from Bruce
Anecdotes
Competitiveness
• Dominique Dawes, a gold medalist as an American team member in the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta, competed in her first gymnastics meet at age 10 and won every event! Actually, that’s not as impressive as it seems, since only one other person — her best friend — was competing against her. Ms. Dawes remembers the competition well: “It was really funny. We were falling all over the place.”
• Joe Venuti played jazz violin much better than he played golf. After hitting the ball into the lake at the Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood, Mr. Venuti became so frustrated that he threw his club into the water, then he threw his other clubs and golf bag into the water, then he picked up his caddy and threw him into the water, and finally he threw himself into the water.
• Competitive figure skaters must be dedicated — and so must the professional photographers who cover them. At the 1995 World Championships, photographer Gérard Châtaigneau went to the ice dance practice at 5 a.m. All the ice dancers were in costume and all the women ice dancers were already perfectly made up.
• The football players who made up Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen contributed greatly to the team’s success, but so did the seven players who made up the team’s Seven Mules. To decide who contributed more to the team’s success, the starting team held a vote. The Seven Mules beat the Four Horsemen — seven votes to four.
• In the late 1920s, the Harlem Globetrotters played a local team that hadn’t lost in three years. Before the game, three men with guns told the Globetrotters that the local team had better not lose this game, either. As usual, the Globetrotters won easily — but they made sure after the game to get out of town quickly.
• Athlete Babe Didrikson was definitely cocky. Often, she would show up at a golf tournament and say, “OK, Babe’s here! Now who’s gonna finish second?” She was able to back up her cockiness. Once, she won a record 17 golf tournaments in a row.
Conversation
• Yogi Berra talked almost constantly when he played catcher for the New York Yankees. In a game against the Boston Red Sox, Yogi kept on talking as Sam Mele was up to bat. Mr. Mele finally turned to umpire Bill Kinnamon and asked, “Bill, can’t you get this son of a bitch to shut up?” Mr. Kinnamon replied, “Well, Sam, if he’s talking to you, he’s not talking to me.”
• New York Yankee Yogi Berra was a talker. When he came up to bat, he would frequently ask major league umpire Tom Gorman how his family was, but occasionally Mr. Gorman didn’t feel like talking. One game, Mr. Berra asked how his family was, and Mr. Gorman replied, “They died last night. Get in there and hit.”
Dedication
• When NBA star Charles Barkley was 15 years old, the coach of his high school basketball team told him that he couldn’t jump high enough to play because he was too short and too fat. Young Charles wanted to play basketball, so he decided to teach himself how to jump. In the hot summer sun of Alabama, he ran at a 4-foot-high fence and attempted to jump over it. Sometimes he succeeded, but sometimes he failed, bruising his elbows and knees. His mother even said that her son looked that summer as if he had survived a car accident. Eventually, Charles could stand by the fence and jump it without first getting a running start. His jumping ability came in handy when he played basketball for Leeds High School, Auburn University, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Houston Rockets.
• Despite being born with only one arm, gymnast Carol Johnston competed for Cal State — Fullerton in Fullerton, California, in the late 1970s. Shortly after learning how to do a double backflip, she injured her wrist and was forced to rest it and not practice gymnastics for two weeks. However, during that time, she mentally visualized herself doing the double backflip and her other gymnastics skills. On her first day of practice after the injury, people expected her to practice only her easier skills, but she did the double backflip twice — perfectly. She said, “I think it shows the power of the mind.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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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: "Say Goodbye"
Album: THAT CERTAIN ACHE
Artist: Becky Kapell
Artist Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
Info:
“Minnesota songwriter and singer Becky Kapell picked up her teenage son’s guitar on a whim and began teaching herself to play at the tender age of 42. She had no intention of writing songs but as she taught herself basic chords, melodies began to emerge and then somewhat magically lyrics attached themselves to the melodies. She recorded 12 of those songs with old friends in Portland, OR (where Becky lived as a young adult) for her first record FOR NOW, released in 2012. Based on the strength of that recording Becky caught the attention of Minnesota guitar ace Paul Bergen and as the two began playing together her songwriting morphed from the folkier sound of her first record to the more guitar-driven sound of her 2018 release THAT CERTAIN ACHE. Recorded and produced by Bergen, the record also features his signature guitar work as well as guitar and drums by esteemed Minnesota musician Erik Koskinen who mixed the record and helped with additional recording at his Real Phonic Studios.”
