from Bruce
Anecdotes
Death
• Late in life, Fanny Brice — radio’s Baby Snooks — enjoyed interior decorating, often decorating her friends’ houses for free (and disregarding their advice while doing so). She acquired her good taste in decorating through asking questions constantly and not pretending like she already knew everything. She also began talking about where to leave her money after she died. One day, when one of her little grandchildren was making more racket than usual, she said, “One more crack out of you, kid, and the money goes to UCLA.”
• Blossom Rock provided comic support in 1940s movies (and played Grandmama on TV’s Addams Family). In 1938, she and her husband hosted a party in which everybody came as they thought they would be in 50 years. Ms. Rock wore a tombstone. (Her costume was accurate; she died in 1978.)
Education
• In high school, Pam Dawber liked to talk to her friends, even during choir. However, her teacher, Mr. Hunt, had a policy of giving students an F for the day if he caught them talking. During Pam’s senior year, Mr. Hunt told her that her talking in class had dropped her grade in choir to a D, but he would give her a C if she tried out for a singing role in the high school production of the musical Kismet. She did try out, she got the role, she discovered that she liked acting, and she decided to make it her life’s work. Today, she is widely known for playing “Mindy” in Mork and Mindy.
• As Michael Moore, director of Roger and Me, was watching Sunday morning television, he came across a political commentary program on which Fred Barnes, a conservative, deplored the state of modern American education, saying, “These kids don’t even know what The Iliad and The Odyssey are!” The next day, Mr. Moore telephoned Mr. Barnes, and he asked, “Fred, tell me what The Iliad and The Odyssey are.” Mr. Barnes replied, “Well, they’re … uh … you know … uh … okay, fine, you got me — I don’t know what they’re about. Happy now?”
• Russell Johnson, who played the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, could have been a good teacher. In Philadelphia, an educational channel conducted an experiment. First, it showed a class such clips as the Professor explaining how he recharged batteries from different metals and seawater, and how he made glass from sand, etc. Then a different class was taught the same information by a professional teacher. Evaluation of the two classes showed that the class watching the Professor learned the information four times as well as the other class.
• James Marsters, who played the vampire Spike on TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, knew that he wanted to be an actor after playing Eeyore the mournful donkey in a 4th-grade play. Unfortunately, after deciding what he wanted to do with his life, he was no longer interested in anything in school except what was relevant to acting. His mother made a valiant effort to convince him that chemistry and higher math were relevant to acting — but her effort was mainly unsuccessful.
• When Oprah Winfrey was five years old and in kindergarten, she wrote a letter to her teacher, saying that she felt that she deserved to be in a higher grade. Her teacher agreed, perhaps because Oprah had started to learn to read when she was only two and a half years old, and put Oprah in the 1st grade. Later, because of her educational attainments, Oprah was able to skip the 2nd grade, too.
Fame
• When comedian Alan Young got his own radio show, his agent told him that he would now be famous and lots of people would be very willing to take up his time. His agent also told him, “You are an important man now. Don’t waste your time talking to just anybody.” Later that day, an elderly gentleman started talking to him, but Mr. Young told him that he was busy. Then he whispered to his agent and asked who the elderly gentleman was. His agent whispered back, “That’s Lee Bristol, your sponsor.”
• David Hasselhoff starred in the TV series Knight Rider, in which his character played a good guy who drove around in a car named Kitt that had lots of artificial intelligence. Knight Rider was internationally popular, and when Mr. Hasselhoff was driving in Auckland, New Zealand, he saw two schoolchildren carrying Knight Rider backpacks. When he came near them, he stopped the car, rolled down the window, and asked, “Have you seen Kitt?”
