from Bruce
Anecdotes
Clothing
• Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (who became Pope John XXIII) spent much time as Papal Nuncio in France, where he was often invited to dinners at which many women dressed fashionably but immodestly. Plans were made to ask the women to dress more modestly, but he rejected them, saying, “I have found that on such occasions it is not so much the woman at whom the crowd is looking but at me to see my reaction.”
Cold Weather
• In Rankin, Illinois, Al Karlstrom’s father was the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church. Each Sunday morning, he would remind his children to shine their shoes in preparation for church. One very cold Sunday, his children were running late, so to save time shining their shoes, they used Vicks VapoRub instead of shoe polish. This worked out very well, as it made a nice shine. However, the steam radiators were running on high that Sunday to keep the cold out of the church, and the fumes coming off the pastor’s children’s shoes cleared up the heads of the congregation.
• Rabbi Israel Salanter and two friends stayed at an inn in the midst of a very cold winter. He observed a serving girl drawing water and carrying the buckets in the cold, and when it came time for him and his friends to wash their hands before eating, he used very little water although his friends used lots of water. When asked about this, Rabbi Israel replied, “One should not be over strict in his observance of the law at the expense of someone else.”
Collections
• Art Linkletter’s first public appearance was in church. His father was an evangelist whose income depended on the contributions the congregation made. Therefore, he would dress up his son in clean but patched clothing, and then send him out to collect the offering while he told the congregation to “dig deep, brothers and sisters, for the good work.”
• Rabbi Stephen S. Wise took up a collection in his synagogue, and he told the worshippers, “Friends, tonight is the Sabbath when it is forbidden to carry money. Empty your pockets and put the money in the collection plates.”
Compassion
• Kamala Masters, who teaches Buddhist meditation, sailed with some friends in Hawaii. She felt seasick on the boat, so her friends urged her to get into the water. Because she didn’t have a life vest, she didn’t want to, but her friends persuaded her. She and some of her friends got in the water, a squall started blowing, and it blew the boat away from her. She started to panic, so her friends asked her to remember her Buddhist teachings, saying, “Kamala, what if these are your last moments? What do you want right now? Don’t you want more love in your heart? Don’t you want more compassion? What do you really want?” Kamala was very honest, and she admitted, “What I want right now is the boat!”
• In the early 20th century, Rabbi Aryeh Levin was walking in a field with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. When Rabbi Levin plucked a small flower from the field, Rabbi Kook started to tremble and told him that he refrained from plucking anything living unless some benefit could be gained from so doing, since every living thing, including plants, had a guardian angel looking out for it. From this experience, Rabbi Levin learned from Rabbi Kook to be compassionate toward all living things.
Confession
• Songwriter Grant Clark brought a priest to see the great American scoundrel Wilson Mizner. Mr. Mizner told the priest, “Hello, Father. I went to confession yesterday, and the priest left in the middle of it.” Surprised, the priest asked, “Where did he go?” Mr. Mizner replied, “For the police.”
• A woman went to confession, but instead of saying, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned,” she absent-mindedly began to say a common table prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest ….” Fortunately, the priest had a sense of humor and asked, “What’d you do, bring your lunch?”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Gravity"
Album: HER OWN HOME
Artist: Annemarie Reynis
Artist Location: Dresden, Germany
Info: “Gravity” written by Breagh McKinnon, Anika Jankowski & Annemaríe Reynis.
Price: €7 (EURO) for five-track album; tracks cannot be purchased separately
Genre: Pop.
Links:
HER OWN HOME
Annemarie Reynis on Bandcamp
Annemarie Reynis on YouTube
Annemarie Reynis Official Site
Other Links:
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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
May gray - another thick marine layer & the sun never broke through.
Condemns Attacks
John Oliver
During Sunday's episode of "Last Week Tonight," John Oliver addressed the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip and discouraged the tendency to take "both sides" when discussing Israelis and Palestinians because "one side is suffering much more."
