from Bruce
Anecdotes
Illnesses and Injuries
• Critic Simon Barnes believes that the thrillers of Dick Francis are predictable, but that isn’t a problem because in addition to being predictable they are predictably good. In fact, they make perfect reading on a transatlantic flight from London to New York. Mr. Barnes writes, “Three bloody Marys and a new Dick Francis and you’re in New York before you know you’ve taken off.” By the way, Mr. Francis was a jockey before he became an author. Like all jockeys, he was frequently injured, fracturing his collarbone six times, breaking his nose five times, and fracturing his skull once. Mr. Francis remembers one particular accident: “A horse put his foot right through my face, slicing my nose open. I had 32 stitches from above my eye to the end of my nose. The doctor was delighted because he could show the inside of a nose to all his students.”
• When Anthony Burgess was incorrectly diagnosed with brain cancer, he wrote five books in a year because he wanted his widow to be financially provided for after his death.
Insults
• While in the company of Mark Twain, the French author Paul Bourget insulted all Americans by saying, “When an American has nothing else to do, he can always spend a few years trying to discover who his grandfather was.” Mr. Twain replied, “And when all other interests fail for a Frenchman, he can always try to figure out who his father was.”
• Many people kiss and tell, but the novelist George Moore was once accused of something else. A woman named Susan Mitchell said about him, “Some people kiss and tell. George Moore told but did not kiss.”
Language
• The best comedians often have many skills — they not only make people laugh, but also master language, criticize what is bad, recognize what is good, give credit where credit is due, and think both well and deeply. For example, George Carlin read and admired the books of Robert S. McElvaine. About Eve’s Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History, Mr. Carlin wrote, “This impressive book … will provide [an] invaluable source of inspiration … regarding the huge issue of male/female roles and their impact on us. It’s about time someone put men in their proper place: on the bottom.” And Mr. Carlin provided this blurb for Mr. McElvaine’s Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America: “If Robert McElvaine had been Jesus’ lawyer, Pontius Pilate would have released him on his own recognizance.”
• Ian McEwan wanted to learn to speak correctly when he was young; therefore, he arranged for his best friend, Mark Wing-Davey, whom he calls “a rare and genuine middle-class type,” to say the word “did” whenever Ian mistakenly said the word “done.” One day, Ian gave an oral presentation in history class on the reforms of Pope Gregory VII. Ian mistakenly said the word “done,” Mark said the word “did,” and the history teacher became angry at what he thought was Mark’s rudeness. Fortunately, Ian was able to explain what had happened.
• Lesbian author Valerie Taylor was on Studs Terkel’s radio program one day and she said the word “screw.” One of the radio personnel said, “We’ll have to blip out ‘screw.’” Ms. Taylor responded, “I thought I was being nice. What I really meant was ‘f**k.’” Afterwards, Studs sometimes asked Ms. Taylor as a private joke, “When are you gonna come on my show and say ‘f**k’?
• Edward Gibbon wrote a massive history of the decline and fall of Rome. Once, Richard Brinsley Sheridan called Mr. Gibbon “luminous.” When a friend later asked why he had chosen that particular word, Mr. Sheridan joked that he had made a mistake: “I meant voluminous.”
• Makeup — at one time aka paint — has been with us a long time. At a party, Voltaire asked Lord Chesterfield which of the women present — the French or the English — he thought were more beautiful. Lord Chesterfield punned, “I am no connoisseur in paintings.”
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© 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: "Super Rocket Rumble"
EP: DELUXE MEN IN SPACE
Artist: Man or Astro-Man
Artist Location: Auburn, Alabama
“Man or Astro-man? is an American surf rock group that formed in Auburn, Alabama in the early 1990s and came to prominence over the following decade. Primarily instrumental, Man or Astro-man? blended the surf rock style of the early 1960s like that of Dick Dale and The Spotnicks with the new wave and punk rock sounds of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Man or Astro-man? was known for their anachronistic dedication to science fiction themes, audio samples, obscure electronic devices (such as theremins and Tesla coils), and high-energy live performances. Their earlier albums like Is It ... Man or Astroman? and Destroy All Astromen! were known for their traditional surf rock instrumentation and sci-fi sound bite song introductions, but their later albums like EEVIAC... and A Spectrum of Infinite Scale were known for their use of synthesizers, printers (like the Apple ImageWriter II), and their more abstract, experimental sound. Their recordings were often peppered with sound bites from obscure science fiction films and TV shows.” — Wikipedia
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $6 (USD) for six-track EP. (Two tracks are short.)
