The first opera specifically composed for TV in America was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, and broadcast live as the debut production of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. What is the title of this one act opera?
In the UK and France it's named "Aubergine", while in South Asia and South Africa it's called "Brinjal". By what name is this member of the nightshade family known in the US?
Eggplant (USA, Australia, New Zealand, anglophone Canada), aubergine (UK, Ireland, France, Quebec) or brinjal (South Asia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Solanum melongena is grown worldwide for its edible fruit.
In 2016, global production of eggplants was 51.3 million tonnes. That year, almost 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres) were devoted to the cultivation of eggplants in the world. Over 62% of that output came from China alone. India (24.5% of world total), Egypt, Turkey, and Iran were also major producers.
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Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Eggplant.
Dave said:
Eggplant. I don't think I've ever eaten it. My Mom said she got sick of eggplant as a girl, because during WWII rationing my Grandmother served it all the time. So Mom never prepared it for us, and my wife's family didn't eat it, so she has never prepared it either. From what I read if prepared properly it can be palatable, but why bother?
Alan J answered:
Eggplant.
Randall wrote:
eggplant
mj
Whatever it's called,
If not prepared properly, it can be bitter. Eggplant.
zorch responded:
Eggplant.
Cal in Vermont wrote:
It is eggplant, a plant in the solanacaea family which includes tomatos, potatos, belladonna and deadly nightshade. The fun part of getting sick was taking Contac which contained belladonna. I would show up at work with something awful and supervison would send me home pretty quick. I would stop at the liquor store for a bottle of cheap wine and the drug store for a bottle of Contac. Once at home I would take the Contac, wash it down with the wine and float gently down the stream and life became vivid dreams until the next morning and off to work feeling much better. Eggplant is OK, too.
Roy, the Snowflake Libtard in Tyler, TX replied:
I lived in France between 1955 and 1958, and it was there my mother served the best damn fried aubergine ever. Here in America we call that thing eggplant, or in the language of the internet savvy, it's an emoji representative of the male sex organ.
Deborah responded:
You're referring to the eggplant, a vegetable I grow and eat as baba ganouj, ratatouille, or parmesan. Yum.
Micki wrote:
Eggplant.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
Eggplant
David of Moon Valley answered:
i'm going with Eggplant…aubergine was also the color of my '92 Ford Ranger pickup that i used to own…i loved that truck...
John I from Hawai`i says,
EGGPLANT
Michelle in AZ responded:
Eggplant. By quite the coincidence, I'm eating eggplant Parm right now.
Daniel in The City replied:
Eggplant
DJ Useo said:
My faulty memory insists the correct answer is "Eggplant". I'll be interested in seeing if I'm right.
Joe S wrote:
I believe that's eggplant. I don't know how I know that, because I don't like eggplant. Except in moussaka, I love moussaka.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
• Brett Butler, star of TV's Grace Under Fire, once heard a bigot engaging in gay-bashing in a public place. She followed him outside and told him, "You've got to be really careful where you gay-bash." Of course, he asked, "Why?" She replied, "Because I know a lot of faggots who can kick your *ss - if the dykes don't get you first."
• Stand-up comedian Laura Kightlinger has had nights when she has been on stage and men in the audience have called out to her such things as "Sit on my face" and "Show us your tits." Ms. Kightlinger says, "In other words, I'm no different from any woman walking down the street."
Problem-Solving
• Comedian Bill Hicks started performing before he could drive. He heard about amateur night at a club called the Comedy Workshop, so he called, asked for, and got permission to perform from the manager. Unfortunately, his parents told him that he couldn't perform. Not an insoluble problem. Bill sneaked out of the house through his second-story window and met a friend who was old enough to drive him to the club. Bill was popular with the comedians at the Comedy Workshop and with his classmates, but a principal heard his act, then told him, "You have the sense of humor of a 3rd-grader." Bill replied, "Well, then, you must have the comprehension of a 2nd-grader."
• In 1965, the Friars Club, whose members are comedians, roasted Soupy Sales with comic insults. Mr. Sales and everybody else enjoyed themselves, but Friars Club member Brian Dougherty ran into a problem: He had to go to the bathroom, but he didn't want to miss any of the jokes. Fortunately, Mr. Dougherty is a problem-solver. He whispered to Marty Allen, who was sitting next to him at a table with an overhanging tablecloth, "Hand me that pitcher." With a relieved bladder, Mr. Dougherty was able to laugh even harder.
