from Bruce
Anecdotes
War
• After unsuccessfully trying to capture Pancho Villa in Mexico, Charles MacArthur and his military outfit returned to America, where they were given a parade in which a drunken Mr. MacArthur steered a car down the street with one hand while he waved an American flag with the other. As he drove, he shouted anti-military slogans such as “Down with Colonel Foreman” — Colonel Milton Foreman was his commanding officer. Mr. MacArthur was punished by being forced to pick up litter at the military base. Because he found that boring, he made some alterations to his blue prisoner suit. He used gold radiator paint for stripes, added epaulets and other decorations, and succeeded so well that visitors to the base thought he was a general — but an oddly acting general, since he saluted each piece of litter before picking it up. Colonel Foreman saw him and gave him his discharge papers that same day. Years later, Mr. MacArthur, then a famous playwright, and his wife, the famous actress Helen Hayes, saw Colonel Foreman and introduced themselves to him. According to Ms. Hayes, as soon as the colonel heard Mr. MacArthur’s name and remembered who he was, “The colonel’s face turned slowly purple, and his eyes seemed to go out of focus. Then, without saying a word, he stood up and stalked away.”
• John Glenn was one of the first seven astronauts chosen to participate in the United States’ space program. At a news conference, a reporter asked the seven Mercury astronauts to raise their hands if they felt that they could go into space then return to Earth safely. All of the astronauts raised a hand in the air except for Mr. Glenn — who raised both of his hands in the air. By the way, during the Korean War, Mr. Glenn, a pilot, was anxious to fight some Russian-made MiGs. Because of Mr. Glenn’s eagerness, the squadron artist painted on the side of Mr. Glenn’s plane the legend “MIG MAD MARINE.” Eventually, Mr. Glenn got his wish — in nine days, he shot down three MiGs. Also by the way, after Mr. Glenn had become the first American to orbit the earth, he went back to his hometown of New Concord, Ohio, to star in a parade. Although New Concord had a population of only 2,100, more than 40,000 people lined its streets to watch the parade.
• Harold Ross believed in separating the editorial staff and the advertising staff of The New Yorker — he put the departments in two separate buildings two blocks apart. By the way, during World War II, when England was constantly being bombed by the Germans, New Yorker writer James Thurber underwent a series of eye operations. Mr. Ross visited him at the hospital and told him, “Damn it, Thurber, I worry about you and England.”
Wit
• Hollywood is filled with witty people: 1) A publicist once wired Cary Grant’s agent, “How old Cary Grant?” However, Mr. Grant saw the message, and he wired the publicist back, “Old Cary Grant fine. How you?” 2) Woody Allen says he decided to name a movie of his Bananas “because there are no bananas in it.” 3) When Cinemascope — which widened the movie screen in an attempt to compete with television — first appeared, some Hollywood talents opposed it. According to George Stevens (director of Shane and I Remember Mama), “It’s fine if you want a system that shows a boa constrictor to better advantage than a man.” 4) Marlon Brando once observed something strange about being a movie star: “Once you are a star actor, people start asking you questions about politics, astronomy, archaeology, and birth control.” 5) Julie Andrews’ first movie was Disney’s Mary Poppins, for which she won an Oscar. Some people believed that she won because the voters felt sympathy for her because Warner Brothers had not let her star in the movie version of My Fair Lady, in which she had starred on stage. When Ms. Andrews received the Oscar, she said in her acceptance speech, “I’d like to thank all those who made this possible — especially Jack Warner.”
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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: "Canadian Christmas"
Album: MARK MALIBU PRESENTS: SURFIN’ KITTY X-MAS 2
Artist: Mark Malibu and the Wasagas
Artist Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Info:
“They are Canada's original Surf Punks. They first existed from 1979-1982. They were teenagers who formed out of the ashes of a band called the DeGeneRats. They played with many new-wave and punk bands confusing audiences everywhere. Considered a touchstone of the Toronto surf scene, they reunited in 2014.”
This album has 26 tracks by various artists.
