from Bruce
Anecdotes
Injuries/Illnesses
• Dr. Rose Smart treats many injured ballet dancers. Among other things, she pushes a dancer’s lumbar back into place when needed. Normally, she does this by having the injured person lie on her back and flex her legs against her. Then Dr. Smart would tell the injured person to give a push, and the lumbar would go back into place. However, early in her career, she was unaware of the strength of ballet dancers. She once told a ballerina to push her leg with all her strength — and Dr. Smart ended up peeling herself from the wall. On another occasion, she did the same procedure with a male dancer, and he broke one of her ribs. Now she uses a different procedure to treat dancers with lumbar problems.
• Polly, the young niece of Alexander Woollcott, had to see a doctor because of a sore leg. Polly was convinced that she was going to die, and she accepted her fate, but her mother was terribly upset, especially when Polly talked about dying. When they arrived at the doctor’s office, the doctor looked at Polly, who was serene, and he looked at Polly’s mother, who was distraught. Then he stuck a thermometer into the mother’s mouth.
• Don Marquis suffered a series of strokes, which made him unable to work. Low on funds, he resigned from The Players Club. The treasurer of the club, David McKinley, wrote him a letter, to which Mr. Marquis responded, “My dear Dave, I have your letter in which you express the hope that Dame Fortune may be smiling on me. She is, but it is the most sarcastic goddam smile I ever saw on anyone’s face.”
• F.E. Smith, later Lord Birkenhead, 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.
• Staying in a hospital can be expensive for the patient, the insurance company, or the government, or a combination of these.. When Quaker humorist Tom Mullen was in a hospital, he roomed with a Medicare patient who wanted a nurse to put this sign by his bed: “Your Tax Dollars at Work.” By the way, not all nurses have a good bedside manner. When Mr. Mullen was in a hospital, a nurse looked at his medical chart and then told him, “You are one sick puppy.”
• British war hero Lord Nelson had one arm. A stupid person once told him, “I beg your pardon, my lord, but you have only one arm.” Lord Nelson used his remaining arm to pick up his empty sleeve, then he looked into it with a surprised look on his face. “Bless my soul,” he said. “I do believe you are right.”
• While on his deathbed, John Philpot Curran coughed frequently. When his physician told him that he was coughing with more difficulty, he replied, “That is surprising, since I have been practicing all night.”
Language
• Chico Marx sometimes asked his daughter, Maxine, to speak French in front of French visitors because she had studied French for years with private teachers. Charles Boyer complimented her accent, and Chico said, “She better have a good accent. It cost me $20,000.” Maxine met someone through a practical joke. She and some girlfriends were thinking of someone to prank-call. One girlfriend worked as a teller in bank, and she had Maxine call a bank customer and pretend to be from France and to have met him as a party. She called him, faked a French accent, and pretended to know him. He asked her to meet him for dinner, she accepted, and all during dinner she kept up the fake French accent. She discovered that she liked him — a lot — and at the end of the dinner, she said in her fake French accent that she had something to tell him. Then, in her regular American voice, she said, “I really don’t have to talk like that at all.” Fortunately, he laughed. Later, they got married.
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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
Track: "In My Skin"
EP: ANEMOIA
Artist: Sheila Green
Artist Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Info: “Good for Your Health”
Music by Jonny Daly
Lyrics by Sheila Green
Sheila Green also sings a great punk cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” available on Bandcamp for “Name Your Price (Includes FREE)” for one-track single.
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE) for five-track EP
Genre: Rock. Punk.
Links:
ANEMOIA
Sheila Green on Bandcamp
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Georgia
Wonkette'e Stephen has wonderful comments on the politics in Georgia, Among lots of snark:
The obituaries for Perdue’s political career all focus on his foolish choice to challenge a sitting governor with deep connections in the state. According to Politico’s recap of the bloodletting, Kemp’s campaign went “fucking scorched earth” and "methodically dismantled” Perdue’s political operation. He had no money, no hope, just Trump’s lies and his putrid bigotry...
If you count all the 2020 recounts, this makes the fourth time Trump has lost Georgia.
The "DJT Vendetta Tour,” as Chris Christie calls it, flamed out spectacularly. Secretary of State Brian Raffensperger, who also foiled Trump’s election theft schemes, soundly defeated Trump-endorsed Big Lie enthusiast Jody Hice, passing the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff...
At his victory party,{Herschel} Walker was asked about new gun laws after the Texas school massacre. The Russian roulette expert responded: “What I like to do is see it and everything and stuff.”
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Quiet afternoon at the laundromat-of-the-darned.
21 Stories With the Same Headline
The Onion
Since 2014, satirical website The Onion has published virtually the same article — each with the same headline, “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” — 21 times, each one following a major gun massacre in the United States.
