from Bruce
Anecdotes
Work
• Walt Disney was uncoordinated but fiercely competitive, and during the Great Depression (when jobs were very, very scarce), his employees did not want to throw or tag him out when he played in one of their lunchtime softball games. Disney employee Jack Kinney once witnessed a game in which Walt Disney hit a grounder to second base. Although the second baseman could have fielded the softball easily, he booted the softball instead into right field. Because the softball had stopped rolling, the right fielder was forced to pick it up, and he immediately threw it to the third baseman instead of the first baseman. The third baseman threw it to the second baseman. The second baseman had no choice but to throw it to the first baseman. The first baseman deliberately bobbled the ball, and when uncoordinated Walt finally made it to first base, the first baseman dropped the ball. Result: Walt was credited with a single. Moral: If you are uncoordinated but want to be a great athlete, just be the guy who does the hiring and firing in the midst of a depression.
• As a child, Tod Sloan (who was later a famous jockey) worked in a carnival with “Professor” Talbot, who among other activities rode in a hot air balloon. One day, the Professor, who had never seen a parachute, made one by looking at a picture and using it as a model. He then announced to the crowd that he would go up in the balloon and his little boy would jump from the balloon and float down to earth with the parachute. Tod asked, “Who’s your little boy?” The professor said, “You are.” Tod exclaimed, “Like h*ll I am!”
• In 1916, pitcher Jack Nabors was in a game that was tied 1-1 in the ninth inning, and he let the other team walk in the winning run—on purpose. Why? He explained, “If they think I’d stand there in that sun and pitch another nine innings waiting for our bums to make another run, they’re crazy.”
Absent-Mindedness
• As a young actress just starting in show business, Eve Arden quickly learned not to be absent minded. She once finished a play’s first act, went to her dressing room, took off her costume and removed her makeup, and then left the theater to take a bus home — only to find the theater manager running after her and yelling, “Second act!” She returned to the stage wearing galoshes and no makeup, where she discovered her fellow actors desperately ad-libbing lines such as “I saw her in the garden, I think” and “She’ll probably be here any minute.”
• Early in her career, actress Diana Rigg was regarded as something of a kook by her neighbors because she used to lose her keys a few times a year and be forced to gain entry to her apartment by throwing a milk bottle through a window.
Actors
• British actor Pete Postlethwaite has a rugged face. When he was studying at the Bristol Old Vic, he ran out of money to pay for the completion of his course of study. However, the head of the school knew that the young man had real talent, so he told him, “Listen, I have a hunch you’re going to do all right in this business, so I’m going to put down the outstanding amount as a debt and then, in a few years’ time, I'll write it off as a bad debt.” Of course, this comment made Mr. Postlethwaite happy, although the next comment did not. The head of the school unfortunately added, “Of course, when you’ve got a face like a f**king stone archway, you can’t go wrong.” Mr. Postlethwaite once acted in a play by Restoration playwright William Congreve, and co-star Prunella Scales sent him a telegram praising his performance. According to Mr. Postlethwaite, she wrote that “I was the best Restoration truck driver she’d ever worked with.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy
The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Buy the Paperback
The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kindle
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The Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 Anecdotes — Kobo
The Funniest People in Sports: 250 Anecdotes — Smashwords, Volume 2: Many Formats, Including PFD
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy The Paperback
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Kindle
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Apple
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Barnes and Noble
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The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PDF
Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Juke Box Queen"
Album: WILSON COUNTY
Artist: Tick Bryan Band
Artist Location: Lebanon, Tennessee
Info:
“‘Wilson County’ is the title track of the new album by the Tick Bryan Band. Containing ten original never before heard tracks about all things Wilson County.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $9.99 (USD) for 10-track album
Genre: Americana
Links:
WILSON COUNTY
Tick Bryan Band
Tick Bryan on YouTube
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
Twofer
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
t r e f o l o g y
all questions answered all answers questioned - t r e f o l o g y
all questions answered all answers questioned. I asked myself, should I really have another. serving of pancakes?
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
From RD
The Senate
RD
Thanks, R!
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
Yep, thought I'd be at my class reunion today - at the new fire station in the old woodyard.
The Winners
2021 Ig Nobels
Beards aren’t just cool and trendy — they might also be an evolutionary development to help protect a man’s delicate facial bones from a punch to the face.
That’s the conclusion of a trio of scientists from the University of Utah who are among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobel prizes, the Nobel Prize spoofs that honor — or maybe dishonor, depending on your point of view — strange scientific discoveries.
