from Bruce
Anecdotes
Education
• An engineering professor gave his class this question on a final exam: Using a barometer and any other tools you wish, how would you measure the height of a building? Note: You must use the barometer.” Only one student gave the correct answer: “I would climb to the top of the building, tie the barometer to a piece of string, lower the barometer to the ground, then I would measure the length of the string. This would tell me the height of the building.”
• The first dance choreographed by George Balanchine that ballerina Illaria Obidenna Ladré ever saw was performed by Mr. Balanchine and Olga Mungalova to Arthur Rubenstein’s “Night.” Because she was a young dancer studying with other young dancers, and because the choreography was very daring, Illaria and her classmates were forbidden to watch the rehearsals — so of course they all did.
• When Jon Scieszka was in the 5th grade, his teacher asked him, “What’s so funny?” Jon replied with a story about a man who had no arms but made his living as a bell-ringer by hitting the bell with his head. Someone asked, “What’s that guy’s name?” Someone else answered, “I don’t know, but his face sure rings a bell.” The students laughed; the teacher didn’t.
• Influential dance teacher Nicolas Legat knew and studied under Marius Petipa, the choreographer of Swan Lake. Mr. Legat described Mr. Petipa’s “system” in this way: “To look for beauty, grace, and simplicity, and obey no other rules.”
Fans
• Dolly Parton respects her fans, and she wears full makeup even when she is traveling to a photo shoot at which she knows that her makeup will be immediately removed and reapplied. Makeup artist extraordinaire Kevyn Aucoin once asked her why she did that, and she replied, “I have to look my best at all times for my fans — what if I’m in a car accident?”
• In the days of American slavery, General George Washington was walking down the street when an aged African-American saw him and took off his hat and bowed out of respect. General Washington promptly took off his hat and returned the bow. Later, he explained to a shocked white politician: “I cannot be less civil than a poor Negro.”
• Bob Denver played Gilligan on Gilligan’s Island, a role that has followed him ever since. While he was vacationing on Hawaii, a Hawaiian family found out where he was staying and sang the Gilligan’s Island theme song outside his window at 6 a.m. until he woke up and said hi.
Fathers
• Roger Ebert’s father, whom Roger called “Daddy,” used to tell a story that he had learned from his own father. The story was about an immigrant from Germany to this country. In the old country, he had learned the English words “coffee” and “apple pie.” At a restaurant, he ordered apple pie, and when the server asked if he wanted anything on top of it, he said, “Coffee.” Roger started writing early for a newspaper. Before he was in his junior year of high school, he got a job covering the Urbana Tigers for The News-Gazette even though this meant that he had to work until 1 or 2 a.m. a couple of nights a week, and he had to drive home by himself. Roger was good at the job, and he won the Illinois Associated Press sportswriting contest for an article that he wrote during his senior year of high school. When Roger’s father lay dying of cancer in a hospital bed, Roger took him the framed certificate that he had received for winning the contest. Although Roger later won a Pulitzer Prize for his movie criticism, he says about the award that he took to his dying father, “It was the most important prize I ever won.” During one visit to the hospital, following his father’s surgery, Roger saw his father and mother do and say something that he is grateful to have seen and heard. Roger writes, “He sat up on the edge of his bed. ‘Hold me, Bub,’ he said. ‘It hurts so much.’ She took him in her arms. ‘Oh, Wally,’ she said, ‘I love you so much.’”
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Free Downloads
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Apple
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Barnes and Noble
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Kobo
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Smashwords
Don’t Fear the Reaper — Can Be Read Online Here at No Cost: Smashwords Online Reader
NEW BLOG - davidbrucebooks: FREE PDFs
Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Track: "Surf Raptor"
EP: WE WERE STRANGERS
Artist: Blue Spectre
Artist Location: Brighton, UK
Info:
Pepe Roni, a fan, wrote, “Oh yeah, what needs be said. Hit play, crack open a cold one, and ride this puppy into the sunset. Great jams. Favorite track: ‘Exploding Eyes.’”
