Garrison Keillor: Suddenly, once again, good Lord, it's Christmas
Coming through airports this week it struck me how kind everyone was, ticket agents, TSA people, cab starters, and then light dawned: it's Christmas. Charles Dickens had a big impact on the world and so did Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart, not to mention St. Luke. I stood in a long winding line in LaGuardia and sensed no impatience; the TSA guy even smiled and asked how I was. And when I lost my ticket in Atlanta, I walked to Gate T7 and asked an agent and she made me a new one, no problem.
Helaine Olen: A pain-inducing tilted toilet sounds far-fetched. But no wonder so many people were livid. (Washington Post)
A sure sign that the struggle for potty rights in the workplace is far from over. … High-ranking executives face little of this. They often enjoy private bathrooms where, presumably, they are not docked for excessive usage and are not expected to brainstorm with random employees. If anything, they give themselves perks that seemed designed to encourage excess usage. WeWork's founder and former head Adam Neumann, for one, spent investor money installing a "spa and ice bath" in his office suite for his personal use, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bathroom inequality, as it turns out, is a thing. And it shows why the possibility of the StandardToilet hit such a nerve.
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is the second studio album by the American rock band Iron Butterfly, released in 1968. It is most known for the title track which occupies the whole of Side B. The album is also available in a deluxe edition CD.
The In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida LP peaked at number 4 on the Billboard albums chart. It was first officially certified a Platinum and 4× Multi-Platinum album in the United States on January 26, 1993, and achieved worldwide sales of over 30 million copies. It was the biggest selling album for the year 1969 in the US. It was also Atlantic Records' biggest selling album until it was surpassed by Led Zeppelin IV
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
Roy the Libtard Snowflake in Gohmertstan (Tyler), TX wrote:
I loved Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, mostly for the extra long drum solo. There was a band playing at the Krazy Kat in Colorado Springs, whose drummer would perform that while the rest of the band took a break. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of that band, but the drummer performed under black light, with drumsticks that glowed a bright orange. Awesome!
Cal in Vermont said:
.Abbey Road?
Alan J answered:
IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA, by Iron Butterfly.
Randall replied:
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
mj responded:
Some nice drum solos
Iron Butterfly's Enaggadadavida, or however it's spelled. I think the
title was enunciated after half a bottle of rot gut.
Stephen F said:
I love your yard and garden photos!
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Jim from CA, retired to ID, wrote:
A belated Merry Christmas everyone....In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Adam answered:
Yes, had to be-
Inna-godda-da-vida by Iron Butterfly
Rosemary in Columbus replied:
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
zorch responded:
Iron Butterfly, With In a Gadda Da Vida.
Deborah answered:
Good question. I'm thinking it's Iron Butterfly's "Inna Godda da Vida" (sp?). A really boring song, IMNTBHO.
Enjoyed a low-key Christmas Eve with our son and a couple of his best friends from middle and high school - such impressive young men they've become. I love that they still stay in touch (even if just on social media) and I could hardly be more proud of them if they were our own kids.
The rain cleared out around 8 a.m. but the clouds lingered, keeping it cold and gloomy. All the more reason to stay in by the fire, drinking homemade eggnog and enjoying family time.
Merry Christmas!
Billy in Cypress U$A replied:
Per Wiki: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Jon L took the day off.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Song: "Intergalactic Lesbian Love Song" from the album COMING OUT ELECTRIC
Artist: Atomic Swindler
Artist Location: Rochester, New York
Info: This is Atomic Swindlers' debut album.
"Otherworldliness is something which has got lost in the JLo video vacuum, where life is an endless procession of choreographed pretty vacuity and bragging about the amassing of consumer durables. Step up, then, the sublimely named Atomic Swindlers who are ready to catapult you into another world far, far away from the soulless confines of corporate pop. " - Chris Mitchell, SPIKED
"It's easy to talk about Atomic Swindlers in the contexts of their image or sexuality, but what many overlook is the songwriting and musicianship. Though Atomic Swindlers have planted themselves firmly in the aesthetics of glam, Coming Out Electric is more than the glitter and androgyny. Without the songs, androgyny is a gimmick, glitter is passé. Atomic Swindlers have the songs." - Dave Brecheisen, POPMATTERS
Price: $5 for 12-track album; the price for the song is Name Your Price (Includes FREE)
• Eleanor Peters, who was instrumental in convincing married dancers Marian Ladré and Illaria Obidenna Ladré to start a ballet school in Seattle, Washington, had a lovely apartment on 36th Street in Seattle. The third floor was devoted in part to her son's toy train. (Because there were so many toys in the son's bedroom, there was no room for the train.) Mrs. Ladré noted with amusement that the butler spent more time than the son did playing with the train.
