from Bruce
Anecdotes
Husbands and Wives
• Comedian Bob Newhart’s first date with his future wife, Virginia “Ginny” Quinn, was inauspicious. Mr. Newhart wasn’t hungry, so he ordered a drink at the restaurant and watched her as she ate. This made her so nervous that she spilled mayonnaise on her dress. Mr. Newhart then announced that they were going to visit Carl Reiner and his family — people whom Ginny had never met. Once again, Ginny was nervous and during the entire visit she used her purse to cover the mayonnaise stain. About their first date, Ginny says, “I could have killed Bob.”
• Ivan Jadan, the premier lyric tenor of the Bolshoi Opera from 1928-1941, sang at the wedding of Barbara Mitchell, a friend in the Virgin Islands. He sang “The Lord’s Prayer” at the wedding, then he sang Russian and Ukrainian folk songs at the reception. He was quite a good singer. After listening to him for over an hour, Barbara knew that it was time for her and her husband to go on their honeymoon, but she asked her mother, “Do I really have to leave?” (A man who had heard Mr. Jadan sing once remarked, “He doesn’t sing; he prays.”)
• When Mark Twain wanted to marry Olivia Langdon, the daughter of a wealthy family in Connecticut, her father asked him to provide character references. Mr. Twain gave him the names of some prominent men, including ministers, whom he had known in the West. Unfortunately, the men reported that Mr. Twain was “born to be hung” and would end up in a “drunkard’s grave.” Nevertheless, Mr. Langdon allowed Mr. Twain to marry his daughter, saying, “Take the girl. I know you better than they do.”
• The 18th-century eccentric Timothy Dexter, who lived in Newburyport, Massachusetts, wanted a street named after himself in the town. The town officials declined to do so, and even Mr. Dexter’s wife thought that it was a bad idea. However, Mr. Dexter found a novel way to get revenge on his wife. He simply woke up one morning and started referring to her as “the ghost that was my wife.” She continued to live with him from that year, 1795, until he died in 1806, but he denied her living presence for all those years.
• When Albert Schweitzer met and fell in love with Helene Breslau, he had already formed a plan to go to Africa as a physician. He knew that his plan would result in lots of hardship, and he told Helene that he was worried that the hardship would be too much for her. Helene replied, “I will take a training course in nursing, and then you won’t be able to get along without me.” That’s exactly what happened. She did take the training course, and she went to Africa as Dr. Schweitzer’s nurse and wife.
• In his Answer Man column, film critic Roger Ebert answered a question by Matt Sandler about who was the world’s most beautiful woman by saying that she was Indian actress Aishwarya Rai. In a later Answer Man column, a reader stated that Mr. Ebert should have answered the question by saying, “My wife.” However, Mr. Ebert had a good reason for not answering the question that way: “Matt Sandler asked about women, not goddesses.”
• Stephen Wozniak is famous because he and Steven Jobs started Apple, Inc. together. Mr. Wozniak met his wife when she dialed a Dial-a-Polish-Joke phone line he had set up. He talked with her for a few minutes, then said, “I bet I can hang up faster than you.” He won, but a few days later she called him again and they set up a date. To decide whether to marry her, he flipped a coin — and kept on flipping it until it said to marry her.
• Some spouses are very accommodating. While illustrating his Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book, Jumanji, Chris Van Allsburg used photographs and models, as well as drawing from his imagination. He needed to draw pictures of monkeys, but he couldn’t find any photographs of monkeys in the exact poses he needed, so his wife posed for him and he drew the monkeys using her as the model.
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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: "Punches at Ghosts"
Album: THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF
Artist: Derek Luttrell
Artist Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Info:
“Derek Lutrell was voted Rockford’s Sexiest Man. It doesn’t hurt that he has a lush voice, and a beautiful heart. Starting off as a solo musician who would play folk songs for sad people in local bars, he has since found his footing as a band leader and writing force. Derek has a way of sucking you in to his world and letting you wade around in the muddy waters that are his thoughts. Influenced by the writing of Steve Earle, Harry Nilsson, and John Prine; Derek puts a modern spin on some classic songwriting subject matter. His songs take a quick 3-minute peek at life, love, hate, death, and everything in-between. By the end of your listen, you most often leave with more questions than answers.” — Corporate Panda Records
Vocals / Guitar - Derek Luttrell
Bass / Electric Guitar - Jason Krunnfusz
Keys / Pedal Steel / Percussion - Daniel Pingrey
Drums - Andy James Welsch
Aux - Zach Staas
Price: $1 for track; $12 for 14-track album
Genre: Singer-Songwriter
Links:
THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF
Derek Luttrell on Bandcamp
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.
