Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: Trying to Relax and Have Fun
I've been a grind for many years, chained to my oars, and I am in serious need of frivolity, so last Friday my wife and daughter and I boarded the Queen Mary 2 in New York and sailed out of the harbor and under the Verrazano Bridge bound for England with a dance band on board, a casino, deck chairs where one can lounge and doze and do nothing meaningful whatsoever. […] So what do I do? I think about work.
Greg Sargent: Trump may be damaging his biggest reelection asset (Washington Post)
A new Quinnipiac poll finds really good numbers on the economy: 51 percent of voters say the state of the economy is good, and another 19 percent say it's excellent - a total of 70 percent who rate the economy positively. At the same time, however, only 41 percent say Trump deserves credit for the good economy, while 27 percent rate the economy positively but say that Trump does not deserve credit for it. (The rest say the economy isn't good.) This might help explain why the poll also finds that Trump's overall approval rating is mired at 42 percent, and why it shows all the leading Democrats beating Trump in head-to-head match-ups.
Leyland Ceccio: Grocery store urges customers to rethink plastic with embarrassing bags (The Guardian)
East West Market hopes humorous bags like 'Wart Ointment Wholesale' will persuade shoppers to shun single-use plastic bags
Nicola Davis: Mystery of why arteries harden may have been solved, say scientists (The Guardian)
Study finds calcium deposits are triggered by molecule produced by damaged cells.
Joe Humphries: Can't get Netflix? You may be suffering an aesthetic injustice (Irish Times)
Lack of cultural access is a serious wrong, says philosopher Rachel Fraser.
Gareth Sturdy: Mickey Mouse degrees: selling out education (Spiked)
Universities must stop promising career prospects over intellectual enrichment.
Steve Rose: Will Hollywood's new youthifying tech keep old actors in work forever? (The Guardian)
From Samuel L Jackson to Will Smith, established stars are de-ageing in films - a trick that might not always benefit the industry.
Steve Rose: "You can't sit with us: does Booksmart spell the end of high school stereotypes?" (The Guardian)
Olivia Wilde's new film provides a hierarchy without the misfits, jocks and nerds that once occupied teen stories.
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from Bruce
Anecdotes
• In August 2010, Aaron Simpson, age 18, from Oakham, England, survived a car accident that killed his girlfriend (Kelly Bulmer, age 17) and a friend (James Adamson, age 23). Paramedic Dylan Griffin, of the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance, gave Aaron life-saving help. To show their appreciation to the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance, Aaron, along with his family and friends, and Kelly's family and friends, raised £1,600 to donate to the rescue service in Kelly's memory. They also donated just over £1,000 to the British Heart Foundation. Aaron said, "It was really nice to meet Dylan. There are so many things I can't remember, but my parents told me how he and the air ambulance crew helped to save my life.I realize if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here now and wanted to meet him personally to say thank you."Aaron suffered many injuries and was in Walsgrave Hospital, in Coventry,for two weeks. Dylan said, "I called the hospital the week after the accident to find out how he was doing, but it's great to meet him in person." Aaron's mother, Karen, age 41, said, "We can't thank the air ambulance service enough for helping to save Aaron's life.I don't think people realize the importance of it until they or one of their loved ones needs it."Kelly's father, Keith, age 62, said, "As soon as we understood nothing could be done for our daughter, all our thoughts and prayers were with Aaron.We wanted to do something, in memory of Kelly, to say thank you to for saving his life."Sophie Stevens, fund-raising manager for the air ambulance, said, "We are extremely thankful to Aaron and Kelly's families for supporting us at this very difficult time. Air ambulance staff are very pleased to see Aaron making such a good recovery but sad they couldn't make a difference to save the lives of Kelly and James."
• Richard Semmler, who teaches calculus and algebra at Northern Virginia Community College, is dedicated to giving money to charity. In 2005, he reached approximately $770,000 in the total amount of charitable donations he has made since graduating from college, and he hoped to give $1 million to charity before he retired. He is able to donate so much money to charity by living simply and working additional part-time jobs so that he can give away half or more of his income. He said, "If I didn't do all of the things I was doing, I would probably have a new car every two years and I would have a huge house with a huge pool. But I would not do it that way. I want to do it this way." In 2004, Mr. Semmler made $100,000 and donated $60,000 to charity. His main employer is a beneficiary of his generosity; he has donated $355,000 to fund scholarships there. Another beneficiary of his generosity is his alma mater, Plattsburgh State University of New York, to which he has donated $200,000. Other beneficiaries of his generosity include various evangelical Christian organizations. He knows where his money goes. For example, he donated $100,000 for a Habitat for Humanity house that he helped build. He said, "Most of my dollars go to very specific projects, so I know what I'm funding. I want to see my dollars at work." By the way, his generosity started with a $25 donation to his alma mater after he graduated in 1968. He said, "That's the snowball that started rolling. As it did, it got bigger and bigger and bigger."