Becky Kapell: vocals and acoustic guitar
Paul Bergen: electric guitars, acoustic guitar, bass
Erik Koskinen: drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $10 (USD) for nine-track album
Genre: Country
Links:
THAT CERTAIN ACHE
Becky Kapell on Bandcamp
Becky Kapell on YouTube
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
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David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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Bonus Links
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
This coming Wednesday Next Monday the epage will have been around for 20 years.
amfAR Gala
Cannes
Sharon Stone hosted and Alicia Keys gave a dazzling performance as the lavish amfAR gala that raises money for AIDS research returned to Cannes Friday evening.
One of the most anticipated nights of the festival, the 27th edition was a smaller more intimate affair than previous years, with the exclusive guestlist pared from 900 to 400 people with COVID-19 protocols in place.
The night began with a cocktail hour complete with ballerinas, flapper girls with Afghan hounds, vodka and caviar shots and plenty of champagne.
This was followed by a seated dinner without the usual after-party that keeps guests dancing into the early hours. That didn’t stop attendees from enjoying the hottest ticket in town.
The live auction which took place during the dinner saw a combination of luxury holidays, jewels, art-work and one-off experiences go under the hammer.
Cannes
Top Cannes Honor
‘Titane’
Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” a wild body-horror thriller featuring sex with a car and a surprisingly tender heart, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making Ducournau just the second female filmmaker to win the festival’s top honor in its 74 year history.
The win on Saturday was mistakenly announced by jury president Spike Lee at the top of the closing ceremony, broadcast in France on Canal+, unleashing a few moments of confusion. Ducournau, a French filmmaker, didn’t come to the stage to accept the award until the formal announcement at the end of the ceremony. But the early hint didn’t diminish from her emotional response.
“I’m sorry, I keep shaking my head,” said Ducournau, catching her breath. “Is this real? I don’t know why I’m speaking English right now because I’m French. This evening has been so perfect because it was not perfect.”
After several false starts, Lee implored Sharon Stone to make the Palme d’Or announcement, explaining: “She’s not going to mess it up.” The problems started earlier when Lee was asked to say which prize would be awarded first. Instead, he announced the evening’s final prize, as fellow juror Mati Diop plunged her head into her hands and others rushed to stop him.
Lee, himself, spent several moments with his head in his hands before apologizing profusely for taking a lot of the suspense out of the evening.
‘Titane’
'Supervulgar Personal'
Little Tucker
Fox News host Tucker Carlson (R-Rupert's Sock Puppet) has the highest-rated show on cable, a devoted following on the right, and "may be the most powerful conservative in America," Charlotte Alter reports at Time. But he won't say if he has been vaccinated against COVID-19.
When Alter asked him about his vaccination status at the end of a "meandering phone conversation" in June, she writes in a Carlson profile published Thursday, he replied: "Because I'm a polite person, I'm not going to ask you any supervulgar personal questions like that." Alter told Carlson he was welcome to ask her whatever he wanted, she adds, and "he broke into a cackle, like a hyena let loose in Brooks Brothers. 'I mean, are you serious? What's your favorite sexual position and when did you last engage in it?'"
"For someone who talks a lot about the right to ask questions, Carlson never did give me a straight answer," Alter writes. "Carlson has mastered the Trumpian mathematics of outrage — the more outlandish his rhetoric, the more vehement the backlash, the more formidable he becomes" — but "instead of Trumpian boasting, Carlson insists he's just asking questions." And this eagerness to ask impolitic questions "has made him the top general in the war against Americans' sense of shared reality," she adds. This matters with vaccinations and COVID-19 behaviors more generally because "studies have suggested that Carlson has the ability to alter viewers' behavior" more than anybody else at Fox News, for better or worse. Read more about Carlson's influence and the wiles of "Tuckerism" at Time.
Little Tucker
‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’
Prequel
Paramount+ has given a formal green light to Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, a prequel series to the classic 1978 film, which comes from Paramount Television Studios.
The 10-episode pickup, which had been in the works for weeks, marks the first official scripted series order since PTVS President Nicole Clemens added a senior role at the streamer as President, Paramount+ Original Scripted Series.
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies is set four years before the original Grease. Before rock ‘n’ roll ruled, before the T-Birds were the coolest in the school, four fed-up, outcast girls dare to have fun on their own terms, sparking a moral panic that will change Rydell High forever.
While the description can be interpreted as referring to the four Pink Ladies from the movie, Rizzo, Frenchy, Marty, and Jan, the spinoff series will actually feature new characters.
