from Bruce
Anecdotes
Practical Jokes
• Impressionist George Kirby, an African American, put his impressive talents to use in 1956 when he and several other black entertainers performed in Miami Beach at the Beachcomber. This was during the Jim Crow era, and the Miami Sun printed an article with the headline “We Don’t Want N*ggers on the Beach!” As the black entertainers were in their dressing rooms nervously preparing for their performance that evening, they heard a mob, including voices that shouted, “Let’s get dem n*ggers!” Everyone opened their doors and looked outside, and then they heard the laughter of Mr. Kirby, who had put his talents to use in a practical joke that broke the tension before the performance.
• Some friends played a practical joke on actor Edmund Gurney, who always carried a rolled-up umbrella, even during good weather. The friends filled the umbrella with several small green apples, then waited for rainy weather. The joke played out better than the friends had thought it would. One day, as Mr. Gurney was talking to a lady, it started to rain, and so Mr. Gurney offered her the protection of his umbrella. He opened it over her head, and as Mr. Gurney tells the story, “out fell a ruddy orchard!”
• Theatrical actress Beatrice Lillie enjoyed playing practical jokes. In the 1936 play The Show is On, she stood behind a box-office window and co-star Bert Lahr, famous for playing the Cowardly Lion in the movie The Wizard of Oz, was supposed to go to her and exchange one-liners. One night, Mr. Lahr approached the box-office window, but she said, “So sorry, box office closed” — and then she slammed the window in his face.
• While attending UCLA, Nancy Cartwright — the voice of TV’s Bart Simpson — worked on theater sets, painting many flats with a thick brown paint that looked like chocolate pudding. One day, she and a fellow student bought some paint brushes, a new bucket, and several packages of chocolate pudding. When their supervisor came in, they were licking the brushes and saying, “Mmmm, pudding!”
• Marc Connelly and Robert Benchley once bought an old horse that was on its way to the glue factory and had it delivered at the house of Charles Butterworth. They took the horse through the front door and into the library, where Mr. Butterworth was reading. Mr. Butterworth looked up and saw his friends and the horse, and said, “Gee, fellows, you’ve been reading my mind.”
• Beatrice Kaufman once asked Alexander Woollcott to write a reference letter so her daughter could attend a certain school. As a practical joke, Mr. Woollcott sent to Mrs. Kaufman what she took to be a carbon copy of his reference letter, which began in this way: “I implore you to accept this unfortunate child and remove her from her shocking environment.”
Prejudice
• Quentin Crisp, an effeminate homosexual who performed one-man shows in theater, grew up in England, but felt at home in New York, where his eccentricities were accepted. One day, he stood on a corner in New York, waiting for a bus, dressed and made up in his usual manner with scarf, too-tight shoes, fedora, lipstick, rouge, dyed hair — in short, he was definitely an out homosexual. A black man looked at him and said, “Well, my! You’ve got it all on today!” The black man laughed, but without even a hint of terrorism. When Mr. Crisp had lived in London, people had felt justified in coming up to him, getting close and personal, and hissing, “Who do you think you are?”
• Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun, experienced racism at first hand when her family moved into an all-white Chicago neighborhood in the late 1930s. Although her family was middle-class — her father was a physician and an uncle was a professor — mobs surrounded her family’s house. At night, her mother stayed awake, patrolling the house with a loaded gun in her hands, and during the day, her father pursued a lawsuit that would give his family their rights. In 1940, he won the lawsuit, Hansberry v. Lee.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Smelly Street"
Album: SELF TITLED
Artist: Los Hormiguitas [The Little Ants]
Artist Location: Brooklyn, New York
Info:
Ryan Spoto- Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Bass
JM Airis- Guitar
Skye Beach- Drums
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $5 (USD) for five-track EP
Genre: Instrumental Surf Rock.
Links:
SELF TITLED
Los Hormiguitas on Bandcamp
Other Links:
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David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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Current Events
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In The Chaos Household
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The little lizard molted.
Weigh Charging Librarians
Wyoming
Prosecutors in Wyoming are evaluating whether to file criminal charges against officials at a public library for stocking books some say are obscene in sections for children and teenagers.
For weeks, Campbell County Public Library officials have been facing a local outcry over the books and for scheduling a transgender magician to perform for youngsters, an act canceled amid threats against the magician and library staff.
