from Bruce
Anecdotes
Music
• During a rehearsal of “For Unto Us a Child is Born,” sung by the Royal Choral Society, Sir Malcolm Sargent was displeased. He admonished the singers, “Just a little more reverence, please — and not quite so much astonishment.”
Names
• When Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu announced her intention to become a nun, Lazar, her brother, who was a soldier, reacted with disbelief because his sister was a vivacious young woman. But Gonxha replied that Lazar was proud to be serving a king who ruled over a few million subjects, while she would be serving the King of the entire world: God. Later, Gonxha became better known as Mother Teresa.
• A warrior appeared before Mulla Nasrudin to ask for a honorific name. The warrior said, “Mulla, all the great warriors of the past have had honorific titles with the name ‘God’ in them; for example, ‘God-Gifted’ and ‘God-Accepted.’ What name can you give to me?” Nasrudin replied, “God forbid.”
• Before a United States men’s ice-skating championship competition, Evelyn Kramer, a coach from Lake Arrowhead, California, told skater Michael Weiss, “Hey, Michael, good luck. You could be our first Jewish national singles champion.” Mr. Weiss replied, “Uh, I’m Methodist.”
• At Ferney, Voltaire built a church. This inscription appeared over its porch: Dei Erexit Voltaire. Translated: “Voltaire Erected [This] to God.” Visitors used to look at the inscription and remark, “Two great names.”
New Year’s Eve
• Buddhists believe that there are exactly 108 sins, and at Buddhist temples on New Year’s Eve they hit a bell exactly 108 times, always waiting for the sound of one bong to die down before they hit the bell again.
Parents
• When Jay Leno was growing up, one firm rule he had to follow was to never take the Lord’s name in vain. His mother used to tell him, “People might steal money because they have to eat. Or maybe they get into a fight to protect somebody, then they go to prison. But there’s no reason to ever take the Lord’s name in vain.” After Jay grew up and became a famous comedian, he and his father were watching a fight between Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard on television. A fighter was hit hard and fell — and in the excitement Jay took the Lord’s name in vain. His mother heard him, walked into the TV room, and BONK — she hit him on the side of his head with a pot. Then she told Jay, “You’ll not say that in this house!” His father agreed with his mother.
• Someone once questioned Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s assertion that early Judaism promoted strong parent-child relationships. The questioner asked, “Isn’t it true that God’s first commandment to Abraham was that he leave his father’s home?” Rabbi Telushkin replied, “It is true. But he was 75 at the time; he was entitled.”
Passover
• During Passover Jews eat unleavened bread because their ancestors didn’t have time to cook leavened bread as they fled out of Egypt. Rabbi Israel Lipkin Salanter usually supervised the cooking of the unleavened bread (matzos) for Passover; however, one Passover eve he was too ill to go to the bakery to supervise the cooking, so two of his pupils offered to go in his place. Before leaving, they asked the rabbi if there was anything special that they should do while supervising. The rabbi answered, “Yes. See to it that the woman who does the mixing of the ingredients is paid well for her work — she is a poor widow.”
• In 1978, refusenik Yosef Mendelovich celebrated Passover in a Soviet prison. The candle was made of bits of string and a few drops of oil. The bitter herbs — maror — appeared in the form of mustard that had originally been intended as a therapeutic plaster for a back problem. The greenery was supplied by an onion bulb that had been soaked in water. The wine came from raisins in water. The most important item — the Haggadah — Mr. Mendelovich had previously copied into a small notebook before giving the original copy to another refusenik — Anatoly Sharansky.
• A rabbi once preached a sermon about rich people giving to poor people for Passover. After giving the sermon, the rabbi felt that the sermon was only partially successful — the poor were ready to receive, but the rich were not ready to give.
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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: "Treat Her Good"
Album: READY TO BURN
Artist: Brook Adams
Artist Location: Eugene, Oregon
Info: “Brook Adams plays guitar and ukulele in Eugene, Oregon. His style is 20th century pop music. He plays a lotta different styles but favors Surf Guitar & Ukulele.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $7 (USD) for 10-track album
Genre: R&B.
Links:
READY TO BURN
Brook Adams 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.
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
The random fireworks are making the shittens flinchy.
Faith-Based Healthcare
John Oliver
John Oliver is a proud ruiner. Showing first a commercial where people speak glowingly of a workaround to America’s undeniably broken and venal healthcare system made up of good-hearted folk chipping in to pay each others’ medical bills out of a spirit of fellowship and the common good, Oliver pulled off the bandage right away in exposing how the advertised health care sharing ministry industry is even more of a racket than our current, universally loathed health insurance system. “As you guessed because you’re learning about it from this show,” Oliver warned those beleaguered viewers Googling the local health care sharing ministry (HCSM), these rapidly multiplying religious boondoggles are significantly less useful than praying to your favorite celebrity for a retweet of your emergency medical debt GoFundMe.
