from Bruce
Anecdotes
Travel
• Americans can be incredibly ignorant about other countries. When he was a young man, comedian Lewis Black traveled throughout Europe, and unfortunately in France he was able to speak very little French. He asked about the location of a bathroom, but the French proprietor of the very inexpensive lodgings simply pointed to an odd contraption that looked like a toilet without a seat but with running water. Mr. Black crapped in the contraption, and he learned that it is a bad idea to crap in a bidet because you have to clean the crap up. Of course, people from other countries can also be ignorant about the United States. Mr. Black’s grandfather emigrated to the U.S., where he once got in trouble because he had not paid his taxes. When the tax people informed him, “You have to pay taxes every year,” he replied, “Really? I didn’t know.”
• Life on the road can be hard for a stand-up comedian. For a while, Margaret Cho was so busy that she often woke up not knowing in which city she was performing. Whenever that happened, she would look for a telephone book to find out where she was. While sleeping in her own home, she occasionally had a nightmare about missing a flight. She would wake up, quickly get dressed and pack a bag, then realize that this was a rare day off and she didn’t have to travel anywhere.
• Comedian Rita Rudner once rented a house in the Kensington area of London, England. On her first morning in the house, she went to her terrace and looked out over the neighborhood, where she saw a group of horses sunning themselves. This sounds normal — but the horses were on the top-story balcony of a high-rise. No, this was not a drug-induced hallucination. The horses belonged to the Queen, and she kept them in this horses-only apartment building.
• In 1939, the Three Stooges were invited to perform in London at the Palladium. They did not pay for first-class passage on the ship that took them to England, but the captain of the ship was a fan, so he upgraded them to first class at no cost to them. Moe Howard, the leader of the Stooges, remembers with amusement a newspaper headline that he saw when they arrived: “STOOGES ARRIVE IN LONDON — QUEEN LEAVES FOR AMERICA.”
• Humorist Frank Sullivan used to dream about sailing overseas, but unfortunately, he never did because he suffered from seasickness. He told a friend, “I doubt that I’ll ever be cured, but I’ll still hoping eventually to go abroad. Every day I’m stepping over larger puddles.”
• Jack E. Leonard, a much-overweight comedian, once squeezed into a taxicab and ordered the driver, “Take me to a larger cab.”
Wit
• Wikipedia is completely written by its users — volunteers all. Of course, as you may expect, some users try to post incorrect information. Often, this is funny misinformation. For example, in late October 2006, this information appeared in the entry for Essex High School: “At EHS students are free to do whatever they wish in their time after school. This policy has led to the creation of the Zombie Killing Squad, the Pro-Zombie Acceptance Committee, the Zombie Hate Club and the Debate Team.” Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), this misinformation was quickly noticed and quickly deleted.
• Back in the Vietnam War era, comedian Jackie Mason made fun of reports that we were winning the war. For example, to make fun of reports that we were bombing 500 bridges a week in Vietnam, he would say that he had recently returned from Vietnam, and there weren’t but eight bridges in the whole country. Does that mean that we should disbelieve military reports? Not necessarily. Mr. Mason said that apparently the military first airdropped the bridges in Vietnam and then destroyed them.
• David Letterman is known for his wit. As a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, he once talked a fellow fraternity member into shaving his head and painting it blue. Mr. Letterman then pointed out the fraternity member to other people and said that he was the world’s biggest ballpoint pen. And as a weather broadcaster in Indiana (early in his career), he once announced the temperatures of two cities — “Muncie, 42; Anderson, 44” — then said, “Always a close game.”
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BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
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BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: “King Kong” (Feat. Lance Lopez)
Album: "BADDER TO THE BONE”
Artist: Eliza Neals
Artist Location: Detroit, Michigan
Info:
“Eliza Neals the Detroit-born blues-rocker is back with her second eye-popping album in the era of Covid. Discovered by Motown legend, SongHall, Grammy-winner Barrett Strong; he was her iconic mentor in songwriting & production. Operatically trained, Wayne State alumna who shines on her own label & has gained national attention since 2015 on SiriusXM BB Kings Bluesville. The results you can hear.”
"Eliza Neals is blessed with a Blues Vocal to Die For." BLUES MATTERS 2020
Price: $1.50 for track; $8 (USD) for 10-track album
Track can be purchased now. Purchase of album is a pre-order: Album will be released 23 April 2022.
Genre: Blues Rock.
Links:
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Current Events
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From Politico--in fact, sign me up for both!
The Biden administration is planning to offer — but not explicitly recommend — second booster shots for Americans ages 50 and up with an FDA authorization as soon as next week... By the fall, it’ll be time for another shot for everyone.
