Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Cupcake Vodka and a Nice Bowl of Weed (Creators Syndicate)
In the state where I live, Massachusetts, there is now legal weed for all. My town, Fall River, is right on the edge of getting its weed store. This is because we're a poverty pocket. All the drugs get here first.
Froma Harrop: The Self-Destruction of US Farmers (Creators Syndicate)
Soybeans have been our biggest farm export and China their biggest foreign market. Last year, U.S. farmers sold almost $14 billion worth of soybeans to China. That amount is down considerably, to say the least. In November, China's imports of U.S. soybeans fell to zero. Leave it to others to explain why the agricultural heartland so ardently backed a presidential candidate promising a trade conflagration sure to hit it the hardest. Despite it all, Trump's Republican allies held on to most of the major soybean-producing congressional districts in the midterms. Explain that.
David Smith: "The halfway point: what have two years of Trump's wrecking ball done to America? " (The Guardian)
The republic has undergone a wild stress test but despite new lows, Donald Trump's presidency has also seen a democratic renaissance
Hadley Freeman: "It's Betwixtmas: time to forget the angry bust-ups and watch rubbish TV" (The Guardian)
This is the week when it is completely acceptable to sit on the sofa all day, substituting wine and chocolate for actual meals.
Elena Ferrante on climate change: 'I've become obsessive. Black skies terrify me' (The Guardian)
As a girl I learned that, while progress was unlimited, not many enjoyed its fruits. Yet if the means of production and consumption could be straightened out, things would advance in a just manner. What we learn when we're young is difficult to correct. So for a while I calmed myself, by embracing the opinion that climate change had always been there and that man had very little to do with its latest manifestations. All very wrong: I kept reading, and I repented.
IAN MARCUS CORBIN: Prophecies and Prices (Weekly Standard)
If we are to have any kind of peace, we will have to locate it here, in this imperfect world. There's plenty of room for art that aims to change things for the better. Make it; show it; let's talk together about what has to be done. But let's also make a lot more space for art that helps us understand how this world, unfinished and filthy as it is, peopled by hapless creatures like ourselves is, well, ok. And maybe even beautiful, in some deep, mysterious, partially hidden way.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Actress Suzanne Pleshette is best known for her role as the TV wife of Bob Hartley, played by comedian Bob Newhart, on the hit sitcom
• Actor Dule Hill played the personal aide to the President on the TV series The West Wing. After three years of playing the role, he was honored when a full-page photograph of him appeared in a book about the series. He bought a copy of the book and gave it to his grandmother. Of course, she was very happy to receive the book. Looking at the full-page photograph of her grandson, she said, "Look what I lived to see." Mr. Hill says, "I remember that moment-knowing her journey. She'd worked as a seamstress, walked to the bus in the middle of winter.... It taught me that when you pursue your dreams and sometimes you keep working hard, working hard and you may not get the reward yourself-but for the grace of God, it all works out in the long run. That taught me a lot. You don't know what you do today how it affects tomorrow."
• When major-league hockey player Mario Lemieux was young, he and his young brothers were hockey fans. One day, they were watching Hockey Night in Canada on television when their babysitter turned the channel to one showing a movie that she wanted to see. This shocked and outraged the boys. They locked their babysitter in the bathroom, and when she shouted at them to let her out, they turned up the volume of the hockey game they were watching.
• Margaret Thatcher was a formidable woman and a formidable politician, and her staff was afraid of her. Once, she held a meeting with her staff-yes-men all-and then they went to a restaurant for lunch. The waiter asked Mrs. Thatcher for her order, and she ordered beef. He then asked her, "And the vegetables?" Mrs. Thatcher replied, "They will have the beef as well." (Actually, this is a joke from a TV satirical puppet show titled Spitting Image.)
• Oral historian Studs Terkel had a show called Stud's Place in the early days of television, but he was blacklisted because-always interested in politics and the common man-he had signed many, many leftwing petitions. Someone asked him about the petitions, "Don't you know communists are behind this?" Mr. Terkel replied, "And if the communists are against cancer does that mean we have to be for cancer?"
• Children's fantasy author Tamora Pierce sets herself a quota of pages to write each day. As deadlines grow nearer, she must write more pages. If she doesn't reach her quota of pages, she won't allow herself to watch TV that day. (Most evenings, she watches TV.)
• Children's book author and illustrator Graeme Base, who created Animalia and The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery, is sometimes asked what advice he would give a young person who wants to create their own books. Mr. Base's advice is simple: "Sell the TV."
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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
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Barely saw 60°, and that's cold for these parts.
Renton Post Office Renamed
Jimi Hendrix
No amount of public memorials may ever match the cultural impact Jimi Hendrix had during his all-too-short life, but that hasn't stopped local officials from further cementing his legacy around our region. Once a leading figure of the counterculture viewed warily by the federal government, the music icon will now have a post office near his hometown named after him.
