from Bruce
Anecdotes
Wisdom
• Catholics and Lutherans can work together, despite past differences. For example, Reverend Vincent Heier, a Catholic in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, invited some Missouri-Kansas Lutherans to meet in St. Louis Cathedral. He welcomed the Lutherans by saying, “We are pleased to provide the cathedral. Please don’t nail anything to the doors.”
• Joseph Pike and Samuel Randall were asked by Munster Province Meeting to pay visits to several Friends and speak about the subject of plainness. They did an excellent job — before speaking to anyone, they first went through their own homes and got rid of their own superfluities.
Work
• Mulla Nasrudin made plans for the next day, telling his wife, “If it rains, I shall work inside the house, and if it doesn’t rain, I shall plow the field.” His wife replied, “Whenever you make plans, you should say, ‘God willing.’” “Why?” asked Nasrudin. “It shall either rain or not rain. There is no third choice.” The next day was sunny, so Nasrudin set out to plow his field, but a group of soldiers kidnapped him, forced him to be their guide to the next town, then beat him for his trouble. Late at night, black and blue all over, Nasrudin returned home. His wife had locked the door, so Nasrudin knocked. His wife asked, “Who is it?” Nasrudin replied, “It is I — God willing.”
• Zen masters sometimes hide themselves, appearing to be ordinary people while practicing Zen in secret. One such Zen master took an unusual occupation in Japan — he ran a floating outdoor tea room. He searched for spots of natural beauty, filled with flowers and beautiful scents, then made tea there for anyone who wanted it. This sign announced his prices: “The price of tea is however much you give me, from a hundred pounds of gold to half a penny. You can even drink for free, if you like; but I can’t give you a better bargain than that.”
• Pope John XXIII went out of his way to visit the poor sections of Rome. On one visit, he spoke with a 12-year-old boy and asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. The boy answered, “Pope, like you.” Pope John XXIII replied, “You’ve chosen a difficult vocation. It is — you can believe me — a life of sacrifice.”
• Joe “Ducky” Medwick, a major league baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals, met the Pope in the company of several people who announced their occupations: “I’m a comic,” “I’m a singer,” etc. When it was Ducky’s turn to be presented to the Pope, he said, “Your Holiness, I’m a Cardinal.”
• At an outdoor rally at which Pope John Paul II spoke, workers were warned against calling the portable potties “Porta-Johns,” as the Holy Father might find the name offensive. Therefore, the workers called the portable potties “Vati-Cans.”
Yom Kippur
• Although most Jews fast on Yom Kippur, Jews are permitted to eat if they are gravely ill. When the Rabbi of Rachmistrivka became gravely ill, his physician decided that the Rabbi would have to eat on Yom Kippur. The physician was loath to tell the Rabbi this, so he stammered when he spoke to him. The Rabbi listened, then he asked, “What are you trying to say? Are you trying to tell me that I must eat on Yom Kippur?” The physician answered, “Yes.” The Rabbi then said, “Important decisions such as that should be clearly stated. In such important matters, you must be completely decisive.”
• In 1965, the World Series was played between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Minneapolis Twins. The opening game of the World Series was on Yom Kippur, and Dodger pitcher Sandy Koufax went to the synagogue rather than the ball park. Fellow Dodger Don Drysdale was on the mound, where he gave up six runs before being taken out of the game in the third inning. After being taken out, Mr. Drysdale told his manager, “I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too.”
• On Yom Kippur, the voice of radio deejay Phil Spector was on the air when a Jewish man telephoned him and asked indignantly, “How can you, a Jewish boy, be working on Yom Kippur?” Mr. Spector replied, “I’m not working — I’m on tape.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "I Know You're The One For Me Baby"
Album: WASH AWAY THE DAY
Artist: The Brigadier
Artist Location: UK
Info: “The Brigadier is Welsh Singer, Songwriter and Producer Matt Williams. He writes melodic and quirky pop-rock songs. He lives in Devon with his wife and two children.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $6 (USD) for 13-track album
Links:
WASH AWAY THE DAY
The Brigadier
The Brigadier on YouTube
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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
When the shittens were small, they'd bring in twigs, and over the last year their twigs have gotten bigger. Today, it was a small tree branch, with leaves.
Another Gag Order
CNN
A CNN lawyer spoke out Wednesday on the network, revealing that former president Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up)’s administration had sought a reporter’s email records for months in what he called Department of Justice “abuses.”
In a digital piece under his own byline, CNN executive vice president and general counsel David Vigilante detailed that he had been bound by a gag order since July 2020 and could not, until Wednesday, reveal details of the previous administration’s quest to obtain Barbara Starr’s email records.
