from Bruce
Anecdotes
Children
• Frederick Townsend Martin was a writer and an advocate for the poor. He knew that often when rich people visited the poor they were actually slumming and snooping rather than helping. To illustrate this, he told a story about a little girl who was in a group of slum children invited to a garden party by a rich woman. The little girl asked the rich woman, “Does your husband drink?” The rich woman was shocked but replied, “Why — er — no, not to excess.” The little girl then asked, “How much does he make at his job?” The rich woman explained, “He doesn’t work. He’s a capitalist.” The little girl next asked, “You keep out of debt, I hope?” The rich woman was fed up and asked, “Look here! What do you mean by all these impudent questions?” The little girl replied, “Impudent? Why, ma’am, my mother told me to be sure and behave like a lady, and when ladies call at our rooms they always question mother like that.”
• Wally and his wife (who post on a “Kids Say the Darnest Things” thread) have two sons: One is three years old and the other is five years old. Being kids, and being boys, they sometimes say outrageous things. At dinner the three-year-old said, “I don’t like these noodles — they taste like rotten skin.” (The five-year-old, a big eater, readily ate the noodles.) The three-year-old, who is a fan of the violent comic-book character Wolverine, also said, “I am Wolverine, and I chop this bad-guy’s face into a bloody stump.” Wally’s wife was shocked: “WHAAAAAT!” The five-year-old happily replied, “HAHAHA, BLOODY STUMP, BLOODY STUMP!” Although the kids say funny things, Wally’s wife had the funniest line, which she delivered with a big sigh: “I wanted daughters soooo badly.”
• A woman who calls herself JuneBug relates that her oldest son, Erik, took his four-year-old niece downtown. JuneBug says, “Downtown is Mia’s favorite place to go!” Erik and Mia did some window-shopping, and Mia picked a few flowers. Some homeless men were downtown, and Erik tried to get Mia to walk faster past the homeless men. Erik told her, “C’mon, Mia. You need to walk with me.” Mia replied, “Okay, Uncle Erik, but this man needs a flower!” Mia gave the homeless man a flower, and the homeless man smiled widely. Erik says, “I’m gonna take her back downtown again soon just so she can hand out her flowers and make people smile.” And JuneBug says, “Children may learn from us, but we also learn from the big hearts of our children.”
• According to etiquette expert Grace Fox, it is entirely appropriate for a single woman to announce the birth of her child. Ms. Fox writes in her book Everyday Etiquette, “The birth of a baby is always a joyous and newsworthy occasion, and I see no reason not to announce every new arrival.” Women may also send separate birth announcements when separated or divorced from the father. In addition, same-sex couples who either have or adopt a child may send out announcements with the names of both partners.
• Operatic tenor Leo Slezak and his wife enjoyed getting letters from their children while they were traveling on short tours. One letter from his little daughter read: “My goldfish bowl got broken when I was changing the water in the bathroom, the goldfish tumbled out and I couldn’t catch him, so I filled the bathroom with water. Nanny was very cross about it, but my goldfish is all right.”
• As a registered nurse, Gillespie Richards has learned the correct terminology for medical conditions, and as a mother, she has learned that sometimes she ought not to use that terminology. For example, she used the correct terminology when her five-year-old son had cold sores, and he said loudly in church, “Boy, does my herpes ever hurt!”
• A little girl — who said that she had experience taking ballet lessons — went to a dance class, but did nothing when the teacher ordered, “Plié!” Therefore, the teacher gave the English command, “Bend your knees!” To the laughter of the class, the little girl asked, “Which way?”
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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
Track: "Satan’s Little Helper"
EP: MOMMY, CAN I GO OUT AND SURF TONIGHT
Artist: The Dumbheads
Artist Location: Belgorod, Russia (24 miles north of Ukraine)
Info:
The Dumbheads are :
Alex Dumbhead - Vocals & Bass
Alex Boozer - Vocals & Guitar
Mighty - Guitar
Gleb Hleb - Drums
Price: $1 (USD) for track.
Go to dumbheads.bandcamp.com/track/satans-little-helper and hold your cursor over the song title “Satan’s Little Helper.” To the right will appear “buy track.” Before the Russia/Ukraine war, you could buy the entire album for one price. Now you will have to download the tracks one by one if you want them.
I support Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, but I also support good music.
Genre: Surf.
