from Bruce
Anecdotes
Animals
• Lawyers aren’t always necessary to resolve disputes between neighbors. When country comedian Jerry Clower was growing up, some cows broke out of a neighbor’s field one night, got into his stepfather’s cornfield, and caused considerable damage. The next morning, Mr. Clower’s stepfather went to the neighbor and said, “Your cows stayed in my field all night.” The neighbor apologized: “I’m sorry. My cows broke through the fence. I didn’t know they were in your field.” The neighbor then said, “I tell you what let’s do. Let’s go get an impartial person living in the community, a member of our church, and ask him to walk over the field to determine the damage. Then he can tell me how much corn he believes those cows ate and I will put that much corn in your corncrib.” That’s exactly what they did. They agreed on a fair and honest man to serve as judge of the damage. He walked through the cornfield, then said, “Twenty bushels is what’s due.” Later that afternoon, the neighbor drove up and unloaded 20 bushels of corn into Mr. Clower’s stepfather’s corncrib.
• In the summer of 1984, a small black dog began to come to the Catholic Church in Uvalde, Texas, where Msgr. Vincent Fecher serves. The dog arrived with its master, then stretched out on the lawn of the church. When the master left after Mass and went home, the dog stayed on the lawn, buried in the tall, cool grass, and it moved only to stay in the shade of a tree. At the end of the day, it went home until the following Sunday. Father Vincent says about the dog, “I always thought that its presence there, facing towards the sanctuary, was a silent sermon to everybody that even a dog had sense enough to come to church on Sundays.”
• Rabbi Stephen Wise met a man who boasted about a horse he had recently purchased. The horse could go as fast or as slow as you wanted. It could do any work to which it was put. It was gentle, but it had spirit. It went when you wanted it to go, and it stopped when you wanted it to stop. It had no bad habits, plus it came immediately when called, and it didn’t run off when confronted with something strange. Dr. Wise admired the horse, saying, “I wish that horse were a member of my congregation.”
• Buddhist texts say that animals should not be slaughtered for food, and Buddhist monks in Tibet make a vow not to kill any conscious being. While in his palace above the Tibetan capital city, Lhasa, the 14th Dalai Lama noticed people bringing in yaks for slaughter. By buying as many as he could, he saved 10,000 yaks from being slaughtered.
Anti-Semitism
• During the Middle Ages, an anti-Semite falsely accused a Jew of killing a Christian, who had accidentally drowned in a well. However, the anti-Semite said that he would let God decide whether the Jew was guilty. He would write “guilty” on one slip of paper and “innocent” on a second slip and let the Jew choose one. Whichever slip of paper the Jew chose would determine whether he would go free. However, the Jew knew that the anti-Semite would write the word “guilty” on both slips of paper. Therefore, he chose a slip of paper, but he quickly put it in his mouth and swallowed it. “Look at the other slip of paper,” he said. “That will tell you what the slip of paper I swallowed said.”
• Sherry Britton was a Jewish stripteaser. During World War II, an American soldier sent her a photograph of herself that he had taken from a dead Nazi soldier. Ms. Britton says, “If the German had known he was carrying around a picture of a Jewish girl, he wouldn’t have had to be killed. He would have committed suicide.”
• Oscar Strauss was Jewish and rich — and happy to be both. Long ago, while vacationing in Lakewood, New Jersey, he saw a house that rented rooms. In front of the house was this sign: “No dogs or Jews allowed.” A few minutes after he saw the sign, he bought the house and ordered the sign torn down.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Embarrassing Moments"
Album: FREE! "IT'S A FUTUREMAN X-MAS" LABEL SAMPLER!
Artist: All About Chad
Artist Company Location: Brooklyn, New York
Record Company: Futureman Records
Record Company Location: Detroit, Michigan
Info: No, it’s not a Christmas album. It’s an album released at Christmas consisting of 18 tracks by 18 artists.
“Indie pop quartet
All About Chad featured guitarist
Asif Chaudhri, singer
Ben Reiser, bassist
Chad Pilieri, and drummer
Jason Schreiber. After the release of the ‘Chad's Very First Record’ single on Jeezus Peezus Records in 1991, the Brooklyn band set out to record their debut full-length.
THIS THAT & THE OTHER THING was released in 1989, and was followed by 1991's
THE SCOUTING PARTY. 1992 saw the unveiling of the quirky
JELLY SLIDE EP. They continued in 1993 with the ‘Chad's Got an Earring’ single on It's Only Pop Music Records. Big Pop Records released the band's swan song,
DOWN IN FRONT, in 1995. Recorded and produced by the band, the disc showcased the band's endearing brand of indie pop music. The group called it quits soon after, but not before an impressive appearance on March Records' stellar
POP AMERICAN STYLE compilation in 1996 with the catchy ‘Japanese Couple in Reverse.’” — Artist Biography by Stephen Cramer, All About Music
“The Futureman only finds and releases the most vital and raw recordings from the field. He asks for no thanks or special notice. However, tip your hats or raise your glasses their way: Futureman Records, The Vanguard of the People.”
