• People have been suspicious of the media for decades. When Hugh Troy worked at a security job in Washington D.C., he was required to write a memo reporting in detail on every conversation he had with a member of the media. Since he lived next door to a newspaper publisher, Mr. Troy was greatly annoyed by this rule. Finally, he sent in a memo detailing a conversation with a representative of the Washington Post — his paperboy. The rule was terminated.
• Many professional writers find writing difficult and are chronically late with copy that is due at magazines. Often, a magazine editor would call humorist Robert Benchley, who frequently made use of messenger boys, with an inquiry about the whereabouts of copy that was due the week before. Mr. Benchley used to drive editors mad with the gentle comment, “My goodness, hasn’t that boy got there yet?”
• When Maury Maverick, Jr., served in the Texas House of Representatives in the 1950s, he introduced a bill that would raise the amount of money spent on food in Texas mental institutions from 75 cents to $1.10 per patient — thus allowing the patients to eat three meals a day. The headline about the bill in the Dallas Morning News the next day said, “Liberals Run Amok.”
• Humorous poet Oliver Herford’s wife came up with the idea to start a weekly publication titled Dreamland, which would publish contributors’ work only if the author could prove that it had been rejected by at least three major publishing houses. Mr. Herford liked the idea, and they started the weekly.
• A Washington newspaper printed a headline with a typo: “CHURCHILL IN BED WITH SLIGHT COED.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent Prime Minister Winston Churchill several copies of the newspaper.
Money
• Long ago, a friend of Peg Bracken’s gave a large business dinner at a San Francisco hotel. Service was mediocre, and the dinner did not have the fresh asparagus he had ordered but instead had canned peas. When it was time to tip, the friend took $20 out of his pocket — a little over 11 percent instead of the customary 15 percent for very good (not mediocre) service. The waiter refused to take the $20, saying, “I’m sorry, sir, but we get 15 percent.” The friend said, “As you know, this is a voluntary act on my act. And you say it isn’t enough?” The waiter said, “No, it’s not enough.” So the friend put the $20 back in his pocket and left.
• Mark Twain dedicated his first book — The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches — to “John Smith” because he had heard that people always buy a copy of any book that is dedicated to them. Mr. Twain wrote, “It is said that the man to whom a volume is dedicated, always buys a copy. If this prove true in the present instance, a princely affluence is about to burst upon the author.”
• During a literary discussion in which lesbian author Valerie Taylor was participating, this question came up: “What is the function of the novel?” Jim, Ms. Taylor’s son, was listening, and he responded, “The function of the novel is to pay the rent.” Later, Ms. Taylor discovered that Thomas Hardy had said the same thing in a preface to one of his novels, so she bought a copy of the novel as a gift for her son.
• While in Paris, author Mordecai Richler was taken advantage of by several people demanding tips. A doorman removed his bags from a taxi, carried them to the front door, then extended his hand for a tip. Another man carried his bags to the registration desk, then extended his hand for a tip. A third man carried his bags to his hotel room, then extended his hand for a tip.
The Scottish play and the Bard's play are euphemisms for William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The first is a reference to the play's Scottish setting, the second a reference to Shakespeare’s popular nickname. According to a theatrical superstition, called the Scottish curse, speaking the name Macbeth inside a theatre, other than as called for in the script while rehearsing or performing, will cause disaster. A variation of the superstition also forbids quoting lines from the play within a theatre except as part of an actual rehearsal or performance of the play.
Because of this superstition, the lead character is often referred to as the Scottish King or Scottish Lord. Lady Macbeth is often referred to as the Scottish Lady. Sometimes Mackers or MacB is used to avoid saying the name.
Source
Randall was first, and correct, with:
Macbeth
Mark. wrote:
Macbeth (by William Shakespeare).
Billy in Cypress U. $. A. said:
Macbeth
Alan J answered:
Macbeth.
Mac Mac responded:
Macbeth
Cal in Vermont replied:
M..Maa..Out, damned sp.. Oh, I can't do it...
mj wrote:
With a line that could be a rebuke to a dog
Out, damned Spot, Macbeth, about the murderous Thane of Cawdor and his
equally homicidal and socially ambitious wife, is said to be cursed.
Dave said:
Macbeth. Tradition holds that Macbeth is a cursed play and people with a superstitious bent in the theater won’t use the title, but refer to it as “The Scottish Play,” as if that makes any difference.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, wrote:
The Scottish Play and the The Bard's Play are euphemisms for William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The first is a reference to the play's Scottish setting, the second a reference to Shakespeare's popular nickname. According to a theatrical superstition, called the Scottish curse, speaking the name Macbeth inside a theatre will cause disaster.