• When lieder singer Lotte Lehmann was a child, she had a very thick pigtail, which she put to good purpose by allowing a small friend to grab hold of it and swing her in circles. By the way, Ms. Lehmann sang in Cuba shortly after the revolution. A notable feature of her bedroom at the Grande Hotel Nazionale was that it had a gaping hole as a result of a shell fired in the revolution.
• As a child dancer, Muriel Stuart impressed Anna Pavlova. While auditioning for the great dancer, Ms. Stuart danced to a waltz. Ms. Pavlova asked the pianist to switch to a polka, and Ms. Stuart immediately changed the tempo of her dancing. Because of this, Ms. Pavlova gave the child dancer the privilege of sitting beside her during the remaining auditions.
• Maria Avelis, who during the mid-1950s was a soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, remembers her start in music. Her sister was taking voice lessons, and she missed a note. Her sister's teacher asked young Maria to try to hit the note, and she did. (Young Maria thought her note sounded like a "howl," but the voice teacher called it "wonderful.")
• Dancer Ted Shawn once gave his wife, the dancer Ruth St. Denis, a peacock as a present. The beauty of the peacock thrilled a neighborhood child-until she heard the peacock's unbeautiful cry. The child turned to Mr. Shawn and, with tears in her eyes, said, "Can't God do nothing perfect?"
Clothing and Costumes
• In her autobiography, I'm Not Making This Up, You Know, Anna Russell writes that sometimes during performances she used to wear a gown that had "a big pouffe of tulle at the back of the skirt, making a little train." During an appearance in San Francisco, her accompanist accidentally stepped on the train, pulling out the long length of tulle. Much later, during an appearance in London, Ms. Russell was wearing the same dress, but she had a new accompanist, whom she forgot to warn about her train. Once again, her accompanist accidentally stepped on her train, pulling out the long length of tulle. After the performance, an American sailor came backstage and said that he enjoyed her work, but he especially enjoyed the part at the end, when her accompanist stepped on her train. Ms. Russell explained that that had been an accident, not part of the show, but the sailor replied, "The h*ll it was an accident. I saw you do it in San Francisco."
• Vaslav Nijinsky was dismissed from the Imperial Theaters of Russia in January 1911 because he had worn an "improper" costume in a performance. The costume, which had been designed by Alexandre Benois, did not have trunks over the dancer's tights, although the Imperial Theaters required trunks. In solidarity with her brother, Bronislava Nijinska immediately resigned from the Imperial Theaters, and the two then joined the Ballets Russe. By the way, when Bronislava started her dance studio-Nijinska's Ecole de Mouvement-in Kiev in 1919, the Russian Revolution was in full force. Her students paid for their tuition with such necessities as food and fuel.
• Judy Garland and Katherine Hepburn appeared in a group portrait of MGM movie stars that appeared in Life magazine in 1948. Ms. Hepburn, who was wearing slacks, told Ms. Garland, who was wearing a pale skirt and a black blouse, "I knew I'd be badly dressed, and I knew you'd be badly dressed. The only difference is that you took the time." A later celebrity who sometimes dressed oddly was Bette Midler, who got her start in the gay club known as the Continental Baths, where her many fans frequently wore nothing but towels. For her encores, the Divine Miss M reappeared on stage, wearing only a towel.
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'Young Sheldon', followed by a RERUN'The Unicorn', then a RERUN'Mom', followed by a RERUN'Carol's Second Act', then a RERUN'Evil'.
On a RERUNStephen Colbert (from 11/26/19) are Paul Rudd and Adrienne Warren.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 9/17/19) are Angela Bassett and Jim Gaffigan.
NBC begins the night with a RERUN'Superstore', followed by the made-for-tv movie 'Dolly Parton's Coat Of Many Colors'.
On a RERUNJimmy Fallon (from 11/20/19) are Dolly Parton and Kacey Musgraves.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 10/31/19) are Timothée Chalamet, Cynthia Erivo, and Miranda Lambert.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 12/16/19) is Daisy Ridley.
ABC starts the night with the chestnut 'Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!', followed by a FRESH'The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 12/2/19) are James Corden, Mena Massoud, Brad Paisley, and Ozuna.
The CW offers the RERUN'iHeartRadio Music Festival Greatest Moments', followed by a RERUN'Legacies'.
Faux has a RERUN'9-1-1', followed by a RERUN'The Moodys'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: CI', followed by another old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has 'Live PD Presents: PD Cam', followed by a FRESH'Live PD Presents: PD Cam', then a FRESH'Court Cam', followed by another FRESH'Court Cam', then a FRESH'Live PD: Wanted'.
AMC offers the movie 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation', followed by the movie 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation', again.
BBC -
[6:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-The End of the World
[7:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-The Unquiet Dead
[8:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Aliens of London-Part 1.
[9:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-World War Three-Part 2.
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 9-The Empty Child-Part 1.
[11:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 10-The Doctor Dances-Part 2.
