Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: I Could Have Been Such a Charming Serial Killer (Taki's Magazine)
Back in my acting days, I always wanted to be cast as the boyfriend/husband/charming-stranger-from-out-of-town in a Lifetime Movie of the Week. Who wouldn't want that job? You get a great wardrobe in the early scenes, then, when the heroine finds out your nasty secret, you get to chew scenery, orchestrate a kidnapping, blackmail most of the cast, and use cruel weapons until you plunge to your death, burn up in a fiery wreck, get repeatedly stabbed as you rise again and again to terrorize the woman you love, or suffer 77 bullet wounds from the Nice Savior Replacement Boyfriend nobody remembers.
Tina Jordan: When the World's Most Famous Mystery Writer Vanished (NY Times)
On a cold December night in 1926, Agatha Christie went out in her beloved Morris Cowley roadster and didn't return home for 11 days. Here's how her disappearance played out.
Alexandra Petri: A flabbergasted Richard Nixon revises his resignation speech (Washington Post)
"He left. I don't leave." - Donald Trump, on Richard Nixon
Greg Sargent: The Trump camp's latest lies cannot obscure what's now been exposed (Washington Post)
The key to the ABC interview is that even though we now understand these full dimensions - now that we understand that this effort was a wide-ranging criminal scheme designed to harm our democracy and country - Trump has confirmed that he would happily profit from such an effort again, and wouldn't alert law enforcement about it. This is what Trump's spinners are trying to make disappear [
] What Trump has now confirmed, at a bare minimum, is that he couldn't care less if those efforts by law enforcement fail, as long as the results help him win reelection - a truth that Trump's spinners cannot make disappear.
Jonathan Chait: Trump: Witness to My Crime Can't Testify, But Trust Me He's Lying (NY Mag)
Some of the most damning crimes in the Mueller report come via former White House counsel Don McGahn, who was directed to obstruct justice by President Trump (but declined to carry out his illegal orders). McGahn testified about these orders to Mueller, thereby surrendering any claim the White House would have to keep the conversations private as part of executive privilege. The White House is nonetheless blocking McGahn from testifying to Congress.
Matthew Yglesias: Trump's big problem is that he's unpopular (Vox)
Yet in state elections this year in Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana, Medicaid expansion - and with it health care for tens of thousands of people - will be on the line. These are tough elections about which available public polling has little to say and where time, energy, and money are likely to be extremely valuable. Then there's the 2020 Senate map. To govern in 2021, Democrats will need to win a long-shot Senate race or two as well as winning two races in Arizona and Colorado, which are by no means gimmes.
Thomas Graham: The best comic novel ever written? (BBC)
Tristram Shandyis a rambling, anarchic cult classic that was wildly experimental for its time. It also made its author a huge celebrity.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
At a concert featuring hardcore group Black Flag, a bouncer unnecessarily roughed up a woman in the audience. Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski saw what was happening, did not like what he saw, and hit the bouncer's head with the end of his bass, resulting in the bouncer going to a hospital to get stitches. After the show, Black Flag's kick drum was missing, and a different bouncer said that to get the kick drum back they would have to go to the manager's office. The kick drum was there, and so was the manager-who felt safe because his bouncers were also there. The manager criticized the Black Flag members, calling them "f*ckups," but they got the kick drum. They also learned that the club's owner had called other clubs that Black Flag was going to play at and told these clubs not to pay Black Flag because they were troublemakers. Unfortunately, at this club and at other clubs women are often not safe at music concerts. In 1984, during a Black Flag concert in Hamburg, Germany, three women in the audience had their tops torn off. Mr. Rollins gave his shirt to one of the women, but his shirt was also torn off her body. Mr. Rollins says, "So much for my good deed." And at a club in Los Angeles, Mr. Rollins noticed that the security guys were frisking everybody who came in. He says that "[t]he girls got searched extra carefully" because "the security guys [were] getting in a good feel when they could." One way in which Mr. Rollins is sensitive is that when he notices that he is walking behind a lone woman, he will slow down and let her put some distance between him and her. He knows that often women are afraid that they will get attacked on the street. He also knows that they can be scared by his presence. He says, "I've had girls run into stores and wait until I pass before they come out." Unfortunately, women sometimes have good reason to be afraid of men.
