from Bruce
Anecdotes
Parties
• Sometimes, young people don’t appreciate when they are surrounded by genius — although they do appreciate it later. Felia Doubrovska danced in Sergei Diaghilev’s ballet company, where she worked with and was surrounded by people such as Bronislavka Nijinsky, George Balanchine, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Georges Auric, and Sergei Prokofiev. At a party thrown by Coco Chanel, Igor Stravinsky was playing the piano, and Mr. Diaghilev told Ms. Doubrovska, “Eat later. Now listen and try to learn something.” Mr. Stravinsky was playing Les Noces — in the ballet of which Ms. Doubrovska later danced the role of the Bride.
• Joseph Chamberlain was the after-dinner speaker at a party where the guests were enjoying themselves very much. When the time for his speech approached, he was asked, “Shall we let these people enjoy themselves a little longer, or will you give your speech now?”
Poetry and Poets
• Maxwell Bodenheim considered himself the 376th ranking poet in the United States because he had entered 376 poetry contests and had never won a prize. By the way, Ben Hecht once said, “One of the happiest failures of civilization is that it has never been able to kill off the poets. It tries hard by ignoring and starving them. Luckily the poets have always been able to survive. It is the voice of the poets, more than the historians, that tells us who and what we are.”
• While at Trinity College, Dublin, Oscar Wilde read a poem, causing the class bully to sneer. This made Mr. Wilde angry, so he asked the bully to explain himself. Once again, the bully sneered. To settle the dispute, the two decided to fight. No one gave Wilde, who avoided competitive sports, a chance, but he soundly beat up the bully.
Practical Jokes
• Opera singers constantly worry about catching colds. Tenor Leo Slezak knew a baritone at the Vienna Opera who was especially worried. To prevent this disaster from occurring, he wore large cotton earplugs, taking them out for rehearsals and to perform, but leaving them in his ears while on the street. The baritone once sang the role of John the Baptist in Richard Strauss’ Salome. In this opera, John’s head is carried onstage on a silver platter, covered with a cloth. For one performance, Mr. Slezak secretly made a few modifications to the papier-mâché head of John the Baptist — when the cloth was removed onstage, the head was wearing two large cotton earplugs.
• While Eve Arden was appearing in a play, Tallulah Bankhead and her date watched from the audience and tried to break up the cast with laughter. Her date was wearing a wide red ribbon across his chest. At a crucial moment in the play, white lights shone in the ribbon, spelling out the words, “Call for Phillip Morris,” the slogan of the sponsor of Tallulah’s radio show.
• A man died, leaving behind a will that stated that in a certain closet was a sealed box. The will gave the strictest order that the box must not be opened, but must be burned until it was nothing but ashes. The man’s sons and daughters carried out his wishes — only to learn that the box was filled with firecrackers.
• Wilson Mizner was a card sharp, and he knew a lot of other gamblers who were also card sharps. Once, he brought a deck of cards consisting of all aces to a card game, and after dealing a hand from the deck, watched with amusement as all the other players attempted to get rid of their extra ace.
Prejudice
• Back in the Jim Crow days when African-Americans were forced to sit at the back of the bus, black comedian Dick Gregory used to do a routine about the first black bus driver in the Jim Crow South: “Can you imagine how it will be, when they hire the first Negro bus driver in the South, and the steering wheel’s 25 feet long?” He also joked, “What a country! Where else could I have to ride in the back of the bus, live in the worst neighborhoods, go to the worst schools, eat in the worst restaurants — and average $5,000 a week just talking about it?”
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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
Music: "I’m Too Lonesome (To Play Those Lonesome Songs)"
Album: FRIENDS IN NO PLACES
Artist: Liar’s Trial
Artist Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Info:
“Crossing the genres of classic country-western and old-school rock and roll, Liar's Trial represents the genuine outlaw country spirit. Barn-burning tempos, gallows humor, shout-a-long choruses and eerie balladry comprise the heart and soul of Liar's Trial's repertoire.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $10 (USD) for 11-track album
Genre: Country
Links:
FRIENDS IN NO PLACES
Liar’s Trial on Bandcamp
Liar’s Trial on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
Institute of Illegal Images
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
Quiet day at the laundromat-of-the-darned.
Parton, Oh, & Biles
‘People of the Year’
People magazine has named Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, actor Sandra Oh, country icon Dolly Parton and the nation’s teachers as its “2021 People of the Year.”
Parton was cited for giving away millions of books and supporting COVID-19 research and Oh was celebrated for fighting anti-Asian hate and working on “transformative stories.” People said Biles’ focus on mental health “redefined what it means to win in sports.” And the nation’s more than 3 million teachers have “gone above and beyond to ensure our nation’s kids have bright opportunities ahead.”
