from Bruce
Anecdotes
Automobiles
• When he was a teenager, Soupy Sales used to double-date with a friend named Bill Cravens. The two would take their dates to a movie, go to the park to neck (smooch) for a while, and then get something to eat. On one double-date, Soupy’s date didn’t want to go to the park because she said she wasn’t feeling well, so Soupy told Bill that they needed to take his date home. She asked, “Aren’t we going to get something to eat?” Soupy replied, “If you’re too sick to neck, you’re too sick to eat.” Back when Soupy was a teenager, not every teenager who was old enough to drive had a car. On his double-dates, a friend with a car would drop Soupy off at his date’s friend’s house, and then the friend with a car would pick up his date and then come back to get Soupy and his date. Once, Soupy was in a house waiting for his date to come down from upstairs. The young woman’s father said, “Gee, I wonder what’s keeping Elaine?” Soupy said, “Wait a minute! Isn’t this Joanne Pinckard’s house? The young woman’s father said, “No, Joanne lives across the street.”
Beauty
• In 2008, comedian Margaret Cho debuted a new show: Beautiful. The genesis of the show came when a radio host asked Ms. Cho, “What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and you were beautiful?” She was shocked by the question because, as people who know and love her (or see her) realize, she is beautiful. She asked the radio host, “What?” and he explained, “What if you woke up and you were blond, blue-eyed, 5’ 11” and weighed 100 lbs and you were beautiful, what would you do?” Uh — 5’ 11” and 100 lbs! Ms. Cho says, “I told him I probably wouldn’t get up because I would be too weak to stand!” She also thought, “It upset me because I thought if that was the only person he thinks is beautiful, he must not see much beauty ever. I wanted to do a show about how we are all beautiful. It is something I have to constantly tell myself.”
• Apparently, the Ziegfeld Follies’ Flo Ziegfeld was a good judge of feminine beauty but lacked a sense of humor. He once watched W.C. Fields make the audience roar with laughter with a comedy sketch, then asked how long the sketch had taken. The answer came back: 28 minutes. Mr. Ziegfeld next asked how long it took for the girls to get ready for the next scene. The answer came back: seven minutes. Mr. Ziegfeld then ordered Mr. Fields to cut his comedy sketch to seven minutes.
Children
• As a small boy, Wally Cox learned that some of the best things in life could be purchased with a box top from a box of cereal or the aluminum seal from a jar of Ovaltine. Just send in a box top or an aluminum seal and a small amount of money to cover shipping and handling, and all kinds of neat stuff — including a Cub reporter’s certificate (from a radio program starring Dick Steel, the boy reporter) — would arrive in your mailbox. The aluminum seal from a jar of Ovaltine bought young Wally the knowledge of how to decode the secret messages that were broadcast at the end of the Little Orphan Annie radio program — secret messages that gave hints about Little Orphan Annie’s next exciting adventure. Young Wally was proud to know the code: A is 2, B is 4, C is 6, etc. Unfortunately, soon after young Wally learned how to decode the secret messages, the dullest boy in school told him, “Hey, you wanna know the Little Orphan Annie secret code? A is 2, B is 4, C is 6 ….” Disappointed at being unable to amaze even the dullest boy in school with his foreknowledge of Little Orphan Annie’s next exciting adventure, young Wally soon stopped sending away for things that required payment of a box top or an aluminum seal.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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The Coolest People in Comedy — Free Downloads
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The Coolest People in Comedy — Smashwords
The Coolest People in Comedy — Can Be Read Online Here at No Cost: Smashwords Online Reader
Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Orange"
Album: SEEDS AND FIELDS
Artist: Sun Boats, aka Sunboats
Artist Location: Athens, Ohio
Info:
This band is not on Bandcamp, but it is on YouTube.
Sun Boats:
Zack Shafer -- guitar and vocals
Harper Reese -- guitar and vocals
Sam Debatin -- guitar and vocals
They are also members of Velvet Green.
“Brick City Records is a student-run record label at Ohio University. We are focused on providing students real world experience in multiple aspects of the recording and music industry. Brick City Records is operated by School of Media Arts & Studies students who work with local musicians to provide recording, promotion, distribution, publicity, and concert booking services. Each year, Brick City produces and distributes new releases for a select number of artists, culminating in a large release concert in April.”
Price: FREE Download (or you buy it on Amazon; Amazon sucks)
Genre: Folk.
