Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: Yes, we have now turned the corner
Last week my wife asked me four separate times if I was depressed about something, which I was not, and now, ever since early Sunday morning, I've felt mysteriously happy, and I guess that Daylight Saving Time must be the reason. For us in the flat snowy northern tundra regions, turning our clocks forward is the first step toward spring and how can one not rejoice? We await the day when sidewalks are not treacherous and we can escape our squalid hovels and get out and ambulate, and the day in April or May when we can sit outdoors and eat lunch at a plaza and observe the humanity around us. That is where the good life begins, when we escape from Wi-Fi and meet face to face in bright light in our sneakers and T-shirts.
Greg Sargent: The war over democracy is going to get a lot nastier (Washington Post)
Last week, House Democrats passed a sweeping pro-democracy bill that, among many other reforms, would make voting easier in multiple different ways. This is widely being treated as a "message bill," since it has no chance of going anywhere in the GOP-controlled Senate. But the passage of this bill also tells another story that I think hasn't been sufficiently appreciated: Democrats are bringing a new level of realism to the war over democracy itself, one that they increasingly recognize is absolutely crucial to their long-term hopes, and one that may well get worse over time.
Paul Waldman: The pathologies of the winner-take-all society (Washington Post)
There are certainly ways we could change the college admission process, but let's take a broader view and ask what things would look like if we could snap our fingers and create any reality we wanted. For starters, anyone would be able to go to college no matter who their parents are. There might still be more and less elite schools, but even the latter would offer a good education with which you could get a good job. And those who don't go to college could find careers in which they made a reasonable living doing work they find fulfilling.
Rachel Leishman: Please Peruse These Celebrity College Scandal Memes with Me (The Mary Sue)
[A recent] big story is what memes were made for. Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, among others, are being indicted for bribing their children's way into college. (Loughlin spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get her daughter into the University of Southern California, which angers me, because that was my dream school-if I knew my mom only had to pay a half a million for me to go, I would have begged!)
Robert Urbatsch: How being beautiful influences your attitudes toward sex (The Conversation)
People tend to feel strongly about matters of sexual morality, such as premarital sex or gay marriage. Some sources of these differences are obvious. Religion, media portrayals and parents and peers are big social forces that shape attitudes about sex. But could something as innocuous as the way we look spark these different outlooks, too? In a recently published article, I studied this question.
Brian Gaines: Here's what happens to your brain when you give up sugar for Lent (The Conversation)
Anyone who knows me also knows that I have a huge sweet tooth. I always have. My friend and fellow graduate student Andrew is equally afflicted, and living in Hershey, Pennsylvania - the "Chocolate Capital of the World" - doesn't help either of us. But Andrew is braver than I am. Last year, he gave up sweets for Lent. I can't say that I'm following in his footsteps this year, but if you are abstaining from sweets for Lent this year, here's what you can expect over the next 40 days.
Bruce Dalzell: "The Artist's Ego (Brucie's Three Steps to Creative Happiness) | TEDxStroudsRun" (YouTube)
Artistic creativity serves up its fair share of challenges. How do you overcome them? Bruce Dalzell of Appalachian Ohio describes problems he has encountered in his songwriting history and techniques for dealing with them. His presentation includes three original songs. Bruce Dalzell has been writing and performing original songs for 45 years.
Bruce Dalzell: Sunrise At High Point (YouTube)
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For fans of Keanu Reeves.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• What will result in justice: for two disputants to go into a court of law with lawyers representing each side, or for two disputants to go before a rabbi? To answer this question, Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua told this story: A wolf once killed a deer, but before it could eat the deer, a lion came along and took the deer from the wolf. Seeking justice, the wolf asked a fox to judge the dispute. The wolf claimed that he deserved the deer because he had killed it, but the lion claimed that he deserved the deer because he was the king of the jungle. The fox said that the only reasonable solution was to divide the deer, giving the wolf and the lion an equal share. However, when the fox divided the deer, it was not in equal halves, so the fox took a big bite of the larger half. Now the other half was bigger than the first half, so the fox took a big bite out of it, making the first half bigger than the second half. This continued until the fox had eaten the deer, leaving only bones for the wolf and the lion. A court of law is often like the fox: By the time the lawsuit is settled and the lawyers have received their payment, nothing is left for the disputants.