[12:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 11-Boom Town
[1:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 12-Bad Wolf-Part 1.
[2:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 13-The Parting Of the Ways-Part 2.
[3:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 1-Smith and Jones
[4:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 4-Daleks In Manhattan-Part 1.
[5:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 5-Evolution Of The Daleks-Part 2.
[6:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 8-Human Nature-Part 1.
[7:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 9-The Family Of Blood-Part 2.
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 10-Blink
[9:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE MACRA TERROR
[11:05PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE LOST EPISODE
[2:05AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 12-The Sound Of Drums-Part 1.
[3:11AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 13-Last of the Time Lords-Part 2.
[4:17AM] DOCTOR WHO: VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Below Deck', followed by a FRESH'Below Deck', then a FRESH'Real Housewives Of OC', followed by another 'Real Housewives Of OC'.
FX has the movie 'Minions', followed by the movie 'Despicable Me 3'.
History has 'American Pickers', another 'American Pickers', followed by a FRESH'American Pickers: Bonus Buys', and another 'American Pickers'.
IFC -
[6:00A] The Three Stooges - Income-Tax Sappy
[6:15A] The Three Stooges - Uncivil Warriors
[6:45A] The Three Stooges - Gents Without Cents
[7:15A] The Skeleton Twins
[9:15A] A Dennis the Menace Christmas
[11:15A] All I Want for Christmas
[1:15P] Here Comes the Boom
[3:45P] The Way, Way Back
[6:00P] Snow Day
[8:00P] Christmas With the Kranks
[10:00P] Four Christmases
[12:00A] Christmas With the Kranks
[2:00A] Four Christmases
[4:00A] All I Want for Christmas (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Great Christmas Light Fight
[9:00am] The Great Christmas Light Fight
[10:00am] The Great Christmas Light Fight
[11:00am] The Great Christmas Light Fight
[12:00pm] The Great Christmas Light Fight
[1:00pm] The Great Christmas Light Fight
[2:00pm] Law & Order
[3:00pm] Law & Order
[4:00pm] Law & Order
[5:00pm] Law & Order
[6:00pm] Law & Order
[7:00pm] Law & Order
[8:00pm] Law & Order
[9:00pm] Law & Order
[10:00pm] Law & Order
[11:00pm] Law & Order
[12:00am] Law & Order
[1:00am] Law & Order
[2:00am] Criminal Minds
[3:00am] Criminal Minds
[4:00am] Criminal Minds
[5:00am] Criminal Minds (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Pitch Black', followed by the movie 'The Chronicles Of Riddick'.
TBS:
On a RERUNConan (from 10/21/19) are Rosario Dawson and Dulcé Sloan.
At long last something great has emerged from the never-ending debate between Martin Scorsese and fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The majority of the fall movie season was dominated by Scorsese's critical thoughts of comic book cinema. The director first went viral in October after he was quoted in an interview with Empire magazine comparing Marvel movies to theme parks. "It isn't the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being," Scorsese added.
Flash forward over two months and Scorsese is getting his Christmas gifts wrapped in Marvel wrapper paper, a hilariously joyous full circle moment courtesy of Scorsese's daughter, Francesca. Photos of Scorsese's Marvel-wrapped Christmas gifts were uploaded to Francesca's Instagram page and quickly gained popularity across social media. Considering how heated the debate between Scorsese and Marvel fans got at points this fall, it's nice to see Scorsese's family having nice laugh over a discussion that is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
The latest development in the Scorsese vs. Marvel debate arrived earlier this month when Time magazine reported that a meeting was being eyed to take place between Scorsese and Disney CEO Bob Iger. Disney is the parent company of Marvel Studios. Iger called Scorsese's comments "nasty" and "not fair to the people who are making the movies."
Scorsese expanded on his critical Marvel views in November by writing an op-ed for The New York Times. The director explained in the essay that his issue with comic book films is they are overpowering the exhibition space and leaving no room for the type of cinema he values to exist. Scorsese said that comic book franchise films were creating a space in Hollywood that is "brutal and inhospitable to art."
A Texas woman who drove to Mexico to deliver Christmas gifts to a sprawling refugee camp housing people waiting for U.S. court dates said Wednesday she was detained by authorities there for two days.
Anamichelle Castellano said she and another volunteer for her nonprofit group were stopped Monday at a bridge crossing from Brownsville, Texas, to Matamoros, Mexico. She said authorities discovered a small box of ammunition inside the car she was driving, which she said was left inside by her husband.
Mexico has strict laws against entering the country with guns or ammunition. Those laws occasionally ensnare Americans crossing the border.
Castellano said she spent Monday night sleeping on a couch with her 9-year-old daughter in a government office. She gave a statement Tuesday to someone she believed to be a prosecutor, then was allowed to leave a few hours later. The prosecutor's office in Mexico's Tamaulipas state did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Castellano and her husband, Jehu, operate a nonprofit called the Socorro Foundation. They are among the volunteers trying to help thousands of parents and children waiting in Mexican border towns to seek asylum in American immigration courts.
