from Bruce
Anecdotes
Fathers
• The 1930s were the age of the joke letter. When Joe Bryan, aka author J. Bryan III, and his wife had their first son in 1936, they asked Arthur H. Samuels, a magazine editor, to become the child’s godfather. Mr. Samuels accepted, and he wrote a letter to the child, saying how delighted he was to become his godfather, because he had always admired the child’s mother and had always found her very attractive and he felt very close to her, especially now. In fact, he wrote that since the child would no doubt grow up to be a man of the world he did not mind revealing that their relationship was not really that of godfather and godchild, but was indeed very much closer. Mr. Bryan and his wife never showed the letter to their parents, being afraid that they would not understand that it was a joke, but they saved the letter and gave it to their son when he came of age.
• Briefly, comedian Jay Leno was a member of the Boy Scouts. His scoutmaster was determined to get parents involved in the organization, although many of them did not want to get involved. The scoutmaster even gave Jay’s father a bunch of merit badges and asked for help in administering tests and giving the merit badges out to the scouts. Reluctant to be involved, Jay’s father asked the scouts, “What kind of tree is that over there?” Because apples were hanging from the tree’s branches, they quickly identified the tree, and Jay’s father started handing five or six merit badges to each scout—including merit badges that had nothing to do with tree identification. When the scoutmaster saw the merit badges being worn by the scouts, he angrily started ripping them off the scouts’ uniforms. Shortly thereafter, Jay stopped being a scout.
• Christian writer Dale Hanson Bourke once attended a meeting at which a man received a note and left. He was gone for some time, and because his scheduled presentation was important, little was accomplished at the meeting while he was gone. At first, Ms. Bourke was impatient, but then she learned the reason for the man’s absence. A friend of the man told her, “He … uh … had a little personal problem. His daughter bit another child, and he had to go down to the day-care center and take her home.”
• When the Cincinnati Reds traded Ken Griffey, Sr., to the New York Yankees, his family stayed in Cincinnati while he moved to New York. However, his son, Ken Griffey, Jr., stayed in touch with him by telephone. Sometimes, young Ken made a mistake in a baseball game and called his father to talk about it. Sometimes, his father would fly him to New York, teach him what he needed to learn about baseball, then fly him back to Cincinnati.
• Figure skater Peggy Fleming’s father knew how to handle teenage smoking. When she was a young teenager, Peggy got hold of a pack of cigarettes and lit one up in the garage. Her father walked into the garage, saw her smoking, and said, “Hmm, you’re smoking? Great. I feel like smoking, too. Why don’t we smoke together?” They ended up smoking the whole pack of cigarettes together. Young Peggy got sick, and she never smoked again.
• When Steven Spielberg was a boy, his father didn’t want him to watch too much TV. To determine whether Steven was watching TV, his father used to place a hair over the power switch of the family TV, but Steven knew about the hair, and he would remove it, watch TV, then carefully replace the hair so his father wouldn’t know that he had been watching TV.
• Band director Trey Reely studied trumpet as a child, but in the eighth grade he felt that he was too busy to take lessons. His father, however, convinced him to take a lesson every two weeks. This worked out well. Trey studied enough that he didn’t forget everything he knew, and eventually he started taking lessons his usual once a week.
• Hiram P. Thorpe, the father of athlete Jim Thorpe, was called “Big Hiram,” and his strength was immense. Once, father and young son went hunting together. They didn’t have enough horses to carry all the deer they killed, so Big Hiram put a buck deer over each of his shoulders, and he carried the two deer twenty miles to their home.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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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: "I’m a Total Jinx"
Album: RUMOURS OF LIGHT IV: A 60 SONG DIGITAL BOXSET IN SUPPORT OF THE DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE AND THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE
Artist: Atomic Leopards
Artist Location: Barcelona, Spain
Record Company: Aldora Britain Records (“The worldwide hub of independent and underground music since 2013.”)
Record Company Location: Rothley, UK
Info:
“Band formed in 2005 by Santi & David Lluch, members of mythical band HELLBILLY CLUB. The style of the band is based basically in Rockabilly, with an amazing mixture of Rock and Roll, Blues, Country and Instrumental, with their own personal style. Also they played, and collaborating with artists like Los Rebeldes, The Quakes, Polecats, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Matchbox, Jungle Tigers, Johnny Red, etc.”
“Aldora Britain Records proudly presents the fourth installment of RUMOURS OF LIGHT, our fundraiser compilations for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the people of Ukraine.
“Through the power of music, we are aiming to raise as much money as possible to benefit innocent men, women and children who are fleeing the conflict. The main areas that the DEC help with are food, water, shelter, healthcare and protection.”
