Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: Life, liberty, dancing, feasting, hugging, and collecting stuff
No president can make America great. God is the judge of greatness, and meanwhile the challenge is to educate children, do business, feed and doctor people, preserve farmland and wilderness, deal with the real world, look for the least worst outcome.
Helaine Olen: Ivanka Trump wants power, and laughing at her expense won't stop her (Washington Post)
But as a means to amassing power - well, that's another matter entirely. Here, the Trump family, once such a tabloid joke that HuffPost initially planned to cover the Trump presidential campaign as entertainment instead of politics, found amazing success, and not just in the sense that the patriarch captured the presidency. Donald Trump has so thoroughly conquered the party that congressional Republicans offer no check on the president, excusing everything from the Mueller report to more garden-variety corruption. Trump stands a decent chance of being elected to another term in 2020, and he is comfortable enough that he makes not-very-funny jokes about sticking around for more than eight years with increasing and disturbing frequency.
Steve Rose: "Doll parts: why there's always room for creepy toys in Hollywood" (The Guardian)
With the return of Chucky and Annabelle plus Toy Story 4's Gabby Gabby, the freaky kids' toy is terrorising our cinemas again.
Charles Bramesco: Extended scares: in defense of the two-hour-plus horror movie (The Guardian)
In Midsommar, Ari Aster's divisive follow-up to Hereditary, scares are drawn out for 140 minutes, allowing for a more effectively nightmarish experience.
Sam Adams: Midsommar Will Make You More Afraid of Endless Day Than the Dark (Slate)
In Ari Aster's follow-up to Hereditary, bad things happen while the sun is up.
Lucy Mangan: "Before The Hunger Games: the best book prequels" (The Guardian)
As Suzanne Collins announces a prequel to her bestselling trilogy, Lucy Mangan picks the most successful new beginnings.
Lucy Mangan: Bruce Lee and the Outlaw review - brutal, beautiful portrait of a Romanian street kid (The Guardian)
Following Nicu as he grows from childhood to adulthood, this documentary is as tender as its content is ugly.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
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from Bruce
Anecdotes
• The badger game is a crude form of extortion. In it, a man and a woman work together. The woman seduces a sucker, and the male accomplice - armed with a revolver - breaks into their hotel room at a predetermined time and catches the woman and the sucker in bed, then pretends to be the woman's husband and threatens to kill the sucker. The sucker - often a VIP - is forced to cough up money to save his life. Once, Wilson Mizner and a female accomplice played the badger game, but Mr. Mizner got drunk and slept past the time he was supposed to break into the hotel room. When he finally woke up, he didn't have a revolver handy, so he pulled a major bluff. He tore the label off a tomato can, rushed into the hotel room, said the can was filled with nitroglycerine, and threatened to drop it and blow up everyone, including himself. The sucker begged for his life and coughed up $10,000 in gold dust. When the female accomplice asked for her share, Mr. Mizner gave her the tomato can. "What the hell good will this do me? she asked. Mr. Mizner replied, "I don't know, but it earned me $10,000."
• A small-town Jew visited a friend who had moved to a big city. "Hello, Dovidl. How are you?" he asked. "Fine, but now my name is Dmitri," his friend replied. "And how is your daughter Rachel?" the small-town Jew asked. "Fine, but her name is now Regina," the big-city Jew replied. "And how is your life?" the small-town Jew asked. "Fine," his friend replied. "Every morning I eat breakfast, then I lie for a while on my verandah. Next I read my mail, then I lie for a while on my verandah. Then I eat lunch, then I lie for a while on my verandah. Then I eat supper, and then I lie for a while on my verandah. So it goes throughout each day. Life is fine." When the small-town Jew returned home, he was asked about his friend. "He is doing well," he said, "but he is now called Dmitri, his daughter Rachel is now called Regina, and his wife Leah is now called Verandah."
• The French can be very relaxed when it comes to sex. English author Douglas Sutherland was dining with two French friends when one said to the other, "By the way, mon brave, since we are such old friends I feel I owe it to you to tell you that I sleeping with your wife." Mr. Sutherland froze, certain that a fight would break out. However, the other Frenchman replied to the first, "Indeed, mon cher ami. Tell me, is she any good at it nowadays?"
• In the 1930s, Henry Cadbury, a Quaker, was a New Testament scholar at Harvard. A woman professor shocked many people when she divorced her husband and married someone else. At a faculty party that Mr. Cadbury and his wife Lydia attended, the woman professor walked in and Lydia told her husband, quite loudly, "Henry, does thee know that that woman committed adultery?" Mr. Cadbury replied, "I only know, Lydia, that she has not committed it with me."
