from Bruce
Anecdotes
Death
• Shoah, a 1985 movie, is an over-nine-hour-long witness to the Holocaust. Among the people appearing in the movie are Nazis, survivors, and bystanders. One person interviewed is the survivor Filip Muller, a Jew who watched other Jews walk into a gas chamber to die. He watched and listened as a group of Czech Jews sang two songs as they walked into the gas chamber. One song — “The Hatikvah” — affirmed that they were Jewish. The other song — the Czech national anthem — affirmed that they were Czech. Mr. Muller says, “They denied Hitler, who would have them be one but not the other.” Mr. Muller felt that he had no reason to go on living, so he went inside the gas chamber with them. However, a small group of women came over to him, and one woman said, “So you want to die. But that’s senseless. Your death won’t give us back our lives. That’s no way. You must get out of here alive, you must bear witness to our suffering and to the injustice done to us.” In his review of this movie — a Great Movie — Roger Ebert writes, “And that is the final message of this extraordinary film. It is not a documentary, not journalism, not propaganda, not political. It is an act of witness. In it, [filmmaker] Claude Lanzmann celebrates the priceless gift that sets man apart from animals and makes us human, and gives us hope: the ability for one generation to tell the next what it has learned.”
• On Groucho Marx’ You Bet Your Life TV quiz show, some of the guests were as entertaining as Groucho. For example, the Reverend James Whitcomb Broughter, a Baptist minister, told about getting dressed for a benefit. He had trouble tying his bowtie, so when the man who was going to take him to the banquet room showed up, he asked him if he knew how to tie it. The man did know, and he asked Reverend Broughter to lie down on the bed and then he tied the bowtie. Reverend Broughter asked, “Why did you make me lie down on the bed?” The man replied, “That’s the only way I can do it. I’m an undertaker.” By the way, when Groucho had just agreed to be the host of the You Bet Your Life quiz show, which started on radio, and then later moved to TV, he objected when he heard that one of the writers, Bernie Smith, was being paid $300 a week: “He can’t be any good. You can’t get a good writer for less than $900 a week.” John Guedel, the executive producer of You Bet Your Life, took the criticism seriously. He called Mr. Smith into his office, fired him, and then rehired him at $900 a week.
• In early 2011, Charles Nolan, a fashion designer and the significant other of finance writer Andrew Tobias, died. Before he died, he had a goal that he wished to achieve. The hallway that he shared with two neighbors was ugly, and Mr. Nolan hated ugly. Mr. Tobias writes that “a few weeks ago, Charles took charge. Designs were designed, frames framed, contractors contracted with, carpet squares ordered. Two weeks ago today, he said, ‘I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but I don’t want to die until they finish the hallway.’” After briefly considering asking the contractors to slow down, but realizing that both he and Mr. Nolan knew that it was the right time for Mr. Nolan to die (except for the hallway), Mr. Tobias spoke to the contractors, who had seemed to him to be working slowly, and remarkably the entire job was finished in the next two days. Mr. Tobias says that the hallway went from being “the ugliest hallway in the building, possibly in the entire neighborhood” to being “the sharpest hallway in the building, possibly the entire neighborhood.”
• George Jessel was known as the Toastmaster of the United States because he spoke at so many dinners and gave so many elegies at funerals. He once observed a number of veterans at a dining room in a hotel. They had fought together, and some had been injured in battle, including a man who could no longer speak. At the table was an empty chair for one of their fellows who had been killed in battle. One by one they made a toast to their fallen comrade and drank. When it was his turn to make a toast, the veteran who could not speak stood up, raised a glass to the empty chair, then sat down, and all drank. Mr. Jessel says, “It was the most eloquent toast I’ve ever witnessed.”
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Free Downloads
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Apple
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Barnes and Noble
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Kobo
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Smashwords
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Can Be Read Online Here at No Cost: Smashwords Online Reader
NEW BLOG - davidbrucebooks: FREE PDFs
Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Track: “Es Algo Más” [“It’s Something More”]
Album: TALES FROM THE POP PUNK WORLD: VOLUME 4
Artist: Los Skuff
Artist Location: Nuestra Señora De La Paz, Bolivia
Record Company: RTTB Records [Ramone to the Bone Records]
Record Company Location: SH, Germany
Info:
RTTB Records has 10 compilations of pop punk tracks. Bruce has all of them.
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE) for 103 tracks by various artists!
Genre: Punk Pop. Pop.
Links:
TALES FROM THE POP PUNK WORLD: VOLUME 4
RTTB Records on Bandcamp
Los Skuff on Bandcamp
Los Skuff on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Marc Dion
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommended
Ukraine
How did Russia lose an ‘entire battalion’ crossing a Ukrainian bridge? | Ben Hodges
The Russians have not demonstrated very good operational security or concealing their movements.” After Russia loses an ‘entire battalion’ crossing a bridge in Ukraine, Ayesha Hazarika talks to retired US Army officer Ben Hodges about what might have happened.
***
Operator Starsky: Why did russians take Chornobyl?
170,808 views May 12, 2022 An episode dedicated to the “military genius” (not really) of russian invaders in Ukraine. And I think that I finally got an answer to the question that bothered me for a while.
