from Bruce
Anecdotes
Children
• Christina Aguilera became famous at a very young age after coming in second on a nationally televised episode of Star Search, being a member of the Disney TV series Mickey Mouse Club, and singing the song “Reflection” in the Disney animated movie Mulan. Unfortunately, her schoolmates were jealous of her success. After her second-place finish on Star Search, someone slashed the tires on her mother’s car. Immediately, young Christina transferred to another school. In addition, after newspapers began to print articles about her after she joined the Mickey Mouse Club, her new schoolmates resented her success. Fortunately, the resentment of schoolmates was countered by the love of her fans, who started writing her letters, all of which she attempted to answer. After her debut album, Christina Aguilera, became a huge success, some young fans who had just bought her record recognized her and bought a disposable camera so they could take her photograph. This kind of attention didn’t bother Christina. She said, “I know some people hate that, but not me. I’ve been waiting for this moment for my entire life.”
• Matthew Dunn is the son of David Dunn, who is English, Scottish, and Irish Canadian, and of Morningstar Mercredi, who is Métis (a mixture of French and Native American), Denedeh (a Native American tribe also known as Chipewyan), and Cree (another Native American tribe). When Matthew was three years old, his parents divorced, but they found a unique way for both of them to keep Matthew in their lives. He spends one year with his father in Watrous, Saskatchewan, Canada, then he spends the following year with his mother in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. By spending alternate years with each parent, Matthew can remain close to each of them. A disadvantage of the arrangement is that Matthew changes schools each year, but an advantage is that he can travel and learn about the cultures of which he is a part. By the way, Matthew has an additional name, courtesy of his Native American heritage. When he was 10 years old, he received the name Sus Nakáhdul in a naming ceremony. His Native American name means “Bear Walker.”
• Nancy and Rip Talavera used to receive telephone calls each night from the woman who lived in the apartment underneath theirs; she wanted them to tell their daughter to stop jumping in bed so loudly. Nancy and Rip would then check on their daughters. Four-year-old Coral would be sound asleep in her bed, but one-and-a-half-year-old Tracee was jumping in her crib. As you would expect, Tracee grew up to be a gymnast. When she was still very young, she took an acrobatics class and performed in a show while wearing a Mickey Mouse mask. Unfortunately, the mask moved, and she was unable to see out of the eyeholes. She still did the tricks, but she smashed into the back wall, bending one mouse ear. In 1984, Tracee won a silver team medal at the Olympic Games.
• Ezra Jack Keats, author/illustrator of such children’s books as The Snowy Day and The Little Drummer Boy, drew everything he came across when he was a child. One day, he decorated his family’s kitchen table with drawings of houses and people. His mother walked into the kitchen, and although he expected to be bawled out for his artwork, she told him, “Did you do that? Isn’t it wonderful!” His father, however, worried that being an artist would be a difficult way to make a living, so he wanted his son to do other things, such as play ball. However, when his father realized that Ezra Jack had real talent, he took him on an outing to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, thus showing that he was proud of his son and his son’s talent for art.
• As a child, Trina Schart Hyman, an illustrator of children’s books, played at being Little Red Riding Hood. Her mother made her a red satin cape with a hood, and whenever little Trina wore the cape and hood, which was almost every day, her mother also made her a basket of goodies. The path to Grandma’s house was in the backyard, her dog was the wolf, and her father was the woodsman who saved Little Red Riding Hood. In her autobiography, Self-Portrait: Trina Schart Hyman, Ms. Hyman wrote, “I was Red Riding Hood for a year or more. I think it’s a great tribute to my mother that she never gave up and took me to a psychiatrist, and if she ever worried, she never let me know.”
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Presenting
Michael Egan
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has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
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Music: "West Ghost"
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Record Company Location: Zaragoza, Spain
Info:
Joseph Anderson, a fan, wrote, “Was looking for any Surf Coasters tracks. Not sure how I missed them before, but just picked up their CD KAREINARU SPY and wanted to find more. Favorite track: THE SURF COASTERS - WEST GHOST.”
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Obliterates Beatles Chart Record
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has broken a record long held by The Beatles for having three No 1 albums in the shortest amount of time.
The singer-songwriter achieved three No 1 albums in just 259 days, thanks to her recent releases Folklore, Evermore, and her re-recorded version of her 2008 album, Fearless.
The previous record had been held by The Beatles, who topped the charts three times in 364 days with Help!, Rubber Soul, and Revolver.
The news follows another history-making moment for Swift, as she became the first female artist to win the Grammy award for Album of the Year three times.
Taylor Swift
'The Man Who Lived Underground'
Richard Wright
Richard Wright may have passed away decades ago, but his words in the iconic novel, Native Son, and now his latest story, The Man Who Lived Underground, will live on forever. The posthumous work is now available for pre-order, per The New York Times.