• Pope John XXIII used to tell this joke about lawyers: St. Peter once noticed that there were some unsavory characters in Heaven, and after investigating, he discovered that a breach had been made in the wall separating Heaven from Hell. Therefore, he visited Satan, and the two agreed that they would take turns maintaining the wall. St. Peter would maintain the wall the first year, Satan the next, and so on. The two even signed a legal contract to that effect. The first year, things went fine; St. Peter maintained the wall, and no breaches were made in it. However, the second year, St. Peter again noticed some unsavory characters in Heaven, and he discovered that another breach had been made in the wall. Immediately, St. Peter visited Satan, denounced him for not living up to his part of the contract, and said that he was going to sue. Satan laughed, saying, "I'm not worried. Do you think you'll find even one clever lawyer in Heaven?"
• A case appeared before the Noda B'Yehudah in which an elegantly dressed man and a roughly dressed man pleaded. The roughly dressed man claimed that he was a rich man traveling far from home and friends and that the elegantly dressed man was his wagon driver, but that his wagon driver had robbed him and exchanged clothes with him. The elegantly dressed man denied ever having been a wagon driver. The Noda B'Yehudah said that he would think about the case, then he would give them his judgment the next morning. The next morning, the two men arrived at the Noda B'Yehudah's house and sat outside as they waited for him, but they were ignored as the Noda B'Yehudah went about his business. Suddenly, the Noda B'Yehudah opened his door and ordered, "Wagon driver, come here!" The elegantly dressed man immediately stood up.
• Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan was reputed to be a saint. Once he was called to be a character witness at a trial for one of his students, who had been falsely accused. The lawyer for the defense stood up and began to tell the court a story that was told about Rabbi Kagan. He said that once a thief had been in the rabbi's house when the rabbi came home early. The thief grabbed some of the rabbi's property and ran away, but the rabbi said, "I hereby renounce all my property," so that the thief would not be guilty of breaking one of God's commandments. Hearing this, the judge skeptically asked, "And do you believe this story?" The lawyer replied, "I don't know that I believe this story, but I do know that such stories are not told about you and me."
• At the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, much odd evidence was seriously and legally considered. For example, if an accused person was unable to correctly say the Lord's Prayer, this was considered evidence that the accused person was a witch. Also, spectral evidence was seriously considered, as when men testified that the specter of an accused woman had visited them when they were home in bed. In addition, the accused persons were stripped and searched (by members of the same sex) for the mark of the devil - a small red circle, usually found near the genitals.
• F.E. Smith, later Lord Birkenhead (1872-1930), once cross examined a boy who claimed that his arm had been crippled in an accident. He asked the boy, "Will you show me just how high you can lift your arm?" The boy raised his arm a little. F.E. then said, "Thank you, and now will you show me just how high you could lift it before the accident?" The boy then raised his arm high over his head. Case closed.
• A Scottish judge named Lord Eskgrove once castigated in court the murderer of a soldier: "And not only did you murder him, whereby he was bereaved of his life, but you did thrust, or push, or pierce, or project, or propel the lethal weapon through the belly-band of his regimental breeches, which were His Majesty's."
• Toler, who later became Chief Lord Justice in England, was once asked to contribute a shilling to the burial of a lawyer. Reaching into his pocket for some money, he gave it to the solicitor, saying, "Only a shilling to bury a lawyer? Here is a guinea; go and bury one and twenty of them."
• Art Linkletter occasionally ad-libbed during his career as a broadcaster. During an on-site radio program, the sound of sirens was heard, so Mr. Linkletter informed the audience, "There goes an ambulance - followed by a carload of lawyers." The local bar association was not amused.
• Now is a good time for Ohio University first-year students to write their parents: "Dear Mom and Dad, I love OU. Send money. Last night I killed my roommate. Love. P.S. Don't worry. I made it look like an accident."
