from Bruce
Anecdotes
Education
• Not being able to spell may have advantages. A young Quaker woman attending Oxford University was very intelligent but completely unable to spell. On a visit to the continent, she filled out a form in Customs. In the space by the word “Occupation,” she wrote, “Nun” — and she was amazed at how much quicker than her traveling companions she passed through Customs.
• When Rolf E. Aaseng first began teaching Sunday School, he and another teacher complained about the rooms they taught in. Mr. Aaseng taught in a stinky basement, and the other teacher taught in the kitchen. However, yet another teacher topped them both — because of lack of space, she was forced to teach her Sunday School class in the women’s restroom!
• Rabbi Stephen S. Wise knew a couple who had gotten their son accepted into an excellent boys’ school before their son was even born. Rabbi Wise asked what they would have done if they had had a girl, but they assured him that they had considered that and had also applied for their child’s admission into an excellent girls’ school.
• Rabbi Jacob Joseph grew up in a very poor household in Lithuania. His father, who worked in a brewery, used to scrimp on food so that he could pay his son’s tuition. Because of this experience, Rabbi Joseph knew that poor people often value Jewish education more than rich people.
• A school in Germany had only one Jewish student. The teacher told her, “Just like all the Jews, you are greedy. Your father pays tuition for only one student, but you are learning enough for three.”
Enlightenment
• A student came to Zen master Suiwo, seeking enlightenment, so Suiwo gave him a problem to solve: “Hear the sound of one hand.” The student meditated for three years, but he never solved the problem and so did not achieve enlightenment. Finally, the student asked to return home in disgrace because he had not become enlightened. Suiwo urged the student to stay another week, which the student did, but without becoming enlightened. Suiwo again urged the student to stay another week, then five days, which the student did, but always with the same lack of results. Finally, Suiwo told the student, “Meditate for three days longer, then if you fail to attain enlightenment, you had better kill yourself.” The student attained enlightenment.
• Zen master Ikkyu accepted an invitation to become the abbot of a subtemple; however, at a banquet held after he became abbot, several wealthy people told him that in return for their making large donations to the subtemple, they expected him to give them inka — written confirmation that they had become enlightened. Refusing to be bribed, Ikkyu and his chief disciples immediately left the subtemple.
Etiquette
• Rumi, the founder of the Whirling Dervishes, understood and practiced good etiquette. When an Armenian butcher bowed to him seven times, Rumi returned the bows. On another occasion, several children in a group bowed to him, and Rumi bowed to each of the children. One child was far off, and he called to Rumi, “Wait for me until I come.” Rumi waited, the child arrived and bowed to him, and Rumi returned the child’s bow.
• In Philadelphia, a homeless person named Carlos was very hungry and wondering where his next meal would come from. A priest appeared and gave him a sandwich. Carlos was so hungry that he ate the sandwich before remembering to thank the priest. After eating the sandwich, he looked for the priest, but the priest had disappeared. After that, Carlos always thanked someone who gave him food, and then he ate the food.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Backwards Upside Down"
Album: DOWNSTREAM
Artist: No Worries
Artist Location: Cary, North Carolina
Info: “An eclectic, mostly acoustic band based in the North Carolina Triangle, No Worries makes music steeped in all the Americana styles … blues / rock / country / bluegrass … originals, old favorites, and covers of great songs you’ve maybe never heard yet. No Worries is also the feeling you’ll get from our music. We’re fun, smooth, but seasoned — with a pinch of red pepper.”
No Worries: Only fine roots music
“Released two songs per month starting in fall 2020, this album of [11] songs is nine years in the making. It’s the archetypal ‘labor of love.’ Emphasis on the love. And the labor. It's the best thing to happen all year! All songs are Richard Bowdon originals.”
“No Worries Band is Richard Bowdon on lead vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica; Jim Amsden on vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, keyboard, dobro; Rob Surra on vocals, bass. Additional lead guitar by Ken Faircloth and vocals by Amelia Kelley.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $7 (USD) for 11-track album
Genre: Roots Music. Americana.
Links:
No Worries on Bandcamp
DOWNSTREAM
Other Links:
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David Bruce's Blog #1
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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
The raccoons are at it, again.