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The TV weather people are swearing it's gonna rain, again.
Netflix’s ‘Diana The Musical’ Sweeps The Board
Razzie Awards
Diana the Musical, the much-mocked telling of the life story of Diana, Princess of Wales, has swept the board at this year’s Razzie Awards.
The stage show, of which a filmed version was shown on Netflix, won five awards at this year’s Golden Raspberries, including worst picture, worst actress for Jeanna de Waal in the title role, worst director, worst supporting actress and worst screenplay. It had been nominated in nine categories altogether.
The Razzies also saw basketball star LeBron James winning worst actor for Space Jam: A New Legacy as well as sharing the gong for worst screen couple, the fully-titled winner of that award being “James and any Warner cartoon character (or WarnerMedia product) he dribbles on”. Space Jam: A New Legacy also received the award for worst remake, rip-off or sequel.
Jared Leto, whom some had tipped for an Oscar nomination for his turn in House of Gucci, instead collected this year’s Razzie for worst supporting actor.
2022 Razzie Award Winners - the complete list - Razzie Awards
2022 Oscars Pre-Game Festivities
Governors Awards
The art of picking the right presenter for any given award is a tricky one; the more personal the connection between the two parties, and the more genuine the appreciation the presenter has for the presentee, the better. So it’s very hard to fault the organizers of last night’s Governors Awards, the honorary arm of the annual Academy Awards, who really knocked it out of the park this year—most notably by tapping Denzel Washington to present a lifetime achievement award to his old friend Samuel L. Jackson.
Seriously: Just watch the relish with which Washington rattles off both Jackson’s charitable work and his career stats, highlighting, among other things, that Jackson probably has the largest box office take of any single Hollywood actor, ever. “$27 billion in box office,” he notes, before repeating, “$27 billion.” When it’s time to hand off the statue—Jackson’s first, which remains just bizarre—Washington’s enthusiasm is undeniable. (So is Jackson’s, who, clearly emotional, took time to thank “QT,” his wigmaker, and his wife during his acceptance speech.)
Not that the other presenters at the award ceremony—normally held in November or December, but bumped back to Oscars weekend this year due to COVID concerns—were slouches. Bill Murray was effusive in his praise for comedy legend Elaine May (who cracked Ukraine jokes), while John Lithgow paid hearty tribute to frequent Ingmar Bergman collaborator Liv Ullman. All three were receiving honorary Oscars for lifetime achievements, while Danny Glover was also recognized with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Glover didn’t shy away from the political topics of the day, either, referencing both The 1619 Project and the trumped-up controversy surrounding “critical race theory” in his acceptance speech.
The Governors Awards date back to 2009, when they were created to… hmm. What’s a nice way to put this? “Elevate” (?) all those honorary awards the Academy was no longer necessarily interested in spending TV time on broadcasting as part of the ceremony proper. (See also the controversial decision to “elevate” eight of the show’s technical categories out of the broadcast outright this year.) Always a smaller affair, it was even smaller than usual this year, with strict COVID protocols and vaccination requirements in place for attendees.
Governors Awards
Hearst Castle To Reopen
San Simeon
California’s famous Hearst Castle will reopen to the public in May after a two-year closure due to the pandemic and severe rainstorm damage that prompted a $13.7 million renovation.
The steep, curvy access road to the palatial home that media mogul William Randolph Hearst built on ranch land overlooking the Pacific was damaged by atmospheric rivers — storms fueled by long and wide plumes of moistures pulled in from the Pacific — in 2021.
The San Luis Obispo County castle designed by architect Julia Morgan includes a 115-room main house, as well as guesthouses, pools and cultivated gardens, according to the California State Parks. Construction dates back to 1919.
The castle will reopen May 11.
San Simeon
Murder Trial Opens
Kidd Creole
The trial of rapper Kidd Creole has begun in New York City with his lawyer telling a jury it was self-defense when the hip-hop pioneer stabbed a homeless man to death in 2017.
The artist, a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, is charged with murder and went on trial Friday in a Manhattan criminal court.
Prosecutors said the rapper, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, stabbed John Jolly twice in the chest with a steak knife after becoming enraged because he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him. The stabbing happened as Glover was walking to his maintenance job in midtown Manhattan shortly before midnight on Aug. 1, 2017, and Jolly asked him “What’s up?” authorities said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is New York City. It’s 12 o’clock at night. Who’s saying ‘What’s up?’ to you with good intentions?” Glover’s lawyer, Scottie Celestin, told the jury. “His fear for his life was reasonable.”
Celestin also said Jolly died from a dose of the sedative benzodiazepine that was given to him at a hospital, not the stab wounds.