***
Sean Kernan: Ukraine Is Starting To Win This War (Medium)
A specific breakdown of how the new systems will win.
***
Abortion
***
Congratulations! Rei-Doll and Pred Get Married!
Shepherd Can Dance - Just a funny video that I wanted to make for so long x)
Rei-Doll on Deviant-Art
Rei-Doll on Deviant-Art
Ryoko-Demon on Deviant-Art
Ryoko-Demon on Deviant-Art
R&R ArtGroup on Deviant-Art
R&R ArtGroup on Deviant-Art
R&R ArtGroup on YouTube
Other Links:
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
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
Yikes - gas jumped 6¢ overnight to $5.69/gal at the cash preferred no-name station.
Pacoima Post Office Named
Ritchie Valens
A post office in the Pacoima section of Los Angeles was dedicated to the late rock ‘n’ roll legend Ritchie Valens in a ceremony on Friday, which would have been his 81st birthday.
Valens was born and raised in Pacoima before he became a teenage star with hits including “Donna” and “La Bamba.”
Legislation to name the post office for Valens was introduced in Congress by U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas and it was signed into law in 2019.
Valens was 17 when he was killed in a Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash along with Buddy Holly, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and their pilot.
Valens was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Ritchie Valens
Painting Featured In ‘Good Times’
‘Sugar Shack’
Ernie Barnes’ 1976 painting The Sugar Shack, familiar to millions of TV viewers for its use during the closing credits of the ’70s sitcom Good Times as well as serving as the album cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 release I Want You, sold at auction in New York City last night for $15.3 million.
According to Christie’s auction house, the sale set an auction record for Barnes’ work by more than 27 times the artist’s previous record, and was 76 times the high estimate of $200,000. The 10-minute auction drew 22 bidders before Houston-based energy trader Bill Perkins.
“I would have paid a lot more,” Perkins told The New York Times following the auction. “For certain segments of America, it’s more famous than the Mona Lisa.”
The Sugar Shack, which depicts a dance hall filled with vibrantly drawn Black dancers, elongated as they move to the rhythms of an R&B band, was inspired by Barnes’ memories of his childhood North Carolina hometown and is painted in the style that has come to be known as Black Romantic. Gaye was so taken with the image he sought permission to use it for the cover of his ’76 album.
During the fourth season (1976-77) of the smash Norman Lear-produced sitcom Good Times, The Sugar Shack was used during both the show’s opening and closing credits, and in subsequent seasons was featured in either opening or closing credits. During the show’s fifth and sixth seasons, the painting appeared in the family apartment of the Evans family, suggesting it was the work of eldest son and aspiring painter “J.J. Evans,” played by Jimmie Walker. (Other Barnes paintings were occasionally featured on the show, and Barnes himself, who was a professional football player in the 1960s before devoting himself to his artistic endeavors, appeared briefly in two early episodes of the show.)
‘Sugar Shack’
March 12, 2023
Academy Awards
Next year’s Academy Awards will take place March 13, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced Friday.
The date for the 95th Academy Awards moves the show up slightly from this year, when they where held unusually late on March 27, partly due to the February Olympics. But it will also leave in place a stretched-out awards season that some have argued saps the Oscars of drama.
The 94th Academy Awards didn’t lack for that, albeit not in the way the film academy intended. On a night that saw Apple TV+’s “CODA” become the first film with a largely deaf cast and the first film from a streaming service to win best picture, the infamous slap by Will Smith of presenter Chris Rock overshadowed the awards.
ABC will again broadcast next year’s ceremony.
Academy Awards
Animated Series With Original Cast
‘Married… With Children’
Another classic 1990s comedy is making a comeback. An animated revival of Married… with Children headlined by the original series’ stars Katey Sagal, Ed O’Neill, Christina Applegate and David Faustino is being pitched to networks and streamers and is getting strong interest, sources tell Deadline.
The new take on the 1987 Fox sitcom is written by Family Guy executive producer Alex Carter, who serves as showrunner. Sony Pictures Television, which owns and distributes the original series, has been working on the animated project for over a year and closed deals with the quartet of Married… with Children stars before taking it out.
While it is unclear yet where the animated Married… with Children would land, Fox, Hulu and Peacock are considered logical destinations.
One of the longest-running live-action comedy series on network television, Married… with Children aired for 11 seasons. Created by Michael G. Moye and the late Ron Leavitt, the show follows the Chicago lives of Al Bundy (O’Neill), a misogynistic women’s shoe salesman; his lazy wife, Peggy (Sagal); and their children, Kelly (Applegate) and Bud (Faustino).
‘Married… With Children’
Police Beat Pallbearers
Shireen Abu Akleh
Israeli riot police on Friday pushed and beat pallbearers at the funeral for slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, causing them to briefly drop the casket in a shocking start to a procession that turned into perhaps the largest display of Palestinian nationalism in Jerusalem in a generation.