Prequel
Sheriff Cherry Picks Science
Los Angeles
He’s got 99 problems, but a mask ain’t one. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva (R-MAGA) said Friday that his department will not enforce the new mandatory indoor mask requirement that will begin tonight at 11:59 PM.
The county Department of Public Health revived its indoor mask requirement on Thursday after a spike in Covid-19 cases. The requirement dictates that masks be worn indoors regardless of vaccination status.
Villanueva said in a statement that forcing masks “is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.”
Los Angeles
Millions Flee Violence
Latin America
Marian Pérez Guerra, 39, knew when it was time to leave her home country of Nicaragua.
"They started shooting at our house. That's where we knew we had to leave," she said, recounting the threats she constantly received following her participation in demonstrations against the government of President Daniel Ortega.
"They said they were going to kidnap me, in some cases they told me they were going to rape me, to make me disappear," said Pérez Guerra, who left in September 2018 and is now living in Mexico City.
In recent years, Mexico has ceased to be a transitory country for people heading to the United States, increasingly becoming the final destination of an important migratory flow. Between 2014 and 2019, the number of asylum applications registered in the country increased from 2,137 to 70,418 — an increase of more than 3,000 percent, according to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance, or COMAR.
"You arrive very beaten, and you have to learn to transform the pain," Pérez Guerra said about her new life. "That is why I will always be grateful to Mexico for giving me refuge."
Latin America
Reverses Benny the Rat
Frankie
Pope Francis cracked down Friday on the spread of the old Latin Mass, reversing one of Pope Benedict XVI’s signature decisions in a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics who immediately decried it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy.
Francis reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass that Benedict relaxed in 2007, and went further to limit its use. The pontiff said he was taking action because Benedict’s reform had become a source of division in the church and been exploited by Catholics opposed to the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church and its liturgy.
Critics said they had never before witnessed a pope so thoroughly reversing his predecessor. That the reversal concerned something so fundamental as the liturgy, while Benedict is still alive and living in the Vatican as a retired pope, only amplified the extraordinary nature of Francis’ move, which will surely result in more right-wing hostility directed at him.
Francis, 84, issued a new law requiring individual bishops to approve celebrations of the old Mass, also called the Tridentine Mass, and requiring newly ordained priests to receive explicit permission to celebrate it from their bishops, in consultation with the Vatican.
In addition, Francis said bishops are no longer allowed to authorize the formation of any new pro-Latin Mass groups in their dioceses.
Frankie
Red Tide
Florida
Piles of dead fish, dolphins, turtles and manatees are rotting on the shorelines of coastal Florida in a soup of reddish brown ocean water after a devastating so-called “red tide” algal bloom struck sea life in the region.
The city council in St Petersburg, Florida, called for a state of emergency last week saying that crews need help getting the dead sea creatures cleaned up from the beaches. In the Pinellas county area, more than 800 tons of dead fish and sea life have washed ashore – and the smell is already hitting the cities.
Red tides do happen in the area, but this year’s incident is so serious that it is causing some experts to wonder if a pollution accident at a former fertilizer plant called Piney Point could be a reason it is so bad.
In March, a dam at a reservoir at the defunct plant that stored phosphate wastewater began to fail, prompting temporary evacuations of nearby residents on 1 April. Two days later, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, issued a state of emergency. The plant released 215m gallons of contaminated water into Tampa Bay in an effort to prevent the reservoir’s collapse.
The current algal bloom can be traced back to December 2020, when it began to travel north up the coast into the Tampa Bay area. Tropical storm Elsa also caused strong winds, which may be pushing fish to pile up on shores in much larger and stinkier quantities.
Florida
Bail Revoked
Brandon Fellows
A District of Columbia judge revoked bail for an accused Capitol rioter on Thursday after he allegedly sent "problematic" and sexually explicit voicemails to his probation officer, CBS News reported.
Brandon Fellows, from New York, had previously been released on bail while facing a five-count indictment for his alleged role in the January 6 insurrection.
The 27-year-old is accused of breaching the Capitol and entering the office of Sen. Jeffrey Merkley, where he was pictured propping his feet on the senator's desk while smoking a joint.
Fellows' probation officer Kendra Rennie testified on Wednesday that he reportedly sent her long rambling voicemails while he was on bail and even called her mother once as a form of "intimidation," CBS reported.
Some of the messages were sexually explicit in nature, including one specific voicemail that he left in May in which he referenced "the size of his genitalia and the performance of his genitalia," according to CBS.
Brandon Fellows
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