Price: £9.15 (GBP) for 60-track charity album by various artists
“I’m a Total Jinx” is also available on the Atomic Leopards album DOUBLE JINX. Price: €9 (EUR) for 13-track album.
Genre: Rockabilly
Links:
RUMOURS OF LIGHT IV: A 60 SONG DIGITAL BOXSET IN SUPPORT OF THE DISASTERS EMERGENCY COMMITTEE AND THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE
DOUBLE JINX
Atomic Leopards on Bandcamp
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BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Thursday
Ukraine War: HIMARS rocket system used to strike Russian ammunition depots
Defence and Security Analyst Professor Michael Clarke looks at the HIMARS mobile rocket systems which Ukrainian forces used to hit a Russian ammunition depot, causing one of the biggest explosions in the war so far. Prof Clarke says the HIMARS are causing many problems for Russian forces because they can't locate them.
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Reader Comment
Current Events
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We are all only temporarily able bodied.
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that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nice marine layer hanging around.
Auctioning Paintings
Halsey
Halsey is auctioning off a series of paintings created on stage during their “Love and Power Tour,” with all the proceeds benefiting the National Network of Abortion Funds.
The five paintings are on sale now as part of Sotheby’s Contemporary Discoveries auction, which wraps on July 19. Each piece has an estimated price of $5,000 to $7,000, and they’re all available to view in person at Sotheby’s in New York City.
Halsey first showed their talent for simultaneously singing and painting back in 2019 while performing “Eastside” — a collaboration with Benny Blanco and Khalid — on Saturday Night Live. Halsey brought back the unique visual art element for the “Love and Power Tour,” often breaking out the canvas and brush during performances of “Be Kind” (their collaboration with Marshmello). The five paintings up for auction were created at recent shows in Gulf Shores, Alabama (May 21), Nashville (May 24), Detroit (May 27), Boston (June 1), and Portland, Oregon (June 18).
As for their decision to donate the auction proceeds to the National Network of Abortion Funds, Halsey has been one of the most outspoken voices in music since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In a recent essay for Vogue, Halsey spoke about suffering three miscarriages before their 24th birthday, and said an abortion saved their life when they suffered complications during pregnancy loss.
Halsey
3D-Print Your Face
Hasbro
Have you ever wanted to see your own face on the body of a Power Ranger or a Ghostbuster? Thanks to an ingenious partnership between Hasbro and 3D-printing specialists Formlabs, now you can. The Hasbro Selfie Series will let would-be heroes take a scan of their face with their phone and have a custom-made, look-a-like action figure delivered at some point afterward. In this initial blast, you can opt to become an X-Wing Pilot, Ghostbuster, Power Ranger or Snake Eyes from GI Joe, amongst others.
It’s part of Formlabs’ growing project to turn 3D printing into a technological cul-de-sac into a viable way of making customized, mass-market products. The company has already teamed up with Sennheiser to make 3D-printed earbuds, and has branched out into making jewelry moulds, ventilator parts and false teeth. It also teamed up with Gillette to create customized razor handles which were manufactured using Formlabs’ industrial printers.
Hasbro's Brian Chapman explained that, a few years ago, the company ran a competition at a comic-con to make custom action figures for five winners. They found the interest in the promo was so enormous that the company has always had an eye on developments in the 3D printing market.
Unfortunately, while it's been announced today, the Hasbro Selfie Series won't actually let you start scanning your head for a little while. In order to start, you'll need to download Hasbro Pulse, the company's dedicated mobile app, and get your face ready to be immortalized. Scans will open up closer to the expected ship date in the Fall, after which point you'll be asked to pony up $60 (plus taxes) and wait for your six-inch, "collector-grade" figure to arrive. Unfortunately, for now, the offering is only available to customers in the US, but hopefully over time, we'll see this make its way across the world.
Hasbro
Statue Unveiled
Mary McLeod Bethune
A statue of inspirational civil rights pioneer Mary McLeod Bethune has supplanted that of a Confederate general within the U.S. Capitol.
The 11-foot-tall statue, unveiled in a Wednesday ceremony, was sculpted by Nilda Comas from an 11.5-ton marble block hailing from Michelangelo’s cave in Tuscany. Her likeness holds a black rose made from Spanish black marble.
Bethune's statue replaces a nearly 100-year-old bronze sculpture of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith removed on Sept. 4, 2021 and placed in temporary storage at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee, Florida.
In all, Bethune advised five presidents and she was also one of only eight women – and the only Black woman – among the U.S. delegation that created the United Nations charter. "Dr. Bethune did her part to form that more perfect union we that we love to talk about and to establish justice," said Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla.
