from Bruce
Anecdotes
Food
• Strange things happen in society. Glyndebourne was John Christie’s ancient manor house in England. Once, his butler, Childs, interrupted a breakfast with bad news: “I’m sorry to disturb you, sir, but the cook’s dead.” One of the guests, a general, spoke up: “Under the circumstances, do you think I could get another sausage?” By the way, an American once asked Mr. Christie how he had gotten the Glyndebourne lawn to be so perfect. Mr. Christie replied, “It’s easy—just mow it for 200 years.”
• Feodor Chaliapin sometimes clowned around on stage. During a performance of Mefistofele in Columbus, Ohio, he made co-star Claudia Muzio break out laughing by singing in Italian in front of the footlights, “Are we going to get a good spaghetti after the performance tonight?” By the way, while in America, mid-1950s Metropolitan Opera basso Cesare Siepi ate American food for a good reason: “In Memphis, how can I trust a plate of spaghetti? I have broiled meat and a salad.”
• Kirsten Flagstad was modest. Hearing that a flower had been named after her, she protested, “But you can’t do that! It wouldn’t be sensible! In my country, they name flowers only after important people!” By the way, Heinrich Conried’s love of rich food did affect his life negatively in one way. He kept a box of bicarbonate of soda near him, and occasionally after dinner, he would reach for the box and say, “This is my lifesaver!”
• Professional musicians are often asked to entertain at the dinners they attend. A wealthy society woman asked Fritz Kreisler to come to her dinner and to bring his violin, but he replied, “My violin never dines out.” By the way, French composer Jules-Émile-Frédéric Massenet refused to have an Opus 13. His works are listed as Opus 12, Opus 12b, Opus 14.
• Russian baritone Feodor Chaliapin sometimes grew weary of hostesses who invited him to dinner, then pressured him to sing for the other guests. He told one such hostess, “If you ask me to dinner, you feed me. If you ask me to sing, you pay me.”
• Harvard Law School professor Alan M. Dershowitz started a kosher deli named Maven’s in 1988. On the menu appeared the slogan “Famous Since 5748”—in the Hebrew calendar, “5748” is equivalent to our calendar’s “1988.”
• In Rialto, California, choreographer Twyla Tharp’s parents built a drive-in theater, where she ate many dinners of such courses as candy corn, popcorn, ice cream bonbons, and Coke syrup.
• Ballerina Natalia Makarova says that impresario Sol Hurok was a “devoted gourmet.” Mr. Hurok once took her out to eat at a restaurant in Connecticut—the dinner lasted for five hours.
Friends
• Penn Gillette of Penn and Teller fame respects thought. Once, he was taking a now-former girlfriend out to eat, but he needed to get some writing done first. It would take about an hour, and after apologizing to her, he said, “You can turn on the TV; my iPod has music on it and there are headphones right there. If you want to go out, my car keys are right there and there’s a Starbucks in the lobby. I have a couple books there if you want to read and there’s a magazine or two ….” But she said to him, “I’m fine. I’ll just sit here.” Penn asked her, “What are you going to do?” She replied, “I’ll sit and think.” In his book God, No!, Penn writes, “She’s still one of my best friends and an inspiration.”
• A college professor once got upset because his students were only half-listening to his lecture, and he told them, “I’m offering you a dollar and you’re taking only fifty cents.” A friend of author Peg Bracken was in that course, and she says now that she didn’t take even a nickel, for she can’t remember the name of the course. By the way, Ms. Bracken has a friend who enjoys going to sleep, so he does it twice each night. He sets his alarm for 2 a.m., so that when it rings, he can shut it off and go back to sleep.
• Robert Benchley met Donald Ogden Stewart on a rainy night as they were both coming out of a restaurant. Mr. Stewart saw a passerby with a large umbrella, pretended the passerby was a taxi, and took his arm and said, “Yale Club, please.” Mr. Benchley then took Mr. Stewart’s arm and said, “Can you drop me off at my place? It’s on the way.”
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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: "ГуИНП Л еН"
Album: ЗвоЗ [Evoe]
Artist: Femme de Luxe [Luxury Woman]
Artist Location: Seratov, Russia
Info:
“Evoe” is a valid Scrabble word.
In British English, it is a scream of Bacchic frenzy.
“ГуИНП Л еН” means “Guinplaine.”
Guinplaine is a fictional character in Victor Hugo’s THE MAN WHO LAUGHS.