The winners of the 31st annual Ig Nobels being announced Thursday included researchers who figured out how to better control cockroaches on U.S. Navy submarines; animal scientists who looked at whether it’s safer to transport an airborne rhinoceros upside-down; and a team that figured out just how disgusting that discarded gum stuck to your shoe is.
For the second year in a row, the ceremony was a roughly 90-minute prerecorded digital event because of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, said Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research magazine, the event’s primary sponsor.
While disappointing in many ways because half the fun of a live ceremony is the rowdy audience participation, the ceremony retained many in-person traditions. Those included real Nobel laureates announcing the prizes, and the world premiere of a mini opera called “A Bridge Between People,” about children who literally build tiny suspension bridges to join two angry adults.
2021 Ig Nobels
Season 47
‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live has booked its return. The venerable late-night NBC sketch-comedy series will premiere its 47th season on October 2, in line with last year’s launch, which aired on October 3.
Deadline understands the show will kick off a consecutive run of shows with hosts and musical guests to be unveiled shortly.
The news comes as creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels is still in talks with key cast members over who will return and who won’t.
The rumor mill has swirled over the last few months as to whether the likes of Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong will be back for Season 47; these conversations are understood to be ongoing.
‘Saturday Night Live’
After Volunteering
Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after volunteering with the FDNY in Sept. 11 recovery efforts.
The 63-year-old was a firefighter at NYC's Engine Company 55, from 1980 to 1984, before becoming a TV and movie star. When planes crashed into the World Trade Center in 2001, the actor from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, showed up at Ground Zero and put in 12-hour shifts for several days alongside firefighters and first responders searching for survivors in the rubble.
"I kept calling the fire house," he recalled on Mark Maron's WTF podcast, "and of course there was no answer. Because I knew that they would be there [at Ground Zero]. Then I eventually learned that five of [the members of his firehouse] were missing. One of them was a good friend of mine I used to work with."
So he grabbed his old gear and was dropped off at the site, where he "walked around for hours and then found my company, found Engine 55, working there. I asked if I could join them. I could tell they were a little suspicious at first, but I worked with them that day."
"I was only there for like five days, but when I stopped going and tried to just live my life again, it was really, really hard," he said. "I was depressed. I was anxious. I couldn’t make a simple decision. All those things."
Steve Buscemi
Musical Chairs
Paramount
Jim Gianopulos is leaving Paramount as Chairman and CEO, Deadline has confirmed. A report in the Wall Street Journal said Brian Robbins, the head of ViacomCBS Inc.’s Nickelodeon kids TV empire, will take over Gianopulos’ position as the head of Paramount Pictures. His appointment is imminent. Robbins, who goes from the star of Head of the Class to head of Paramount, is a bright and progressive executive who will likely lead Paramount to greater emphasis on product for its streaming service.
Gianopulos, 69, took the reigns of Paramount in March 2017 after a long run at Fox where he oversaw 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Fox 2000, Fox Animation/Blue Sky Studios, Fox International Productions and Fox Home Entertainment. During his time at Fox, he oversaw the release of James Cameron’s multi-Oscar winning Titanic and Avatar which combined made over $5 billion WW. Gianopulos arrived at Paramount after the 11-year tenure of Brad Grey and Rob Moore, latter of whom served as Vice Chairman and departed in Sept. 2016. Gianopulos arrived at a Melrose lot that was in tatters from a previous administration that once had distribution rights to the Marvel hits Kevin Feige was churning out, only to see that deal walk when topper Philippe Daumann declined to buy Marvel, the deal that transformed Disney. Paramount also let get away Indiana Jones and its relationship with Lucasfilm, and the studio bought DreamWorks only to see clashes lead to Paramount dropping that.
When Gianopulos came in, the hope was he would do for Paramount what Alan Horn brought to Disney, which was to bring calm and cohesion as the studio tried to move past blemishes such as the expensive Monster Trucks and Ben-Hur and fast-fatiguing franchises such as Star Trek and Transformers. It would be a time of rebuild for Gianopulos. A bright spot for the Chairman and CEO is that coming out of the pandemic, Paramount was the only major studio to see an uptick in their summer grosses this year vs. 2019 with $220.6M, +17% thanks to A Quiet Place Part II. The year before the exec known in Hollywood as Jim G came in, the studio lost $450 million. This year is heading toward significant profit, a swing of over $850 million.
