from Bruce
Anecdotes
Mothers
• When David Letterman is in Indiana, he visits his mother. One day, he called his mother to let her know he was coming over, and when he arrived at her house, she asked him, “David, would you like some strawberry pie?” He saw a freshly baked strawberry pie on a table, so he asked her, “When did you make this?” She replied, “I started right after I got off the phone with you.” Mr. Letterman was pleased: “It was just the cutest. I was so touched. Isn’t that motherhood? She gets off the phone, drops what she’s doing, and bakes a pie.”
• When Olympic-gold-medal gymnast Bart Conner and his brothers were growing up, they had a lot of gymnastics equipment, including a set of parallel bars in the basement and a set of rings in the yard. Their mother was afraid they would hurt themselves, so occasionally she would drive around looking for discarded mattresses the day before the trash was picked up. When she found one, she would ask if she could have it, and she would take it home and place it under the gymnastics equipment.
• As a single mother, Mary Jane Kurtz found it difficult to get her children ready on time to go to church. One Sunday morning, she told her children to get ready in no uncertain terms and they started laughing at her. They told her, “Mom, every time you slam down your foot, smoke comes out. It must be the wrath of God!” The smoke was actually the powder she had put in her shoes, but thereafter her children got ready on time to go to church.
• Twyla Tharp’s mother had great faith in her daughter. Whenever Twyla brought home a report card that carried any grade lower than an A-, her mother immediately assumed that her daughter’s teacher was incompetent and made arrangements for Twyla to attend a different class — and sometimes a different school. Later, Twyla became the world-famous choreographer of Push Comes to Shove.
• English entertainer Joyce Grenfell was an actress who played a series of unglamorous roles in the movies, disappointing her mother, who wanted Joyce to be glamorous. Once, her mother told a friend that her daughter was in a movie that they were going to see, but when she saw Joyce in yet another unglamorous role, she told her friend that she had been mistaken and her daughter wasn’t in the movie.
• Comedian W.C. Fields was good to his mother. After leaving home, he studied juggling and comedy. Once he began to make good, he sent his mother a note and a $10 bill in December of 1898, and thereafter he sent her at least $10 a week. However, in keeping with his comic persona, he didn’t let people know what he was doing, and he always denied that he would ever help his family.
• Parents sometimes are shocked to learn that one of their children is gay, but often they quickly adjust — usually after spending some time wondering whether they caused their child’s homosexuality. One mother went through that process, but eventually joked to her gay son, “I finally figured out why you are gay — I chewed Juicy Fruit gum while I was pregnant with you.”
• As part of the Kinaaldá ceremony that marks a Navajo girl’s coming of age, the girl’s mother “molds” her with her hands into the shape of a beautiful and strong woman. When Celinda McKelvey’s mother molded her, she squeezed her stomach “so you don’t grow up to be fat.” Smiling, Celinda asked her mother to do it again — “just to make sure I stay skinny.”
• Eve Arden appeared in a play titled The Road to Rome, about the Carthaginian general Hannibal. Once, when Hannibal’s soldiers roughly dragged Ms. Arden’s character away on stage, the voice of Liza, Ms. Arden’s two-year-old daughter, could be heard in the audience, asking, “What are those men doing to my mommy?”
• When author Frank DeCaro’s mother decided to learn to drive, she asked her brother to teach her. He immediately drove his car to the top of the steepest hill in town, got himself and his dog out of the car, then told her, “Go ahead. Drive.” Decades later, she still complained, “Can you believe he took his dog with him?”
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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: "Wendy (The Coolest Girl on the Beach)"
Album: SUMMER FEELINGS, VOLUME 2
Artist: The Rydells
Artist Location: Rochester (aka Rockchester), New Hampshire, USA
Record Company: RTTB Records
Record Company Location: SH, Germany
Info:
NH’s finest Ramones’inspired Rock n Roll band.
Denny Rydell- Vocals/Guitar
Jimmy Rydell- Drums/Back Up Vocals
Andy Rydell- Bass/Back-up Vocals
Chris “Critter Rydell” Lamy- Guitar/Back-up Vocals
Solo artist Brad Marino was the drummer in The Rydells. Back then he was known as Jimmy Rydell.
“RTTB” = “Ramone To The Bone”
RTTB Records has low-cost or FREE Pop Punk compilations by various artists.
Above: Where the band name came from?
