from Bruce
Anecdotes
Food
• Bernie Fein was the co-creator of TV’s Hogan’s Heroes. He borrowed the name of the lead character, Colonel Robert Hogan, from an actor friend of his, whom he cast in the series’ 15th episode. In gratitude, Mr. Hogan shared a real “Hogan’s Hero” with Mr. Fein — a 5-foot hero sandwich filled with meats, cheeses, lettuce, tomato, and spices.
Gays and Lesbians
• The TV series Xena: Warrior Princess boasted not one, but two, lesbian icons. Lucy Lawless (Xena) and Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle) enjoyed a relationship with a serious lesbian subtext. Attending a convention of Xena fans, Ms. Lawless appeared and informed the crowd that Xena had recently been voted the number-two most-loved lesbian icon in the world. She then asked, “Would you like to meet number one?” No fools, the crowd — mostly composed of lesbians — screamed yes, and Ms. O’Connor walked on stage — to more screams. Of course, both Ms. Lawless and Ms. O’Connor have male fans. After Ms. O’Connor’s character was voted the number-one most-loved lesbian icon in the world, she posted a message on the WWW thanking all of her female fans for voting for her. A number of male fans wrote back, posting messages that said, “Wait a minute, we voted for you, too!”
• Air America Radio host Rachel Maddow decided to come out of the closet in a very public way when she was a student at Stanford. In every bathroom in her residence hall, she posted signs announcing that she is a lesbian — by the end of 24 hours everyone in her residence hall knew her sexual orientation. The school newspaper even published an article saying that she was one of the only two out lesbians in the freshman class. Ms. Maddow says, “Funnily enough, only one other person was out, and she was not one of the many girls I was sleeping with.”
• Quite a few gay men think that Ira Glass, host of radio’s and TV’s This American Life, is gay. Sometimes, he will mention on air that he has a wife, and a gay man will email him to say, “Please, stop pretending. Who is this ‘wife’ character you talk about?” Mr. Glass is certainly open to gays. Asked by an Advocate interviewer what it felt like to be included among other celebrities who are thought to be gay but who aren’t, Mr. Glass replied, “I always feel like it’s very flattering to be included in that club. It’s a group you’d like to be part of.”
• Black comedian Chris Rock had a notable skit on his HBO TV series. A black man and a white man meet each other on a dark street, and the two men are wary, expecting that the other man may do something violent. The men angrily ask each other what the other is doing that late in the neighborhood when suddenly … the white man grabs the black man and kisses him … then the black man grabs the white man and kisses him back. The announcer explains, “Gay sex. It’s colorblind.”
• On The Hollywood Squares, gay comedy writer Bruce Vilanch was asked, “You are the most popular fruit in America. What are you?” Bruce got a big laugh when he answered, “Humble.” (The other correct answer? “Banana.”) Another gay comedian, Paul Lynde, can often be seen on Nick at Nite guest-starring in old sitcoms. When he was on the game show The Hollywood Squares long ago, he was asked how long the typical affair lasts — he replied, “About 15 minutes.” (The correct answer was about two weeks.)
• During the summer between her junior and senior years of high school, Chastity Bono, the lesbian daughter of Sonny Bono and Cher, was riding her bike in New York City when she came across a Gay Pride parade. Never having heard of such a thing before, she was surprised — and exhilarated. She joined the parade and became one of hundreds of people celebrating their homosexuality.
• Roseanne Conner (a character on TV’s Roseanne) knows how to treat people. When Sandra Bernhard’s lesbian character worried about how the Connor family would have treated her if she had come out of the closet, Roseanne said, “We would have treated you like anyone else around here. We would have mocked you for a while — until we got tired of it — and then we would have dropped it.”
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Ignorance"
Album: IMPACT
Artist: Shockwave
Artist Location: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Info:
“ShockWave is Rutger's only all-female a cappella group. We strive to break barriers and empower women through voice and song.”
Price: $1.50 (USA) for track; $15 (USA) for 10-track album
Genre: A Cappella. Pop.
Links:
IMPACT
SHOCKWAVE ON BANDCAMP
Shockwave Website
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nice steady rain started around lunchtime, petered out mid-afternoon, and the shittens were miffed.
First Steps
Prince
Minnesota’s Congressional delegation on Monday is introducing a resolution to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to pop superstar Prince, citing his “indelible mark on Minnesota and American culture,” The Associated Press has learned.
The medal is one of the nation’s highest civilian honors and past recipients include George Washington, the Wright Brothers, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa, the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen and the Dalai Lama.
“The world is a whole lot cooler because Prince was in it — he touched our hearts, opened our minds, and made us want to dance. With this legislation, we honor his memory and contributions as a composer, performer, and music innovator. Purple reigns in Minnesota today and every day because of him,” said Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who represents the state, in a statement.