John I from Hawai`i says,
Macbeth
Jacqueline answered:
Macbeth.
Michelle in AZ responded:
Macbeth
DJ Useo replied:
That'd be "MacBeth". A wonderful tale. All of the Bard's stuff is superb. I've seen them all performed live on stage. You should, too.
Just keep those candy wrappers quiet. Those Shakespeare fans are crabby! Lol.
Kevin in Washington DC said:
Macbeth.
Deborah, the Master Gardener wrote:
I looked it up, because I didn’t know: Macbeth. Good thing I learned something today.
AQI has been between 155-165 today. It’s bad, and doesn’t look like it’s clearing out anytime soon. Ironically, rain is predicted for NorCal next week. No, I”m not holding my breath.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame took the day off.
Daniel in The City took the day off.
Rosemary in Columbus took the day off.
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) took the day off.
Stephen F took the day off.
Roy, the Texas Snowflake, keeping his distance in Tyler took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took the day off.
-pgw took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
Roy the (now retired) hoghead (aka 'hoghed') ( Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid. ~Frank Zappa ) took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
DAngelo took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Info: “The 427’s create instrumental surf rock influenced by '60s surf music, spaghetti westerns, and film noir. Nominated for ‘Instrumental Recording of the Year’ at the Western Canadian Music Awards for their debut EP, their full-length spent seven weeks in the !earshot National Top 50 charts. ‘STAY GOLD’, their follow-up, delves deeper into film noir themes while retaining their surf guitar roots.”
All Songs Written by Chris van Keir & Rob Day
The 427's:
Chris van Keir — Electric and Classical Guitars, Percussion
Rob Day — Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Organ, Percussion
Eve Hell — Electric and Upright Bass, Percussion
Wrayne Ramone — Drums
It's been so gray and overcast that the defective rooster is quite confused.
Tonight, Sunday:
CBS starts the night, as usual, with '60 Minutes', followed by a FRESH'Big Brother', then a FRESH'Love Island', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The 3rd One'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'Sunday Night Football', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old 'Dateline'.
ABC begins the night with a RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a RERUN'Celebrity Family Feud', then a RERUN'Press Your Luck', followed by a RERUN'Match Game'.
The CW offers a FRESH'Fridge Wars', followed by a RERUN'Supernatural'.
Faux has a FRESH'The Masked Singer'.
MY recycles an old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by another old 'Big Bang Theory', then still another old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by yet another old 'Big Bang Theory'.
A&E has the movie 'Pacific Rim', followed by the movie 'The Magnificient Seven'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Goonies', followed by 'The Walking Dead', another 'Walking Dead', and the movie 'The Goonies'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS
[7:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS
[8:00AM] WILD INDIA
[9:00AM] PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS - 2020: BEST ACTION
[11:00AM] TOP GEAR - NEPAL SPECIAL
[12:44PM] TOTAL RECALL
[3:15PM] X-MEN: THE LAST STAND
[5:45PM] JOHN WICK
[8:00PM] TOP GEAR - EPISODE 2 (EXTENDED)
[9:31PM] JOHN WICK
[11:46PM] X-MEN: THE LAST STAND
[2:15AM] JOHN WICK
[4:30AM] TOP GEAR - EPISODE 2 (EXTENDED) (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Potomac', another 'Real Housewives Of Potomac', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of Potomac', then a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live', and another 'Real Housewives Of Potomac'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'The Longest Yard', followed by the movie 'Grown Ups 2', then the movie 'Tommy Boy'.
FX has the movie 'Spider-Man: Homecoming', followed by the movie 'Jumaji: Welcome To The Jungle', then the movie 'Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle', again.
History has 'Apocalypse Earth', followed by a FRESH'Apocalypse Earth'.
IFC -
[7:00am] Final Destination 2
[9:00am] Final Destination
[11:15am] The Shining
[2:30pm] The Expendables
[4:45pm] The Expendables 2
[7:00pm] Jurassic Park
[10:00pm] Jurassic Park
[1:00am] The Expendables
[3:15am] The Expendables 2
[5:30am] The Three Stooges - Nutty But Nice (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:00am] columbo - How To Dial A Murder
[7:45am] columbo - The Conspirators
[10:00am] close up with the hollywood reporter - Drama Showrunners
[11:00am] the blues brothers
[2:00pm] crocodile dundee ii
[4:30pm] ferris bueller's day off
[7:00pm] bad boys
[9:30pm] bad boys ii
[12:30am] bad boys
[3:00am] close up with the hollywood reporter - Actresses
[4:00am] hogan's heroes
[4:30am] hogan's heroes
[5:00am] hogan's heroes
[5:30am] hogan's heroes (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'San Andreas', followed by the movie 'Death Wish'.