Last week a bill was signed into law re-christening the Renton Highlands Post Office the James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix Post Office in the legendary guitarist's honor. The bill, which passed unanimously, was sponsored by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Bellevue, and supported by both of Washington's U.S. senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
"I am honored to join in paying tribute to rock and roll icon and Seattle native Jimi Hendrix with the renaming of the Renton Highlands Post Office as the James Marshall 'Jimi' Hendrix Post Office Building," Smith said in a statement. "This designation will further celebrate Hendrix's deep connection to the Puget Sound region and help ensure that his creative legacy will be remembered by our community and inspire future generations."
Before rising to international fame in the late 1960s, Hendrix grew up in Seattle, spending much of his youth in the Central District and attending Garfield High School. There's no shortage of Hendrix tributes scattered around his hometown - from the statue on Broadway to his namesake parkadjacent to the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) - etching "Seattle's most recognizable son," as the museum's director LaNesha DeBardelaben described him, into the city's history. The Renton post office is less than a mile from the Jimi Hendrix Memorial in the Greenwood Memorial Park cemetery, where the guitar hero is buried.
Earlier this fall, NAAM unveiled its own tribute to Hendrix's legacy. In partnership with Hendrix's estate, the "Bold as Love: Jimi Hendrix at Home" exhibition, which runs through May 5, 2019, offers an intimate look into the star's upbringing. While the exhibit touches on Hendrix's well-documented London stint - including a replica of his signature British cavalry jacket - that helped launch him into the stratosphere, the real draw is the half focusing on his early years in Seattle.
Jimi Hendrix
New Year's Eve Party
Times Square
Reporters will be the guests of honor at the New Year's Eve party in New York's Times Square on Monday, in what organizers said was a celebration of press freedom after an unusually deadly year for journalists at U.S. news outlets.
Two attacks in particular weighed on organizers as they discussed in autumn whom to give the honor of initiating the ceremonial ball drop just before midnight, according to Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance.
One was the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for the Washington Post and U.S. resident, inside a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey. The other was the mass shooting in June in the newsroom of The Capital, a newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, in which five employees were killed.
Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the Times Square Alliance approached his group because of "the perception that the journalism and journalists in particular are under threat and their role is being questioned."
Simon will be joined onstage by journalists from U.S. and international news outlets, including NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC anchor Lester Holt, ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, and Karen Attiah, global opinions editor at The Washington Post.
Times Square
What's $13 Million...
Disney's Jungle Cruise'
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is reportedly being paid £10m ($13m) more than his co-star Emily Blunt for Disney's Jungle Cruise.
The actor will earn a £17m ($22m) paycheck for his performance, while Blunt is set to get £7m ($9m), TMZ reported. Johnson and Blunt each play a lead role in the upcoming adventure film.
This means Johnson, who stars as riverboat captain Frank, is currently getting paid more than twice as much as Blunt, who plays scientist Lily Houghton.
Jungle Cruise, which is scheduled to be released in July 2020, is based on Disney's attraction of the same name, which is featured in several of its theme parks.
Jungle Cruise, which will include a coming out scene, marks the second time that an openly gay character will appear in a Disney movie, following Josh Gad's Le Fou in the 2017 live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.
Disney's Jungle Cruise'
Read the Screenplay Online
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
One of the most interesting ways of exploring the craft of a film is to read the screenplay. A good screenplay is a blueprint for the film based on it: it tells you so much of what you need to know, lets you visualize the building without actually fully encompassing it. It lets you understand what decisions were made in the filming and editing processes, and why.
All that to say, the screenplay for one of the best movies of 2018 is now online, as Sony has made the Into the Spider-Verse screenplay available for free. A great resource for fans and film buffs alike, it's just as snappy, clever, and fun as the film it helped create.
I haven't fully dug into it yet, but I'm looking forward to reading and sussing out any interesting differences between the script and what ended up on screen. And also studying all of Spider-Man Noir's weird one-liners.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Computer Virus Hits Coast-To-Coast
Newspapers
Even old-school printed newspapers aren't immune from the pitfalls of technology.
Tribune Publishing said Saturday night that malware affected its ability to print newspapers across its chain of outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Baltimore Sun and the Orlando Sentinel.
Many subscribers to the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, which were previously owned by Tribune Publishing and still share some production technology with the company, stepped into a chilly sunny morning Saturday only to find empty doorsteps.
The computer malware was detected Friday and "impacted some back-office systems which are primarily used to publish and produce newspapers across our properties," said Marisa Kollias, Tribune communications vice president, in a statement.
The Los Angeles Times, citing an anonymous source, described the malware as part of a cyberattack with foreign origins. The Times and the Union-Tribune were sold by Tribune Publishing to Los Angeles biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong in June.
Newspapers
Bans Retail Sales Of Cats And Dogs
California
A new California law will soon put a leash on pet store sales, becoming the first state to ban retail sales of cats, dogs and rabbits in an effort to crack down on breeding mills.