"If I may quote the riskiest thing you could possibly say on a first date, let's talk about Israel, because the biggest news of the week has obviously been this," Oliver began his late-night program, where he joined the ranks of other celebrities — including the Hadid sisters and actor Riz Ahmed — in supporting the Palestinians.
"There is a lot to unpack there, from the horror of the situation ... to the use of the phrase ’tit-for-tat war' in a conflict where ... one side has suffered over 10 times the casualties — something which speaks to both the severe power imbalance at play here and how that often gets obscured by how we choose to talk about it," he said.
"It is true that militants from Palestinian groups like Hamas fired over 1,000 rockets toward Israel this week, and that is reprehensible, but ... the majority of those rockets thankfully didn't reach their targets for a very clear reason," Oliver said.
"While most of the rockets aimed toward Israeli citizens this week were intercepted, Israel's airstrikes were not. They hit their targets, including a ... 13-story office and apartment building. And while Israel insisted there were military targets in that building, and they destroyed it as humanely as possible — even warning people to evacuate beforehand — for the record, destroying a civilian residence sure seems like a war crime, regardless of whether you send a courtesy 'Heads up' text."
John Oliver
AT&T & Discovery
Merging Media
The merger of Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia operations, marrying the likes of HBO and CNN with HGTV and Oprah Winfrey, is another illustration of the head-spinning speed in which streaming has transformed the media world.
The companies are essentially placing a $43 billion bet that they’ll still be in the mix when consumers decide how to spend their monthly entertainment budgets.
The agreement was announced Monday after AT&T CEO John Stankey and his Discovery counterpart, David Zaslav, worked out the details in Zaslav’s Manhattan brownstone over the past two months.
The hope for the newly merged company is that, with a wider array of material than either can offer on its own, it can join Netflix, Amazon and Disney in the widely acknowledged top tier of streamers.
WarnerMedia and Discovery both launched their own streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery+, within the past two years. It’s still not clear whether the merger will result in a single streaming service or several bundled together, but it will have a vast array of content to offer: scripted and reality TV, movies, sports including the NBA and NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and news with CNN.
Merging Media
Renewed For Five Years
Jimmy Fallon
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon has been officially renewed by NBC for five more years.
The move was announced by Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming at the company’s Upfronts presentation.
The renewal comes after it emerged that Jimmy Fallon extended his contract in November after his previous contract ran through the end of 2021.
Fallon began hosting the show in February 2014, taking over from Jay Leno. He followed in the footsteps of Conan O’Brien, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar and Steve Allen to front the show, which is produced by Universal Television and Broadway Video.
Jimmy Fallon
Accidentally Broadcasts Internal Zoom Meeting
KCBS-TV
The local CBS station in Los Angeles this morning had a technical glitch many who have been working remotely during the pandemic can relate to.
During the network’s CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King tossed it to the local stations at 7:16 AM, saying “Time to check on your local weather.”
But instead of weather forecast, CBS viewers in Los Angeles got to tune into a remote staff meeting at the local CBS2 station.
According to sources, a KCBS control room employee hit a wrong button and put an internal Zoom meeting on air during a 30-second window that is meant to be for a local weather report.
The topics discussed during the 30-second snippet of the meeting included cactuses and a pitch for a Duran Duran interview tied to their new album.
KCBS-TV
No Warrant
SCOTUS
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to make it easier for police to enter a home without a warrant for reasons of health or public safety, throwing out a lower court's decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a Rhode Island man after officers entered his home and confiscated his guns.
The 9-0 ruling directed the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider Edward Caniglia's lawsuit accusing police of violating his constitutional rights by bringing him to a hospital for a mental health evaluation and taking away his guns without a warrant after a 2015 argument with his wife.
Lower courts had ruled that police in the Rhode Island city of Cranston did not violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.
The case centered on a legal doctrine that gives officers leeway to engage in "community caretaking" to ensure public safety. In its ruling, the Supreme Court, which has previously applied this doctrine to vehicles, said it does not apply to the home as well.