***
© 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: "Osonupo"
Album: SEARCH FOR ATLANTIS
Artist: The Aqua Barons
Artist Location: Corinth, Greece
Record Company: Green Cookie Records
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece
Info:
“SEARCH FOR ATLANTIS is a collection of Greek bands. In the past, there were several collections of Greek bands; even specialized ones with groups playing a specific style of music. However, this collection is unique as all participating bands play solely instrumental surf. Never before were so many bands in Greece to play this kind of music. We are talking about a very vibrant scene that is booming within the biggest economic and social catastrophe that Greece has experienced in its modern post-war history. We have created this collection with so much care both because we love surf music and for its particularity: The vast majority of participants haven’t released anything else so far and so this is their first step towards the general public. We want this scene to flourish by all means and leave visible traces in its passing. We hope it will receive positive response as a first step to establish in the minds of the people that surf music is an autonomous genre with lot of potential, but also as a reward of all the bands which strive for the best in unfavorable conditions.”
Price: €6 (EURO) for 17-track album; tracks cannot be purchased separately
Genre: Instrumental Surf
Links:
SEARCH FOR ATLANTIS
The Aqua Barons on Bandcamp
The Aqua Barons on YouTube
The Aqua Barons on YouTube, Part 2
Green Cookie Records
Green Cookie Records on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
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.
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BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Open-Mic Night
David Bruce’s Open-Mic Spoken Word, More or Less
Halloween is coming up in a week, and I have some scary stories for you:
1) A young woman in college was going through a Goth / Punk phase, and she wore heavy, scary makeup most of the time. Sometimes, she didn’t take off the makeup even when she was going out for a run in the park. One day, she was running in the park while wearing the heavy, scary makeup, and a masked man jumped out from behind a bush, grabbed her arm, and said, “I’VE GOT YOU NOW!” The scary Goth woman said, “THE POLICE ARE AFTER ME!” Scary masked man ran away in one direction, and scary Goth woman ran away in the opposite direction.
2) A man was trying to pick up a woman, and he was persistent even after she made it clear that she was not interested in him. Finally, she asked, “May I borrow your phone?” He handed her his phone, and she looked through the contacts and saw a contact labelled “Mom.” She called that number, and when his mom answered, she said, “Your son is trying to pick me up, and I have told him over and over that I am not interested, and he is persistent even after I have made it clear that I am not interested.” They talked for a minute or so, with the woman giving the man’s mother a few details, and then she handed the phone back to the man and said, “Your mother wants to talk to you.”
3) A man was walking one way on the sidewalk, and a woman was walking toward him on the sidewalk. When they got close, the man said, “You’re a bit too thin for me.” The woman replied, “You’re a bit too thick for me.” They kept on walking past each other.
4) Two women were riding their bikes in the neighborhood when a man working on his roof began to catcall them. The two women got off their bikes, walked over to his house, knocked the man’s ladder over, and then got on their bikes and rode away.
5) Some men are scary, obviously, but other men are not scary. A man was arguing with a woman on a bus. The man was standing up, and the woman was seated. Eventually, the man got so angry that he kicked the seat the woman was sitting on. This is, of course, an act of violence. A quick-thinking man ran up behind the angry man and grabbed the top of his sweatpants and pulled them down to his ankles. The quick-thinking man then stood between the woman and the angry man, and he stared at the angry man. The angry man pulled his pants up and walked back to his own seat. The woman thanked the quick-thinking man, who said, “You’re welcome,” and he went back to his seat and sat down. The angry man got off the bus at the next stop.
6) The last story is just about a man who simply did the right thing. A woman ordered a pizza and thought she had time to take a quick shower before it was delivered, but she heard the doorbell ring as she was wrapping a towel around herself after the shower. She went to the door and let in the pizza-delivery man. She handed him her credit card, and he handed her the pizza, and — oh! my goodness! — her towel accidentally fell to the floor. Pizza-delivery man immediately turned around so he couldn’t see her, and she picked up the towel and held it in front of her. Pizza-delivery man finished the credit-card transaction and handed the woman her credit card and the receipt by holding it over his shoulder and behind his back, and he left.
7) A woman went into a coffee shop and a man there tried to pick her up. She did not want to be picked up, but the man was persistent. The woman bought two hotdogs and two Cokes. She went to a table and put down one hotdog and one Coke on each side of the table. She sat down. The man sat down opposite her. She pushed her hotdog and her Coke toward him, and then she got up and left. The man had a decision to make: Does he get up and follow the woman, or does he stay and eat? The man stayed and ate.