• Comedians Paul Rodriguez and Elaine Boosler were getting ready to perform in a prison when guards came by with a prisoner in shackles. Mr. Rodriguez picked up Ms. Boosler and carried her over to the prisoner and asked, "Hey, man, how many cigarettes will you give me for her?" The prisoner replied, "No offense, but I don't like women anymore; however, I'll give you a carton if you'll spend the night with me."
• One of the artworks owned by choreographer Léonide Massine was a drawing by Pablo Picasso which showed a satyr raping a nymph. Mr. Massine's cleaning woman in London looked at the drawing, then told him, "Either that goes, or I do." Because he needed a cleaning woman, Mr. Massine packed up the drawing and sent it to his home in Italy.
• Christine Jorgenson was famous because she acquired her sex through a sex-change operation. As a result, she lectured occasionally at universities. Once, comedian Jack Oakie asked what she lectured about. She replied, "Sex," and Mr. Oakie said, "That makes sense - you had both of them."
• When Muriel Lillie, sister of comedian Beatrice Lillie, decided to get divorced, her husband was very obliging. He let her claim that he was unfaithful and sent her a telegram listing the names of women he had committed adultery with - the names of the women were completely fictitious.
• A bus stopped and a mother with six sets of twins got on. The bus driver looked at the sets of twin, then told the woman, "You must have gotten twins each time." The mother replied, "No, thousands of times we didn't get any."
• On You Bet Your Life, Groucho Marx asked a beautiful model what her most exciting experience had been, but she couldn't remember any. Groucho commented, "A model with no exciting memories? What were you modeling - clay?"
• Sam Levenson's sister Dora once wanted their mother to go to a PTA meeting, but she said she was too busy. Dora pleaded, "There's going to be an important speaker. She's going to talk about sex appeal. Mrs. Levenson - the mother of seven boys and one girl - replied, "I already gave."
• Philosopher Richard Watson once told philosopher Richard Rudner that he had been studying the philosophy of sex for 15 years and that so far he had written only seven pages. Mr. Rudner replied, "Fifteen years is not long enough, and seven pages are too many."
• According to Sir Rudolf Bing, Mary Garden came to his box at the Metropolitan Opera wearing a low-cut, strapless dress, although she was then an old lady. An even older man asked her, "What makes that dress stay up?" She replied, "Your age, sir."
• Whenever an obnoxious guy tries to pick up comedian Judy Tenuta, she tells him, "I was looking for something a little higher on the food chain."
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Selected Readings
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit of a marine layer kept things on the cool side.
Clarifies 'Capitol Fourth' Performance
Carole King
Music icon Carole King wants everyone to know that she's performing - along with Broadway's Beautiful cast - as part of PBS' traditional A Capitol Fourth event, and most definitely not as part of President Donald Trump's "political rally."
In a message pinned to the top of her Twitter page - with a little line drawing by New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly - King writes, "Just to be clear - I am appearing in 'A Capitol Fourth,' the traditional event held annually on the lawn at the Capitol. I am NOT participating in t's political rally."
The drawing's foreground features King sitting at a piano on the lawn, with an American flag planted on the edge of the musical instrument. In the background, a tiny Trump figure - recognizable by his hair - is accompanied by a thought bubble reading "So far away," a play on King's classic hit song and the distance she no doubt wants to establish between the two Fourth of July events.
Likewise, PBS' Twitter page for A Capitol Fourth - the annual music and fireworks celebration, hosted this year by John Stamos - makes clear that "A Capitol Fourth remains unaffiliated with any other July 4th events around the country and in other locations in Washington, D.C."
The traditional Capitol Fourth will be staged from the west front of the Capitol Building, and airs on PBS at 8/7c. In addition to Stamos, King and the Broadway cast of Beautiful starring Vanessa Carlton, this year's line-up includes Sesame Street, Lindsey Stirling, Vanessa Williams, Keala Settle, Lee Brice, Gone West featuring Colbie Caillat, Yolanda Adams, Laine Hardy, Angelica Hale, Maelyn Jarmon, MusiCorps and Maestro Jack Everly conducting the National Symphony Orchestra.
Carole King
Fake Fans
Facebook Ads
A series of Facebook video ads for President Don-Old Trump's (R-Churl) re-election campaign shows what appears to be a young woman strolling on a beach in Florida, a Hispanic man on a city street in Texas and a bearded hipster in a coffee shop in Washington, D.C., all making glowing, voice-over endorsements of the president.