Another song by All About Chad
Price: FREE Download of 18-Track Album
Genre: Rock. Power Pop.
Links:
FREE! "IT'S A FUTUREMAN X-MAS" LABEL SAMPLER!
Futureman Records
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Trivia addendum
Inspired by @middleageriot.
QUESTION:
Why do the people most convinced that God will protect them always need to carry guns?
ANSWER:
Because "the Great Gun Profi(teer)", Saint Wayne of NRA (a.k.a LaPierre), preaches every day in his Italian silk vestments from the summit of Mount Greedy “… and on the thirteenth-day GOD (had his hands full of unborn fetuses) created the holy hand grenade of Antioch, big bombs, blessed guns, holey bullets, and the second amendment to allow all Americans to kill "evil-doers" and give any innocents an express trip to the promised land of eternal life death as their reward for being in the line of cleansing fire.
Billy in Cypress U.S.A.
Thanks, Billy!
New Venture
Michael Egan
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
The defective rooster was in fine voice this afternoon when the sun finally popped out.
Class Of 2021
Rock & Roll HOF
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has pulled the curtain back on six inductees who’ll be formally ushered in as the class of 2021, with Jay-Z, the Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, Todd Rundgren, Carole King and Foo Fighters all invited to make the trip to Cleveland this October.
Notably, the hall will also welcome several other artists that did not appear on the general ballot this year but are being inducted in other categories, including two artists that have been repeatedly nominated in the past without being voted in, Kraftwerk and LL Cool J.
Among the main crop of performer inductees, women were voted into three of six slots — representation that’s likely to be welcomed after years of complaints that rock’s female pioneers have gone underrepresented — and two out of six are Black artists.
Among the main crop of a half-dozen inductees, King and Turner are receiving their second inductions. Tina Turner was voted into the hall all the way back in 1991 as half of the duo Ike and Tina Turner. King’s previous induction goes back even a year prior to Turner’s. She was brought in as half of a duo, too, when she was inducted along with former partner Gerry Goffin in the songwriting category in 1990. Neither had ever been nominated as a solo artist until this year.
Todd Rundgren got the nod on only his third nomination, although he became eligible in 1996; he was previously nominated in 2019 and 2020. King was previously nominated as a performing artist only once before this year, remarkably… all the way back in 1989.
Rock & Roll HOF
Prop Revealed Yo Be Real
Shrunken Head
A shrunken head used as a prop in the 1979 John Huston film Wise Blood has been authenticated as a real human head after being on display at a university in Georgia for decades.
It will now be returned to Ecuador, its country of origin. The head, called “tsantsa” in Amazonian languages, came to be in the university’s possession after a former faculty member got it while serving in the military.
The now-deceased biologist Jim Harrison came across the artefact while travelling in Equador in 1942, according to a research paper. The tsantsa became a part of the university’s collection after Dr Harrison died in 2016.
Tsantsas were at first a ceremonial item used during social events, but they started holding monetary value when they became “keepsakes and curios” during the 1800s because of Western intrusion, the paper states. It adds that the heads “were made from human remains by certain indigenous culture groups of Ecuador and Peru”.
Shrunken heads were made using a labour intensive process of removing the skull and flesh, sewing shut the eyes and mouth, boiling it, and filling it with hot sand and stones.
Shrunken Head
Backtracks
Bitcoin
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the car company would no longer accept bitcoin to purchase its vehicles, citing concerns about the environmental impact of the cryptocurrency.
"We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel," Musk said in a statement posted to his Twitter account.
The announcement comes a little more than three months after Tesla first announced it would begin accepting bitcoin as payment. The company also said at the time that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin.
The value of bitcoin declined sharply after Musk's tweet, dropping from about $54,700 per coin to about $52,000 in less than an hour.
The announcement was a rare reversal from Musk, who has fashioned himself in recent years as a person who courts controversy and rarely gives in to public pressure.
Bitcoin
Ending After 19 Seasons
‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’
At the end of a rocky 2020-21 season, following a toxic workplace environment controversy and amid declining ratings, Ellen DeGeneres is ending her daytime talk show. DeGeneres’ current contract takes The Ellen DeGeneres Show through the upcoming 2021-2022 season, the show’s 19th, and it will now be the program’s final chapter.
Like this past year for the show, the announcement of its end was messy, with the news leaking to a tabloid, The Daily Mail, which broke it early Wednesday morning, thwarting DeGeneres’ and the show’s producer Warner Bros’ plans of announcing the news on their own terms. DeGeneres will speak about the pending end of her daytime talker in the Ellen opening monologue she will be taping later today.
After a long reign as daytime’s top entertainment talk show and a slew of Daytime Emmys, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, produced by Warner Bros’ Telepictures, has struggled during the pandemic-impacted 2020-21 season, with its ratings falling 40% year-to-year, pushing the program down the daytime rankings. The Ellen DeGeneres Show‘s ratings dive was examined in a March story by the New York Times, which got a lot of attention and raised questions about the talker’s future.