Mary McLeod Bethune
Sketches Hidden In Painting
Modigliani
Curators at an Israeli museum have discovered three previously unknown sketches by celebrated 20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani hiding beneath the surface of one of his paintings.
The unfinished works by Modigliani, an Italian-born artist who worked in Paris before his death in 1920, came to light after the canvas of “Nude with a Hat” at the University of Haifa’s Hecht Museum was X-rayed as part of a sweeping forensic study of his work for an upcoming exhibit in Philadelphia.
Modigliani is considered one of the 20th century’s great Modernist artists. His lived a short, turbulent, Bohemian life in France, where his nude paintings were controversial. His work is typified by slender, elongated necks and faces, a signature style influenced by African and Cycladic Greek art that was just starting to arrive in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Jewish artist died aged 35, penniless.
One of his paintings, “Reclining Nude,” fetched over $170 million when it was sold at auction in 2015, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold. Another was sold in 2018 for $157 million at auction.
Modigliani
Lost Revenge Porn Lawsuit
Katie Hill
Democrat Katie Hill, a former California congresswoman who owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to media parties she unsuccessfully sued over the publication of salacious pictures while she was in office, has filed for bankruptcy.
If successful, the move could allow Hill to avoid paying attorneys’ fees to the defendants, including a conservative website, a British tabloid and two journalists. The financial judgments were rendered in 2021 after a judge dismissed her lawsuit accusing multiple parties of distributing and publishing intimate pictures of Hill without her consent.
Hill's attorney said her client is the victim in the case and had no choice other than to file for bankruptcy because of the ruling's financial toll.
"It’s a broken system where a plaintiff’s sensible use of our legal system to adjudicate fundamental breaches to their sexual privacy results in such financially punishing consequences for daring to file a legal case that bankruptcy is the last resort," Carrie Goldberg said.
Katie Hill
Deletes Tweet
Gym Jordan
Republican Rep. Gym Jordan deleted a tweet on Wednesday in which he called the story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl receiving an abortion after being raped "another lie" following the arrest of a man in connection with the case.
"Another lie. Anyone surprised?" Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote on Twitter in a message on his official account that quoted a story about Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office initially saying it had not found any evidence to support the rape charge.
While some news outlets initially had difficulty confirming the story, Yost, Jordan, and a host of conservative commentators questioned the account — some even claimed that it was simply made up.
On Wednesday, authorities charged Gershon Fuentes, 27, with rape, news that was first reported by The Columbus Post Dispatch. Law enforcement said that Fuentes admitted to raping the child on two occasions. DNA from the aborted fetus is also being tested to confirm if Fuentes forcibly impregnated the girl. The girl reportedly traveled to Indiana to receive the abortion at six weeks of pregnancy because of Ohio's new abortion laws.
Gym Jordan
Abound On Social Media
LGBTQ Harassment
Social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok are failing to stop hate and threats against LGBTQ users, a report issued Wednesday from advocacy group GLAAD found.
Those are some of the internet’s most vulnerable users, with a majority of LGBTQ people saying they’ve faced menacing posts or comments when they’re scrolling through social media. But it’s unclear how social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube are handling those threats.
Instead of protecting their users, GLAAD says in the report, the tech companies are safeguarding information about how they respond to those attacks, revealing few details about how often they take down posts or accounts that push hate speech or harass LGBTQ users.
“The reality is, there’s very little transparency and very little accountability,” said Jenni Olson, GLAAD’s director for social media safety and author of the report. “And people feel helpless.”
LGBTQ Harassment
Star Spaghettified
Black Hole
In late 2019, light reached the Earth from the destruction of a star, the light journeying for 215 million years from a spiral galaxy in Eridanus. The star's end came about not from an internal explosion, but from a close encounter with a supermassive black hole. It's the first time astronomers have been able to witness an event like this so clearly
Anything that gets too deep in a black hole's energy well becomes spaghettified, stretched out into long thin strips by the intense gravitational force closer to the hole. More prosaically known as tidal disruption, we've seen signs of this happening to stars several times, but our capacity to observe them has been limited by distance and intervening material.
Astronomers have been puzzled by the lack of X-Ray and higher energy radiation from the tidal disruption events we have seen. A paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on the 2019 event offers a possible explanation, while eliminating others.
As Dr Wenbin Lu of the University of California, Berkeley commented in a statement; “One of the craziest things a supermassive black hole can do is shred a star by its enormous tidal forces. These stellar tidal disruption events are one of very few ways astronomers know the existence of supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies and measure their properties.”
The story began with the observation of a surge in optical light, named AT2019qiz, coming from the area around a million solar mass black hole feeding on a star of approximately the Sun's mass, and peaking on October 8.
Black Hole
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