from Bruce
Anecdotes
Work
• Sylvia Plath worked hard to be a writer. She once spoke about wearing out the roller of her typewriter in only one year. This astonished David Ross, who was a friend of Ms. Plath’s husband, Ted Hughes. Mr. Ross had the same make of typewriter that Ms. Plath had — an Olivetti 22 — and its roller had shown no signs of wearing out — or even of wear — after many years of use.
• Even after publishing her first children’s book, Busybody Nora, Johanna Hurwitz wondered if she had really arrived. However, when she brought her second book, Nora and Mrs. Mind-Your-Own-Business, to her publishing house, her editor told her, “You’re one of us now.” Ms. Hurwitz says, “That’s when I really knew that being a writer was not a fantasy anymore.”
• Humorous poet Oliver Herford used to work for Life. Apparently, he was conscientious about his work, as when he needed his shoes polished he often told the bootblack to shine just one shoe as he hadn’t much time. In addition, Ms. Herford sometimes thought about working at home, but decided against it as he would have had to clean out his desk.
• Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, can write almost anywhere. When his father died, he took a plane to England, and he started writing during the trip. As the plane was beginning to land, his daughter told him, “Dad, you have to put that away now.” He replied, “I don’t want to stop writing — I have to find out what happens!”
• At one time, Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, was a business writer, making lots of money while working 90 hours per week. She wasn’t happy, so she started seeing a therapist — she soon stopped because during the sessions the therapist kept falling asleep!
• Journalist Heywood Broun once covered a labor dispute in which mine workers wanted a 40-hour week, which the mine owners opposed. A mine owner asked, “What will the miners do with all their free time?” Mr. Broun spoke up: “I’d suggest polo.”
Acting
• Whoopi Goldberg has had excellent success as an actress. When Stephen Spielberg told her that he wanted her to make her film-acting debut in his movie The Color Purple, she was happy. In fact, she says, “My teeth caught cold ’cause all I could do was grin.” However, she did have to think about appearing in the movie. At first, she thought that Mr. Spielberg wanted her to play a small role, but instead he wanted her to play a major role. But she did not think about it for long. She realized that this was Mr. Spielberg wanting her to be in his movie, so she thought, Wake up, stupid. Say yes. She did say yes, and she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar but did not win. Later, she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Ghost — and won. In her acceptance speech, she said that she had been practicing making an acceptance speech for an Oscar since she was a little girl, and she joked, “My brother’s sitting out there, saying, ‘Thank god, we don’t have to listen to her anymore.’”
• On The Drew Carey Show, Mimi Bobeck, played by Kathy Kinney, became a breakout character and Ms. Kinney became a major co-star, although Mimi was originally conceived as a minor character. Mimi, known for her outrageous makeup and clothing and hatred for all things Drew, owes a lot to Ms. Kinney, who is able to make funny many actions that seem to lack funniness. For example, in one scene, she had to obey the direction, Mimi hands an envelope to Drew. But instead of merely handing the envelope to Drew, first Ms. Kinney coughed on it. Ms. Kinney says, “In that moment, Mimi was born.”
• Actresses sometimes have love scenes in movies, and some actresses find these scenes difficult to do. Ellen DeGeneres once was asked to do a lesbian love scene with Sharon Stone in an Anne Hecht-directed segment of HBO’s If These Walls Could Talk 2. Ms. DeGeneres at first did not want to do the scene, but she gave in after Ms. Hecht pointed out, “I’ve made out with some weasels [on film], and I got you Sharon Stone!”
• When Chris Rock made the movie Nurse Betty with veteran actor Morgan Freeman, he would sometimes overact. Mr. Freeman had an interesting way of showing Mr. Rock that he was overacting: Mr. Freeman would overact, too, and Mr. Rock knew that he had to start acting instead of overacting.
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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: “Ladron de Bancos” [“Bank Thief”]
Album: ¡RITMOVERTIGO! (2008) [RHYTHMOVER]
Artist: Thes Siniestros [Sinisters]
Artist Location: Argentina
Info: “Colina” is also excellent.
Price: Buy entire Digital Discography (5 releases, including ¡RITMOVERTIGO!) for $3.90 (USD)
Genre: Pop.
Links:
¡RITMOVERTIGO!
Thes Siniestros
Thes Siniestros on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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David
Thanks, Dave!
New Venture
Michael Egan
Stephen Suggests
Threefer
How does this dufus manage to get elected?
Bonus Links
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Extra brisk but sunny.
Backlash
Oscars
A decision not to present eight Oscar categories live during the March 27 broadcast of the 93rd Academy Awards was met with a storm of criticism and was described as “insulting” by numerous Academy members who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter following the announcement.
