• Children’s book author Barbara Park — creator of Junie B. Jones — got a college degree in teaching, but after some bad experiences in the classroom, she discovered very quickly that she did not want to teach. For example, when Barbara did her student teaching at a rural junior high school, the experienced teacher she was supposed to be assisting simply handed her a geography textbook and told her, “There you go — teach.” One day, when she was alone with the class, she decided to hold a geography bee, but she had not learned how noisy a group of students can get when a competition is exciting. Eventually, an angry voice came from the intercom in the room, but Barbara decided to ignore it because she didn’t like talking to machinery instead of people — it took her years to go through her first drive-through at a fast-food restaurant. The voice kept demanding to talk to the classroom teacher, and eventually the students said, “Our teacher isn’t here.” (She really wasn’t; Barbara was just the classroom teacher’s student assistant.) After a lot of confusion, the voice of authority coming from the intercom told the students, “You’re being far too loud, so we’re sending a student teacher down there to take charge.” Barbara still could not bring herself to talk to machinery, so the students informed the voice of authority that they already had a student teacher: Barbara. Barbara doesn’t remember exactly what happened after that. (Apparently, the memory is too traumatic, so she has repressed it.) However, she did quickly stop teaching, and eventually she started writing for children — lovers of children’s literature definitely think she made a good trade of careers.
• Children’s book author Helen Lester started writing with a purpose at a very young age. When she was three years old, she wrote grocery lists for her mother. True, no one could read the lists except for young Helen, who could not read other kinds of writing, and true, when you looked at an upside-down list it looked much the way it did when it was right-side up; still, she was a world-champion grocery-list writer — something she continued to be until she started to go to school and learn to make letters. There, she ran into a slight problem. She was a mirror writer, and to read her writing her teacher had to hold it up to a mirror. However, eventually she conquered that problem, graduated from school, and became a teacher of second-grade children. When a friend told her that she should write a children’s book, she thought, “I spent ten years in second grade, so I know a child from a chicken. Maybe I should.” She did, and she became a published author, with a few mishaps such as the first time she sat at a desk so she could sign autographs, only to notice that a famous author at a desk next to her had a long line of people waiting to get an autograph whereas in front of her desk was a line consisting of exactly no people. (Still, Ms. Lester enjoys doing what she wants to do — write — and she gets published, so she is in a position that many, many people would like to be in. Plus, later the line in front of her desk became much longer.)
• In 1945, Erma Bombeck enrolled at Ohio University — an event that turned out to be disastrous for her. She received C’s and lower in her freshman writing course and the student newspaper would not let her write for it — even though Ms. Bombeck had worked professionally as a reporter. After the semester was over, Ms. Bombeck went to see a counselor, whom she told that she wanted to be a professional writer. The counselor looked at her grades, then told her not even to think about it. Fortunately, Ms. Bombeck withdrew from Ohio University and instead attended the University of Dayton, where she was encouraged to write and from which she graduated. Before she died in 1996, she had written several best-selling books and her humorous column was syndicated, appearing at one point in 900 newspapers three days a week. In addition, because an instructor at the University of Dayton had encouraged her by writing the note “You can write” on one of her papers, when she died she not only left the University of Dayton all of her papers, but she also left it a lot of money so it could hold a writers’ conference annually. What is the name of the conference? It is called, “You can Write."
Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish. Shellac functions as a tough natural primer, sanding sealant, tannin-blocker, odour-blocker, stain, and high-gloss varnish. Shellac was once used in electrical applications as it possesses good insulation qualities and it seals out moisture. Phonograph and 78 rpm gramophone records were made of it until they were replaced by vinyl long-playing records from the 1950s onwards.
Shellac is scraped from the bark of the trees where the female lac bug, Kerria lacca (order Hemiptera, family Kerriidae, also known as Laccifer lacca), secretes it to form a tunnel-like tube as it traverses the branches of the tree. Though these tunnels are sometimes referred to as "cocoons", they are not cocoons in the entomological sense. This insect is in the same superfamily as the insect from which cochineal is obtained. The insects suck the sap of the tree and excrete "sticklac" almost constantly. The least-coloured shellac is produced when the insects feed on the kusum tree (Schleichera).