“Wasaga Beach (variant: Wasaga) is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. Situated along the longest freshwater beach in the world, it is a popular summer tourist destination.” — Wikipedia
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $10 (USD) for 26-track album of various artists
Genre: Christmas. Surf.
Links:
MARK MALIBU PRESENTS: SURFIN’ KITTY X-MAS 2
Mark Malibu and the Wasagas
Mark Malibu on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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Current Events
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In The Chaos Household
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Most Powerful Women
Forbes 2021
Singers Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift are among Forbes’ top 100 list of the world’s most powerful women in 2021.
Rihanna, who was recently named National Hero of the newly founded republic of Barbados, came in at No 68 on the list.
“Single Ladies” singer Beyoncé was listed at No 76 on the Forbes list. The business magazine credited the former Destiny’s Child singer with pulling in a total of $250m (approximately £189m) over the course of her On The Run II stadium tour with billionaire husband Jay Z.
Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey’s estimated total net worth of $2.6bn (approximately £1.7bn) catapulted her to the No 23 spot on Forbes’s list, as the philanthropist, talk show host and media mogul was crowned the most powerful woman in media and entertainment this year.
The top spot went to author, philanthropist and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s former wife, MacKenzie Scott with an estimated net worth of $59.2bn (approximately £44.6bn) and 25% stake in the e-commerce giant.
Forbes 2021
Tag-Team Hosts
‘Jeopardy!’
Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will continue as tag-team hosts of “Jeopardy!” through the rest of this season.
Last September, Bialik and Jennings were announced as interim hosts after Sony’s efforts to replace the late Alex Trebek ran aground. Mike Richards, who’d been the show’s executive producer, got the host job and then lost it — and soon after, his producing role — when his past questionable podcast comments resurfaced.
Jennings, the record-holder for longest “Jeopardy!” winning streak, is a consulting producer on the show. Bialik has already been chosen to host “Jeopardy!” prime-time and spinoff series, including a new college championship.
The show is in its 38th season, with new episodes scheduled to air until July 29, 2022.
‘Jeopardy!’
City Honors
Ray Charles
A South Carolina city is putting up a historical marker to commemorate a nightclub renowned for hosting Black musicians and patrons in the segregated South.
The city of Clemson purchased the marker in honor of the Littlejohn Grill, The Greenville News reported.
The venue opened after World War II and stayed open until the 1960s, hosting many blues, jazz and rock ’n’ roll entertainers. They included James Brown, Harry Belafonte, and Ray Charles.
The Littlejohn Grill was a part of the “Chitlin Circuit,” a string of venues where Black entertainers were able to perform during an era when Jim Crow laws denied them access to whites-only stages in the South, the newspaper reported.
The building was eventually demolished in the 1980s. In its place is Littlejohn Community Center, where the marker will be erected.
Ray Charles
‘Night Watch’
Rembrandt
Rembrandt van Rijn’s iconic painting “The Night Watch” will be restretched to get rid of deformations in its top left corner, the Netherlands’ national museum announced Wednesday.
The 379.5x453.5-centimeter (149.4x178.5-inch) canvas will be removed from its wooden stretcher next month and placed on a new one to remove rippling that was caused when the world famous painting was housed in a temporary gallery while the Rijksmuseum underwent major renovations from 2003-2013.
The oil on canvas painting depicts an Amsterdam civil militia and shows off Rembrandt’s renowned use of light and composition to create a dynamic scene filled with characters.
The museum said the ripples were likely caused by “excessive climatic fluctuations in the gallery” where it hung during the rebuilding work on its landmark home in Amsterdam.
The painting has undergone many restorations over its lifetime. It was placed on its present wooden stretcher in 1975. Once the painting has been restretched, the museum will decide on whether further restoration work is needed.
Rembrandt
Pastor Loses Job
Indiana
The Rev. Craig Duke has been a Methodist minister for three decades, building a reputation as a staunch advocate of LGBTQ inclusion. His pastoral duties have now been terminated — the result of a bitter rift surfacing in his Indiana church after he sought to demonstrate solidarity by appearing in drag alongside prominent drag queens in the HBO reality series “We’re Here.”
