Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Cleavage Contest Continues (Creators Syndicate)
Not far from where I live, there's a Renaissance fair. In the advertisements for the event, "fair" is spelled "faire," so you know you're getting the real thing. Many of the vendors at the faire refer to their business as a "shoppe," rather than a "shop," so you can be really sure what you're getting. Anyway, should you decide to goe to the faire this nexte weekende, you will witness the "cleavage contest," which contains no extra letters except those related to bra size.
Ted Rall: All the Anonymous BS That's Fit to Print: Self-Serving Newspapers Ditch Their Own Ethics Rules (Creators Syndicate)
The most disturbing aspect of The New York Times op-ed by an anonymous "senior official in the Trump Administration" isn't its content. The content isn't significant enough to make an impression. … What is scary is that the stewards of a grand 167-year-old publication can cavalierly abandon the basic standards of journalism in search of a social media splash in their tepid struggle against a sitting president.
Froma Harrop: How About Medicare Advantage for All? (Creators Syndicate)
A resurfaced Barack Obama has uttered those three little words: "Medicare for all." Does that mean that the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, was a bad idea? Not at all. The ACA was a triumph in that it cut the number of uninsured Americans by 20 million. And it hardened the idea that no American, regardless of income or pre-existing conditions, should suffer or die for lack of health coverage.
Froma Harrop: On Climate Threat, States Refuse to Surrender (Creators Syndicate)
It's long past time to expect any guidance from the environmental saboteurs now running Washington. The Trump administration not only has refused to address the crisis but is reversing progress made by previous leaders. The only remedy left - besides voting the wreckers out of office - is to help the states that are already doing the work. […] In the wake of catastrophic fires fueled by higher temperatures, California lawmakers just passed a bill mandating 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045. But Hawaii was already there, having set a similar carbon-free commitment three years ago.
Mark Shields: Downside of Being Right (Creators Syndicate)
The Economist wrote simply, "Mrs. Pelosi is arguably the most powerful woman in American history." Recall that in the teeth of the Great Recession, Pelosi persuaded her Democrats to bail out Wall Street to save the American automobile industry, and to pass a $787 billion economic stimulus package in addition to a complete overhaul of the nation's health care system. Persuading your members to cast tough, unpopular votes because it is the right thing to do is the ultimate test of the leader - which you understandably may not recognize after seven years of GOP control. Time and again, Nancy Pelosi met that test.
Lenore Skenazy: Momniscience (Creators Syndicate)
"I Put a GPS Tracker on My Child, and I'm Never Going Back" is the title of a piece on the popular mommy blog Pop Sugar. The mom says that this past summer, she sent her girls, 6 and 8, to a camp that took them on field trips. That's why she is SO GLAD she got them trackers. It allowed her to keep tabs from afar!
Connie Schultz: Are We Still Pretending Donald Trump Isn't Lying? (Creators Syndicate)
Must we be able to peer into the dark recesses of Donald Trump's mind to know that he is lying? We all know the answer. Insisting otherwise is to lie, just like the president.
Marilynn Preston: Sign Up for Happiness 101! Rewire Your Brain so All Is Well (Creators Syndicate)
Would you be surprised to learn that one of the most popular college courses in America teaches students how to be happy? Probably not.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• While actor Paul Newman was in Kansas City to film Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, he went into an ice cream shop, where he met one of the local citizens, who was flustered to see a big movie star. The woman paid for her ice cream, then left the ice cream shop. A few moments later, she realized that she didn't have her ice cream in her hand, so she returned to the store. Mr. Newman saw her and asked her, "Are you looking for your ice cream?" Still flustered, the woman could only nod. Mr. Newman then told her, "You put it in your purse with your change."
• Tom Jones, a male sex symbol and singing star, once was on tour in Mobile, Alabama. A limousine with a woman driver picked him up and drove away. They drove and drove, but the nightclub where he was to perform was still not in sight. Finally, Mr. Jones asked the driver, "Where are you taking me?" She replied, "I'm taking you to my house." She wasn't kidding. When they arrived at the driver's house, 25 of her women friends were waiting to meet Mr. Jones.
