from Bruce
Anecdotes
Actors
• Star Trek: The Experience can be seen at the Las Vegas Hilton. Among other attractions are actors portraying characters from the various Star Trek series. Many of the actors are very good, and they stay in character. For example, a famous Ferengi is Quark. When a fan yelled “Quark!” at an actor in a Ferengi costume, the actor sighed and said, “Billions of Ferengi in the Universe, and they [Hu-Mans] all think we are Quark!” The Ferengi are a notoriously acquisitive species, and Star Trek fan Kevin Wagner was shocked that an actor playing a Ferengi agreed to pose for free for a photograph with a fan. Therefore, Kevin quoted the 13th Rule of Acquisition to the Ferengi: “Anything worth doing is worth doing for money.” However, the actor playing the Ferengi knew his stuff: “Don’t quote the Rules of Acquisition to me, Hu-Man. Free publicity!”
• Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were shocked in Season 2 when Angel, a bad vampire turned good, then bad again, killed the interesting and important character Jenny Calendar in the episode titled “Passion.” According to an interview with series creator Josh Whedon, the killing of an interesting and important character served many purposes, including being a message to the actors: “Be very good or I’ll kill you.” (Mr. Whedon was joking. Robia LaMorte, the actress who played Jenny Calendar, was very, very good.)
• Jack Riley played the character of the insulting, misanthropic Mr. Elliot Carlin on The Bob Newhart Show. One of his favorite episodes was “You’re Fired, Mr. Chips,” in which the great actor Ralph Bellamy co-starred. A consummate professional, Mr. Bellamy came to work the first day with all of his lines memorized. Mr. Riley asked Mr. Bellamy how he had learned his lines, and Mr. Bellamy replied, “The way I always did it. I keep the play in my back pocket. I’m standing in line at the supermarket, I got it out.”
• Panamanian actor Rubén Blades avoids jobs that involve his playing stereotypical Hispanic roles. Once, the people behind Miami Vice offered him the role of a Hispanic drug dealer. He turned them down. In one six-month period, he was offered 15 roles. Approximately half of the roles were Columbian drug dealers; the remaining roles were Cuban drug dealers. Mr. Blades, who has a degree in International Law from Harvard, asks, “Doesn’t anybody want me to play a lawyer?”
• In the days before women commonly became pregnant first, then got married, actress Paula Winslowe read a commercial over the radio that caused the studio audience to laugh. She read, “I am a June bride. My silverware pattern is International Silver’s exquisite ‘First Love.’” The audience began laughing after the first sentence because they could see that Ms. Winslowe’s pregnancy was far too advanced for her to be a conventionally moral June bride.
• Comedian Phil Foster (who played Laverne’s father in Laverne and Shirley) and his wife knew an actress before she became famous, but when the actress got a TV series, she ignored the Fosters. But after the TV series was cancelled, she became friendly with them again. A few years later, the actress won a Supporting Actress Academy Award. Mr. Foster sent her this telegram: “CONGRATULATIONS — AND GOODBYE AGAIN.”
• Dick Gautier played Hymie the Robot in the 1960s TV series Get Smart. This was an unusual role, because Hymie spoke in a monotone and showed no emotion — the opposite of what an actor usually does. After Hymie had performed in a scene with Don Adams, who played Maxwell Smart, Mr. Adams would sometimes say, “Dick, that was absolutely one-dimensional,” then give him a thumbs-up sign.
• During the Avengers episode “Mandrake,” Honor Blackman, who played Mrs. Cathy Gale, accidentally knocked out pro wrestler Jackie Pallo during a fight scene, kicking him in the face and knocking him backward into an open grave. He remained unconscious for six or seven minutes, and the newspapers had a field day with the story. For a while, Ms. Blackman was afraid that she had ruined his career.
• Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which she regularly killed vampires with a combination of karate moves and stakes to the heart, really got into the role. She once visited an amusement park where an actor dressed as a vampire jumped out to scare the amusement park visitors — Sarah gave the “vampire” a karate chop.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Walking Bristol Bridge"
Album: THE INSTRUMENTAL STYLINGS OF LEWIS BAILEY
Artist: Lewis Bailey
Artist Location: San Francisco, California
Info:
Kahuna Cole, a fan of surf music, wrote, “A nice track by Lewis Bailey! Some nice covers and originals on this album. Music for a saltwater washdown!”
John Fisher, a fan, wrote, “What an enjoyable album! Don’t let the mild-mannered Clark Kent vintage cover fool you, Lewis surfs thru different styles with an independent edge and large waves of creativity.”
“Lewis Bailey has played guitar since the age of 16. Heavily influenced by The Ventures and Japanese Eliki with roots in Brit Pop of the 60's and the SF Bay Area Tiki Scene. Toured with The Woggles and likes Star Trek and his cat Gigi.”
