Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: Free the Nunchucks! (Taki's Magazine)
Nunchakus, the Shaolin fighting sticks mastered by Bruce Lee, are one of the most beautiful weapons ever invented, and also one of the stupidest. I don't know exactly how you would use it in an actual fight in which the other team also had weapons-for example, swords. I was tempted to say, "Nunchakus don't kill, people do," but in this case you would have to say, "Nunchakus don't kill, nor do people in possession of nunchakus."
Matthew Yglesias: "There never were any 'adults in the room'" (Vox)
Trump is unfit for office, and flagrantly so, in ways that are fairly obvious and have been obvious for years. There are no adults in any room he leads, and there never will be. The real grown-ups are the ones who've been outside the room trying to get him out of office.
Alexandra Petri: Nostalgia for the well-run machine of the Trump administration (Washington Post)
Things previously were on the rails, we are now learning. When we remember the years 2017 and 2018, we will do so wistfully. "Things were on the rails then," we will say. "Remember Scaramucci? Remember how organized and unchaotic the Trump White House was?" (I am picturing us huddled over a fire as we say this, watching the White House in the distance to see whether it has released the series of smoke signals that indicates war.)
Alexandra Petri: Suggested rules for the Democratic primary debates (Washington Post)
As I understand them, the debates (and, indeed, the primary process in general) are supposed to start as early as possible so that, where previously you thought there were many potentially acceptable or even exciting candidates for the highest office in the land, you might at your leisure discover exactly why they are all vile, problematic boils.
Matthew Dressen: Sacha Baron Cohen Taped an Interview for Who Is America? that Was Too Dark Even for Sacha Baron Cohen (Slate)
Sacha Baron Cohen's Showtime series Who Is America? raised a lot of provocative questions about our country, from the simple (was former Georgia state representative Jason Spencer too dumb and sociopathic to represent the American people?) to the profound (is anyone dumb and sociopathic enough to represent the American people?). One question it didn't raise, however, was if there were any lines Cohen wouldn't cross.
Lenore Skenazy: Kids as Prisoners (Creators Syndicate)
Since time began, some parents have longed for a way to keep their kids completely safe - meaning completely captive. Until now, they had to lock them in the basement. This was considered a crime. But the ankle bracelets, for some reason, are perfectly legal.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• A woman who wrote anonymously on
• A woman whose calls herself Sunny B online tells what happened in 1987 after she testified in court about her partner, who had made her a victim of domestic abuse. Her partner was sentenced to seven years in prison, and since her partner had been popular in their community, his supporters sent death threats to her. She saved all the money she could to move to a safer location, and she worried because Christmas was coming and it looked as if her two young daughters would have no gifts. However, shortly before Christmas, someone knocked on her door and when she asked who it was, a voice replied, "It's me: Santa." Her young daughters were overjoyed, but she was fearful. Sunny B says, "Ever so slowly, I unlatched the chain and opened the door. In front of me stood a Santa, several elves, and wrapped parcels and bags of groceries stretching about 20 feet down the hallway. My daughters wrapped their arms around Santa, and I burst into tears. The elves carried all the packages into our little apartment. We had a very generous Christmas. Inside an envelope was also a certificate from a moving company and $1000 for 1st and last month's rent toward a new apartment. I cannot tell you how much this meant to my children and [me]. We had a lovely Christmas, moved very shortly thereafter and began a new life. To this day I do not know who those wonderful people were, but I will always be very grateful to them and anyone else involved." Sunny B and her two daughters were able to move to a safe location and begin their lives anew. Sunny B says, "This was a truly wonderful act of generosity and kindness for which I will be eternally grateful."
• Following a snowfall of several inches some years ago, Eugene R. Gryniewicz? asked his two sons, Joshua and Christopher, who were then in junior high school, to shovel the sidewalk, steps, and driveway, and then he would give them their allowances. After a while, he checked on them because they had not picked up their allowances, although he knew that they had planned to go to the mall with some friends who were stopping by. Investigating, he discovered that they had shoveled several sidewalks, and not just that of their own family. Indeed, some of their friends had joined them in shoveling sidewalks. However, his investigation showed that they had not approached the home dwellers to negotiate payment. One home was that of an elderly woman who took care of her bedridden nephew. Mr. Gryniewicz returned home, and soon his sons and their friends showed up. He invited everyone in for hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls, and one of his sons' friends showed him a copy of the message that they had been leaving on the doors of the houses whose sidewalks they had shoveled: "Your walk has been shoveled by the Christmas Elves. There is no need to thank us. Do something nice for someone this week. Merry Christmas. The Elves."
