from Bruce
Anecdotes
Daughters
• When Paul Krassner’s 16-year-old daughter lost her virginity, she let him know by calling him on the telephone and playing Carly Simon’s “Daddy, I’m Not a Virgin Anymore.” His emotions were conflicting. On the one hand, he was proud that she had found an original way of letting him know that she was entering into a new phase of her life. On the other hand, he was jealous because he was still a virgin at her age.
• Sometimes, opera singers carry on snatches of conversation during live performances. While they were performing in Aida, Zinka Milanov whispered to George London, “George, how’s the new baby? I understand she’s a darling.”
Death
• While attending school at Exeter, Robert Benchley was required to write a paper on a practical subject—he choose to write on the topic of embalming and even did research, interviewing a local undertaker. Later, when humorist George Ade died, the adult Benchley got out of bed and went out and had a good time, telling stories about Mr. Ade and drinking. According to Mr. Benchley, “When a great humorist dies, everybody should go to a place where there is laughter, and drink to his memory until the lights go out.” When Mr. Benchley died, his will, in which he left everything to his wife, was exactly one sentence long: “Confident that she will adequately provide for our two sons, and any child hereafter born to us, I make no provision for them, but give all my property to Gertrude D. Benchley, absolutely, appointing her Executrix without security.”
• As English National Opera soprano Leslie Garrett’s grandfather lay dying in a hospital, one of his nurses discovered that Ms. Garrett was his granddaughter. The nurse exclaimed, “Gosh, Leslie Garrett’s the most famous opera singer in the country.” Her grandfather sat up and told the nurse with his last words, “The world, young lady — she’s the most famous in the world!”
• A tourist approached the driver of a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park and asked, “How many people can you take?” The driver answered, Five.” The tourist said, “But I have a family of six.” The driver replied, “What do you want me to do about it? Shoot one of them?”
• At the Russian funeral of her husband, Sergei Grinkov, Ekaterina Gordeeva carried a bouquet of wilted red and yellow flowers. They were the last thing he had given to her before dying unexpectedly of a heart attack on November 20, 1995, in Lake Placid, New York.
• For a while, Wilson Mizner worked in Hollywood, adding gags to comedy scripts. While working on the screenplay of The Merry Wives of Reno, Mr. Mizner learned that his brother Addison was dying, so he telegraphed him, “Stop dying. Am trying to write a comedy.”
Easter
• When children’s book illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst was young, her family had a pet dog named Heidi. Heidi had a good appetite, but she often hid part of her food so she could eat it later. Because she was an indoor dog, she hid food in the family’s furniture — Lisa’s father once found a pancake hidden in his favorite chair. One Easter, Lisa and her siblings received three beautiful Easter baskets filled with candy and eggs. Of course, they left the baskets at home while they attended church, and when they returned, they found that Heidi had gotten into the Easter baskets, eaten a good deal of the edibles, and hidden the rest. The Easter hunt was decidedly non-traditional that year, as the family found candy and eggs hidden all over the house. Even though the children couldn’t eat the candy and eggs, they still felt that Heidi had made a wonderful Easter bunny.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "CCR Fortunate Son"
Artist: noble
Artist Location: Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
Info: This is an instrumental version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit “Fortunate Son.”
The above video is the original CCR hit. not noble’s cover.
Price: $1 (USD) for track; this track is a single
Genre: Instrumental
Link:
noble on Bandcamp
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 Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
Marc Dion
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Came across this listing last night - Larry King is still working (!) - check the listing for channel 5 (KTLA) @ 2:30am.
Winners Announced
Razzies
The “worst film of the year” has been awarded to Sia’s controversial drama Music, which took home the most Razzies this year.
As is customary ahead of the Oscars tomorrow (25 April), the “winners” of the Razzies – a ceremony that awards the worst films of the year – have been announced.
The Golden Globe-nominated film picked up three “dishonours”, including Worst Director for Sia, Worst Actress for Kate Hudson and Worst Supporting Actress for Maddie Ziegler.
Among the other Razzie “winners” was Rudy Giuliani who took home Worst Supporting Actor for his role as himself in the Borat sequel.
Likewise, Mike Lindell’s part in his documentary Absolute Proof, in which Lindell (the CEO of MyPillow) purports to explain the unfounded claims of election fraud in last year’s US presidential race, earned him Worst Actor.
Razzies
Hosting ‘SNL’
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is set to host and Miley Cyrus will serve as musical guest when Saturday Night Live returns from its spring break with a new episode on May 8th.
SNL confirmed on Twitter that the meme-loving Tesla mogul will be making his SNL hosting debut:
Season 46 of SNL has seen a wide range of guest hosts — from comedians (Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Bull Burr) to former cast members (Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph) to musicians (Adele, Nick Jonas) — but the selection of Musk is the late-night series’ most left-field (and controversial) pick this season. The usually Twitter-present Musk has not yet commented about his hosting duties.
