• As a young schoolboy, Samuel Langhorne Clemens got into trouble with his teacher, and she sent him outside to find a switch that she could use to hit him. Young Samuel returned with a wood shaving that would definitely not hurt if it were used as a switch. Later in life, Sam became better known to the world as the celebrated humorist Mark Twain.
• When poet Robert Frost was growing up, his favorite book was Tom Brown’s Schooldays, which was one of the books that his mother read out loud to her children. Young Robert loved the book so much that he wanted his mother to read and reread the other chapters, but he wouldn’t let her read the ending. Why? He wanted the book to never end.
• Early in E.E. Cummings’ life, his mother, Rebecca, felt that he might become a great poet, and she wrote down his very earliest poems. For example, his first-ever poem — written at age three! — is this: “Oh my little birdie oh / With his little toe toe toe!” According to E.E., “I did not decide to become a poet — I was always writing poetry.”
• The grandparents of J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, owned a grocery store. Therefore, after the store had closed for the day, young J.K. and her sister were able to play “grocery store” with real food — as long as they put everything back when they were done playing.
Christmas
• The parents of children’s book author Avi are Jewish, although they were not especially observant when Avi and his siblings were growing up. True, the family would light candles at Hanukkah, but they also kept a Christmas tree in their home. That is, they kept a Christmas tree unless Avi’s maternal grandfather was visiting. He absolutely refused to enter their home when a Christmas tree was inside, so when he visited in the winter, the Christmas tree was kept outside. In addition, during Passover, Avi’s father would read a book of his own choosing, hiding it inside the Haggadah, which contains the story of Passover. (As an adult, Avi was an atheist.)
• In Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries books, the American mother of Princess Mia of Genovia is an artist whose mother puts up a dead celebrity tree each Christmas. The tree is a regular tree, but the decorations are photographs of celebrities who have died that year.
Clothing
• Beatrix Potter wore sturdy clothing because of her work on the farms she owned. The wool in her clothing came from the sheep she owned, and she wore clogs in the fields. However, the sturdy clothing was hardly fashionable. A tramp she met once on a road as she walked to a pasture during a cold and windy day thought that she was homeless like himself and greeted her with, “It’s a sad weather for the likes o’ thee and me!
• MAD magazine publisher William M. Gaines was either overweight or grossly overweight throughout his adult life. Whenever he became grossly overweight, he would diet until he became merely overweight. Because his weight kept fluctuating, whenever he went shopping and found a shirt or pair of pants that he really liked, he would buy it in several sizes so that no matter what he weighed, he could wear it.
Comic Books
• Marvel comic-book maven Stan Lee always had a sense of humor. For the cover of the 17th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, he wrote this warning: “If you don’t say this is one of the greatest issues you’ve ever read, we may never talk to you again!” He also started a Marvel fan club, but at first he revealed only the initials — not the name — of the fan club: MMMS. He allowed readers to try to guess what the initials stood for, but no one got the right answer: the Merry Marvel Marching Society. Mr. Lee’s letters pages in his comic books were also entertaining and informal rather than stuffy. The letters written to him started with “Hi, Stan” instead of “Dear Editor,” and Mr. Lee always responded with “Hey,” followed by the writer’s name. He also threw around a lot of phrases such as “Hang loose” and “’Nuff said.” When these phrases started to appear on the letters pages of non-Marvel comic books, Mr. Lee started using “Excelsior!” — Latin for “Higher!”
With 33 albums and singles that were certified Gold and Platinum in the U.S by RIAA, and a beloved entertainer of his era, he was born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. By what name is he known professionally?
The United States of America is the world's largest producer of hops, the flowers of female Humulus lupulus plants. The primary use of hops grown in the United States is in brewing. In 2019, the U.S. accounted for 40% of world hop production and 39% of world hop acreage.
Hop farms in the Pacific Northwest region comprise approximately 96% of total United States hop acreage. One acre of hops consists of 889 plants, each of which can produce upwards of two pounds of cones. Hop acreage is categorized by alpha, aroma, and dual purpose type and further divided by varietals. Since 2011, aroma varietal acreage has increased at a rapid rate, likely due to the popularization of American IPA beer styles and an increased demand for new aroma profiles in beer.