Please, anyone, take these stories and make videos to put up on YouTube. In the case of the pizza delivery, the woman can be wearing a two-piece swimsuit so you don’t get censored.
Note: David Bruce frequently does open-mic spoken word at Ohio University’s Front Room on Friday Nights. A different Bruce — Bruce Dalzell — is the emcee.
David Bruce’s Open-Mic Spoken Word, More or Less
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.
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
Gas up another 4¢ overnight - now $4.19/gal (cash).
Woody Harrelson & John Goodman
‘The Freak Brothers’
The Freak Brothers, an animated stoner series starring the voices of Woody Harrelson and John Goodman, is heading to Tubi.
The Fox-owned AVOD service has picked up the adaptation of the cult classic comic as its first animated original and will premiere the first two episodes on Sunday November 14.
The series, which is based on The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, the 1960s underground cult comic created by Gilbert Shelton, follows three stoner characters who, after smoking a magical strain of weed in 1969, are transported 50 years into the future to 2020 bringing their ’60s San Francisco attitude to the modern world.
Woody Harrelson voices laid-back Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek, John Goodman voices man-child Fat Freddy Freekowtski, and Pete Davidson voices paranoid Phineas T. Phreakers. Tiffany Haddish also features as Kitty, alongside Workaholics alums Adam Devine and Blake Anderson, who play Chuck and Charlie, a couple of weed savants always looking for the next side-hustle with hearts of gold hidden beneath their unwashed exteriors.
‘The Freak Brothers’
Wright Brothers Oopsie
Ohio
Ohio’s debut of its new license plate failed to take off — because a banner depicted on the plate was attached to the wrong end of the Wright Brothers’ historic first plane, the Wright Flyer.
The new license plate illustrates rays of sunlight beaming into the sky, with a banner that reads “Birthplace of Aviation” draped across the horizon. But the banner, which should have been trailing behind the plane, was attached to its front.
After the unveiling, Ohio officials said in a statement that they were aware of the mishap and it would be corrected to show the banner trailing the plane before Ohioans upgrade their plates.
Ohio isn’t the only one who has made this flighty error. The front of the Wright Flyer can easily be mistaken for its back because the plane’s propellers were located at the back, instead of the front.
Ohio
Plea Deal Falls Through
Rod Stewart
A plea deal between British rock icon Rod Stewart and Florida prosecutors fell through Friday, meaning he and his adult son are again scheduled to stand trial on charges they battered a security guard during a New Year’s Eve bash nearly two years ago.
Neither Rod Stewart nor his son, Sean, were present when Judge August Bonavita announced that a hearing in which a deal was expected to be finalized had been canceled. The pair are now scheduled to stand trial on misdemeanor battery charges on Jan. 25.
This is at least the second time a deal has fallen through in the case, which has also been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. The Stewarts face a maximum penalty of a year in jail, although such a lengthy term would be unlikely.
Prosecutors declined comment. Defense attorney Guy Fronstin did not immediately respond to calls and emails.
Rod Stewart
Service Launching
Fox Weather
Fox News Media is getting into another rough-and-tumble world — the weather.
The company is launching Fox Weather, a free streaming service and app that it expects will be used most frequently by customers on their mobile devices.
In preparation for the Monday start, Fox has been building a staff, plucking personnel from The Weather Channel and markets in New York, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Charlotte, North Carolina, and elsewhere.
Fox Weather is moving into a market dominated by long-time players like The Weather Channel and AccuWeather — both of whom have been busy building their own new products — as well as aggressive niche players.
Byron Allen, owner of The Weather Channel, sounded almost giddy at the prospect of another challenger.
Fox Weather
Exempted Right-Wing Outlet
Facebook
Another whistleblower has come forward with claims against Facebook, according to The Washington Post.