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE) for 60-track album
“Wendy (The Coolest Girl on the Beach)” is also on The Rydells’ album ROCK N RLL IS THE ANSWER. Price: $3 (USD) for 14 tracks
Genre: Pop Punk.
Links:
SUMMER FEELINGS, VOLUME 2
The Rydells on Bandcamp
ROCK N ROLL IS THE ANSWER
RTTB Records
Other Links:
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David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
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David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Ukraine
Mrs Betty Bowers
Mrs. Betty Bowers: Life is Precious … Unless It’s Not (YouTube)
Other Links:
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
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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
ISP went down, lost hours. Sigh.
The Kids Are Alright
Olivia Rodrigo and Lily Allen
Olivia Rodrigo didn’t mince her words when addressing the Supreme Court’s vote to overturn Roe v. Wade via the Dobbs v. Jackson decision on Friday during her set at the Glastonbury music festival in England.
“I’m devastated and terrified that so many women and so many girls are going to die because of this,” she said, bringing out Lily Allen to sing the song “F— You,” which they dedicated to each of the justices who voted in favor of the decision.
“I wanted to dedicated this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who have shown us that, at the end of the day, they truly don’t give a s— about freedom,” she continued. “This song goes out to the justices: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh. We hate you.”
The “Good 4 U” singer also wasn’t the only one to address the Supreme Court’s decision at Glastonbury. Phoebe Bridgers led a chant of “F— the Supreme Court” during her set.
Olivia Rodrigo and Lily Allen
Donates $ To Planned Parenthood
Lizzo
Lizzo is planning to make a major donation to Planned Parenthood following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In response, the “About Damn Time” singer announced that she is pledging a $500,000 donation to Planned Parenthood from her upcoming Special tour and that Live Nation had agreed to match her donation to the nonprofit reproductive healthcare organization.
“I’m pledging $500k from my upcoming tour to Planned Parenthood,” she tweeted. “Live Nation agreed to match— to make it 1 MILLION dollars.” Yahoo has reached out to Live Nation about their decision to match the singer’s donation.
“The most important thing is action and loud voices,” the Yitty shapewear mogul continued. “@PPFA @AbortionFunds and organizations like them— will need funding to continue offering services to people who are most harmed by this ban.”
Lizzo
Raises $ For Reproduction Rights
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine will donate $475,000 to abortion access groups in Illinois and Wisconsin following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade Friday.
“We are disgusted by the repeal of Roe V. Wade and the devastating impact it will have on tens of millions of people,” the reunited rock act wrote on social media. “Over half of the country (26 states) is likely to ban or seriously restrict abortion very soon, if not immediately, which will a disproportionate impact on poor, working class and undocumented BIPOC communities.”
When Rage Against the Machine initially set their Public Service Announcement reunion tour in 2020 — the trek was ultimately delayed nearly two-and-a-half years by the Covid-19 pandemic — the band attempted to circumvent high-price ticket scalping by having their own dynamic tier of tickets. The profits from those tickets would “raise a substantial amount of money for charities and activist organizations we support in each city,” Tom Morello explained in February 2020.
In a separate tweet, guitarist Tom Morello wrote, “My great grandmother, Mary Maude Fitzgerald, died from an illegal, unsafe abortion. Her widower, Thomas Fitzgerald, an itinerant worker, couldn’t raise their 3 kids alone & sent them off to families that took them as servants. He died alone of TB in a work camp.”
Rage Against the Machine
'Horrified' By Supreme Court Decision
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno, who survived a botched abortion before it was legalized, is speaking out against the Supreme Court's ruling on Friday overturning Roe v. Wade.
"I'm really nervous and frightened and horrified that this is taking place," she told Variety. "I can't believe that some of those people are telling us what to do with our bodies."
Moreno, 90, said that when she became pregnant years before 1973's landmark Roe decision, her then-boyfriend Marlon Brando paid a doctor $500 to perform the abortion. However, Moreno began bleeding during the procedure.
"Marlon took me to the hospital. I had what they told me was a 'disturbed pregnancy,'" Moreno said. "The doctor didn't do anything really, except make me bleed. In other words, he didn't do it right. I didn't know it then, but I could have died. What a mess. What a dreadful mess."
The West Side Story star told Variety that she's most concerned for young girls in this newly restrictive landscape. "Taking it to the most extreme, girls who get pregnant because of rape or incest. Unfair isn't a strong enough word, but it's unfair."