Links:
Sun Boats Free Downloads (Including SEEDS AND FIELDS)
SAM DEBATIN’S RECORDING CLASSICAL MUSIC PDF (free download)
Sam Debatin on YouTube
Velvet Green on YouTube
Brick City Records on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
GOP
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommended
New Rule: With Malice Toward None | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Monologue: Insane in the Ukraine | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
PUTIN CONSIDERS THESE PEOPLE ENEMIES AND IS TRYING TO KILL THEM
Ukrainian women take up arms to defend Ukraine
Ukrainian dance in the war
Dance for "Beard" Happy Birthday!
NOTE: The last two videos are from 2017. Russia has been a bad neighbor to Ukraine for a long time. See the Wikipedia article “War on Donbas”
Other Links:
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
davidbrucebooks: EDUCATE YOURSELF - Free PDFs
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Sunflower seeds
I had heard the story of the brave Ukranian guards who told a bunch of Russian soldiers to go fuck themselves, but I had not heard the story about the woman confronting Russian soldiers and telling them to put sunflower seeds in their pockets. What a feisty, brave woman! I may never know her name, but I have a new hero!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
More of that middle-of-summer kinda weather.
RERUN
FRESH
‘CODA’ Upset
SAG Awards
In an upset, the deaf family drama “CODA” took top honors at an unpredictable and history-making 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards that also saw wins for the leads of “Squid Game,” the cast of “Ted Lasso” and Will Smith.
The ceremony, held Sunday at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, and broadcast on both TNT and TBS, was notably border-breaking, with historic wins for deaf actors, Korean stars and some of Hollywood’s biggest names. It culminated with “CODA,” Sian Heder’s heartwarming Apple TV+ coming-of-age film featuring a trio of deaf actors in Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant, along with newcomer Emilia Jones, winning best ensemble. The film has been seen as a watershed moment for the deaf community in Hollywood.
Netflix’s “Squid Game,” the first non-English language series nominated by the actors guild, came on strong with three awards, including Lee Jung-jae for best male actor in a drama series and Jung Hoyeon for best female actor in a drama series. Those wins came over the likes of “Succession” stars Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong, and Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston of “The Morning Show.”
Still, HBO’s “Succession” ultimately reigned in the best drama series category. Cox fittingly accepted the award with an expletive printed on his face mask, and another uttered as he struggled to take it off. But Cox turned serious when discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the evening’s bluntest remarks on the invasion, he noted that the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was a comic — and thus a fellow performer. He urged censored dissenters in Russia to speak out.
SAG Awards
Sells Song Rights to Universal
Neil Diamond
Seems Neil Diamond is a believer…in cashing in his song rights. The legendary singer-songwriter has signed a deal to hand over rights to his entire song catalog, as well as all recordings, to Universal Music Group (UMG) for an undisclosed sum.
The deal, announced by Diamond and UMG on Monday, includes master and recording rights for all of Diamond’s hits, such as Sweet Caroline, Red Red Wine, Solitary Man, Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon, and You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, many of which are best known in their cover versions by other artists.
The agreement includes 110 unreleased tracks, an unreleased album and archival long form videos. UMG has also secured the rights to record and release any of Diamond’s future music, should he decide to return to the studio.
Neil Diamond
Terms Of Service Reward
Peacock
In one of the best opening sequences from the American version of The Office, famous sitcom oaf Kevin Malone describes the intricate process that goes into making his famous chili in a voiceover. At the same time, we see him head into the Dunder Mifflin building, excited to share his work, and then spill the entire pot all over the floor and writhe around it while trying to salvage the tasty goop. It’s a great scene. A simple concept perfectly executed.
To honor this moment—and to pay tribute to the show that provides one of the only reasons to subscribe to its streaming service—Peacock has hidden the recipe for a pot of Kevin’s famous chili in its terms and conditions that you, too, can now carefully cook and then drop in front of amused coworkers.
The recipe was spotted by McKenzie Floyd, who posted a video on TikTok showing its inclusion in Peacock’s blocks of terms and conditions text. She says her boyfriend is one of the rare few who actually reads this kind of stuff before agreeing to whatever it includes, and she films a TV screen as it scrolls through the recipe. “Why was that necessary to put on here?” she asks, laughing. The answer to this, from our point of view, is another question: Why not?
We won’t post the entire recipe, but you can find it here if, for some reason, you’d rather have a website to reference while cooking instead of needing to check out an entire terms and conditions page in the kitchen. For now, suffice it to say that the secret technique to remember is that you absolutely must undercook the onions.
Peacock
Made-In-Japan Goes Global
“Deadpool: Samurai”
Perhaps nothing highlights how the world of manga, the comics and cartoons originating in Japan, has gone global better than that coming together of superheroes, American and Japanese.
In “Deadpool: Samurai,” Marvel’s Deadpool gets help in his battle against evil from All Might, the muscular hero in “My Hero Academia,” a hit Japanese manga that’s sold 65 million copies worldwide.
