Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Capitalism, Socialism, and Unfreedom (NY Times Blog)
Minimal government doesn't remove power from our lives.
Matthew Yglesias: Donald Trump talks like a mob boss - and reminds us he has no idea what he's doing (Vox)
Trump's actual signature policy change has been to increase the federal deficit substantially (which raises the trade deficit by encouraging borrowing from abroad) in order to finance a big cut in corporate tax rates (which raises the trade deficit by encouraging foreigners to invest in US stocks). … The good news for both Trump and the American people is that the steady growth in employment he points to, while by no means due to his policies, is at least very real. If the economy hits an actual bump in the road, we may wish we had a president who had some idea what he's talking about.
Andrew Tobias: NotPetya - Be Prepared
1. Cyberwarfare (and Russian attacks…) are a huge threat. Imagine your life without, say, electricity. 2. It's a better idea than ever to have a "disaster hoard," as I've been touting for decades.
Ian Fortey: 4 Philanthropists Who Pretty Much Gave Away Their Fortunes (The Modern Rogue)
Everyone wants to be a millionaire, since they're the ones who get to buy the most luxurious of hams and pristine lapel pins. And while it's said that money can't buy happiness, we're certain that having plenty of cash doesn't put you in a bad mood. Except for maybe these people, who seem like they couldn't get rid of their extreme wealth quickly enough.
Tim Martin: Terry Pratchett's 10 best Discworld characters (Telegraph)
… it's extraordinary that a series which began as a mickey-taking parody of medieval-fantasy cliché blossomed, over 40 books, into British fiction's most brilliant satire on contemporary life. Everyone will have their own favourite characters from the hundreds of humans, vampires, trolls and golems who stalk the plains and cities of Pratchett's disturbingly familiar fantasy world. They have ensured that the writer, whose books sold over 85 million copies world-wide, will be remembered for many a generation of fantasy readers. Here are 10 of the finest: …
Kat Brown: "The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett, review: 'a magnificent sign-off'" (Telegraph)
One of the most endearing peculiarities of the Discworld, Terry Pratchett's bestselling fantasy series satirising the beliefs and behaviours of Earth, is that witches know the precise hour of their death. Some hold their funerals in advance so as not to miss out on a good party; all tidy their homes beforehand, ready for the next occupant.
Joe Bob Briggs: 500 Million Lazy Environmentalists (Taki's Magazine)
Okay, since there are 500 million plastic straws used every day, we need to stop using plastic straws. Wait. What? First of all, if there are 500 million plastic straws being used every day, that means there's an obvious demand for plastic straws. People like plastic straws. They like them better than paper straws or-the alternative favored by the environmental movement-no straw at all!
Joe Bob Briggs: "Angelenos Ask: 'Dude, Where's My Subway?'" (Taki's Magazine)
Suggesting you'll be using Los Angeles mass transit-much less only mass transit during an extended stay in Southern California-ranks right up there with "I love Justin Bieber" as a phrase guaranteed to isolate you socially from everyone you meet. I've told people that I'll be taking the train into town from LAX-thereby sparing that person from the two-hour reality-show episode called "Picking You Up From the Airport"-only to have the native Angeleno say, "There is no train from the airport."
Joe Bob Briggs: Pitchforks and Torches in Orlando (Taki's Magazine)
I tried. I really tried. I wanted to be the only person in America who didn't know anything about the Caylee Anthony murder case.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
WORK Anecdotes
• Russell Johnson, who played the Professor on Gilligan's Island, had the hardest lines to learn because so much of what he said was explaining how he was able to use science to do such things as recharge batteries with nothing more than seawater and various metals. Bob Denver, who played Gilligan, once asked Mr. Johnson how he was able to learn his lines. The explanation was simple, although the work involved was not. Mr. Johnson spent hours reading the encyclopedia so he could understood what he was saying. The hours of reading paid off-he seldom blew his lines. (But on the rare occasions he did, his fellow castmembers were ready to tease him by saying such things as "Gee, Russ, can't you learn the stupid lines!")
• Early in his acting career, Sheldon Leonard competed for parts with Sam Levene because they played similar characters. In a road production of Three Men on a Horse, Mr. Leonard played a comedic part that Mr. Levene had originated on Broadway. During a dress rehearsal, Mr. Levene stopped by-not to watch Mr. Leonard, but to time his laughs to see if Mr. Leonard was getting bigger laughs than he had gotten. After an especially long laugh, Mr. Levene turned to Mr. Leonard's wife, who was also standing in the back of the theater, and snarled, "What did he do? Drop his pants?"
• Not everyone who studies acting in college goes on to become an actor. In 1973, Miranda Fowler graduated from Yale Drama School and quickly found work playing a maid in Private Lives. Her debut was inauspicious-she missed her entrance six nights in a row. During the second week, the actress playing Amanda became ill and Ms. Fowler, who was her understudy, was asked to go on in her place. It was then she realized that she had memorized not the lines of Amanda, but of Sibyl. At this point, Ms. Fowler decided not to be an actress.
