from Bruce
Anecdotes
Profanity
• Umpire Eric Gregg was bilingual, and sometimes he tried to help Spanish-speaking baseball players with their English. Once, catcher Tony Peña asked him, “Where the h*ll was that pitch at?” Mr. Gregg replied, “Tony, you can’t end a sentence with a preposition. You can’t end a sentence with ‘at.’” Mr. Peña was a quick learner. He said, “OK, where the h*ll was that pitch at, *ssh*le?”
• As a young man, Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) acted in England. He and the other actors tended to swear, and in an attempt to break the habit, they decided to fine themselves a penny for each swear word they uttered. Unfortunately, they were forced to stop the attempt against swearing — within two hours, Mr. Jerome and the other actors were broke.
• Babe Ruth got into trouble when he was a boy, and so he had to go to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys. When he grew up, he wanted other kids to avoid the mistakes he had made, so if he ever heard any children using profanity, he would yell at them, “Godd*mn it, stop that godd*mn swearing over there.”
Public Speaking
• In 1951, Robert F. Kennedy invited Ralph Bunche, the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize, to speak at a legal forum at the University of Virginia. Mr. Bunche wrote back that he was willing to speak, but only before an integrated audience. At that time, many University of Virginia students objected to black people and white people being seated together. Mr. Kennedy made a great effort and persuaded the students to allow integration, and Mr. Bunche spoke before an audience in which black people and white people were seated together.
• The Maggid of Slutzk, R’ Zvi Dainov was known for giving the same speech over and over again, though in different locations. When he was asked why he did this, he replied, “The doctor does the same thing. He writes a prescription for one patient, and writes the exact same prescription for another suffering from the same disease.”
Religion
• In my opinion, even people who believe in the one true God should be allowed to poke fun at Him. (I hope that God has a sense of humor.) Once a man went to a tailor and ordered a pair of pants. Week after week, the man came back, but the tailor said the pants weren’t ready. After a month had gone by, the tailor finally said the pants were ready. The man put on the pants and was very pleased because they fit perfectly. However, as he paid for the pants, he said, “God made the World in only six days, yet you took an entire month to make these pants.” “That’s true,” replied the tailor. “But look at the quality of those pants, and compare them to the shape the World’s in.”
• An angel showed a new arrival around Heaven. Coming to a high wall, the angel put a finger to his lips and said, “Shh! Behind this wall are the fundamentalists. They think they are the only ones in Heaven.”
Royalty
• In 1960, Senator John Sparkman, a Democrat from Alabama, was introduced to the Queen of Greece. He introduced himself as “Senator John Sparkman,” but a colleague told him he should have added the rest — “Senator John Sparkman of Alabama.” The Queen overheard and asked, “Oh, are you from Alabama?” After the Senator admitted that he was, the Queen said that she had met a young lieutenant recently, who had told her, “I’m from Alabama, honey.” Senator Sparkman said that the lieutenant should have added the rest — “I’m from Alabama, honey child.” For the rest of evening, everybody called the Queen of Greece “Honey Child.”
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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: "Some of These Days"
Album: BOODLE-AM-SHAKE
Artist: Dinah Kaye & Tubby Sykes & The Power-House 7
Artist Location: Various
Record Label: Moochin’ About
Record Label Location: England
Info:
“Celebrating St Andrews Day with some of Scotland’s greatest jazz musicians, Featuring, Joe Temperley (Baratone Sax), Jimmy Deuchar (Trumpet), Dinah Kaye (Vocal), Alex Welsh (Vocals/Trumpet) & Sandy Brown (clarinetist, band leader) ….”
Released November 30, 2020
“This album also features stars such as … Buck Clayton, Tony Coe, Eddie Harvey, Peter Blanin, Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band, Acker Bilk, Archie Semple, Johnny Dankworth, Terry Lightfoot, Tubby Sykes, Ronnie Scott.”
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE) for 119-track album
Genre: Jazz.