Cult filmmaker John Waters is a friend of Leslie Van Houten, who was a member of the Charles Manson Family, and in 2010 he thought that it was time she was paroled despite her participation in the murder of Rosemary LaBianca. In 2003, CBS remade the book Helter Skelter, which is about the Manson Family, as a TV movie, and Mr. Waters worried that its portrayal of Ms. Van Houten could have a negative effect on her parole hearings. Mr. Waters telephoned the director, John Gray, and told him about Ms. Van Houten and his belief that she deserved to be paroled. (The two men did not know each other.) When Mr. Waters saw the completed movie, he was relieved because the character of Ms. Van Houten played only a small part in it. Later, he was in a Los Angeles restaurant when his waitress asked him, "Can I ask you something personal?" He replied, "Sure," but he was surprised by what she asked him: "Are you the head of that 'Friends of Leslie' organization?" He replied that the organization had no head and had officially disbanded, but that many people wanted Ms. Van Houten to be paroled. It turned out that the waitress-Catherine Wadkins-had played Ms. Van Houten in the new Helter Skelter movie. Mr. Waters felt bad because he thought that he might have cut the size of her role by telephoning the director. Ms. Wadkins told him, "Yes, you did," but she added, "That's OK. I think Leslie should get out, and I tried to play the part in a way to show how brainwashed she was."
Cher and Meryl Streep co-starred in the movie Silkwood. In a 1987 interview, Cher called Meryl "incredibly brave" and told about a night in Manhattan when the two saw a huge man mugging a woman: "Meryl screamed and ran straight at the man-who let go of the woman and ran straight at us! I thought we were going to be killed, but he ran between us and disappeared. We were both a wreck, but that's Meryl. She does what's right, no matter what." Meryl said, "I convince myself of my own courage. After I've played Isak Dinesen [in Out of Africa], I think I'm as brave as she is. I can fight lions-for a while. I stuff my straw in there, and I really believe I can scare the crows."
Helena Rubinstein left Poland and traveled to Australia with 12 pots of facial cream that had been made by a Hungarian doctor. The Australian women liked the facial cream's effect on Helena's complexion, and Helena recognized a business opportunity. She became very, very rich through selling her cosmetics and through her determination-a trait that served her well throughout her life. When she was 94, some armed robbers broke into her apartment in Manhattan. She told them, "Go ahead and kill me-I am not going to let you rob me." The armed robbers ran away.
LSD guru Timothy Leary once escaped from prison. While he was being introduced into the prison system, he was given psychological tests, some of which he himself had designed. (He was once a professor at Harvard.) Therefore, he knew how to answer the tests to give the prison officials the impression of himself he wanted to give them: that he was a safe and conventional conformist who would not escape and who had an interest in gardening and in forestry. The plan worked. They sent him to a place from which it was easier for him to escape.
In 1960, a burglar made the mistake of trying to burgle John Wayne's home. Mr. Wayne was home, and he grabbed a shotgun and chased the burglar into the backyard where he made the burglar stop by yelling, "I got you covered!" Mr. Wayne's wife telephoned the police, who quickly arrived. The burglar did have a request that he asked Mr. Wayne to fulfill: "I came here in a cab. The taxi driver is still outside. The meter's running. He didn't know I came to rob you. Could you take care of him, Mr. Wayne?" Mr. Wayne paid the taxi driver.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Thick marine layer never burned off.
Short Fall U.S. Tour
Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck has planned a short U.S. tour around his appearance at Eric Clapton's Crossroads festival this September. The tour will end with a special gig the guitarist has planned at the Hollywood Bowl where he will reunite with his former Jeff Beck Group singer Rod Stewart. He's billing it as his and Stewart's "most in-depth concert in over 35 years."
For the rest of the tour, which kicks of in Kansas City, MO on September 17th, Beck will be accompanied by drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassist Rhonda Smith vocalist Jimmy Hall and cellist Vanessa Freebairn-Smith. Tickets for the shows will go on sale this coming Friday, June 21st, with the exception of the Phoenix date, which goes on sale June 24th.
In an in-depth interview with Rolling Stone last year, Beck reflected on when he finally met Clapton - well after the two of them were both out of the Yardbirds. He said that even though Clapton has admitted to feeling some rivalry toward him, he didn't feel the same. "I just thought he's got the blues covered," Beck said. "And he's also got some very good pop songs. And I don't have either, really. I'm not committed to putting myself up for a blues guitarist, even though I love playing the blues."