How much less useful are we talking here? Well, as Oliver lays out in another of his weekly stories designed to spawn a sweaty barrage of damage-control corporate PR statements from these over-promising, under-delivering, essentially unregulated /scams /faith-based capitalist entities, about as useful as racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and then getting on your knees to pray that a sketchy scheme with a sanctifying veneer of holiness doesn’t disqualify every penny because you smoked a cigarette that one time. Is that just another liberal heathen picking on the faithful? Well, yeah, probably. But it’s also 100 percent true when it comes to how HCSMs can legally discriminate against needy paying customers because of factors ranging from tobacco use, to alcohol or drug use, to being gay, to having sex outside of marriage, to literally anything they (and they alone) determine is outside the bounds of their particular, judgmentally lawsuit-proof brand of corporate Christianity.
Oh, and speaking of percentages, Oliver shined the representative villainy spotlight on the head of Aliera, a company intimately involved in administering numerous HCSMs, which takes some 84 percent of all monies raised from members for administrative costs/whatever it wants. (As lousy as real healthcare comanies arfe the ACA mandates that only 20 percent can go to overhead.) As Oliver noted upon showing a reporter questioning Aliera’s head about this monumental fleecing of Aliera’s ailing flock and receiving the hasty response, “I cant help you any further, I need to get out of town,” that’s pretty much 100 percent the opposite of what any respectable Jesus would do. Same goes for the CPAC speaker who chucklingly promised that the “freedom from insurance” promised by HCSMs like Liberty Healthshare (which sponsored the infamous conservative hate-festival) would “stick it to” those godless insurance companies. As Oliver cited, “self-satisfied CPAC laughter” is both chilling and a great indicator that someone is proposing something scammy and stupid.
But John Oliver is nothing if not a helper. A helper and a ruiner. That’s why he brought back his 100 percent actual wife Wanda Jo (who, admittedly does look like Rachel Dratch in a sculptural Tammy Fay wig) to announce the arrival of his own, Florida- and faith-based health care sharing ministry, JohnnyCare. By logging onto the website of the recently founded church of Our Lady Of Perpetual Health (sister scam of his and Dratch’s late Our Lady Of Perpetual Exemption), holier-than-thou members can gain access to the feel-good, cost-sharing beneficence of the church, in the form of the cheapest, three-Band Aid first aid kit their money can purchase in bulk. As he and Wanda Jo glowingly touted their holy alternative to evil, godless (yet actual) healthcare companies, they assured JohnnyCare subscribers that their $1.99 contribution will cover absolutely every medical misfortune imaginable—provided, of course, that members’ ailments are not caused by something outside the church’s arbitrary and blanket-disqualifying morality clauses.
John Oliver
Health Care Sharing Ministries: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Renames Boba Fett's Ship
Di$ney
For several years now, Disney and Lucasfilm have worked to evolve the Star Wars universe, diversifying the casts of the most recently cinematic trilogy and spin-offs like Rogue One and The Mandalorian, and adding prominent LGBTQ characters to comics and novels. The focus on what Disney CEO Bob Chapek calls “universal values” even led to the dismissal of Mandalorian cast member Gina Carano over a series of controversial tweets, including one suggesting the backlash to contrarian political views was tantamount to the way Jews were targeted in Nazi Germany.
Nonetheless, each attempt to bring inclusivity to Star Wars has been met with backlash from a small but vocal group of Star Wars fans lamenting the saga’s “social justice warriors” and “woke” approach to its latest endeavors.
Now, some Star Wars fans are mad again. This time at a Lego set.
As originally noted by the fan site Jedi News, the new Mandalorian-themed toy line features beloved bounty hunter Boba Fett’s spaceship; however, its traditional Slave I moniker has been changed to “Boba Fett’s Starship.” Per the definitive Star Wars reference site Wookieepedia, Fett’s heavily modified “Firespray-31-class patrol and attack craft” formerly belonged to this father, Jango. While originally built as a police craft with cells to transport criminals, Fett revamped the holding area into prisoner cages, “coffin-like cabinets that were less humane but better controlled his prisoners.”
Speaking to Jedi News, Lego designer Michael Lee Stockwell said the toymaker was no longer using the Slave I name, with fellow designer Jens Kronvold Frederiksen adding, “It’s probably not something which has been announced publicly but it is just something that Disney doesn’t want to use any more.”
Di$ney
Title Won By Transgender Woman
Miss Nevada USA
For the first time in the pageant’s history, the title of Miss Nevada USA has been won by a transgender woman.
Kataluna Enriquez was crowned the winner Sunday at the South Point hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
The 27-year-old Enriquez won the Miss Silver State USA pageant in March, a preliminary competition for the Miss Nevada USA pageant.
She beat 21 other candidates to represent Nevada in the Miss USA pageant that will be held on Nov. 29.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Enriquez first took part in transgender pageants in 2016 when she was working as a model.