• On 9 November 2011 Andrew Tobias attended the 5thannual Stand Up for Heroes benefit. Among many, many attractions, veteran Andrew Kinard, who is legless and a student in Harvard's joint MBA/JD program, spoke. Another attraction was Bruce Springsteen performing with the Max Weinberg Big Band. This was followed by an auction of Mr. Springsteen's guitar. The bidding started at $10,000 and ended at $160,000-in part because of some extra added incentives to bid, including Mr. Springsteen's harmonica and his shirt. When the bidding ended, Mr. Springsteen went into the audience and handed over the guitar, harmonica, and shirt to the winning bidder and thanked him for his generosity to a worthy cause. Despite all the cool things that happened, however, Mr. Tobias writes that "the coolest thing ever" was when the winning bidder gave away the guitar to the legless veteran, Andrew Kinard. (Mr. Tobias' advice to Mr. Kinard is "to sell the guitar-he must feel zero guilt over selling it-and use the proceeds to help finance his bright future.") By the way, the winning bidder kept Mr. Springsteen's shirt-who wouldn't?
• Soprano Emma Eames was often asked to sing at benefits, and occasionally she got annoyed at society ladies who expected much for charity from her but little from themselves. She once made a proposal to some such society ladies who asked her to perform free at a benefit concert: "I will, on one condition. You are all wealthy ladies, far wealthier than I. Now, my usual [fee for singing] is £300. I will contribute that by singing, on condition that each of you will sign for the same amount." The society ladies said that they would think about it, and they did not bother her again. Music critic Henry T. Finck, a friend to Ms. Eames, wrote in My Adventures in the Golden Age of Music, his autobiography, "The charity of society women too often resembles Mark Twain's climbing of the Swiss mountains-by proxy." Ms. Eames was an independent spirit who was not afraid of offending people. She once said to Mr. Finck's wife, "I love to give parties for the pleasure of leaving out certain persons who want to come."
• James M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, was very generous in giving to charity. He often gave away copies of his original writings to charities so that they could be auctioned off to raise money.
• Everyone has heard of CARE packages, but what does the acronym of the charity group stand for? It stands for the Cooperative for American Relief to Everywhere.
• "If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble." - Bob Hope.
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit of a marine layer rolled in and cooled things off nicely.
Disqualifies 'a Few' Members
Television Academy
The Television Academy has disqualified some members who have taken part in block voting during Emmy nomination voting, Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma said on Wednesday, the third day of voting.
The statement did not identify the members whose votes were disqualified or detail the type of activity in which they were engaged or how they were discovered, though the language suggests that a group of allied members cast identical ballots as part of a strategy.
The rules do not automatically disqualify the shows or individuals who are the beneficiary of block voting, but they do invalidate the offending members' votes and disqualify them from subsequent voting.
The Academy had recently flagged block or quid pro quo voting as an area of concern in its rules, adding this language to the 2019 rule book in both the nominating and final voting sections.
"Quid pro quo and block voting are considered by the Academy to be in violation of the spirit and substance of the member code of conduct clause that deems any action or activity which could reasonably be construed as contrary or detrimental to the best interests of the Academy to be a violation of the code. Emmy voting is meant to reflect an individual voter's opinion rather than an ad-hoc group's mandate.
Television Academy
Planned Parenthood Donation
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande is donating $250,000 of proceeds from her June 8 concert in Atlanta, Ga., to Planned Parenthood, a representative for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund told TheWrap.
"Ariana Grande's generous donation comes at a critical time - in Georgia and across the country, anti-women's health politicians are trying to ban all safe, legal abortion," Dr. Leana Wen, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund's president, said in a statement obtained by TheWrap. "This is not what the American people want, nor is it something they'll stand for."