He also discussed why he broke up the Jeff Beck Group at a time when they seemed to be on the precipice of fame. The band had been booked to play Woodstock, but Beck canceled the gig. "We just hadn't played in front of large audiences," he said. "We'd done the Fillmore West, which was a joyous thing, except for the part where everybody started to sniff the smoke in the air, which would make you stoned. But somewhere along the line, when the second tour came along and we were offered to play at Woodstock, I thought there was a bad vibe in the band. It was sort of Ronnie Wood and Rod and that's it. And I wasn't anywhere in the picture. They'd go off, and I'd be stuck."
Beck later buried the hatchet with Stewart, appearing as a special guest at one of Stewart's gigs in 1984. Stewart also joined Beck at a 2009 concert to sing "People Get Ready."
Jeff Beck
Michigan Town Renamed
'Gay Hell'
YouTuber Elijah Daniel is hoping people go to Hell - a tiny town in Michigan that he recently purchased.
Daniel, 25, announced on Tuesday that he bought the town of Hell, Michigan, and officially renamed it Gay Hell.
He said it is an act of protest against the Trump administration recently rejecting requests from U.S. embassies to fly the rainbow flag, a symbol of gay pride, during the month of June in celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month.
The comedian and musician, who has more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers, said the acquisition was intended to enhance his political portfolio by engaging his followers.
Daniel, a California resident, declined to disclose how much it cost to purchase Gay Hell from its previous owner, John Colone, and said he will be the temporary owner. The town is a five acre commercial property and was on the market for $900,000 in 2016, according to the Detroit Free Press.
'Gay Hell'
Parrotheads Sickened
Dominican Republic
A group of Jimmy Buffett fans are adding themselves to the list of reports of serious illnesses and deaths at hotels in the Dominican Republic.
Several member of the Central Oklahoma Parrothead Association (COPA) told Oklahoma TV station KFOR and NBC News that they became seriously ill while staying at the Hotel Riu Palace Macao in Punta Cana in April.
"By mid-week, people began to get sick and were missing events and we began to wonder what was going on," COPA member Dana Flowers told NBC News. "Most people initially thought it was food poisoning."
Flowers, who told KFOR that he lost 14 pounds as a result of his illness, says he was one of 47 travelers who got sick, out of the 114 members who traveled there. He told NBC that they experienced similar symptoms, including fever, dizziness and "crippling diarrhea."
A common thread among the deaths reported so far: At least two of the victims had drunk from their hotel room minibar. But while Flowers says other COPA members partook, he didn't and still got sick.
Dominican Republic
Stole George Clooney's Name and Face
The 'Italian Bonnie and Clyde'
By no stretch of the imagination does Francesco Galdelli look anything like George Clooney. But the 58-year-old Italian fraudster allegedly stole the American superstar's image and forged Clooney's signature to bilk scores of people out of thousands of euros from 2008 to 2010 with a faux fashion line called GC Exclusive by George Clooney. The premise was simple enough. Galdelli's 45-year-old wife Vanya Goffi supposedly was an escort who, the couple claimed, had dated the actor-and Clooney gave his name as a way to pay homage to their impossible love story.
The only problem was that none of it was true. Goffi wasn't an escort, Clooney never dated her, and none of them ever met.
Galdelli and Vanya created the GC line, superimposing Clooney's face onto photos of Galdelli's body in shots snuggling up to Goffi and wearing fine Italian suits supposedly designed by the actor.
The faux Clooney also wore special Rolex watches he purportedly signed and wore before sending them to customers who paid thousands. In at least a dozen cases, when the shopper opened up the box they thought would be a suit or watch that made them at least feel like George Clooney, they would find packets of salt-a bizarre calling card that tied the couple to the fraud.
It is well known that Clooney has links to Italy, as owner of the impressive Oleandra villa on Lake Como since 2002, where he is well known to his neighbors, and having married Amal Alamuddin in Venice. It's no great surprise that he got wind of the scam in 2010 when a friend of his in Milan asked about an upcoming fashion show where he was billed to appear at the Westin Palace in Milan. By the time the police intervened, Galdelli and Goffi were nowhere to be found. Italian investigators said by then they had earned $128,000 through their fraudulent activities.
The 'Italian Bonnie and Clyde'
Child Pornography
Alex Jones
Lawyers representing the families of Sandy Hook victims in a case against Alex Jones, said some documents turned over by the radio host contained child pornography.
Jones is currently being sued by the families of eight victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and an FBI agent for promoting a conspiracy theory that the shooting, which left 26 people, including 20 children between ages 6 and 7, dead, was a "hoax".