On Wednesday, The Onion posted all 21 of the articles on its homepage, calling stark attention to the unabated epidemic of mass gun killings in the country. That included the latest installment in the series, following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead at an elementary school.
Each of the articles quotes a fictional person-on-the-street saying the same thing — “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them” — which The Onion articles say “echo[es] sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations.”
In addition, The Onion on Wednesday reposted seven archived articles to its homepage taking aim at the National Rifle Association, including “NRA Sets 1,000 Killed In School Shooting As Amount It Would Take For Them To Reconsider Much Of Anything” (from 2012) and “NRA Calls For More Common-Sense Gun Deaths” from 2018.
The Onion
40 Years Later
Toni Basil
Toni Basil was already a 38-year-old showbiz veteran when her bouncy hit “Mickey” was released in the U.S. in May 1982, and in many ways the song was just a blip on her dizzyingly lengthy résumé. The daughter of a vaudevillian acrobat/comedienne and a Vegas orchestra leader, Antonia Basilotta had literally grown up watching the likes of Nat King Cole, Josephine Baker, Judy Garland, and Frank Sinatra from the stage wings of the Sahara Hotel in the ‘50s and ‘60s. By the time the ‘80s and her Devo-assisted debut album Word of Mouth came along, she’d danced and/or choreographed for Shindig!, The T.A.M.I. Show, Viva Las Vegas, the Monkees’ Head movie, and American Graffiti; acted in Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces; choreographed David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs tour and Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” and “Crosseyed & Painless” music videos; and founded/managed the pioneering street-dance troupe the Lockers (who actually once toured with Frank Sinatra).
But despite all those impressive credits, many fans will forever know Basil for “Mickey,” one of the greatest one-hit-wonders of the ‘80s, or possibly of all time. “Mickey” was actually a remake of the 1979 single “Kitty” by British glam-pop group Racey, written by the famous powerpop production duo of Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. But the track wasn’t a smash until Basil added that infectious and iconic “Oh Mickey, you're so fine” pep-squad chant — inspired by her own cheerleading days at Las Vegas High — and slipped back into her old high school uniform for “Mickey’s” low-budget yet Grammy-nominated music video, an early-MTV staple that she conceived, directed, produced, and choreographed herself. (Basil is still in possession of the video’s storyboard.) However, it took 40 years for Basil to actually obtain the rights to “Mickey.”
In January 2020, Basil released a “recut from scratch” new recording of her signature song under the title “Hey Mickey,” featuring “one of the original Dorsey High cheerleaders that originally did the chant in the first place,” because, as she tells Yahoo Entertainment/SiriusXM Volume, “I really thought I should put my foot down and receive money for it.” But last week, after a nearly decade-long legal battle and Basil claiming that she never profited from the single, the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Court ruled that the now 78-year-old artist is the sole owner of the recording copyright for “Mickey” and Word of Mouth. “There is strong evidence that artistic control lay solely with Basilotta, not with the recording company or — by extension — [record producer Greg] Mathieson,” the judges wrote. “Basilotta appears to have primarily wielded creative control, selecting songs and instrumental musicians, devising the creative concepts for the recordings, and even helping Mathieson mix the master tapes.”
Basil made her recording debut back in 1966 with the title song for Bruce Conner’s short art film Breakaway (which is considered by many pop scholars to be one of the first music videos), but then, as she explains to Yahoo/SiriusXM, her “career took a different lane” with choreography and acting. But 10 years later, she sang the jazz number “Wham Rebop Boom Bam” on both Saturday Night Live Season 1 and The Merv Griffin Show, which led to sold-out shows at the Sunset Strip’s Roxy club and renewed interest in her as a potential pop star.
Toni Basil
Covid Superspreader Event
Upfronts 2022
The first in-person upfronts in three years turning into a superspreader event is not entirely surprising given the confluence of the festivities’ unfortunate timing amid a surge in New York and not-very-strict Covid protocols as businesses across the country have been lifting restrictions. The majority of attendees did not wear masks most of the time, and, while we hear some executives underwent daily testing as part of their own companies’ guidelines, none of the non-affiliated guests was required to take a Covid test throughout the week. (Vax cards were mandated at all venues.)
On Monday, the first day of the upfronts, New York City health officials strongly recommended that people wear masks when they were in densely populated indoor spaces. But they didn’t go as far as mandating this, and for the next couple of days, there were not a lot of masks seen at the events targeting ad buyers.
The NBCUniversal upfront, which kicked off proceedings at Radio City Music Hall with elaborate production numbers involving dozens of performers, and Fox’s (mostly pre-taped) event at Skylight on Monday were largely mask-free affairs, as was the Disney event at Basketball City on Tuesday, where the majority attendees were huddled together on bleachers at the back, behind the key execs and top advertisers who were sitting on sofas and tables near the front.