Price: £1 for track; £3 for four-track EP
Genre: Surf.
Links:
WE WERE STRANGERS
Blue Spectre on Bandcamp
Blue Spectre 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
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Ukraine
Other Links:
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
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
Another day, another plumber, really running late.
No More Streaming-Only Debuts
The Oscars
The Oscars are getting back to normal, eligibility-wise. After two years of pandemic-related adjustments, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Wednesday that Oscar hopefuls will once again have to launch their films in movie theaters.
Qualifying films are allowed to premiere “day and date” in movie theaters and on a streaming service, but their theatrical run must go for a minimum of seven consecutive days with at least one showing a day in one of six approved major metropolitan areas. The locations are still Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The rules and changes for the 95th Academy Awards in 2023 were approved by the organization’s board of governors at their most recent meeting, where they determined the eligibility window would return to the standard calendar year. The board also said that individual films may submit no more than three songs for the best original song award.
One rule says that, “no promotional materials, or anything of value, may be given to members at screenings or otherwise.” Another specifies that prior to nominations, no promotional materials, or anything of value, may be given to members at screenings or otherwise” and after nominations until polls close, “screenings may not include any receptions, entertainment, complimentary food and beverage, or other hospitality.”
The Oscars
Drops Lawsuit
Sacha Baron Cohen
Actor Sacha Baron Cohen has dropped his lawsuit against a Massachusetts cannabis dispensary that used an image of his character Borat on a billboard without his permission.
A document filed in Boston federal court on Tuesday said the two sides have agreed to dismiss the case brought last year by the “Borat” star.
The legal filing did not mention any settlement in the case. Emails seeking comment were sent Wednesday to lawyers for Baron Cohen and the dispensary, Somerset-based Solar Therapeutics Inc.
The billboard showed Baron Cohen posing as Borat with two thumbs up and the words “It’s nice!” — one of Borat’s catchphrases. The billboard along a Massachusetts interstate highway was taken down three days after Baron Cohen’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist order to the dispensary, according to the suit.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Honorary Degree
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has Grammys galore and now she has a new title — “doctor.”
The superstar received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from New York University on Wednesday, blowing kisses as the crowd roared when she walked toward the stage at a packed Yankee Stadium.
Sporting her signature red lipstick and newly awarded honorary robe, Swift joked to the thousands of graduates assembled: “I’m 90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called 22.
“I never got to have a normal college experience per se. I went to public high school until 10th grade and then finished my education doing home school work on the floor of airport terminals,” Swift said in her commencement speech.
Swift concluded her speech by telling graduates that making mistakes is inevitable but “when hard things happen to us, we will recover, we will learn from it, we will grow more resilient because of it. As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep and breathe out. I am a doctor now so I know how breathing works.
Taylor Swift
"Femme nue couchée"
Pablo Picasso
A painting by Pablo Picasso portraying his former lover Marie-Thérèse Walter as a sea creature with tentacles sold for just over $67.5 million in an auction on Tuesday.
"Femme nue couchée," or “Naked woman reclining," went up for auction in a Sotheby's sale in New York, selling for $7.5 million more than the at least $60 million it was expected to fetch, according to Reuters.
In the portrait, Walter is depicted as a tentacled sea creature in a reclining position, with her head tilted back. According to Sotheby’s, Walter’s love of swimming partly inspired the nautical theme of the portrait.
The portrait is regarded as one of Picasso's "most monumental and uninhibited portrayals" of his muse, Walter, the auction house said. Tuesday was the first instance of the painting going up for auction, it said.
Pablo Picasso
Improperly Punished
Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman
A Pentagon watchdog reported Wednesday that administration officials unlawfully retaliated against Army Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman — brother of a key witness in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial — when he was demoted from his post at the National Security Council.
The findings do not recommend any punishment for military officials, but do back up Vindman’s assertions that he was unfairly disciplined for what should have been protected whistleblower statements about violations by senior White House staff in their dealings with Ukrainian officials and allegations of sexism and poor management at the NSC.