The scenes of violence were likely to add to the sense of grief and outrage across the Arab world that has followed the death of Abu Akleh, who witnesses say was killed by Israeli troops Wednesday during a raid in the occupied West Bank. They also illustrated the deep sensitivities over east Jerusalem -- which is claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians and has sparked repeated rounds of violence.
Abu Akleh, 51, was a household name across the Arab world, synonymous with Al Jazeera’s coverage of life under Israeli rule, which is well into its sixth decade with no end in sight. A 25-year veteran of the satellite channel, she was revered by Palestinians as a local hero.
Abu Akleh was a member of the small Palestinian Christian community in the Holy Land. Palestinian Christians and Muslims marched alongside one another Friday in a show of unity.
She was shot in the head during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin. But the circumstances of the shooting remain in dispute.
Shireen Abu Akleh
Latest Conspiracy Theory
Food Facilities
Marjorie Taylor Greene famously alleged in 2018 that the California wildfires were started intentionally by a laser fired from a satellite controlled by a Jewish family. Greene is in Congress now, but she’s still pushing conspiracy theories that globalists are deliberately starting catastrophic fires to advance their agenda.
The target this time around is the nation’s food supply. Nearly two dozen food processing plants have gone up in flames this year. This isn’t out of the ordinary — there are thousands of fires at manufacturing facilities every year, according to the National Fire Protection Association — but the blazes have drawn extra attention because of the food shortage. Greene is among several conspiracy theorists to suggest foul play may be afoot, writing in a tweet earlier this week that the fires are “supposedly” random while making a point about how “our food supplies are in trouble.”
Greene elaborated during an appearance on Infowars earlier this week, suggesting to Alex Jones that Democrats are starting the fires on purpose in order to deprive the nation of food, which would be advantageous for them because they’re playing some sort of globalist long game and don’t want anything to be manufactured in America … or something like that. It’s not totally clear. “The Biden administration and the Democrats … are destroying the very important, most critical part of the fabric of America, and that is our farmers,” Greene ranted. “They’re doing it on purpose. They want to be the global economy. They want to be completely involved. And here we have these ‘random,’ supposedly accidental fires at food processing plants.”
Jones then cut Greene off to note that the he’s talked to “statisticians” and that it’s “mathematically impossible” for processing plants to be catching fire like they have been so far this year. “Everything the globalists are doing is about destroying real sustainability and making things collapse to bring in their new world order,” he said, with Greene nodded in agreement.
Food Facilities
Sinking In The Pacific
Tuvalu
Tuvalu fears that climate change, an existential threat to the Pacific nation, is being forgotten and it worries that fellow island nations could become "pawns" in a global competition between China and the United States, its foreign minister said.
Simon Kofe told Reuters the superpower competition was a concern, distracting attention from climate change, the priority for Pacific islands endangered by rising sea levels.
"It is important that the Pacific handles these issues carefully," he said in an interview on Thursday. "The last thing we want is that countries in the Pacific are used against each other or used as pawns."
Kofe grabbed global attention for his nation of 12,000 people last year when he addressed a global climate conference standing ankle deep in the sea to illustrate Tuvalu was "sinking". Forty percent of the capital district is underwater at high tide, and the tiny country is forecast to be submerged by the end of the century.
Tuvalu
Urine Diversion Plan
“Pee-Cycling”
Environmental engineering professors Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton are regular visitors to the Ann Arbor school’s Nichols Arboretum, where they have been applying urine-based fertilizer to the heirloom peony beds ahead of the flowers’ annual spring bloom.
It’s all part of an effort to educate the public about their research showing that applying fertilizer derived from nutrient-rich urine could have environmental and economic benefits.
“At first, we thought people might be hesitant. You know, this might be weird. But we’ve really experienced very little of that attitude,” Wigginton said. “In general, people think it’s funny at first, but then they understand why we’re doing it and they support it.”
Urine contains essential nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus and has been used as a crop fertilizer for thousands of years.
Think of it not so much as recycling, but “pee-cycling,” Wigginton said.
“Pee-Cycling”
Iron Age Arrow
Norway
A spectacularly preserved arrow from the Iron Age — complete with its iron arrowhead, sinew wrappings and aerodynamic feather fletching — is now in the hands of glacial archaeologists in Norway.
It's rare for arrow fletching to preserve, as the delicate feathers that help guide the arrow in flight usually decay over time. The arrows of Ötzi the Iceman, who died about 5,300 years ago in what is now the Italian Alps, also have preserved fletching, although their condition isn't as good as that of this newly discovered 1,700-year-old arrow, the archaeologists said.
"I think it is perhaps just the Ötzi-find which has preserved fletching on arrows, but his arrow fletchings are nowhere as well preserved as some of ours," Lars Pilø, an archaeologist at the Department of Cultural Heritage, Innlandet County Council, Norway, co-director of the Glacier Archaeology Program, told Live Science in an email.
However, "his are older too, by several thousand years, so this is not to diss Ötzi's arrows," Pilø said.
The archaeologists found the 31.5-inch-long (80 centimeters) arrow during a survey at an undisclosed site in the Jotunheimen mountains in southern Norway in 2019, the glacial archaeology group Secrets of the Ice announced on Twitter on April 28.
Norway
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