• Eve Arden was getting ready to go to stage in Los Angeles in the title role of Auntie Mame, when she realized she couldn't remember the name of the Connecticut town where Mame's nephew's snooty fiance lived. She turned to a cast member who played one of the Connecticut group and asked, "Quick, Frank, where do you live?" Misunderstanding her, he told her the name of his Los Angeles hotel. Fortunately, Ms. Arden remembered the name of the Connecticut town once she was onstage.
• An actor once told playwright Sir James Barrie, author of Peter Pan, that without using words he could convey anything to an audience. Sir James replied, "Please express without a word that you have a younger brother, who was born in Devonshire but is now living in Kent, who is coming to London next week on Thursday to call on his sister who has sprained her ankle crossing Piccadilly as she was on her way to a Regent Street dressmaker to be fitted for a pink silk dress."
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Randy Rainbow on Predator being impeached.
Hang in there until he starts singing--it's pretty darn good:
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
GET YOUR STUPID ON!
HOW THE REPUGS WIN? THEY CHEAT!
IT CAN HAPPEN HERE!
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Like my job, but the commute sucks.
Hollywood Walk O' Fame
'Weird Al' Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, and he had just one request.
"Please, please don't pickax my star," the parody king said in a not-so-subtle reference to the defacement of President Donald Trump's star last month.
"I know it's all the rage these days, but that's not cool," he said.
"Unless at some point in the future, I do something unfathomably monstrous and evil in which case, sure, fine, okay, go ahead. But anything short of that, please limit yourself to spitting and urinating, OK? Have some class, people."
Barry Hansen, aka disc jockey Dr. Demento, was on hand to honor Yankovic.
'Weird Al' Yankovic
Recruit Queen's Roger Taylor
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins recruited Queen drummer Roger Taylor on Sunday for a live cover of "Under Pressure," the latter band's 1982 hit with David Bowie. The performance highlighted a surprise pop-up show at the parking lot of the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California.
The all-star team-up occurred during an opening set from Hawkins' covers band, Chevy Metal. The drummer's Foo Fighters bandmates Pat Smear and Nate Mendel also joined for "Under Pressure"; Hawkins handled the Freddie Mercury portion of the vocal duet, with Chevy Metal's Wiley Hodgden covering the Bowie melodies.
As Ultimate Classic Rock reports, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl came onstage after "Under Pressure" and joined the band for a version of the Faces' "Stay With Me." Foo Fighters, who were billed as "the Holy Shits" for the show, then began their own rarities-heavy set with "White Limo."
Taylor is a longtime Foo friend, having appeared onstage with the Concrete and Gold band multiple times - including a 2006 cameo alongside Queen bandmate Brian May and helping form a "superdupergroup" with Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones in 2015.
Foo Fighters
Issued Series of 'Retractions'
John Oliver
In an exclusive web clip, John Oliver offered a series of "retractions" for mistakes he's previously made on Last Week Tonight. In lieu of a new episode of the HBO series, Oliver reminded viewers that even he can't be right 100 percent of the time.
"I wanted to take a moment here on the Internet to set some things straight," Oliver said. "Because here at Last Week Tonight we work hard to ensure everything I say is as accurate as possible, but inevitably, despite our diligence, occasional errors do slip through. So in the interest of full transparency I'd like to retract some of the claims that I've made in the past that have turned out, unfortunately, to be false."
These retractions included the fact that Alaska was not, actually, purchased by the U.S. from grizzly bears for 50 pounds of salmon and that Myspace is absolutely not back.
"A few weeks ago I said - and I quote - 'Myspace is back, baby! It's Tom time, motherfuckers,'" Oliver recounted. "I don't deny that I said that and unfortunately it seems that I may have spoken too soon. Our research staff have obtained documents that indicate that Myspace is, emphatically, not actually back." He added, "It is my sad duty to inform you that it is not now, nor was it ever, Tom time, motherfuckers."
Oliver also admitted that he was mistaken in calling trains "buses that fuck." "It has been brought to my attention that is false," he said. "Trains are actually airplanes that pee sitting down."
John Oliver
Batman's Father
Alec Baldwin
Warner Bros. has hired Alec Baldwin to appear opposite Joaquin Phoenix in its "Joker" origin film, playing the role of Thomas Wayne, the father of Batman, a.k.a. Bruce Wayne.
Variety first reported that Phoenix was in talks to play the Clown Prince of Crime. As soon as his deal was finalized, the studio gave the greenlight to a September start date with a budget in the moderate $55 million dollar range.
Todd Phillips ("The Hangover" franchise) is on board to co-write and direct. Jared Leto will not appear in this Joker film. Leto played the Joker in 2016's "Suicide Squad" and is expected to be back for the "Suicide Squad" sequel, along with another standalone Joker movie that will be separate from Phoenix's Joker project.