Rita Moreno
Seek FTC Probe
Senators
Four Democratic US senators today asked the Federal Trade Commission to "investigate Apple and Google for engaging in unfair and deceptive practices by enabling the collection and sale of hundreds of millions of mobile phone users' personal data."
"The FTC should investigate Apple and Google's role in transforming online advertising into an intense system of surveillance that incentivizes and facilitates the unrestrained collection and constant sale of Americans' personal data," they wrote. "These companies have failed to inform consumers of the privacy and security dangers involved in using those products. It is beyond time to bring an end to the privacy harms forced on consumers by these companies."
The letter cited the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, saying that women "seeking abortions and other reproductive healthcare will become particularly vulnerable to privacy harms, including through the collection and sharing of their location data." It continued:
Data brokers are already selling, licensing, and sharing the location information of people that visit abortion providers to anyone with a credit card. Prosecutors in states where abortion becomes illegal will soon be able to obtain warrants for location information about anyone who has visited an abortion provider. Private actors will also be incentivized by state bounty laws to hunt down women who have obtained or are seeking an abortion by accessing location information through shady data brokers.
The letter was sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.). Apple and Google "knowingly facilitated these harmful practices by building advertising-specific tracking IDs into their mobile operating systems," the senators wrote.
Senators
Voicemail
Ginni
Nearly 20 years after her husband was confirmed to the Supreme Court, Ginni Thomas left a voicemail for Anita Hill asking her to apologize for accusing Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
On October 9, 2010, Anita Hill, then a lawyer and professor at Brandeis University, received a voicemail on her office line, People reported, from the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
"I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband," Ginni Thomas said in the voicemail, People reported. "So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. Okay, have a good day."
In a statement sent through her publicist, Thomas acknoweldged she'd called the woman her husband was accused of harassing and said she meant no offense.
Hill, however, did not accept the apology, saying: "I appreciate that no offense was intended, but she can't ask for an apology without suggesting that I did something wrong, and that is offensive."
Ginni
Fundraising For Red River Women’s Clinic
North Dakota
A fundraising campaign to help North Dakota’s sole abortion clinic move a few miles away to Minnesota has raised more than half a million dollars in two days.
The Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo will have to shut down in 30 days as part of the state’s trigger law that went into effect Friday, when the U.S. Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion.
Tammi Kromenaker, owner and operator of the independent clinic, said Saturday she has secured a location across the river in neighboring Moorhead but stated earlier that she didn’t know how she would fund the move.
A GoFundMe page set up Friday to benefit the transition had raised over $515,000 from more than 6,000 donors as of late Saturday afternoon. The original goal was $20,000.
North Dakota
Low-Oxygen, Super-Salty, Sub-Zero Arctic Spring
Life Found
Once again, life has been found in an environment that would be deeply inhospitable to most organisms living on this planet.
Fed by waters that pass through 600 meters (1,970 ft) of permafrost, the sub-zero, salty, virtually oxygen-free Lost Hammer Spring in the Canadian Arctic is one of the harshest places on Earth. Even here, however, life finds a way.
Scientists have found microbes thriving in the briny water that seeps up from deep below the permafrost – and it could offer a hint of the extraterrestrial microbial life that might be found (if there is any) on Europa, Enceladus or Mars.
Most of the microbes they found were entirely new to science and had specific adaptations to allow them not just to live, but thrive, in a place like Lost Hammer Spring.
"The microbes we found and described at Lost Hammer Spring are surprising, because, unlike other microorganisms, they don't depend on organic material or oxygen to live," said microbiologist Lyle Whyte of McGill University.
Life Found
Mummified Baby Woolly Mammoth Found
Nun cho ga
A gold miner in Canada discovered a near complete mummified baby woolly mammoth Tuesday, according to the Yukon government and Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, a local traditional territory. The female baby was named Nun cho ga, which means "big baby animal" in the Hän language.
The miner found the baby, which retained its skin and hair, while excavating through the permafrost at Eureka Creek in the Klondike gold fields within Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Traditional Territory, the government's press release said. She's estimated to have frozen during the Ice Age, over 30,000 years ago. While alive, she likely roamed the Yukon with wild horses, cave lions and giant steppe bison.
It added that the discovery was "significant" and rare, even for an area like Yukon, which has "a world-renowned fossil record of ice age animals."
"The discovery of Nun cho ga marks the first near complete and best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth found in North America," the press release said.
Nun cho ga
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