• Early in his career, comedian Tim Conway worked with his friend Ernie Anderson in television in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Anderson had a locally produced, low-budget show called Ernie's Place; unfortunately, people did not want to appear on the show as guests. No problem. Mr. Conway simply appeared as the guest for each episode. His occupation changed from episode to episode, but his name remained the same - Dag Herford.
• When country comedian Jerry Clower started to make it big in show business, he decided to get a fancy Rolex watch, but he discovered that all of them had Roman numerals on the watch face, and he didn't like Roman numerals. Fortunately, he was able to easily solve that problem. He hired a watchmaker to take a watch face from an inexpensive Sears and Roebuck watch and put it on the expensive Rolex watch.
• Bob Woodruff, who once headed Coca-Cola, and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen went hunting. Both shot at a wild turkey, which fell dead, but both claimed to have made the shot that killed the turkey. Mr. Bergen said, "There's only one way to settle this." He picked up the dead turkey and asked, "Who shot you, turkey?" The turkey replied, "You did, Bergen."
• When African-American comedian Chris Rock joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, he noticed that when he wore such clothing as jeans and a T-shirt or sweats, the security guards would often ask him to show his ID. To solve that problem, Mr. Rock started dressing up in suits whenever he was around the set of Saturday Night Live.
• Carl Reiner, creator, writer, and producer of The Dick Van Dyke Show, sometimes wanted an extra 15 seconds to save a good joke when an episode was a little too long. He once saved a good joke by going through an episode and cutting a single frame from each scene.
• The Domestic Resurrection Circus ends each year with an exorcism of one of the forces of evil. One year, a Mother Earth puppet set the military-industrial complex on fire. Another year, the Specter of Hunger succumbed to a fiery death.
...it was a Republican. Rep. Jeremy Faison of Tennessee is suggesting replacing a bust of Nathaniel Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan, in the Tennessee Capitol building with a bust of Dolly Parton.
CBS begins the night with a FRESH'NCIS', followed by a FRESH'FBI', then a FRESH'NCIS: The 3rd One'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert is Jamie Foxx.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE,, with guest host Ken Jeong, are Jenny Slate, Kristen Schaal, and Rick Schwartz.
NBC fills the night with FRESH'The Voice'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are John Lithgow and Liam Payne.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Robert De Niro, Guy Pearce, and Joe Pera.
Scheduled on a FRESHLilly Singh is Leslie Odom Jr.
ABC opens the night with the chestnut 'A Charlie Brown Christmas', followd by the infomercial 'Olaf's Frozen Adventure', then 'Shrek The Halls', followed by a RERUN'The Conners', then a RERUN'Bless This Mess'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Adam Sandler, Kevin Garnett, and Karen Gillan.
The CW offers a FRESH'Dogs Of The Year', followed by a RERUN'Arrow'.
Faux has a FRESH'The Resident', followed by a FRESH'Empire'.
MY recycles an old 'Chicago PD', followed by another old 'Chicago PD'.
A&E has 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'Behind Bars: Women Inside', then another FRESH'Behind Bars: Women Inside'.
AMC offers the movie 'Elf', followed by the movie 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation', then the movie 'Miracle On 34th Street'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 12-The Royale
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 13-Time Squared
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 14-The Icarus Factor
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 15-Pen Pals
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 16-Q Who
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 17-Samaritan Snare
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 18-Up the Long Ladder
[1:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 19-Manhunt
[2:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 20-The Emissary
[3:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 21-Peak Performance
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 22-Shades of Gray
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 23-The Thaw
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 24-Tuvix
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 25-Resolutions
[8:00PM] THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004)
[10:00PM] FOUR CHRISTMASES (2008)
[12:00AM] THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004)
[2:00AM] FOUR CHRISTMASES (2008)
[4:00AM] PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (2012) (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of OC', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of OC', then another FRESH'Real Housewives Of OC', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
FX has the movie 'The Hangover Part III', followed by the movie 'Captain America: The First Avenger'.