"I could not ask for a better president," intones the voice during slow-motion footage of the smiling blonde called "Tracey from Florida." A man labeled on another video as "TJ from Texas" stares into the camera as a voice says, "Although I am a lifelong Democrat, I sincerely believe that a nation must secure its borders."
There's just one problem: The people in the videos that ran in the past few months are all actually models in stock video footage produced far from the U.S. in France, Brazil and Turkey, and available to anyone online for a fee.
Though the 20-second videos include tiny disclaimers that say "actual testimonial, actor portrayal," they raise the question why a campaign that can fill arenas with supporters would have to buy stock footage of models. It's a practice that, under different circumstances, Trump himself would likely blast as "fake news."
All are models for Turkish, Brazilian and French companies, respectively, that supply hundreds of photos and video to the popular site iStock run by Getty Images, which caters to publications, filmmakers and advertisers looking for professional, inexpensive imagery.
Facebook Ads
Saudi Arabia
Nicki Minaj
Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that hip-hop star Nicki Minaj will perform in the ultraconservative kingdom as it sheds decades of restrictions on entertainment.
The female rapper is known for her outlandish, provocative style and hits like "Anaconda," where she raps about her "big fat" backside. Her lyrics are often laced with profanities and her skin-bearing music videos often include twerking. Christian groups criticized her 2012 Grammy Awards performance, which included dancing priests and an exorcism.
Saudi organizers announced she would be the headline act at the Jeddah World Fest on July 18. The concert, which in line with Saudi laws is alcohol and drug-free, is open to people 16 and older and will take place at the King Abdullah Sports Stadium in the Red Sea city.
Reactions on social media ranged from shock and joy to criticism and disappointment. In a profanity-laced video posted on Twitter and viewed more than 37,000 times, a Saudi woman wearing a loose headscarf accuses the Saudi government of hypocrisy for inviting Minaj to perform but requiring women who attend the concert to wear the modest full-length robe known as the abaya. Most Saudi women also veil their hair and faces.
"She's going to go and shake her ass and all her songs are indecent and about sex and shaking ass and then you tell me to wear the abaya," the Saudi woman says. "What the hell?"
Nicki Minaj
Fest Drops
Peter Yarrow
A music festival has disinvited folk singer Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary over his 1970 jail sentence for indecent liberties with a 14-year-old girl.
The Press and Sun Bulletin of Binghamton reports that board members of the Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival in upstate New York cited negative reaction to Yarrow on social media in their decision to remove Yarrow from the festival's lineup.
The 81-year-old Yarrow was to appear Sept. 8 with a performance painter. A replacement has not been announced.
Yarrow was sentenced to three months in jail over a 1969 episode in which the 14-year-old and her 17-year-old sister went to his hotel seeking an autograph and he answered the door naked. Former President Jimmy Carter pardoned Yarrow in 1981.
A representative for Yarrow says the singer accepts the decision.
Peter Yarrow
Parade/Rally
4th of July
Don-Old Trump (R-Draft Dodger) has reportedly requested the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines stand next to him during a special Fourth of July event.
The US president has said a display of US military tanks will be part of the "Salute to America" event he is headlining in Washington on Thursday.
There is also expected to be a military demonstration by the US Navy Blue Angels and other aircraft.
Mr Trump has asked the chiefs for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines stand next to him as aircraft from each of their branches of the military fly overhead, the New York Times reports.
The event is likely to raise concerns over Mr Trump's desire to parade US military forces through the streets of the capital in a similar manner to authoritarian regimes such as North Korea, Iran and China.
4th of July
Extra Privleged
New Jersey
The 16-year-old girl was visibly intoxicated, her speech slurred, when a drunk 16-year-old boy sexually assaulted her in a dark basement during an alcohol-fuelled pyjama party in New Jersey, prosecutors said.
The boy filmed himself penetrating her from behind, her torso exposed, her head hanging down, prosecutors said.
He later shared the cellphone video among friends, investigators said, and sent a text that said, "When your first time having sex was rape".
But a family court judge said it was not rape. Instead, he wondered aloud if it was sexual assault, defining rape as something reserved for an attack at gunpoint by strangers.
He also said the young man came from a good family, attended an excellent school, had terrific grades and was an Eagle Scout. Prosecutors, the judge said, should have explained to the girl and her family that pressing charges would destroy the boy's life.
