead, their reaction was, “Oh, wonderful!” Ruth did not go home immediately after her classes—she preferred to visit the art galleries. In fact, while she was in Italy, she used to put herself to sleep not by counting sleep, but instead by imaginatively visiting the art galleries of her youth.
• Ana Samways writes an entertaining almost-daily humor column for the New Zealand Herald. Rhys Haman of Tauranga sent her this anecdote about his niece’s birthday. Her four-year-old daughter, Naeva, gave her a little box in which were some pieces of fluff. Mr. Haman wrote about Naeva, “She said it was some bits of cloud, and she and her brother Kobe had climbed up high in the sky to get it for her! Not many people can say that they got a piece of cloud for their birthday.”
• Here are two anecdotes about children: 1) During church, a young boy threw his quarter at the collection plate, but missed, and the quarter fell to the floor, making a loud racket. Another young boy, who had watched the throwing attempt, said loudly, “Air ball!” 2) An elderly man was known for saying long prayers to close the church service. Once, a three-year-old girl got impatient, so she yelled “AMEN!” The elderly man quickly ended his prayer.
• As a boy, jazz giant Duke Ellington had read about the sinking of the Titanic, so when he sailed to Europe the first time, he stayed up all the first night to look out for icebergs. By the way, the adult Mr. Ellington was married to a jealous, knife-wielding woman named Edna, who once gave him a permanent scar by slashing his face.
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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: "Thrown Back Out of Love"
Album: SEVEN YEARS
Artist: Ol Billy Bob Boy
Artist Location: Pasadena, Newfoundland, and Labrador
Record Company: Aldora Britain Records
Record Company Location: Rothley, UK
Info:
“Aldora Britain Records is an e-zine and record label that promotes the music and work of authentic independent or underground artists from all around the world. Originally established in 2013, they revamped themselves in 2018 with a brand-new approach. Their first weekly compilation, aptly titled THE SECOND COMING, was released in late 2019. They now also release original singles, EPs and charity projects.”
The track is also on Ol Billy Bob Boy’s first album: “Ol Billy Bob Boy’s debut album, SWELTERING SUN, blends the sounds of traditional country and bluegrass music with signature tongue-in-cheek humour and stories inspired by life in Newfoundland and beyond. Featuring a stellar cast of musicians, SWELTERING SUN will be sure to make listeners hoot, holler, belly laugh and maybe even shed a tear.” The price is $1 (CAN) for track; $10 (CAN) for 12-track album.
Price: £1.70 (GBP) for 21 tracks by various artists
Genre: Americana
Links:
SEVEN YEARS
SWELTERING SUN
Old Billy Bob on Bandcamp
Old Billy Bob Boy on YouTube
Aldora Britain Records on Bandcamp
Aldora Britain Records on YouTube
Other Links:
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David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Threefer
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still on the cool side.
US Navy To Rename Ship
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The US Navy will name a fuel ship after Ruth Bader Ginsburg in recognition of her trailblazing advocacy of women’s rights, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has announced.
The late Supreme Court Justice’s work to promote gender equality was “instrumental” in inspiring women to serve in the armed forces, Mr Del Toro said.
A future oil replenishment T-AO 212 ship, the USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will be “the first to bear her name”, he said.
Fuel ships of the same T-AO class under construction have been named after the late civil rights icons John Lewis and Harvey Milk.
Mr Del Toro named Ginsburg’s daughter, Jane Ginsburg, as the ship’s sponsor.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Appointed To HBCU Advisory Board
Taraji P. Henson
Taraji P. Henson was among those appointed to the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Also named to the board was NBA star Chris Paul.
The members of the board work to to “increase the capacity of HBCUs to provide the highest-quality education to its students and continue serving as engines of opportunity,” according to the White House. Biden announced the reestablishment of the HBCU Initiative last year.
Biden appointed Tony Allen and Glenda Glover as chair and vice chair of the board, and in February named Dietra Trent as executive director.
Others named to the board include Makola M. Abdullah, Javaune Adams-Gaston, Paige Blake, Thasunda Brown Duckett, Willie A. Deese, Patrick Cokley, Monica Goldson, Brett J. Hart, Beverly W. Hogan, Lisa P. Jackson, Shevrin D. Jones, Walter M. Kimbrough, William F. L. Moses, Christopher E. Paul, Quinton T. Ross Jr., Ruth J. Simmons and Janeen Uzzell.
Taraji P. Henson
Rock Hall Nomination
Devo
Devo have been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame once again, and it seems like the third time might finally be the charm. While the Ohio eccentrics might have been considered a comedy band or novelty act at first — with their energy-dome hats, kooky characters, and bonkers early music videos — their message about the de-evolution of society turned out to be prescient, and sadly resonates more than ever in 2022.
So… how does it feel to be right, so to speak, almost 50 years later?
“Not good!” quips Devo co-lead vocalist an bassist Gerald Casale. “I mean, humans just keep proving us right, you know?”
“It's depressing. We were hoping that we were just a little overly paranoid,” frontman Mark Mothersbaugh adds drily.
Devo
LGBTQ In Florida
Di$ney
Disney employs 38 lobbyists to press its interests inside Florida's state capitol complex in Tallahassee. With its Orlando theme park empire and roughly 80,000 workers, the company already wields considerable influence in a state closely tied to tourism. Disney's army of lobbyists are there just to make sure no one forgets.