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Re-Fighting
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Got another newspaper in the mail - this one was from March.
Final Episodes Of Season 46
‘SNL’
The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy and Schmigadoon! lead Keegan-Michael Key will make their Saturday Night Live hosting debuts to close off the sketch series’ 46th season.
NBC revealed the lineup for its final two episodes of the current cycle on Monday. Key will make his Studio 8H debut on May 15, where he will take the stage alongside “Driver’s License” singer Olivia Rodrigo, who serves as musical guest.
The following week, Taylor-Joy commands the stage with “Call Me By Your Name” singer Lil Nas X, who will also make his Saturday Night Live debut.
The two actors will close off the season which has featured a number of fist-time hosts including Regina King, Issa Rae, Timothée Chalamet, Daniel Kaluuya and most recently Carey Mulligan. Saturday Night Live returns to NBC this weekend with Tesla CEO Elon Musk set to host and Miley Cyrus returning as musical guest.
Key’s SNL debut comes months before his latest comedy, Schmigadoon! premieres on AppleTV+ on July 16. The comedy, also from Lorne Michaels, also stars SNL star Cecily Strong.
‘SNL’
Renewed For Season 4
‘Mayans M.C.’
Mayans M.C. will ride again.
The Sons of Anarchy spinoff has been renewed for a fourth season at FX, coming ahead of the third-season finale of the gritty biker drama on May 11. Co-creator Elgin James took over as showrunner for the third season following the firing of his co-creator Kurt Sutter.
The fourth season will air in 2022.
Mayans M.C. follows the life of Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes, played by JD Pardo, a newly patched member of the Mayans M.C. charter on the Cali/Mexi border. Once the golden boy with the American Dream in his grasp, EZ and his brother Angel (Clayton Cardenas) are closer than ever after uncovering the truth behind their mother’s murder while their father Felipe (Edward James Olmos) struggles to reconcile the choices he and his sons have made.
‘Mayans M.C.’
Germany Cancels
Oktoberfest
Bavarian officials on Monday canceled Oktoberfest festivities for a second year in a row due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, saying there are too many risks in hosting the celebrations — which bring in visitors from around the world — during a global pandemic.
Bavarian Governor Markus Soeder said it was with “heavy hearts” that they decided to call off the festival for which the state is known globally, but that with coronavirus numbers still stubbornly high and German hospitals already struggling, it had to be done.
Germany is in the middle of a coronavirus lockdown that includes a ban on large gatherings, with an infection rate of 146.9 new weekly infections per 100,000 residents.
Bavaria is slightly below the national average with 145.4 new weekly infections per 100,000, according to the country’s disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute.
Oktoberfest typically attracts about 6 million visitors from around the world and had been scheduled from Sept. 18 to Oct. 3.
Oktoberfest
New Stage For Colosseum
Rome
A project to build a high-tech, lightweight stage inside the Roman Colosseum will allow visitors a central viewpoint from within the ancient structure “to see the majesty of the monument,” Italy’s culture minister said Sunday.
Dario Franceschini announced a 18.5 million euro ($22 million) contract to build and install the retractable structure that will restore the traditional “arena,” or stage for combat for gladiatorial shows in ancient Rome.
The stage was original to the first-century amphitheater and existed until the 1800s when it was removed for archaeological digs on the subterranean levels of the ancient structure, Franceschini said.
The project should be completed by 2023. The mobile system will be able to quickly cover or uncover the underground structures below, to both protect them from rain or allow them to be aired out. The project is reversible, meaning it can be removed if plans for the Colosseum change in the future.
