from Bruce
Anecdotes
Activism
• The 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution says this: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Many people consider X-rays that show their private parts during Homeland Security screenings at airports to be a violation of their civil rights. One way to silently protest this loss of our precious freedom is to wear 4th Amendment underwear. This underwear has the 4th Amendment printed in metallic ink on undershirts and underwear. The metallic ink is supposed to make the 4th Amendment show up on airport scanners. What about children? Should strangers be allowed to look at children’s private parts at airports? Children can wear 4th Amendment underwear that says this: “'READ THE 4TH AMENDMENT, PERVERTS.” The people who invented this idea say this: “We found metallic type that could, in theory, show up on TSA scanners that would display the 4th Amendment. The clothes are designed as a silent protest against the new reality of being searched to the point where we’re basically naked. We don’t intend for this to be anything more than a thought-provoking way to fuel the debate about safety vs. civil liberties. If we sell a few items, great. But the main intention is to open more dialogue. It’s more of a conceptual piece than anything else.”
• In 2010, General Electric reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion. Last year, you reported personal income of how much? Who paid more in American federal income tax? Chances are, you did. Why? Because in 2010 General Electric paid no American federal corporate income tax, according to a 24 March 2011 New York Times article by David Kocieniewski. (Neither did Bank of America, which got a $336 billion bailout in 2009 and paid no American federal corporate income tax in 2010. These facts upset lots of patriotic Americans who pay their fair share of taxes, and some began writing or rubber-stamping messages on $1 bills. One message says, “This is $1 more than GE has paid in taxes.” Another says, “This is $1 more than the Bandits of America (BOA) paid in taxes.” One way to show that you love your country is to pay your fair share of taxes.
Advertising
• After winning $30,000 in the 1978 Burger King Open in Miami, Florida, professional bowler Randy Lightfoot was asked by a TV announcer if he would use any of his winnings to buy Whoppers at Burger King. He replied, “No,” and Burger King very quickly dropped its sponsorship of professional bowling tournaments.
• Heywood Broun once reviewed a Broadway comedy as “a triumph of dullness and vulgarity.” Immediately, the advertisements for the comedy blared “‘A triumph’ — Broun in the ‘Tribune.’”
Advice
• A man once came to Rabbi Yehudah Asad to ask his advice. The man explained that he wished to buy a run-down store, fix it up, and make his living from it. The Rabbi advised him not to buy the store. Later, a different man came to the Rabbi to ask about the same store. He said that he wished to buy the run-down store, fix it up with the help of God, and make his living from it. The Rabbi advised him to buy the store. Later, the first man came to the Rabbi and asked about the difference in advice. The Rabbi explained that the second man would ask for the help of God in fixing up the store, whereas the first man had wanted to fix up the store without the help of God. A person who has help from God has an excellent chance of making a success.
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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: "There Goes My Baby"
Album: IT’S LOVE
Artist: THE MILLWINDERS
Artist Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Info:
“The four members of Toronto's Millwinders are no strangers to the Rockabilly scene. Together since 2009, this quartet has been making a name for themselves, entertaining crowds with their traditional rockabilly, and R&B infused sound. With all four members handling vocal duties, the strength of The Millwinders truly is in the sum of its parts.”
James Henry: Vocals, guitars, electric & upright bass, percussion, handclaps
Sarah Butler: Vocals, upright bass, handclaps
Mark Sanders: Guitars, baritone guitar, backing vocals, handclaps
Teddy Fury: Drums, handclaps
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $10 (USD) for 13-track album
Genre: Rockabilly
Links:
IT’S LOVE
THE MILLWINDERS
Mark Malibu on YouTube (He Has Some Millwinders Videos)
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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Bonus Links
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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
The anticipated rain has arrived.
Announce Nominations
Golden Globes
After widespread criticism forced the organization that puts on the Golden Globes to lose its televised award show and overhaul its membership, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association nevertheless went ahead announcing nominees for film and television awards on Monday despite a skeptical entertainment industry.