Following a string of reports about a toxic workplace on the show last spring and summer and an internal investigation by Warner Bros, The Ellen DeGeneres Show made a number of behind-the-scene changes last fall, including ousting longtime executive producers, and DeGeneres apologized to her staff.
DeGeneres previously indicated that she was seriously considering ending her show, most recently in 2019, when she ended up signing a new three-year deal to extend the program through 2022.
‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’
Flourished In Pandemic
CEO Salaries
It was the worst of times (for the world). It was still a pretty good time (for CEO pay).
Ten top media and entertainment CEOs earned a combined $350 million last year, buoyed by hefty stock and option grants during the worst economic disruption since the Great Depression.
Members of compensation committees on boards, who set pay, explicitly altered traditional performance benchmarks at some companies in a year when theme parks, advertising and theatrical revenue tanked and production stalled.
The numbers they looked at were not profit and loss columns but rather leaned heavily on metrics committees called more “qualitative” than “quantitative,” including a pivot to streaming. Everyone got an “A” for effort.
Pay for 2020 is being widely analyzed and criticized not only because of the broad economic fallout of Covid, but also because CEOs, after the pandemic hit last spring, seemed to want to share the pain by forgoing or reducing base salaries.
CEO Salaries
Vacation House
Marie Curie
Poland’s prime minister says he’s given instructions for the government to buy a house in France where the Nobel-winning scientist couple Marie Sklodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie spent holidays and weekends from 1904-1906.
The 120 sq. meters (1,300 sq. feet) stone-and-brick building in Saint-Remy-les-Chevreuse carries a price tag of 790,000 euros ($950,000). It’s in disrepair but some of its peeling wall-paper, its fireplaces and the floor tiles date back to the Curie times, according to local real estate agency Stephane Plaza.
It said that Polish-born Marie Curie may have painted some ceiling designs herself, but there is no proof of that.
“This property was built in 1890 and was Pierre and Marie Curie’s holiday destination between 1904 and 1906,” where they came with their daughters Irene and Eve, said Daniel Cazou-Mingot, head of the real estate agency.
One day in April 1906, Pierre headed back to Paris for an academic meeting and was hit and killed by a horse-drawn cart.
Marie Curie
Treasure Trove To Auction
Rock Memorabilia
Guitars from Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton and Aerosmith as well as autographed memorabilia from The Beatles and even strands of hair from Kurt Cobain are some of the highlights of an online rock ‘n’ roll auction that ends over the weekend.
Six strands of blonde hair from the grunge rock icon are part of a series of Nirvana offerings that also includes a Cobain amp and a rare group-signed blue Stratocaster-style guitar. The hair was cut by a friend in 1989 and the minimum bid is $2,500.
The Marshall amp has “Kurt” written faintly in the top right corner and was used by Nirvana during the ’90s, as well as while the band filmed its “Live and Loud” video. It was later used by Hole and OPM after Cobain’s death. The minimum bid is $15,000. (A guitar Cobain used for his MTV Unplugged show recently sold for $6 million).
The items are part of a slate of rock items being offered up by Iconic Auction, spanning Elvis to grunge. The auction closes Saturday. A portion of proceeds will benefit Crew Nation, a relief fund for live music touring and venue crews who are facing hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There’s also a copy of “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” signed by McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and a sheet of handwritten “Blowin’ in the Wind” lyrics signed by Bob Dylan. The album’s minimum is $5,000 and the Dylan minimum is $15,000.
Rock Memorabilia
Nielsen
Ratings
In prime-time last week, CBS was the most-watched network with an average 4.8 million viewers. NBC had 3.2 million, ABC had 3 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision had 1.3 million and Telemundo had 960,000.
Fox News Channel topped the cable networks, averaging 2.1 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.5 million, HGTV had 1.2 million and CNN had 907,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” was first in the evening news ratings contest, averaging 7.95 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.46 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.86 million.
For the week of May 3-9, the top 20 programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. “NCIS,” CBS, 8.68 million.
2. “FBI,” CBS, 8.06 million.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.78 million.
4. “The Equalizer,” CBS, 7.224 million.
5. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.221 million.
6. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7.09 million.
7. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.64 million.
8. “911,” Fox, 5.91 million.
9. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.87 million.
10. “American Idol,” ABC, 5.74 million.
11. “Chicago P.D.,” NBC. 5.69 million.
12. “The Voice,” NBC, 5.64 million.
13. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 5.60 million.
14. “Bull,” CBS, 5.53 million.
15. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 4.89 million.
16. “Mom,” CBS, 5.29 million.
17. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 5.19 million.
18. “911: Lone Star,” Fox, 5.11 million.
19. “Magnum, P.I.,” CBS, 5 million.
20. “NCIS: new Orleans,” CBS, 4.96 million.
Ratings
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