from Bruce
Anecdotes
Authors
• Authors sometimes have interesting experiences, possessions, and opinions. When he was a young boy, Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, was walking on a road when a man on a motorcycle passed him. Soon, the motorcyclist came back, stopped, and told Philip that just ahead on the road was a dead man. Then the motorcyclist left to call the proper authorities. Young Philip had to make a decision: go home by a different route or continue on and see the dead man. He continued on and saw the dead man, who was lying peacefully on the road as if he were taking a nap. Young Philip was a little disappointed in the sight. One of the places where Mr. Pullman has done his writing is a small potting shed, crowded with trash and remarkable objects, including a six-foot-long rat that was used in a Pullman theatrical adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes short story. What Mr. Pullman is most passionate about, he says, is this: “Silence. If I were a judge, and someone came to my court and was found guilty of killing their neighbors because they played loud music all day and night, I would let them go with my blessing. There is too much noise in the world, and little of it is welcome.”
• In the young-adult novels by Robert Cormier, the bad guys often win. For example, in his novel The Chocolate War, the good guy — Jerry Renault — is murdered. He isn’t murdered literally, but he is beaten — physically and mentally — so badly that he totally gives up and does not believe that there is any use in trying to fight the bad guys. Mr. Cormier’s bad guys are very vividly written, and one day his wife, Connie, looked up from one of his manuscripts that she had been typing and asked him, “Who are you? We’ve been together all these years, but sometimes I wonder.” By the way, the plot of The Chocolate War was suggested by a real-life event in which Peter, Mr. Cormier’s son, was asked to sell chocolate for his school, but he did not want to because he was busy with other activities such as schoolwork and football. In Peter’s case, his parents wrote a note saying that they agreed with his decision not to sell chocolate and Peter returned the 25 boxes of chocolate to the school. Like Jerry Renault, Peter was the only student not to sell chocolate, but unlike in Jerry’s case, nothing bad happened to Peter.
• S.E. Hinton practically invented young-adult literature with her first novel, The Outsiders, which depicts teenagers with gritty realism. “S.E.” are the initials for Susan Eloise, and she began the first draft of The Outsiders when she was 15. However, she says that no one ever believes that, so she usually says that she started the first draft when she was 16. And since her editors don’t think that anyone will believe that, they often say that she started the first draft when she was 17. At any rate, her first novel was accepted for publication on a day that was important to her: the day she graduated from high school. The novel, which has sold millions of copies, made readers of many boys; she often gets letters that say, “I didn’t like to read, but then I read this book.”
• Novelist Walter Tevis (author of The Hustler, The Color of Money, and The Man Who Fell to Earth) lived in many places in the United States, ending up in New York City. When people asked where he was from, he would give a different answer according to the day of the week. When asked on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he answered Kentucky. On Wednesdays and Fridays, he answered California. On the weekends, he answered Ohio. (Apparently, Mondays were a wild-card day.)
• Jean Shepherd created a hoax by telling his radio listeners to go into bookstores and ask for the novel I, Libertine by Frederick R. Ewing — neither the novel nor the author existed. So many people asked for the novel that bookstores wanted to carry it and therefore publishers wanted to publish it. Mr. Shepherd created a synopsis of the book, and science-fiction author Theodore Sturgeon wrote the book from that synopsis. Ballantine Books published it in 1956.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "clear skin; depression (intro)"
Album: firstkiss (deluxe anniversary edition)
Artist: firstkiss
Artist Location: Australia
Info:
“It's been a whole year. Claire and I have grown so much as people and musicians. The reaction that this album got is incredible considering it was just two kids with a practice amp and a guitar hero microphone. Thank you all so much.”
Released November 9, 2016.
“a musical project … a collaboration”
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE)
Genre: Alternative.
Links:
firstkiss (deluxe anniversary edition)
firstkiss
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
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David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
Election Police?
New Venture
Michael Egan
Reader Contribution
Go Fish!
Deborah
Thanks, Deborah!
Bonus Links
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
Looked like rain, but, no rain.
Mark Twain Award
Jon Stewart
Comedian, talk show host and political influencer Jon Stewart has been named the 23rd recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Award for lifetime achievement in comedy.
