from Bruce
Anecdotes
Education
• When Ralph Bunche was very young, his mother told him, “My boy, don’t ever let anything take away your hope and faith and dreams.” After his mother died, Ralph attended high school, but despite high grades, he was kept out of the city-wide honor society known as the Ephebian Society simply because he was black. He thought about quitting school, but then he remembered what his mother had told him and so he stayed in school. In 1922, he became valedictorian of his high school. In 1934, he earned a Ph.D. in political science and international relations from Harvard University. In 1950, because of his work with the United Nations, he became the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
• World-class women’s gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi was born in Romania and so after he defected to the United States he did not know English well. One day, Andrea, his daughter, came home from school and requested help with an assignment: to make a New Year’s resolution. Bela was outraged, screaming, “No revolution, no revolution in my house. Absolutely no revolution.” His wife, Marta, came home later and asked why Bela wasn’t helping their daughter. Bela replied, “Marta, her teacher wants us to help her start a revolution. I won’t be a part of that!” Fortunately, his wife was able to explain the homework assignment to him.
• When Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (who was later to be Pope John XXIII) was a child, he became lazy in his studies, so his parents gave him a letter and sent him to give it to a local priest. Angelo was suspicious about the letter’s contents, so he opened it and read it. After reading that the letter told the priest to give him a good scolding for not studying harder, Angelo tore up the letter and threw it away. (Despite not being scolded by the priest, Angelo did thereafter pay more attention to his studies.)
• A young man, the son of a preacher, attended a Bible college. Coming home for the weekend, he decided to do his Bible study homework while sitting in church as his father preached. Later, his father asked what he had been doing. The young man confessed that he had been doing his homework, and his father asked, “Don’t you think you should be listening to the sermon?” Today, the young man says that he is the only person ever to get in trouble for studying the Bible in church.
• One day, an elderly couple met the president of Harvard. They told him that they would like to know more about Harvard before making a contribution in memory of their son, who had been killed in war. However, the elderly couple was plainly dressed and the president of Harvard quickly brushed them off. So the elderly couple went to northern California and used their money to establish Stanford University, in memory of Leland Stanford, their son.
• In 1958, Suzanne Farrell — at that time she was a very young Cincinnati, Ohio, dance student whose real name was Roberta Ficker — learned that the famous New York City Ballet was performing in Bloomington, Indiana. Her mother supported her daughter’s dance ambitions, and so she wrote a note to excuse her daughter’s absence (because of illness, she wrote) and they took a day off to enjoy the dance performance.
• A little girl went to kindergarten for the first time with her mother walking her the short distance to school. After her mother had left, the little girl needed to go to the bathroom, so her teacher said she could leave the classroom. The little girl then walked home, where she went to the bathroom. Later, the little girl was surprised to learn that there were bathrooms at school, just like there were at home.
• A cat walked into an elementary school classroom, where the young students immediately gathered around it, fed it milk, and tried to guess its sex. A little girl said, “I know how we can tell its sex.” Her teacher wasn’t especially thrilled to hear this, and she was relieved when the little girl continued, “We can vote on it.”
• English schoolboys sometimes make a lot of noise when applauding, including stomping with their feet. Whenever his schoolboys stomped, Frederick Andrews, the headmaster of Ackworth, would tell them, “I like you to applaud with all your hearts, but not with all your soles.”
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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: "Upside Down"
Album: RUMOURS OF LIGHT: A 60 SONG DIGITAL BOXSET IN SUPPORT OF THE DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE AND THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE
Artist: The Black Moon Boys
Artist Location: Montreal, Québec
Record Company: Aldora Britain Records
Record Company Location: Rothley, UK
Info:
“Aldora Britain Records presents RUMOURS OF LIGHT, a 60-song digital boxset in support of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the people of Ukraine. We feel that it is our duty to use the power of music to help in any way we can. The project features 60 artists from eight different countries and is in aid of the DEC's Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.”
“All compositions featured here are originals* and have been used by permission of the artist or associated record label. Thank you to all for your kindness and hard work.”
“The Black Moon Boys are a rockabilly band from Montreal. The players are Eric Sandmark on drums (Ray Condo, Bloodshot Bill and the Hand-Cuffs), Olivier Pomerleau: upright bass (Hillbilly Rockets, Mighty Swells); Marc-André Pilon: vocals (Ordures Ioniques) and Jeff Ray Holmes on guitar.”
Price: £7.15 (GBP) for 60 tracks by various artists.