The number of lac bugs required to produce 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of shellac has variously been estimated as 50,000, 200,000, or 300,000. The root word lakh is a unit in Indian numbering system for 100,000 and presumably refers to the huge numbers of insects that swarm on host trees, up to 150 per square inch (23/cm2).
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Shellac.
Billy in Cypress said:
Shellac
Alan J answered:
Shellac.
Randall replied:
shellac
Stephen F responded:
Lacquer
Jon L said:
I'm guessing lacquer. But. A glaze on food?
Cal in Vermont wrote:
Shellac, of course. It is actually lac bug poop.
Dave wrote:
Shellac. Using that as a food glaze is kind of gross. If you enjoy Atomic Fireball candy you might want to reconsider. And it is no surprise that disgusting Candy Corn is coated with bug shit.
Leo in Boise said:
lacquer
Daniel in The City answered:
Shellac
DJ Useo replied:
Shellac. When I worked at the Art Supplies store, I sold lots of it. Useful, but really stinky. Phew!
Deborah, the Master Gardener responded:
Going with a WAG: Shellac.
It’s finally raining here in NorCal, and it’s entirely too nasty for a bike ride, so we took coupons and a dividend to REI, to take advantage of their big sale and buy my husband some birthday gifts. Everything we bought is bike-related. My friends were right when they called us “cycle-oologists.”
Hope the rain reaches you, Marty.
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) wrote:
Shellac, as in Trump got a shellacking in this election. He refuses to acknowledge it, he thinks it's cotton candy. Mwhahahaha.
mj took the day off.
Jacqueline took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
Rosemary in Columbus took the day off.
Michelle in AZ took the day off.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame took the day off.
Roy, Lifelong member of Antifa, in Tyler, TX took the day off.
Mac Mac took the day off.
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took the day off.
Kevin in Washington DC took the day off.
-pgw took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Angelo D took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
George M. 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.
~~~~~
Info: The Jack Earle Big Band is run by pianist, trumpet player, vocalist, composer and MD Jack Earle, and features 18 of the finest musicians in Melbourne, regularly playing in some of the city’s best-known jazz venues.
Price: $15 (AUS) for 13-track album; tracks cannot be purchased separately
Hope you are doing well on this Friday the 13th. Just have to say again--THANK YOU for all your hard work. You make my life better. Visiting your site is one of the highlights of my day every day. I'm happily addicted.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
CBS fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN'American Ninja Warrior', followed by an old 'SNL' (from 12/07/96), with Martin Short hosting, music by No Doubt.
'SNL' is a RERUN (from 10/03/20), 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.
The CW offers a couple old 'Friends', followed by a couple old '2½ Men'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'College Football'.
MY recycles an old 'Weather Goes Viral', followed by an old 'Storm Of Suspicion'.
AMC offers the movie 'My Cousin Vinny', followed by the movie 'Twister', then a FRESH'Eli's Book Of Horror'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] HIDDEN HABITATS - OKAVANGO
[6:30AM] HIDDEN HABITATS - THEM & US
[7:00AM] EARTHFLIGHT - NORTH AMERICA (EXTENDED)
[8:00AM] EARTHFLIGHT - AFRICA (EXTENDED)
[9:00AM] EARTHFLIGHT - EUROPE (EXTENDED)
[10:00AM] EARTHFLIGHT - SOUTH AMERICA (EXTENDED)
[11:00AM] EARTHFLIGHT - ASIA AND AUSTRALIA (EXTENDED)
[12:00PM] EARTHFLIGHT - FLYING HIGH (EXTENDED)
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - OUR BLUE PLANET
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - ONE OCEAN
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - THE DEEP
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - COASTS
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - BIG BLUE
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - GREEN SEAS
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - CORAL REEFS
[8:00PM] EARTH'S GREAT SEASONS - SUMMER (EXTENDED)
[9:20PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - ONE OCEAN
[10:30PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - THE DEEP
[11:30PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - COASTS
[12:30AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - BIG BLUE
[1:30AM] EARTH'S GREAT SEASONS - SUMMER (EXTENDED)
[2:50AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - GREEN SEAS
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - CORAL REEFS
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - OUR BLUE PLANET (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has the movie 'Shrek', followed by the movie 'Shrek', again.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Superbad', followed by the movie 'We're The Millers'.