“Gwynplaine is a horrifyingly disfigured man who was surgically deformed with a grotesque, ‘hideous’ smile. Gwynplaine was featured some of the earliest monster movies in history, such as THE MAN WHO LAUGHS made in 1909 in France by the Pathé film company and produced by Albert Capellan. Although no copies of this film survived, it inspired a remake of the same name in 1928 starring Mary Philbin and Conrad Veidt and the 1921 Austrian horror film DAS GRINSENDE GESICHT. Gwynplaine is most famous for inspiring Batman's main villain, the Joker, in 1940 Detective Comics.”
— monstermovies.fandom.com/wiki/Gwynplaine
Price: Name Your Price (includes FREE) for eight-track album
Genre: Post Punk. Gothic Rock.
Links:
ЗвоЗ
Femme de Luxe on Bandcamp
Femme de Luxe on YouTube
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Ukraine
Other Links:
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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
Gas was down to $5.39/gal at the no-name, cash preferred station ($5.49/gal credit).
Class Of 2021
National Recording Registry
Critically acclaimed debut albums by Wu-Tang Clan and Alicia Keys, Ricky Martin’s Latin pop megahit “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” are among the recordings being inducted this year into the National Recording Registry.
The Library of Congress announced on Wednesday the 25 songs, albums, historical recordings and even a podcast that will be preserved as important contributions to American culture and history.
Other albums that were included were Linda Ronstadt’s “Canciones de Mi Padre,” a musical tribute to her Mexican-American roots, Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning “Nick of Time,” A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Low End Theory,” and the Cuban musical ensemble’s self-titled debut “Buena Vista Social Club,” which also inspired a film by the same name.
Other songs now in the registry include Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,’” “Walking the Floor Over You” by Ernest Tubb, “Moon River” by Andy Williams and “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” by The Four Tops.
Other recordings include public radio station WNYC’s broadcasts from Sept. 11, 2001 and Marc Maron’s interview with Robin Williams on his podcast “WTF with Marc Maron.”
National Recording Registry
Letters Released
Eudora Welty
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History is allowing the public to have access to additional papers from the late author Eudora Welty, including letters written by members of her family.
The release came Wednesday on the 113th anniversary of Welty’s birth. She died July 23, 2001. According to her will, the family correspondence was to remain private for 20 years after her death.
Welty, who lived most of her life in Jackson, was known for the lyrical quality of her short stories and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for her short novel, “The Optimist’s Daughter,” published in 1972. While establishing herself as a writer, Welty photographed scenes of everyday life in Mississippi during the Great Depression for the Works Progress Administration.
Welty’s niece, Mary Alice White, said in a news release from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that the newly released letters begin with the courtship of Welty’s parents. White said they also include Welty’s correspondence with relatives and papers and letters from others in the family.
Eudora Welty
Closing Blue Sky Studios
Di$ney
Disney is shuttering Blue Sky Studios, the $5.9 billion global-grossing former 20th Century Fox animation division that during its run churned out 13 feature films including the Ice Age franchise.
The Blue Sky’s library and IP will remain part of Disney, and I hear there are no plans for another major studio to absorb Blue Sky’s employees and operations. A series based on Blue Sky’s Ice Age characters is already in the works for Disney+. Through five movies, the Ice Age series grossed $3.2 billion at the global box office.
Production on the Patrick Osborne-directed Nimona, which is dated for January 14, 2022, is being stopped and the film will no longer be released, Deadline has learned. Nimona, which had 10 months of production still left to complete, followed a young shape-shifter who teams with a mad scientist named Lord Ballister Blackheart to expose the ruler of the kingdom.
The last Blue Sky release, Spies in Disguise, was distributed by Disney in December 2019; it didn’t do so well, grossing $66M at the domestic box office and $171M worldwide. The hope was that pic starring Will Smith and Tom Holland would spur a franchise.
Di$ney
Pleads Guilty
Cuba Gooding Jr
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday to forcibly kissing a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018 in a deal that is likely to keep him out of jail.
Gooding also publicly apologized for the first time to two other women who accused him of similar behavior in separate encounters, calling himself a “celebrity figure” who meant no harm.
His admissions were part of a plea deal that came nearly three years after the Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” star was arrested in the case that saw several delays as his lawyers sought to get charges reduced or dismissed.
The deal lets Gooding avoid any possibility of jail time if he continues “alcohol and behavior modification” counseling for six months. After that, he can withdraw the misdemeanor plea and instead plead guilty to a lesser violation of harassment.
Cuba Gooding Jr
Actual Voter Fraud
Florida
Two residents of the Florida retirement community The Villages pleaded guilty to voting more than once in the 2020 presidential election, multiple outlets reported Wednesday.