The Academy plans to present Oscars in eight categories — documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short and sound — inside the Dolby Theatre an hour before the live telecast commences. They will be recorded and edited into the subsequent live broadcast.
Nominees in the affected categories were informed of the approach to the presentation via a town hall-style meeting Tuesday afternoon, shortly before the official announcement from the Academy, according to one source. Despite the decision to change the presentation, members were told a three-hour show is still planned, the source said.
Mark A. Lanza, president of Motion Picture Sound Editors, agreed: “The Academy’s mission is to honor the craft of filmmaking in all its parts. Eliminating certain categories from the live broadcast degrades that mission.” He also pointed to the “bill of goods the sound branch was sold” when, beginning with the 2021 Oscars, there was a change to a single best sound category. “The Academy made an explicit promise not to eliminate sound from the live broadcast if they agreed to the travesty of combining sound editing and sound mixing into one category.” (The decision to combine those categories was met with mixed reactions from the branch at the time.)
Oscars
Launching Initiative
Colin Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick is launching an initiative through his Know Your Rights Camp that will offer free, secondary autopsies to family members of anyone whose death is “police-related.”
The initiative collaborates with a panel of board-certified forensic pathologists who perform autopsies, disclose preliminary findings, and issue final reports to requesting families.
“We know that the prison industrial complex, which includes police and policing, strives to protect and serve its interests at all costs,” Kaepernick said. “The Autopsy Initiative is one important step toward ensuring that family members have access to accurate and forensically verifiable information about the cause of death of their loved one in their time of need.”
The goal of the initiative is to eliminate concerns about reliability and objectivity of the first autopsy conducted, the risk of manipulation of evidence, and potential bias on behalf of the coroner or medical examiner and/or the use of faulty forensic procedures.
Dr. Cyril Wecht, pathology coordinator, said: “I am extremely enthusiastic about this truly unique program. The opportunity to have unbiased second autopsies performed by independent, experienced forensic pathologists in police-related deaths will provide victims’ families with knowledge that the true facts of any such case have been thoroughly analyzed and prepared for appropriate utilization whenever deemed necessary.”
Colin Kaepernick
Ratings
Winter Olympics
The final scores are in, and NBC is no doubt happy to put the Beijing Winter Olympics in the rear-view mirror.
The games reached an average combined audience of 11.4 million people in prime time on NBC, the USA cable network and Peacock streaming service, the network said. That’s the lowest-ever American audience for any Olympics, and down 42% from the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018.
For NBC alone, the prime time telecasts reached an average of 9.3 million viewers, or 48% down from South Korea, the Nielsen company said.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.7 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News,” with virtually none of the typical ratings bump that an Olympics delivers, had 7 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.3 million.
For the week of Feb., 14-20, the top 20 prime-time programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. Winter Olympics (Tuesday), NBC, 8.71 million.
2. Winter Olympics (Thursday, 8:30 to 11 p.m.), NBC, 8.53 million.
3. Winter Olympics (Monday), NBC, 7.89 million.
4. Winter Olympics (Friday, 9 to 11 p.m.), NBC, 7.25 million.
5. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.98 million.
6. Winter Olympics (Wednesday, 8:30 to 11 p.m.), NBC, 6.94 million.
7. Winter Olympics (Saturday, 9 to 11 p.m.), NBC, 6.77 million.
8. Winter Olympics (Thursday, 8 to 8:30 p.m.), NBC, 6.74 million.
9. Winter Olympics (Friday, 8 to 9 p.m.), NBC, 6.72 million.
10. Winter Olympics Closing Ceremonies, NBC, 6.57 million.
11. Winter Olympics (Wednesday, 8 to 8:30 p.m.), NBC, 6.42 million.
12. Winter Olympics (Saturday, 8 to 9 p.m.), NBC, 5.86 million.
13. NBA All-Star Game, TNT, 5.43 million
14. “Daytona 500 Post Race,” Fox, 5.42 million.
15. “911: Lone Star,” Fox, 4.95 million.
16. “Jeopardy! College Championship” (Thursday), ABC, 4.82 million.
17. “Jeopardy! College Championship” (Friday), ABC, 4.73 million.
18. “The Price is Right Valentine Show,” CBS, 4.66 million.
19. “Jeopardy! College Championship” (Wednesday), ABC, 4.64 million.
20. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 4.35 million.
Winter Olympics
Oink
Jerry Lewis
In a feature — and accompanying short film — for Vanity Fair‘s annual “Hollywood Issue,” a number of Jerry Lewis’ leading ladies, female co-stars and many other aspiring, talented women allege that the so-called King of Comedy sexually harassed and, in at least one case, sexually assaulted them.