• On Christmas 2009 Colin Farrell paid a visit to ill children in Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin, Ireland. This was not his first visit. A source told The Irish Herald, "He keeps a low profile when he comes in. He doesn't want photographers or anything. He comes in every Christmas Day and spends a lot of time with the children. He has bought Nintendo DS and Wiis for them and plays with them for a couple of hours. He's really popular with the staff and really genuine, and the kids really love and appreciate his visit." Mr. Farrell has a son who suffers from the rare genetic disorder Angelman Syndrome.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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David Bruce's Smashwords Bookstore: Retellings of Classic Literature, Anecdote Collections, Discussion Guides for Teachers of Literature, Collections of Good Deed Accounts, etc. Some eBooks are free.
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Suggestion
Over-The-Air TV
Hi Marty,
I found this station 9.4 in my area. It features old shows, one series every week day, all day starting at 1 PM. I found, "Monk" on Thursdays. Do you remember him? The series ran 2002 thru 2009 and starred, Tony Shalhoub.
TV Schedule for H&I - Heroes & Icons Network
Hoping you and the kid have yourselves a Merry Little Xmas, and that your water heater is fixed!
Sally P
Thanks, Sally!
Quite a fan of "Monk" -
H & I is where I used to watch "The Man from U.N.C.L.E".
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD's on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
In order to make all the images 'fit', some may seem a bit small, so try clicking on it for a larger version.
50 Years Later
Earthrise
On December 24, 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts William Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman reached lunar orbit, allowing them to become the first humans in history to witness an Earthrise. The images captured that day, showing our planet in context with the lunar landscape, remain among the most enduring photos taken during the Apollo program-and human history for that matter.
"Oh my God, look at that picture over there!" exclaimed Anders. "There's the Earth comin' up. Wow, is that pretty!"
Grabbing his camera, Anders captured the scene. Today, the Earthrise photo is often oriented to show the Earth above a horizontal plane, but the photo was actually taken via the vertical plane (as shown here). Looking at the photo, you can see the sunset line extending across Africa and Antarctica, while North and South America is heavily shrouded by clouds.
A black-and-white photo of the Earthrise was taken on the same day, showing the Earth rising over a horizontally oriented surface. The photo, likely taken by Anders, was captured when the Apollo 8 capsule was at 100 degrees east lunar longitude, showing a lunar horizon line that extends for about 250 miles (570 kilometers).
Back on Earth, an estimated half a billion people tuned into the Christmas Eve broadcast-the largest television audience up to that point.
Earthrise
200 Years Ago
Silent Night
On Christmas Eve in 1818, two men with a small guitar entered a church in Oberndorf, Austria, and prepared to sing a new Christmas carol.
Times had been bad in Oberndorf, where many people worked on the water, manning the salt barges that plied the Salzach River. The upheaval in central Europe caused by the Napoleonic Wars had just ended.
And only two years before, the dreadfully dark summer of 1816 - later blamed on ash from a volcanic eruption in Indonesia - had caused famine and deprivation.
But in that fall of 1816, a young Catholic priest, Joseph Mohr, had written a six-verse Christmas poem that began "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" - Silent Night, Holy Night - about the Nativity of a curly-haired Jesus.
Two years later, Father Mohr enlisted a friend, Franz Xaver Gruber, a local schoolteacher and musician, to come up with a melody for the poem that could be played for Christmas on the guitar. (Legend has it that the church organ had been damaged by mice or water and was on the blink.)
Silent Night
Christmas Letter Sold At Auction
Abraham Lincoln
It was days before Christmas 1863, and Abraham Lincoln wanted to offer an example of goodwill to the fractured nation in the midst of the Civil War.
The Craig family, cousins to Lincoln's wife Mary Todd, were a slave-holding family in Arkansas who had fled their plantation as Union forces took over much of the state. But the Craigs were nearing the end of their lives and wished to return to their home for Christmas.
Despite the ongoing war -- or perhaps because of it -- Lincoln agreed. After meeting with the family, he wrote and signed a letter that they could use to safely move past Union forces and reoccupy their Arkansas plantation.
Lincoln's original letter, long held by descendants of the Todd family, was recently given to The Raab Collection and put up for auction as a unique example of Lincoln's broader attempts to reunify the country.
The question of how to deal with Confederacy supporters was particularly personal for Lincoln because Mary Todd Lincoln came from a wealthy slave-holding family. The letter also has a message about unity in a divided country that still resonates today, Raab said.
Abraham Lincoln
Radio Host Will Avoid Criminal Prosecution
Argentina
An Argentine radio show host who faced criminal prosecution for allegedly sexist remarks has struck a deal. In lieu of a more punitive route, prosecutors have ordered a five-month education in gender issues for Angel Etchecopar, commonly known by his nickname "Baby Etchecopar," and the listeners of his noontime radio program, El Angel de Mediodia.
