from Bruce
Anecdotes
Gifts
• In 1996, comedian Elaine Boosler threw the first pitch at a Cleveland Indians game. Afterward, the Indians front office asked if they could do something for her. Ms. Boosler asked for a baseball signed by often-angry player Albert Belle, and they replied, “Wow, you really are a comedian.” By the way, at the start of the 1992 baseball season, this sign was posted over Albert Belle’s locker: “I’m going to be cool, calm, and collected this season. Yeah, right.”
• A boyfriend once gave All American Girls Professional Baseball League player Faye Dancer a diamond engagement ring. She said, “Why the heck are you giving me a ring?” — then she took the engagement ring to a jeweler, who removed the diamond and transferred it to her baseball ring.
Good Deeds
• In 1989, the Detroit Public Schools ran out of money to fund its sports programs. One of the men who came to the rescue was Dave Bing, who had played professionally for the Detroit Pistons. He started to collect money from various sources — charities, Detroit businesses, and sports teams. In addition, the Pistons played a benefit game against a team of NBA All-Stars led by Magic Johnson. The $300,000 made by the benefit game added to the money Mr. Bing had already raised made a grand total of $600,000 — enough to run the Detroit Public Schools’ sports teams! Why did Mr. Bing make such an effort to keep the sports teams going? He said, “Without them, I don’t think some kids would be motivated to attend school.”
• At the 1964 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, the British bobsled team of Anthony Nash and Robin Dixon had the lead after the first two runs but broke a bolt in their bobsled just before their third run. Bobsledder Eugenio Monti, who was competing for Italy, showed remarkably good sportsmanship by lending the Brits a bolt from his own bobsled. The loan kept the British team from dropping out of the competition and allowed them to win the gold medal. Mr. Monti had to wait until the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France, to win the gold medal.
• As a senior football player in high school, Barry Sanders, who later played professionally, rushed extremely well. In the last game of the season, his rushing helped put his team safely ahead of the other team, and he was taken out of the game to allow another player to compete. However, someone learned that Barry needed only 30 yards to become his league’s leading rusher. Barry declined to go back into the game, reasoning that the game was already won and he should not rack up more yardage against a weaker team simply to win honor for himself.
• Evonne Goolagong was born in a large family without much money in the town of Barellan, Australia. She showed great promise as a tennis player and had the opportunity to study with the great coach Victor Edwards in Sydney, 400 miles away, but her family didn’t have the money to pay for her travel and city clothes. Fortunately, the people of Barellan took up a collection to pay her expenses. In 1971, Evonne won the women’s championship at Wimbledon.
• The world fell in love with Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Not only did she revolutionize gymnastics with high-difficulty and high-risk feats, she exhibited a winning personality to the audience. In the finals of the women’s all-around competition, Olga fell off the uneven bars. As Olga was crying afterward, a woman in the audience jumped over a barrier, ran to her, and presented her with a bouquet of flowers.
• Tennis star Billie Jean King needed money early in her career to go to Wimbledon — at the time tennis was regarded as a sport for amateurs, not professionals, and amateurs weren’t allowed to make money. To raise the money for her to go to Wimbledon, the city of Long Beach, California, pitched in. Ms. King rewarded Long Beach with several Wimbledon championships, both in singles and in doubles.
• When Barry Sanders was a junior in high school, his football coach asked if he wanted to play tailback, a position that would allow him to use his great speed. However, Barry declined, preferring to play wingback on offense and defensive back. Why? His brother was the starting tailback, and Barry did not want to compete against him for the position.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Hang Five"
Album: HARAKE GANG
Artist: RPS Surfers
Artist Location: Israel
Info:
Tal Oren – guitars
Gal Hai – drums
Shay Landa – organs, bass guitar
Lior Romano – bass keytar
Adi Goldenzweig – violins
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $6 (USD) for 13-track album
Genre: Surf Instrumentals.
Links:
HARAKE GANG
RPS Surfers on Bandcamp
RPS Surfers on YouTube
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
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David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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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
Tomorrow the epage will have been around for 20 years.
Not Even Dolly Changed Their Minds
Tennessee
Best friends Emma Short and Rachel Nelson, both 18, disagree about the Covid vaccines. "I'm vaccinated. She's not," Short said, standing next to Nelson as they enjoyed a day at Dollywood theme park.
Both women, who are recent high school graduates, head to college in their hometown at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville this fall, where students won't be required to get vaccinated.
Nelson is apprehensive. The shots haven't been out for too long, and stories of side effects spooked her. Her mom is vaccinated; her dad isn't. Her aunt sends her anti-vaccination content. Her best friend wants her to get it.
She is exactly the type of person whom Tennessee's top vaccination official, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, was hoping to persuade to get vaccinated before she was fired this month after her department double downed on its outreach to eligible children and teenagers.
