from Bruce
Anecdotes
Food
• George Burns was Jewish, and his wife, Gracie Allen, was Catholic. They raised their adopted children, Ronald and Sandy, Catholic. Every Friday, the Burns family ate fish, as Catholics at that time did. Sandy did not like fish, so she ate elsewhere on Fridays and told people that she was a Catholic only six days a week.
• Theatrical producer Jed Harris once made an appointment to meet playwright Charles MacArthur at a restaurant for lunch, but showed up 10 hours late, just as the restaurant was closing. He asked Mr. MacArthur if he had been waiting long. Mr. MacArthur replied, “No, I just got here a couple of hours ago myself.”
• How much would the best meal in the world cost? How about $4,000? That’s how much Parisian chef Denis Lahana charged Craig Claiborne and a friend for a meal consisting of 31 dishes, 9 wines, cognac, and Calvados. (The bill was paid by American Express, which used the meal as a publicity stunt.)
• Gioacchino Rossini was a big eater. Unfortunately, he once dined at the home of a host who served small portions. After the dinner of small portions had been served, his host said, “I do hope you will soon do us the honor of dining here again.” Mr. Rossini replied, “Certainly. Let’s start now.”
• Ballerina Marie Taglioni was so beloved that a group of ballet lovers in Russia boiled her toe shoes, then ate them. In her youth, Ms. Taglioni had been round-shouldered, and one of her dance teachers said that she didn’t know “what to do with that little hunchback.”
• Shortly after coming to the United States for the first time, choreographer George Balanchine fell ill. He recovered, apparently helped by a high-calorie, high-cholesterol diet. All the eggs, cream, and butter he ate resulted in a weight gain of 30 pounds in 30 days.
Friends
• Jack Benny was George Burns’ best friend and best audience: Mr. Burns could always make Mr. Benny laugh. Once, Mr. Benny complained about not sleeping well. Mr. Burns asked, “How did you sleep the night before?” Mr. Benny replied, “The night before I slept great.” Mr. Burns then advised, “Try sleeping every other night.” And once, Mr. Burns said absolutely nothing, and Mr. Benny started laughing. Mr. Burns asked why Mr. Benny was laughing; after all, he (Mr. Burns) had not said a word. Mr. Benny replied, “I know. But you didn’t say it on purpose.”
• Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein were not only professor and student, but also friends. Still, Mr. Wittgenstein could be an exasperating student. For example, Mr. Russell once said of him, “He thinks nothing empirical is knowable.” Mr. Russell had good reason for making this statement. Mr. Wittgenstein had refused to acknowledge the truth of the statement “There is no rhinoceros in this lecture room” — even after Mr. Russell had looked all through the lecture room for a rhinoceros, even checking under tables and chairs.
Games
• Both Jim Backus and Alan Hale, who played Thurston Howell III and the Skipper on Gilligan’s Island, were avid golfers. Once, they made a bet about who could drive a golf ball further, so they started hitting golf balls on the CBS back lot. They were too lazy to walk out to see who had driven the ball further, so they argued about it, with Mr. Backus claiming, “My ball went at least 10 yards further than yours.” Just then, a security guard came up to them and announced that one of the golf balls had gone through the window of a car in the parking lot. Mr. Backus immediately pointed to Mr. Hale and said, “He outdrove me by a mile!”
• An Athenian once saw Aesop, teller of fables, entertaining some children and playing games with them. Aesop was laughing and enjoying himself. The Athenian, however, did not approve and told Aesop that grown-ups should not waste their time in such a way. Aesop then pointed to the Athenian’s bow and asked if sometimes he unstrung it. “Yes,” the Athenian replied, “if a bow is never unstrung, it will lose its elasticity and become useless.” Aesop said, “The same is true of people.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
Boredom is Anti-Life: 250 Anecdotes and Stories — Buy
Boredom is Anti-Life: 250 Anecdotes and Stories — Buy The Paperback
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Stasi Romeo"
Single: This is a one-sided single
Artist: Secret Agent
Artist Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Info:
“SECRET AGENT is a Psy Spy Instro [Instrumental] Surf band from Mexico City.”
