from Bruce
Anecdotes
Animals
• Columbus, Ohio, radio deejay Bob Simpson once asked listeners for silly pet names. One caller had a friend who had named his cat “Stir Fry.” Why? “It’s a threat.” By the way, Channel 4 (Columbus, Ohio) News once gave a quiz to help determine if you are a hypochondriac. After giving the quiz, the news co-anchor, Colleen Marshall, said, “If you think you are a hypochondriac, you should see a doctor.”
• When Patrick Macnee shared an apartment with fellow actor Dennis Price, he ran into a problem. Mr. Price kept a flock of chickens in the bathroom. One advantage was that the roommates always had fresh eggs for breakfast, although there were also some obvious disadvantages. When Mr. Macnee remonstrated with Mr. Price about the chickens, Mr. Price asked, “Can you lay eggs?”
• Comedian Wally Cox (TV’s Mr. Peepers) was a bird expert. At his farm in Connecticut, birds even flew to him and rested on his hands and arms. One of his friends wanted very much to do this. She learned the proper birdcalls, but the birds wouldn’t come to her the way they came to Wally. Finally, the woman put on Wally’s hat and coat — seconds later, she was covered with birds.
• During World War II, Spike Milligan and some fellow soldiers were shipped to Algiers. On the voyage, the soldiers became trigger-happy, frequently firing anti-aircraft guns at seagulls. Eventually, the ship’s Captain told them, “Gentlemen, all seagulls in this area are unarmed. Can we refrain from shooting at them?”
• Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev once watched a nature show during which a sheep carcass was thrown into the Everglades, where frenzied alligators immediately devoured it. Mr. Nureyev recognized the scene: “Ah, Paris Opéra.”
• Jack Webb, star of Dragnet, took steps not to be overwhelmed by success. To remind himself to be humble, he kept a photograph of his Hollywood Walk of Fame star — on which a dog had left a stinky memento.
Auditions
• In the early days of television, when most shows were live, many local stations featured homegrown talent, which meant that TV directors such as Paul Ritts were “treated” to a variety show weekly as they tried to find a few people with actual talent to put on the air. Of course, actual talent was frequently absent (many of the TV people working during the auditions turned off their earphones until after the auditions were over), although some performers tried to make up for it with deviousness. Often, these performers would find an excuse to speak to the person auditioning talent after the audition was over; that way, they could make a plug for themselves. One day, a pretty dancer who was much more talented at being pretty than she was at dancing stopped by Mr. Ritts’ office to explain that she had “mistakenly” written her old address instead of her new address on a form she had filled out. Mr. Ritts got the form out so he could make the correction, and the pretty dancer sat down and crossed her legs. Since she was still wearing her dance costume — which was both scanty and flimsy and only sort of covered by a scanty and flimsy outer garment, the crossing of her legs was an event of interest to almost any man and more than a few women. One of those women happened to be Mr. Ritts’ wife, who walked into his office, looked at the dancer’s legs, remarked that dresses were definitely getting shorter, and then paid a visit to her husband’s boss. Shortly afterward, Mr. Ritts received a note from his boss informing him that due to his many other duties someone else would henceforward audition talent.
• Pop star and actress Brandy attended the Hollywood High Performing Arts Center, where she studied acting and singing. She thought that her drama teacher would recommend her for auditions, but that didn’t happen. One day, Brandy asked her drama teacher, “Why aren’t you sending me out on calls?” The teacher replied, “Because you’re not drop-dead gorgeous.” The criticism didn’t stop Brandy, who starred as Cinderella on television. By the way, one person who had faith in Brandy’s talents from the beginning was Brandy’s mother, who, after giving birth to Brandy, told her physician, “You just birthed a star.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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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: "Bustin’"
Single: This is a two-sided single.
Artist: The Spiratones
Artist Location: Ulverston, England, UK
Info:
“The Spiratones – solar-powered surf-instrumental music from the UK! Borne where the mountains meet the sea. Expect shimmering surf rhythms and Hot-Rod rock & roll.”
The other track is “Couch Surfer (Live).”
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE)
Genre: Instrumental Surf
Links:
“Bustin’”
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Original Phaser Rifle Is Up for Auction
Star Trek
Long before William Shatner actually ever traveled to outer space, he made his debut as Captain James T. Kirk in the second Star Trek pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Although that was the first episode Shatner filmed, it was not the first to air. (That would be “The Man Trap.”) Nevertheless, it was his first time playing the character the world identified him with for the rest of his life.
That episode also had another significance to Trek fans, though. It saw the debut and only appearance of the Starfleet phaser rifle. Although just used once, Shatner posed with it for many famous publicity pictures. And now, via Boing Boing, we’ve learned that this iconic piece of Star Trek history is part of an upcoming Heritage Auction. As long as you can make the opening bid of $250,000.00, this one-of-a-kind collectible could beam into your own personal museum.