The United States exports hops worldwide. The largest importers of U.S. hops include Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Brazil.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
The United States.
Cal in Vermont wrote:
The US, Germany, or Ethiopia. Maybe Google is hung over this morning.
Billy in Cypress said:
The United States of America is the world's largest producer of hops, and we are also the leader in COVID19 cases and deaths.
Alan J answered:
The United States.
Mac Mac replied:
Germany
Randall responded:
The good ol' USA
zorch said:
The United States.
Deborah, the Master Gardener wrote:
I was going with Germany, but the Interwebz tells me it’s Ethiopia. Say what?
David of Moon Valley replied:
hmmmm...
…we have a monday morning tossup here, Marty….atlasbig says Ethiopia and beermaverick says the used-to-be good ol’ USofA….hmmmmm…what a quandry…let’s check with the judges on this one…my good friend and finals judge wikipal says it’s the Etats Unis soi’m going with the USA… (and my backyard hops produce a real nice crop too so i think these finally threw the scale over…)
Jacqueline responded:
The USA
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame wrote:
The answer appears to be The United States of America, but some online sites disagree.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
The United States of America is the world's largest producer of hops, the flowers of female Humulus lupulus plants.
Daniel in The City answered:
USA
Dave responded:
The United States.
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) replied:
Well according to the interwebs the answer is the U.S., unless of course its Germany. And speaking of females in the U.S. my granddaughters are very thrilled with our new vice-president Kamala Harris.(so am I)
mj took the day off.
Stephen F took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
John I from Hawai`i took the day off.
Michelle in AZ took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
Rosemary in Columbus took the day off.
DJ Useo took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took the day off.
Roy, the Antifa Sergeant Major in Tyler, TX took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
Kevin in Washington DC took the day off.
-pgw took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
Angelo D took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
Roy the (now retired) hoghead (aka 'hoghed') ( Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid. ~Frank Zappa ) took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Heard it was flooded with prank calls. Here are several videos of calls people made--heaven help me, but I totally cracked up over the Anderson Cooper one:
So brisk our spoiled little so cal kitties had no interest in venturing outside.
Tonight, Tuesday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a RERUN'FBI', then a FRESH'The FBI Declassified'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Hugh Grant and Sturgill Simpson.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are Thomas Middleditch and Black Pumas.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'The Voice', followed by a FRESH'This Is Us', then a FRESH'Transplant'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Vince Vaughn, Lorraine Bracco, and Gus Dapperton.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Demi Lovato, Edgar Ramirez, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Carter McLean.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 10/23/19) are Justin Hartley and Lea Michele.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'The Bachelorette', followed by the FRESH'Country Strong 2020: Countdown To The CMA Awards: An ABC News Special'.
Jimmy Kimmel are Gillian Anderson, Emmanuel Acho, and Ty Dolla $ign.
The CW offers a RERUN'Swamp Thing', followed by a RERUN'Tell Me A Story'.
Faux has a FRESH'Cosmos: Possible Worlds', followed by a FRESH'NeXt'.
MY recycles an old 'Chicago PD', followed by another old 'Chicago PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow', followed by the movie 'Star Trek'.
BBC -
[1:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SAMARITAN SNARE
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - UP THE LONG LADDER
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - MANHUNT
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE EMISSARY
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - PEAK PERFORMANCE
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - CHIMERA
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - INTER ARMA ENIM SILENT LEGES
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - BADDA-BING, BADDA-BING
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - PENUMBRA
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - 'TIL DEATH DO US PART
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SHADES OF GRAY
[1:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - EVOLUTION
[2:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE ENSIGNS OF COMMAND
[3:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE SURVIVORS
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE BONDING
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - BOOBY TRAP
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE ENEMY
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - THE PRICE
[8:00PM] THE KARATE KID
[11:00PM] THE KARATE KID PART II
[1:30AM] THE KARATE KID
[4:30AM] DOCTOR WHO - THE WOMAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has 3 hours of old 'Chrisley Knows Best', followed by a FRESH'Don't Be Tardy ...', then a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
Comedy Central has an hour of old 'The Office', 2 hours of old 'Tosh.0', followed by a FRESH'Tosh.0', and another 'Tosh.0'.