Just as it’s done for many years, the HFPA gathered reporters at the Beverly Hilton to announce its picks for the 79th Golden Globes. But this time, there was no nationally televised morning-show live spot or any immediate celebrity celebrations. Hollywood mostly shrugged.
The HFPA, which usually has a handful of movie stars make their announcement, turned instead to Snoop Dogg, who read the nominees behind sunglasses and a red hat during a live stream on the Globes’ YouTube page. The majority of studios, public relations firms and A-list talent haven’t engaged much this year with the group, which dropped its usual requirement that films be submitted for consideration. Critics have said it’s too soon for the HFPA to return to business as usual. Some would rather see the Globes be gone for good.
The nominees for best picture, drama, went to Jane Campion’s gothic Western “The Power of the Dog,” Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic “Dune,” the family drama “CODA,” Reinaldo Marcus Green’s tennis biopic “King Richard” and Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical “Belfast.”
The comedy or musical picks for best picture were: Adam McKay’s apocalyptic comedy “Don’t Look Up,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s ’70s ode to San Fernando Valley “Licorice Pizza,” Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Tick, Tick ... Boom!” and Joe Wright’s “Cyrano.”
Golden Globes
Estate Sold
James Brown
James Brown’s estate has sold the late singer’s music assets to Primary Wave, the publishing and management company announced on Monday, marking the latest blockbuster deal in the booming song acquisition market.
Primary Wave didn’t comment on the financial details of the deal or how much of a stake it purchased, but a source familiar with the deal tells Rolling Stone Primary Wave bought the entirety of Brown’s publishing, master income stream, and name and likeness rights that were owned by the estate. As the New York Times reports, the deal is estimated at $90 million.
The sale is the latest development in settling 15 years of dispute over Brown’s estate. Brown left most of his assets in a will to establish scholarships for underprivileged children in South Carolina and Georgia, but contention among Brown’s heirs — who were given only Brown’s possessions and stage costumes, along with $2 million earmarked for Brown’s grandchildren’s education — delayed that fund.
Another complication in the will involved Brown’s marriage to singer Tommie Rae Hynie, who was already married to another man when she married Brown. South Carolina’s supreme court ruled in 2020 that she was never officially Brown’s wife.
With the estate sale, Brown’s scholarship fund is that much closer to coming to fruition. As the Times reported, the money from the sale will fund the scholarships, and Primary Wave’s founder and CEO Larry Mestel told the paper the company will contribute small percentages of earnings from future deals from Brown’s music to the scholarships. Still, Adele Pope, a former executor of Brown’s will, has an ongoing lawsuit against Brown’s estate. And Russell Bauknight, the fiduciary for the James Brown Estate and Trust, filed another against Pope. Until those suits are resolved, the Times reported, the scholarships can’t move forward.
James Brown
Show Ending
Mehmet
U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz (R-Carpetbagger) will end his “Dr. Oz” syndicated talk show next month, and producers will replace it with a cooking show featuring his daughter.
The “Dr. Oz” show, in its 13th season, will air its last episode on Jan. 14, Sony Pictures Television said on Monday.
The heart surgeon and talk show host is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania. Television stations in Philadelphia, New York City and Cleveland that are seen in Pennsylvania had already taken “Dr. Oz” off the air, for fear that the Federal Communications Commission’s “equal time” rules would allow rival candidates to seek similar air time.
In many parts of the country, “Dr. Oz” will be replaced by “The Good Dish,” a combination talk-cooking show where hosts Daphne Oz, Gail Simmons and Jamika Pessoa will serve up a dish of the day. Producers boasted it would be “the most fun you can have in the kitchen without having to do the dishes.”
Mehmet
Dairy Conglomerate Dragged For Ad
Korea
A South Korean milk conglomerate has been embroiled in a social media firestorm for running an ad depicting women as cows.
In a 37-second advertisement from Seoul Milk, one of the biggest milk brands in South Korea, a man totes a massive video camera as he treks through the woods to an idyllic grove. Arriving in this forested area, he secretly films women drinking clear water from a stream and stretching in a field.