“Released in 2020, THE INSTRUMENTAL STYLINGS OF LEWIS BAILEY features surf and instrumental tunes written by Lewis Bailey and covers of favorite instrumentals. From 1996 to 2008, this album features recording from three different bands led by Lewis Bailey. The earliest is The Surf Kings from Laguna Beach, Florida. From Tallahassee, Florida is Stingray International, and from Orlando, Florida is The Novarays.”
Price: $2 (USD) for track; $20 (USD) for 10-track album
Genre: Surf.
Links:
THE INSTRUMENTAL STYLINGS OF LEWIS BAILEY
Lewis Bailey on Bandcamp
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
Some Guy Suggests
shatner meme
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Thanks, Guy!
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommended Video
New Rule: The Slow-Moving Coup
New Rule: The Slow-Moving Coup | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Other Links:
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.
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Extra, extra windy day (& night).
Run Ends
’Jeopardy!'
All good things must come to an end and Matt Amodio’s historic run on “Jeopardy!” did just that on Monday’s show, leaving the Yale doctoral student with 38 wins and more than $1.5 million in prize money.
Amodio failed to answer the Final Jeopardy! clue correctly and came third on Monday’s show, his streak cut short by new champion Jonathan Fisher, an actor originally from Coral Gables, Florida.
Amodio finished No. 2 on the all-time consecutive wins list behind only Ken Jennings with 74 wins. He won a total of $1,518,601, which puts him third on the all-time non-tournament cash winnings list behind James Holzhauer ($2,462,216) and Jennings ($2,520,700).
He became known for starting all of his questions with “What’s...” instead of using suitable alternatives such as “Who is...,” an unorthodox approach that made some longtime viewers groan.
What became known as the “Amodio Rodeo” proved a welcome distraction for the quiz show and its producer Sony Pictures Television, which saw its effort to replace its late and beloved host Alex Trebek founder.
’Jeopardy!'
Heirs Sell Stake In Estate
Bing Crosby
Harry Crosby was 19 when his father, Bing, died in 1977. But when he goes to a shopping mall or party in December, there’s a strong chance he’ll hear his dad’s voice singing “White Christmas.”
He and his family want to hear that voice more during the other 11 months, a desire that led to a deal being announced Monday to sell an equal stake in the rights to Bing Crosby’s estate to Primary Wave Music.
It’s another example of how the sale of catalog rights has become a booming business, with most involving rock artists who write their own music — Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Neil Young and Stevie Nicks are examples. The Crosby deal is the most prominent involving a pre-rock artist who primarily interpreted songs written by others.
The deal is estimated in excess of $50 million.
“There were things that became absolutely top hits in the ‘30s and ’40s, for a sustained period of time, and they just went away,” Harry Crosby said. “People associate dad with Christmas, but in the ’40s and ’50s, they didn’t associate him with Christmas. They associated dad with tons of things, and that’s what I want to bring back.”
Bing Crosby
'Dancing With the Stars'
Tom Bergeron
Last summer, Dancing With the Stars fans promptly freaked out after ABC fired cohosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews and replaced the duo with Tyra Banks. Though #DWTS Twitter was shocked by the announcement, it turns out Tom wasn't as caught off guard.
In September 2021, Tom dished his thoughts on the matter to Full House star and fellow former America's Funniest Home Videos host Bob Saget. On the podcast Bob Saget's Here for You, Tom got real about how he's feeling over a year after departing the ABC dance show. From what it sounds like, in some ways, the writing was on the wall.
"In all candor, the show that I left was not the show that I loved," Tom explained. "So, the end of the season that turned out to be my last season [in 2019], I kind of knew. So I took everything out of my dressing room that I really wanted...It was kind of obvious that we were kind of butting heads."
Tom later added: "I wasn't surprised that, that was my last season. So there was no blue period. Actually, I think Erin and I had more fun getting fired than anyone."
As for what Tom disagreed with producers about, we believe it may have had something to do with the booking of former President Trump's White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. At the time the cast was announced in the summer of 2019, Tom issued a statement claiming that he had expressed his desire to keep DWTS free of "divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations" so that the show could be a "joyful respite from our exhausting political climate." As Tom put it, in the end, producers chose to "go in a different direction."
Tom Bergeron
Auction
Al Capone
Al Capone may have died nearly 75 years ago but it’s clear interest in the infamous Chicago gangster is very much alive after some of his prized possessions were auctioned off over the weekend for at least $3 million.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Capone’s family sold several of his belongings, including what was billed as his favorite gun, at auction in California, where his three surviving granddaughters live.
The event, called “A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone,” was held at a private club in Sacramento and attracted nearly 1,000 registered bidders, including 150 who attended the nearly four-hour-long event in person.