Miss Nevada USA
3D Video Replaces Sets
Verona
The Verona Arena amphitheater in northern Italy has returned to staging full operas for the first time since the pandemic — but with one big difference.
The monumental sets that normally fill the vast amphitheater stage have been replaced by dynamic, 3D images broadcast on huge LED screens, recreating a Sicilian village or a Fellini-esque film backlot.
Distancing rules meant that stagehands moving sets had to be limited in the cramped backstage in the open-air Roman-era amphitheater, setting in motion a reimagining of the 98th Verona Arena Opera Festival.
For this season, technology is standing in for the sets for which the Arena is famous, ones big enough to fill the vast stage and engage even audience members sitting far away in the uppermost seats.
The video component also includes cameo imagery from Italian museums in each of the five new operas, including also “Aida,” “Nabucco” and “La Traviata.” The collaborations, including with the Vatican Museum, the Uffizi and Turin’s Egyptian Museum, are meant as a gesture of solidarity with another cultural branch that also suffered from restrictions during the pandemic.
Verona
Highly 'Right-Wing Authoritarian'
1/4 Qualify
More than one quarter of Americans qualify as having right-wing authoritarian political beliefs, according to new polling by Morning Consult.
The study used authoritarian researcher Bob Altemeyer's definition and scoring system of right-wing authoritarianism, which defines it as a "desire to submit to some authority, aggression that is directed against whomever the authority says should be targeted and a desire to have everybody follow the norms and social conventions that the authority says should be followed," according to Morning Consult.
The survey asked adults in the US and seven foreign countries -- Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain -- whether they believe 2020 election was determined by fraudulent votes, whether Capitol rioters did more to protect than undermine the US government, and whether masks and vaccines are key to stopping the spread of COVID-19. It found that right-leaning Americans and those who scored high on the right-wing authoritarian scale had quite similar responses on these three questions.
Sixty-four percent of right-leaning American adults said President Joe Biden won the election because of widespread voter fraud, while 55% of high-RWA respondents said the same. About a third -- 34% -- of right-leaning adults and 26% of high-RWA respondents said the Capitol rioters were protecting the government when they stormed the building. Meanwhile, 20% of right-leaning and 23% of high-RWA respondents said vaccines aren't necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Among the eight countries, the US had the largest gap -- 39 points -- on support for right-wing authoritarianism between the political left and right.
1/4 Qualify
Second Floor Refuge
White House
Trump administration staffers sought refuge on the second floor of White House as the former president never climbed stairs, a new book claims.
The former president’s aides, such as Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller, chose to work out of a second-floor office to ensure separation from their boss, according to Michael Wolff.
Wolff writes in the forthcoming Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency that it “meant a degree of exclusion but also protection” as “Trump would never climb the stairs (and, by the end of his term, he never had)”.
In January 2017 The Washington Post predicted that it was unlikely Mr Trump would ever go to that area of the executive mansion.
“Though Conway took over the workspace previously occupied by Valerie Jarrett, who had been Obama’s closest adviser, the confidant dismissively predicted that Trump would rarely climb a flight of stairs,” wrote the newspaper.
White House
Police Recover Stolen Art
Greece
Greek police say they have recovered two paintings by 20th century masters Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian, nearly a decade after their theft from the country’s biggest state art gallery in Athens.
A statement late Monday said the two works were in the hands of the police, but provided no detail on their condition and on whether any arrests had been made.
The paintings were stripped from their frames during a well-organized, overnight heist at the National Art Gallery on Jan. 9 2012. The burglars had also taken a pen and ink drawing of a religious scene by Italian 16th century painter Guglielmo Caccia. They had initially grabbed a fourth work, also by Mondrian, but abandoned it as they fled.
The stolen Picasso was a cubist female bust which the Spanish painter had donated to Greece in 1949 with a dedication “in homage to the Greek people” for their resistance to Nazi German occupying forces during World War II.
The thieves also took a 1905 representational oil painting of a riverside windmill by Mondrian, the Dutch painter who became famous for his later, abstract linear works.
Greece
Actually Contains Real Gold
'Fool's Gold'
The mineral pyrite was historically nicknamed fool's gold because of its deceptive resemblance to the precious metal.
The term was often used during the California gold rush in the 1840s because inexperienced prospectors would claim discoveries of gold, but in reality it would be pyrite, composed of worthless iron disulfide (FeS2).
Ironically, pyrite crystals can contain small amounts of real gold, although it is notoriously hard to extract. Gold hiding within pyrite is sometimes referred to as "invisible gold", because it is not observable with standard microscopes, but instead requires sophisticated scientific instruments.
It wasn't until the 1980s when researchers discovered that gold in pyrite can come in different forms – either as particles of gold, or as an alloy, in which the pyrite and gold are finely mixed.
Our research reveals that dislocations within pyrite crystals can be "decorated" with gold atoms. This is particularly common where the crystals have been twisted during their history; here, gold can be present at concentrations several times higher than in the rest of the crystal.
'Fool's Gold'
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