In the throes of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was planning to test a massive nuclear bomb in the Arctic Circle.
But in a letter to then-President John F. Kennedy, a young Michigan girl was most concerned about the North Pole's most famous resident.
"Please stop the Russians from bombing the North Pole," 8-year-old Michelle Rochon, of Marine City, pleaded, according to news reports at the time. "Because they will kill Santa Claus."
Kennedy's brief, but reassuring response to Rochon is part of a trove of holiday-themed archival materials being featured this month at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
"You must not worry about Santa Claus," the president wrote on Oct. 28, 1961. "I talked with him yesterday and he is fine. He will be making his rounds again this Christmas."
Molotov cocktails were thrown at the headquarters of Brazilian comedy group Porta dos Fundos in Rio de Janeiro on Christmas Eve, weeks after the group launched a film on Netflix depicting Jesus as gay.
The group's Christmas special, "The First Temptation of Christ," a 46-minute comedy that portrays Jesus bringing home his presumed boyfriend Orlando to meet the Holy Family, prompted around 2 million people to sign a petition calling on the streaming service to remove the show because it offended Christians.
The sketch group said a security guard managed to contain the fire at its headquarters and no one was hurt.
Brazil is home to the world's largest Catholic community as well as a fast-expanding evangelical community with increasing political influence.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who has described himself as a "proud" homophobe, once told an interviewer he would rather have a dead son than a gay son. Earlier this year he suspended funding for a series of films, including a handful with LGBT+ themes. The decision was later struck down by a federal court.
Diabetes medications and blood-test supplies are sold, traded and donated on black markets because the U.S. healthcare system isn't meeting patients' needs, a study shows.
In a survey, about half of people who participated in these underground exchanges said they do it because they lack access to the proper medications and supplies to manage their diabetes, researchers report in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.
"It is important for healthcare providers and policymakers to understand what people are doing to support diabetes management when faced with medication and supply access issues," said study leader Michelle Litchman of the University of Utah College of Nursing in Salt Lake City.
The price of insulin continues to increase, translating to $15 per day for the average user, the study authors note. Recent research indicates that one in four people with diabetes ration their insulin due to cost, they add.
Overall, people who reported financial stress due to diabetes management were six times more likely to engage in underground exchanges and three times more likely to seek donations.
For the first time, scientists think they're watching a fast-moving river of ice being born. These so-called ice streams are rapid, long-lasting flows of ice that form in the middle of more static ice formations known as ice sheets. There are only a handful of them on Earth. They form in remote parts of the arctic and antarctic and, once established, can last decades or even centuries. Until now, no one had ever seen one emerge.
But now, in a new paper published Nov. 21 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team of glaciologists argues that another, shorter-term event that began in 2013 in the Russian Arctic may have sparked the emergence of a long-lasting ice stream. The event, called a glacier surge, is like a frozen flood. A great deal of ice comes loose and bursts out toward the ocean in a rush.
"After the initial surge in 2013, the glacier still retains fast flow at around [1.1 miles per year (1.8 kilometers per year)]," the authors wrote in the new study. That's "an unusually high and long-lasting speed for a glacier surge."
Until recently, researchers thought that glacial surges were routine events, independent of the climate change effects that are melting glaciers around the world. Surges, researchers believed, occur as part of normal growth and shrinking cycles in parts of ice caps that can easily replenish themselves. Ice streams were thought to be separate, unrelated phenomena, the researchers wrote. But events in recent years, including this event, are challenging the view that ice streams are unrelated to these surges, and that the surges aren't primarly climate-driven, the researchers wrote.
The initial ice surge, at a site known as the Vavilov Ice Cap, has now stretched into a years-long event that has permanently transformed the region, according to the paper. The area is a polar desert, so little new ice is added from one year to the next. And 11% of the ice mass in the region - about 10.5 billion tons (9.5 billion metric tons) of ice - has already flowed into the ocean, causing the average elevation of the ice cap to drop significantly. In other words, the ice from the surge is not replenishing itself as scientists typically expect following these sorts of events.
In a camp for the displaced in northern Syria, Nasrallah scatters mushroom spores into a bag of wet hay, hoping they will sprout and feed his family.
"Mushrooms have become the main alternative to meat, as it's so expensive," says the 43-year-old.
After the civil war erupted in Syria eight years ago, Nasrallah started growing the fungi in his home province of Hama.
Mushrooms are commonly viewed as an alternative to meat in dishes, although they are different in nutritional value. They contain far less protein, but more minerals and vitamins.
Syrians in other parts of the country have also grown them during the war, most notably in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta when it was under a five-year government siege.
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responded:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