The new issue hits newsstands Friday.
Last year, People named George Clooney, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Selena Gomez and Regina King as the “2020 People of the Year.”
‘People of the Year’
Prime Time Ratings
NFL Football
CBS’ turkey day telecast of the Dallas Cowboys against the Las Vegas Raiders reached 37.8 million viewers, the biggest audience for an NFL regular season game since Thanksgiving 1993, the Nielsen company said.
Meanwhile, Michigan’s victory over Ohio State in the Big 10's annual rivalry game was seen by 15.9 million people on Saturday afternoon. That’s the most-watched regular season college football game since LSU-Alabama two years ago, Nielsen said.
For the week in prime time, NBC led with an average of 6.8 million viewers. CBS had 4.8 million, Fox had 3.4 million, ABC had 3.2 million, Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 990,000 and Telemundo had 840,000.
For the week of Nov. 22-28, the top 20 programs in prime time, their networks and viewerships:
1. NFL Football: Buffalo at New Orleans, NBC, 19.38 million.
2. NFL Football: Cleveland at Baltimore, NBC, 16.23 million.
3. “NFL Post-Game,” CBS, 15.19 million.
4. “NFL Pregame,” NBC, 12.24 million.
5. “The OT,” Fox, 11.7 million.
6. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants at Tampa Bay, ESPN, 10.35 million.
7. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 8.48 million.
8. “Yellowstone,” Paramount, 7.89 million.
9. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.56 million.
10. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.57 million.
11. College Football: Oklahoma at Oklahoma St., ABC, 6.49 million.
12. “One Last Time: Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett,” CBS, 6.38 million.
13. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.34 million.
14. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 6.33 million.
15. “The Equalizer,” CBS, 5.94 million.
16. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 5.64 million.
17. “Survivor,” CBS, 5.54 million.
18. “NFL Pregame,” ESPN, 5.43 million.
19. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Monday), Fox News, 5.05 million.
20. “FBI,” CBS, 5.04 million.
NFL Football
Turner Prize
“The Druithaib’s Ball”
An 11-person collective from Belfast that aims to transcend Northern Ireland’s political and religious divides won the U.K.’s prestigious Turner Prize for art on Wednesday.
The Array Collective took the 25,000 pound ($33,000) prize for “The Druithaib’s Ball,” a recreation of a traditional Irish shebeen, or speakeasy, that is full of references to 100 years of Northern Ireland history. Prize organizers said the collective’s work tackles “urgent social and political issues affecting Northern Ireland with humor, seriousness and beauty.”
Collective member Laura O’Connor said the group would put the prize money toward finding a permanent base in Belfast, where redevelopment is making space less affordable for artists.
This year, all five finalists were collectives rather than individual artists.
“The Druithaib’s Ball”
Game of Thrones Prequel
HBO
Making a follow-up to one of the biggest fantasy shows ever has been a journey worthy of Westeros’ mightiest heroes. When Game of Thrones ended back in 2019, HBO already knew it wanted the world to continue. Several ideas were batted around with one eventually rising to the top. A script was written, the show was cast, and an episode was filmed before the show was scrapped. And now, we know just how much that all cost.
Insider reports that in a new book called Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers by James Andrew Miller, it’s revealed that the canceled pilot cost over $30 million. You read that right. We didn’t add an extra zero. Thirty million-plus for the episode, and it was trashed. “They had spent over $30 million on a Game of Thrones prequel pilot that was in production when I got there,” former chairman of WarnerMedia entertainment Bob Greenblatt says in the book. “And when I saw a cut of it in a few months after I arrived, I said to Casey [Bloys, chief content officer] ‘This just doesn’t work and I don’t think it delivers on the promise of the original series.’ And he didn’t disagree, which actually was a relief.”
The show was written by Kick-Ass and Kingsman scribe Jane Goldman and starred The Ring’s Naomi Watts, Harry Potter’s Miranda Richardson, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s Naomi Ackie, and Georgie Henley from The Chronicles of Narnia. It was set thousands and thousands of years before the events of the TV show and was supposed to show Westeros transitioning from the prosperous “Age of Heroes” into “The Long Night,” which was frequently mentioned on the show.
“So we, unfortunately, decided to pull the plug on it,” Greenblatt added. “There was enormous pressure to get it right and I don’t think that would have worked.” A few months after that plug was pulled, Bloys did an interview with Deadline and added even more context. “In development, in pilots, sometimes things come together, sometimes they don’t,” he said in early 2020. “One of the things I think Jane took on beautifully, which was a challenge, there was a lot more role creation because she set hers 8,000 years before the [original] show, so it required a lot more. That is a big swing. One of the things about House of Dragons, there is a text, there is a book so that made it a little bit more of a road map for a series order.”
