Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lucy Mangan says we're not angry enough about horrific domestic violence statistics (Stylist)
Thirdly, some more facts: domestic violence is more common in a woman's lifetime than diabetes, depression or lung cancer. Over six years (2006-2012), the same number of people were killed by terrorism in the UK - 100, each an utter tragedy - as women were killed by partners in every single year. Two women a week, the figures show, die at the hands of those who profess to love them.
Suzanne Moore: Theresa May can't shut out the world - and neither can Britain (The Guardian)
There are many reasons the prime minister's authority has collapsed but she is not the only one who failed to listen.
Arindrajit Dube: Alan Krueger Was the Rare Economist Whose Work Improved the Lives of Millions (Slate)
Alan was instrumental in the push to make economics an empirical science, something that has touched every corner of the discipline.
Hadley Freeman: "On the set of Dumbowith Tim Burton: 'Like meeting up with your teenage boyfriend'" (The Guardian)
As an adolescent misfit, Hadley Freeman fell in love with the warped movie worlds of Tim Burton. What happened when she met Danny DeVito, Colin Farrell and her idol himself?
Heather Schwedel: "Is Sarah Michelle Gellar's 'Mug Cake' a Tribute to Human Ingenuity or a Sign of the End Times?" (Slate)
While you decide, I'll turn on the microwave.
Bruce Dalzell: You Always Make Me Smile (YouTube)
Bruce Dalzell: My Baby Scares Me (YouTube)
Bruce Dalzell: What Have You Done To Me (YouTube)
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Following a rehearsal with the London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn was having a drink in a hotel bar when he noticed an American composer he respected, so he ordered him a drink. The American composer complimented him, saying that the orchestra had sounded marvelous a few nights ago when the program included Beethoven's Sixth in the first half. Mr. Previn replied, "That was the night Pollini was supposed to play the Fourth Piano Concerto in the second half, and he canceled, and we were stuck with one of those last-minute substitutions, that really appalling third-rate lady pianist. I'm really sorry you had to suffer through that." The American composer coldly replied, "I didn't mind. The pianist is my wife."
• In Vienna, operatic tenor Leo Slezak knew a cabbie with one horse - a blind one. Although it wasn't fashionable to go about the streets of Vienna in a one-horse cab - two horses were the fashion - Mr. Slezak so liked the cabman, Johann, that he used his cab. One day Johann prepared a special treat for Mr. Slezak - he brought a musical clock that played the Radetzky March. Mr. Slezak was appreciative of the gesture, but after the clock had played the Radetzky March a dozen times, he asked Johann to stop the clock. Unfortunately, Johann replied that when the clock had been wound up, it would play for two and a half hours, and there was no way to stop it. Mr. Slezak was forced to get out of the cab and walk.
• Tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) once seriously studied the flute. A man tried to sell him a new recording machine, and to test the machine, Mr. Caruso played the flute, then listened to the recording. He then asked the salesperson, "Is that how I sound?" The salesperson replied, "Yes, can I sell you the recording machine?" Mr. Caruso said, "No, but I'll sell you the flute."
• The Ramones were known for playing short sets early in their careers and for playing faster than any other band-and they speeded up their playing as they got older. Someone asked guitarist Johnny Ramone why the Ramones' songs were so short. He replied, "They're actually fairly long songs played very, very quickly."
• Italian lyric tenor Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957) was known for his coolness under fire. At Covent Garden, while he was singing in La Bohème, a small fire broke out onstage. While still singing, Mr. Gigli walked to the side of the stage, where he was handed a bucket of water by a stagehand, and then he put out the fire.
• Addison Mizner once snuck away from a musical entertainment at a party in order to play pinochle with his host in another room. His hostess, Mrs. E.T. Stotesbury, tracked him down and complained, "You sneak away when Rachmaninoff is playing!" Mr. Mizner replied, "I thought it was the piano tuner."
• Vladimir de Pachmann, a classical pianist, enjoyed performing a joke on stage. He would walk on stage, sit on a stool that was too low, and then call for a book to sit on. He would then sit on the book, grimace, stand up, tear out one page from the book, sit down on the book again, smile, and begin playing.
• During church service, Barbara McKeever's grandson told her that a woman singing a solo couldn't sing very well. She answered, "She sings from her heart, so it's good." Afterward, she was singing along with the car radio, and her grandson told her, "You sing from the heart, too, don't you?"