• American dance pioneer Ted Shawn was writing letters in a Savannah hotel when he surprised himself by typing, "I smell smoke." He looked up and discovered that the hotel was on fire.
• Noël Coward once wrote a letter to Lawrence of Arabia - Aircraftsman T.E. Shaw, No. 338171. Mr. Coward began the letter, "Dear 338171, May I call you 338?"
• Occasionally, people wrote Noël Coward using stationery that said, "From the Desk of …." Mr. Coward always replied to those letters by writing, "Dear Desk of …."
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
As for the Manafort happenings today...
New York, New York,
What a wonderful town!
The Bronx is up,
Manafort's goin' down....
New York New York
It's a hell of a town
They lock your ass up
In a hole in the ground."
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and nearly seasonal.
'Already Cashed That Check'
Samuel L. Jackson
At this point, after roles in successful films such as Pulp Fiction, Snakes on a Plane, The Avengers, Shaft and so many more movies, Samuel L. Jackson is past carefully weighing everything he says.
"I know how many motherf***ers hate me," the Oscar-nominated star told Esquire in a new interview. "'I'm never going to see a Sam Jackson movie again.' F*** I care? If you never went to another movie I did in my life, I'm not going to lose any money. I already cashed that check. F*** you. Burn up my videotapes. I don't give a f***. 'You're an actor. Stick to acting.' No, motherf***er. I'm a human being that feels a certain way."
"And some of this s*** does affect me, because if we don't have health care, s***, and my relatives get sick, they're going to call my rich ass," Jackson said. "I want them to have health care. I want them to be able to take care of themselves. This is how I feel. And I count to one hundred some days before I hit 'send,' [on social media] because I know how that s*** is."
"I think we feel the same way that all of the motherf***ers that hated Obama felt for eight years. So they said all that s***," said Jackson, who grew up in the segregated South. "They put f***ing pictures up on the internet of [First Lady] Michelle [Obama] sitting with her legs crossed with a d*** hanging down. We feel the same way that they feel or they felt about Obama being the man, even though he wasn't f***ing ruining their lives; he was trying to help their lives."
Trump, Jackson said, is "ruining the planet and all kinds of other crazy s***. And the people think that's OK. It's not f***ing OK. And if you're not saying anything, then you're complicit. And I wouldn't give a f*** if I was a garbageman and I had a Twitter account; I'd tweet that s*** out. I'm not thinking about who I am and what my job is when I do that s***."
Samuel L. Jackson
Presenters Announced
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Harry Styles, Queen's Brian May and Janelle Monae are among those presenting at the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Stevie Nicks, who made it into the Rock Hall in 1998 with Fleetwood Mac, will be inducted by Styles, while May will induct Def Leppard and Monae will induct Janet Jackson.
The event that will tape at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on March 29 will also include Trent Reznor inducting The Cure; David Byrne inducting Radiohead; Duran Duran's John Taylor and Simon Le Bon inducting Roxy Music; and Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles inducting The Zombies.
The ceremony will air on HBO on April 27.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Unsurprising Discovery
Metal Music
Metal has done a great job scaring the establishment throughout its existence. With many bands portraying violence through their lyrics to complement heavy, aggressive music, it's not hard to see where people are coming from.
However, a new study from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, argues that the aggressive imagery synonymous with heavy metal doesn't lead to violent behavior or a lack of empathy.
In an interview with BBC News, Macquarie University professor Bill Thompson advocated for metal music fans. In the study, Thompson revealed that the music didn't desensitize listeners to violence.
"[Death metal] fans are nice people," Thompson says. "They're not going to go out and hurt someone."
Thompson says that the findings should be welcome news for parents and religious institutions. Metal has been a frequent target for some religious groups, most recently with Metal In The Mountains Festival in West Virginia being threatened by "bible thumpers."
Metal Music
Returning To Theaters
'Dark Knight' Trilogy
Warner Bros said Tuesday it is returning all three films in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy to five cities over the next month for single-night screenings to celebrate Batman's 80th birthday, with a special live Q&A with Nolan at the Los Angeles kickoff engagement March 30.