HBO
Tournaments Suspended
Peng Shuai
Expressing concern for the health and safety of tennis star Peng Shuai, the Women’s Tennis Association announced Wednesday that it is suspending all of its tournaments in China.
Peng has been seen only sporadically in public since she leveled an accusation of sexual assault against a senior party official. The WTA has invested heavily in Chinese women’s tennis, so the decision to pull out will cost the organization hundreds of millions, according to media estimates.
Moreover, it is yet another black eye on Chinese athletics as the country preps for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in February. Several countries, including the US, are considering whether they should participate in the games. The murky Peng situation could prove critical in their final determination.
In a statement, WTA CEO Steve Simon explained the decision to immediately suspend tournaments in China.
Peng Shuai
80-Hour Weeks
Kellogg’s
The shelves at the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union Local 50 are lined with boxes of Kellogg’s products that the union members and their mothers, brothers, and grandfathers have packed over the past century. A Froot Loops box commemorating the 2012 Olympics sits next to Special K Plus, a cereal that for some reason comes in a milk carton. A toy truck delivers Corn Flakes. Still, what catches your eye is a box featuring an impossibly cute boy slurping up his Rice Krispies. No one knows when exactly the box is from — probably the early 20th century — but it conjures a homier time for the company. That’s when company founder W.K. Kellogg was asked about profits and said, “I’ll invest my money in people.”
That was a long time ago. Now, the investment only goes to certain people, like Kellogg CEO Steve Cahillane. He brings in nearly $12 million a year in compensation, nearly 280 times the company average.
The workers? They’ve time-traveled to William Blake’s dark-satanic-mills era of factory work, where a purposely understaffed labor force endures, according to union workers, 72- to 84-hour work weeks — not a typo — that includes mandated overtime and a point system that dings you if you dare beg off to go watch your son’s Little League game. (Kellogg’s claims its employees only work 52 to 56 hours a week and 90 percent of overtime is voluntary, a claim BCTGM workers hotly dispute.)
“The worst is when you work a 7-to-7 and they tell you to come back at 3 a.m. on a short turnaround,” says Omaha BCTGM president Daniel Osborn, a mechanic at the plant. “You work 20, 30 days in a row and you don’t know where work and your life ends and begins.”
“There’s been times during Covid when we were 100 workers under what we should have,” says Osborn, a man with close cropped blond hair and a quiet disposition that runs counter to the image of the burly union leader. He is 47 and has worked for Kellogg’s for 18 years, often 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Kellogg’s
Form Social Bonds
Ants
Ants have social networks just like humans do, but instead of exchanging information through posts and comments, they vomit into each other's mouths.
Most insects have a foregut, a midgut and a hindgut. "However, for social insects, the foregut has become sort of a 'social stomach,'" said Adria LeBoeuf, an assistant professor and leader of the Laboratory of Social Fluids at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Contents of the midgut and hindgut are digested, while contents of the foregut are meant to be shared, said LeBoeuf, lead author of a new study describing the findings.
Trophallaxis, or the act of regurgitating food into another organism's mouth, is very common in highly social species like ants. During a trophallaxis event, nutrients and proteins are passed from one individual''s social stomach to another's, and through a series of these exchanges, the ants create a "social circulatory system" that connects each member of the colony to everyone else, LeBoeuf said.
So, by vomiting into each other's mouths, ants aren't simply exchanging nutrients, the study authors wrote. Instead, the ants are creating a digestive social network in which energy and information circulate constantly throughout the colony to be collected by the individuals that need these resources. This is much like how your brain can secrete a hormone and pass it to your circulatory system and it will eventually reach your liver.
Ants
Physicists Confirm The Existence
Time Crystals
Are you in the market for a loophole in the laws that forbid perpetual motion? Knowing you've got yourself an authentic time crystal takes more than a keen eye for high-quality gems.
In a new study, an international team of researchers used Google's Sycamore quantum computing hardware to double-check their theoretical vision of a time crystal, confirming it ticks all of the right boxes for an emerging form of technology we're still getting our head around.
Similar to conventional crystals made of endlessly repeating units of atoms, a time crystal is an infinitely repeating change in a system, one that remarkably doesn't require energy to enter or leave.
Though such a thing comes close to breaking certain laws of thermodynamics, the fact that the system's entropy doesn't increase means it should sit on the right side of physics.
In reality, such a crystal might look like an oscillation of some sort that doesn't synchronize with the rest of the system's rhythms. A laser tapping out a steady beat on your time crystal, for example, might make its particles' spins flip only on every other tap.
Time Crystals
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