Genre: Surf Rock. Mostly Instrumentals.
Links:
DELUXE MEN IN SPACE
Man or Astro-Man on Bandcamp
Man or Astro-Man on YouTube
Wikipedia Article on Man or Astro-Man
Other Links:
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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Whoopi
New Venture
Michael Egan
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Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
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Current Events
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In The Chaos Household
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Nice sunny day.
Hasty Pudding’s Woman of Year
Jennifer Garner
“Alias” actor Jennifer Garner was honored as Hasty Pudding Theatrical’s Woman of the Year at a parade in historic Harvard Square Saturday afternoon.
Garner was paraded through the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Despite the frigid temperatures, Garner was all smiles as she waved to the hundreds of spectators along the parade route.
Garner, 49, will be bestowed the group’s iconic pudding pot at a traditional roast Saturday evening. Harvard’s famed theater troupe will also be performing its latest production, “Ship Happens,” after the roast. This will be the organization’s third time featuring both men and women in their cast and its first production in two years since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020.
At the parade, Garner was accompanied by several of the theater troupe’s members, who were dressed in elaborate costumes and drag.
Jennifer Garner
NYPD Honors Whistleblower
Frank Serpico
More than 50 years after Frank Serpico testified about endemic corruption in the New York Police Department, the department finally recognized his service and injury in the line of duty with an official certificate and inscribed medal of honor.
The former undercover detective, 85, received the honor in the mail Thursday, the New York Daily News reported.
Serpico testified in December 1971 to a panel appointed by Mayor John Lindsay to investigate police corruption, breaking the “blue wall of silence,” the protection that fellow officers sometimes give each other, such as refusing to testify.
Serpico was shot in the face during a drug arrest in Brooklyn in 1971 months before he testified and has maintained that the other officers he was with never made a call for an “officer down.”
While the department gave Serpico a medal recognizing his injury in 1972, it was handed over without ceremony or the accompanying certificate.
Frank Serpico
Horse Trading Skills
Jack Sweeney
A 19-year-old famous for his Twitter account that tracks Elon Musk's private jet was on Friday offered a free Tesla to delete it – but rejected the offer.
Jack Sweeney had said previously that he'd take a free Tesla from Musk in exchange for deleting the account, having rejected an offer of $5,000 from the Tesla CEO.
On Twitter Friday, Scott Painter, CEO of Autonomy, a car-hire company, offered Sweeney a subscription to a Tesla Model 3 if he deleted the Musk jet-tracking account. The Wall Street Journal reported that the offer was for a three-year subscription.
In an interview with The Journal on Friday, Sweeney explained why he came to his decision. "I want my own car. I don't want to have to give it back in three years," he said. "If I got an actual Tesla, then I would take it down."
Jack Sweeney
Tapestry Back At UN
`Guernica’
The iconic tapestry of Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica,” which is considered by numerous art critics as perhaps the most powerful anti-war painting in history, returned to its place of honor at the United Nations on Saturday after a year-long absence that angered and dismayed many U.N. diplomats and staff.
The tapestry of the painting, woven by Atelier J. de la Baume-Durrbach, was re-hung Saturday outside the Security Council, the U.N.’s most powerful body charged with ensuring international peace and security. Since February 2021, the yellow wall where it had hung had been empty.
The tapestry was commissioned in 1955 by former U.S. vice president and New York governor Nelson Rockefeller and offered to the U.N. on loan in 1984.
Early last year, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Jr., the son of the late vice president and governor who owns the “Guernica” tapestry, notified the United Nations of his intention to retrieve it. The U.N. returned it to him in February 2021.
Rockefeller said in a statement Saturday that the tapestry was being returned on loan to the United Nations, and he intends to donate the work to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the future.
`Guernica’
Mayor Denies Plan
Rotterdam
The mayor of Rotterdam denied reports that the Dutch city was dismantling a historic bridge to make way for Jeff Bezos' new superyacht to pass.
Dutch media reported Wednesday that a section of the nearly 100-year-old Koningshaven Bridge would be removed to allow Bezos' new 417-foot yacht to reach the ocean.
The existence of the megayacht, Y721, which is being constructed in the nearby city of Alblasserda, was first reported by the journalist Brad Stone last May. Stone reported that the yacht was costing the Amazon founder $500 million to build.
However, Ahmed Aboutaleb, the major of Rotterdam, said Thursday that no decision had been made to dismantle the bridge and, if it happens, that Bezos or his shipbuilder Oceanco may need to foot the bill.