“Suspected agents: RICK DELIZ (Guitar), RACK AGUIRRE (Bass), ALIS EMERSON (Drums).”
“Modern Surf grooves with Psychedelic Rock, Punk, Rockabilly & Spaghetti Western twang.”
“Been spotted touring parts of Mexico, Puerto Rico, United States and South America. They execute modern Surf grooves with Psychedelic Rock, Punk, Rockabilly & Spaghetti Western twang, influenced by Spy and Western film music, The Ventures, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd, Ramones, Dick Dale, Lalo Schifrin and Ennio Morricone.”
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE)
Genre: Instrumental Surf
Links:
“Stasi Romeo”
Secret Agent on Bandcamp
Secret Agent on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
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
Stephen Suggests
Mullets
Mullets originated in Native American tribes in Northwest Oregon
“He wore it like this despite the pressure from white settlers to cut it. For him it was not just about dissent and defiance but it was also a collective expression of nationhood.” In other words: Mullets are back, baby.
New Venture
Michael Egan
Part 4
Bruce’s Stories
Of course, freshman students don’t want other, older students to know that they are new to campus. One of my students carried a campus map in her backpack for her first few days at Ohio University. Whenever she got lost, she would find a building, go into the women’s restroom, go into a stall and shut the door, and then look at the map and find out where she was. If anyone had seen her consult the map, that person would know that she was a freshman.
Speaking of freshmen, one of my students was from out of state and did not know even a single person in Ohio. She spoke to her sister about being worried that she wouldn’t make any friends at Ohio University. Her sister told her, “Don’t worry! You’ll be fine! Just don’t talk to strangers!”
Each summer, lots of incoming students go through freshman orientation at Ohio University. They stay in dorms, go on tours of the campus, and visit the library, among many other things. After the library tour, students get free Freezy-Pops, but librarians tell them that a student first has to ask a question before the members of the tour group get Freezy-Pops. Of course, this encourages students to ask questions about the library; however, once an incoming student, a young woman of wit and intelligence, asked, “Can I have a Freezy-Pop?”
Other students, and their families, are people of wit and intelligence.
When my student Molly Gedeon was still a fetus, her parents had discussions about what to name her, but each parent thought that they had picked a different name. One parent thought she would be named Monica, and the other parent thought she would be named Molly. The name Monica appeared on her birth certificate, but her father insisted on calling her Molly. This created some confusion with friends and teachers because her mother called her Monica and her father called her Molly. On her eighteenth birthday, Monica had her name legally changed to Molly. Her father now calls her Monica.
One of my students was a United States Marine, where he had to take a wilderness survival course that taught him such things as bugs are a very good source of protein if you are trapped without food behind enemy lines. As part of the course, my student and some other soldiers parachuted into the wilderness, where they made good use of their problem-solving skills. As they parachuted into the wilderness, they looked around and noticed a road in the distance. Once they dropped to the earth, they used their compasses to find the road, then they walked into a town and ate pizza.
By the way, when David Bruce, one of the co-authors of this book, was in Navy boot camp, he and the other recruits were sometimes given the order to “Groucho March”! When that happened, he and the other recruits would bend forward, put their hands behind their backs, and in unison do an imitation of comedian Groucho Marx’ famous stooped-over walk.
When one of my female students was very young, she had a sister who would sometimes become very naughty and very angry. Once, she was naughty at the dinner table and was sent to bed early while the family continued to eat. My future student heard disturbing noises, thought about a recent nature lesson she had learned at school, and said to her parents, “Mom, Dad, a wolf is in the house.” They laughed, and her mother told her, “No, dear, that’s just your sister howling with rage.”
One of my students was named Rachel. While very young, she attended a day care center that was run by a couple of Jewish women who would say a short Jewish prayer at lunchtime. Rachel learned the prayer, and then she asked her parents at home if she could say a prayer at suppertime. She then recited the Jewish prayer. Her parents were astonished at hearing her speak Hebrew, and she told them, “I figured out our secret. Rachel is a nice Jewish name, and we’re Jewish!” (Actually, they were Catholic.)