Duke, 62, said he thought most of his 400-member congregation at Newburgh United Methodist Church shared his inclusive views, and he was taken aback when a prominent congregation member, soon backed by other churchgoers, circulated emails attacking him.
“You have thrown NUMC under the bus to elevate a minority of individuals,” said one of the emails. Another, according to Duke, said Satan must be pleased with the discord over LGBTQ rights.
Under United Methodist Church protocol, a pastor does not have the option of resigning, but Duke said he made clear to his immediate superior, regional superintendent Mitch Gieselman, that he needed to step away.
On Nov. 26, Gieselman — who had been hearing from the pastor’s critics and supporters — sent a letter to the NUMC congregation announcing that Duke “is being relieved of his pastoral duties.”
Indiana
Barred From Beauty Contest
Artificially Enhanced Camels
Saudi authorities have conducted their biggest-ever crackdown on camel beauty contestants that received Botox injections and other artificial touch-ups, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday, with over 40 camels disqualified from the annual pageant.
Saudi Arabia’s popular King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which kicked off earlier this month, invites the breeders of the most beautiful camels to compete for some $66 million in prize money. Botox injections, face lifts and other cosmetic alterations to make the camels more attractive are strictly prohibited. Jurors decide the winner based on the shape of the camels’ heads, necks, humps, dress and postures.
Judges at the monthlong festival in the desert northeast of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, are escalating their clamp down on artificially enhanced camels, the official news agency reported, using “specialized and advanced” technology to detect tampering.
This year, authorities discovered dozens of breeders had stretched out the lips and noses of camels, used hormones to boost the beasts’ muscles, injected camels’ heads and lips with Botox to make them bigger, inflated body parts with rubber bands and used fillers to relax their faces.
The camel beauty contest is at the heart of the massive carnival, which also features camel races, sales and other festivities typically showcasing thousands of dromedaries. The extravaganza seeks to preserve the camel’s role in the kingdom’s Bedouin tradition and heritage, even as the oil-rich country plows ahead with modernizing mega-projects.
Artificially Enhanced Camels
850-Pound Pot Brownie
Massachusetts
A Massachusetts cannabis company is celebrating National Brownie Day on Wednesday with what it believes is the “largest THC-infused brownie ever made.”
MariMed Inc. said the massive confection is 3-feet-by-3-feet (.9-meters-by-.9 meters) square and 15 inches (38 centimeters) tall, weighs 850 pounds (385 kilograms), and contains 20,000 mg of THC.
The brownie was also made to celebrate the launch of the company’s new line of cannabis-infused edibles, called Bubby’s Baked, according to a statement from the Norwood-based company that also has facilities in several other states.
What happens to the brownie now? Company spokesperson Howard Schacter said it will be sent to its Middleborough dispensary and ultimately sold to a medical marijuana patient. As to what the customer plans to do with it, Schacter couldn’t say.
The purchase price is still being determined, he said.
Massachusetts
Sleep Technique Really Works
Salvador Dalí
A sleep technique described by surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and famous inventor Thomas Edison might actually work to inspire creativity, researchers have found.
To get the creativity boost, you essentially need to wake up just as a certain sleep stage sets in, where reality seems to blend into fantasy.
To use the technique, visionaries such as Dalí and Edison would hold an object, such as a spoon or a ball, while lying down to sleep. As they drifted off, the object would fall, make a noise and wake them up. Having spent a few moments on the brink of unconsciousness, they would be ready to start their work.
This early sleep stage, known as the hypnagogia state or N1, lasts only a few minutes before you drift off to deeper sleep, but it may be the "ideal cocktail for creativity," the researchers wrote in the study, published Dec. 8 in the journal Science Advances. Humans spend about 5% of a night's sleep in N1, but it's an extremely understudied sleep stage, said senior author Delphine Oudiette, a sleep researcher at the Paris Brain Institute.
Inspired by the great minds who employed the technique, Oudiette and her group set out to test whether the sleep method would actually work for everyday people. They recruited 103 healthy participants who had the ability to fall asleep easily and asked them to avoid stimulants and sleep a bit less than usual the night before the experiment.
Salvador Dalí
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