“Deadpool: Samurai,” published in Japanese last year, came out in English translation this month. The Japanese “Deadpool: Samurai” was the best-selling Marvel comic last year, surpassing more than 1 million views online. It marks the first partnership between Marvel and Japanese comics publisher Shonen Jump.
Sanshiro Kasama, the author of “Deadpool: Samurai,” said he was thrilled to take on the job because he has always loved Marvel heroes and wanted more Japanese people to love Deadpool.
“Deadpool: Samurai” features drawings by Hikaru Uesugi, Kasama’s collaborator, but the scenes with All Might had drawings by its original manga artist Kohei Horikoshi. “Deadpool: Samurai” is the first collaboration between Marvel and U.S. manga publisher and anime distributor VIZ Media.
“Deadpool: Samurai”
GOP Lawsuit
Arizona
The Arizona Republican Party is asking the state Supreme Court to strike down the vote-by-mail system used by 90% of voters in a battleground state that will be crucial to determining which party controls the U.S. Senate after the 2022 election.
The lawsuit filed Friday argues absentee voting is unconstitutional and asks the justices to get rid of it or at least eliminate the no-excuse absentee balloting system Arizona adopted in 1991 and has steadily expanded ever since.
The lawsuit comes amid GOP efforts on many fronts to remake the system for casting and counting votes as former President Donald Trump repeats the lie that he lost the 2020 election because of fraud in Arizona and other battleground states.
It is modeled on a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania, where a court in January struck down the state’s two-year-old mail voting law. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration has appealed to the state Supreme Court
Arizona
Declines To Add Propaganda
Netflix
Netflix will not be adding Russian propaganda programming to its platform in the territory, contrary to initial reports over the weekend.
Under a law that was projected to take effect March 1, Netflix would have been obligated to carry content from Channel One, entertainment network NTV and a Russian Orthodox Church channel.
The streaming giant, which launched local-language service in Russia a little more than a year ago, is understood to have fewer than 1 million of its 222 million global subscribers there.
Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine has put the media spotlight on the country’s business relationships and protocols, including in the media. “Given the current situation, we have no plans to add these channels to our service,” a rep told Deadline in a statement.
Netflix
Tech Could Help
Endangered Languages
By itself, being able to read smartphone home screens in Cherokee won’t be enough to safeguard the Indigenous language, endangered after a long history of erasure. But it might be a step toward immersing younger tribal citizens in the language spoken by a dwindling number of their elders.
That’s the hope of Principal Chief Richard Sneed of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who’s counting on more inclusive consumer technology — and the involvement of a major tech company — to help out.
Sneed and other Cherokee leaders have spent several months consulting with Lenovo-owned Motorola, which last week introduced a Cherokee language interface on its newest line of phones. Now phone users will be able to find apps and toggle settings using the syllable-based written form of the language first created by the Cherokee Nation’s Sequoyah in the early 1800s. It will appear on the company’s high-end Edge Plus phones when they go on sale in the spring.
It’s not the first time consumer technology has embraced the language, as Apple, Microsoft and Google already enable people to configure their laptops and phones so that they can type in Cherokee. But the Cherokee language preservationists who worked on the Motorola project said they tried to imbue it with the culture — not just the written symbols — they are trying to protect.
Endangered Languages
Largest Crater
Earth
A crescent-shaped crater in Northeast China holds the record as the largest impact crater on Earth that formed in the last 100,000 years.
Prior to 2020, the only other impact crater ever discovered in China was found in Xiuyan county of the coastal province of Liaoning, according to a statement from the NASA Earth Observatory. Then, in July 2021, scientists confirmed that a geological structure in the Lesser Xing'an mountain range had formed as a result of a space rock striking Earth. The team published a description of the newfound impact crater that month in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
The Yilan crater measures about 1.15 miles (1.85 kilometers) across and likely formed about 46,000 to 53,000 years ago, based on radiocarbon dating of charcoal and organic lake sediments from the site, the NASA statement says. Researchers collected these sediment samples by extracting a drillcore from the center of the crater, Forbes reported.
Beneath more than 328 feet (100 meters) of layered lake and swamp sediments lay a nearly 1,000-foot-thick (320 m) slab of brecciated granite, which is granite made up of many rocky fragments cemented together in a matrix, the team found. This rock bears telltale scars of having been struck by a meteorite.
The team also uncovered teardrop-shaped glass fragments and pieces of glass pierced with tiny holes made by gas bubbles; both of these features also indicate that a high-intensity impact took place there, according to the NASA statement.
Earth
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