In a court filing Monday, the law firm representing the families and the agent explained that they found child pornography in email metadata Jones had been required by a judge to turn over. They alerted the FBI, who are now in control of the electronic files.
In a Friday segment of his conspiracy theory show InfoWars, Jones responded to the knowledge of the content being found by accusing Chris Mattei, one of the attorneys involved in this case, of "planting" the child pornography on Jones.
"I like women with big giant t**s and big asses. I don't like kids like you godd*** rapists," Jones said during the segment. "Eff-heads. In fact, delete this: You f***s are going to get it. You f***ing child molesters. I'll f***ing get you in the end
.One million dollars to put your head on a pike. One million dollars, b***h."
Alex Jones
Climate Change
'Flesh-Eating' Bacteria
"Flesh-eating" bacteria that live in the ocean may be spreading to previously unaffected beach waters thanks to climate change, according to a new report.
The report authors described five cases of severe flesh-eating bacterial infections in people who were exposed to water or seafood from the Delaware Bay, which sits between Delaware and New Jersey. Such infections have historically been rare in the Delaware Bay, as the bacterium responsible for the disease, called Vibrio vulnificus, prefers warmer waters, such as those in the Gulf of Mexico.
But with rising ocean temperatures due to climate change, V. vulnificus may be moving farther north, making these infections in areas previously off-limits, the authors said.
"We believe that clinicians should be aware of the possibility that V. vulnificus infections are occurring more frequently outside traditional geographic areas," the authors, from Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, wrote in their report, published today (June 17) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
V. vulnificus lives in ocean waters that are above 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius). People can become infected with the bacteria in two ways: if they consume contaminated seafood or if they have an open wound that comes into direct contact with seawater containing the bacteria. Although most people infected with V. vulnificus will develop only mild symptoms, some people develop life-threatening skin or bloodstream infections. V. vulnificus can cause necrotizing fasciitis, a rare "flesh-eating" infection that rapidly destroys skin and muscle tissue. This can result in amputations or even death.
'Flesh-Eating' Bacteria
'Underground Railroad'
North Korea
A decade after leaving her family behind to flee North Korea, the defector was overwhelmed with excitement when she spoke to her 22-year-old son on the phone for the first time in May after he too escaped into China.
While speaking to him again on the phone days later, however, she listened in horror as the safe house where her son and four other North Korean escapees were hiding was raided by Chinese authorities.
The woman, now living in South Korea, said she heard rumors her son is being held in a Chinese prison near the North Korean border, but has had no official news of his whereabouts.
At least 30 North Korean escapees have been rounded up in a string of raids across China since mid-April, according to family members and activist groups.
It is not clear whether this is part of a larger crackdown by China, but activists say the raids have disrupted parts of the informal network of brokers, charities, and middlemen who have been dubbed the North Korean "Underground Railroad".
North Korea
'Watch Lists'
Monsanto
US seeds and pesticides maker Monsanto kept lists of around 600 key pro- and anti-pesticides figures in Germany and France alone, its German parent company Bayer said Monday amid a widening probe.
Bayer has admitted the lists covered politicians, journalists and others across seven European countries and in Brussels.
"Update on Monsanto stakeholder lists: until the end of last week, the firm hired by Bayer contacted all the people on the German and French lists," Bayer's press department tweeted. "There are a total of around 600."
Bayer said last month that PR agency FleishmanHillard drew up lists of stakeholders in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom, "as well as regarding stakeholders related to EU institutions".
The group had promised transparency over the lists, after a French television channel revealed the existence in France of files on prominent backers and opponents of pesticides and genetically modified crops.
Monsanto
Scientists Have Found
Quantum Particles
Nothing lasts forever. Humans, planets, stars, galaxies, maybe even the Universe itself, everything has an expiration date. But things in the quantum realm don't always follow the rules. Now, scientists have found that quasiparticles in quantum systems could be effectively immortal.
That doesn't mean they don't decay, which is reassuring. But once these quasiparticles have decayed, they are able to reorganise themselves back into existence, possibly ad infinitum.
This seemingly flies right in the face of the second law of thermodynamics, which asserts that entropy in an isolated system can only move in an increasing direction: things can only break down, not build back up again.
Of course, quantum physics can get weird with the rules; but even quantum scientists didn't know quasiparticles were weird in this particular manner.
"Until now, the assumption was that quasiparticles in interacting quantum systems decay after a certain time," said physicist Frank Pollman of the Technical University of Munich. "We now know that the opposite is the case: strong interactions can even stop decay entirely."
Quantum Particles
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