“Upside Down” also appears on The Black Moon Boys’ album NUTHOUSE. Price: $9 (CAN) for 11-track album.
Genre: Rockabilly. Various.
Links:
RUMOURS OF LIGHT: A 60 SONG DIGITAL BOXSET IN SUPPORT OF THE DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE AND THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE
NUTHOUSE
The Black Moon Boys on Bandcamp
Aldora Britain Records on Bandcamp
Aldora Britain Records on YouTube
Other Links:
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Ukraine
Other Links:
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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
Running really late. Again.
Gives $1M To Disease Research
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton is donating $1 million to pediatric infectious disease research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, the organization announced on Wednesday.
The new gift is one of several Parton has made to the center over the years, including a $1 million gift in April 2020 for COVID vaccine research. That gift helped Vanderbilt researchers test an array of drugs aimed at reducing the life-threatening symptoms associated with COVID-19, the center said in a news release. Researchers are also looking at entirely new therapies to both treat COVID-19 and prevent infection.
Parton’s new gift will support a variety of ongoing research at the medical center, including understanding how viruses and bacteria cause disease, understanding and preventing antibiotic resistance, preventing and treating infections, diagnosing and treating infections in children with cancer, and gauging the impact of childhood infections throughout the world, according to the news release.
“No child should ever have to suffer,” Parton said in a news release. “I’m willing to do my part to try and keep as many of them as I can as healthy and safe as possible.”
Dolly Parton
Riverside Art Museum
The Cheech
Growing up, Cheech Marin was always a collector. It started with marbles. Later on, it was baseball cards, then eventually stamps. Now, at 75, he's collected enough art to fill an entire museum.
Marin purchased his first art pieces in the mid-1980s with the money he earned from his success in comedy and big-screen hits such as "Up in Smoke" and "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie." He began by collecting Chicano-inspired Art Deco and Art Nouveau pieces in "an undervalued little deal at the time." Around the time his Art Nouveau collection grew in size — and value — Marin says he discovered artwork made by Chicano painters and recognized their artistic styles right away.
Thirty-seven years later, Marin continues to collect from predominantly Chicano artists, and has created what many consider to be the largest private collection of Chicano art in the world.
More than 550 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs from Marin's personal collection will be on permanent rotation at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture of the Riverside Art Museum, starting with an inaugural exhibition of 100 pieces beginning June 18.
Nicknamed "the Cheech," the 61,420-square-foot, two-story art museum and education center resides in what used to be the downtown Riverside Public Library, and will be displaying works by artists Chaz Bojorquez, Judithe Hernández, Frank Romero, Patssi Valdez and others.
The Cheech
NFL, NFL Films To Donate Footage
The HistoryMakers
The NFL and NFL Films will donate footage to The HistoryMakers, which has grown to become the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive.
Under terms of the agreement announced Wednesday, the NFL will provide two years of funding to The HistoryMakers along with hundreds of hours of footage from interviews with NFL African American players, including dozens of Pro Football Hall of Famers.
NFL Films will provide production services to interview prominent players for inclusion to The HistoryMakers archives which is housed permanently at the Library of Congress.
“We feel a deep debt of gratitude to the NFL and NFL Films for this incredible gift as this level of commitment will help move The HistoryMakers sports initiative forward in ways that we need and previously could not have imagined,” says Julieanna Richardson, founder and president of The HistoryMakers in a statement. “Our goal since our inception has always been to document the African American experience across a variety of disciplines and this commitment will ensure that the stories of African American football legends and African Americans who have played a critical role in NFL history will now become part of this nation’s patrimony.”
The HistoryMakers
Grew In Number
Independent Booksellers
Laura Romani, a Chicago-area resident with a background in education and library science, had been thinking of a new career.
“I was at home a couple of years ago reflecting on all the experience I gained and how I wanted to contribute to the Latino community, while also allowing myself to be on my own and make use of my love for books and passion for multilingualism,” she says.
The solution: Start a bookstore. With help from a local grant and stimulus checks that she and her husband received during the pandemic, Romani launched Los Amigos Books, initially as an online store last year and now with a small physical outlet with a bright blue front in Berwyn, Illinois. It focuses on children’s stories in English and Spanish.