Links:
BOODLE-AM-SHAKE
Dinah Kaye Wikipedia Article
Joe Temperley Wikipedia Article
Moochin’ About
Moochin’ About on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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US Mint Begins Shipping Quarters
Maya Angelou
The United States Mint said Monday it has begun shipping quarters featuring the image of poet Maya Angelou, the first coins in its American Women Quarters Program.
Angelou, an American author, poet and Civil Rights activist, rose to prominence with the publication of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” in 1969. Angelou, who died in 2014 at the age of 86, was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 by President Barack Obama.
The quarter design depicts Angelou with outstretched arms. Behind her are a bird in flight and a rising sun, images inspired by her poetry.
The mint’s program will issue 20 quarters over the next four years honoring women and their achievements in shaping the nation’s history.
Additional honorees in 2022 will be physicist and first woman astronaut Sally Ride, and Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. Also honored this year will be Nina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools, and Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood.
Maya Angelou
10 Winners Announced
I Love My Librarian
This year’s winners of the I Love My Librarian were cited for everything from their support during the COVID-19 pandemic to their participation in community baseball. On Monday, the American Library Association (ALA) announced 10 award recipients, each of whom receives $5,000, along with a $750 donation to their library.
Some 1,300 nominations were submitted by patrons nationwide.
Winners include Yuliana Aceves of the Arlington, Texas, Public Library, cited for the virtual programs she has led during the pandemic; William Gibbons of the City College of New York library, whose projects include working with the Harlem Little League; and Renee Greenlee of the Marion, Iowa, Public Library, where she has started a digital archive of communities about COVID-19.
The other recipients are Shamella Cromartie of the Western Carolina University library in Cullowhee, North Carolina; Shannon Horton of the Decorah, Iowa, Middle School and High School library; John Mahofski of the Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, Maryland; Tammi Moe of the Octavia Fellin Public Library in Gallup, New Mexico; George Oberle of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia; Melissa Pillot of the Forsyth School in St. Louis; and Arnulfo Talamantes of the Sul Ross Middle School in San Antonio, Texas.
The awards were established in 2008 and are sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, with support also coming from the New York Public Library.
I Love My Librarian
Joining CNN Streaming
Audie Cornish
Former NPR “All Things Considered” host Audie Cornish is joining CNN to be an anchor and correspondent for its CNN+ streaming service, the network said on Monday.
Cornish had been with National Public Radio since 2005, her reporting initially focusing on the southeastern United States. She joined NPR’s politics team to cover the 2008 election, and has been a host of “Morning Edition” as well as “All Things Considered.”
She’ll be based in Washington and start in February. CNN+, which is set to debut in the spring, has been staffing up, hiring Chris Wallace from Fox News Channel last month.
Cornish will host a weekly CNN+ show and will contribute to live programming, the network said. She will also host a podcast for CNN Audio and cover national, political and breaking news for the television network, CNN said.
Audie Cornish
Running Again
Clay Aiken
Former “American Idol” runner-up Clay Aiken announced Monday he’s running for Congress again in North Carolina, this time seeking to succeed the retiring U.S. Rep. David Price.
In a video announcing his bid in the 6th District, Aiken said he’s joining the already crowded field for the Democratic primary, which has been delayed from March to mid-May due to litigation.
Aiken, 43, has had a career in music, theater and reality shows — in addition to political and social activism — since finishing second to Ruben Studdard on the TV singing contest in 2003.
Aiken won the Democratic nomination for a largely rural central congressional district in 2014, edging former state Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco. But he lost in the general election to then-Republican incumbent Renee Ellmers, receiving 41% of the vote.
While that district was comfortably Republican, the proposed 6th District that Aiken is running in is overwhelmingly Democratic. It includes all of Orange and Durham counties — home to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, and very affluent western Wake County.
Clay Aiken
Rewards Racism and Cruelty
Rupert
In a just universe, someone would find Jesse Watters in his saddest moment, a time of crisis and sorrow, and mock him on camera before broadcasting the footage millions of giggling viewers — an indignity the longtime Fox News host once foisted upon homeless people living in New York’s Penn Station.