Kidd Creole
Union Drive
Amazon
Amazon is gearing up for its toughest labor fight yet, with two separate union elections coming to a head as soon as next week that could provide further momentum to the recent wave of organizing efforts across the country.
Warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, and Bessemer, Alabama, will determine whether or not they want to form a union. If a majority votes yes at either location, it would mark the first successful U.S. organizing effort in Amazon history. Rejection would notch another victory for the country’s second-largest employer in keeping unions at bay.
Last April, workers in Bessemer overwhelmingly voted against a union bid, providing a bitter defeat for a labor movement that had already been declining in influence but making some gains during the pandemic. Federal labor officials later scrapped the results and ordered a re-do, ruling Amazon tainted the election process.
Ballots for the second election were mailed to 6,100 employees in early February. The counting process is expected to start on Monday and could last for several days.
Meanwhile, Amazon workers in the Staten Island warehouse began in-person voting Friday in their first union election. The facility is one of Amazon’s largest in New York City with more than 8,300 employees. Voting will wrap up Wednesday, with the counting expected to begin shortly thereafter.
Amazon
Professional Bigot
Marge 3-Names
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Troll) on Saturday for some reason demanded that Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, “stay out of our girls’ bathrooms.”
During a brief speech at a rally headlined by the lying ex-President Donald Trump, Greene touched on the typical points of emphasis for a MAGA-devotee such as herself, namely the Jan. 6 insurrection and Hunter Biden’s laptop. The freshman congresswoman — also a full-time online troll who has appeared on the white-nationalist gathering speaker’s circuit — also told her home-state audience that she intends of defeating a lawsuit aiming to get her removed from the ballot over her election-denying comments prior to the 2020 insurrection.
After the 2022 midterms, she continued, “You’re going to see a new Republican Party — a Republican Party that defends our nation’s borders, a Republican Party that finishes the wall, a Republican Party that saves this economy and stops this inflation [and] ridiculously high gas prices.” Greene then promised, “We’re going to drill oil right here in the U.S.A.”
“And you know what?” Greene said, “Pete Buttigieg can take his electric vehicles and his bicycles and he and his husband can stay out of our girls’ bathrooms.”
It’s impossible to know what exactly Greene means by this. It could be a dog whistle for devotees of any number of bigoted slurs, conspiracies, and stereotypes, but the details don’t really matter. Making ugly, dumb statements is her profession, and rewarding ugly, dumb statements is the modern GOP’s modus operandi, and so she’ll keep doing in.
Marge 3-Names
Removing Sackler Name From Galleries
British Museum
The British Museum will remove the Sackler name from galleries, rooms and endowments following global outrage over the role the family played in the opioid crisis.
The museum is the latest cultural institution to cut ties with the Sacklers. The Sackler name has been removed in recent years from wings and galleries at institutions including the Louvre in Paris and the Serpentine Gallery in London.
The British Museum said it had mutually agreed on the move with trustees of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation, which has supported the museum for more than 30 years.
The Sackler name has become synonymous with Purdue Pharma, the company that developed OxyContin, a widely prescribed and widely abused painkiller. Purdue has faced a barrage of lawsuits alleging that it helped spark an addiction and overdose crisis linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades.
British Museum
Speed of Sound Is Strangely Different
Mars
Scientists have confirmed the speed of sound on Mars, using equipment on the Perseverance rover to study the red planet's atmosphere, which is very different to Earth's.
What they discovered could have some strange consequences for communication between future Martians.
The findings suggest that trying to talk in Mars' atmosphere might produce a weird effect, since higher-pitched sound seems to travel faster than bass notes. Not that we'd try, since Mars' atmosphere is unbreathable, but it's certainly fun to think about!
From a science perspective, the findings, announced at the 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference by planetary scientist Baptiste Chide of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, reveal high temperature fluctuations at the surface of Mars that warrant further investigation.
The speed of sound is not a universal constant. It can change, depending on the density and temperature of the medium through which it travels; the denser the medium, the faster it goes.
Mars
Long-Lost Masterpiece
'Recumbent Magdalene'
A marble statue that sat in a British garden for decades has been identified as a long-lost work of Italian sculptor Antonio Canova.
It will now be sold at auction house Christie's in London and is expected to sell for between $6.5 million to $10.5 million (£5 million to £8 million).
The statue, which Christie's says depicts Mary Magdalene in "a state of ecstasy," was bought by its current owners for $7,540 (£5,200) at a garden statuary auction in Sussex, England, 20 years ago.
The unnamed British couple is believed to have used the statue to decorate their garden, The Guardian reported.
'Recumbent Magdalene'
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