Stores like Romani’s helped contribute to a year of solid growth and greater diversity for the American Booksellers Association, the trade group for independent bookstore owners. According to CEO Allison Hill, the association now has 2,010 members, at 2,547 locations, an increase of more than 300 since Spring 2021. It’s the highest ABA total in years, even though the association in 2020 tightened its rules and permitted only stores which “primarily sell books” (over 50 percent of inventory), as opposed to any stores offering books. The ABA also no longer counts sellers whose memberships are inactive.
Independent Booksellers
No One Knows
Uvalde
Jose Flores Jr. dreamed of being a police officer because he wanted to protect people. But the 10-year-old’s life was cut short when he, 18 of his classmates, and two teachers were killed in the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School.
Now, Jose’s uncle, Christopher Salazar, tells Rolling Stone he is looking to uphold his nephew’s legacy of wanting to protect others by holding law enforcement to account for the failures he says he witnessed during the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
He says that he can’t comprehend, from what he saw from his vantage outside the school, how so many officers did not immediately go inside to stop the shooter.
“’Hey look, our children are getting shot. They can’t defend themselves. Go in there! Go in there!’” Salazar says he and the other families called out to the police on the scene. “They really didn’t do anything, although they were there standing outside … Instead of reacting and saying, ‘Hey, look, he’s already shooting. Let’s go in.’”
Salazar believes, as multiple reports suggest, that there could have been more survivors had the authorities reacted quickly. “Look, if they would have went in right there those cops, at least one of them wouldn’t have passed away. And there would have been a lot more children and the teacher [that could have] survived.”
Uvalde
Saudi Embassy
Jamal Khashoggi Way
One month ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the District of Columbia is renaming the street in front of the Saudi embassy Jamal Khashoggi Way, trolling Riyadh for its role in the killing of the dissident Saudi activist and journalist in 2018.
With members of the D.C. Council in attendance, a Jamal Khashoggi Way sign was unveiled directly in front of the embassy’s main entrance.
“We intend to remind the people who are hiding behind these doors ... that we hold them responsible and we will hold them accountable for the murder of our friend,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN, the pro-Arab world democracy organization founded by Khashoggi prior to his death.
Whitson also criticized what she called the “shameless capitulation” of the Biden administration for seeking improved relations with the Saudi government and scheduling an official presidential visit to the kingdom.
Jamal Khashoggi Way
Delays Relocation of Thousands of Jobs
Di$ney
Disney has pushed back the timeline to relocate thousands of jobs from California to Florida amid its fight over Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The company’s timeline to move around 2,000 workers in its parks, experiences and products division — which includes a number of Imagineering workers, who are responsible for designing and engineering the company’s theme parks and rides — has been pushed to 2026, the company confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. The Los Angeles Times had previously reported that the move was expected to take conclude by the end of 2022 or early 2023.
In a statement, Disney spokesperson Jacquee Wahler said that though “a growing number of employees” whose roles will ultimately be based at a campus in the Lake Nona region in Orlando have already made the move, “we also want to continue to provide flexibility to those relocating, especially given the anticipated completion date of the campus is now in 2026.” Wahler added, “Therefore, where possible, we are aligning the relocation period with the campus completion.”
The news arrives just a few months after Republican legislators in Florida passed a bill ending the company’s special purpose district in June 2023, which effectively allows Disney to self-govern on land occupied by the Walt Disney World Resort. In late April, that special purpose district, the Reedy Creek Improvement District, argued that Florida can’t dissolve the district until bond debt is paid off and that it “expects to explore its options while continuing its present operations.”
Di$ney
Ancient Origins
Black Death
Scientists in Europe say they have pinpointed the origins of the Black Death, a bacterial plague that wiped out half of the continent’s population in the 14th century.
The findings counter other theories that the disease — which caused repeated outbreaks into the early 19th century and also left its mark across the Middle East and North Africa — might have first emerged in China.
Drawing on the work of historian Phil Slavin from the University of Stirling in Scotland, who had suggested the disease’s emergence might be linked to an unusual surge of deaths in a town in Central Asia in 1338-1339, researchers examined DNA from bodies found there.
They found genetic fingerprints of the bacterium Yersinia pestis in individuals who had been buried with tombstones referring to a “pestilence” at the site by Lake Issyk Kul, in what is now Kyrgyzstan.
“We found that the ancient strains from Kyrgyzstan are positioned exactly at the node of this massive diversification event,” said Maria Spyrou, a researcher on disease history at the University of Tuebingen in Germany and lead author of the report. “In other words, we found the Black Death’s source strain and we even know its exact date (1338).”
Black Death
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