When they were children, Barbara G. and her sister used to create plays and perform them in front of their parents, who of course were wildly enthusiastic. Unfortunately, after Barbara and her sister grew up, their parents told them how much they dreaded watching those plays.
Kids Are Not Always Angels — Buy
Kids Are Not Always Angels — Buy The Paperback
Kids Are Not Always Angels — Buy Kindle
Kids Are Not Always Angels — Buy Apple
Kids Are Not Always Angels — Buy Barnes and Noble
Kids Are Not Always Angels — Buy Kobo
Kids Are Not Always Angels — Buy Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PDF
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com
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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
Still sunny and extra toasty.
Producer Wins Arbitration
Kevin Spacey
An arbitrator has ordered Kevin Spacey and his companies to pay nearly $31 million to MRC, the production company behind “House of Cards,” after finding that Spacey breached his contract by violating the company’s sexual harassment policy.
MRC severed its relationship with Spacey and scrapped a season of the show in 2017, after multiple people came forward to allege a pattern of sexually predatory conduct.
MRC filed a petition on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court to confirm the arbitration award, after the award was upheld in a confidential appeal.
Spacey and his companies, M. Profitt Productions and Trigger Street Productions, were ordered to pay $29.5 million in damages plus $1.2 million in attorneys’ fees and $235,000 in costs.
MRC filed the confidential arbitration demand in January 2019, seeking to recover from Spacey the costs of scrapping the season and starting over. Spacey filed a counterclaim, accusing the production company of wrongfully terminating his contract and breaching its obligations to “pay or play” under the agreement.
Kevin Spacey
Musicians Set World’s Record
Venezuela
Thousands of Venezuelan musicians, most of them children and adolescents, have earned the title of the world’s largest orchestra.
The record was set by 8,573 musicians. Guinness World Records in a video released Saturday announced that the musicians, all connected to the country’s network of youth orchestras, earned the designation with a performance a week earlier of Tchaikovsky’s “Slavonic March.”
The musicians, ranging in age from 12 to 77, attempted the record during a patriotic concert at a military academy in the capital of Caracas. To set the record, more than 8,097 had to be tallied playing at the same time during a five-minute period of Tchaikovsky’s piece.
The network of orchestras known as El Sistema, or The System, assembled some 12,000 musicians for the concert. The repertoire included “Venezuela” by Pablo Herrero and Jose Luis Armenteros, the South American country’s national anthem and Pedro Gutierrez’s “Alma Llanera,” which Venezuelans consider their unofficial anthem.
Venezuela
Expensive Jewelry
Tiffany
Tiffany & Co. just unveiled its newest most-expensive bling ever.
"The World's Fair Necklace," unveiled in Dubai on Sunday, features a stunning 180 carats of diamonds set in platinum. Its centerpiece is an 80-carat oval, flawless, D-color (highest grade and virtually colorless) "Empire Diamond," named for the iconic jeweler's hometown. The Empire Diamond was ethically sourced in Botswana, cut and polished in Israel and set in Tiffany's workshop in New York City.
The good news for jewelry lovers with deep pockets is that this necklace is available for sale — unlike Tiffany's famous 128.54 carat "Tiffany Diamond," which Tiffany said is priceless and not for purchase.
The luxury retailer has not yet put a price on The World's Fair Necklace, but industry experts estimate its value to be between $20 million and $30 million.
Tiffany
Lifetime Supply
Offer
Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted last week of two deadly shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has a fan in outspoken rocker Ted Nugent (R-Draft Dodger).
Nugent, a rock star in the 1970s and ‘80s and now a staunch conservative who has been a vocal supporter for gun rights, said in a recent podcast that Rittenhouse “is exactly what the founding fathers wanted all Americans to be.”
“He did the right thing,” Nugent said of the shootings. “He neutralized evil forces that threatened to end his life.”
The firearm techniques were applauded by Nugent, who said Rittenhouse performed “so tactfully, so efficiently.”
Nugent took it a step further in the “Rock of Nations with Dave Kinchen” podcast. The rocker said he wants to provide Rittenhouse “a lifetime supply of ammunition” and wants to start a gun training class in Rittenhouse’s name.