• Count Basie was once told that he was influenced by the English composer Frederick Delius, even though Count Basie had never heard of Delius. However, Count Basie bought recordings of Delius' works, played them, liked what he heard, and then proudly told friends, "That's my influence."
• Jimmy Durante and Eddie Cantor worked together in restaurants for a while. Mr. Durante was a piano player, while Mr. Cantor was a singing waiter. Often, they played requests from customers. If they didn't know a song, they created one on the spot, then feigned innocence: "You mean there's two 'South Nebraska Blues'?"
• George Bernard Shaw could be quite caustic in his criticism. Once, he attended a recital by an Italian quartet. During a pause in the recital, a friend remarked, "These men have been playing together for 12 years." Mr. Shaw replied, "Surely we have been here longer than that."
• An inferior singer was about to sing an aria from Semiramide before the composer Gioacchino Rossini. She pretended to be frightened by his presence and even said, "Oh, I am so frightened." Mr. Rossini asked, "What about me?"
• Not all singers in church congregations are talented. A New York churchgoer sang the closing hymn with the rest of the congregation, but afterward a visitor turned to the singer and joked, "Don't give up your day job."
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Selected Readings
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Watched Grand Sumo live from Tokyo - next basho starts May 12th.
Would Do It All Again
Kathy Griffin
If you decide you do not want to read this article about Kathy Griffin, the comedian wants you to know she'd understand. But for her part, Griffin has gotten pretty used to rejection from a certain segment of the U.S. population. "I'm Hanoi Jane, you know? I get it. This photo is gonna be with me forever, no matter what I do."
The photo, now infamous, was taken in 2017, and featured Griffin holding a mask of President Donald Trump (R-Monumentally Unqualified) dripping with what appeared to be fake blood. (It was actually ketchup.) "Well, I didn't have any fake blood. I usually don't stock it!" she laughed.
Griffin said the photo was meant as political satire, but that didn't stop all hell from breaking loose. The president reacted, tweeting: "Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11-year-old son Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!"
Griffin was used to controversy, but this was on a whole other level. "I never in my lifetime thought anything like this could happen," she said.
But the damage was done. Her comedy tour was cancelled; she lost her endorsement deal with something called Squatty Potty; and she found herself under investigation for conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States - a charge that potentially carries a life sentence.
Kathy Griffin
Denies Concert
Dubai
Dubai's government on Sunday forcefully denied a claim by R&B singer R. Kelly that the artist had planned concerts in the sheikhdom after he had sought permission from an Illinois judge to travel here despite facing sexual-abuse charges.
In a rare statement, the government's Dubai Media Office also denied claims by his lawyer in court that Kelly had plans to meet the sheikhdom's ruling Al Maktoum family.
"Authorities in Dubai have not received any request for a performance by singer R. Kelly nor are there any venues that have been booked," the statement said.
It added Kelly "has not been invited by the Dubai royal family for a performance."
In a court filing last week, Greenberg had said the singer needed to raise money as "he has struggled of late to pay his child support and other child related expenses."
Dubai
Gifts
Guggenheim Museum
Despite having their name on the museum's education center, the Guggenheim said it will no longer be accepting gifts from the Sackler family, according to a statement given to ABC News on Saturday. The Sacklers own Purdue Pharma, the makers of the powerful and addictive painkiller OxyContin.
The rejection of the wealthy pharmaceutical name isn't the biggest problem facing the Sacklers -- the company is reportedly exploring bankruptcy as a way to protect itself against million-dollar lawsuits -- but it is a shot at the societal standing of the billionaire family.
"The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum received a total of $7 million in gifts from members of the Mortimer D. Sackler family initiated in 1995 and paid out through 2006 to establish and support the Sackler Center for Arts Education, which serves approximately 300,000 youth, adults, and families each year," the museum said in a statement.
It added, "An additional $2 million was received between 1999 and 2015 to support the museum. No contributions fro
Rejection by the Guggenheim was just the latest in a number of museums turning away a family that has donated millions to promoting art -- a cause close to late Purdue Pharma co-owner Mortimer D. Sackler. It was reported the Tate galleries in London made a similar decision one day prior.