• Actor Gene Barry, nee Eugene Klass, played Bat Masterson on television from 1959 to 1961. Once he stopped to buy a tallith (a fringed prayer shawl) for his son's bar mitzvah. The man who waited on him at the store looked at his check, then asked, "Are you Gene Barry?" He replied that he was, and the man ran to the back of the store and yelled to his wife, "BAT MASTERSON IS JEWISH."
• Suzanne Farrell attended Rhodes High School for a while. In the early 1960s, she was promoted in her dance career, and Ingenue magazine ran her photograph. A classmate from Rhodes told her, "You must be really famous. Your picture was on a page opposite the Beatles!" Because she had been so busy with dancing, Ms. Farrell asked, "Who are the Beatles?"
• T.S. Eliot once got into a taxicab whose driver recognized him and said that he had given rides to other celebrities. One of them had been the renowned philosopher Bertrand Russell. According to the cabman, "I said to him, Bertie, what's it all about then? And do you know, the twit couldn't tell me."
• Pierre Monteux, a world-renowned conductor, was once denied a room at a hotel, but when the manager discovered that Mr. Monteux was famous, he said that he could arrange a room for him because he was "somebody." Mr. Monteux refused the room and departed, saying, "Everybody is somebody."
• Comedian Zero Mostel was funny in real life. One day, his wife was waiting for him on their island home. When the ferryboat pulled in, Zero was tied to the mast and he yelled to his wife, "We had a mutiny and we lost!"
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"
DO THE RIGHT THING.
'GOVERNOR MOONBEAM' AT YOUR SERVICE!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
If you've ever thought about sending Marty a love offering this would be an excellent time.
Takes On Trolls
Chelsea Clinton
Having taken public abuse since she was a preteen, Chelsea Clintonhas a bit of practice facing down haters. And while some have argued that the best way to handle cyberbullies is to avoid reading your mentions altogether, she gave the kindest of clapbacks on Friday after some called her a Satanist because she supports abortion rights for women.
"I am a Methodist, thank you for asking. Wishing you and yours a blessed day," she wrote to one Twitter user, in what has become her signature style of responding to critics.
Clinton drew the latest attacks on her personal beliefs by sitting down for an interview at SiriusXM's Signal Boost on Thursday, per The Hill.
"When I think about all of the statistics that are painful about what women are confronting today in our country, and what even more women confronted pre-Roe and how many women died and how many more women were maimed because of unsafe abortion practices - we just can't go back to that," Clinton said on the show, speaking about abortion rights that many consider under threat should Brett Kavanaugh become a Supreme Court justice.
"That's unconscionable to me, and also - and I'm sure that this will unleash another wave of hate in my direction - but as a deeply religious person, it's also un-Christian to me," she said.
Chelsea Clinton
Opens Up
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore is reflecting on her troubled past.
The 43-year-old actress appears on Netflix's Norm Macdonald Has a Show -- which began streaming on Friday -- where she candidly talks about using drugs, given that she infamously entered rehab at age 14. When Macdonald asks her if she misses cocaine, she replies that she definitely didn't.
"No. Oh god, I mean, it's been a very long time, but no," she says. "Nothing would make me have a panic attack and seem like a bigger nightmare. I never did hallucinogenics ... but I drink and I enjoy my life and get out of my own head. It's not like I'm this militant person of clarity and presence but [cocaine] literally seems like my worst nightmare right now."
"I've never done heroin, so I don't know what that's like, but I think I liked to feel good, I'm an upper person," she says. "You know, I'm like 'Woo hoo!' I also didn't want to be like, 'Man I see sh**.' Again, I'd be like [freaks out]. I will not drink my drink at a bar that has not been in my, like, line of vision, or, like, the side cornea."
Barrymore delves more into her issues growing up, and how being a child actor affected her. She rose to fame when she was just seven years old, starring in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but she points out that she had technically been working since she was 11 months old.
Drew Barrymore
Her Career
Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall wasn't your typical scientist when she started her career - and not just because she was one of the few women in her field.
