from Bruce
Anecdotes
Mothers
• After her first book, The Joy Luck Club, became a runaway success, author Amy Tan was asked what her mother thought of the book. Ms. Tan replied that her mother went into bookstores, looking for her book, and if she didn’t see it, she scolded the bookstore employees.
• When novelist Jackie Collins was raising the two daughters she had with Oscar Lerman, the first word she taught them was not “Mummy” (she was born in London), but “Anything.” Why? She wanted them to learn that they could do anything.
• Paul Gauguin’s mother knew that her son could be abrasive. After she died on July 7, 1867, she advised in her will that he start a career “since he has made himself so disliked by all my friends that he will one day find himself alone.”
• Soprano Rita Hunter’s mother was very proud of her. While Ms. Hunter was singing in Gotterdammerung, her mother turned to a friend and asked, “My God, did I really give birth to that!”
Music
• Sometimes people hear song lyrics incorrectly. For example, singer-songwriter Tom Waits’ wife, Kathleen Brennan, thought that the refrain of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song “Bad Moon Rising” went, “There’s a bathroom on the right.” (Actually, as you entered many of the clubs that Mr. Waits used to perform in, there was a bathroom on the right.)
• Ritchie Valens became famous as a result of singing such hits as “La Bamba,” but when he was young, his family had a difficult time financially after his father died. In January 1958, his mother was unable to make a $65 house payment, so 17-year-old Ritchie and his band staged a dance. By charging $1.25 per person and $2 per couple, they made $125.
• Soprano Geraldine Farrar started singing in public at a very young age — she performed her first song for a church concert at age three. When she had finished singing, she went to the front of the platform and asked, to the delight of the audience, “Did I do it well, mamma?”
• Aretha Franklin started singing in the church choir when she was eight years old, and she made her professional debut — singing solo at church — when she was twelve years old. For singing, she was paid $15, which she immediately spent on a pair of roller skates.
• Soprano Angelica Catalani was married to M. de Vallebregue, a French captain who lacked knowledge of music. When his wife complained that the piano was too high, he ordered a carpenter to cut six inches off each leg of the piano.
• Sam Cooke started out as a gospel singer, but then he started to record pop songs. He worried about doing this, but his father, a minister, told him, “Sam, the Lord gave you a voice to make people happy. … Go ahead and sing.”
Names
• Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. When he was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River, he liked the words that rivermen called when they measured 12 feet of water. This much water had a depth of two fathoms, so the rivermen called out, “Mark twain.” The phrase meant, “Note (or mark) that there are two (or twain) fathoms of water.” Since two fathoms of water was deep enough to be safe for the steamboat, the pilot could heave a sigh of relief. Mr. Twain once took his family for a trip on a steamboat, and he stood on the deck listening to the cries of “Mark twain” coming from the rivermen. His daughter Clara came up to him and said, “I have hunted all over the boat for you. Don’t you know they are calling for you?”
• As a young girl, ballet dancer Mary Ellen Moylan decided that she needed a new, more romantic name; therefore, she chose “Mimi” and would not answer if she were called by any other name. However, returning to her lessons at the School of American Ballet, she discovered that her new name caused the other students to laugh at her, so she again went by the name of Mary Ellen.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. was first, and correct, with:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Hey Whitney"
Album: PINEAPPLE
Artist: Adam Gundrum
Artist Location: Logansport, Indiana
Info: Does some experimental stuff, but “Hey Whitney” is a real song.
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $5 (USD) for 17-track album
Genre: Alternative. Experimental
Links:
PINEAPPLE
Adam Gundrum on Bandcamp
Adam Gundrum on YouTube
Other Links:
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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
Small earthquake - a roller, not a shaker.
Raised $302 Million
Vax Live
The Global Citizen fundraising concert advocating the importance of vaccine equity has pulled in $302 million, exceeding the goal for the organization’s campaign.
Global Citizen announced Saturday that the funds raised in helped procure more than 26 million doses at the “Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World.” The organization said money was garnered through several philanthropic and corporate commitments.
President Joe Biden, Prince Harry and Jennifer Lopez were among the big names who took part in the event, which was recorded May 2 and aired Saturday. ABC, ABC News Live, CBS, YouTube and iHeartMedia radio stations will broadcast the concert staged at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Selena Gomez hosted the show, which was attended by several thousand fully-vaccinated concertgoers who cheered on performances by Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin, H.E.R. and Lopez, who enjoyed a duet with her mom.
Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, Jimmy Kimmel, Sean Penn and David Letterman served as special guest speakers.
Vax Live
Probe Dropped
Stormy Daniels
An inquiry into whether Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) violated campaign financial law during the 2016 election has been dropped.
The case stemmed from an allegation that Mr Trump directed his former lawyer to pay Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress, to stop her speaking out about an alleged affair.
The lawyer, Michael Cohen, was later jailed on multiple charges.
The regulatory agency tasked with enforcing campaign finance law announced the case closure Thursday.
The vote came months after an internal report recommended that there was "reason to believe" Mr Trump's campaign had knowingly violated campaign finance law.
Stormy Daniels
Interview
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has created iconic characters on “Seinfeld” and “Veep,” and with her overall deal with Apple, she’s poised for her next chapter. That future may or may not include more appearances as the Marvel villain Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine on Disney Plus’ “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” — something she can barely talk about, since Marvel is so secretive. This is pretty much all she can say: “I’ve always wanted to play a contessa, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe made it happen.”
But during an in-depth interview over Zoom for Variety’s Power of Women issue, there was plenty Louis-Dreyfus was able to discuss, including how she misses playing “Veep’s” Selina Meyer, her search for her next projects, why she got so involved in the 2020 election — and how cancer changed her priorities.
How have these past 13 months been for you?
I got really involved in the political campaign, the presidential election and all down ballot elections. And it became a kind of full-time, part-time job. I was doing a lot for multiple candidates in swing states, and to fight voter suppression. And it was intense, but it was gratifying, ultimately, because the outcome was good. Although I’m more aware than ever that we have our work cut out for us moving forward. And I’m in a development deal over at Apple, so I’ve been searching for material and have been working on that.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Ratings
Friday
It was time for a throwback episode at Fox’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown, as some of the league’s greatest matches and rivalries were relived in a trip down the archives. The memories were good for an 0.6, which led the night’s demo wars.
Close behind on ABC was perennial Friday winner Shark Tank, which was down a tick to 0.5 on the night. That slight hiccup didn’t affect the trailing 20/20, which was humming at an 0.4 for its story on a toddler’s murder.
At CBS, a rerun of Kids Say The Darndest Things took over from the departed MacGyver and drew an 0.3. That dragged down the rest of the network’s lineup, as the season finale of Magnum P.I. scored just an 0.4 and 4.8 million viewers, both numbers taking the down elevator.
The night-closing Blue Bloods was also affected, drawing an 0.4. Although the show had the night’s largest total audience, that number was down nearly 10% from the prior week.
At NBC, the Raymond Reddington saga rolls on in The Blacklist, holding steady at an 0.3 as viewers tire of the Elizabeth Keen flip-flops. Newsmag Dateline fared slightly better, scoring an 0.4 for its examination of a Michigan murder.
Friday
"New Normal"
NOAA
Just a quick glance at the new U.S. Climate Normals maps published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Tuesday is enough for most climate scientists to say, "I told you so." And it's not just because the maps show a warmer and wetter nation, as one would expect with global warming; it's also the specific geographic pattern of those changes.
That's because for decades climate scientists and their computer models have projected the regions that should expect the most warming, the most drying and the biggest increase in precipitation due to human-caused climate change. NOAA's new maps are clear evidence that this impact is now being felt.
Every 10 years NOAA releases a new set of "climate normals" — what is considered normal, typical or average weather in a given location at a given time of year. To ensure that these normals are not subject to the ebb and flow of yearly weather, these averages are based on 30-year time periods to even out any short-term swings.
The new normal baseline is calculated from 8,700 weather stations operated by NOAA across the U.S. and its territories. The data includes information on temperature, precipitation and other weather variables.
So why update the normals every 10 years? First, it is required by the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization. But on a practical note it is necessary to accurately reflect the state of the climate. These "normals" allow meteorologists, like myself, to compare the weather on any given day with what is historically expected, to give the public a gauge of how typical or extreme the weather is at any given moment.
NOAA
Says 'Big Lie' May Cost
Pollster
Frank Luntz (R-Landlord), a longtime pollster and political messaging consultant, issued a bold prediction in a recent podcast interview.
