from Bruce
Anecdotes
Presenting
Michael Egan
was first, and correct, with:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Idaho Goats"
Album: (FREE) GREEN COOKIE SAMPLER 2017-19
Artist: The Bardulians
Record Company: Green Cookie Records
Record Company Location: Thessaloniki, Greece
Info: Six tracks by various artists. Each track comes from an album available for sale by Green Cookie Records. You will be added to their mailing list, but they say that you can opt out.
You have to give Green Cookie Records your email.
The Akulas, “Rustines”
Los Javelin, “Achtung Lab”
Los Daytonas, “Matalos Y Veulve”
Satan's Pilgrims, “Turkey Trot”
Los Venturas, “Go Go GTO (Full Throttle)”
The Bardulians, “Idaho Goat”
The Bardulians’ album is HERE WE GO!
Price: Free Download
Genre: Surf. Instrumental.
Links:
(FREE) GREEN COOKIE SAMPLER 2017-19
Green Cookie Records
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 Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Center & Cobb
On another note, here’s a screen capture of the ‘current’ corner of the postcard you ‘closed’ with on Fri…i know you know it already but i thought maybe our fellow campers might be interested to see how Johnsonburg has physically altered through the years….my, how our childhood places have changed (personally i prefer the red brick buildings to the parking lot, but we can’t let historic looking buildings impede progress or obstruct that view of the mill now, can we….)…..
David from MoonValley
Thanks, David!
Can't stop 'progress', even when it's not pleasant to look at.
Most of that brick block came down in the 70s, and the Odd Fellows lodge at the far end, in the 80s.
There was a sweet little restaurant, a men's store, and a kid's clothing store, and the lodge.
My fourth grade teacher's 2 older sisters owned the kids store, and we had Girl Scout meetings at the Odd Fellows.
Across Cobb St. was Mr. Muroski's gas station, and across Center St. from the little restaurant was Cufty's gas station, that later became Larry's auto body shop (Larry was in my class in high school).
Next to Cufty's, going west, was Mr. R's pharmacy, then Patsy's clothing shop, and a large furniture store, a plumber, Uncle Sarge's appliance store, a beauty salon, a barber shop, the Polish store, and the Sons of Italy.
All empty now. The furniture store was the last to go - they closed last year. 4 generations.
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BRUCE IS RECOMMENDED
FREE Downloads at Amazon
The Kindest People Who Good Deeds: Volume 1
The Kindest People Who Good Deeds: Volume 2
FREE Downloads at Smashwords (Many Formats, Including PDF)
The Kindest People Who Good Deeds: Volume 1
The Kindest People Who Good Deeds: Volume 2
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 Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on his honeymoon.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Halfway through the Grand Sumo New Year Basho.
99th Birthday
Betty White
True to form, Betty White has something impish to say about her birthday Sunday.
“Since I am turning 99, I can stay up as late as I want without asking permission!” she told The Associated Press in an email.
White’s low-key plans include feeding a pair of ducks that regularly visit her Los Angeles-area home. Her birthday meal will be a hot dog and French fries brought in — along with a bouquet of roses — by her longtime friend and agent, Jeff Witjas.
The actor’s TV credits stretch from 1949’s “Hollywood on Television” to a 2019 voice role in “Forky Asks a Question,” with “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” among the enduring highlights.
A native of Oak Park, Illinois, White was married to game show host and producer Allen Ludden from 1963 until his death in 1981.
Betty White
People Are Better Off
Bill Maher
Kellyanne Conway denounced the storming of the Capitol and said she had insisted to President Trump (R-Lock Him Up) for months that he’d lost the election, but otherwise found little common ground with Bill Maher over the legacy of the last four years.
“How do you look back now … anything go wrong?” the host of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher asked Trump’s former and indefatigable senior counselor.
“Remember, a lot went right… People are better off and you can’t deny that,” Conway said of the man who wouldn’t wear a mask.” Well, Maher said, “A lot of them are dead.”
The comedian was back for his first show since before Thanksgiving. “Been on a kind of news diet Did anything big happen?” He asked. “Trump supporters taking the stairs? This is something that I never thought I would see in America.”
In case Trump happened to be watching, Maher had some advice, embedded in a custom made rhyming children’s book called — Pack Your Shit And Go.