The resolution for Prince is led by Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who represents Minneapolis in the House. The full Minnesota delegation serves as original cosponsors, including Sen. Tina Smith and Reps. Jim Hagedorn, Angie Craig, Dean Phillips, Betty McCollum, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber and Omar.
Born Prince Rogers Nelson, the singer, songwriter, arranger and instrumentalist broke through in the late 1970s with the hits “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” and soared over the following decade with such albums as “1999” and “Purple Rain.” Among his other notable releases: “Sign O’ the Times,” “Graffiti Bridge” and “The Black Album.”
Prince
Now Mrs. Komuro
Princess Mako
When Princess Mako of Japan, Emperor Naruhito’s niece and the daughter of his younger brother, Crown Prince Fumihito, wed in Tokyo on Tuesday, there was no lavish ceremony, and none of the rites traditionally associated with Japanese royal weddings. In another first, she is forgoing the lump-sum payment of about $1.3 million that female royals receive after they lose their imperial status by marrying a commoner.
The reason: public disapproval of her groom, Kei Komuro, 30, a recent law graduate, because of a financial dispute involving his mother. Rather than spend taxpayer money on the wedding, which was delayed for years amid the controversy, the couple simply registered their marriage at a government office. In the coming weeks, they are expected to quietly leave Japan for a new life in the United States.
The couple’s dramatic exit from royal life has riveted the media in Japan and elsewhere, drawing comparisons to Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle. Palace officials said this month that Mako, who turned 30 Saturday, had developed complex post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of being “unable to escape” the attacks on her, Komuro and their families.
Their story has also drawn attention to a looming succession crisis for the Japanese monarchy, which is said to be the oldest in the world. With ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne restricted to the male bloodline, the family is running low on members — 17 in total now that Mako is married. Neither Naruhito’s daughter, Aiko, nor Mako and her sister, Kako, are in line because they are women. Now the crown’s future rests on the shoulders of Mako’s 15-year-old brother, Prince Hisahito, the only heir of his generation.
Princess Mako
Raises Ticket Prices
Di$neyland
Going to the Happiest Place on Earth will cost a little more this holiday season. Disneyland today introduced price hikes on some one-day tickets and also added a new top tier for the most-coveted weekends and holidays, noting “pent-up demand after 14-month closure” in an official statement.
The new one day/one park pricing is modified according to expected demand on a given day. Price points are as follows: $104, $119, $134, $149, $159 and also — come March — $164. Most of those represent increases of 3% to 8% increases year-over-year.
The last time the park upped its prices was in February of 2020. On the lowest-demand days — Tuesdays, for example — a one-day ticket to Disneyland or California Adventure remained $104 during that period (as it is now). For peak days, like most weekends, the price of an adult ticket rose to $154 from $149 in 2020. A park hopper ticket rose to above $200 for the first time.
Disneyland ticket price increases have become an annual thing. The top one-day, one park ticket was $124 in 2017. It was raised to $134 in 2018, then $149 in 2019 and $154 in 2020. Now it’s $159 with a new tier above set to launch at $164.
The lowest ticket price on the lowest-demand days is still just $104, but those days are very few and far between. There are only two such days in November (the 2nd and 3rd) and none in December, according to Disney’s online ticketing schedule.
Di$neyland
Returns Benin Treasures
France
In a move with potential ramifications for other European museums, France is displaying 26 looted colonial-era artifacts for one last time before returning them to Benin — a decision authorities in the West African country described as “historic.”
The wooden anthropomorphic statues, royal thrones and sacred altars were pilfered by the French army 129 years ago. The French will have a final glimpse of the objects, from the collection known as the “Abomey Treasures,” in the Musée du quai Branly–Jacques Chirac from Tuesday through Sunday.
Calixte Biah, curator of the Museum of History of Ouidah, Benin, where the artefacts will first be exhibited, said the occasion was historic.
So far, however, France has only turned over one item — a sword handed to the Army Museum in Senegal. And the 26 works going to Benin represent a tiny handful of the more than 90,000 artifacts from sub-Saharan Africa alone held in French museums.
France
Doubles Down
Just a Cowboy
QAnon adherents congregated in Las Vegas over the weekend for a multi-day conference to spread misinformation about the 2020 election, Covid vaccines, and probably most everything else that was addressed at what was dubbed the For God & Country Patriot Double Down convention.
One of the speakers was “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin, and he shared some unkind words for his group’s namesake.
“We supported President Trump for his fight for justice, and for four years we cried, ‘Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock her up.’ We know she’s a criminal,” Griffin said. “What did the president tell us? ‘If I was in charge of the law, you’d be in jail.’ OK, Mr. President, you’ve been in charge of the law for four years. At the end of your four-year time, the only ones locked up were men like me, and others like me, that have stood by the president the strongest.”