"Disney - they get everything they want," said Anna Eskamani, a Democratic state representative from Orlando, who can rattle off a list of measures killed or pushed through with the company's weight, such as an exemption designed for Disney from a 2021 bill that restricted the ability of social media firms to ban political candidates.
So Eskamani and many other lawmakers were surprised when Disney - and its lobbyists - kept quiet as a mouse during early statehouse debates over a bill to ban discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary school classrooms.
The controversial measure - dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by opponents - spurred a firestorm of criticism over whether Disney had done enough as the measure was signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this past week.
While Disney is now promising to work to undo the law, a review of lobbying disclosures found no record of Disney activity on the bill in the House, where the legislation first emerged in January. (Similar records are not maintained in the Senate.) And Disney didn't publicly speak out against the bill until it was close to final passage.
Di$ney
Historic Labor Win
Amazon
Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to unionize on Friday, marking the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant’s history and handing an unexpected win to a nascent group that fueled the union drive.
Warehouse workers cast 2,654 votes — or about 55% — in favor of a union, giving the fledgling Amazon Labor Union enough support to pull off a victory. According to the National Labor Relations Board, which is overseeing the process, 2,131 workers — or 45% — rejected the union bid.
The 67 ballots that were challenged by either Amazon or the ALU were not enough to sway the outcome. Federal labor officials said the results of the count won’t be verified until they process any objections — due by April 8 — that both parties may file.
The victory was an uphill battle for the independent group, made up of former and current workers who lacked official backing from an established union and were out-gunned by the deep-pocketed retail giant. Despite obstacles, organizers believed their grassroots approach was more relatable to workers and could help them overcome where established unions have failed in the past. They were right.
Amazon
Lifespring
Ginni
Newly unearthed footage shows controversial MAGA activist Ginni Thomas denouncing a “cult” that she escaped from in the 1980s.
Ms Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, says she wants to “expose Lifespring”, a long-defunct self-help group, in a video posted to Twitter by cult expert Steven Hassan.
Former members of Lifespring say the for-profit self-awareness organisation employed “deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control”.
Ms Thomas has previously spoken about how Lifespring leaders separated her from her family and friends, and being forced into hiding as she sought to leave the group in the mid-1980s.
Mr Hassan said the footage was taken at a meeting of cult survivors in 1986, and that “almost no one” had seen it prior to it being posted to social media Thursday.
Ginni
Inspired Researcher
‘Breaking Bad’
A former top researcher at MIT who says he was inspired by the hit television show “Breaking Bad” when he purchased ingredients for the powerful poison ricin has been sentenced to six months of home confinement.
Ishtiaq Ali Saaem, 38, was also given three years of probation by a Boston federal court judge on Thursday, The Boston Globe reports.
Saaem said he never made poison and maintained was “guided by innocent curiosity” to learn more about ricin when he purchased castor beans, the source of the poison.
Saaem, who holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering and also been head of advanced research at a Boston-area biotechnology company, had ordered 100 packets of the beans online in 2015.
It’s not illegal to purchase castor beans but Saaem, who now lives in Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice last year for lying to federal authorities about his reason for purchasing them.
‘Breaking Bad’
'Reverse Shock Wave'
Cassiopeia A
A powerful shock wave traveling through a cloud of gas left behind by the explosive death of a star has a bizarre quirk: Part of it is traveling in the wrong direction, a new study reveals.
In the study, researchers found that the shock wave is accelerating at different rates, with one section collapsing back toward the origin of the stellar explosion, or supernova, in what the study authors call a "reverse shock."
Cassiopeia A is a nebula, or gas cloud, left behind by a supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia, around 11,000 light-years from Earth, making it one of the closest supernova remnants. The nebula, which is around 16 light-years wide, is made of gas (mainly hydrogen) that was expelled both before and during the explosion that ripped apart the original star. A shock wave from that explosion is still rippling through the gas, and theoretical models show that this shock wave should be expanding evenly, like a perfectly rounded balloon that's constantly being inflated.
But the researchers found that this wasn't the case.
In the new study, the researchers analyzed the movement of the shock wave, using X-ray images collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, a telescope that orbits Earth. The data, collected over 19 years, confirmed that part of the western region of the shock wave was, in fact, retreating in the opposite direction in a reverse shock.
Cassiopeia A
Intergalactic Supernova?
Mysterious Ring
The Universe isn't a chaotic free-for-all. Most of the stars are bound up in galaxies, which are separated by vast, almost unimaginable distances.
The space between the galaxies – intergalactic space – is sparsely populated, but not entirely empty; there, too, occasional lone stars can also be found.
For the first time, astronomers think they have found evidence of the death of one of these lone rogue stars. Not far from the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy orbiting with the Milky Way, a mysterious and remarkably neat circle emanating radio waves has been detected, hanging in space, and called J0624–6948.
If it sounds familiar, there's a reason for that. Recently, astronomers have been baffled by several mysterious, radio-emitting space circles, named Odd Radio Circles, or ORCs.
ORCs were first discovered using one of the world's most powerful radio telescopes, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Australia. These objects seemed to be huge, and distant, with several defining characteristics, not least of which is a galaxy in the dead center.
Mysterious Ring
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