Scott Silver is a co-writer with Phillips on the Joker origins film, which will delve into how the Joker became a criminal mastermind. Robert De Niro is portraying a talk-show host who plays a part in driving Phoenix's character to go mad. Zazie Beetz and Marc Maron are also starring.
Baldwin is up for an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for playing Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live" after winning the category last year. Baldwin can be seen in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" and Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman."
Alec Baldwin
Astronaut Candidate Has Resigned
NASA
A little more than a year ago, NASA introduced its newest class of 12 astronaut candidates. These talented men and women were chosen from a deep pool of 18,300 applicants, and after two years of training they were to join the space agency's corps for possible assignment on missions to the International Space Station, lunar orbit, or possibly the surface of the Moon.
However, one of those 12 astronauts, Robb Kulin, will not be among them. On Monday, NASA spokeswoman Brandi Dean confirmed to Ars that Kulin had resigned his employment at NASA, effective August 31, "for personal reasons."
Sources described Kulin as a "family man," confident in his abilities. A native of Anchorage, Alaska, Kulin was a mechanical engineer who came to NASA from the rocket company SpaceX, where he had been a senior manager for flight reliability. "Hopefully, I will one day fly on a vehicle that has components that I got to design," Kulin said in June 2017, during a news conference announcing the new astronaut class.
It is rare for an astronaut "candidate," or ascan in space agency parlance, to drop out of training before completing this work and becoming assigned to the astronaut office, said Robert Pearlman, a space historian.
"The last time that a NASA astronaut candidate resigned before being qualified for a potential spaceflight assignment was 50 years ago, in 1968," said Pearlman, editor of the space history news website collectSPACE. "Chemist John Llewellyn, a member of NASA's sixth group of trainees and second scientist-astronaut group selected in 1967, withdrew from the program a year later after realizing he was not cut out for flying jets. An August 1968 NASA release announcing his departure stated, 'Dr. Llewellyn said it became apparent several weeks ago that he was not progressing as he should.'"
NASA
The Conners
John Goodman
When ABC canceled its mega-hit Roseanne revival following a series of racist tweets from star Roseanne Barr, and then subsequently announced that the series would continue without its star in a spinoff called The Conners, it made sense to wonder how the hell it was all gonna turn out. How would they explain Roseanne Conner's absence? Would it work? Will people watch it? Most of these questions can only be answered with a good old-fashioned wait-and-see, but one secret has been let out of the bag: Roseanne Conner won't return to TV, because she's dead.
That's according to John Goodman, Dan Conner himself, who said as much in an interview published by The Sunday Times. While he only mentioned the show briefly, Goodman took time to defend Barr as "not a racist" and said that he was "surprised at the response" to her tweets, although he noted they "were work friends" and suggested they were never very close once their long TV marriage came to an end.
Of course, this isn't the first time a major character has died in the Conner family. Dan notoriously died in the final season of Roseanne's original run-a development that the creative team behind the revival chose to ignore, along with most of what happened in that final season. Let's hope, however, that this time around, this particular Conner stays dead.
John Goodman
Incredible Weight-Loss
Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith is celebrating his 51-pound weight loss after suffering a near fatal heart attack earlier this year, the director revealed on Instagram Sunday.
On February 25, Smith was rushed to the hospital after a standup show.
"After the first show this evening, I had a massive heart attack. The Doctor who saved my life told me I had 100% blockage of my LAD artery (aka "the Widow-Maker")," he wrote on Instagram in February. "If I hadn't canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I would've died tonight. But for now, I'm still above ground!"
At the time, Smith weighed 256 pounds. He'd already lost about 80 pounds in the 10 years leading up to his cardiac arrest, Entertainment Tonightreports. But, according to the 48-year-old filmmaker, doctors told him a week after the heart attack, "The best thing you can do for yourself now is to lose 50 pounds."
Six months later, Smith has reached his goal and now weighs 205 pounds. He attributes much of his weight loss to his partnership with Weight Watchers, Penn Jillette's book Presto!, and a solely plant-based foods diet, which he said was difficult because he "hates vegetables."
Kevin Smith
Sexually Frustrated Dolphin Terrorizes Tourists
Zafar
A seaside village in Brittany has banned swimming on its beach because a dolphin in heat has been scaring tourists and locals by approaching them and trying to rub up against them.
The dolphin has even tried to prevent several swimmers from getting back to the beach at Landévennec, using its nose to push one woman out of the water and up into the air.
The beast, often clearly in a state of sexual arousal, also often tries to rub up against kayaks and other small boats.
The three-metre long dolphin, which locals have nicknamed Zafar, has been hanging around the Bay of Brest for months, amusing tourists with its antics as it visited the beaches and shorelines of Plougastel-Daoulas, Logonna-Daoulas and Landevennec.
Children in sailing schools were delighted when the dolphin would suddenly turn up and frolic around their boats, and Zafar sometimes let swimmers grip onto his dorsal fin and go for a ride with him. But then a few weeks ago he changed.
Zafar
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