“Based on a preponderance of the evidence, we conclude that it is more likely than not that the complainant was the subject of unfavorable personnel actions and that these were in reprisal for his protected communications,” a newly released report from the Defense Department Inspector General states.
Yevgeny’s brother, Alexander, was the NSC Director for European Affairs in 2019 when he testified before House lawmakers that Trump improperly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate presidential candidate Joe Biden, a political rival of Trump.
Both brothers were reassigned from their National Security Council spots a few months later, with Trump the twice-impeached loser labeling the two as “insubordinate.”
Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman
Hits New Level
Tech Paranoia
Donald Trump A failed game show host has had a question for his friends and advisers in the past several weeks: “Is Google trying to fuck me?”
The source of his paranoia, according to two people with knowledge of the ex-president’s query, was the absence of an Android app for his struggling social media app, Truth Social. Since it launched in February, the app has been available only on Apple devices, leaving Android users — roughly 40 percent of the U.S. mobile device market — without access to the platform. This has left Trump with questions about the status of the product and whether his perceived enemies at Google had any plans to reject it.
“He keeps hearing about how Google and YouTube have it out for him … including on Truth Social, and I think he’s taking [it] seriously,” says one source who’s discussed the topic with the twice-impeached former president. (In some instances since last month, Trump the sad old man has instead asked if Google is trying to “screw with me” on Truth Social or has simply inquired, “What’s up with Google?”)
In a statement about the future availability of a Truth Social Android app, TMTG chief executive Devin Nunes, the former congressman and vociferous Trump grifter ally, appeared to lean in to Trump’s the hustler's suspicions , hinting that Google’s approval of the app in its Play Store could be uncertain. Truth Social, Nunes wrote, was on the verge of making the app available in web browsers at the end of May: “After that we will launch an Android app … pending approval from Google!” A week prior to Nunes’ announcement, Trump the clueless legacy student alluded to Android availability during a rally in Ohio, telling fans that “non-iPhone users are coming very, very soon” to the platform.
A censorious Big Tech boogeyman blocking the former president’s app sounds like a plausible storyline to conservative ears, but there’s just one problem with the former president’s suspicions about a Google plot: It appears to exist entirely in his own head.
Tech Paranoia
Mind-Altering
Parasite
The brain-hijacking parasite Toxoplasma gondii seems to be almost everywhere. The microscopic invader is thought to infect up to 50 percent of people, and a range of studies suggests it may alter human behavior, in addition to that of many other animals.
The parasite has been linked with a large range of neurological disorders, including schizophrenia and psychotic episodes, and scientists keep uncovering more mysterious effects that may result from infection.
In one such new study, researchers found that men and women infected by the parasite ended up being rated as more attractive and healthier-looking than non-infected individuals.
On the face of it, that might sound strange and unlikely. But hypothetically speaking, the phenomenon could make sense from an evolutionary biology standpoint, scientists say.
Amidst the many neurobiological changes T. gondii infection appears to bring about in its hosts, researchers hypothesize some of the effects may occasionally benefit infected animals – which might then benefit the parasite too, by subsequently helping to spur its own transmission prospects.
Parasite
Carnivorous Plants
Nepenthes bokorensis
The Cambodian government recently asked people to stop picking a rare carnivorous plant that, when viewed from a certain angle, looks a lot like human male genitalia.
The Cambodian Ministry of Environment shared images on Facebook of three women snatching up pitcher plants and posing with them, and ministry officials requested that members of the public leave the rare plants alone, Cambodian news website the Khmer Times reported.
Some news websites have reported that this plant is Nepenthes holdenii, but it's actually a closely related species called Nepenthes bokorensis, Jeremy Holden, a freelance wildlife photographer who first discovered N. Holdenii, and François Mey, a botanical illustrator who described both species, separately told Live Science.
N. holdenii and N. bokorensis are similar in appearance and both only occur on nearby mountain ranges, which may explain the confusion. However, N. holdenii is the rarer of the two species and only a few researchers know where to find it.
Nepenthes bokorensis
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