This original series prop comes from the Azarian Collection. It’s one of the largest treasure troves of 1960s TV and movie collectibles in existence. That collection has several costumes and props from both the original series, as well as subsequent Trek films. For years, the phaser rifle from the “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was thought lost. Until it appeared at auction in 2013, in remarkably great shape for a prop used just once fifty years prior.
The 33.75" x 14" x 6" Phaser Rifle is incredibly sturdy and solid. Especially considering the designer, Reuben Klamer, only had two weeks to deliver the prop. Whoever wins the rifle also gets a vintage original 22? x 14? schematic drawing of the final design. Not to mention seven pages of correspondence between Gene Roddenberry and the series producers. Not included in this auction is the vintage Star Trek lunch box, one of the only other places the phaser rifle ever appeared. You’ll just have to get that one on eBay.
Star Trek
Announces Retirement from Acting
Sir Michael Caine
Michael Caine is taking his final bow.
The two-time Academy Award winner, 88, announced his retirement from acting Friday on the BBC Radio show Kermode and Mayo's Film Review, following what will be his final onscreen appearance in the new film Best Sellers.
"Funnily enough, it has turned out to be what is my last part, really," he explained. "Because I haven't worked for two years, and I have a spine problem, which affects my legs. So, I can't walk very well.
"And I also wrote a book, a couple of books, which were published and were successful. So, I'm now not an actor, I'm a writer, which is lovely because as an actor, you have to get up at half past 6 in the morning and go to the studio. As a writer, you can start writing without leaving the bed," Caine added.
He stars in Best Sellers as famed cantankerous writer Harris Shaw, who reluctantly agrees to go on a tour promoting his first book in decades, after his publisher Lucy Stanbridge (Aubrey Plaza) tracks him down to help save her late father's publishing house. The film, which shot in Montreal in 2019, also stars Scott Speedman, Cary Elwes and Ellen Wong.
Sir Michael Caine
First Number One In 16 Years
Sir Elton John
Sir Elton John has topped the UK singles chart for the first time in 16 years with a little help from Dua Lipa, making him the first artist to score a top 10 single in six separate decades.
Their collaboration, Cold Heart (Pnau Remix), made it to number one on Friday after three weeks at number two.
He last topped the singles chart in 2005 when he appeared on US rapper 2Pac's posthumous single Ghetto Gospel.
Cold Heart scored 64,000 chart sales, thanks largely to 5.9 million streams.
Sir Elton's first number one came courtesy of a collaboration with another female singer, Kiki Dee, with 1976's Don't Go Breaking My Heart.
Sir Elton John
Will Attempt to Hold Ceremony
Golden Globes
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association declared on Friday that it will announce Golden Globes nominations and winners in early 2022, recognizing film and TV work in 2021, despite an ongoing boycott of the organization by a large coalition of publicists, as well as numerous major studios, networks and talent due to concerning demographic and ethical shortcomings exposed by The Los Angeles Times last February.
NBC, which currently owns the broadcasting rights for the Golden Globe Awards, stated in May that it will not air the show in 2022, arguing that the “meaningful reform” that it expects from the HFPA “takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right.”
So it remains to be seen what the Golden Globes would look like without a broadcasting partner and participating talent — perhaps a press release?
Since the last Golden Globe Awards back on Feb. 28, the HFPA has significantly overhauled its bylaws, most notably banning complimentary travel and gifts for its members, and it also added 21 new members, six of them Black. But the organization did not revoke the accreditation of any of its existing members, more than a few of whom are seen as problematic by groups boycotting the HFPA (not least due to inactivity as journalists).
Moreover, film and TV content from 2021 has not been widely made available to HFPA members this year, and certainly not to the recently announced members.
Golden Globes
Doesn’t Enjoy
Assures Donors
Remember the pee tape? Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) sure does.
During a private speech at a Republican retreat in Palm Beach on Thursday, the former president assured the crowd full of wealthy donors, lobbyists, and elected officials that getting doused in urine is not one of his sexual proclivities.
“I’m not into golden showers,” Trump said, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. “You know the great thing, our great first lady — ‘That one,’ she said, ‘I don’t believe that one.'”
The Post notes that Trump’s was “unprompted” in his apparent callback to the pee tape. There’s no proof this tape exists, but a campaign research document in 2016 claimed there’s a video showing Trump in a suite at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton watching two Russian prostitutes urinate on a bed once slept in by Barack Obama. (This would not technically constitute a golden shower, but Trump seemed eager to address the subject more broadly.)