Robbins was the star of Head of the Class and has always been looked at as an innovative, progressive executive and producer. His oversight at ViacomCBS includes all strategy, creative and business operations for the company’s kids and young-adult focused brands including Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, Nickelodeon Studios and Awesomeness.
Paramount
State Mask Mandates
School Officials
While announcing a series of new, stricter federal COVID-19 initiatives on Thursday, President Joe Biden said the Department of Education will restore "100%' of pay to teachers and school officials who are punished for "doing the right thing."
The announcement is a seemingly targeted response to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's ongoing showdown with state school officials and educators over mask requirements in classrooms. Earlier this summer, the Republican leader signed an executive order banning mask mandates in Florida schools, setting off a battle over parents' rights and the proven COVID-19 mitigation method.
As multiple districts throughout the state voted to flout the governor's restrictive law, DeSantis threatened to withhold pay from school officials who defied the executive order.
During his Thursday speech, Biden said that he would use his "power as president" to get defiant governors "out of the way."
He promised that any teacher or school officials whose pay is withheld for "doing the right thing," will be compensated by the federal government 100%.
School Officials
2020 Election
Maricopa County
Local Republican officials in Arizona issued a joint statement on Friday rebutting false claims from a pro-Trump activist that ballots had been cast from vacant lots in Maricopa County.
Earlier in the week, Liz Harris, a failed GOP candidate for state legislature, issued a document that purported to show "ghost votes" were cast from properties that were unoccupied. The cover of the report - which listed a total of two properties to support its extrapolated claim that there were more than 100,000 such votes - illustrated this by way of showing a barren lot.
But that photo was deceptive, only showing one corner of the property. On another corner sits a "single-family home," built in 2005, according to the Maricopa County Assessor's Office, led by Republican Eddie Cook.
Further, the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, led by Republican Stephen Richer, determined that four registered voters live at that home, "three of whom voted by mail" in the 2020 election, according to Friday's statement.
The unsubstantiated claims have left the local GOP officials exasperated.
Maricopa County
Pulling Out Of India
Ford
Ford Motor Co will stop making cars in India and take a hit of about $2 billion because it does not see a path to profitability in the country, becoming the latest automaker to leave the major growth market dominated by Asian rivals.
The U.S. carmaker entered India 25 years ago but still has less than 2% of the passenger vehicle market having struggled for years to win over Indian consumers and turn a profit.
Ford said in a statement on Thursday that it had accumulated operating losses of more than $2 billion in 10 years in India and demand for its new vehicles had been weak.
"Despite (our) efforts, we have not been able to find a sustainable path forward to long-term profitability," Ford India head Anurag Mehrotra said in the statement.
Ford's decision to cut its losses in India after leaving Brazil earlier this year underscores the pressures on global automakers to invest more in electric and automated vehicles, as well as connected vehicle technology.
Ford
600 Cubes
Nazi Uranium
On someone's desk, one of the little gray cubes wouldn't raise an eyebrow. To the untrained eye, they look like paperweights.
"Marie Curie's granddaughter has one. She uses it as a doorstop," Miriam Hiebert, a historian and materials scientist, told Insider.
The weight of the 2-inch objects might be surprising, though - each is about 5 pounds. That's because they're made of the heaviest element on Earth: uranium.
The cubes were once part of experimental nuclear reactors the Nazis designed during World War II. As far as researchers know, only 14 cubes remain in the world, out of more than 1,000 used in Nazi Germany's experiments with nuclear weapons. Over 600 were captured and brought back to the US in the 40s. But even after that, what happened to most of the cubes is still unclear.
Hiebert and Timothy Koeth, a professor of material science and engineering at the University of Maryland, are writing a book about the cubes. After years of research, they told Insider they think they know what happened.
Nazi Uranium
Unexpected First
Signs of 'Triangle Singularity'
Physicists sifting through old particle accelerator data have found evidence of a highly-elusive, never-before-seen process: a so-called triangle singularity.
First envisioned by Russian physicist Lev Landau in the 1950s, a triangle singularity refers to a rare subatomic process where particles exchange identities before flying away from each other.
In this scenario, two particles – called kaons – form two corners of the triangle, while the particles they swap form the third point on the triangle.
"The particles involved exchanged quarks and changed their identities in the process," study co-author Bernhard Ketzer, of the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics at the University of Bonn, said in a statement.
It's called a singularity because the mathematical methods for describing subatomic particle interactions break down.
Signs of 'Triangle Singularity'
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