Bill Maher
“Media Outlets That Propagate Lies”
James Murdoch
James Murdoch, the renegade son of Murdoch family dynasty who broke with the empire last summer, has publicly denounced “media property owners” whose election denialism helped lead to the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol last week that resulted in five death.
“The sacking of the Capitol is proof positive that what we thought was dangerous is indeed very, very much so. Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years,” the youngest Murdoch said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.
He didn’t name Fox News but the network run by his father Rupert (R-Evil Incarnate) and brother Lachlan (R-Evil Incarnate's Mini-Me), respectively chairman and CEO of its parent Fox Corp., pushed baseless rumors that President Donald Trump won an election that he had clearly lost. Endless repetition of the lie on Fox, on rival channels that are nipping at Fox from the right, and by Trump and his allies, so inflamed the president’s base that they attacked Congress, threatened lawmakers and temporarily stopped them from certifying president-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Murdoch, once seen as Rupert’s heir apparent, stepped away from the business after Walt Disney acquired most Fox entertainment asset two years ago. He expressed publicly distress at how News Corp. outlets covered devastating wildfires in Australia in 2019-2020, refusing to acknowledge that climate change played a role.
James Murdoch
Charted Sea Shanty
Beach Boys
As new musical genres gain popularity, they are often acknowledged with their own genre-specific Billboard charts. Over the years, disco and reggae are among the musical genres awarded their own tallies. An old musical genre is going viral on TikTok, starting with Scotland’s Nathan Evans’ posting of the 19th century shanty “Wellerman” during the last week of December 2020. That inspired other TikTokers to post their own videos of these sailors’ working songs. But does that mean there will soon be a Sea Shanties chart?
Perhaps not. Only one song considered to be a sea shanty has been a major hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1966, the Beach Boys sailed to No. 3 with “Sloop John B,” a song that dates back to 1916 when it was originally known as “The John B. Sails.” The Kingston Trio recorded it as “The Wreck of the John B.” in 1958. Al Jardine of the Beach Boys loved folk music and during the sessions for the group’s “Pet Sounds” album, he played the song for Brian Wilson, whose reaction was that he wasn’t a fan of the Kingston Trio. So Jardine played the song on the piano again, giving it a Beach Boys feel. Within 24 hours, the song was recorded, with some lyrical changes by Wilson. “Sloop John B” was the highest-charting single from “Pet Sounds.”
Even though “Sloop John B” is the only sea shanty to be a hit on the charts, many other artists have turned to the venerated genre. Other folk artists besides the Kingston Trio have recorded sea shanties, including Pete Seeger, Odetta and Burl Ives. Ives recorded an entire album of sea shanties, “Down to the Sea in Ships.” The 18-track LP included titles like “Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor” and “The Sailor’s Grave.” In 2006, Bruce Springsteen recorded an album of Seeger songs, “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions,” and included two of Seeger’s sea shanties, “Pay Me My Money Down” and “Shenandoah.” The album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
British folk singer Ewan MacColl (writer of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”) included many sea shanties in his repertoire, and the Sex Pistols took the 19th century ode “Friggin’ in the Riggin’” to No. 3 on the U.K. singles chart in 1979. Many artists with Irish roots have turned to the genre, including the Pogues, the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners and the Irish Rovers.
Beach Boys
One Last Act
Oak Flat
As one of its last acts, the Trump administration has set in motion the transfer of sacred Native American lands to a pair of Anglo-Australian mining conglomerates.
The 2,422-acre Arizona parcel called Oak Flat is of enormous significance to the Western Apache and is now on track for destruction by what is slated to be one of the largest copper mining operations in the United States.
Steps for the controversial land transfer from the US government, which owns the land, to the miners were completed on Friday morning, when a final environmental assessment was published. The government must soon transfer title to the land.
The recipient of the land is a firm called Resolution Copper, which was set up by the miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Last May, Rio Tinto blasted a sacred Aboriginal site in western Australia’s Juukan Gorge. The widespread public outcry and investor revolt over the destruction led the Rio Tinto chairman, Simon Thompson, to promise that the company would “never again” destroy sites of “exceptional archaeological and cultural significance” during mining operations.
Oak Flat
Leaving A Hole?