For Cyrus, the May 8th episode marks her sixth stint as SNL musical guest — seventh if you include her performance on the SNL 40th anniversary special — and her first appearance since she covered Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” on an April 2020 SNL at Home episode early in the Covid-19 lockdown. The Plastic Hearts singer has also hosted SNL twice.
Elon Musk
Underdog To Oscar Darling
'Húsavík'
Almost a year ago, Netflix’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga was about to have its art-imitating-life winning moment. The cast of Will Ferrell’s 20-years-in-the-making Eurovision spoof — accompanied by the real-life Eurovision alumni who appear in the film’s central “Song-a-Long” medley — was preparing to descend upon the actual EVSC finals, which were scheduled to take place in the Netherlands on May 16, 2020. The stunt would serve not only as an introduction to the movie, which was premiering the next day, but as an introduction to 2020’s supposed great Nordic pop hope.
“The funny thing is, our marketing was going to be that Arista Records was ‘signing’ Fire Saga. We were going to release the announcement,” Eurovision director David Dobkin tells Yahoo Entertainment/SiriusXM Volume with a chuckle. “Scooter Braun was going to ‘manage’ them. We were going to launch the best ad campaign. The whole thing was going to be, ‘Here comes Fire Saga!’ — never mentioning Rachel’s name or Will's name — and then have them go be the musical guests on Fallon and Kimmel and Saturday Night Live.”
Fire Saga, as we all now know, is the fictional Icelandic pop duo of Lars Erickssong (Ferrell) and Sigrit Ericksdóttir (Rachel McAdams), residents of the tiny non-fictional town of Húsavík, who in Dobkin’s delightful movie musical represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest. But in an unintentional instance of meta-marketing, Iceland’s actual Eurovision 2020 contestant, Daði Freyr, was also set to become the country’s first-ever EVSC winner, with his frontrunning electropop entry “Think About Things.”
But then… COVID happened, and Eurovision was canceled for the first time in its 64-year history. “That’s my greatest sadness of this entire experience,” says Dobkin. However, in 2021, everything is aligning once again. Freyr has been invited back to represent Iceland at next month’s Eurovision 2021 competition, where his new entry “10 Years” is still a favorite to win. And Fire Saga’s “Húsavík (My Hometown)” is representing Iceland in its own way at this weekend’s COVID-delayed Academy Awards ceremony, where it is actually Yahoo Entertainment’s prediction to win for Best Original Song. (In another synergistic development, this year also marks the 30th anniversary of when Iceland’s greatest pop export, Björk, ruled the Oscars’ red carpet in her iconic, infamous swan dress, an outlandish outfit that wouldn’t be out of place on the Eurovision stage.)
Dobkin largely credits “Húsavík’s” surprise nomination to a grassroots campaign, funded by the residents of Húsavík, that included a viral video starring a fictionalized version of the town’s mayor, "Óskar Óskarsson," and Hannes Óli Ágústsson, the Icelandic actor who plays Olaf in the film. “It's funny — one of my producers said to me, when we finally got the OK to shoot there, ‘This little town will never be the same again. If your movie does well, it's going to be flooded with tourists!’ But they really embraced it,” says Dobkin. “When we came in to shoot there for four days, we took over the place, as movies do — even in your best intentions, you still walk like an elephant through the garden. But they were really so accommodating and sweet, and the mayor gave us gifts and we ate all kinds of dried fish and things.” Dobkin says the local children now perform “Húsavík” in their school choir, while T-shirts bearing the title of another track from the Fire Saga soundtrack, the sea shanty “Ja Ja Ding Dong,” are sold at numerous Húsavík gift shops.
'Húsavík'
'Sabrina the Teenage Witch'
Oklahoma
An Oklahoma woman was recently informed that she was charged with felony embezzlement of rented property for not returning a VHS tape over 20 years ago.
Caron McBride reportedly rented the "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" tape at a now closed store in Norman, Oklahoma in 1999, according to KOKH-TV. She was charged a year later, in March 2000, after it was not returned, KOKH-TV reported citing documents.
McBride was notified about the charge by the Cleveland County District Attorney's Office when she was attempting to change the name of her license after she got married, the news station reported.
"She told me it was over the VHS tape and I had to make her repeat it because I thought, this is insane. This girl is kidding me, right? She wasn't kidding," McBride told KOKH-TV, adding that she does not recall renting the video.
"I had lived with a young man, this was over 20 years ago. He had two kids, daughters that were 8, 10, or 11 years old, and I'm thinking he went and got it and didn't take it back or something. I have never watched that show in my entire life, just not my cup of tea. Meanwhile, I'm a wanted felon for a VHS tape," McBride told the news station.