"Thanks to inspiring support like hers, Planned Parenthood can continue to fight back - in the courts, in Congress, in state houses, and in the streets - against these dangerous attacks on people's health and lives," Wen continued. "We are so grateful to Ariana for her longstanding commitment to supporting women's rights and standing with Planned Parenthood to defend access to reproductive health care. We won't stop fighting - no matter what."
Grande also spoke out in support of LGBTQ rights, condemning anti-Pride protestors who demonstrated outside the venue the evening of her June 8 show. On Sunday, the singer responded to a video shared outside the venue at her Atlanta performance as part of her "Sweetener" tour in which anti-Pride demonstrators brandished rainbow flags with the word "pride" crossed out.
"Man… saddened but not surprised by this one bit," Grande said in a tweet. "I'm so sorry any of my fans had to encounter this. we will do our best to ensure this doesn't happen again. proud of u all for not fighting / engaging violently. never worth it. wishing him peace & a healed heart cause girl yikes."
Ariana Grande
Renames Street
NASA
NASA renamed the street block in front of its Washington D.C. headquarters "Hidden Figures Way" on Wednesday in honour of black women who have contributed to the U.S. space programme.
The work of three black mathematicians - Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson - at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during the 1960s race to the moon was captured in the Oscar-nominated film "Hidden Figures".
July 20 marks the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk by NASA astronauts, one of 11 flights in the Apollo space programme of the 1960s and 70s, named after the Greek sun god.
Margot Lee Shetterly, author of the book "Hidden Figures" on which the 2016 film was based, encouraged those attending the ceremony to think beyond Neil Armstrong's moonwalk to the collective effort it took to achieve the Apollo 11 mission.
"'Hidden Figures' is about taking off our blinders and recognising the contributions of the unseen individuals who were there at the beginning of the story," she said.
NASA
Bans Elton John Biopic
Samoa
Samoa has banned the blockbuster Elton John biopic "Rocketman" from cinemas over depictions of gay sex, which remains illegal in the Pacific island nation.
Samoa's Principal Censor Leiataua Niuapu confirmed the ban to local media this week, saying the film contained too many scenes that were "not good for public viewing".
Niuapu told the Samoa Observer that the movie "violates laws against same-sex marriage and doesn't go well with cultural and Christian beliefs here".
The country is also well known for its acceptance of fa'afafines -- men who dress as women and adopt female mannerisms -- known locally as the third sex.
"This censorship is yet another way for moral seekers to bash a few people for no good reason," Tuisina Ymania Brown, a Samoan fa'afafine who is co-secretary of Geneva-based rights group ILGA.
Samoa
U.S. Posts Deficit
$208 Billion
Washington posted a $208 billion budget deficit in May as a modest increase in revenues failed to make up for higher spending on the military and social welfare programs like Medicare, according to data released on Wednesday by the Treasury Department.
The deficit was the highest ever for the month of May and wider than the average forecast of $185.5 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.
Government spending rose to $440 billion, up 21% from May of 2018. Receipts increased to $232 billion, up 7% from the same month last year.
Gross tax revenues from corporations fell to $6 billion in May from $7 billion a year earlier. Spending on the military rose to $62 billion.
The deficit for the fiscal year to date was $739 billion, compared with $532 billion in the comparable period the year earlier.
$208 Billion
Death Rates
U.S.
Rates of deaths from suicides, drug overdoses and alcohol have reached an all-time high in the United States, but some states have been hit far harder than others, according to a report released Wednesday by the Commonwealth Fund.
The report examined data in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., taking an in-depth look at 47 factors that have an impact on health outcomes, including insurance coverage, access to doctors, obesity, smoking, even tooth loss, and ultimately assigning each state a score. The data are from 2017.
Although the rates of the so-called deaths of despair are up nationally, the report's investigators were particularly struck by regional differences in the rates.
"When we look at what's going on in mid-Atlantic states - West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania - those are the states that have the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the country," David Radley, a senior scientist for the Commonwealth Fund, said. Rates in those states are at least double the national average of fatal drug overdose rates.
The states that ranked at the bottom of the list all had the highest rates of residents without health care coverage.
U.S.
Ancient China
Cannabis
Many anti-drug campaigners like to portray drug use as a scourge of the modern age - but people were actually smoking cannabis in the first millennium BC.
An ancient tomb in the Himalayas shows the first evidence of the recreational use of marijuana - from at least 2,500BC.