History has 'The Curse Of Oak Island', followed by a FRESH'The Curse Of Oak Island: Digging Deeper', then a FRESH'The Curse Of Oak Island', followed by a FRESH'Kings Of Pain'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Admission
[8:30A] Big Momma's House
[10:45A] Drillbit Taylor
[1:15P] The Way, Way Back
[3:30P] I Love You, Man
[6:00P] Stand by Me
[8:00P] Trading Places
[10:30P] Trading Places
[1:00A] Stand by Me
[3:00A] I Love You, Man
[5:30A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - Playhouse for Sale (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:25am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30am] The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
[1:00pm] Ocean's Twelve
[4:00pm] Ocean's Thirteen
[7:00pm] Catch Me if You Can
[10:00pm] Ocean's Thirteen
[1:00am] Catch Me if You Can
[4:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[4:35am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:10am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:45am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra', followed by the movie 'X-Men: First Class', then a lotta 'Futurama'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are "Weird Al" Yankovic and Stuart Goldsmith.
Foo Fighters, Alice Cooper, H.E.R., John Legend, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr., the Jonas Brothers, Emily King and Yola will perform in homage to Aerosmith at the 2020 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute concert on Jan. 24. Greg Phillinganes will be the musical director, with additional guest performers to be announced.
Aerosmith is being recognized as the 2020 MusiCares Person of the Year in recognition of their philanthropic efforts over five decades and impact on American music history. Aerosmith has shown support for a number of charities around the world, including Steven Tyler's Janie's Fund. Proceeds from the annual Person of the Year tribute - celebrating its 30th anniversary - provide essential support for MusiCares, the charity founded by the Recording Academy that ensures music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical and personal need.
Past MusiCares Person of the Year honorees include: Tony Bennett, Bono, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Gloria Estefan, Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Carole King, Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, Luciano Pavarotti, Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Lionel Richie, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, and Neil Young.
The MusiCares Person of the Year tribute is one of the cornerstone events of Grammy Week. The gala will begin with a reception and silent auction offering an exclusive and unparalleled selection of luxury items, VIP experiences and one-of-a-kind celebrity memorabilia for bidding guests. The reception, along with a silent auction sponsored by Delta Air Lines - the official airline of Person of the Year - will be followed by a gala dinner sponsored by AEG, a tribute concert featuring renowned musicians and other artists, and the award presentation.
Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is the subject of Greta (working title), an original documentary, which will premiere on Hulu in 2020. The documentary is produced by Cecilia Nessen and Frederik Heinig via B-Reel Films and directed by Nathan Grossman.
In August of 2018, Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old student in Sweden starts a school strike for the climate. Her question for adults: if you don't care about my future on earth, why should I care about my future in school? Within months, her strike evolves into a global movement. Greta, a quiet Swedish girl on the autism spectrum becomes a world famous activist.
The team behind Greta (wt) has been following Thunberg from her early school strike in Stockholm all the way to parliaments and massive international protests, documenting her mission to make the world understand the urgency of the climate crisis. According to sources, Hulu had come on board the project awhile back and had been involved behind the scenes while deals were being made.
Thunberg has been getting messages of support from Michelle Obama and has been embraced by Hollywood, with celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Leonardo DiCaprio and Woody Harrelson among her army of fans. As her popularity continues to grow, Thunberg was featured in Saturday Night Live's Cold Open this past weekend, portrayed by the show's star Kate McKinnon.
President Donald Trump (R-Liar) did not receive the distinction of being named Time magazine's "Person of the Year," but his claims about the anonymous whistleblower did score "Lie of the Year" from fact-checking website PolitiFact.
Trump has repeatedly said the anonymous whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry was "almost completely wrong" about his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a claim that PolitiFact rated the most significant falsehood of 2019.
PolitiFact called Trump's claim "more than ridiculous and wrong," also noting that the "Lie of the Year" distinction is the only time the website uses the term "lie" to describe claims. The fact-checker said Trump has repeated versions of the statement against the whistleblower more than 80 times since the complaint was released publicly Sept. 26.
In previous years, "Lie of the Year" has been given to claims from politicians on both sides of the aisle and online entities alike. In 2018, it went to online actors targeting survivors of the Parkland, Fla., shooting; in 2015, was various statements by Trump during his campaign; and in 2013, it was a claim by former President Barack Obama about the Affordable Care Act.