“I have never written anything in my life that stemmed more from sheer inspiration or executed any piece of writing in a deeper feeling of imaginative freedom, or expressed myself in a way that flowed more naturally from my own personal background, reading, experiences, and feelings,” wrote Wright after his publisher Harper & Brothers denied the book.
In 1941, Wright submitted The Man Who Lived Underground, a story about a Black man who is falsely accused of murdering a white couple and being coerced into making a false confession. He escapes detainment after being beaten by police and hides in a cave discovered through the sewer system. He is able to take refuge in select businesses and places via the tunnels.
His daughter, Julia Wright, discovered the manuscript in 2010. The Library of America will release the full version on Tuesday, April 20. Although the book was written decades ago, critics are already calling it the most relevant book of 2021.
“It hit a little too close to home in 1941,” said Julia Wright, his daughter, “and to read it today, I would guess that ‘The Man Who Lived Underground’ lands a little too close to home — still.
Richard Wright
Guest Hosts
'Jeopardy!'
Longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek left a gaping hole in the show when he died last November. Perhaps it's unfair to say this, as no host will be able to capture Trebek's magic, but the guest hosts vying for his replacement so far have...well, not been magical at all.
The past and future Jeopardy! guest hosts haven't captured the show's celebration of knowledge. With Saturday's announcement that sportscaster Joe Buck will try his hand at the gig as well, the trend of ill-fitting hosts continues.
Rather than opt for experienced game show hosts or well-known edu-tainment personalities, the guest hosts have been a roundtable of talk show hosts, a football superstar, and a TV doctor who's spewed so much quackery that the American Medical Association is wary of him.
It's not that the show is without options. Even before Trebek's death, LeVar Burton said he wants to host Jeopardy. Burton is the beloved host of Reading Rainbow and more recently had a podcast called LeVar Burton Reads. His career is based in the pursuit of knowledge. He told Entertainment Weekly, "I think my whole career is an advertisement for being the host of Jeopardy."
So why has the show gone in the opposite direction?
'Jeopardy!'
Conspiracy Theory
Jim Caviezel
For most people—i.e., those who didn’t enjoy the actually quite excellent Person Of Interest—Jim Caviezel is probably still best known as Jesus from The Passion Of The Christ. Now, though, Caviezel is apparently launching a dramatic and ambitious career reinvention, seeking to wrest the coveted title of “Worst opinion held by someone involved in making The Passion Of The Christ” from his old friend Mel Gibson. Specifically, Caviezel popped in this weekend to the Health Freedom Summit in Tulsa Oklahoma, a right-wing meeting of the quote unquote minds designed to super-spread a whole lot of really terrible ideas about vaccines, COVID, etc. to everyone involved, in order to add his own particular semi-famous spin to the proceedings. (And, re: the conference: If you want to get a handle on its politics and factual rigor, you don’t have to look much further than the fact that Andrew Wakefield, the man who pretty much single-handedly crafted the old “vaccines cause autism” lie, is one of its most prominently listed speakers.)
Talking to host Clay Clark, Caviezel was ostensibly discussing his new movie about Tim Ballard, the former Department Of Homeland Security agent who’s spent the last decade or so investigating child sex trafficking rings. While talking about the film—including the fact that Ballard was so moved by Caviezel’s performance as Christ himself that he thought he might have the chops to play Ballard, too—Caviezel dropped a delightful little nugget of PizzaGate-style rhetoric into the conversation when he mentioned “the adrenochroming of children.”
For those unfamiliar with this particular expression of dog-whistle-heavy persecution complexes, first: Congratulations! Second: You can check out this primer from Wired on the “theory”, tracing its roots back to the old Jewish blood libel, one of the all-time most persistent bits of paranoid bigotry in human history. The short version is that Caviezel is now convinced that children are being kidnapped and then tortured to death so that a crew of presumably pizza-loving “elites” can harvest their adrenal glands to turn them into drugs.
Obviously, the crowd at the conference absolutely loved this, cheering as Caviezel promised justice for all these people who’ve apparently never heard of, like, cocaine. (It grows out of the ground! No child harvesting required!) Meanwhile, we’re pretty sure Kevin Sorbo and Dean Cain are watching this from some distant and cross-bedecked bunker, muttering “Fuck” as Caviezel’s name immediately jumps to the top of the casting lists for the sort of people who usually make movies with Kevin Sorbo and Dean Cain.
Jim Caviezel
Journalists Rounded Up
Minnesota
Journalists covering a protest in a Minneapolis suburb Friday night were forced on their stomachs by law enforcement, rounded up and were only released after having their face and press credentials photographed.
The incident occurred hours after a judge issued a temporary order barring the Minnesota State Patrol from using physical force or chemical agents against journalists, according to court documents. It also barred police from seizing photographic, audio or video recording equipment, or press passes.
Minnesota State Patrol on Saturday said in a statement, "troopers checked and photographed journalists and their credentials and driver's licenses at the scene in order to expedite the identification process."
While some journalists were "detained and released during enforcement actions after providing credentials, no journalists have been arrested," MSP said.