In 1960, when she was 26 years old, Goodall traveled from England to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania to learn about wild chimpanzees, human's closest living relatives. Rather than observing the animals from afar, Goodall immersed herself in their world. This led her to making several groundbreaking discoveries, including the fact that, like humans, chimpanzees make and use tools, fashioning and using sticks to "fish" for termites. Until then, it was assumed that tool use was what separated humans from every other animal.
Goodall, who has been passionate about animals since she was a little girl (her beloved childhood toy was a chimpanzee doll named Jubilee), starred in the National Geographic documentary Jane, which features more than 100 hours of never-before-seen footage and has been nominated for seven Emmy awards.
While she's now known the world over, as a young, female scientist in a field dominated by men, Goodall wasn't always taken seriously or treated respectfully. Even after proving herself, she tells Yahoo Lifestyle that she never received apologies from the men who dismissed her work nor does she seem to have expected they would. "Of course not, no," she says.
But there were some men who recognized Goodall's natural talent and intelligence, including famed paleontologist Louis Leakey. Goodall started as his secretary on a research project and eventually led her own projects. It was also Leakey who insisted she get a PhD. "I would have to get my own money [to continue my research], and therefore I needed a degree."
Jane Goodall
Culture Crackdown
Fan Bingbing
Fan Bingbing, an A-list Chinese movie star who has appeared in the "X-Men" and "Iron Man" film franchises, has more than 62 million followers online in China and fronted campaigns for Montblanc watches and De Beers diamonds, has disappeared.
The star's vanishing act - she dropped off the radar in June when reports started to swirl that she was involved in a probe into tax evasion in the film industry - has sparked wild speculation in China about her fate, including reports the actress had been detained.
The real-life drama has been playing out at a time when Beijing is tightening the reins on popular culture, looking to stamp out behaviour seen as going against the ruling Communist Party's ideological line and co-opting movie stars, pop bands and online celebrities to endorse socialist values.
"It is written in our new movie promotion law that entertainers need to pursue both professional excellence and moral integrity," said Si Ruo, a researcher at the School of Journalism and Communication at China's prestigious Tsinghua University.
"In the unbridled growth of the industry in the past few years, we might have overlooked the need for positive energy, so the government's intervention is reasonable."
Fan Bingbing
Climate Change
Jerry Brown
California Gov. Jerry Brown bashed President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-OfPutin) record on the environment Thursday, saying that Trump will be remembered on climate change as a "liar, criminal, fool - pick your choice."
The Democrat spoke out against the president in introductory remarks at the Global Climate Action Summit that he's co-hosting in San Francisco.
Brown also ripped Trump for taking steps to try to dismantle California's vehicle emissions standards, rolling back federal controls on power plant pollution, and easing regulations on methane emissions from oil and gas operations.
"When Trump says, in effect, 'We like more methane going into the air,' that is highly destructive, very highly destructive," Brown said.
He characterized Trump's designs to dismantle environmental protections as a "major assault on the well-being of the people of California and America and the world. It borders on not only insanity but criminality."
Jerry Brown
Panel Rejects Claim Of Unfair TV Coverage
Switzerland
An independent audiovisual watchdog says the Swiss public TV broadcaster wasn't out of line with two programs on President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) that drew public complaints for alleged bias against the U.S leader.
Switzerland's Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television on Friday rejected the complaints alleging the RTS programs conveyed "a unilaterally negative image of Donald Trump," spokesman Pierre Rieder said.
One complaint argued that an RTS journalist conducted a softball live interview in January 2017 with then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, talking about Trump. The authority said the interview was "leading," but didn't violate guidelines about fair representation.
The other complaint involved a debate on Trump's health and mental state. Some authority members considered the subject problematic from a "human dignity" standpoint, but the body decided Trump's own doctor had made the issue public.
The independent commission rules on whether international and national laws have been violated. Its nine members are appointed by Switzerland's executive branch.
Switzerland
Hotbed Of Turtle Poaching
New Jersey
The arrest of an American accused of trafficking thousands of protected turtles has thrown a new spotlight on an illegal wildlife trade that spans the globe and threatens to force rare species of the reptile into extinction.
This upcoming trial of David Sommers, 62, has exposed New Jersey as an unlikely hotbed of poaching that has surged due to a high demand in Asia, where native populations have been depleted, wildlife advocates say.