Among the items up for auction was a bear-shaped humidor as well as diamond jewelry and some family photographs. The most popular item proved to be Capone’s favorite Colt .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, which went for $860,000.
Most of the buyers’ identities were kept private. But one whose name has been made public is Kevin Nagle, a Sacramento investor and business owner. Among the items that once belonged to “Scarface” Capone that he picked up was a decorative humidor for $120,000 and an 18-karat yellow gold and platinum belt buckle for $22,500.
Al Capone
White Tiger and Cheetah Furs
Gifts
The Saudi royal family showered Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) and his entourage on his first trip abroad as president with dozens of presents, including three robes made with white tiger and cheetah fur, and a dagger with a handle that appeared to be ivory.
A White House lawyer determined that possession of the furs and dagger most likely violated the Endangered Species Act, but the Trump administration held onto them and failed to disclose them as gifts received from a foreign government.
On the last full day of Trump’s presidency, the White House handed them over to the General Services Administration — the wrong agency — rather than the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which seized the gifts this summer.
At that point, there was a surprise.
The furs, from an oil-rich family worth billions of dollars, were fake.
Gifts
Gender Bias
Lego
Lego has pledged to make its toys free from gender bias after global research it commissioned found children remain held back by embedded gender stereotypes.
The new study surveyed nearly 7,000 parents and children aged 6-14 in the UK, US, China, Japan, Poland, Czech Republic and Russia.
It found that 71 per cent of boys feared they would be made fun of if they played with what they described as “girls’ toys”, a concern shared by their parents.
When polled, 82 per cent of girls said it was OK for girls to play football and boys to practice ballet, compared with 71 per cent of boys.
The study was conducted by the Geena Davis Institute to mark the UN’s International Day of the Girl and mark the launch of a new Lego campaign called “Ready for Girls”, which aims to celebrate girls who “rebuild the world through creative problem solving”.
Lego
Elk Freed
Colorado
Wildlife officials in Colorado say an elusive elk that has been wandering the hills with a car tire around its neck for at least two years has finally been freed of the obstruction.
The 4 1/2-year-old, 600-pound (270-kilogram) bull elk was spotted near Pine Junction, southwest of Denver, on Saturday evening and tranquilized, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Officers with the agency had to cut off the elk’s five-point antlers to remove the encumbrance because they couldn’t slice through the steel in the bead of the tire.
“We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic and we had to just get the tire off in any way possible,” officer Scott Murdoch said.
Murdoch and fellow officer Dawson Swanson estimated the elk shed about 35 pounds (16 kilograms) with the removal of the tire, the antlers and debris inside the tire.
Wildlife officers first spotted the elk with the tire around its neck in July 2019 while conducting a population survey for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the Mount Evans Wilderness.
Colorado
Earliest Evidence of Humans Using
Tobacco
In the summer of 2015, a team of archaeologists in Utah found duck bones and charred plant matter just beneath the ground, in an arid stretch of northwestern Utah now known as the Wishbone site. The team realized it was an open-air hearth, some 12,000 years old, and now the same group has reported their discovery of tobacco seeds on the site. If corroborated, the find would become the oldest known evidence of people using tobacco.
Several small charred seeds were found near the hearth, among thousands of bone and egg fragments, stone tools, and other plant matter. The hearth site is on the eastern end of the Great Basin; though arid today, it was once marshland (hence the duck bones), near where an ancient river once flowed. When the river dried up, the research team suspects, the people moved on. The team’s research is published today in Nature Human Behavior.
“The people who camped at Wishbone were highly mobile, which we know from chemical analysis of their stone tools,” said Daron Duke, an archaeologist with the Far Western Anthropological Research group and lead author of the study. “They moved hundreds of kilometers, probably seasonally/annually,” Duke wrote in an email. “The nearest natural habitat for the species of tobacco found at the Wishbone site is 13 km [8 miles] away, but for these people, they may well have collected it elsewhere/farther away and had it as part of their transportable kit.”
The people who consumed the tobacco at Wishbone were likely affiliated with the Western Stemmed Tradition, Indigenous peoples that lived in the area at the turn of the Holocene. Today, the site sits in Goshute territory, west of the Great Salt Lake. Because of the geographical footprint of the plant matter found by the hearth, the researchers believe the people who left them there were prolific travelers.
Long before the age of Big Tobacco, the plant had a hold on humanity. Evidence for tobacco cultivation and consumption is found all over the Americas. Multiple species of tobacco plant were smoked, of course, but parts of the plant, called quids, were also chewed or sucked. The tiny seeds that people came across by chewing quids would be spat out, perhaps tossed into ancient hearths. That ancient people would seek out the effects of nicotine should be no surprise, given that humans have been dabbling in psychoactive substances for many, many millennia, if the archaeological record is to be believed.
Tobacco
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