“This article is the first time in almost a year that I have been able to publicly address what happened to CNN without fear of prosecution. While we are gladdened by recent commitments from both the President and the Office of the Attorney General, these commitments must be made permanent and binding on future officeholders to have any meaning,” he wrote. “History teaches us that secret tribunals are ripe for abuse by even well-intentioned officials. Given recent revelations about other Barr DOJ abuses, it is fair to question whether the very high standard for requesting these secret orders was ever satisfied. Indeed, it seems impossible that what a district court judge described as ‘scenarios unanchored in any facts’ could ever survive the scrutiny of an objective DOJ official.”
On July 17, 2020, he explained, “through our parent company WarnerMedia, I received a secret order issued by a federal magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Virginia. That court, based on an ex parte submission approved by the William Barr-led Justice Department, had ruled that CNN must produce all of Ms. Starr’s email headers from a two-month period in 2017.”
Vigilante said CNN retained outside counsel, but could not acknowledge the order “even existed” to anyone else, including Starr herself, under threat of ” charges of contempt and even criminal prosecution for obstruction of justice.” He further elaborated on the various things he wasn’t allowed to do or know, saying “all the tools lawyers use every day to navigate these situations were refused” to CNN and his “attempts to negotiate with the DOJ went nowhere.” Vigilante noted that he wasn’t even aware of what the investigation was about.
CNN
‘The Late Show’ Wins
Late-Night Ratings
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was the most-watched late-night show in total viewers for the 2020-21 television season – its fifth consecutive year at the top.
There are, however, some interesting battles emerging across the broadcast networks involving Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Late Show with James Corden.
Using full-season Live+7 ratings from Nielsen, Colbert comfortably won the spot with a total average of 2.95 million viewers – also the first time ever the CBS show has had a five-season winning streak. But for the first time in its 18-year history, Jimmy Kimmel Live! beat NBC’s The Tonight Show in total viewers. The ABC show beat the NBC show 1.75M-1.54M across all viewers.
When it comes to 12:30 a.m., the battle between Seth Meyers and James Corden is also interesting.
Across total viewers using Live+7, Meyers’ Late Night averaged 1.01M viewers over the season, with Corden’s The Late Late Show averaging 971,000.
Late-Night Ratings
Strong National Museum of Play
Game Shows
The Strong National Museum of Play on Wednesday announced the creation of the National Archives of Game Show History, to be stocked with scripts, props, set designs and other materials collected from game show performers, writers and executives.
The project is co-founded by television producers Howard Blumenthal of “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” and Bob Boden of “Funny You Should Ask.”
The idea has found early supporters in “Jeopardy” champion-turned-guest host Ken Jennings and Wink Martindale, who spent decades guiding contestants through “Gambit,” “High Rollers,” “Tic-Tac-Dough” and “Debt.”
“I grew up watching game shows as a daily ritual,” Jennings said in a news release from The Strong. “They’ve shaped who I am as a person, as well as our cultural landscape.”
“It is wonderful to hear about the National Archives of Game Show History stepping up to capture and preserve the legacy of game shows,” Martindale said in a statement. “Without this initiative, many primary resources relating to these shows, as well as oral histories of their creators and talent, risked being lost forever.”
Game Shows
Widow Donates
J.D. Salinger
The widow of author J.D. Salinger wants to donate the former general store she owns in New Hampshire to the town so it can be converted into a library.
Salinger, author of “The Catcher in the Rye,” spent the last nearly six decades of his life in Cornish, far removed from the public eye. He died in 2010.
Colleen O’Neill, his widow, bought the town’s former general store in 2016. It reopened, but closed about 18 months later.
“A library can be that vital place that helps our community thrive,” she said in a letter read aloud by a friend at Tuesday’s Town Meeting, the Valley News reported. “Libraries today are more than just about books. They are about connecting us to the wider world, serving the community and creating a sense of place. What I love about this town, what I love about Cornish, is that when help is needed, this community comes together. It is what makes Cornish so amazing and so special.”
The town’s current library was built around 1910 and lacks off-street parking and running water, library trustee Laura Cousineau said. It also isn’t compliant under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
J.D. Salinger
Change Moon’s Orbit
‘The Dumbest Guy in Congress’
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Forrest Trump), who admitted recently that some consider him “the dumbest guy in Congress,” appears intent on proving those people right. On Tuesday, the Republican congressman asked a representative of the U.S. Forest Service, tasked with managing America’s national forests and grasslands, if the agency might consider branching out, so to speak.