The “men like me” to whom Griffin is referring are the Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol and rioted on January 6th — something that is very much illegal. Griffin is not currently locked up, but he was indeed among those who marched to the Capitol in what turned out to be a violent effort to overturn the 2020 election.
In addition to leading Cowboys for Trump, Griffin serves as a county commissioner in southern New Mexico. A political committee tried to recall him this summer alleging he was missing meetings in service of Cowboys for Trump, and that he was using the group as a money-making apparatus. Griffin survived the recall effort in September after the committee failed to get enough signatures to trigger a special election.
Just a Cowboy
Population Declines
North Atlantic Right Whale
A type of whale that is one of the rarest marine mammals in the world lost nearly 10% of its population last year, a group of scientists and ocean life advocates said on Monday.
The North Atlantic right whale numbered only 366 in 2019, and its population fell to 336 in 2020, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium said. The estimate is the lowest number in nearly two decades.
Right whales were once abundant in the waters off New England, but were decimated during the commercial whaling era due to their high concentrations of oil. They have been listed as endangered by the U.S. government for more than half a century.
The whales have suffered high mortality and poor reproduction in some recent years. There were more than 480 of the animals as recently as 2011. They're vulnerable to fatal entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with large ships, and even when they survive, they often emerge less fit and less able to feed and mate, said Scott Kraus, chair of the consortium.
The whales, which can weight 135,000 pounds (61,235 kilos) have been a focus of conservationists for generations. Recently, efforts to save the whales have resulted in new restrictions on U.S. lobster fishing, and pushback from the fishing industry about those new rules.
North Atlantic Right Whale
Olmec Site
Mexico
Aerial remote-sensing of a large region of Mexico has revealed hundreds of ancient Mesoamerican ceremonial centers, including a large one at an important site for the ancient Olmec culture that is known for its colossal stone heads.
The remote-sensing method, called lidar, pinpointed 478 ceremonial centers in areas that were home to the ancient Olmec and Maya cultures dating to roughly 1100-400 BC, researchers said on Monday. The study was the largest such survey involving ancient Mesoamerica, covering all of the state of Tabasco, southern Veracruz and bits of Chiapas, Campeche and Oaxaca.
Lidar, short for Light Detection and Ranging, uses a pulsed laser and other data obtained while flying over a site to generate three-dimensional information about the shape of surface characteristics. It penetrates vegetation and pinpoints structures that otherwise might not be seen from the air or the ground.
A large ceremonial center was spotted at the early Olmec site called San Lorenzo, which is located in Veracruz in the lowlands near the Gulf of Mexico and was at its peak from roughly 1400-1000 BC. The Olmecs represented the oldest-known major Mesoamerican civilization and are thought to have influenced later cultures, including the Maya.
It measures about 3,300 feet by 900 feet (1,000 meters by 275 meters), with 20 platforms around the edge slightly elevated above it. Its purpose remains unclear but it may have been a plaza where large numbers of people gathered for some type of ceremonies, while the platforms surrounding the plaza may have had residences, Inomata said.
Mexico
First Non-Human Primates With Categorical Rhythm
Lemurs
Research into one of the handful of primate groups known to “sing” has revealed that Indri indri lemurs have rhythm equivalent to our own. The discovery of musicality in these lemurs represents an exciting entry into the musical tree of life, enabling scientists to better map out how rhythm first evolved, and through which shared ancestors it spread. While such musical skill is well documented in humans and birds, this is the first evidence of categorical rhythm in a non-human mammal.
Categorical rhythm can be used to describe a song whose notes or beats exhibit consistent durations. It’s essentially what makes music so identifiable from other sounds and is why you can still recognize a song even if it’s being played at double speed.
To find out if this kind of rhythm was present in a group of singing lemurs, the study, published in the journal Current Biology, recorded the songs of 20 indri lemur groups over the course of 12 years. In total, their sample contained 39 animals, who would get together and sing in duets and choruses. Previous research has found young indri lemurs will purposefully sing out of sync to get their parents' attention, sneaky.
Analyses of the recordings showed the lemurs did indeed have a rhythmic universal with several trends becoming apparent throughout their singing. There were sex differences between singing style, as while males and females stuck to the same rhythm, their tempos differed. Songs exhibited something known in human music as “ritardando” whereby a song gradually slows down, and even fit the rhythmic category of arguably one of the most famous musical introductions in humans history.
Their musical talents raise questions as to how this talent makes them a better fit for their environment, and where a common ancestor (if one exists) sits in the evolutionary timeline to explain the various groups that have independently evolved the skill. According to the paper, humans’ and indris’ last common ancestor lived 77.5 million years ago, indicating that music’s roots among mammals could well run very, very deep.
Lemurs
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