• R.L. Stine, the author of the Fear Street and Goosebumps books, has sold millions of copies of his books, and he has millions of young fans throughout the world. One young person who resisted reading Mr. Stine’s books was his only child, Matthew. According to Mr. Stine, “He brags about it. He knows it makes me crazy.” Mr. Stine’s wife, Jane, agrees: “I think he does it to annoy Bob, and it works.”
• J.K. Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter books, so it isn’t surprising that the first words Andrea, her daughter, learned to read were “Harry Potter.” Sometimes, Ms. Rowling would take her young daughter to a bookstore, and Andrea would see some Harry Potter books and yell, “Harry Potter!” Ms. Rowling worried that people might think that she had asked her daughter to do that.
• Mina Shaughnessy was a good friend of authors Calvin and Alice Trillin — and to their children. She once gave Abigail, one of the Trillins’ two daughters, a necklace that she said had been given to her by a princess. The princess had decided to make a career move and no longer be a princess, and therefore she didn’t need the necklace any more. Young Abigail believed Mina’s story.
• Science fiction author Anne McCaffrey wanted to dedicate her novel Decision at Doona to her middle child, Todd Johnson McCaffrey. She wanted the dedication to read, “To my darling son, Todd,” but at age 12 he worried that such a dedication would result in taunts at school, so she compromised and changed the dedication: “To Todd Johnson — of course!”
• Humorous poet Ogden Nash once saw a five-year-old child precariously standing on a farm building’s roof. He asked the child, “What are you doing up there?” The child replied, “Trying not to fall off.” Later, Mr. Nash reflected, “It struck me that that is what we all are trying to do — simply trying not to fall off.”
• Children everywhere have a special love for the Harry Potter books of J.K. Rowling. At a book signing crowded with lots of children — and adults — wanting Ms. Rowling’s autograph, a 12-year-old Scottish girl told her, “I didn’t want there to be so many people here, because this is MY book.”
• When George Ella Lyon was in the seventh grade, she devised a code to use in writing a novel. Unfortunately, after she had written 50 pages, she lost the key to the code, and so no one could read her novel — not even herself. Later, she became a successful poet and writer of children’s books.
• Jerry Spinelli, author of the Newbery Award-winning young people’s novel Maniac Magee, is aware that at age six, many future authors were reading such works as Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. What about Mr. Spinelli? He was reading Bugs Bunny comic books.
• When happens at a book signing by the authors of children’s books? Louis Sachar, author of the Newbery-Award-winning Holes, says, “When I ask if anybody has any questions, every hand goes up.”
Comedians
• Goodman Ace was the head writer for The Danny Kaye Show. While Mr. Kaye was performing, his agent, Abe Lastfogel, asked Mr. Ace, “How can we make this man [Danny Kaye] funnier?” Mr. Ace replied, “I can’t hear you.” Again, Mr. Lastfogel asked his question, and again Mr. Ace said, “I can’t hear you.” Mr. Lastfogel then asked, “Why not?” Mr. Ace said, “The audience is laughing too loud.”
• A few minutes before his show went on the air, Jack Benny called a conference with all his writers and told them that he wanted the words “Professor LeBlanc was played by Mel Blanc” added to the end credits. His head writer, Milt Josefsberg, listened to the request, then told Mr. Benny, “You know, Jack, just two of us could have handled it.”
Fiddler's Green, an after-life where there is perpetual mirth, a fiddle that never stops playing, and dancers who never tire, is part of the folklore of what profession?
The first known usage of declaring a specific beverage a "state beverage" within the US began in 1965 with Ohio designating tomato juice as their official beverage.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Tomato juice.
Billy in Cypress U. $. A. said:
Tomato juice
Alan J answered:
Tomato Juice.
Randall wrote:
tomato juice
Stephen F responded:
Tomato Juice
zorch replied:
Ohio’s state beverage is tomato juice.
Roy, your libtard buddy in Tyler, TX wrote:
Tomato juice was designated the official state beverage of Ohio in 1965 (in 2009 Ohio also recognized tomato as the official state fruit ). Ohio is one of the top tomato-producing states. All State Foods & Beverages. A.W. Livingston, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio played an important role in popularizing the tomato in the late 1800s by developing larger, sweeter tomato varieties.
PS: Is Trump just using the Covid thing as an excuse to get out of the debates? He really got stomped in the first one, so this could be a good excuse.
Cal in Vermont said:
Tomato juice. When president Orange Baboon's Asshole gets "cured" of Covid (surpisis octoberius) by chloroquine, I bet Ohioans fill their streets clamoring for a change of the State Beverage, I bet.