Dave Grohl To Co-Host
‘The Tonight Show’
Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer, is to co-host The Tonight Show on Monday.
Grohl will join Jimmy Fallon to present the NBC late-night show. The pair will deliver the monologue together, interview guests including comedian Jim Jeffries and musician Blake Shelton together and play a series of games.
Fallon, it seems, will no longer be alone or an easy target and will give enough space to his co-host, whom he is announcing was joining him in an expanded capacity on this evening’s show
Grohl has been ramping up his entertainment projects, recently directing the What Drives Us documentary and exec producing an adaptation of his mother’s book from Cradle To Stage as an unscripted series for Paramount+.
‘The Tonight Show’
‘Cancelled’
Stephen King
Stephen King has reflected on his and JK Rowling’s online fall-out last summer.
In June 2020, the Harry Potter author deleted a tweet expressing her love of fellow novelist King, after he confirmed that he supports trans women.
When asked about the incident in a new interview with Daily Beast, King said: “Jo cancelled me. She sorta blocked me and all that. Here’s the thing: She is welcome to her opinion. That’s the way that the world works.
“If she thinks that trans women are dangerous, or that trans women are somehow not women, or whatever problem she has with it – the idea that someone ‘masquerading’ as a woman is going to assault a ‘real’ woman in the toilet – if she believes all those things, she has a right to her opinion.”
He added: “And then someone tweeted at me, ‘Do you think trans women are women?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ And that’s what she got angry about – my opinion. It’s like the old saying, ‘I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ So, nobody has ‘cancelled’ JK Rowling. She’s doing fine. I just felt that her belief was, in my opinion, wrong. We have differing opinions, but that’s life.”
Stephen King
Handwritten Equation Gets $1.2M
Albert Einstein
A letter written by Albert Einstein in which he writes out his famous E = mc2 equation has sold at auction for more than $1.2 million, about three times more than it was expected to get, Boston-based RR Auction said Friday.
Archivists at the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem say there are only three other known examples of Einstein writing the world-changing equation in his own hand.
This fourth example, the only one in a private collection, only became public recently, according to RR Auction, which had expected it to sell for about $400,000.
The one-page handwritten letter in German to Polish American physicist Ludwik Silberstein is dated Oct. 26, 1946.
The buyer was identified by RR only as an anonymous document collector.
Albert Einstein
Lost Another Showrunner
CBS
Further big-name drama happening at CBS of late: THR reports that the network has just fired its second major showrunner in recent memory, both reportedly over allegations of maintaining a toxic or abusive workplace and writers room. Specifically, it’s been reported that CBS Studios has just fired Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron from his role as showrunner on its long-running legal drama Bull, despite the fact that the Michael Weatherly-starring show was just renewed for its sixth season. (That’s a departure from how CBS treated younger legal drama All Rise last week, canceling it a few months after ousting Gregg Spottiswood as its co-showrunner.)
Of course, this isn’t the first time Bull has come under fire for this sort of behind-the-scenes drama: CBS was famously forced to pay actress Eliza Dushku a $9.5 million settlement after she alleged that Weatherly harassed her on the show’s set; she also accused Caron of writing her off of a potential regular role on the well-rated series pretty much the moment after she made her complaints against Weatherly known. (Caron denied at the time that the two incidents were linked.) These new investigations, though, are tied to the show’s writers room, where, similar to All Rise, the creator is accused of having “fostered a disrespectful work environment” where writers were often berated or yelled at for their work. (That’s per an unnamed team of writers on Bull who didn’t go on the record; writers on Caron’s previous series, Medium, echoed this assessment of his management style by name, categorizing his method of giving feedback as “cruel”.)
Caron has a long reputation for sets filled with conflict and friction; most notably, he famously left Moonlighting mid-way through its meteoric run after ongoing conflicts with Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd. He’s not the only person departing the series today, either: THR also reports that actor Freddy Rodriguez, who plays Weatherly’s former brother-in-law on the show, is also departing, also reportedly linked to a workplace investigation. No one involved in the show’s production has made a statement about the departures at this time.
CBS
'Mentally Ill'
Marjorie 3 Names
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Mean Girl) in a Thursday interview expressed her opposition to mask-wearing rules at the Capitol and called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has enforced the mandate, "mentally ill."