Guggenheim Museum
Seems To Go Faster
Time
It is one of those facts of life that is seemingly unfair that as you get older time seems to go faster -especially when compared to the endless summers of childhood.
But physics might offer an explanation, according to Professor Adrian Bejan from North Carolina's Duke University.
"People are often amazed at how much they remember from days that seemed to last forever in their youth," Professor Bejan said.
"It's not that their experiences were much deeper or more meaningful, it's just that they were being processed in rapid fire."
Professor Bejan believes it is due to how many new images people are processing, which tails off with age due to physical changes in the human body.
Time
Big Bias Problem
Genetic Research
Human genomics research continues to have a major bias towards people of European ancestry, scientists say - and that could have damaging consequences in terms of how research is interpreted and followed up.
The statistics tell their own story: as of 2018, individuals included in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were 78 percent European, 10 percent Asian, 2 percent African, 1 percent Hispanic, and less than 1 percent all other ethnic groups.
As these GWAS studies are used to predict disease risk, develop medical treatments, and plan further research and study, the risk is that we're not seeing the whole picture of the human population - even if the individual studies themselves are scientifically sound.
"Leaving entire populations out of human genetic studies is both scientifically damaging and unfair," says one of the researchers, evolutionary geneticist Sarah Tishkoff from the University of Pennsylvania.
Applying findings on genetic risk taken from Europeans might not necessarily work in non-Europeans, the team argues - because of variations passed down through evolutionary history, as humans originated from and spread to different areas across hundreds of thousands of years.
Genetic Research
Sudden Onset
Cat Scratch
Seemingly out of nowhere, a teenager in the US suddenly started experiencing intense psychotic thoughts. With no previous signs of mental illness, psychiatrists were stumped. But in a new case report, a team of doctors argues that his acute mental illness was sparked by a cat scratch.
Reporting in the Journal of Central Nervous System Disease, doctors in the Midwest have documented a case of sudden-onset adolescent schizophrenia that was triggered by a bacterial infection, most likely caught from a cat scratch.
The 14-year-old boy was described as "socially, athletically, and academically active," and otherwise in fairly good health. Then, around October 2015, he suddenly started to show some very worrying mental health symptoms. He believed he was an "evil, damned son of the devil" and felt suicidal because he was afraid he was going to murder his family and friends. He also developed a long string of phobias and a fear that his family pet cat wanted to kill him.
Doctors were quick to admit the boy for emergency psychiatric hospitalization and put him on a prescription of antipsychotic drugs. However, the psychotic episodes continued for 18 months. While the boy's family had some history of mental illness, there appeared to be no "smoking gun" for the sudden onset of symptoms.
Then, one physician noted the boy had "stretch mark-like" lesions along his thighs and armpit. With a new line of inquiry, doctors started to investigate whether the boy was also suffering from an infection.
Cat Scratch
Unlaid Egg
Bird Fossil
Paleontologists in China have detected traces of an unlaid egg in a 110-million-year-old bird fossil from the Cretaceous period, in what's considered the first discovery of its kind. And in an ironic twist, it appears the egg is what killed the mother bird.
Say hello to Avimaia schweitzerae, a newly described bird species from the Cretaceous. The fossil is remarkable in that is still contains traces of an unlaid egg and a medullary bone-a special type of bone tissue related to egg-laying. It's the first time paleontologists have found those two elements together in a fossil, and the first time bits of egg shell have been discovered in such an ancient fossil. These findings were released today in a Nature Communications paper authored by Alida Bailleul and Jingmai O'Connor from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
As a species, Avimaia schweitzerae (meaning "mother bird" and a nod to paleontologist Mary Higby Schweitzer) may be new to science, but it belonged to a well-documented group of ancient birds known as Enantiornithes. This family of birds was quite successful, living over 100 million years ago alongside dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. A neat thing about Enantiornithes is that they were born with flight feathers, which suggests they could fly very soon after hatching.
The fossil, identified as IVPP V25371, was found in northwestern China, and it was very well preserved despite being crushed flat like a pancake. The partial skeleton consists of the bottom half of the spine, pelvis, hind limbs, and traces of feathers.