The new stage will allow visitors to stand in the center and view the Colosseum’s vaulted walls as they would have been seen by gladiators in ancient Rome. It also will permit the staging of cultural events that are respectful of the Colosseum as a symbol of Italy, Franceschini said.
Rome
Freedom of the Press
Reporters
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press says that attacks on journalists and arrests of reporters rose sharply last year, primarily due to assaults by police as media outlets covered Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd.
RCFP, along with other media organizations, compiled the figures for an annual report analyzing data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which launched in 2017.
The report showed that there were more than 438 physical attacks on journalists during the year, a figure that is more than three times as many attacks reported for the past three years combined. Journalists were arrested or charged 139 times, 15 times the number in 2019.
The vast majority of the attacks took place at Black Lives Matter protests, and 16 assaults occurred at protests related to thed 2020 presidential election. RCFP said that law enforcement was responsible for 80% of the 400 assaults during the Black Lives Matter protests. “At least 195 of these journalists appeared to be deliberately targeted by police,” the group said.
When it comes to arrests, no journalists were convicted of crimes, but a reporter in Iowa did stand trial, RCFP said. The Des Moines Register’s Andrea Sahouri was acquitted in March on charges of failure to disperse and interference with official acts. She had been covering a protest last May.
Reporters
Poisons Democracy
‘Big Lie’
Liz Cheney (R-Darth's Daughter), the Wyoming Republican who voted to impeach Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up), is coming under fire from members of her own party after her tweet that the former president did not lose the election unfairly. The spat illustrates the split between Republicans loyal to Trump and those willing to criticize the former president.
“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
Cheney, the third most senior membership of the GOP’s House leadership, has been heavily criticized by fellow Republicans in recent months for pushing back on Trump’s nonsense claims that the election was stolen, and for her impeachment vote.
The tension between the most-extreme and less-extreme members of the Republican party has increased in recent days, after Cheney – a member of the latter group – said those who supported the Trump-backed challenges to the certification of the 2020 election should be disqualified from becoming the 2024 Republican nominee.
‘Big Lie’
Rise From Antarctic Melt
Sea Level
The Antarctic ice sheet contains a global disaster waiting to happen.
As global temperatures continue to rise due to anthropogenic climate breakdown, water currently locked in the form of Antarctic ice will melt into the oceans, raising sea levels to a point that will have a significant impact on coastal communities, even in the next few decades.
Over the next 1,000 years, our best predictions have put this rise at 3.2 meters (10.5 feet), but new research suggests that even this worrying figure might be a little too optimistic. According to a revised prediction, the rise over the next millennium could be a meter higher still, resulting in up to 30 percent additional increase.
"Every published projection of sea level rise due to melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet that has been based on climate modeling, whether the projection extends to the end of this century or longer into the future, is going to have to be revised upward because of their work," said Earth and planetary scientist Jerry Mitrovica of Harvard University.
It all has to do with something called a water expulsion mechanism. As the ice sheet melts, the Antarctic bedrock, currently below sea level, will rise, expelling the meltwater around it into the ocean as well. It's that additional, expelled water that will be responsible for the extra meter, according to new calculations.
Sea Level
White Oak Conservation Center
Former Circus Elephants
Former circus elephants are starting to arrive at a new wildlife sanctuary in north Florida.
The White Oak Conservation Center announced Monday that a dozen female Asian elephants have already arrived at the Yulee refuge, located north of Jacksonville. Up to 20 more elephants are expected once more areas are completed at the planned 2,500-acre (1,010-hectare) space.
The pachyderms are coming from the Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk County. Most of the animals previously traveled with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus until they were retired in 2016.
The elephants will eventually have access to nine interlinked areas that will include a variety of vegetation and habitat types, such as wetlands, meadows and woods, a news release said. The center also is constructing 11 waterholes and three barns with veterinary equipment.
Asian elephants are endangered in the wild, officials said. Fewer than 50,000 remain in the wild in less than 15% of their historic range.
White Oak is owned by philanthropists Mark and Kimbra Walter. The center covers about 17,000 acres (6,880 hectares). It's already home to several endangered and threatened species, including rhinos, okapi, bongos, zebras, condors, dama gazelles and cheetahs.
Former Circus Elephants
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