A bill signed in October, AB 485, goes into effect January 1. It says pet stores can only sell cats, dogs and rabbits that come from local rescue groups, shelters or animal control agencies.
Pet stores will also have to maintain records for where each of those animals came from, and must include that information on their cages or enclosures. Store operators will face a $500 fine for any violation of the law.
Another California law starting New Year's Day will further advance pet protections by allowing judges in divorce proceedings to consider the best interests of pets and create custody arrangements for them. Current California law regards pets as property.
Cats and dogs were also rescued by the farm bill signed this month by President Trump, which includes a provision formally banning the slaughter and trade of those animals for human consumption. Before the bill, it was legal in 44 states to turn cats and dogs into food.
California
Nation's Lowest DUI Limit
Utah
New Year's Eve revelers in Utah could find themselves with more than a hangover as 2019 dawns. If they drink and drive, they could end up on the wrong side of the nation's newest and lowest DUI threshold.
The 0.05 percent limit goes into effect Sunday, despite protests that it will punish responsible drinkers and hurt the state's tourism industry by adding to the reputation that the predominantly Mormon state is unfriendly to those who drink alcohol. The state's old limit was 0.08 percent, the threshold in most states.
For Utah lawmakers, the change is a safety measure aimed at encouraging people not to drive at all if they've been drinking.
The change was easily approved in 2017 by the Legislature, which is mostly Mormon and mostly Republican, and signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert, also a Republican and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The religion teaches its members to abstain from drinking alcohol.
The change means that depending on things such as food intake, a 150-pound man could be over the 0.05 limit after two beers in an hour, while a 120-pound woman could exceed it after a single drink in that time, according to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Utah
Number Of Teens Smoking Pot Drops
Washington State
The number of teens toking since recreational marijuana use was legalized for people 21 and older in Washington state six years ago has declined significantly, according to new research published in the journal Jama Pediatrics.
To study the effects legalization has had on underage users, researchers analyzed data from the Washington Healthy Youth Surveys - an anonymous, school-based survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders - from 2010 to 2012 and then again between 2014 and 2016. They compared this data against a nationally representative Monitoring the Futuresurvey to determine whether there were any differences from other states without legalized recreational marijuana. The main difference in usage was observed among 10th graders (teens around 15 and 16 years old), whose marijuana use declined from almost 20 percent to less than 18 percent in that time frame. Among 8th graders, marijuana use fell from nearly 10 percent to just over 7 percent, while no change was observed in 12th graders, or teens typically around 17 and 18 years old.
Meanwhile, a study published just a few days earlier found that, in general, marijuana consumption in Washington state is about twice as large as previously estimated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the US, with an estimated 22 million users every month. Research suggests that about 1 in 10 users will become addicted. For those who begin using before 18, that number jumps to 1 in 6.
While marijuana has many science-backed health benefits when used for medicinal purposes, research has shown that using it while the brain is still undergoing crucial development and growth during teen years can cause problems with learning, emotional well-being, and health. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry notes side effects can have impacts on respiratory health and underlying mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety. (They also write that parents suspecting their children may be using marijuana should look for new words and phrases like 'sparking up,' '420,' 'dabbing,' and 'shatter.'")
Though the findings are promising, the researchers note that there is not enough evidence to determine the long-term effects of legalization on those using marijuana under 18.
Washington State
Poised For Record
Worldwide Box Office
As 2018 draws to a close, comScore is estimating that worldwide box office will hit a record $41.7B. That would rep a 2.7% upwards shift from last year's $40.6B and mark only the second time ever that it's cracked $40B. This year's growth is largely driven by domestic which is eyeing a benchmark $11.9B, a 7% increase on 2017, while international box office is also up, though by just 1%, to $29.8B.
The domestic jump in box office this year is the biggest since 2015's 7.5% and the 2nd best since 2009. This year, North America was boosted by Disney/Marvel's Black Panther($700M), along with Dis/Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War ($678.8M), Dis/Pixar's Incredibles 2 ($608.6M), Universal's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($416.7M) and Fox's Deadpool 2 ($324.4M).
Worldwide, the top grossers are Infinity War, Black Panther, Fallen Kingdom, Incredibles 2and Sony's Venom.
Overall internationally, Infinity War leads ($1.37B), followed by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($888.2M), Black Panther ($647M), Venom ($642M) and Incredibles 2 ($634M). Some areas of consternation overseas in 2018 include Italy and Germany.
In 2017, overseas turnstiles spun 7.7% higher than they had in 2016 and that was partly fueled by China's massive Wolf Warrior 2, which also included a ticketing fee that helps goose the numbers. That same fee is still in effect this year, and China is pushing for sustained double-digit growth in 2018 - despite no one film that reached WW2's 2017 heights. The goal is believed to be RMB 60B ($8.7B) versus last year's RMB 55.9B (13.5% growth on 2016).
Worldwide Box Office
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