According to Argentina's La Nación, the deal states that once a week, for five months, Etchecopar will have to host a specialist in gender issues on his show. And he'll have to let each specialist speak, uninterrupted, for 10 minutes, with no room for criticism afterwards.
Prosecutor Federico Villalba Díaz told La Nación that Etchecopar's comments rose to a criminal offense in the first place because prosecutors were able to collect eight pages of "derogatory, insulting, offensive, degrading and discriminatory" statements he had made. But he said Etchecopar's willingness to change led prosecutors to drop the criminal case in favor of this more creative solution.
Prosecutors will provide Etchecopar with a list of interviewees for the five-month term of the deal, which begins in March. And, according to La Nación, special prosecutor Verónica Guagnino, who specializes in gender-based violence, will set the agenda for Etchecopar's conversations with the provided gender experts.
In addition to changing the content of his show, Etchecopar reportedly had to issue a public apology and make a small charity donation as part of the deal. And La Nación reports that if Etchecopar violates discrimination laws again within a year, the agreement will be terminated and he could be criminally prosecuted.
Argentina
Sets Domestic Record
2018 Box Office
With a week left in the year, the 2018 box office has set a new record for the highest annual total of all time, passing the $11.38-billion record set in 2016.
The record was set after a busy weekend in which five new movies were released wide in advance of Christmas Day, with Warner Bros.' "Aquaman" topping the charts with a $67-million opening. These new films are expected to provide one last big boost to the box office starting on Christmas Day, possibly pushing the final annual total to $11.7-11.8 billion.
Just like in 2016, Disney was easily the top studio of the year with a domestic gross total of over $3 billion. This is the second time in the last three years Disney has grossed over $3 billion domestically and $7 billion worldwide, and no other studio has ever reached that mark. Depending on the final weekend, Disney will also finish the year with a domestic market share of 25-27 percent.
But while Disney and superheroes did much of the heavy lifting, other studios and genres provided important contributions to the year, driving ticket sales at times of the year that are usually seen as down periods. Several of those films placed just outside the top 10 on the annual charts, most notably Warner Bros.' awards contender "A Star Is Born," which has grossed $200 million domestically and served as an alternative to "Venom" for older audiences when it released in October, pushing the month's total to an industry record of $821 million.
Other films that catered to specific demographics include the WB rom-com "Crazy Rich Asians," which earned $174 million, and Fox's Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody," which added $184 million to the domestic total. And the horror genre continued to have a presence year-round with films like Paramount's "A Quiet Place" ($188 million) and Universal/Blumhouse's "Halloween" ($157 million).
2018 Box Office
French Teenager
DNA
A kid in France transcribed parts of the Hebrew book of Genesis and the Arabic-language Quran, into DNA and injected them into his body - one text into each thigh.
Adrien Locatelli, a 16-year-old high school student, posted a paper Dec. 3 on the preprint server OS, in which he claimed, "It is the first time that someone injects himself macromolecules developed from a text."
Locatelli, a student at the boarding school Lycée les Eaux Claires in Grenoble, France, told Live Science that he didn't need any special equipment for his project. [10 Amazing Things Scientists Have Done with CRISPR]
"I just needed to buy saline solution and a syringe because VectorBuilder sent me liquid and ProteoGenix sent me powder," he told Live Science.
Locatelli's method for translating the texts into DNA was straightforward, if a bit crude. DNA encodes its information using repeating strings of four nucleotides, which scientists have abbreviated as A, G, T and C. Locatelli lined up each letter of the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets (which correspond closely to each other) with a nucleotide, so each nucleotide represented more than one letter. So if you were to write a Hebrew sentence using his scheme, every aleph, vav, yud, nun, tsade, and tav would become a G. Every dalet, khet, ayin, and resh would become a T. And so on.
DNA
Will Lose $50Million
Welcome to Marwen
Welcome to Marwen, the latest from Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis, has flopped at the box office.
The film debuted in the US to a mere $2.4m from 1,191 cinemas, which means it now ties with the Jonny Knoxville-starring Action Point as the worst opening of 2018 for a major studio release.
It is now expected to lose $50m for its production companies Universal, DreamWorks, and ImageMovers, with the film's budget estimated to be between $40m and $49m, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The news follows last week's disastrous debut for Mortal Engines. The Peter Jackson-produced film opened in the US to $7.5m, with a worldwide total of $42.3m, against a budget exceeding $110m. The film is now looking to lose Universal between $105m and $150m,
The film suffered from poor critical reviews, with The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern calling it "mind-numbingly immense, joylessly violent and utterly lifeless".
Welcome to Marwen
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