FX has the movie 'Straight Outta Compton', followed by the movie 'BlacKkKlansman'.
History has 'The Curse Of Oak Island: Digging Deeper', followed by a FRESH'History's Greatest Mysteries'.
IFC -
[6:00am - 3:00pm] Saved By The Bell
[3:30pm] The Karate Kid Part III
[6:00pm] The Karate Kid
[9:00pm] Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
[11:30pm] The Karate Kid
[2:30am] The Karate Kid Part II
[5:00am] The Karate Kid Part III (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:25am - 10:30am] the andy griffith show
[11:00am - 4:30pm] hogan's heroes
[5:00pm] blazing saddles
[7:00pm] caddyshack
[9:00pm] tommy boy
[11:15pm] rv
[1:15am] blazing saddles
[3:15am] airplane!
[5:15am] the andy griffith show
[5:45am] monk - Mr. Monk Goes To Mexico (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'The Last Witch Hunter', followed by the movie 'The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift', then the movie 'Fast & Furious'.
Social media sites and video-sharing platforms have become the photo albums of the digital age, portals into our past that remind us of the good, the bad, and the crushing weight of time that robs us of our very essence. It’s likely, though, that people won’t be spending too much time revisiting 2020, given that one can only glean so much from dim bathroom selfies and pics of the pool party where you got COVID. YouTube agrees, apparently, as it has released a statement today saying its annual “Rewind” video is taking the year off.
Since 2010, YouTube’s gathered a number of its most popular personalities to highlight the year’s trends and, we imagine, divert attention from the swarms of white supremacists and pedophiles gaming its algorithm.
This year, though, they’re “taking a break.”
“Whether you love it—or only remember 2018—Rewind has always been a celebration of you,” reads a statement on the platform’s socials. “But 2020 has been different. And it doesn’t feel right to carry on as if it weren’t.”
It’s been a rocky 2020 for YouTube, after all. It’s spent much of the year having to reckon with the “thousands” of hours of COVID misinformation that’s been uploaded to site, not to mention the icky fallout of one of its most popular stars, Shane Dawson, who was featured in 2019's Rewind video.
Joins ‘Late Night With Seth Meyers’ as Staff Writer
John Mulaney
Just two weeks after his fourth time hosting “SNL,” comedian John Mulaney has landed a more permanent NBC television gig, joining his former “SNL” colleague Seth Meyers as a staff writer on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”
The news was announced by “Late Night” showrunner Mike Shoemaker on Twitter. “John Mulaney likes to work so this week he officially joined Late Night with @SethMeyers as a staff writer,” Shoemaker said. “I hope he stays for 100 years but I will settle for “as long as John wants.”
The job adds to a somewhat busy year for Mulaney. Last December he launched his show “John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch” on Netflix; in July the show announced two new holiday-themed episodes which will air on Comedy Central later this year. He also hosted “SNL” twice this year, first back in February during Season 45 and most recently on Halloween.
Of course, what put him on the map was his stint as a writer on “SNL from 2008-2018. In a video from April, Mulaney discussed how he got the job, which notably was offered to him after an unsuccessful audition to be a cast member by none other than Seth Meyers, then head writer of “SNL.”
One of the most iconic retailers in entertainment has returned in a new incarnation. Tower Records, which closed its stores 14 years ago and declared bankruptcy, today announced it has come back as an online service.
The new Tower Records has online events, the return of its Tower Pulse! magazine, a merchandise section, and, of course, music, music, music, including vinyl and cassette selections in various genres.
Founded in Sacramento in 1960 as a section in a drug store, the chain grew to an international success behind the savvy of the late Russ Solomon, who was memorialized in a 2015 film, All Things Must Pass, which studied the chain’s rise and eventual demise, save for a giant store in Tokyo that retained the name and remains open.
The new online version of Tower Records was originally scheduled for introduction at the 2020 South by Southwest, but pulled back when that event was curtailed by the pandemic. It was also envisioned as a series of pop-up shops, an idea also delayed by the coronavirus.
British singer Harry Styles made history on Friday after he became the first male solo artist to grace the cover of American "Vogue" by himself.