Charles Barnes, 64, and Jay Ketcik, 63, could face five years in prison for the third-degree felony, but will avoid jail time as long as they participate in 50 hours of community service and take a three-month civics class, among other requirements outlined by the state attorney.
Barnes has no listed party affiliation, and an arrest warrant indicates he had a Connecticut address. Ketcik is a registered Republican who made several Facebook posts in support of (the) former president Donald Trump, Orlando CBS affiliate News 6 reported at the time of his arrest. He admitted to voting by mail in Florida as well as absentee in Michigan.
The Villages is a well-known hotbed of MAGA activism that has been visited by former President Trump, as well as Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who held a reportedly “raucous” rally there last year. Ketcik was one of three Villages residents, along with Joan Halstead and John Rider, who were arrested on double voting charges back in December. Halstead is also a registered Republican, and is accused of voting in Florida and absentee in New York. Ketcik, Halstead, and Rider all expressed support for had all expressed support for Trump. They were released after paying a $2,000 bond to avoid being jailed. Barnes was also arrested over the winter.
The news of Villages voter fraud comes the same day the Asheville Citizen Times reported that the state of North Carolina removed (the) former Trump administration's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows from its voter rolls. Meadows is under investigation for voter fraud, and was reportedly registered in Virginia and North Carolina at the same time, with his North Carolina registration being tied to a mobile home in the middle of nowhere where he doesn’t appear to have ever lived.
Florida
Volcano Dormant 800 Years
Mount Edgecumbe
Hundreds of small earthquakes have been reported near a volcano in southeast Alaska believed to have been dormant for at least 800 years.
The cause of the quakes under Mount Edgecumbe, a volcano near Sitka that resembles Mount Fuji in Japan, are not known. However, they may not be an indication of volcanic activity, said Dave Schneider, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Alaska Volcano Observatory in Anchorage.
Mount Edgecumbe is a 3,200-foot (976-meter) stratovolcano located on Kruzof Island, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Sitka. The volcano is part of a larger underwater volcanic field of lava domes and craters.
There’s no written record of Mount Edgecumbe erupting, but he said there is Tlingit oral history about small eruptions about 800 years ago.
Mount Edgecumbe
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Jerusalem
Pressed against a wall in a back corridor of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a stone slab bore testimony only to the graffiti etched on it by multitudes of pilgrims through the ages.
But the 2.5 x 1.5 metre stone turned out to be far more precious when its other side was exposed during recent renovations at the church, the traditional site of Jesus's crucifixion and burial.
Researchers believe the elaborate looping ornaments they found on the long-hidden part of the slab indicate it was once the decorated front of a medieval high altar that took pride of place centuries ago in one of Christianity's holiest sites.
"You cannot see it now, but originally it was inlaid with pieces of precious marble, pieces of glass, pieces of small, finely made marble," said Amit Re'em, Jerusalem regional archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority.
They identified the unique decoration method as "Cosmatesque", which combines Classical, Byzantine and early Islamic art in which finely cut tiles of colourful marble are used to fill in circular engravings on the stone.
Jerusalem
Dinosaur Boneyard
North Dakota
Most experts agree that a six-mile-wide hunk of space debris is responsible for a particularly bad day roughly 66 million years ago. After all, there’s a crater off the Yucatán Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico that measures around 100 miles across by 20 miles deep, and copious geologic evidence that indicates a resultant tsunami that spread from the impact site to nearly the modern Canadian border. But although we are confident the extinction level event originated far above our distant, mouse-sized mammalian relatives’ heads, there isn’t a consensus as to whether it stemmed from an asteroid, comet, or whatever QAnon folks are claiming this week—probably a time-traveling Nancy Pelosi, or something.
According to a recent New York Times report, however, we may be getting close to identifying the extraterrestrial culprit thanks to a creepy-ass dinosaur graveyard 2,000 miles away from the impact site. At a dig site in North Dakota, paleontologists claim to have uncovered debris containing “mineralogy [that] points to the presence of an asteroid” launched into the air during the asteroid/comet/Pelosi-engineered Doomsday device.
“To see a piece of the culprit is just a goose-bumpy experience,” paleontologist Robert DePalma describes in the piece.
Speaking of goosebumps, the Tanis excavation site (as it is known) contains a whole host of fossilized goodies for scientists, including a dinosaur leg so detailed it still shows skin impressions and a Pterosaur embryo indicating the flying dinosaur laid soft-shelled eggs akin to those of today’s geckos.
North Dakota
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