The court order was part of an ongoing case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union after journalists say they were targeted during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, who was killed by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin last year. The ACLU said Friday evening's incident was a direct violation of the temporary order.
Minnesota
Following Failed Coup Attempt
Private Security
Democratic Squad members and anti-Trump Republicans have spent up to $70,000 each on private security following a dramatic increase in death threats.
Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) and high-profile Democrats have been forced to hire extra security guards following the Capitol Riot, Federal Election Commission filings reveal.
GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney, and Senators Mitt Romney and Pat Toomey are among the Republicans to shell out thousands of dollars since 6 January, reports Punchbowl News.
Congressional Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Eric Swalwell, who have all been targeted by the one-term president, have also increased their private protection.
Private Security
Gateway Drug
Yoga
Jeremy Gray, a state lawmaker in Alabama, has been practicing yoga for years, initially as a workout after college football matches and later as a means of instilling in himself the virtues of focus and patience.
Now the Democrat from Opelika needs all the patience he can get as he seeks to overturn a 28-year yoga ban in Alabama public schools. The ban, believed to be the only statewide prohibition of its sort in America, is proving to be tougher to scrub from the statute books than might be expected.
Gray is preparing to present a bill to the Alabama senate that would allow public schools and students to engage in yoga during gym classes for the first time in almost three decades. The lifting of the ban was approved by the state house of representatives in March, and last week Gray’s bill passed out of the senate judiciary committee and now awaits a full debate and vote on the senate floor.
But the closer Gray’s vision comes to fruition, the more it draws enemy fire. The main hurdle to reform lies with conservative Christian groups who argue that just the mere act of allowing yoga in the classroom will expose kids to the risk of converting to Hinduism.
The idea that yoga is a gateway drug to Hinduism strikes Gray as palpably ridiculous. He has practiced yoga for 10 years, yet remains a committed Christian worshipping in a Baptist church.
Yoga
Faces Hefty Tax Bill
Good Samaritan
A Connecticut middle school teacher who raised $41,000 to help hundreds of his struggling neighbors during the COVID-19 pandemic got an unwelcome surprise for his charitable efforts: a form stating he could owe $16,031 in income taxes.
Louis Goffinet, 27, of Mansfield, began picking up groceries for elderly neighbors afraid to go to the store during the early days of the pandemic, often spending his own money. Given the great need, he later organized two fundraisers on Facebook over a year and helped hundreds of families with groceries, rent money and holiday gifts, the Hartford Courant reported, setting a $200 limit.
Goffinet said both financial support for his efforts and demand for assistance ended up becoming higher than he first expected. He tracked 140 grocery trips on a spreadsheet, noting he also provided Friday night dinners to 125 families, holiday gift cards for 20 families so they could buy gifts for their children, 31 Thanksgiving dinners and rental assistance to five families. Some local businesses donated food.
In January, Facebook sent Goffinet a 1099 form that stated he owed taxes on the money he had raised. Facebook warns users that money generated from a fundraiser on the social media platform may be taxable if more than $20,000 is raised and that a 1099 tax form will be issued.
Goffinet is now working with a local accountant to determine how best to handle the situation. His bill is due May 17 and he expects to pay “some sort of tax burden” but isn’t sure exactly how much. Meanwhile, some people in the community are now trying to help him out with the tax bill, so far sending $2,000 in checks to a post office box — not through Facebook.
Good Samaritan
Prehistoric Cannibal Victim
"The Boy of Gran Dolina"
About 800,000 years ago in what is now Spain, cannibals devoured an early human child who became known as "The Boy of Gran Dolina." But new analysis of these ancient remains has revealed a surprising twist: the child was a girl.
The child was a Homo antecessor, an early hominin species that lived in Europe between 1.2 million and 800,000 years ago. Discovered in 1994 in the Gran Dolina cave in northern Spain's Atapuerca Mountains, the species is known primarily from fragments of bones and teeth, which hampered researchers' efforts to determine the sex of H. antecessor individuals.
Recently, scientists tested a new technique, using a type of dental analysis that had successfully identified males and females in other early human species. They examined teeth from two Gran Dolina individuals: "H1" and "H3". H1, whose remains defined the H. antecessor species, was about 13 years old at the time of death and was long presumed to be male. The second individual, H3 — The Boy of Gran Dolina — died at the age of 11 years old and was also thought to be male.
Microscopic analysis of the tooth structure for the new study revealed variations between H1's and H3's teeth that researchers identified as sexually dimorphic — differing in appearance between males and females. Based on comparisons with teeth from humans and other hominins, the scientists determined that H1 was male, but H3 was likely female.
For the new study, the researchers looked at upper canines — the most sexually dimorphic teeth — from H1 and H3. Using high-resolution X-ray scans, they measured tissue volume and surface area of the two teeth, and compared them with existing tooth scans from modern humans, remains from the Krapina site and from Atapuerca's "Pit of Bones."
"The Boy of Gran Dolina"
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