Jacqueline responded:
An Akron legislator is proposing Ohio change the state beverage from tomato juice to apple cider. I'm all for that.
Deborah, the Master Gardener wrote:
Tomato juice? Really? That’s so…pedestrian. I like a state whose official beverage is more mimosa or bloody mary-adjacent.
#45: It’s a hoax!
Coronavisire: Hold my beer.
Dave said:
Tomato Juice. Although Ohio wasn’t specific, I assume it was in the form of a Bloody Mary.
Photos: Tomato Juice | self portrait of me finding out Trump got infected by a hoax | Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) of the TV series "Shameless" on Showtime- the only guy in America who has paid less in federal taxes than Trump the last 15 years
DJ Useo answered:
I think it's tomato juice. Yuck! I've never liked tomato juice.
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) replied:
I can't believe I forgot to answer yesterday's quiz, I had a Wooly Willy. Played with it a lot for some reason. The answer to today's quiz is tomato juice. I looked it up. I'm going to bed. I'm really bushed,
Rosemary in Columbus responded:
Tomato Juice
Michelle in AZ took the day off.
Daniel in The City took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame took the day off.
mj took the day off.
Kevin in Washington DC took the day off.
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
John I from Hawai`i took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Mac Mac took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Angelo D took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took the day off.
-pgw took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
Roy the (now retired) hoghead (aka 'hoghed') ( Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid. ~Frank Zappa ) took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Schadenfreude Friday is followed by Schadenfreude Saturday.
Tonight, Saturday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS: The Expendable One', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The 3rd One', then '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night on the East Coast with a RERUN'The Wall', followed by a RERUN'Ellen's Game Of Games', then an old 'SNL'.
NBC opens the night on the left coast with a RERUN'The Wall', followed by a LIVE'SNL', then an old 'SNL'.
'SNL' is FRESH, with Chris Rock hosting, music by Megan Thee Stallion.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap, and in LA, that includes the LIVELA County DA Debate' where 2 dems will try to tear each other apart.
The CW offers some old 'Friends', and some old '2½ Men'.
Faux has a RERUN'The Masked Singer', followed by a RERUN'I Can See Your Voice'.
MY recycles an old 'Weather Gone Viral', followed by an old 'Storm Of Suspicion'.
A&E has 2 hours of old 'Court Cam', followed by a FRESH'Live Rescue'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] CHIMP SANCTUARY
[7:00AM] PLANET EARTH: NATURE'S GREATEST EVENTS - THE GREAT SALMON RUN
[8:00AM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - THE EPIC JOURNEY
[9:00AM] THE POLAR BEAR FAMILY AND ME - SPRING
[10:00AM] THE POLAR BEAR FAMILY AND ME - SUMMER
[11:00AM] THE POLAR BEAR FAMILY AND ME - AUTUMN
[12:00PM] GREAT BEAR STAKEOUT - EPISODE 1
[1:00PM] GREAT BEAR STAKEOUT
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - SUMMER
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - AUTUMN
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - WINTER
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: NATURE'S GREATEST EVENTS - THE GREAT SALMON RUN
[6:00PM] WILD ALASKA - SPRING
[7:00PM] WILD ALASKA - SUMMER
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH: YELLOWSTONE - SUMMER
[9:00PM] PLANET EARTH - MOUNTAINS
[10:00PM] PLANET EARTH - ICE WORLDS
[11:00PM] WILD ALASKA - SPRING
[12:00AM] WILD ALASKA - SUMMER
[1:00AM] PLANET EARTH: YELLOWSTONE - SUMMER
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH - MOUNTAINS
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH - ICE WORLDS
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - THE EPIC JOURNEY
[5:00AM] THE POLAR BEAR FAMILY AND ME - SPRING (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has the movie 'How To Be Single', followed by the movie 'He's Just Not That Into You'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Little Fockers', followed by the movie 'The Longest Yard'.
FX has the movie 'Jurassic World', followed by the movie 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'.
History has the movie 'Unforgiven', followed by the movie 'The Magnificient Seven'.