Nolan will be in attendance for the kickoff event that day for back-to-back-to-back screenings of 2005's Batman Begins, 2008's The Dark Knight and 2012's The Dark Knight Rises at the Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk in Universal City. The screenings move to New York on April 13 at AMC Lincoln Square, followed by AMC Metreon in San Francisco, Cinesphere Ontario Place in Toronto and Imax Theatre at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis later in the month, each accompanied by the footage of Nolan's Los Angeles appearance.
In all five cities, the movies will be seen in Nolan's preferred Imax 70mm.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday at 9 AM PT.
'Dark Knight' Trilogy
"One-Sided"
Late Night Comedy
Donald Trump (R-Dolt) took to Twitter Wednesday morning to complain about late-night TV, taking his talking points from an NBC News interview with its former Tonight show star Jay Leno.
Trump, however, saw Leno's remark via Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends, which ran a clip of the interview, in which Leno talked about how "tough" it is that late night political comedy is "one-sided" and reminisced about the good old days when the White House did not dominate opening monologues.
"Actually, the one-sided hatred on these shows is incredible and for me, unwatchable," Trump tweeted. "But remember, WE are number one - President!"
Not coincidentally, Leno's visit to Today show came as Stephen Colbert's Late Show eclipsed Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the key 18-49 age bracket for a full week, for the first time. Colbert had taken over the total viewer ratings derby with Trump's election, besting Fallon's show, which mostly shied away from political monologues.
Late Night Comedy
Comments Make Advertisers Wary
Pirro
A handful of advertisers indicated they would move their commercials out of the Saturday-night broadcast of Fox News Channel's "Justice with Judge Jeanine," the latest example of some marketers expressing wariness with commentary made by some of the cable-news network's opinion hosts.
During her broadcast on Saturday, Pirro, a former New York prosecutor, suggested Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, a Democractic representative, did not respect the law set down by the Constitution of the United States. "Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution?" Pirro asked Satuday night.
On Sunday, Fox News issued a statement rebuking Pirro's words. ""We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro's comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar," the network said in a prepared statement. "They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly."
Personal-finance marketer NerdWallet, pharmaceutical advertiser Novo Nordis and online marketplace Letgo have indicated in press statements they will at stop running ads in Pirro's program.
Fox News Channel took in $1.02 billion in net advertising revenue in 2018, according to estimates from Kagan, a market-research firm that is part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, and that figure is seen climbing to nearly $1.07 billion in 2019. Despite the recent ad boycotts, 21st Century Fox said its advertising revenue rose 6% in its most recent fiscal quarter, largely due to better pricing at Fox News Channel.
Pirro
First Coral Reef Just Discovered
Italy
Off the coast of Italy, scientists have discovered the country's first known coral reef. Although splashed with color and full of marine life, this strange reef is like very few others on Earth.
In a new study published this month in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the University of Bari Aldo Moro have chronicled the discovery of Italy's first reef. The "unique" reef stretches for 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) along the Italian coast in the Adriatic Sea, passing by the popular tourist spot of Monopoli, in Puglia.
The reef is at a depth of between 30-55 meters (98-180 feet) and is what's known as a mesophotic ecosystem, meaning it exists in low light conditions.
Most coral reefs, especially the dazzlingly colored reefs in the sun-soaked tropics, obtain their energy and nutrients through a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic zooxanthellae (algae), which produce their "food" using light. However, in the murky depths of the Adriatic Sea, Italy's reef doesn't have this luxury.
Instead, the researchers say the coral reef is comprised of "non-symbiotic scleractinians" - known as stony corals - that obtain most of their nutrition from suspended organic matter floating around the sea, much like other coral reefs found in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. This also explains why the Italian reef is not quite as vibrantly colored as the Great Barrier Reef and other tropical reefs, where the corals' pigment comes from the algae that live inside it (thus when water gets too warm, corals expel the algae, resulting in a leaching of color, or "bleaching").
Italy
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