While the extent of the Covid outbreak tied to the upfronts did not become clear until this week, there was a general sense of inevitability among those attending last week who had accepted that there was a strong likelihood of catching Covid as New York approached the orange high alert. As one industry player told Deadline at the time, it felt like the “risk of doing business” these days.
Upfronts 2022
Exits NRA Rally Concert
Don McLean
Don McLean has pulled out of this weekend’s National Rifle Association annual meeting following Tuesday’s tragic shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two adults.
The NRA’s Grand Ole Night of Freedom concert is still scheduled to go forward on Saturday in Houston, roughly 275 miles from Uvalde, with performances from Lee Greenwood, Larry Gatlin, former Restless Heart lead singer Larry Stewart, Jacob Bryant and T. Graham Brown. The event will be hosted by SiriusXM’s Y2K host Danielle Peck. Representatives for Greenwood, Gatlin and Brown have all confirmed they plan to go forward with their performances on Saturday. Representatives for Stewart and Bryant did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
The event is part of a three-day celebration of “firearms and the second amendment” with scheduled speeches from (the) former President Donald Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Born In Canada).
Tuesday’s incident was the country’s deadliest mass shooting so far this year, but far from its only one. So far in 2022, the U.S. has seen 212 mass shooting in 145 days, according to Gun Violence Archive.
Don McLean
Only 12 Years
Josh Duggar
Former reality TV star Josh Duggar was sentenced Wednesday to about 12 1/2 years in prison after he was convicted of receiving child pornography.
Duggar was also convicted of possessing child pornography in December, but U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks dismissed that conviction after ruling that, under federal law, it was an included offense in the receiving child pornography count.
Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks to give the maximum term of 20 years to Duggar, whose large family was the focus of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting.” They argued in a pre-sentencing court filing that Duggar has a “deep-seated, pervasive and violent sexual interest in children.”
The judge sentenced Duggar to 12 years and seven months in prison, one day after denying a defense motion to overturn the guilty verdict on grounds of insufficient evidence or to order a new trial.
TLC canceled “19 Kids and Counting” in 2015 following allegations that Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier. Authorities began investigating the abuse in 2006 after receiving a tip from a family friend but concluded that the statute of limitations on any possible charges had expired.
Josh Duggar
Expanding Gun Rights
Supreme Court
As the nation reels from one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, the Supreme Court is poised to issue a ruling that would likely increase the number of guns in public places.
Justices heard arguments last fall in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, and the court is scheduled to issue an opinion within the next few weeks.
The case was brought by two New York men who challenged a state law that requires them to have a “proper cause,” or special need, in order to carry a firearm outside their home.
Questions and comments by justices during those oral arguments revealed that the court’s six conservatives are all skeptical of the law.
If the New York’s law is struck down, it would have a ripple effect for other states with similar restrictions, such as California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Supreme Court
Oscillating Around Earth's Core
Giant Magnetic Waves
Earth's interior is a far from quiet place. Deep below our surface activities, the planet rumbles with activity, from plate tectonics to convection currents that circulate through the hot magmatic fluids far underneath the crust.
Now scientists studying satellite data of Earth have identified something inside Earth we've never seen before: a new type of magnetic wave that sweeps around the surface of our planet's core, every seven years.
This discovery could offer insight into how Earth's magnetic field is generated, and provide clues of our planet's thermal history and evolution – that is, the gradual cooling of the planetary interior.
Earth's magnetic field is the subject of much fascination for scientists. Research to date suggests that the invisible structure forms a protective 'bubble' around our planet, keeping harmful radiation out and the atmosphere in, thus allowing life to thrive.
But the magnetic field isn't static. It fluctuates in strength, size, and shape, has features we don't understand, and is gradually weakening over time.
Giant Magnetic Waves
Rescued Elk Calf
‘Cinder’
Firefighters have rescued an abandoned newborn elk calf found amid the ashes of the nation’s largest wildfire as calving season approaches its peak in New Mexico and fires rage across the American West.
Missoula, Montana-based firefighter Nate Sink said Tuesday that he happened upon the motionless elk calf on the ground of a fire-blackened New Mexico forest as he patrolled and extinguished lingering hot spots.
“The whole area is just surrounded in a thick layer of ash and burned trees. I didn’t think it was alive,” said Sink, who was deployed to the state to help contain a wildfire that by Wednesday had spread across 486 square miles (1,260 square kilometers) and destroyed hundreds of structures.
The 32-pound (14.5-kilogram) singed bull calf, dubbed “Cinder,” was taken for care to a nearby ranch and is now regaining strength at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Espanola, north of Santa Fe.
Veterinarian Kathleen Ramsay at Cottonwood Rehab says she paired Cinder with a full-grown surrogate elk to be raised with as little human contact as possible.
‘Cinder’
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