Oklahoma
Decision Reversed
Pride Flag
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has authorized US embassies to fly the Pride flag, according to a State Department cable first reported by Foreign Policy.
Blinken gave US diplomatic outposts the greenlight to fly the rainbow flag before May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, and to keep it on display through Pride Month in June. But the top US diplomat in the cable also said that this was not mandatory, leaving it up to diplomats to "determine that such a display is appropriate in light of local conditions," per the New York Times, which also reviewed the cable.
The State Department confirmed to Insider that the Biden administration authorized embassies to fly the Pride flag.
"President Biden believes that America's strength is found in its diversity. America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive," a State Department spokesperson told Insider. "Recognizing that each country context is different, U.S. embassies and consulates develop individual plans to raise awareness of violence, human rights abuses, and discrimination targeting LGBTQI+ persons, including appropriate exterior displays. "
"If Chiefs of Mission determine that it is appropriate to do so, they may fly the Pride flag on external-facing flagpoles below the U.S. flag at U.S. diplomatic facilities overseas," the spokesperson added.
This move reverses a decision from the Trump administration, which rejected requests from US embassies to fly the Pride flag. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who publicly opposed same-sex marriage, said only the US flag should appear on the flagpole at US embassies.
Pride Flag
Big Internet Mystery
Pentagon
A very strange thing happened on the internet the day President Joe Biden was sworn in. A shadowy company residing at a shared workspace above a Florida bank announced to the world’s computer networks that it was now managing a colossal, previously idle chunk of the internet owned by the U.S. Department of Defense.
That real estate has since more than quadrupled to 175 million addresses — about 1/25th the size of the current internet.
”It is massive. That is the biggest thing in the history of the internet,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik, a network operating company. It’s also more than twice the size of the internet space actually used by the Pentagon.
The military hopes to “assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space,” said a statement issued Friday by Brett Goldstein, chief of the Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service, which is running the project. It also hopes to “identify potential vulnerabilities” as part of efforts to defend against cyber-intrusions by global adversaries, who are consistently infiltrating U.S. networks, sometimes operating from unused internet address blocks.
Incorporated in Delaware and registered by a Beverly Hills lawyer, Global Resource Systems LLC now manages more internet space than China Telecom, AT&T or Comcast.
Pentagon
More False Claims
Election Fraud
Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) continued to push false claims of election fraud in a weekend flurry of press releases.
The one-term president attacked Arizona Governor Doug Ducey in new statements over a controversial election audit supported by Republican state legislators.
Mr Trump has thrown his weight behind the partisan audit and claimed it is needed to uncover “large scale voter fraud” from the 2020 election.
The twice-impeached former president and his supporters have pushed debunked voter fraud claims to explain his defeat to Joe Biden, without providing any evidence in court.
Arizona’s state GOP have hired cyber security firm, Cyber Ninjas, who have no election experience, to run the election audit.
Election Fraud
Wildfire-Fighting Plane Shut Down
The Global SuperTanker
The world’s largest firefighting plane has been shut down just as Western states prepare for a wildfire season that fire officials fear could be worse than the average year.
Tara Lee, a spokeswoman for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, said via email Friday that the state’s Department of Natural Resources was alerted to the shutdown of the worlds’ largest firefighting plane called the Global SuperTanker. Representatives from that department didn’t immediately respond to questions about how that move could affect the state’s firefighting efforts.
The decision to cease the SuperTanker’s operations was first reported by Fire Aviation, an industry website that reported an email was sent this week to officials in Colorado, Oregon, Washington and the U.S. government saying that the investor group that owns the plane was shutting it down.
The Global SuperTanker is a converted Boeing 747 plane that can dump up to 19,200 gallons (72,678 liters) of water or flame retardant in just six seconds and fly as low as 200 feet (61 meters) above the ground to do its work. It can be refilled in just 13 minutes.
The Global SuperTanker
1st US Dollar Coins Auctioned
Prototype
A piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money was auctioned off for $840,000, considerably more than expected, an official said.
Heritage auctions spokesman Eric Bradley said the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar” opened at $312,000 when it was put up Friday evening but “in less than a minute, intense bidding quickly pushed the coin to its final auction price of $840,000.”
The coin, formerly owned by businessman and Texas Rangers co-chairman Bob Simpson, had been expected to sell for $350,000 to $500,000, Bradley said.
While it closely resembles silver dollars that were later minted in Philadelphia, it gets its name because it is missing stars. Jacob Lipson of Heritage Auctions said earlier that starless coins are considered by collectors and institutions as “one-of-a-kind prototypes for the silver examples that would follow,.”
Known as a pattern, the front features the flowing hair portrait of Liberty and the date 1794, while the reverse side shows a small eagle on a rock within a wreath. Similar starless examples are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection.
Prototype
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