"Okay, I haven't said this before," Luntz told New York Times columnist and Recode co-founder Kara Swisher on her podcast "Sway."
"This could cost the Republicans the majority in the House in 2022," Luntz said. "What Donald Trump is saying is actually telling people it's not worth it to vote. Donald Trump single-handedly may cause people not to vote. And he may be the greatest tool in the Democrats' arsenal to keep control of the House and Senate in 2022."
Although many pundits think the GOP has a great chance at regaining the House in 2022 after taking back 13 seats from Democrats in 2020, Luntz argued Trump's "big lie" that the 2020 election was stolen will suppress turnout among the base.
Luntz has been conducting various focus groups for decades and cut his teeth as Pat Buchanan's pollster in the 1992 presidential race. He's also credited with coining terms such as "death taxes" and "government takeover of healthcare," but he no longer identifies as a Republican.
Pollster
Last Wild Macaw
Rio
Some have claimed she’s indulging a forbidden romance. More likely, loneliness compels her to seek company at Rio de Janeiro’s zoo.
Either way, a blue-and-yellow macaw that zookeepers named Juliet is believed to be the only wild bird of its kind left in the Brazilian city where the birds once flew far and wide.
Almost every morning for the last two decades, Juliet has appeared. She swoops onto the zoo enclosure where macaws are kept and, through its fence, engages in grooming behavior that looks like conjugal canoodling. Sometimes she just sits, relishing the presence of others. She is quieter — shier? more coy? — than her squawking chums.
Blue-and-yellow macaws live to be about 35 years old and Juliet — no spring chicken — should have found a lifelong mate years ago, according to Neiva Guedes, president of the Hyacinth Macaw Institute, an environmental group. But Juliet hasn’t coupled, built a nest or had chicks, so at most she’s “still just dating.”
Aside from Juliet, the last sighting of a blue-and-yellow macaw flying free in Rio was in 1818 by an Austrian naturalist, according to Marcelo Rheingantz, a biologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and there are no other types of macaws in the city. The lovebirds featured in the 2011 film “Rio? are Spix’s macaws, which are native to a different region of Brazil and possibly extinct in the wild.
Rio
Discovered Near Rome
9 Neanderthals
Italian archaeologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals in a cave near Rome, shedding new light on how the Italian peninsula was populated and under what environmental conditions.
The Italian Culture Ministry announced the discovery Saturday, saying it confirmed that the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo was “one of the most significant places in the world for the history of Neanderthals.” A Neanderthal skull was discovered in the cave in 1939.
The fossilized bones include skulls, skull fragments, two teeth and other bone fragments. The oldest remains date from between 100,000 and 90,000 years ago, while the other eight Neanderthals are believed to date from 50,000-68,000 years ago, the Culture Ministry said in a statement.
The excavations, begun in 2019, involved a part of the cave that hadn’t yet been explored, including a lake first noted by the anthropologist Alberto Carlo Blanc, who is credited with the 1939 Neanderthal skull discovery.
Archaeologists said the cave had perfectly preserved the environment of 50,000 years ago. They noted that fossilized animal remains found in the cave - elephant, rhinoceros and giant deer, among others - shed light on the flora and fauna of the area and its climactic history.
9 Neanderthals
Mother’s Happy Day
Alejandra Juarez
Three years ago Alejandra Juarez fell victim to Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up)’s cruelty as the wife of a decorated US Marine Corps veteran and mother of two young US citizen daughters was deported to Mexico under the former president’s zero-tolerance immigration policies.
On Saturday Juarez will rejoin her family in Florida as one of the first beneficiaries of a humanitarian program set up by Joe Biden’s administration to reunify parents Trump separated from their children.
But while Juarez’s Mother’s Day weekend reunion with daughters Pamela, 19, Estela, 11, and husband Temo will close a lengthy, painful journey of isolation and depression, she sees it as a door opening for other families torn apart by deportation.
“I’m happy this is behind me and my family, and hoping this will lead to a permanent solution not only for military spouses like myself, but for everyone,” she told the Guardian from Mérida, Mexico, where she has been living since being forced from her home in Davenport, Florida, in 2018.
The Biden administration’s family reunification taskforce was set up by the new president’s executive order in February and began returning some of those “unjustly separated at the US-Mexico border” during the Trump era this week by granting them “humanitarian parole”.
Alejandra Juarez
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