from Bruce
Anecdotes
Auditions
• When he was 21, Luigi (Eugene Facciuto) was paralyzed in a car accident. Physicians told him that he would never walk again, but all he could think about was dancing again. An operation on his eyes, which was necessary because the car accident had crushed his head, left him permanently cross-eyed. However, he kept hearing a voice that told him, “Never stop moving, kid. If you stop moving, you’re dead. Don’t ever stop moving.” Through ballet lessons, he was able to rehabilitate himself, and he ended up dancing alongside people such as Gene Kelly. However, he was forced to become a jazz dancer rather than a ballet dancer because his crossed eyes made it impossible for him to perform pirouettes — he couldn’t spot. He once auditioned for Lucia Chase and all went well until she asked him to perform some turns in the air. Because of his crossed eyes, he couldn’t. He remembers hearing Ms. Chase say, “I thought they said he could dance.” As a jazz dancer, he performed with Judy Garland, Leslie Caron, Cyd Charisse, Donald O’Connor, and Vera Ellen. Luigi’s most important motto throughout his life has been this: “Never stop moving.”
• In April of 1960, a blizzard hit Cincinnati. Young Suzanne Farrell and her mother still made it to an audition for the National Ballet of Canada. However, a chilly journey that lasted over three hours and left no time for Suzanne to warm up took its toll on her and she did not dance well. Still, she says, she danced nowhere near as badly as the National Ballet of Canada told her mother she did. Suzanne says, “I was absolutely crushed. I was ready to give up ballet at fourteen. Then I thought it over, and decided, well, I didn’t like that company very much anyway.” The very next month New York City Ballet dancer Diana Adams discovered her, and Suzanne received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet. Of course, Suzanne became a superstar of ballet. By the way, in 1961 a representative of the National Ballet of Canada saw Suzanne taking class and said, “Should you decide to join us ….” Suzanne did not let the representative finish: “Sorry, I have something better to do.”
Authors
• When Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie, and her husband first arrived at their Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri, they stayed in a log cabin that had a fireplace but no windows. When they needed more light, they simply knocked out some of the chinking between logs — this let in more light, but it also let in the wind and rain. Later, they built a much nicer house to live in. And while living in Burr Oak, Iowa, she was excited when she found a bullet hole in a door of the hotel where she and her family were living. A husband had gotten drunk, and being angry at his wife, he had tried to shoot her. The wife slammed the door behind her and got away safely.
• As an adult, E.B. White wrote Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. When he was a little boy attending his first day of kindergarten, he was annoyed by a little girl who wanted to hold his hand. By the way, as a famous author, Mr. White was often asked to make speeches, but he suffered from stage fright, so he used to decline these invitations by writing, “I am incapable of making a speech.” Also by the way, while working at The New Yorker, Mr. White declined to come in for regular hours, although he did turn in his work on time. In fact, he once set off for a vacation in Maine — without first informing The New Yorker.
• J.R.R. Tolkien was grading a stack of examination papers at Oxford University when he came across an exam that hadn’t been completed. In the empty space at the bottom of the exam, he wrote, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” Later, Mr. Tolkien said, “Names always generate a story in my mind: eventually I thought I’d better find out what hobbits are like.” This single sentence at the bottom of an unfinished exam led to Tolkien’s books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Rock-n-Kroll"
Album: HANG 10 WITH GEIN AND THE GRAVEROBBERS
Artist: Gein and the Graverobbers
Artist Location: Los Angeles, California USA
Info:
“Gein and the Graverobbers was an instrumental horror surf band from Boston Mass. From 1999-2009 we released 1 EP and 3 albums and toured all over the U.S. and Europe.”
Inferneaux, a fan, wrote, “It's good instrumental surf rock; it automatically turns any day into a good day.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $5 (USD) for 15-track album
Genre: Horror Surf Instrumentals
Links:
HANG 10 WITH GEIN AND THE GRAVEROBBERS
Gein and the Graverobbers on Bandcamp
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.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
Two-Fer
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
POVERTY: PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
POVERTY: PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
CHAPTER 3: MYSELF AND MY STUDENTS: Part 1
I was never the kind of poor that my mother and uncle were, but I did have times when I worked low-wage jobs and could have eaten better. That happens to a lot of people, including college students and people pursuing creative careers. Sometimes, people want be independent and not ask Mom and Dad for help. This can make it hard to both eat good food AND pay the rent.
For a while it seems like I lived on peanut butter-and-jelly cracker sandwiches except that I couldn’t afford jelly. I was like my uncle and stocked up on peanut and crackers when they were on sale. I also got bags of apples and bags of carrots occasionally.
Don’t think I was hungry. For a while, I worked at a place where I could eat all the doughnuts I wanted, so I weighed 40 pounds more than I do now and resembled the Pillsbury Doughboy.