“Nomadland” has received the Golden Lion Award as the best film of the 2020 Venice International Film Festival, a jury headed by Cate Blanchett announced on Saturday.
The Searchlight drama, a simultaneous premiere by the Venice, Telluride and Toronto festivals, was directed by Chloe Zhao and stars Frances McDormand as a woman who travels through the American West in a van after losing her job and her home. Apart from McDormand and David Strathairn, almost all of the actors in the film are actual “nomads” that Zhao cast on her own travels through the area.
“Nuevo Orden” (“New Order”) by Mexican director Michel Franco won the Silver Lion, the festival’s second-place award, while acting prizes went to Vanessa Kirby for “Pieces of a Woman” and Pierfrancesco Favino for “Padrenostro.”
Kiyoshi Kurosawa was named the festival’s best director for “Wife of a Spy.”
Ahmad Bahrami’s “The Wasteland” won the award as the best film in the festival’s Orizzonti section, while Ana Rocha de Sousa’s “Listen” won the Orizzonti jury prize and the award as the best first film at the festival.
Disney’s live-action Mulan movie continues to be the headache that keeps on giving this week, as THR reports that the massive entertainment company has come under increasing scrutiny for the film’s decision to film in—and thank the government of—China’s Xinjiang region. Said critiques include pointing out that the film’s credits apparently specifically thank the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau in Turpan, an organization that has become notorious in recent years for operating “re-education” camps targeting the region’s Uighur Muslim population, in numbers that have been reported as high as a million people forcibly interred.
Mulan had already faced a fair amount of censure ahead of its release last weekend, thanks in part to a social media post made last year by star Liu Yifei that seemed to show support of the Hong Kong police against protesters in the city. The film’s namechecking of Xinjiang authorities—and its willingness to film in a region where the camps reportedly operate in mass numbers, in what’s been labeled a “cultural genocide” by some—has now drawn censure from everyone from human rights groups to right-wing legislators (including bearded potato Ted Cruz), condemning Disney for what’s being seen as a turning a blind eye to the Chinese government’s actions in the region.
Disney has so far refused to comment on the backlash against the film (which is also doing pretty crappy at the Chinese box office, apparently, despite ostensibly being designed to appeal in part to the country’s massive film market). Boycott movements against the film have continued to build across the world, including in the U.S., Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
A group of 78 researchers and doctors from Stanford Medical School took aim this week at Dr. Scott Atlas, the expert President Donald Trump recently added to the White House pandemic response task force, for embracing and peddling what they described as "falsehoods and misrepresentations of science" in his public musings about the coronavirus.
Atlas, a neuroradiologist by training with no background in treating infectious diseases, joined the president's medical advisory staff last month. Before doing so, he made frequent appearances on Fox News, where he often cast doubt on the efficacy of wearing masks and pushed for schools to reopen with in-person learning – positions in line with Trump's own public sentiments.
In a "Dear Colleagues" letter penned Wednesday, the Stanford experts wrote that they have a "moral and ethical responsibility" to push back on Atlas' controversial claims about mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, which they characterized as "opinions and statements [that] run counter to established science" and "undermine public health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy."
The rebuke from experts at Stanford's medical school, where Atlas was once chief of neuroradiology, marked a significant backlash against one of the president's top advisors. At a White House press briefing in August, Trump introduced Atlas as a new member of the coronavirus task force, calling him "a very famous man who is also highly respected."
In their letter, however, the Stanford experts tick through a set of widely accepted medical conclusions in conflict with Atlas' public statements and alleged private policy suggestions.
In a disturbing new report from Politico, politically appointed cronies of the president have been interfering and making changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly scientific reports in order to better align with Trump’s publicly stated messages regarding the coronavirus.
Politico’s Friday exclusive cites administration communications aides, including former Trump campaign officer and now assistant secretary for public affairs of the Department of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo — who has no medical or scientific qualifications — sending emails successfully pressuring CDC officials “to change the language” in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR). These reports, which the CDC has created for decades, are distributed to doctors and health officials on the front lines and are intended to deliver the government’s most up-to-date information on the virus and how it spreads.
In emails to CDC Director Robert Redfield, Politico reported, politically appointed communications officials “openly complained that the agency’s reports would undermine President Donald Trump’s optimistic messages about the outbreak.” And, although other CDC officials have pushed back and refused to make some of the suggested significant changes to the historically non-political and important scientific MMWR weekly reports, the pressure did result in an almost month-long delay of one report that advised against doctors prescribing the Trump-endorsed drug hydroxychloroquine.