Fiscus was forced out after she sent a memo to physicians about the state's Mature Minor Doctrine, which allows minors 14 to 18 years old to get vaccinated without parental consent under certain conditions. It was the last straw for state Republican legislators already upset over the state Health Department's Covid-19 outreach to youths. As a result, the state decided to halt not just outreach to youths about the Covid-19 vaccine, but all vaccinations. On Friday, the state reversed course after it said was a "pause" to review marketing materials.
Tennessee
Estate Finally Settled
James Brown
A long-running dispute over the estate of singer James Brown has finally been settled, an attorney involved in the mediation said on Friday.
David Black, an attorney representing Brown’s estate, confirmed to The Associated Press that the agreement was reached on July 9. Details of the settlement were not disclosed.
The estate had been in dispute since Brown’s death at age 74 on Christmas Day 2006, and extended beyond finance for a time into the ultimate disposition of his remains.
A key party in the dispute was Tomi Rae Hynie, a former partner and mother to one of Brown’s children, who once was locked out of his estate in a widely publicized moment of anguish. She claimed to be married to Brown, but evidence of that was scant.
In his will, Brown left the vast majority of his fortune to a trust, his personal effects to some of his children, $2 million for his grandchildren’s education, and nothing to Hynie.
James Brown
Presidential Race
SAG-AFTRA
Two of Fran Drescher’s former co-stars on The Nanny have come out in support of her political rival, Matthew Modine, in the race to be the next president of SAG-AFTRA. Charles Shaughnessy and Madeline Zima also are backing the Membership First slate of candidates headed by Modine and his running mate, Joely Fisher.
A third former cast member, Renee Taylor, is backing Fisher in her race to become the union’s next secretary-treasurer, but is remaining neutral in the presidential race. (Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said that she was backing Modine.) None of them, however, said anything negative about Drescher or her running mate, Anthony Rapp, who are running on the ruling party’s Unite for Strength ticket.
“Our leadership has always been playing catch up,” Shaughnessy — who played the Broadway producer who employed Drescher’s character as his nanny and later married her on the show — says in a video released by the Modine camp (watch it below). “They just haven’t been aware of what’s going on. They’ve not done the research and they have not looked forward into what’s coming around the corner. It’s time we change that. We need a leadership that has vision. That can anticipate the next revolution and negotiate on our behalf among a model, a system, into which the future can be fitted so that we are not caught out, yet again. And that’s why I am supporting Matthew Modine as national president and Joely Fisher as national secretary-treasurer of SAG-AFTRA. Because they have the experience – and the vision – to anticipate where things are headed from now. to negotiate to protect what we have now. But also to negotiate for what we will be needing in the future going forward. Into what is, we all know, a very uncertain future. So please join me in voting for Matthew Modine and Joely Fisher for SAG-AFTRA Membership First.”
Said Taylor, who played the Drescher’s character’s mother on The Nanny, also is a Membership First candidate to be a delegate to the union’s next convention. “My best friend Connie Stevens was legacy SAG’s secretary treasure,” she said. “Joely Fisher is like a daughter to me. She is smart, talented and would be amazing at the job. What a legacy.”
Said Zima, who played Shaughnessy’s youngest daughter on the 1993-99 CBS sitcom: “As a union member for 31 years, I completely trust and support Matthew Modine as SAG-AFTRA president and Joely Fisher as SAG-AFTRA secretary-treasurer to do what’s best for SAG-AFTRA members and for our industry during these challenging times.”
SAG-AFTRA
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Tonee Valentine
It was a usual Wednesday for Tonee Valentine (Carter), a professional piano player at terminal A of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Valentine's hands slid across the keys, his black brimmed hat bobbing. Amid the noisy and chaotic travel hub, the pianist provided rhythm.
Author and motivational speaker Carlos Whittaker, on an hour-long layover to Nashville, noticed. He saw the pianist "playing his heart out," opened Instagram and began recording. Whittaker, with a following of more than 170,000, panned to the meager contents of the blue tip bowl atop the piano and went up to give money. That's when the two struck up a conversation, Whittaker asking if the pianist would participate in his podcast "Human Hope."
"He asked me: Do I have hope in humanity?" Valentine told The Washington Post. "And I told him no. I didn't see it."
"Of course, that changed," Valentine added.
Tonee Valentine
Questions Renewed
Background Check
Senate Democrats are raising new concerns about the thoroughness of the FBI’s background investigation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (R-Owned) after the FBI revealed that it had received thousands of tips and had provided “all relevant” ones to the White House counsel’s office.
The FBI, responding to longstanding questions from Democrats, disclosed in a letter late last month that it had received more than 4,500 tips as it investigated the nominee’s past following his 2018 nomination by President Donald Trump. The process was the first time that the FBI had set up a tip line for a nominee undergoing Senate confirmation, said an assistant FBI director, Jill Tyson, writing on behalf of Director Christopher Wray.
A group of Democratic senators said in a letter to Wray dated Wednesday that his response “raises significant additional questions.” They called on him to explain, among other things, how many tips the FBI decided were relevant and what criteria agents used to make that determination and what policies and procedures were used to vet the tips. The senators also asked for more information about the tip line, including how it was staffed and how the tips were recorded or preserved.