The anonymous former employee told the outlet that Facebook's Public Policy team - helmed by the company's now-vice president of global public policy, Joel Kaplan - defended "whitelisting" the right-wing news outlet Breitbart, run at the time by former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon.
"Whitelisting" refers to exempting certain elite, high-profile figures online from rules that apply to ordinary users. When Facebook defended "whitelisting" Brietbart, an employee questioned the move, the whistleblower told The Post.
Kaplan answered, "Do you want to start a fight with Steve Bannon?" according to the whistleblower, as The Post reported.
The whistleblower is also behind an anonymous affidavit to the Securities Exchange Commission, though their name is redacted, the Post reported. The move is similar to the actions of Frances Haugen, who earlier this year shared documents with the Wall Street Journal and testified before a Congressional committee.
Facebook
Party Lines
‘Law and Order’
The Republican Just Overwhelmingly Voted in Favor of Letting Steve Bannon Do Whatever He Wants
The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for defying a subpoena issued by the Jan. 6 Select Committee.
The vote fell largely along party lines, with every Democrat who voted approving the resolution, and all but a handful of Republicans voting against it.
“Mr. Bannon stands alone in his defiance, and we will not stand for it,” Jan. 6 Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said during the debate preceding the vote. “We will not allow anyone to derail our work, because our work is too important: helping ensure that the future of American democracy is strong and secure.”
“He must have been aware of, and may well have been involved in, the planning of everything that played out on that day,” added Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). “The American people deserve to know what he knew and what he did.”
‘Law and Order’
No Tusks
Elephants
A hefty set of tusks is usually an advantage for elephants, allowing them to dig for water, strip bark for food and joust with other elephants. But during episodes of intense ivory poaching, those big incisors become a liability.
Now researchers have pinpointed how years of civil war and poaching in Mozambique have led to a greater proportion of elephants that will never develop tusks.
During the conflict from 1977 to 1992, fighters on both sides slaughtered elephants for ivory to finance war efforts. In the region that’s now Gorongosa National Park, around 90% of the elephants were killed.
The survivors were likely to share a key characteristic: half the females were naturally tuskless — they simply never developed tusks — while before the war, less than a fifth lacked tusks.
After the war, those tuskless surviving females passed on their genes with expected, as well as surprising, results. About half their daughters were tuskless. More perplexing, two-thirds of their offspring were female.
Elephants
Smashed Together
Two Planets
The formation of a planetary system is a somewhat messy affair.
After a star has finished forming, the swirling, roiling disk of material left over from the process starts to clump together, forming the seeds of planets. The complex gravitational environment is not a kind one, however, and these bodies jostle and collide as they continue to grow and migrate within their systems.
Now astronomers have found evidence of just such a collision in a young system, 95 light-years from Earth. According to their analysis, the unusual dust around the young, 23 million-year-old star HD 172555 is the result of a planetary impact so violent that it at least partially stripped one of the bodies of its atmosphere.
"This is the first time we've detected this phenomenon, of a stripped protoplanetary atmosphere in a giant impact," said astronomer Tajana Schneiderman of MIT.
Two Planets
Giant Magnetic Tunnel
Earth
Our planet, along with the rest of the solar system and some nearby stars, may be trapped inside a giant magnetic tunnel — and astronomers don't know why.
A tube of vast magnetized tendrils, 1,000 light-years long and invisible to the naked eye, may encircle the solar system, astronomers propose in a new paper. Jennifer West, an astronomer at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, made the proposal after an investigation into the North Polar Spur and the Fan Region — two of the brightest radio-emitting gas structures in our galactic neighborhood — revealed that the two structures might be linked even though they are located on different sides of the sky.
The curving tendrils — which are made of both charged particles and a magnetic field, and resemble long, thin ropes — project outward from the North Polar Spur and the Fan Region. Not only could the strange cosmic ropes link the two regions, but they could form something akin to "a curving tunnel" where the tendrils are like "the lines formed by the tunnel lights and road lane marker," the researchers said.
This would place our solar system along with a small chunk of the Milky Way, inside the giant magnetic tunnel.
Earth
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