Caputo claims the interference is an attempt to thwart an untrue conspiracy that some supporters of the president rely upon to compromise away their nefarious behavior in order to do Trump’s dirty work: the alleged “deep state.”
A disabled Iraq War veteran faces five years in prison for marijuana possession after an Alabama judge denied his release, citing his past criminal record.
Alabama circuit judge Samuel Junkin denied a motion that would allow Sean Worsley to move to a community supervision programme instead of a state prison on Wednesday.
Mr Worsley was arrested for marijuana possession while driving through Alabama from his home state of Arizona, where he has been legally prescribed the drug. If convicted, he could face five years in the Alabama Department of Corrections.
The judge said that he denied Mr Worsley’s motion because of his past criminal records and attempts to leave the state.
Previously, the veteran was arrested for a non-violent marijuana related charge and pleaded guilty.
Around 8,800 unaccompanied migrant children have been expelled from the United States under the Trump administration's coronavirus-related border ban, according to court documents filed by the Justice Department on Friday.
Speaking at a court declaration on Friday, US Border Patrol Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz said more than 159,000 migrants had been expelled since the emergency order took effect on March 20 — 8,800 were children traveling alone and 7,600 of which were traveling with family members.
"The numbers are stunning," Lindsay Toczylowski, the executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told CBS News.
"Having talked to so many kids who come here seeking asylum and knowing the fear that they have and what they're fleeing, to find out that our government has literally taken children who are seeking protection and sent them back to the very places they fled in such high numbers really took my breath away."
In August, documents reviewed by The New York Times revealed that at least 860 migrants — most believed be children — were being detained in hotels across the country rather than in licensed and monitored facilities.
David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Legates confirmed to NPR that he was recently hired as NOAA's deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction. The position suggests that he reports directly to Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the agency that is in charge of the federal government's sprawling weather and climate prediction work.
Neither Legates nor NOAA representatives responded to questions about Legates' specific responsibilities or why he was hired. The White House also declined to comment.
Legates has a long history of using his position as an academic scientist to publicly cast doubt on climate science. His appointment to NOAA comes as Americans face profound threats stoked by climate change, from the vast, deadly wildfires in the West to an unusually active hurricane season in the South and East.
In 2007, Legates was one of the authors of a paper that questioned previous findings about the role of climate change in destroying the habitat of polar bears. That research was partially funded by grants from Koch Industries, the lobbying group the American Petroleum Institute and ExxonMobil, according to InsideClimate News.
A New Jersey man was identified as the developer behind a now-defunct website used to circulate far-right conspiracy theories pushed by QAnon.
The website, Qmap.pub, was abruptly shut down after fact-checking group Logically.ai revealed the man's identity.
The site reached over 10 million visitors in July, Bloomberg News reported, and served as one of the main platforms of communication between QAnon supporters.
By tracing an email address from a since-deleted Facebook post asking for translation services for Q, the unknown head figure behind the fringe group, Logically was able to identify Jason Gelinas as the "developer and mouthpiece" for Qmap.pub.
He is "a New Jersey man in his forties with prominent roles in technical analysis and IT security for the banking sector," according to Logically.
A crater has been blasted open after an explosive bubble of methane gas popped beneath the ground in the remote tundra of Siberia, spraying chunks of rocks and soil hundreds of meters across the Yamal Peninsula.
The giant hole was first spotted in northwest Siberia earlier this summer by a TV crew on their way to an unrelated assignment by helicopter. In August 2020, the new geological feature was given an official look-over by Yamal authorities, the RAS Institute of Oil and Gas Problems, and scientists at Skoltech, who hope to publish a scientific study on the crater in the near future.
"The crater is fresh, it appeared this year in the central part of Yamal, its diameter exceeds 20 meters, and its depth is more than 30 meters," Evgeny Chuvilin, a leading research scientist at the Skoltech Center for Hydrocarbon Recovery who has surveyed the crater, told IFLScience. "More detailed information will be published by us in the near future in a scientific article."
The colossal crater is the result of permafrost that’s been thawing from rising temperatures in the area. Permafrost is rocky soil or sediment that’s typically frozen year-round and contains huge stores of organic carbon and frozen microorganisms. As temperatures warm and the icy permafrost begins to thaw, bacteria and other microbes spring back to life and start pumping out methane under the damp and low-oxygen conditions.
Occasionally, this methane can become trapped beneath the ground, which simultaneously becomes unstable from the thawing permafrost. Eventually, the reservoirs of gas build up enough pressure, and the next thing you know — kaboom! — a crater is formed.
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