“I understand from what’s been testified to, the Forest Service and the [Bureau of Land Management], you want very much to work on the issue of climate change. I was informed by the past director of NASA that they’ve found the moon’s orbit is changing slightly and so is the Earth’s orbit around the sun. We know there’s been significant solar flare activity, and so — is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM can do to change the course of the moon’s orbit, or the Earth’s orbit around the sun?” Gohmert inquired. “Obviously that would have profound effects on our climate.”
It’s true that the moon is currently drifting away from Earth at rate of roughly 3.8 centimeters per year, a speed that has fluctuated for the last, oh, 4.5 billion years or so. And, though Gohmert didn’t say it outright, it’s also true that the speed of “lunar retreat,” as scientists call the phenomenon, has at times coincided with major changes to the Earth’s climate, like the melting of the glaciers. But it’s changes to the Earth’s climate that cause fluctuations in the rate of lunar retreat, rather than lunar retreat causing fluctuations in the Earth’s climate. Which is another way of saying: If the Forest Service’s efforts at combating climate change were so wildly successful that they managed to stop the melting of Earth’s glaciers in its tracks, those efforts could, theoretically, have an impact on the moon’s orbit, per Gohmert’s request.
But it was unclear what Gohmert hoped the Forest Service might be able to do, at this juncture, about the complicated gravitational dance the moon and Earth have been locked in for several million millennia. Still, Jennifer Eberlien, associate deputy chief for the National Forest System, did her best to humor Gohmert’s inquiry, very nearly keeping a straight face as she answered. “I would have to follow-up with you on that one, Mr. Gohmert,” Eberlien said.
The Texas Republican, for what it’s worth, seemed open to waiting for an answer. “Yeah, well, if you figure out a way that you, in the Forest Service, can make that change, I’d like to know,” Gohmert said.
‘The Dumbest Guy in Congress’
England's Cultural Past
'Forgotten'
A new English Heritage exhibition unveiled on Wednesday aims to shine a light on figures traditionally forgotten by England's cultural history.
Painting our Past: The African Diaspora in England draws together new portraits of six historical figures - spanning Roman Britain to the 20th Century - that reflect the long history of African people in England.
The figures include Septimius Severus, an African-born Roman emperor who strengthened Hadrian's Wall, and James Chappell, a black 17th Century servant at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire who saved the life of the then owner, Sir Christopher Hatton.
The paintings are on display at the English Heritage-linked forts, abbeys, historic houses and barracks where these individuals lived, visited or worked. This includes the return of the portrait of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria's African goddaughter, to Osborne House, Victoria's seaside home on the Isle of Wight.
'Forgotten'
Skeletons Reunited
Viking-Era
The skeletons of two related Viking-era men, one who died in central Denmark and the other who was killed in England during a massacre ordered by a king, are set to be reunited for an exhibition opening in Copenhagen this month.
Scientists on both sides of the North Sea have established a genetic link between the Norsemen. DNA tests showed “that they are either half brothers or nephew and uncle,” University of Copenhagen geneticist Eske Willerslev said.
The man from the central Denmark island of Funen was a farmer in his 50s; his skeleton was excavated in 2005 near the town of Otterup. He stood 182-centimeters-tall (just under 6 feet), had arthritis in most of his bones and signs of inflammation inside some ribs which could indicate tuberculosis, according to Odense City Museums chief curator Jesper Hansen.
The man likely took part in the raids for which Vikings remain notorious because “he also has a violent lesion on his left pelvis, which may have originated from a proper stab from a sword. The wound from that blow may have cost him his life because it did not heal,” Hansen said in a statement.
Across the North Sea, the skeleton of a younger man was found in a mass grave near Oxford, England in 2008 with the remains of at least 35 other men. All were killed more than 1,000 years ago when the king ordered the slaying of dozens of Danish settlers.
Viking-Era
Four-Headed
Echidna
Monotremes are among the world's strangest animals, mixing mammalian and reptilian characteristics in the one creature.
Monotremes are the only egg-laying mammals, but they also have a number of other unique reproductive characteristics.
For the males, their testes never descend, they have no scrotum, when not in use, their penis is stored internally and their ejaculate contains bundles of up to 100 sperm that swim cooperatively until they reach the egg.
Unlike other mammals, the monotreme penis is used only for mating and never carries urine.
But perhaps what is most bizarre about the echidna penis is that it has four heads, which are actually rosette-like glans at the end. Only two of these four glans ever become functional during erection and which glans are functional appears to alternate between subsequent erections.
Echidna
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