Links:
MOMMY, CAN I GO OUT AND SURF TONIGHT
The Dumbheads on Bandcamp
Alex Dumbhead on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION - Friday
BANDCAMP MUSIC
Look what popped up in the old spam file overnight.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Track: "Children of the Corn"
Album: TALES OF TERROR
Artist: The Dumbheads
Artist Location: Belgorod, Russia (24 miles north of Ukraine)
Info:
The Dumbheads are :
Alex Dumbhead - Vocals & Bass
Alex Boozer - Vocals & Guitar
Mighty - Guitar
Gleb Hleb - Drums
All songs are written by the Dumbheads.
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE)
Go to dumbheads.bandcamp.com/album/tales-of-terror-2 and hold your cursor over the song title “Children of the Corn.” To the right will appear “buy track.” You can type in 0.00 if you want the track for FREE. Possibly, you can buy the track for $0.50 (USD) or more. Before the Russia/Ukraine war, you could buy the entire album for one price. Now you will have to download the tracks one by one if you want them.
I support Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, but I also support good music.
Genre: Pop Punk.
Links:
TALES OF TERROR
The Dumbheads on Bandcamp
Alex Dumbhead on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
Cannabis Confusion
This also affects the ability to drive a city bus.
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommendations
***
Other Links:
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
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
Live grand sumo - couple of pretty good upsets for Day 1.
Martin Scorsese Presents
“I Know Where I’m Going!”
While Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker were holed up in an apartment cutting “Raging Bull” — an intense process that would have consumed the thoughts of most filmmakers — Scorsese told his editor to take a break. He had a movie he needed to show her.
“He said, ‘You have to see this one,’” recalls Schoonmaker.
Scorsese was by then already a passionate fan of the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the British filmmaking duo known as the Archers. He considered Technicolor films like “The Red Shoes,” “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” and “A Matter of Life and Death” to be masterpieces. But he had held off watching their 1945 black-and-white Scottish romance, “I Know Where I’m Going!” fearing it might be “a lighter picture.” Something about that title. And besides, just how many masterworks could Powell and Pressburger have made?
On Monday, Scorsese and the film restoration nonprofit he founded, the Film Foundation, will launch a new virtual theater, the Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room. Every month, for one night only, films that have been restored by the Film Foundation will be presented in free online screenings accompanied by discussions from Scorsese and other filmmakers. The screening room begins, naturally, with the restoration of “I Know Where I’m Going!”
“I Know Where I’m Going!”
Baby Names List
Liam and Olivia
Olivia and Liam are once again America’s most common baby names. And Theodore joins the top 10 baby names list for the first time.
The Social Security Administration annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state, with names dating back to 1880. The data is based on applications for Social Security cards.
Liam has reigned supreme five years in a row, while Olivia unseated Emma as the top name for the past three years, according to agency’s list, which was released Friday.
After Liam, the most common names for boys in respective order: Noah, Oliver, Elijah, James, William, Benjamin, Lucas, Henry and Theodore.
And for girls, following Olivia: Emma, Charlotte, Amelia, Ava, Sophia, Isabella, Mia, Evelyn and Harper.
Liam and Olivia
Warhol Portrait Set to Smash Records
Marilyn Monroe
An Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe worth an estimated $200 million headlines this month's spring sales in New York that collectors say are among the most anticipated ever.
Christie's expects Warhol's 1964 "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" to become the priciest 20th century artwork when the auction house puts it under the hammer on Monday.
The current most expensive 20th century auctioned work is Picasso's "Women of Algiers," which fetched $179.4 million in 2015.
The auction record for a Warhol is the $104.5 million paid for "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)" in 2013.
Other highlights offered by Christie's include Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict" (1982), expected to go for more than $30 million, and "Untitled (Shades of Red)" by Mark Rothko, tipped to fetch up to $80 million.
Marilyn Monroe
Reveals Motive?
Chappelle
At a secret comedy show in Los Angeles last night (5 May), Dave Chappelle shared more details about his experience of being attacked on stage earlier this week.
Chappelle, 48, was performing at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night (3 May) as part of the Netflix is a Joke festival when a man rushed on to the stage and attacked him, carrying a replica handgun fitted with an ejecting knife blade.
Chappelle yesterday revealed, at a stand-up set at the Comedy Store, that he convinced the Los Angeles police to allow him to enter the room where Lee was being held. “I needed to talk to him,” Chappelle said.
The comedian said that he asked Lee what provoked his attack, after which Lee – who Chappelle said appeared to him to be mentally ill – told him a story about his grandmother from Brooklyn, who had been forced to leave her neighbourhood because of gentrification.
Chappelle said that, as far as he understood it, the attack was meant to draw attention to her hardship.
Chappelle
Dog Ate His Homework
Four Cellphones
(The) Former President Donald Trump swears he cannot find four personal and business cellphones that New York's Attorney General has demanded for her probe of the Trump Organization, according to a new court filing.