The 59-year-old Stewart — born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz — rose to prominence as a standup comic and host of multiple failed talk shows before taking over Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in 1999. His 16-year run as “Daily Show” host turned him into a cultural and political force as Stewart trained his satirical eye on both politics and an increasingly polarized national media.
In perhaps his most iconic moment, Stewart went on CNN’s popular “Crossfire” debate show in 2004 and challenged the show’s entire premise of left-wing vs. right-wing debate. Stewart told co-hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala they had a “responsibility to the public discourse” that they were cheapening with insincere political role-playing.
Since retiring from “The Daily Show” in 2015, Stewart has become a vocal proponent of a number of social causes and one of the most prominent voices in support of health care for Sept. 11 first responders in New York City. He recently returned to television as host of “The Problem with Jon Stewart” on Apple TV+.
Stewart will be presented with the award during a gala ceremony on April 24, featuring testimonials by a host of comedians and surprise guests. He was one of the comedians who spoke during Dave Chappelle’s Mark Twain Award ceremony in 2019.
Jon Stewart
Movies for Grownups Award
Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin is this year’s recipient of AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups Awards career achievement honor.
The 82-year-old actor, comedian and star of “Grace and Frankie” and “9 to 5” will receive the honor at the AARP’s annual Best Movies and TV for Grownups ceremony, the group announced Wednesday. The 20th anniversary virtual event, hosted by Alan Cumming, will be telecast on “Great Performances” on PBS on March 18 .
Tomlin responded with the catchphrase of her child sketch character from TV’s “Laugh-In,” Edith Ann.
“There are so few grownups in the world. I am happy to be one. I feel I am not only a grownup, but I am mature for my age and that’s the truthhhhh!” Tomlin said in statement.
Lily Tomlin
Nominees
GLAAD Media Awards
HBO and HBO Max have become the top contenders at the GLAAD Media Awards with a combined 19 nominations, landing the bulk of its nods for its TV shows like “Hacks,” “The Other Two” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”
The annual awards honors media for fair and accurate representations of LGBTQ people. Streaming services nabbed a total of 63 nominees, with cable receiving 39 nominations, and broadcast networks receiving 17 nominations.
The films nominated include “Eternals” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures), “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” (Amazon Studios), “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” (Netflix), “tick, tick... BOOM!” (Netflix) and “West Side Story” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures).
Netflix had 17 nominees, Hulu received seven nominations, while ABC, MSNBC and Peacock all received four nominations. In the Spanish-language categories, Univision and Telemundo both received two nominations.
Of the 30 television shows nominated in three categories — outstanding comedy series, outstanding drama series and outstanding new TV series — 18 feature transgender or nonbinary characters, including “Pose,” “9-1-1: Lone Star,” “Good Trouble,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The L Word: Generation Q,” “Star Trek: Discovery” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”
GLAAD Media Awards
RAtings
NFL Wild Card
The NFL wild card games and the NCAA football championship gathered millions of people in front of their television sets on a cold winter weekend.
An average of 30.5 million people watched the NFL’s wild card games on television and digitally over the weekend, which the league said was up 21% over the same games in 2021.
ESPN averaged 3.69 million viewers in prime time, Fox News Channel had 2.24 million, MSNBC had 1.2 million, HGTV had 1.08 million and Hallmark had 978,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news race, averaging 9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.1 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.8 million.
For the week of Jan. 10-16, the 20 most popular programs in prime time, their viewerships and networks:
1. NFL Wild Card: Pittsburgh at Kansas City, NBC, 28.94 million.
2. NFL Wild Card: New England at Buffalo, CBS, 26.37.
3. “Wild Card Post Game” (Sunday), CBS, 25.5 million.
4. NCAA Football Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama, ESPN, 22.26 million.
5. “Wild Card Pre Game” (Sunday), NBC, 19.64 million.
6. “NCAA Championship Post Game,” ESPN, 18.37 million.
7. “NCAA Championship Pre Game,” ESPN, 13.78 million.
8. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 11.29 million.
9. “FBI,” CBS, 8.45 million.
10. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 7.7 million.
11. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.41 million.
12. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.33 million.