IFC -
[6:15am] Saved By The Bell
[6:45am] Saved By The Bell
[7:15am] Saved By The Bell
[7:45am] Saved By The Bell
[8:15am] Saved By The Bell
[8:45am] Saved By The Bell
[9:15am] Saved By The Bell
[9:45am] Saved By The Bell
[10:15am] Saved By The Bell
[10:45am] Saved By The Bell
[11:15am] Saved By The Bell
[11:45am] Saved By The Bell
[12:15pm] Saved By The Bell
[12:45pm] The Lost Boys
[3:00pm] Psycho
[5:30pm] The Exorcist
[8:15pm] The Shining
[11:30pm] The Exorcist
[2:15am] The Shining
[5:30am] The Three Stooges - You Natzy Spy! (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:00am] the andy griffith show
[6:30am] the andy griffith show
[7:00am] the andy griffith show
[7:30am] the andy griffith show
[8:00am] the andy griffith show
[8:30am] the andy griffith show
[9:00am] the andy griffith show
[9:30am] the andy griffith show
[10:00am] the andy griffith show
[10:30am] the andy griffith show
[11:00am] hogan's heroes
[11:30am] hogan's heroes
[12:00pm] hogan's heroes
[12:30pm] hogan's heroes
[1:00pm] hogan's heroes
[1:30pm] hogan's heroes
[2:00pm] hogan's heroes
[2:30pm] contact
[6:00pm] pacific rim
[9:00pm] gladiator
[12:30am] contact
[4:00am] perry mason
[5:15am] columbo - A Deadly State Of Mind (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'Monster House', followed by the movie 'The Mask', then the movie 'Zombieland'.
John Lennon once sang "the best things in life are free" — but that doesn't apply to his iconic round spectacles!
A rare pair of the "Imagine" songwriter's glasses sold for an eye-popping $56,800 at Sotheby's auction house in London, Wednesday.
Gifted by the late Beatle to his housekeeper, Dorothy 'Dot' Jarlett, in 1965, they're believed to be the first pair of round 'Windsor' spectacles that Lennon — who would have celebrated his 80th birthday on Oct. 9 — ever owned.
Typically for Lennon, the history of the eyewear also comes with a humorous twist: according to the Sotheby's sale brochure, Lennon gave the glasses to Jarlett — who looked after the Beatle, first wife, Cynthia, and their son, Julian, from 1964-1968 — so that her brother could use them for a fancy-dress costume.
While the legendary songwriter would become famous for his distinctive glasses, he also kept them out of sight during the early days of Beatlemania.
The United States is entitled to more than $5.2 million from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's book royalties, a federal court ruled this week, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In a statement, the department said the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday also ruled in favor of setting up a trust for the government for any future earnings from Snowden's book, which had been the subject of a federal lawsuit.
The United States alleges that Snowden published the book without first submitting it to U.S. agencies for pre-publication review, in violation of agreements he signed when working for the agencies. U.S. authorities did not seek to block publication of Snowden's book but rather to seize all proceeds.
Last December, a federal court in Virginia found that Snowden did breach his obligations to the CIA and NSA but reserved judgment on possible remedies. In an order issued on Tuesday, the court entered a judgment in the U.S. government's favor for more than $5.2 million.
The civil litigation over the book is separate from criminal charges prosecutors filed against Snowden under a 1917 U.S. espionage law.
According to dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster, searches for “schadenfreude” spiked 30,500% after President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis was announced.
On its “Trend Watch” page, the site explained, “Schadenfreude is defined as ‘enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.’ The English word was borrowed from German in the middle of the 19th century. In German it comes from Schaden (‘damage’) and Freude (‘joy’).”
The “Trend Watch” page also pointed out that the word was the top lookup for Friday “by a very considerable margin” and the searches began after Trump tweeted that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive.
Fox News paid the former assistant to Kimberly Guilfoyle approximately $4m after she drafted a complaint alleging sexual harassment against her former boss, The New Yorker reports.
Citing multiple sources, the magazine’s reporting builds on stories surrounding Ms Guilfoyle’s abrupt departure from the network in 2018.
Now finance chair of the Trump campaign and in a relationship with Donald Trump Jr (R-Time For Rehab), Ms Guilfoyle was once co-host of The Five. She left the network in July 2018 with Fox News only providing a one-sentence statement saying that it had parted ways with her.
In November 2018, HuffPost reported that her exit came after an investigation into inappropriate behaviour and allegations of sexual misconduct.
Facilitating ransomware payments to sanctioned hackers may be illegal, the U.S. Treasury said on Thursday, signaling a crackdown on the fast-growing market for consultants who help organizations pay off cybercriminals.
In a pair of advisories, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network warned that facilitators could be prosecuted even if they or the victims did not know that the hackers demanding the ransom were subject to U.S. sanctions.
Ransomware works by encrypting computers, holding a company's data hostage until a payment is made. Organizations have often ponied up ransoms to liberate their data.
The Enforcement Network's advisory also warned that cybersecurity firms may need to register as money services businesses if they help make ransomware payments. That would impose a new reporting requirement on a previously little-regulated corner of the cybersecurity industry.
The National Guard has designated military police units in two states to serve as rapid reaction forces so they can respond quickly to any potential civil unrest around the country, following violent protests that rocked the nation’s capital and several states this summer.