"I am not aware of its current location," and "I do not know its current whereabouts," Trump the grifter says repeatedly of his most recent business phone, two old flip phones, plus a Samsung that he had used until "it was taken from me at some point while I was president," according to the filing.
Trump The unindicted conspirator also swears in the filing that he has no additional personal business documents to turn over to the AG's probe — and that he does not own or use a business computer.
"I also do not use a computer for work-related purposes," he says in the filing — a court-ordered affidavit he signed and dated on Friday, May 6.
Trump The failed game show host has been accused of taking highly sensitive White House documents with him to Mar-a-Lago. Still, in his affidavit he insisted, "Since at least January 1, 2010, it has been my customary practice not to keep any documents, files, or papers relating to my business activities in my private residences."
Four Cellphones
'Plan B'
Wealthy Americans
The number of wealthy Americans applying for citizenship or residency in foreign countries has skyrocketed over the past three years as US billionaires, tech entrepreneurs, and celebrities look to create a "plan B" for their families, multiple investment migration firms told Insider.
More than a dozen countries offer so-called "golden passports" and visas that allow affluent foreigners to receive citizenship or residency in exchange for investing in the country. The most expensive programs range from $1.1 million in Malta to $9.5 million in Austria, according to Forbes.
Latitude, a company which guides high-net-worth investors around the world through the application process, said US inquiries have increased 300% between 2019 and 2021. Henley & Partners, one of the world's largest citizenship brokers, said sales to American nationals increased by 327% between 2019 and 2020 and an additional 10% in 2021.
According to Dominic Volek, head of private clients at Henley & Partners, there are "four C's" currently driving the investor citizenship industry: COVID-19, climate change, cryptocurrency, and conflict.
The recent uptick in American applicants started during the Trump administration and escalated during pandemic lockdowns, he added.
Wealthy Americans
Armored Car Company Settles Suit
Empyreal Logistics
A Pennsylvania armored car company has settled its lawsuit that accused the San Bernardino County sheriff of illegally seizing over $1 million in cash it was transporting from medical marijuana businesses.
The settlement for no financial compensation announced Friday allows Empyreal Logistics to resume services after two transports of money were stopped and cash was seized in November and December, The Sun of San Bernardino reported.
Deputies said in a search warrant that there was probable cause a felony had been committed when the vehicle was stopped Nov. 16 and $700,000 was seized.
Although California is one of 37 states that allow medical use of marijuana and one of 18 that legalized its recreational use, the drug remains illegal under federal law.
Because big banks and credit card companies have shunned the industry, it largely operates on a cash basis. As a result, some businesses have turned to armored cars to transport large quantities of cash. In a statement, the sheriff's department said it recognized Empyreal acted in good faith.
Empyreal Logistics
Brain Structure Changes
Astronauts
Astronauts often talk about the overview effect, the cognitive shift that makes you realize the fragility of our world once you see it among the interplanetary void. But space travelers experience more than just psychological changes. There are neurological changes too. Their brains are changed by being in space.
New research, published in Scientific Reports, looked at MRI scans of 15 astronauts before their extended sojourn in space, immediately as they returned, then after one month, three months, and six months. They were compared to 16 non-astronauts that acted as a control sample.
The analysis showed that astronauts experience increases in perivascular spaces – the regions in the brain that surrounds blood vessels where cerebrospinal fluid flows – after long-duration space flights. While that was a major change, there didn’t appear to be problems with the astronauts’ balance or visual memories, suggesting no impairment.
The perivascular spaces in the brain are considered the underlying “hardware” of the glymphatic system. This is the system that cleanses the brain of metabolic proteins and it works best in deep sleep.
When the glymphatic system is not working too well, there is a build-up of metabolic proteins, which has been associated with the development of dementia. The perivascular spaces have been known to enlarge as a person ages.
Astronauts
Never-Before-Seen Spot of The Pacific Ocean
'Yellow Brick Road'
An expedition to a deep-sea ridge, just north of the Hawaiian Islands, has revealed an ancient dried-out lake bed paved with what looks like a yellow brick road.
The eerie scene was chanced upon by the exploration vessel Nautilus, which is currently surveying the Lili?uokalani ridge within Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (PMNM).
Researchers at the Ocean Exploration Trust are pushing the frontiers of this wilderness, which lies more than 3,000 meters below the waves, and the best part is, anyone can watch the exploration.
Despite being located under thousands of kilometers of ocean, the lake bed discovered by researchers on the summit of the Nootka seamount looks surprisingly dry. On the radio, the team notes that the ground looks almost like "baked crust" that could be peeled off.
'Yellow Brick Road'
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