The ad opens with the man narrating his path through the forest, saying: "We finally succeeded in capturing them on camera at a pristine location where nature is preserved in its purity."
The filmmaker then accidentally snaps a twig and startles his subjects — who have morphed from women into mooing cows.
The commercial ends with the tagline: "Clean water, organic feed, 100% pure Seoul Milk. Organic milk from an organic ranch in the pleasant nature of Cheongjang."
Korea
We're Number 1!
Covid-19
The United States passed another grim Covid-19 milestone Monday, as more than 800,000 Americans have now died from the virus that's plagued the country for nearly two years.
There have been at least 800,156 confirmed deaths traced to the coronavirus, according to a rolling tally by NBC News.
That's more than in any other nation, and more than the population of Boston, Washington, D.C., or Seattle.
The previous 100,000 jump in deaths happened in 119 days, while the jump from 700,000 to 800,000 happened in 74, according to NBC News analysis.
According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seven-day death average in the U.S. was 1,092, a 27.8 percent increase from the week before.
Covid-19
Dystopian 'Dash for Cash'
South Dakota
Teachers in South Dakota were pitted against each other in a "Dash for Cash" event, where they knelt on mats and tried to grab as many dollar bills as possible within five minutes.
A total $5,000 pot of cash donated by a local Sioux Falls mortgage lender CU Mortgage Direct, was up for grabs. Videos showed the teachers crawling across a mat with the dollar bills strewn across it, stuffing the cash into their clothes, and grabbing as much as they could.
The event, held on Saturday at the Sioux Falls Stampede junior ice hockey game at the Denny Sanford Premier Center, was first reported by local publication Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Ten teachers fought to snatch as much of the prize money as possible, with the cash going to their classroom funds.
"To entertain hockey fans in Sioux Falls, they have teachers run across ice in a desperate scramble for $ to equip their classrooms. We're just a few sharpened sticks away from public education 'Squid Game,'" tweeted CNN anchor Bill Weir.
Poor funding has left teachers regularly asking for donations for classroom supplies. In 2019, teachers started appealing to strangers for funds via the viral hashtag #clearthelists. During this campaign, people rallied to crowdfund cash to help teachers pay for items on their back-to-school wish list.
South Dakota
Doomsday Glacier
Antarctica
There’s nothing like sitting through a series of presentations about all the ways one of the most imperiled glaciers on Earth to get the blood flowing.
The American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting kicked off with a splash of news about Thwaites Glacier. If there’s one Antarctic glacier you need to care about, it’s this one. (Though, really why choose one?) Dubbed the “Doomsday Glacier,” Thwaites is in extremely rough shape and a key portion of it could lose its grip on the bedrock by the end of this decade. That, in case it’s not clear, is bad.
“We’re watching a world do things we haven’t seen before,” Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science, said on a press call.
What’s happening to Thwaites Glacier is a disaster of epic proportions, and researchers have been racing to chronicle it. The glacier spills down from the West Antarctic ice sheet and extends over the Amundsen Sea. To get a grasp on what’s happening at Thwaites, researchers have undertaken a multi-year study that probes the glacier from above and below and even uses satellites to gauge just what’s going on.
The results have been ominous. The scientists said their measurements show parts of the floating ice shelf are receding at a rate of 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) per year. “It’s a bit unsettling, Scambos said, especially standing on the ice looking at the ice sheet. The horizon is moving at you a mile a year.”
Antarctica
Massive Blue Gemstone
Sri Lanka
A gem company in Sri Lanka has unveiled a rare and massive gemstone weighing 683 pounds (310 kilograms) that has been certified as one of the biggest corundums ever found in the country.
Sri Lanka's National Gem and Jewelry Authority says it has done a series of gemological tests on five samples taken from the rock.
“To our knowledge this specimen is indeed a rare specimen and not recorded in the geological literature," read an authentication letter given by the authority to the owners who unveiled the stone on Sunday.
When the outer layer was removed for inspection, the interior showed a silky blue patchy appearance, the letter said, suggesting the stone is a blue sapphire.
Sri Lanka
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