After reviewing the case involving five nonfiction books having to do with sex education and LGBTQ issues at the library in Gillette, local prosecutors will ask for a special prosecutor to also weigh in on the case, County Attorney Mitchell Damsky announced Friday.
The book dispute has “gotten contentious and out of hand” when it may have been resolvable by putting the books among material for adults, Damsky said.
Now that the matter is in his office, prosecutors want to make sure they can get a “consensus opinion” with help from a prosecutor outside Campbell County before announcing whether they will pursue charges, he said.
Wyoming
Bluegrass Music Awards
Billy Strings
Grammy-winning bluegrass musician Billy Strings won entertainer of the year at the genre’s top awards show, a major feat for the 28-year-old guitarist who beat out veteran performers.
The International Bluegrass Music Association’s Bluegrass Music Awards were handed out Thursday in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Strings was also named guitar player of the year. Nominees for entertainer of the year included Balsam Range, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, the Del McCoury Band and The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys.
Strings, originally from Michigan, won a Grammy Award for his 2019 album “Home,” and just released his second record for Rounder Records, an acoustic album called “Renewal.”
Also picking up multiple awards was Appalachian Road Show, which won best new artist and instrumental group of the year. Sister Sadie won vocal group of the year, song of the year went to Balsam Range for “Richest Man” and album of the year was “Industrial Strength Bluegrass: Southwestern Ohio’s Musical Legacy.”
Billy Strings
Bridge To Be Auctioned
Winnie the Pooh
The adventures of the honey-loving bear “Winnie the Pooh” have captivated children — and their parents — for nigh-on 100 years. Fans now have a chance to own a central piece of Pooh’s history, when a countryside bridge from southern England goes up for auction next week.
The author of the hugely popular Pooh series of books, A. A. Milne, often played with his son, Christopher Robin, at the bridge in the 1920s. It became a regular setting for the adventures of Pooh and his friends in the series that launched in 1926.
The bridge, originally called Posingford Bridge, was built around 1907 and officially renamed Poohsticks Bridge in 1997 by the late author’s son, whose toy animals were the basis of the Pooh series.
It was then taken down in 1999 after being worn out by visitors and was replaced by a newer structure funded largely by the Disney corporation.
The original bridge was dismantled and stored in Ashdown Forest Centre in the southern county of East Sussex, until the local Parish Council recently gave permission for it to be restored and rescued. The bridge, which measures 8.87 meters long by 4.5 meters wide (29 feet by 15 feet), has now been fully restored using local oak for any missing elements.
Winnie the Pooh
Scuttles Off
Marion "Pat" Robertson
Marion "Pat" Robertson (R-Charlatan), who turned a tiny Virginia television station into a global religious broadcasting network, is stepping down after a half-century running the “700 Club” on daily TV, the Christian Broadcasting Network announced on Friday.
Robertson, 91, said in a statement that he hosted the network’s flagship program for the last time on Friday, and that his son Gordon Robertson will take over the weekday show starting Monday.
“I will no longer be the host of the ‘700 Club,’” Robertson said on the show Friday, although he vowed to return from time to time, if he’s had a “revelation” he needs to share. “I thank God for everyone that’s been involved. And I want to thank all of you.”
Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network started airing on Oct. 1, 1961 after he bought a bankrupt UHF television station in Portsmouth, Virginia. The “700 Club” began production in 1966.
Now based in Virginia Beach, CBN says its outreach extends to more than 100 countries and territories in dozens of languages through TV and video evangelism, online ministry and prayer centers. The “700 Club” talk show can be seen in the vast majority of U.S. television markets.
Marion "Pat" Robertson
Sticks With Controversial Name
NASA
NASA's next flagship space telescope, scheduled to launch in December after many years of delays, will retain its current name, the James Webb Space Telescope, despite the controversy surrounding its honoree.
The telescope was dedicated to James Webb, the space agency’s administrator from 1961 to 1968 and throughout the Apollo years, in 2002. However, over the last six years, evidence has come to light linking Webb’s work in the upper echelons of the state department with what is known as the Lavender Scare, the state-sponsored anti-LGBT purge that forced gay and bisexual scientists and civil servants from US federal jobs because of their sexuality in the 1950s and '60s.