In this universe, however, Watters is getting promoted.
The network announced on Monday that it is giving Watters his own 7 p.m. show to lead into Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, respectively. The show will be called Jesse Watters Primetime, and if the host’s career thus far is any indication it will be a reliable cesspool of bigotry, misinformation, and, more than anything, the smug, self-satisfied air of someone who has been able to parlay a total and utter lack of shame into millions.
The 7 p.m. slot had previously been occupied by Martha MacCallum, one of the few actual news anchors employed by the network. MacCallum’s relative adherence to reality didn’t go over very well with viewers following the 2020 election, though, and so she was moved to the afternoon. The network had been experimenting with the time slot ever since. The decision to hand it Watters permanently means the network is heaping on yet another scoop of propaganda into its primetime lineup to pair with what Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham spew every night.
Watters’ latest controversy came just a few weeks ago, when at at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest he urged people to “ambush” Dr. Anthony Fauci. Watters said people should be “respectful” when questioning the nation’s top infectious disease expert … and then described the potential confrontation via a cascade of violent cliches.
Rupert
Legal Bills
RNC
More than a year after the 2020 presidential election, the GOP is still covering numerous legal bills for the benefit of the former President Donald Trump -- and the price tag is ruffling the feathers of some longtime GOP donors who are now critical of Trump.
In October and November alone, the Republican National Committee spent nearly $720,000 of its donor money on paying law firms representing Trump in various legal challenges, including criminal investigations into his businesses in New York, according to campaign finance records.
Trump's legal bills have sent the Republican Party's total legal expenditures soaring in recent months, resulting in $3 million spent just between September and November. In contrast, the Democratic National Committee has been gradually winding down its legal expenses over the last few months.
Traditionally, national political parties have at times covered presidents and their advisers' legal fees in matters related to their presidential campaigns. And throughout his presidency, the Republican Party has footed legal bills for Trump, his family members and his political allies, going back to the days of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election, through the impeachment proceedings following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
But experts say the GOP's recent payments of Trump's attorney fees after he left the White House, for investigations that are not relevant to the next presidential campaign, is a very unusual move that's indicative of the ongoing influence that the former president has over the party.
RNC
Okey Dokey
MAGA Beverage Cart
An anti-vaxxer is telling people to drink their own urine to counteract side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine, which he falsely claims alters your DNA.
Christopher Key refers to himself as the “Vaccine Police.” He calls the pandemic the “plandemic” and refers to vaccines as “satanic” and “Luciferian” and as bioweapons.
Key’s recently been driving around the country attending anti-vax protests and hoping to perform citizen’s arrests of Democratic governors over vaccine mandates. Last week, he was arrested on a trespassing charge.
After being released from jail, Key had some news for devotees. One of his doctors, he said, has figured out how to counteract the effects of the COVID vaccine: Drink your own piss.
There is no evidence that drinking urine has any health or medical benefits. Vaccines, however, are overwhelmingly effective at reducing the risk of death or hospitalization from COVID. The risk of serious side effects from vaccines is exceedingly low.
MAGA Beverage Cart
Washington Tour
Snowy Owl
A snowy owl apparently touring iconic buildings of the nation’s capital is captivating birdwatchers who manage to get a glimpse of the rare, resplendent visitor from the Arctic.
Far from its summer breeding grounds in Canada, the snowy owl was first seen on Jan. 3, the day a winter storm dumped eight inches of snow on the city.
Since then, it’s been spotted in the evenings flying around Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, landing on Union Station, the National Postal Museum, various Senate buildings, and Capitol Police headquarters.
Late last week about three dozen people in thick coats trained their binoculars on the football-sized bird with bright yellow eyes as it perched on the stone head of Archimedes, a famous ancient Greek mathematician, carved above the train station entrance.
The nocturnal hunter appears to be targeting the city’s plentiful downtown rat population.
Snowy Owl
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