The story and film are based in part on interviews conducted by Emmy-winning Allen v. Farrow filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick who, in 2017, began investigating Hollywood’s long history of abuse. They found that some of the most severe accusations involved Lewis.
Among those interviewed for the piece are Hope Holiday, who appeared in The Ladies Man with Lewis the year after she broke out in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment; Jill St. John, who starred opposite the comedian in Who’s Minding the Store?; Anna Maria Alberghetti, who worked with him on Cinderfella; Karen Sharpe, who played the star’s love interest in The Disorderly Orderly, comic/actress/Oscar-nominated writer Renée Taylor; singer Lainie Kazan; and others.
Taylor says that she came to understand, in no uncertain terms, that studio execs knew of and condoned Lewis’ behavior toward women.
Jerry Lewis
Only Following Orders
Texass
The former head of the organization behind Texas' electric grid testified in court on Wednesday that he was following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's orders when he directed power prices to remain as high as possible for several days during Texas' winter storm blackouts in February 2021, the Houston Chronicle first reported.
The former chief of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Bill Magness, said that Abbott's orders came at a time when power plants were already starting to turn back on again.
The governor's office previously denied any involvement in the decision to keep the price of electricity at $9,000 per megawatt hour, substantially higher than the market price at the time — $1,200 — during the freeze. According to ERCOT's Independent Market Monitor, Potomac Economics, the decision led to the state overcharging power companies by $16 billion.
But the governor did just that, the Chronicle reported.
In his testimony on Wednesday, Magness said he was told by then-Public Utility Commission Chairman DeAnn Walker that Abbott wished to do whatever it took to prevent any further rolling blackouts in the state.
Texass
Proposal To Nix Derogatory Terms
660 U.S. Sites
Federal officials have come up with a list of potential replacement names for hundreds of geographic features in three dozen states that include the word “squaw,” kicking off a public comment period that will run through late April.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in November formally declared the term derogatory and initiated a process to remove the word from use by the federal government and to replace other existing derogatory place names.
Haaland said in a statement Tuesday that words matter, particularly as the agency works to make the nation’s public lands and waters accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Board on Geographic Names took action to eliminate the use of derogatory terms related to Black and Japanese people. Over the past two decades, the board has received 261 proposals to replace geographic features with squaw in the name, according to the Interior Department.
660 U.S. Sites
Recorded in Detail
Brain Waves
People who have looked their mortality in the face often describe their near-death experiences in surprisingly similar terms – vivid recollection of memories, a sense of standing outside of their body, bright lights, or a feeling of tranquility.
While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from people who have had near-death experiences (NDEs), scientists have little to no data on what happens in the brain as people transition into death. However, under tragic circumstances, scientists have collected the first continuous data on the neural dynamics of the brain during death.
When an 87-year-old patient developed seizures after receiving surgery due to a fall, doctors used electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor his condition; unfortunately, the patient deteriorated and sadly passed away while these recordings were taking place.
Due to the do-not-resuscitate status of the patient, and with the family's consent, the unexpected event allowed scientists to record the electrical activity of a dying human brain. While simplified EEG recordings have been captured from patients withdrawn from life support before, the full placement of recording equipment in this case made for an unprecedented level of detail.
"We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating," says Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, US.
Brain Waves
World's Largest 'Dam' Forms
Greenland Ice Sheet
Warming global temperatures have turned the Greenland Ice Sheet into the world’s largest ‘dam’ due to the enormous amount of meltwater that is crashing down from the surface to the base of the ice sheet. The ‘waterfall’ motion of the meltwater as it rapidly seeps through large cracks in the ice releases enough energy to generate heat through friction, which further exacerbates melting.
This discovery was made by a team of international scientists who collected data from Greenland’s Store Glacier over seven years. Their study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports that the heating effect from the falling meltwater is by far the largest heat source underneath the ice sheet, which is “leading to phenomenally high rates of melting.”
Data collected in 2014 revealed that 82 million cubic metres of meltwater fell to the base of Store Glacier each day during the summer season. The melting point of the ice at the base of the glacier is -0.40°C and the water temperatures at this part of the ice sheet were as high as 0.88°C.
Shockingly, the researchers report that the energy produced during peak melt periods was comparable to the energy generated by the Three Gorges Dam in China, the world’s largest hydroelectric dam. When the summer season peaked, more hydropower was produced by the Greenland Ice Sheet than the world’s ten largest hydroelectric power stations combined.
Greenland Ice Sheet
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