The Rhode Island case arose from a domestic dispute. An argument between Caniglia and his wife Kim that began over a Walt Disney World coffee mug escalated into a disagreement about her extended family, according to court papers. At one point, Caniglia retrieved a gun and asked his wife to shoot him to "get me out of my misery," according to court papers.
SCOTUS
Take A ‘Hard Look’
Bernie
Progressive US senator Bernie Sanders has once again condemned Israel’s violent actions in Gaza – and called on the Biden administration to re-examine the extent of the US’s support for one of its closest allies.
He stuck to that sentiment last week in an essay for The New York Times, writing that while “no-one is arguing that Israel, or any government, does not have the right to self-defence or to protect its people”, Benjamin Netanyahu “has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism” and that “we can no longer be apologists for the right-wing Netanyahu government and its undemocratic and racist behaviour”.
“The devastation in Gaza is unconscionable,” he wrote in a tweet on Sunday. “We must urge an immediate ceasefire. The killing of Palestinians and Israelis must end. We must also take a hard look at nearly $4 billion a year in military aid to Israel. It is illegal for US aid to support human rights violations.”
On another front, one of Mr Sanders’s colleagues, Jon Ossoff of Georgia, marshalled 27 Democratic senators together in a joint statement on the conflict: “To prevent any further loss of civilian life and to prevent further escalation of conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories,” it read, “we urge an immediate ceasefire”. Mr Sanders was one of the signatories.
The Vermont senator has criticised the behaviour of Mr Netanyahu’s government and aspects of the US-Israel relationship many times before, and not just during escalations of violence in the Palestinian territories or airstrikes by the Israeli military. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Mr Sanders was asked at a debate with Hillary Clinton to weigh in on the US’s position vis-a-vis the Israeli government.
Bernie
Backlash For ‘Forcing Upskirting’
Marilyn Monroe Statue
The return of a giant Marilyn Monroe sculpture has caused a backlash in Palm Springs, California, with advocates saying that the feature promotes misogyny and upskirting.
The 26-foot-tall, stainless steel and aluminum statue portray the movie star in her famous scene from The Seven Year Itch, wearing a white dress while standing over a subway grate.
NPR reported that while the sculpture, named "Forever Marilyn" was previously installed in the city from 2012 to 2014 and now will be fitted permanently at Coachella Valley.
Louis Grachos, the director of the Palm Springs Art Museum told the radio station the placement will be highly “offensive” for young people confronted with the sight.
"The thought of those kids leaving our museum and having the first thing they see is the undergarments and underwear of this enormous Marilyn sculpture would be highly offensive," he said.
Marilyn Monroe Statue
65 Animal Species
Laughter
Among humans, laughter can signify a lot of different things, from intimacy to discomfort. Among animals, however, laughter usually communicates something along the lines of “this is playtime—I’m not actually going for your throat.”
According to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles, there are likely at least 65 different creatures, including humans, that make these vocalizations. They’re most commonly found in primates, but they have also been noted in distant relatives like birds. It’s not clear whether this is because laughter has arisen several times over the course of evolution or if it’s more widespread and we just haven’t noticed.
To reach this number, Sasha Winkler, a PhD student in UCLA’s anthropology department, searched high and low for any mention of animals making noises during play sessions. Some of the articles she found were quite old—one paper on mink dates back to 1931—so she ended up dusting off some aged tomes in the university’s library.
Finding this data wasn’t always easy, as play vocalizations haven’t been extensively studied across species. “Maybe a lot of animals do have play vocalizations [and] they're just really quiet,” Winkler told Ars. “We just need to study them better.”
Not all of these noises sound like human laughter—or even the kind of “chuckles” of various other primates, she said. The Rocky Mountain elk, for instance, makes a kind of squealing sound. Conversely, a hyena’s characteristic laugh may sound eerily like a human giggle, but it’s not a play signal.
Laughter
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