The bits of eggshell, which came as a surprise to the paleontologists, were detected inside the bird's abdomen following microscopic examination. Analysis of the fragments showed parts of the egg membrane and cuticle (the outermost protective layer of the shell), the latter of which was coated with proteins and other organic materials. Interestingly, the researchers also discovered evidence of small sphere-like minerals comprised of calcium phosphate. Similar minerals are found among birds who partially bury their eggs, suggesting Avimaia schweitzerae did the same-not a huge revelation, given that Enantiornithes are already suspected to have buried their eggs.
Bird Fossil
Later In The Day
Eating
Eating later in the day may contribute to weight gain, according to a new study to be presented Saturday at ENDO 2019, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in New Orleans, La.
Previous studies have suggested that later timing of eating and sleeping are related to obesity, said lead author Adnin Zaman, M.D., of the University of Colorado in Denver, Colo. "However, few studies have assessed both meal and sleep timing in adults with obesity, and it is not clear whether eating later in the day is associated with shorter sleep duration or higher body fat," she said.
The study used three types of technology to record participants' sleep, physical activity and eating patterns. "It has been challenging to apply sleep and circadian science to medicine due to a lack of methods for measuring daily patterns of human behavior," Zaman said. "We used a novel set of methods for simultaneous measurement of daily sleep, physical activity, and meal timing patterns that could be used to identify persons at risk for increased weight gain."
The week-long study included 31 overweight and obese adults, average age 36. Ninety percent were women. They were enrolled in an ongoing weight-loss trial comparing daily caloric restrictions to time-restricted feeding, meaning they could only eat during certain hours of the day.
The researchers found that on average, participants consumed food throughout an 11-hour timeframe during the day and slept for about 7 hours a night. People who ate later in the day slept at a later time, but they slept for about the same amount of time as those who finished eating earlier. Later meal timing was associated with a higher body mass index as well as greater body fat.
Eating
Weekend Box Office
'Us'
Jordan Peele has done it again. Two years after the filmmaker's "Get Out" became a box-office sensation, his frightening follow-up, "Us," debuted with $70.3 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The opening, well above forecasts, had few parallels. It was the largest debut for an original horror film (only the "It" remake and last year's "Halloween" have surpassed it in the genre) and one of the highest openings for a live-action original film since "Avatar" was released 10 years ago.
"Us" took over the top spot at the box office from "Captain Marvel," which had reigned for two weeks. The Marvel Studios superhero release slid to second place with $35 million in its third week. In three weeks of release, it's made $910 million worldwide, and will soon become the first $1 billion release of 2019.
Other holdovers - the animated amusement "Wonder Park" and the cystic fibrosis teen romance "Five Feet Apart"- trailed in third and fourth with about $9 million each in their second week.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included.
1. "Us," $70.3 million ($16.7 million international).
2. "Captain Marvel," $35 million ($52.1 million international).
3. "Wonder Park," $9 million ($5 million international).
4. "Five Feet Apart," $8.8 million ($6.2 million international).
5. "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World," $6.5 million ($6 million international).
6. "A Madea Family Funeral," $4.5 million.
7. "Gloria Bell," $1.8 million.
8. "No Manches Frida," $1.8 million.
9. "Lego Movie 2: The Second Part," $1.1 million ($6.2 million international).
10. "Alita: Battle Angel," $1 million ($1.6 million international).
'Us'
In Memory
Larry Cohen
Larry Cohen, the man behind cult horror film classics like "It's Alive," "It Lives Again," "Special Effects," "The Stuff" and "A Return to Salem's Lot," has died. He was 77.
Cohen's career in television and film began as a writer on procedural crime shows of the '60s and '70s like "The Fugitive," "Columbo" and "The Defenders," along with its spinoff, "Coronet Blue," which he created.
In 1974, he wrote and directed the horror film "It's Alive" about a mutant and murderous baby monster that became a cult hit and spawned two sequels. He went on to write, direct and/or produce several low-budget horror films, including "Q: The Winged Serpent," "The Stuff," "A Return to Salem's Lot" and "Wicked Stepmother" with Bette Davis. He also served as producer on the John Candy comedy "Delirious."
Cohen briefly returned to directing for an episode of "Masters of Horror," but continued with his writing of such films as "Phone Booth" starring Colin Farrell and Katie Holmes, and "Cellular" starring Chris Evans and Kim Basinger.
Larry Cohen
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