Wooden incense burners at the site showed traces of THC - the psychoactive chemical in cannabis.
Co-author Professor Nicole Boivin, director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, said: 'The findings support the idea cannabis plants were first used for their psychoactive compounds in the mountainous regions of eastern Central Asia, thereafter spreading to other regions of the world.'
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows prehistoric people at the Jirzankal Cemetery in the eastern Pamirs were deliberately selecting the most powerful plants.
Cannabis
Denver Zoo
Flamingo Couple
Lance Bass and Freddie Mercury are making sweet music together as a long-term couple - at least, in the animal kingdom.
Two male flamingos at the Denver Zoo named after the famous musicians have been a couple for several years, and could one day potentially become parents to a chick.
"Did you know that Denver Zoo is home to a same-sex flamingo couple?" the zoo wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday. "Chilean flamingo Lance Bass and American flamingo Freddie Mercury have paired up for several years."
Revealing Lance and Freddie's partnership to the world comes in conjunction with the Denver Zoo's pride initiatives, which also include marching in the Coors Light Denver Pride Parade and an event at the zoo called True Colors Safari.
They're not the first same-sex bird couple to make headlines; Zoo Atlanta also has a male flamingo couple who in 2015, raised a chick together.
Flamingo Couple
Galaxy's Edge Has Had A Surprising Impact
Disneyland
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is the hottest ticket in theme parks right now. To even get into the Disneyland location for the next week and a half you need a reservation on top of your Disneyland admission ticket. However, while one might think that limiting access to Galaxy's Edge would make the rest of Disneyland that much more crowded, quite the opposite has happened. The rest of Disneyland is comparatively empty.
To be clear, that's "comparatively" empty. Disneyland is the second most popular theme park destination on the planet behind Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, but considering that we're now in the middle of June, prime summer vacation time, the lines at Disneyland's other attractions are actually shockingly short, some of the shortest the park has ever seen on days that weren't pouring rain.
The exact reason for this isn't entirely clear. The Orange County Register suggests that the fear of overly long lines might have actually resulted in the lack of the same. Because Galaxy's Edge was expected to draw massive crowds, people who wanted to avoid the insanity more than they wanted to fly the Millennium Falcon may have decided to stay away.
The reservation system that has been required up until this point may have also had a lot to do with the lack of crowds. The reservations for the first three weeks of Galaxy's Edge's opening were gone within two hours of being made available, meaning the only way to get into the new land before June 24 is to book a room at a Disneyland Resort Hotel.
Finally, many Disneyland Annual Passes are currently in blackout periods for the park, meaning those that hit the park frequently are taking some significant time off.
Disneyland
In Memory
Sylvia Miles
Sylvia Miles, an actress and Manhattan socialite whose brief, scene-stealing appearances in the films "Midnight Cowboy" and "Farewell, My Lovely" earned her two Academy Award nominations, died Wednesday.
Miles was a veteran actress but not a widely known name when she appeared onscreen for about six minutes in 1969's "Midnight Cowboy." In her sole scene, she plays a brassy Manhattan woman who invites an aspiring male prostitute from Texas, played by Jon Voight, up to her penthouse for sex, but ends up taking money from him instead.
In 1975's "Farewell, My Lovely," which starred Robert Mitchum as detective Philip Marlowe, her screen time is only slightly longer as a down-on-her-luck entertainer who swaps information for a bottle of booze.
Miles was born in, and became a lifelong resident of, Manhattan, where she was married and divorced three times and had no children.
She studied at The Actors Studio, making her name in a series of Off-Broadway roles starting in the 1950s, and moving on to movies in the 1960s.
Her film credits included 1972's Andy Warhol-produced "Heat," 1987's "Wall Street" and its 2010 sequel "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," and 1988's "Crossing Delancey."
Her TV roles included guest appearances on "Miami Vice," ''One Life to Live" and "Sex in the City."
Miles was a competitive chess player, according to the New York Times, which twice featured her in its coverage of the game.
And she went, it seems, to nearly every party in New York for a time, becoming as beloved for her outgoing personality and flamboyant fashion sense than as for her acting.
Even after the 9/11 attacks, when the city was in a state of fear and mourning for months, she was quick to start socializing again, attending a Broadway opening just over a week later.
"Honey, this is a known jungle to me," she told the AP outside the play. "I am not afraid of anything. The animals in this jungle I can handle."
Sylvia Miles
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