"This woman is mentally ill," the Georgia Republican told the far-right network, Real America's Voice, of Pelosi.
Greene's criticism came hours after the California Democrat had reiterated that all House members and staff must continue to wear masks on the floor, except for when speaking. Pelosi said the decision is not a "subjective" one and that she is following guidance from the Capitol's attending physician.
Greene continued her rant against Pelosi by comparing the mask-wearing requirement to the Holocaust.
"You know, we can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany," Greene said. "And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about."
Marjorie 3 Names
Removal Of Names
Pentagon Properties
The push to remove Confederate names from Pentagon properties, including storied Army posts, could eventually affect hundreds of items and facilities, the chair of the congressionally chartered Naming Commission said Friday.
Michelle Howard, a retired Navy admiral who heads the commission, told reporters her group began its work in March, with an interim report due to Congress in October and a final report a year later.
She said the eight-member group is still developing the renaming criteria and will begin its site visits with a trip to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. The academy faces scrutiny because it has a barracks named for Robert E. Lee, commanding general of the rebel army of the Confederate States of America.
Howard said the commission is required by Congress to consider renaming “anything that commemorates the Confederate States of America or any person that served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America.” This applies only to Defense Department properties, not state-owned military facilities.
Congress acted last year, overriding a defense bill veto by President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up), as part of a public outcry over the killing in May 2020 of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police. Calls arose to remove Confederate symbols, including military base names, deemed to be racist relics.
Pentagon Properties
Alabama Lifts Ban
Yoga
Students in Alabama can now learn yoga at school -- but they still can't deliver the traditional "namaste" greeting to their teacher.
The southern state's governor, Kay Ivey, revoked a 30-year-old law Friday that banned the popular practice, letting public schools teach and practice yoga, though stripped clean its cultural, spiritual and religious elements.
"All instruction in yoga shall be limited exclusively to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques," the new law says. Those poses have to use the English names, like the "downward dog" and "the warrior."
Meanwhile, it says, "Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited," meaning meditation, Hindu/Buddhist style, is out.
The state, dominated by conservative Protestants, banned yoga in public schools three decades ago, saying it could not be separated from its Hindu beliefs.
Yoga
Old Records Shed New Light
Smallpox
A highly contagious disease originating far from America’s shores triggers deadly outbreaks that spread rapidly, infecting the masses. Shots are available, but a divided public agonizes over getting jabbed.
Newly digitized records — including a minister’s diary scanned and posted online by Boston’s Congregational Library and Archives — are shedding fresh light on devastating outbreaks of smallpox that hit the city in the 1700s.
And three centuries later, the parallels with the coronavirus pandemic are uncanny.
Smallpox was eradicated, but not before it sickened and killed millions worldwide. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the last natural outbreak of smallpox in the United States occurred in 1949. In 1980, the World Health Organization’s decision-making arm declared it eradicated, and no cases of naturally occurring smallpox have been reported since.
But in April 1721, after an English ship, the HMS Seahorse, brought it to Boston, it was a clear and present danger. By winter of 1722, it would infect more than half of the city’s population of 11,000 and kill 850.
Smallpox
'Weirdest Sex Chromosome System Known to Science'
Creeping Voles
When it comes to dividing animals along sex lines, evolution is known for getting creative. The chromosomes that determine baby-making functions have been reinvented so often throughout the ages, it's hard to keep track.
Some groups, like mammals, are thought to be fairly consistent in how they genetically cast lots in the game of reproduction. But creeping voles (Microtus oregoni) clearly didn't get that memo.
Fifty years ago, Korean evolutionary biologist Susumo Ohno pointed out some of the stranger features of how sex chromosomes are distributed in this adorable little North American rodent.
For example, while most placental and marsupial mammals have two X chromosomes in most of their cells, female creeping voles have just the one. Confusingly, where our sex cells halve their chromosome numbers, inside the tissues that produce ova in creeping voles you'll find a double-X arrangement.
The males, at least according to Ohno, are more like typical mammals with an X and Y in each of the body's non-sex cells and a single chromosome in the cell lines that give rise to sperm. Only for some reason it's always the same 'Y' chromosome.
Creeping Voles
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