Once, I was looking forward to getting my paycheck. I like doughnuts and peanut butter and crackers, but eating them every day gets old. I was looking forward to getting my paycheck and eating something good.
I was going to get a sub, and not just any sub — I was going to get a 12-inch sub.
I even wrote a song — songwriters, take note. It goes like this: “I’m going to eat tonight! I’m going to eat tonight!” Repeat 10 or 11 times.
I got my paycheck and it was exactly two cents more than my rent, which was due. So I went to my landlord and signed my paycheck over to him and got two cents back.
My landlord was a nice guy and offered to wait a few more days for the rent, but I turned him down. I didn’t have any more money coming in and if I spent my paycheck on food, I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent. I did not want to sleep rough.
After paying my rent, I went to my one-room apartment with bath and ate peanut butter and crackers.
Two weeks later, I got another paycheck and ate a 12-inch sub.
I got out of that kind of poverty — which a lot of people go through — by earning my degrees and getting a good job in the Ohio University English Department teaching composition.
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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 went up a dime since Tuesday - now $4.29/gal cash, at the no-name cash-preferred station ($4.39/gal credit). Add 30¢/gal more for a brand-name.
Abruptly Ends Lawsuit
Summer Zervos
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on "The Apprentice" who accused Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) of sexually assaulting her, on Friday ended her nearly five-year-old defamation lawsuit against the former U.S. president.
The abrupt decision to discontinue the lawsuit, without an apology or compensation from Trump, spares the former president from being questioned under oath about Zervos' accusations that he subjected her to unwanted kissing and groping in 2007.
Zervos had sued Trump in January 2017 in a New York state court in Manhattan, saying he harmed her reputation by calling such allegations by women "lies" and retweeting a post calling her claims a "hoax."
Trump, a Republican, had been seeking court permission to countersue Zervos for interfering with his right to speak freely, a right he said was guaranteed by New York law.
Zervos' lawyers called that effort an attempt to escape a court-ordered Dec. 23 deadline to be deposed.
Summer Zervos
Sues Rupert
Dominion Voting Systems
Dominion Voting Systems filed suit this week against Fox Corp., as it seeks to establish that Rupert (R-Evil Incarnate) and Lachlan (R-Mini Me) Murdoch bore responsibility when Fox News guests and personalities made false claims about the election systems company’s role in the 2020 presidential election.
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Delaware Superior Court, follows defamation lawsuits that Dominion has filed against Fox News itself. The network is seeking a dismissal of that lawsuit, arguing that the claim is an attack on its First Amendment right to report on the election.
The new lawsuit appears to be an effort by Dominion to force discovery of the Fox News parent company and the Murdochs.
The lawsuit notes that after Dominion filed suit against Fox News in March, “Fox News ran away from the actions of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. Indeed, Fox News has disclaimed any responsibility for searching or producing the Murdochs’ documents, or working to facilitate any discovery from Fox Corporation at all—despite Fox Corporation’s clear involvement (through Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, and others) in managing Fox News, including through editorial input and control.”
The lawsuit also named Fox Broadcasting as a defendant, citing its operation of Fox.com.
Dominion Voting Systems
‘Separate But Equal’
Homer Plessy
A Louisiana board on Friday voted to pardon Homer Plessy, whose decision to sit in a “whites-only” railroad car to protest discrimination led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1896 “separate but equal” ruling affirming state segregation laws.
The state Board of Pardons’ unanimous decision to clear the Creole man’s record of a conviction now goes to Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has final say over the pardon.
The Plessy v. Ferguson decision cemented racial segregation for another half-century, justifying whites-only spaces in trains and buses, hotels, theaters, schools and other public accommodations until the Supreme Court unanimously overruled it with their Brown v. the Board of Education decision in 1954. That decision led to the widespread desegregation of schools and the eventual stripping away of vestiges of the Jim Crow laws that discriminated against Black citizens.
The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that state racial segregation laws didn’t violate the Constitution as long as the facilities for the races were of equal quality.
Plessy pleaded guilty to violating the Separate Car Act a year later and was fined $25. He died in 1925 with the conviction still on his record.
Homer Plessy
Edits Comment
Rupert
Fox News Channel edited video of President Joe Biden on Friday to remove context from remarks that some could judge as racially insensitive.
In Veterans Day comments made Thursday, Biden told an anecdote that referenced baseball player Satchel Paige, who had pitched in the Negro Leagues before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
On “Fox & Friends,” Rachel Campos Duffy said Biden was “facing backlash” for comments at Arlington National Cemetery.
In his comments, Biden said he had “adopted the attitude of the great Negro, at the time pitcher in the Negro Leagues, went on to become a great pitcher in the pros in Major League baseball after Jackie Robinson, his name was Satchel Paige.”
But when Duffy played the clip, it was edited so Biden was heard saying he had “adopted the attitude of the great Negro at the time, pitcher, name was Satchel Paige.”