The chart-topping performer can be seen mixing and matching clothing across the gender spectrum for the December issue of U.S. "Vogue," which was shot by photographer Tyler Mitchell, who is best known for his cover photo of Beyoncé in 2018.
Styles told the magazine about how his style evolved drastically since he was a member of heartthrob boy band One Direction, one of the best selling male groups of all time.
“Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with,” he said. “When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play.”
A man who is thought to be America’s longest-serving nonviolent cannabis prisoner is set to be released from a Florida prison after spending 32 years behind bars, a nonprofit has announced.
Richard DeLisi, who was sentenced to 90-years in prison for marijuana trafficking in 1989, will be released in December 2020, according to a release from The Last Prisoner Project.
While enduring the three-decade-long stint in prison, one of Mr Delisi’s children, his wife, and both of his parents passed away, the release said.
The 71-year-old says that he is excited to be reunited with his two living children, Ashley and Rick, and hold his five grandchildren for the first time upon his release.
The early release date comes after the project, which advocates for inmates serving long sentences based on nonviolent, marijuana-related offenses, and pro-bono attorneys advocated for release on Mr DeLisi’s behalf.
Tommy Tuberville, the incoming Republican senator from Alabama, doubled down on his erroneous grasp of World War II history in comments on Thursday, telling a news site his father, a US soldier, fought to “free Europe of socialism.”
“I tell people, my dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of Socialism,” he told Alabama Daily News. “Today, you look at this election, we have half this country that made some kind of movement, now they might not believe in it 100 per cent, but they made some kind of movement toward socialism.”
Last week, he made a similar remark in a speech to supporters, recounting that his father was part of “liberating Paris from socialism and communism.”
Though the full name of the Nazis was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, they were fascists, not socialists. And the Soviet Union, a US ally during the war, was communist.
During the campaign, in which Mr Tuberville, the former football coach of Auburn University, defeated Democratic incumbent Doug Jones, the Republican had another factual mix-up, appearing not to understand what the landmark Voting Rights Act is.
More than 130 Secret Service agents have been placed in quarantine after either testing positive for Covid-19 or being exposed to the virus while guarding Donald Trump (R-Failure).
Nearly 10 per cent of the agents' core team has been compromised due to the virus.
Secret Service agents follow Mr Trump and his family around and are present with him at all events, which include rallies with high numbers of individuals who are not wearing masks, and White House functions that have become superspreader events.
The most recent breakout occurred during an election night event at the White House attended by hundreds of mask-less Trump supporters.
The British government went against the recommendations of planning officials Thursday, approving controversial plans for a road tunnel to be built near the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge in southern England.
The project, which is aimed at trying to ease traffic along a stretch of road widely prone to gridlock, has been touted for decades but has faced vociferous opposition from local residents as well as archaeologists.
The A303 highway, which is a popular route for motorists traveling to and from the southwest of England, is often severely congested around the single-lane section of road near Stonehenge. As part of widespread improvements, a two-mile tunnel will be built that will effectively remove the sight and sound of traffic passing the site, and cut journey times.
The decision by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps goes against the recommendation of the Planning Inspectorate, which warned of “permanent” and “irreversible” harm arising from the project, unseen in the site’s history.
The Stonehenge Alliance, which has campaigned against the tunnel, said it “deeply regrets” a decision that will be greeted with “shock” around the world.
An ancient grave in Austria may represent the oldest burial of twins on record, a new study finds.
The 31,000-year-old burial dates to the Upper Paleolithic (a period lasting from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago), also known as the Old Stone Age. One of the infants died shortly after birth, while his twin brother lived for about 50 days, or just over 7 weeks, according to analyses of both babies.
Researchers found the twins' oval-shaped burial at the archaeological site of Krems-Wachtberg, on the bank of the Danube River by the town center of Krems in 2005. The twin infants' remains were covered with ochre, a red pigment often used in ancient burials across the world.
The double burial also contained 53 beads made out of mammoth ivory that were likely once threaded on a necklace, and a perforated fox incisor and three perforated mollusks, which were possibly necklace pendants, the researchers said. A mammoth shoulder blade placed over the burial protected the small bodies interred beneath it over the millennia.
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