New Jersey
Record-High Temperatures
Alaska
Alaska could experience record high temperatures in the coming days as a massive heat dome parks over the region, sending temperatures higher than have ever been recorded in the state.
The unusual heat wave is expected to bring temperatures of 87 degrees or higher over the next five days, stretching from July 4 through July 8.
"Expect record or near-record high temperatures each day," the National Weather Service said Wednesday in its short-term forecast for south-central Alaska.
The agency added that temperatures through Friday could match or break the all-time high temperature record set at Anchorage International Airport of 85 degrees on June 14, 1969. "The most likely days for this to occur would be Thursday or Friday," the National Weather Service forecast said.
The extreme temperatures come after a record dry June for Alaska and the warmest June on record for the state, he added. The northernmost state's hot spell also comes on the heels of a heat wave that baked Western Europe and shattered records in France, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Alaska
Unhappy Birthday
Imelda Marcos
Over 200 guests fell ill with suspected food poisoning Wednesday after a meal at a birthday party for 90-year-old Imelda Marcos, the notorious former first lady of the Philippines.
Ambulances rushed vomiting friends and supporters from a sports stadium in Manila where around 2,500 people gathered to honour the widow of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Health secretary Francisco Duque told journalists the number of ill was 260.
One of them, a woman who only gave her first name, Leonora, said she believed it was caused by the party food.
"I blame the cook. Everyone knows Madam (Imelda) is blameless since she was not the one who cooked it," she added.
Imelda Marcos
Fire Destroys Warehouse
Jim Beam
A fire destroyed a massive Jim Beam warehouse filled with about 45,000 barrels of aging bourbon in Kentucky, and state officials worried that runoff whiskey seeping into nearby waterways would kill fish.
Firefighters from four counties responded to the blaze that erupted late Tuesday. Lightning might have been a factor, but fire investigators haven't been able to start looking for the cause, Woodford County Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler said.
No injuries were reported, Chandler said. The fire was contained but was being allowed to burn for several more hours Wednesday, he said.
"The longer it burns, the more of the distilled spirits burn with it," he said in a phone interview. "So when they go to put it out, there will be less contaminated runoff that goes into a drinking-water tributary."
The distilling company said the multi-story warehouse that burned contained "relatively young whiskey," meaning it had not reached maturity for bottling for consumers. Bourbon acquires its color and flavor while aging for years in charred new oak barrels.
Jim Beam
In Memory
Arte Johnson
Comedian and actor Arte Johnson, Emmy-winning star of 1960s and '70s comedy sketch show "Laugh-In," died July 3 in Los Angeles of heart failure. He was 90 and had been battling bladder and prostate cancer.
On "Laugh-In," he was most familiar as Wolfgang, the heavily accented German soldier who thought World War II was still going on. His catchphrase "Very interesting…" was one of many that caught on from the hit show. Johnson won one Emmy for the show and was nominated two more times.
Appearing on the NBC series for its full run from 1968 to 1973, his other well-known character was as the dirty old man Tyrone F. Horneigh who sat down on a park bench and made off-color remarks to Ruth Buzzi. In a 1970 episode, the two were set to be married appeared in a wedding scene with Tiny Tim as best man. Thought the character probably wouldn't have worked in modern times, he and Buzzi reprised their characters in the 1977 cartoon series "Baggy Pants and the Nitwits."
Born in Benton Harbor, Mich., he started out performing in New York nightclubs and was then cast in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" onstage. Moving into television, he appeared in early series including "Sally" and "Hennessy," as well as in the "Twilight Zone" episode "The Whole Truth" as a car salesman who punches a used car lot owner.
His other TV appearances during the 1960s and '70s included "Bewitched," "Lost in Space," "The Partridge Family" and "The Donna Reed Show."
While the bulk of Johnson's roles were on television, his film roles included the Gore Vidal character in Jack Kerouac's "The Subterraneans," as a federal agent in "The President's Analyst," as Dracula's comic sidekick in "Love at First Bite."
Later in his career, he made numerous gameshow appearances on "The Match Game," "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Gong Show," guested on "Murder She Wrote" and "General Hospital."
Johnson also did extensive voice work for cartoons including "Justice League Unlimited," "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo," "DuckTales" and "Animaniacs," and later narrated numerous audiobooks.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Gisela, and his brother, Coslough, TV writer on "Laugh-In" and many other shows. Donations maybe be made to Actors & Others for Animals, Best Friends and/or to cancer research.
Arte Johnson
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