"No decision has yet been taken, not even an application for a permit," Aboutaleb said Thursday, the Algemeen Dagblad reported.
Rotterdam
Who's The Snowflake Now?
Rogan
Spotify’s popular U.S. podcaster in-house cash cow Joe Rogan apologized Saturday after a video compilation surfaced that showed him using a racial slur in clips of episodes over a 12-year span.
In a video posted on his Instagram account, Rogan, who hosts a podcast called “The Joe Rogan Experience,” said his use of the slur was the “most regretful and shameful thing that I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.” But he said the clips were “taken out of context.”
Rogan’s mea culpa follows Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter India.Arie’s announcement on Thursday that she was removing her music from the Spotify streaming service because of the racial slur that Rogan had made during his podcasts. She posted the video montage of Rogan’s clips on her Instagram account. Rogan, who launched his podcast in late 2009, didn’t specify which years he used the racial slur.
Arie said on her video that Spotify is built on the back of the music streaming business and that it uses that money to reward Rogan in a lucrative deal. She said she doesn’t want to generate money that pays for the podcaster.
Rogan
Fired Entire Cybersecurity Team and IT Staff
Gettr
Gettr, the MAGA-minded social media platform that recently saw a big spike in membership, seems to be on a mission to get hacked. Or at least, that’s what you’d be led to believe by the company’s reported decision to fire pretty much everybody in charge of making sure the company doesn’t get hacked.
On Dec. 28, Gettr mystifyingly laid off its entire cybersecurity team and IT staff and apparently hasn’t replaced any of them since that time, according to former employees who spoke to the Washington Examiner. The outlet reports:
Social media upstart GETTR fired over a dozen staff members late last year, including two key executives and its entire IT and cybersecurity teams, amid rapid growth and what former employees said were funding problems.
Blame for the recent IT purge is ultimately laid not at the feet of Gettr’s CEO, former Trump spokesperson Jason Miller, but at those of its financial backer, Chinese billionaire and rightwing mystery man Guo Wengui. “Jason Miller played no part in the decision, it was all Guo,” a former Gettr IT executive told the Examiner of the firings. Last summer, The Daily Beast reported that Guo had helped provide initial funding to Gettr via one of his foundations and that circumstances suggested that the platform was actually “Guo’s brainchild.”
Gettr
Treasure Island Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas
Nevada gambling regulators say their investigation tracked down an Arizona man who left Las Vegas after a visit last month not knowing he’d won a $229,368 slot machine jackpot.
The machine being played by Robert Taylor malfunctioned due to a “communication error” and neither he nor the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino realized that he’d won a progressive jackpot the evening of Jan. 8, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said Friday in a statement.
The jackpot was confirmed later after a review but Taylor had returned to Arizona by then and the casino was unable to identify him, the board’s statement said.
The board said it then began an investigation and eventually identified Taylor after two weeks of checking surveillance video, conducting witness interviews, studying electronic purchase records and reviewing ride-sharing data.
According to the board, it was important to locate Taylor to ensure he received what was owed to him and to maintain public trust in the casino industry.
Las Vegas
Thousands Swarm
'Vinegar Eels'
There's something strange in the water… a swarm of swirling, squiggling white lines, swimming from the edge of a puddle to the center and back again. They look like bolts of electricity, but they are alive. And they are getting their groove on.
These sentient squiggles are Turbatrix aceti, a species of millimeter-long, worm-like animal known as a nematode. With more than 25,000 species described so far, nematodes are some of the most prolific animals on the planet, Live Science previously reported. Many are parasites. Others, like T. aceti, feed on tiny microbes in pretty much any environment you can think of … including jars of vinegar. Hence, T. aceti's somewhat slimy nickname: the vinegar eel.
A team of scientists recently took an interest in vinegar eels not because of where the creatures live, but how they move; like many birds or fish, these unctuous creatures travel in synchronized swarms. To get a better look at the choreography of vinegar eels in motion, researchers watched colonies of thousands of vinegar eels swimming inside water droplets under a microscope. Their results were published Jan. 10 in the journal Soft Matter.
After roaming the droplet randomly for the better part of an hour, some nematodes began to cluster at the center, while others swarmed to the water's edge, racing around the rim like cars in a roundabout. Soon, individual nematodes began undulating their bodies — then, others nearby started to undulate in sync.
Before long, the entire swarm was oscillating, moving in sync to a beat only they could perceive. Lead study author Anton Peshkov, a physicist at the University of Rochester in New York, was astounded by the synchronized complexity of their movement.
'Vinegar Eels'
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