Popular for its meat, medicinal qualities and increasingly as an exotic pet, a single turtle of the right breed can be sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the black market.
Mr Sommers, from Pennsylvania, is accused of smuggling 3,500 diamondback terrapins, native to the eastern US, out of New Jersey to sell them online to American and foreign buyers.
He was charged by the Department of Justice in July after one of his shipments to Canada - a box of turtles labelled as a book - was seized by authorities. He was found with more than 3,000 turtles, most of which were hatchlings.
New Jersey
Airlifted Out Of Park
Mountain Goats
What do you do when hundreds of mountain goats have become so addicted to the salt found in human urine and sweat that they are a deadly menace to national park visitors, charging at hikers and trampling vegetation?
If you run Olympic National Park in Washington State, about 100 miles west of Seattle, the answer is to airlift 375 of the bad-tempered animals - slung blindfolded beneath helicopters - to more remote areas where they will be less of a nuisance.
Authorities said they expected to shoot another 300 or so that cannot be caught.
The operation began this week. Crews equipped with tranquiliser darts and nets captured goats from ridges and rocks within the park before being airlifted to a staging area.
From there they were being driven to another part of the North Cascades, a mountain range stretching to Canada, and airlifted in crates before being released back into the wild.
Mountain Goats
Caught Chilling with Gang of Beluga Whales
Lone Narwhal
It's hard to find your place when you're the new kid in town - especially when you're the only kid with a tusk the size of a baguette jutting out of the center of your forehead.
That didn't stop one young, orphaned male narwhal from making fast friends with a gang of 10 male beluga whales in eastern Canada. For three years in a row, the gray-speckled narwhal has been spotted cavorting with the same band of snow-white belugas in Canada's St. Lawrence River - a body of water that flows from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean, located about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of the Arctic habitat where narwhals are typically found.
How did the toothy young narwhal get so far south? He probably fled there after his Arctic habitat lost too much ground to climate-related ice melt, according to biologists at the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM) - a nonprofit whale-conservation group based in Quebec, Canada.
"[The narwhal] behaves like it was one of the boys," Robert Michaud, the president and scientific director of GREMM, told the CBC. "They are in constant contact with each other. … It's like a big social ball of young juveniles that are playing some social, sexual games."
Aerial footage shot by GREMM shows just how close-knit this nonconventional pod has become.The young narwhal travels where his beluga bros travel. He surfaces when they surface, blows bubbles when they blow bubbles and doesn't shy away from playful rubbings when that's what the pervading mood calls for. He is, according to GREMM scientists, part of the fraternity.
Lone Narwhal
In Memory
Peter Donat
Peter Donat, whose long career spanned roles on Broadway, television and in films, has died. He passed on Monday at home in Point Reyes Station, Calif. from complications of diabetes, according to his wife.
The Canadian-born character actor was best known for his role in six episodes of TV's The X Files, where he recurred as Agent Fox Mulder's father.
While that role was memorable, it was just a piece of the actor's broad creative career. He performed frequently with respected companies like the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the Stratford Festival in Canada, playing Cyrano de Bergerac, Prospero, Shylock, King Lear and Hadrian VII.
In between the stage roles, Donat was a frequent presence as a guest-starr on such shows as The F.B.I., Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, McMillan & Wife, Hill Street Blues and Murder, She Wrote.
One well-received television role came on the original Dallas as the doctor treating J. R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) after he had been shot in one of TV's most famous cliffhangers.
Donat also appeared as a lawyer in The Godfather Part II (1974) and as US Attorney Otto Kerner in the film Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
Donat was born Pierre Collingwood Donat on Jan. 20, 1928, in Kentville, Nova Scotia. His acting inspiration came from the films of his uncle, the British film star Robert Donat, who won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).
Donat went to the Yale School of Drama in the early 1950s, then began his career with stage roles in Canada and obtained his first television roles.
Survivors include his wife, Maria (DeJong) Donat sons, Caleb, Christopher and Lucas; two stepdaughters, Barbara Park Shapiro and Marina Park Sutton; a stepson, Malcolm Park; 11 grandchildren; and his brother, Richard, who is also an actor. No details on memorial services have been revealed.
Peter Donat
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