Rupert
'It's Common Sense'
Jan. 6
Weeks after the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, former President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) vehemently defended his supporters who threatened to “hang” former Vice President Mike Pence.
In an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl at Mar-a-Lago on March 18, Trump was asked whether he was worried about Pence’s safety during the Jan. 6 siege at the Capitol. The vice president, who was presiding over the certification of the 2020 election results, had to be whisked away by the Secret Service when an angry mob stormed the Capitol building.
“No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape,” Trump said, according to audio from the 90-minute interview, which was published by Axios on Friday.
“They were saying, ‘Hang Mike Pence,’” Karl said.
“Because it’s common sense, Jon,” Trump replied. “It’s common sense that you’re supposed to protect. How can you ... if you know a vote is fraudulent, right? How can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that?”
Jan. 6
Unexpected Secret Weapon
Gold
Filling a germ's pockets with gold could be a handy way to end an infection. Frustratingly, scientists have struggled to turn this nugget of knowledge into a practical antimicrobial therapy.
Researchers from the Southern University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in China, and the University of Leeds in the UK, recently joined forces to repackage gold nanoclusters to make them more appealing to bacteria and less damaging to our own bodies.
By weaving the gold into two molecules with contrasting levels of electrostatic stickiness, the team built a particle that has the potential to punch holes in the defenses of many common bacterial pathogens without hanging around to harm surrounding tissues.
At first glance, gold might not seem like an obvious treatment for killing germs. Reduced to a fine, nanoscale dust, this heavyweight element is capable of wreaking some serious damage.
One way gold nanoparticles manage this is by facilitating chemical reactions that release oxygen species capable of damaging DNA. Another is to interfere with cell membranes, making them more permeable to various toxic substances, such as antibiotics. They can also absorb light from a laser with great efficiency, heating up and roasting their surrounds.
Gold
Second Moon—For Another 300 Years
Earth
It’s easy to be brand loyal to the moon. We’ve only got the one, after all, unlike Jupiter and Saturn, where you’d have dozens to choose from. Here, it’s luna or nada. Or not. The fact is, there’s another sorta, kinda moon in a sorta, kinda orbit around Earth that was discovered only in 2016. And according to a new study in Nature, we may at last know how it was formed.
The quasi-moon—named Kamo’oalewa, after a Hawaiian word that refers to a moving celestial object—is not much to speak of, measuring less than 50 m (164 ft) across. It circles the Earth in a repeating corkscrew-like trajectory that brings it no closer than 40 to 100 times the 384,000 km (239,000 mi.) distance of our more familiar moon. Its odd flight path is caused by the competing gravitational pulls of the Earth and the sun, which continually bend and torque the moonlet’s motions, preventing it from achieving a more conventional orbit.
None of this means that Kamo’oalewa has to have especially exotic origins. The solar system is littered with asteroids, some of which are captured by the gravity of other planets and become more conventional—if fragmentary—moons. Others don’t orbit other planets in the common way but fall into line in front of them or behind them and pace them in their orbits around the sun, like the flocks of so-called Trojan asteroids that precede and trail Jupiter.
Either way, Kamo’oalewa was bound to get attention because its composition posed a stubborn mystery. Asteroids tend to reflect brightly in certain infrared frequencies, but Kamo’oalewa just doesn’t. It’s dimmer somehow—clearly made of different stuff, which suggests a different origin.
Earth
Antarctic Penguin Waddles Ashore
New Zealand
An Antarctic penguin’s misadventure has seen it waddle ashore almost 2,000 miles from home.
The Adélie penguin, which is native to Antarctica, washed up on the coast of New Zealand on Wednesday.
The rare visitor was spotted by resident Harry Singh, just south of Christchurch in Birdlings Flat on the southern island. A video captured by Singh shows the penguin wandering around on the beach.
The last sighting of an Adélie penguin was in 1993 and this is only the third time one of the birds has made it to New Zealand’s shores, according to an online encyclopaedia of New Zealand birds, which says that one was found dead in 1962 and a live Adélie penguin was reportedly found in 1993.
Although the bird’s sex was not immediately determined, locals fondly named it “Pingu,” after the main character in a clay animated children’s TV series.
New Zealand
Brothel Offers
Vienna
Austria, like much of the world, is grappling with how to convince reluctant citizens to get vaccinated against Covid-19 so the rest of the country can return to daily life.
While its government prepares to impose a lockdown for the unvaccinated, one business has settled on an unlikely incentive.
FunPalast, a brothel in the capital Vienna, has opted to inject some enthusiasm — and Covid immunity — into its clientele by offering free access to anyone willing to get the jab on-site.
The brothel made international headlines this week after announcing it would be giving vouchers of 40 Euros (about $46) — the cost of entry — to anyone willing to get vaccinated at its pop-up clinic.
Those who want to get vaccinated at the brothel but aren't interested in accessing its other services, he said, can instead use their vouchers for access to the site's fitness center.
Vienna
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