History
The public won’t see President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up)’s White House records for years, but there’s growing concern the collection won’t be complete, leaving a hole in the history of one of America’s most tumultuous presidencies.
Trump has been cavalier about the law requiring that records be preserved. He has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House records workers to spend hours taping them back together.
“They told him to stop doing it. He didn’t want to stop,” said Solomon Lartey, a former White House records analyst. He said the first document he taped back together was a letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about a government shutdown.
The president also confiscated an interpreter’s notes after Trump had a chat with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Trump scolded his White House counsel for taking notes at a meeting during the Russia investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller. Top executive branch officials had to be reminded more than once not to conduct official business on private email or text messaging systems and to preserve it if they did.
And now, Trump’s baseless claim of widespread voter fraud, which postponed for weeks an acknowledgement of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, is delaying the transfer of documents to the National Archives and Records Administration, further heightening concern about the integrity of the records.
History
Drops Dramatically
US Life Expectancy
U.S. life expectancy just dropped by more than a year — the largest decline in decades — as a result of the sheer number of deaths from COVID-19, according to estimates from a new study.
The study researchers project that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the average U.S. life expectancy in 2020 will drop by 1.13 years, bringing it to 77.48 years, according to the study, published Thursday (Jan. 14) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That's the largest single-year decline in life expectancy in at least 40 years, and it would bring the country's life expectancy down its lowest level since 2003, the researchers said.
Life expectancy in the U.S. rarely declines, and when it does, it makes headlines. Most recently, U.S. life expectancy declined by 0.1 years in 2015, 2016 and 2017 — a trend that was attributed to rises in "deaths of despair," including drug overdose and suicide. The new estimated decline due to COVID-19 is 10 times greater.
What's more, the study showed even larger declines in 2020 among Black and Latino communities, which have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Overall, nearly 400,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins virus dashboard.
The study projected life expectancy for Black people will drop by 2.1 years, to 72.78 years, and life expectancy for Latino people will drop by 3.05 years, to 78.77 years. In contrast, the life expectancy for white people is projected to decline by 0.68 years to 77.84 years.
US Life Expectancy
Longtime Field Study Interrupted
Isle Royale
One of the world's longest-running wildlife field studies has fallen prey to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since 1959, a research team has spent most of the winter observing the interplay between wolves and moose at Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. But this year's mission has been scrapped to protect the scientists and support personnel from possible exposure to the virus, Superintendent Denice Swanke said Friday.
Experts from several universities, the park service and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa had planned to assess how an effort to rebuild the wolf population is affecting the ecosystem.
The remote park is closed from Nov. 1 to April 15. The winter researchers use a single cabin, which wouldn't allow for social distancing. Also factoring into the decision to cancel the expedition were the border closure between the United States and Canada, and a shortage of flight resources to bring supplies, Swanke said.
The park service and partners will try to document wolf population changes this summer using remote cameras and other techniques, Swanke said. But they won't have the benefit of aerial observations that can be done only during winter, when the animals are easier to spot.
Isle Royale
Hidden Secrets Revealed
Ancient Artifacts
Highly magnified views of archaeological artifacts display their extraordinary hidden beauty and reveal intriguing clues about how they were crafted and used long ago.
For example, a 17th-century Persian textile contains fibers of silk thread that were individually wrapped with thin strips of metal. And the microstructure of a needle from Cyprus retains the touch of the person who shaped it, in traces of dark corrosion that emerged as the needle was rotated and hammered.
These and other zoomed-in archaeological images are showcased in a new exhibit called "Invisible Beauty: The Art of Archaeological Science," which opens at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia on Jan. 16.
In another striking image, a bit of basalt glitters in a ceramic roof tile from Gordion, a site in Turkey that was inhabited from at least 2300 B.C., during the early Bronze Age (the tile dates to the first half of the sixth century B.C.). Basalt, a volcanic rock, looks dull and black to the naked eye. But when viewed in polarized light under a microscope, it shimmers with vivid colors.
Inclusions such as basalt in a roof tile can tell archaeologists if the tile was made locally or imported, and this information can help them piece together historic trade routes and exchange networks, said Marie-Claude Boileau, co-curator of the exhibit and director of the Penn Museum's Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAMM).
Ancient Artifacts
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