Scheduled on a FRESHThe Daily Show it's TBA.
FX has the movie 'Daddy's Home', followed by the movie 'The Hangover Part III'.
History has 'The Curse Of Oak Island', followed by a FRESH'The Curse Of Oak Island: Drilling Down', then a FRESH'The Curse Of Oak Island'.
IFC -
[6:00am - 7:00am] Parks And Recreation
[7:30am] Monty Python And The Holy Grail
[9:30am] Bad Words
[11:30am] Bachelorette
[1:30pm] The Birdcage
[4:00pm] Pretty In Pink
[6:00pm] This Is 40
[9:00pm] Date Night
[11:00pm] This Is 40
[2:00am] Date Night
[4:00am] Pretty In Pink (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:00am - 9:30am] gomer pyle, u.s.m.c.
[10:00am - 11:30am] hogan's heroes
[11:30am] hogan's heroes
[12:00pm] two mules for sister sara
[2:30pm] high plains drifter
[5:00pm] heartbreak ridge
[8:00pm] captain phillips
[11:00pm] captain phillips
[2:00am] columbo
[3:45am] columbo
[5:30am] the andy griffith show (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'Journey To The Center Of The Earth', followed by the movie 'Noah'.
While Sacha Baron Cohen is thrilled Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, the “Borat” comedian is quickly moving on to his next target: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Baron Cohen reacted to Trump’s defeat by posting a photograph to social media of Trump and Zuckerberg together with a caption that reads: “One down, one to go.” In a 2019 keynote speech, Baron Cohen called Facebook “the greatest propaganda machine in history.”
Baron Cohen wrote in an essay last month ahead of the “Borat 2” opening that Trump “had a dutiful ally” and “willing accomplice” in Zuckerberg and Facebook, a social media platform which has taken advantage of “Americans [who] are especially vulnerable to lies and conspiracies.” The comedian added that Facebook is “a megaphone that history’s worst autocrats could only dream of. Its algorithm deliberately amplifies content that generates more engagement…Not surprisingly, most days the top 10 Facebook posts are overwhelmingly from right-wing pundits and outlets.”
In recent years, Baron Cohen has called out on numerous occasions the role Facebook has played in spreading Holocaust conspiracy theories and elevating the voices of Holocaust deniers. “Once a fringe belief held by Neo-Nazis, this conspiracy theory has become widespread due to its prevalence on social media,” Baron Cohen noted in a “Borat 2” outtake. “Facebook for example only removed Holocaust deniers 10 days prior to the release of [the “Borat” sequel].”
In a more optimistic reaction to the election, Baron Cohen posted: “The candidates campaigned. The people spoke. The vote is clear. President Biden will be sworn in on January 20. Democracy works.” The comedian even took a jab at Trump by calling back to a joke he made October 24 thanking “racist buffoon” Trump for providing “Borat 2” with free publicity. Baron Cohen jokingly offered Trump a job at the time, an offer that has now been rescinded.
Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto cut off a Trump campaign press conference in which Kayleigh McEnany (R-Liar) alleged “illegal voting” and fraud but did not offer proof to back it up.
Trump’s team has been making claims that the election is being stolen from him, but it is part of an effort to sow doubt about the results, even though networks have projected Joe Biden the winner and he is likely to win the electoral and popular vote by substantial margins.
McEnany is the White House Press Secretary, a government paid position, but she has been appearing as a spokesperson for the campaign as well. “We want every legal vote to be counted, and we want every illegal vote to be…”
Cavuto then cut in. “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I just think we have to be very clear. She’s charging the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting, unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this,” he said.
That’s an explosive charge to make, that the other side is effectively rigging and cheating. If she does bring proof of that we will take you back.”
Wheel of Fortune is getting a celebrity spinoff series for the first time at ABC.
The network has ordered a series of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, which will see the long-running game show make its primetime debut.