Naming Hubble's successor after someone involved in one of American history's most discriminatory political actions proved controversial enough that thousands of astronomers, astrophysicists, and scientists signed a petition calling for it to be renamed. The petition, started by cosmologist Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, astrophysicist Dr Sarah Tuttle, astronomer Dr Lucianne Walkowicz, and astrophysicist Dr Brian Nord, reads:
"This new mission reflects the rainbow of possible universes that our community imagines, dreams about, and works for, and its name should reflect its future legacy. We are not only space science professionals and space enthusiasts, we are also future users of JWST. Together, we are part of the constituency that NASA purports to serve and inspire through its mission to “reveal the unknown for the benefit of all humankind.”
The petition led NASA to start an investigation to examine and review archival documents related to Webb’s policies and actions. Following up on the investigation with the agency, IFLScience was told that the investigation is now concluded and that there are no plans to rename the telescope due to not enough evidence warranting a name change.
NASA
Taken The Shine Off
Climate Change
Of the many ways in which the climate crisis is unfolding, there is one that is both poetic and worrying: the Earth is losing its shine. The indiscriminate release of greenhouse gases since the industrial revolution has literally dimmed our planet.
Earth reflects about 30 percent of the sunlight that shines on it – this is called the albedo. Over the last two decades, the albedo of Earth dropped by 0.5 percent. The findings are reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Two methods were used to study the Earth’s albedo. One comes from the measurement of earthshine, the dim illumination of the night side of the moon due to light reflected from our planet. This was measured by the Big Bear Solar Observatory in Southern California between 1998 and 2017, and is quite a wide-angle reflectivity.
The other measurement comes from NASA's Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite that is more sensitive to narrower angles. Combining the two gave a good idea of what it’s going on, and the unexpected change in sunlight reflected.
“The albedo drop was such a surprise to us when we analyzed the last three years of data after 17 years of nearly flat albedo,” lead author Philip Goode, a researcher at New Jersey Institute of Technology, said in a statement.
Climate Change
Redacted Love Notes Deciphered
Marie Antoinette
“Not without you.” “My dear friend.” “You that I love.”
Marie Antoinette sent these expressions of affection — or more? — in letters to her close friend and rumored lover Axel von Fersen. Someone later used dark ink to scribble over the words, apparently to dampen the effusive, perhaps amorous, language.
Scientists in France devised a new method to uncover the original writing, separating out the chemical composition of different inks used on historical documents. They tested their method by analyzing the private letters between the French queen and the Swedish count, which are housed in the French national archives.
That allowed them to read the original words and even identify the person who scratched them out — Fersen himself.
The letters were exchanged between June 1791 and August 1792 — a period when the French royal family was kept under close surveillance in Paris, after having attempted to flee the country. Soon the French monarchy would be abolished, and the next year both Marie Antoinette and her husband, Louis XVI, would be beheaded.
Marie Antoinette
Drought Exposes 130-Year-Old Shipwreck
North Dakota
The Abner O'Neal sank while traveling down the Missouri River in 1892. Nearly 130 years later, the shipwreck still sits on the bottom of the North Dakota portion of the river and recently became visible to visitors, according to CBS Bismarck affiliate KXMB-TV.
North Dakota is currently experiencing a statewide drought, and, as a result, the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River has been releasing less water. Archaeologists said receding water levels revealed the ship's remains, KXMB-TV reported.
Built back in 1884, the steamship carried grain between Washburn and Bismarck-Mandan. Eight years later, the Abner O'Neal was transporting 9,000 bushels of buckwheat when it struck a snag or a rock and began to sink between Washburn and Mandan. The cargo on board and the boat itself were a total loss, according to the State Historical Society of North Dakota's website.
The ship, which has largely remained intact since it sank, was also seen during the 2011 Missouri River flood.
Officials are asking the public not to disturb the wreckage.
North Dakota
Crater of Diamonds State Park
4.38-Carats
Last week, after just an hour of searching, a visitor who spotted something "shiny" on top of the ground at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, ended up pocketing the park's largest diamond of the year.
Noreen Wredberg of Granite Bay, California, was at Hot Springs National Park with her husband Michael when she realized how close they were to Crater of Diamonds State Park.
"I first saw the park featured on a TV show several years ago," Noreen said in a news release. "When I realized we weren't too far away, I knew we had to come!"
"I didn't know it was a diamond then, but it was clean and shiny, so I picked it up!" Noreen recalled.
After having the stone examined at the park's Diamond Discovery Center, staff informed the couple that they were in possession of a very large, 4.38-carat yellow diamond.
4.38-Carats
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