Offer
'Authoritarian Tendencies'
'Backsliding Democracy'
The US was listed as a "backsliding democracy" for the first time in an annual report on the state of global democracy from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a Stockholm-based organization.
"The year 2020 has seen the world besieged by a pandemic that has claimed millions of lives. The stability that most of the world enjoyed after the Cold War has perhaps been permanently disrupted, and all nations are struggling to adjust to these abrupt changes," the report said. "Significantly, the United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a significant number of steps on the democratic scale."
The International IDEA report ranks countries as democracies, hybrid, and authoritarian regimes based on a number of democratic indicators tracked in roughly 160 countries over the course of a half century. Countries that qualify as democracies based on the report's methodology can also be labeled as backsliding, eroding, and/or fragile.
This year's study, which looked at trends across 2020 and 2021, found that over a quarter of the global population now lives in democratically backsliding countries. "Fully fledged authoritarian regimes are also growing in number, and their leaders are acting ever more brazenly," the report said.
The report raised particular concerns about anti-democratic behavior from former President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up), attributing the fatal January 6 insurrection at the Capitol to his unprecedented refusal to accept the 2020 election results.
'Backsliding Democracy'
'Was A Man'
Al Gore
A federal judge overseeing a criminal case for one the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 swiped at former President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up) for spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election and refusing to admit defeat, according to a CNN report.
During a plea hearing on Monday, DC District Judge Reggie Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, slammed Trump by pointing to the 2000 election between Bush and then-Vice President Al Gore, who narrowly lost the race after a contentious legal battle.
"Al Gore had a better case to argue than Mr. Trump, but he was a man about what happened to him," Walton said Monday, per CNN. "He accepted it and walked away."
The defendant Adam Johnson, a 36-year-old Florida man who was photographed carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's lectern, pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building, according to CNN.
"What concerns me, sir, is that you were gullible enough to come to Washington, DC, from Florida based on a lie and the person who inspired you to do what you do is still making those statements, and my concern is that you are gullible enough to do it again," Walton said Monday during the plea hearing, per CNN.
Al Gore
Inside A Chrysalis
Butterfly Wings
One of the best-known poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins opens with a tribute to the phenomenon of iridescence. It's represented by the colorful wings of kingfishers and dragonflies in Hopkins' poem, but iridescence can also be found in the wings of cicadas and butterflies, in certain species of beetle, and in the brightly colored feathers of male peacocks. Now, a team of researchers at MIT have captured on video the unique structural growth of butterfly wings—continuously, as a butterfly develops inside its chrysalis—for the very first time. The researchers described their findings in a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Butterfly wings have long fascinated scientists, ever since the first documentation of the growth of said wings back in 1938. We now have much more advanced imaging techniques, shedding further light on this complex process. "Previous studies provide compelling snapshots at select stages of development; unfortunately, they don't reveal the continuous timeline and sequence of what happens as scale structures grow," said co-author Mathias Kolle, a mechanical engineer at MIT. "We needed to see more to start understanding it better."
The team raised batches of painted lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) in the laboratory, carefully monitoring the larvae housed in individual containers until the larvae molted their skins. Once the caterpillars were encased in a chrysalis and the final metamorphosis into butterflies had begun, the researchers set about recording the process. They relied upon a couple of surgical approaches to get an inside view of the wing development in the pupae.
First, the researchers exposed the forewing by removing part of the cuticle with a scalpel; the pupae were anesthetized for this process. Then they placed a thin glass coverslip over the excised area with a bioadhesive and sealed it with a handheld dental light-curing lamp.
Butterfly Wings
Maryborough Meteorite
Australia
In 2015, David Hole was prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, .
Armed with a metal detector, he discovered something out of the ordinary – a very heavy, reddish rock resting in some yellow clay.
He took it home and tried everything to open it, sure that there was a gold nugget inside the rock – after all, Maryborough is in the Goldfields region, where the Australian gold rush peaked in the 19th century.
To break open his find, Hole tried a rock saw, an angle grinder, a drill, even dousing the thing in acid. However, not even a sledgehammer could make a crack. That's because what he was trying so hard to open was no gold nugget. As he found out years later, it was a rare meteorite.
Australia
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