13. “Ghosts,” CBS, 6.48 million.
14. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 6.44 million.
15. “FBI: International,” CBS, 6.29 million.
16. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.81 million.
17. “Magnum, P.I., CBS, 5.77 million.
18. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 5.56 million.
19. “United States of Al,” CBS, 5.48 million.
20. “911: Lone Star,” Fox, 5.03 million.
NFL Wild Card
New Study
Drug-Resistant Bacterial Infections
At least 1.27 million people died in 2019 due to drug-resistant bacterial infections, according to a new study on the global burden of antimicrobial resistance.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal The Lancet, suggests that if all drug-resistant bacterial infections had not occurred that year, 4.95 million deaths could have been prevented in 2019, and if all drug-resistant bacterial infections were replaced by infections that could have been adequately treated, 1.27 million lives could have been saved.
Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites become resistant to the drugs typically used to treat the infections they cause.
“By any metric, bacterial AMR is a leading global health issue,” an international team of researchers wrote in the study, adding that resistance appears to be a leading cause of death, ahead of both HIV and malaria.
The researchers — including from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle — analyzed data from the current scientific literature on antimicrobial resistance. Their analyses included 471 million individual records, and they produced estimates for 204 countries and territories.
Drug-Resistant Bacterial Infections
Winter Games
NBC
NBC will not be sending its announcers and most hosts to the Beijing Olympics due to continued concerns about rising COVID-19 cases worldwide and China’s strict policy about those who test positive.
“Something significant has changed virtually every day for the last three months, forcing us to adjust our plan numerous times. And I expect that to continue as well as the challenge of doing the Olympics,” said Molly Solomon, the head of NBC’s Olympics production unit.
“With COVID’s changing conditions and China’s zero-tolerance policy, it’s just added a layer of complexity to all of this, so we need to make sure we can provide the same quality experience to the American viewers. That’s why we are split between the two cities.”
NBC Sports spokesman Greg Hughes said in a phone interview the network no longer plans to send announcing teams for alpine skiing, figure skating and snowboarding to China. Those had been among the handful of announcers expected to travel, but NBC’s plans changed over the past couple of weeks.
NBC
Newly Discovered Parasitic Worm
Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels is now the proud namesake of a tarantula-killing, hermaphroditic species of worm.
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside discovered a rare new species of a worm that attacks and kills tarantulas. The research team dubbed the worm “Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi” after the actor, musician and producer, because Daniels’ character in the 1990 horror-comedy film “Arachnophobia” saves a town from a deadly swarm of spiders.
There are more than 25,000 described species of such nematodes, which are cylindrical parasitic worms that are one of the most abundant animals on Earth. But according to UC Riverside, Tarantobelus jeffdanielsi is only the second time one has ever been found to infect tarantulas.
Daniels’ character in “Arachnophobia” is “a spider killer, which is exactly what these nematodes are,” said UC Riverside parasitologist Adler Dillman, who led the team that discovered the nematode.
In a statement provided by UC Riverside, Daniels quipped: “When I first heard a new species of nematode had been named after me, I thought, ‘Why? Is there a resemblance?'” He continued, “Honestly, I was honored by their homage to me and ‘Arachnophobia.’ Made me smile. And of course, in Hollywood, you haven’t really made it until you’ve been recognized by those in the field of parasitology.”
Jeff Daniels
Rooster On A Leash
Carl Francis
An Ohio man unwittingly became a hot topic on social media this week, after his wife mentioned he walks a chicken on a leash around the neighborhood.
The bird has been named Carl Francis and he follows her husband everywhere, she said.
“About 5 months ago, someone dumped a rooster off at our house. I have no idea why but they did. My husband is a carpenter and is always working in the garage. ... This rooster followed him in and hasn’t left since. ... The rooster now has a harness on and my husband takes him on walks on a leash. He also likes to be held.”
“We decided he (the rooster) was put here for a reason and he was going to stay no matter what. The first night, he started eating my husband’s dinner right off his plate. ... I thought it was funny at first.”
“Today, he decided to put one of our dog’s sweaters on the rooster to see if he likes it. Now, I have to get a sweater for the rooster, one that isn’t for a girl dog,” she said.
Carl Francis
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