Trump address at the National Republican Senatorial Committee retreat — during which he also bashed disloyal Republican senators, called Democrats “cheaters,” and continued to push the false idea that the 2020 election was fraudulent — is part of the former president’s recent drive to reassert his grip on the Republican Party as the the 2022 midterms draw near. “It was a dying party, I’ll be honest,” Trump said of the GOP before he took office. “Now we have a very lively party.”
Assures Donors
Another One Bites The Dust
Alitalia
New, state-owned carrier Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) took over from Alitalia on Friday, permanently grounding the 75-year old one-time symbol of Italian style and glamour after years of financial losses and failed rescue attempts.
An early morning flight from Milan landed in the southern city of Bari just before 0600 GMT to mark the debut of the new, downsized carrier that flies with the same green-white-red livery of its predecessor.
The traditional choice of popes, prima donnas and Italy's political elite, Alitalia has been run by state-appointed administrators since 2017 to avoid being liquidated.
The airline founded in 1946 passed through a dizzying succession of restructurings and changes of ownership.
ITA won Alitalia's iconic brand for 90 million euros, nearly one third of what Alitalia was hoping for, the carrier said late on Friday.
Alitalia
To Return Looted Statue
Cambridge University
A Cambridge University college said Friday that it would return a looted bronze cockerel to Nigeria later this month, making it the first U.K. institution to hand back one of the artifacts known as the Benin Bronzes.
Jesus College announced in 2019 that it would return the Okukor, a statue that was taken from the Court of Benin in what is now Nigeria. British colonial forces took the artwork in 1897, and it was given to the college in 1905.
The college removed it from public view in 2016 after students protested, saying it represented a colonial narrative. The college set up a working group to examine the legacy of slavery, and the group concluded that the statue “belongs with the current Oba at the Court of Benin.”
The Oba of Benin is head of the historic Eweka dynasty of the Benin Empire, centered on Benin City in modern-day Nigeria.
His Royal Majesty, Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II, said he was “indeed very pleased and commend Jesus College for taking this lead in making restitution for the plunder that occurred in Benin in 1897.”
Cambridge University
Warning System For Danger
Sense of Smell
Our sense of smell appears to be exceptionally good – and quick – at warning us of danger, a new study has revealed.
Results of two experiments run by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden indicate the scent-detecting nerves deep inside our nose start processing negative odors the moment they're detected, triggering our body into a more rapid response.
Consider this in contrast to our visual and auditory systems, which mail sensory responses into specialized units inside the brain for processing, delaying the time it takes for the body to get up and move.
This might come as something of a surprise, given how much we depend on sight and sound to navigate our world. Yet for so many other members of the animal kingdom, quickly picking up on the subtlest of scents can make all the difference between feeding and fleeing.
Studies in rodents have demonstrated just how brain-like that bundle of scent-detecting nerves – also known as the olfactory bulb – can be. Far from a mere post-box for smells, this collection of neurons can actively sort stimuli based on learned and innate responses, for instance.
Sense of Smell
New Zealand Lays Off
City Wizard
Since 1998, UK-born Ian Brackenbury has been paid a solid $16,000 NZD (roughly 11,300 USD) per year to be the official wizard for the city of Christchurch in New Zealand. Now after slightly more than two decades on the city’s payroll, authorities are officially cutting ties with Brackenbury in an attempt to modernize the city.
The concept of a “city wizard” is a bit wild, but it mostly boils down to Brackenbury acting as sort of a living tourist attraction, albeit one that’s wizard-themed. The Guardian says that the Christchurch city council had contracted Brackenbury to promote their city through “acts of wizardry and other wizard-like services,” after Brackenbury was seen performing his wizard shtick in public spaces throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s.
When the city council tried stopping him, the public protested (because, let’s be real, who doesn’t love a good magic man) and New Zealand’s prime minister finally relented in 1990, asking Brackenbury if he’d consider being New Zealand’s official Wizard.
Brackenbury graciously accepted, and the rest, as they say, is history. While The Wiz spent most of his time in Christchurch’s main square dressed in his full Wiz garb—pointy black hat, black robes, staff and all—he’s been called out to the farther reaches of New Zealand and Africa to uh, “rain dance” and “ward off dry spirits” during the bouts of extreme drought these regions tend to go through. In at least one case, those dances apparently worked! The New York Times wrote in 1988 about the South Island getting buckets of rain about half an hour one of The Wizard’s performances.
Of course, reality catches up with us all. In recent years, Brackenbury has come around to realizing that his Wizard persona isn’t enough to ward off parking tickets, old age, and the end of his contract with the city that’s employed him for the past 23 years. A Christchurch council spokesperson told the Guardian that it wasn’t anything personal—it was just that, well, wizards weren’t that cool anymore, and weren’t a part of the “vibrant, diverse, modern city” image that Christchurch wanted to promote to tourists and residents.
City Wizard
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