Trump has received the distinction four times. In 2015, he denounced PolitiFact as "a totally left-wing group" and "bad news." The site is nonpartisan and owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute.
Every autumn as temperatures drop and insect populations decline, billions of birds migrate across the U.S. in search of warmer nesting temperatures and more food availability-both extremely good answers to seasonal depression. In the spring, the birds fly back to mate.
This annual migration serves an important role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, because the traveling birds reliably move seeds and eat bugs that would otherwise overpopulate local forests, grasslands, and more. It's an extremely cool, harmonious process. And climate change is fucking it up.
Changing temperature and weather patterns are causing nocturnal birds throughout the contiguous United States to migrate to and from their breeding grounds earlier, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change on Monday.
The researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the University of Massachusetts analyzed 24 years of radar data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The study was one of the first to look at how climate change affects migration at a continental scale, and the researchers examined data from thousands of nights for hundreds of different species.
Spring migration patterns, in particular, have changed considerably. And regions that warmed the most rapidly saw the greatest changes in migration timing. "We saw the greatest advancement at northern latitudes, for example 1.5 day [per] decade during the spring at 45N," Horton told Earther in an email referring to a latitude that cuts across the U.S. from Oregon to Maine.
Experts at the University of Oklahoma believe they have found a possible mass grave site from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre at a city cemetery, although they are unsure how many bodies are underneath.
Geophysical scanning identified two spots at the Oaklawn Cemetery that might bear bodies of those killed in the city's race riots almost 100 years ago, Scott Hammerstedt, a senior researcher for the Oklahoma Archeological Survey, said Monday at a public hearing in Tulsa.
Surveys confirmed suspicions that one area might be a grave, in addition to a newly discovered trench under the soil of about 30 by 25 feet.
The city is also working with the private owners of Booker T. Washington Cemetery in Tulsa to gain permission to scan the grounds, which researchers suspect could be home to another gravesite.
HBO's "Watchmen" recreated the two-day event in its pilot episode in October. The show, based on the 1980s graphic novel, used the unsettling massacre to set the tone for its season.
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 91 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid $0 in taxes on U.S. income in 2018, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Across all 379 profitable companies in the Fortune 500 the effective tax rate was just 11.3%, just over half the 21% tax rate under the law.
"In 2018, the 379 companies earned $765 billion in pretax profits in the United States," the report noted. "Had all of those profits been reported to the IRS and taxed at the statutory 21% corporate tax rate, the 379 companies would have paid almost $161 billion in income taxes in 2018." Instead, the companies only paid $86.8 billion, roughly 54% of what they owed.
Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at ITEP and lead author of the report, says that what companies doing is "entirely legal" - but that they can avoid paying taxes thanks to tax breaks.
"What we are seeing is a product of the actions of Congress, aided and abetted by corporate lobbyists," he explained. "This is the predictable consequence of creating tax breaks for any activity you can think of."
But while companies were able to avoid paying taxes thanks to the new Republican tax law, the IRS pulled in roughly $2 trillion from individual tax returns, a leap of nearly $100 billion from the amount collected in 2017.
Earth's magnetic north pole, which has been wandering faster than expected in recent years, has now crossed the prime meridian.
Magnetic north has been lurching away from its previous home in the Canadian Arctic toward Siberia at a rate of about 34 miles (55 kilometers) a year over the past two decades. The latest model of the Earth's magnetic field, released Dec. 10 by the National Centers for Environmental Information and the British Geological Survey, predicts that this movement will continue, though likely at a slower rate of 25 miles (40 km) each year.
This model is used to calibrate GPS and other navigation measurements.
Earth's magnetic field is produced by the churning of the planet's iron outer core, which produces a complex, but largely north-south magnetic field. For reasons not entirely understood but related to the planet's interior dynamics, the magnetic field is currently undergoing a period of weakening. That's why magnetic north is drifting.
As of February 2019, magnetic north was located at 86.54 N 170.88 E, within the Arctic Ocean, according to the NCEI. (Magnetic south similarly does not line up with geographic south; it was at at 64.13 S 136.02 E off the coast of Antarctica as of February 2019.)
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wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