The spin-off will be hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White and will see celebrity contestants come spin the wheel and solve word puzzles for a chance to win up to $1M with all of the prize money going to a charity of their choice.
It is the latest daytime game show to score its own celebrity spin-off following the likes of The Price Is Right at Night and Let’s Make A Deal, which also recently secured its first celebrity spin-off this season.
CBS’ slate of reality shows is set to become more diverse after the network introduced a series of representation targets.
The network has introduced an edict that 50% of its casts for its unscripted shows must be Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC) and it has committed that at least 25% of its annual unscripted development budget must go towards creators and producers that are BIPOC.
This follows hard targets introduced for its scripted programs earlier this summer and a deal to create programming with the NAACP.
The unscripted targets, similar to its scripted quotas, will kick in for the 2021-22 broadcast season. The network added that it will develop future initiatives with its production partners to expand diversity in all of the creative and production teams involved in making an unscripted series.
A new report released Monday documents the use of incendiary weapons and their horrific human cost on civilians over the past decade in conflict zones like Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip and Syria, with Human Rights Watch and Harvard’s human rights clinic calling on nations to close loopholes in international law and stigmatize their use.
The report says the weapons, which may include white phosphorus, inflict excruciating burns and can lead to infection, shock and organ failure. Often, medics also do not have adequate resources in war zones to assist victims with serious burns.
White phosphorus burns until it’s gone. It can burn right down to the bone, leaving victims in chronic pain and with permanent disabilities and scarring.
The report by Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic notes that burn victims sometimes need to be intubated in order for intensive wounds to be treated and dead skin scraped away. They may also require multiple surgeries and intense physical therapy to regain mobility.
In one incident detailed in the report, an 8-year-old Afghan girl named Razia sustained burns on up to 45% of her body from a white phosphorus attack outside of Kabul in 2009. Razia's family had just finished breakfast when two white phosphorus shells crashed into their mud-brick home in Afghanistan’s northeastern Kapisa province. Fire and smoke consumed the house, immediately killing two of Razia’s sisters as they slept side by side.
A donated human heart that was involved in a helicopter crash on Friday while being carried for transplant surgery was also dropped on the floor by a medic during the chaos, it has now emerged.
A dramatic video capturing the rooftop crash showed the helicopter ambulance losing control for a few seconds as the pilot tried to land the 8-seater craft on the rooftop at Keck Hospital in Boyle Heights, however, it veered off and landed at the edge of it and fell on its side.
The three people in the helicopter at the time survived the crash, with the pilot sustaining only minor injuries and two passengers walking away declining treatment.
Video of the scene after the crash showed firefighters using hydraulic tools to cut open the crashed helicopter to retrieve the heart – but the dramatic rescue didn’t end there.
A medic who was handed the organ and tried to make his way quickly inside the hospital could be seen tripping over the debris from the crash, sending the heart falling to the floor. A firefighters helps him gather it back up before heading down into the building.
Regularly eating chilli peppers could provide previously unrecognised health benefits helping to lengthen people’s lives, a new study suggests.
Chilli eaters may have a “significantly reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or cancer”, according to preliminary research which will be presented this week at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2020.
While previous research has found consuming chillies has an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer and blood-glucose regulating effect due to capsaicin – which gives chilli its characteristic hot taste, the study is the first large scale effort to compare reported consumption of chilli with disease mortality.
In order to assess the effects of chilli pepper on longevity, researchers screened 4,729 studies from five leading global health databases, these were: Ovid, Cochrane, Medline, Embase and Scopus.
A 100-year-old message sent by carrier pigeon and thought to be written by a Prussian soldier has been discovered by a couple out walking.
The small aluminium capsule was found in a field in Ingersheim, France, containing detailed military manoeuvres in barely legible German handwriting.
The letter is addressed to a superior officer, Dominique Jardy, curator of the Linge Museum at Orbey in eastern France, said.
The message, as reported by French outlet 20 minutes, says: “Platoon Potthof receives fire as they reach the western border of the parade ground, platoon Potthof takes up fire and retreats after a while.
The date of the message is unclear but it is thought to have been written in either 1910 or 1916.
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said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