The FBI conducted a original background investigation into Kavanaugh that consisted of interviews with 49 people over the course of five days, Wray said. The bureau then did a supplemental background check after new information arose about a woman, Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged that Kavanaugh had assaulted her when they were teens. As part of that process, Wray said, the FBI interviewed 10 people over six days.
Lawyers for Ford said in a statement that the FBI’s letter established that the investigation was a “sham and a major institutional failure” and chastised the bureau for not interviewing Ford or acting on the thousands of tips it received about Kavanaugh.
Background Check
New Law Empowers Vigilantism
Texass
For Anna Rupani, harassment comes with the job.
As the co-executive director at Fund Texas Choice — a practical-support abortion fund in Texas that helps women travel to places, both in and out of the state, where they can receive abortion care — she’s been the target of protests, violent threats, online bullying and terrifying mail.
But should a novel law in her state go into effect Sept. 1, those who oppose her work will be able to express themselves through the courts — with the likely practical effect of suing her fund and others like it into oblivion.
That law, known as S.B. 8, bans abortions in Texas as early as six weeks into pregnancy — before many women even know they are pregnant. But unlike every other anti-abortion law, Texas' unique ban will be enforced through private citizens' lawsuits, rather than through state government. It includes first-of-its-kind language that allows anyone, even someone outside Texas, to sue an abortion provider or anyone else who helped someone get an abortion after the six-week limit for at least $10,000 per defendant.
Targets could include not only abortion funds and practical support organizations that provide women in need with money, transportation, lodging, recovery care and child care, but also doctors, nurses, domestic violence counselors and even friends, parents, spouses and clergy members who drive a woman to a clinic or even just provide counseling about whether to have the procedure. Abortion-rights groups have filed a suit in federal court seeking to block the law from going into effect.
Texass
Cats More Likely to Catch Than Dogs
COVID-19
The research into better understanding SARS-CoV-2 goes on, and a new study sheds some light on how likely our household pets are to get infected – specifically, finding that cats are more susceptible than dogs to the virus that causes COVID-19.
Scientists analyzed blood serum from a total of 239 pet cats and 510 pet dogs, collected between mid-April and mid-June of 2020, to look for antibodies that would indicate a previous infection of SARS-CoV-2.
The results showed that 8 percent of cats but fewer than 1 percent of dogs had contracted COVID-19, suggesting that the virus can be passed between species, and that cats are more likely to end up catching it and getting infected than dogs are.
The findings are just part of a bigger picture that researchers are starting to put together when it comes to animals and COVID-19. While we know pets can become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the likelihood of them becoming sick appears to be low.
It also seems unlikely that animals are able to pass on SARS-CoV-2 to human beings; on the other hand, we can probably give the virus to our pets when we're in close proximity to them – so cuddling your cat or dog when you're faring poorly with COVID-19 isn't a good idea.
COVID-19
Bound by Quantum Physics?
Consciousness
One of the most important open questions in science is how our consciousness is established. In the 1990s, long before winning the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for his prediction of black holes, physicist Roger Penrose teamed up with anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff to propose an ambitious answer.
They claimed that the brain's neuronal system forms an intricate network and that the consciousness this produces should obey the rules of quantum mechanics – the theory that determines how tiny particles like electrons move around. This, they argue, could explain the mysterious complexity of human consciousness.
Penrose and Hameroff were met with incredulity. Quantum mechanical laws are usually only found to apply at very low temperatures. Quantum computers, for example, currently operate at around -272°C. At higher temperatures, classical mechanics takes over.
Since our body works at room temperature, you would expect it to be governed by the classical laws of physics. For this reason, the quantum consciousness theory has been dismissed outright by many scientists – though others are persuaded supporters.
Our brains are composed of cells called neurons, and their combined activity is believed to generate consciousness. Each neuron contains microtubules, which transport substances to different parts of the cell. The Penrose-Hameroff theory of quantum consciousness argues that microtubules are structured in a fractal pattern which would enable quantum processes to occur.
Consciousness
May Help Process Memories
Earworms
In the dark corners of the internet hides a playlist of some of the most torturous, addictive music known to man. That’s right, Spotify, SoundCloud and Apple Music all have playlists of “Baby Shark” remixes. Do doo, do do, do do, do.
Would you walk 500 miles to get away from that tune? Will your poker face crack the thousandth time it plays in your head? Does it remind you of somebody that you used to know? Do you value the sound of silence?
You aren’t alone. These so-called earworms — gross — are annoying but useful, as new research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in June helps illuminate the exact function these loops play.
“We can hear just a fragment of a piece of music and it can take us back. How does that happen?” said Petr Janata, a researcher at the University of California, Davis.
Music therapists and shrewd marketers have long taken advantage of music’s ability to trigger memory. As research continues to illuminate how the process works, their techniques and goals are likely to become increasingly refined and targeted.
Earworms
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