Military leaders don't explicitly tie the changes to concerns about possible election-related violence, but the nation is bracing for unrest surrounding the tumultuous presidential campaign, particularly if voting results are not known for days or weeks because of the increase in mail-in ballots.
According to the Guard, about 600 troops — 300 in both Alabama and Arizona — will be ready to deploy within 24 hours if requested by a governor in another state. And Guard leaders have also bought more than $200,000 in new protective equipment, and have increased troop training on proper procedures in dealing with protests.
The moves come as Defense Department and National Guard leaders work to address shortfalls that were identified in the military response to the June protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Military reviews of the response to the protests found problems with coordination between various state and federal government and law enforcement agencies — which at times slowed down troop movements.
Governors can use National Guard troops for a variety of things, ranging from natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires, to assisting with border security and civil unrest. If a governor needs additional help, they can request troops from other state governors through a compact agreement system that details how the forces will be used and what they can and cannot do.
Long ago, in the south of Europe, modern humans and Neanderthals had at least one encounter that resulted in children. While dalliances between our two species are now well documented, no one could possibly have foreseen how grimly they would impact our world 60,000 years later.
A resulting stretch of Neanderthal DNA spread far through our populations as it was passed down through the generations, even while the Neanderthals themselves became extinct. Around 50 percent of the people in South Asia and 16 percent of people in Europe now carry this length of DNA, which scientists have now linked to the most severe form of COVID-19.
According to the new research, those who have this genetic inheritance are three times more likely to require mechanical ventilation once they contract the virus, explains evolutionary anthropologist Hugo Zeberg from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.
While pre-existing underlying conditions and contributing social inequalities explain a large part of our vulnerability, there still stubbornly remains a significant portion of people who are young and healthy yet inexplicably end up with severe respiratory problems, whereas their equally healthy peers only experience the mildest symptoms.
Zeberg and geneticist Svante Pääbo from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan analysed genetic data from 3,199 hospitalised COVID-19 patients and saw certain gene variants on chromosome 3 are found together in the population more often than if they were random mutations.
Preserved brain cells have been found in the remains of a young man who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.
The brain cells' structure is still visible in a black, glassy material found in the man's skull. The new discovery of this structure, described today (Oct. 2) in the journal PLOS ONE, adds to the accumulating evidence that this glassy material is indeed part of the man's brain. The transformation to glass occurred as a result of extreme heating and rapid cooling.
"The results of our study show that the vitrification process occurred at Herculaneum, unique of its kind, has frozen the neuronal structures of this victim, preserving them intact until today," study lead author Pier Paolo Petrone, a forensic anthropologist at University Federico II of Naples in Italy, said in a statement.
Herculaneum was an ancient town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, which blew its top in a spectacular eruption nearly 2,000 years ago. A cloud of hot ash and gases, known as pyroclastic flow, buried Herculaneum as well as its famous neighbor, Pompeii.
This hot ash simultaneously destroyed and buried the town, rapidly heating organic materials. Strangely, though, the rapid burial meant that even though materials like wood and flesh were carbonized, or essentially turned to charcoal, they were also preserved as they were in the moments after being suddenly heated to 932 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius).
In an earthquake zone near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in Southern California stands a precariously balanced rock that Anna Rood has nicknamed Damaris, after her best friend. “The joke is that she’s incredibly fragile,” says Rood, a Ph.D. student in geology at Imperial College London.
She thinks Damaris has stood in place for 21,000 years, which might seem pretty sturdy. The fact that it’s still standing means an earthquake strong enough to fell it hasn’t come along in all the time it’s been so perilously perched. Now, by analyzing the ages of unstable rocks like Damaris and working out just how big of an earthquake would topple them, Rood and her colleagues have built a more precise picture of past earthquake behavior in the region—and therefore what could happen in the future. And it’s at odds with the comparatively pessimistic official forecasts for this region, called the Hosgri fault zone, which sits off the coast of California about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Previous research on earthquake hazards has taken into account such precariously balanced rocks, but this is the first study to use them to dramatically refine an entire hazard assessment, says Glenn Biasi, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey who was not involved in the study. “This is going to be an important case study for how to approach the use of fragile geologic features,” he says.
Earthquake scientists have been studying precarious rocks for nearly half a century. These ancient rock formations offer crucial data on earthquakes that otherwise aren’t available, as modern seismometers, which detect ground shaking, have only been around for the past 100 years or so. That lack of data is a problem for critical facilities like dams or nuclear power plants that need to withstand the kind of catastrophic earthquake that might only come along once in 10,000 years.
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said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
