from Bruce
Anecdotes
Problem-Solving
• A woman complained to R’ Eizel Charif that she had been abandoned by her husband and that he refused to support her; therefore, she wanted a divorce, but her husband refused to give her one. R’ Eizel Charif summoned the husband, who said that he would give his wife a divorce if she would give him a large sum of money (which his wife, a poor woman, did not have), but without the money, there would be no divorce. R’ Eizel Charif took Maseches Kiddushin from his bookcase, opened it to the first Mishnah, then showed the volume to the husband and said, “See what it says: ‘She acquires herself [that is, goes free] in [one of] two ways … by divorce or through the death of the husband.’ Now you can choose by which of the two your wife will acquire her freedom.” The husband decided on the divorce.
• One problem faced by many religious people is how to avoid persecution. The story behind the game of dreidel is serious. Jews were forbidden to worship, but they worshipped anyway, gathering together to study the Torah. At these times, they had money and a dreidel nearby. When soldiers came near, the Jews gathered around the dreidel and pretended to be gaming. Early Christians did something similar by decorating their houses with holly. Holly was sacred to Saturn, and so by decorating their houses with holly, early Christians avoided trouble because pagan soldiers thought they were dedicated followers of Saturn.
• Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was a good problem solver. All the clans around Mecca wanted the honor of repairing the Ka’ba shrine, so the clans worked together so that all could share the honor. However, the greatest honor lay in replacing the sacred black stone, and the clans could not agree on who would have that honor. Fortunately, Muhammad came up with a solution. He advised that the sacred black stone be placed on a cloak and a representative from each clan be stationed around the cloak. That way, working together, representatives from all the clans could lift the sacred black stone into place and all the clans could share that great honor.
Rabbis
• Rabbi Nissen Telushkin noticed several times that a rich man with a high standing in the community insisted on sitting at the back of the synagogue although he was entitled to a seat up front. This man carefully watched to see if anyone noticed that he had chosen a humble seat. Finally, Rabbi Telushkin said to the man, “It would be better if you sat up front, and thought that you should be seated in the back, rather than to sit in the back, and think the whole time that you should be seated in the front.”
• The wife of Rabbi Wolfe of Zbaraj quarreled with her female servant. Because they could not settle the quarrel, the two women began to leave for the rabbinical court. However, when Rabbi Wolfe got up to go with them, his wife told him, “I don’t need your help.” Rabbi Wolfe replied, “That is true. Everybody knows and respects you, but no one knows and respects this poor servant girl. I am going with you to help her and to plead her case.”
• For the 1991 Emmy-winning Simpsons episode “Like Father, Like Clown,” Rabbi Levi Meier and Rabbi Harold Schulweis provided religious expertise. Their names appeared as technical consultants in the credits, and immediately Rabbi Schulweis became a celebrity in the eyes of his congregation. He said, “I became an instant hero among my young people. I was cool.”
• A visitor from the United States visited Polish rabbi Hafez Hayyim and noted that the rabbi’s house was filled with books, but had only a table and a bench for furniture. “Where is your furniture?” asked the visitor. “Where is your furniture?” asked Rabbi Hayyim in turn. “My furniture? But I’m only visiting here!” the visitor said. Rabbi Hayyim replied, “So am I.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. was first, and correct, with:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Swordplay"
Album: This is a single.
Artist: The Sloptones
Artist Location: St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Info:
Music by Aleksandr Zatsepin
Alexey Chilakhin - guitar, bass, keys
Andrey Parfenov - drums, percussion
Cover art by Alexey Chilakhin
Recorded: Nachoface/Reverb Eye SP, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 2018.
“The Sloptones have been around since 2012, and today the St. Petersburg surf scene would have been incomplete without them. Their wavy music sounds suits just fine at wake-stations in the Gulf of Finland, at vintage car shows and in noisy clubs in the heart of the city. The general public got to hear the surf-rock music thanks to Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and originally it was the music of Californian youngsters of the 1950s, who loved to ride the Pacific waves to energetic guitar motifs with no lengthy lyrics to interrupt them. The Sloptones take The Ventures’ melody, add some buzzing Dick Dale approved tremolo, and set them into orbit - and beyond! Drifting through the clouds of reverb, their tunes sound as if written for a movie about Martians or an exciting non-fiction story. And what’s more important, The Sloptones’ driving retro-futuristic instrumentals are great to dance to!”
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE)
Genre: Surf Instrumental
Links:
“Swordplay”
The Sloptones on Bandcamp
The Sloptones on YouTube
The Sloptones Live (YouTube Playlist)
Other Links:
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
Little Big Horn
New Venture
Michael Egan
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
After midnight and the noise continues and the shittens remain in cowering-mode under furniture.
75 Years
Jimmy, Rosalynn Carter
The young midshipman needed a date one evening while he was home from the U.S. Naval Academy, so his younger sister paired him with a family friend who already had a crush.
Nearly eight decades later, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are still together in the same tiny town where they were born, grew up and had that first outing. In between, they’ve traveled the world as Naval officer and military spouse, American president and first lady, and finally as human rights and public health ambassadors.
“It’s a full partnership,” the 39th president told The Associated Press during a joint interview ahead of the couple’s 75th wedding anniversary on July 7.
It will be another milestone for the longest-married presidential couple in American history. At 96, Carter also is the longest-lived of the 45 men who’ve served as chief executive. Yet even having reached that pinnacle, Carter has said often since leaving the Oval Office in 1981 that the most important decision he ever made wasn’t as head of state, commander in chief or even executive officer of a nuclear submarine in the early years of the Cold War.
Jimmy, Rosalynn Carter
Weekend Box Office
“F9”
Although the box office has yet to fully recover from the pandemic, at least one studio has good reason to celebrate this Fourth of July weekend. Universal Pictures currently has the top three films at the domestic box office with “F9,” “The Boss Baby: Family Business” and “The Forever Purge,” according to studio estimates Sunday. It’s the first time that’s happened for Universal since 1989, when the studio had “Sea of Love,” “Parenthood” and “Uncle Buck” topping the charts, and the first time for any studio since 2005.
As expected, the “Fast & Furious” sequel “F9” maintained the top spot in its second weekend in North American theaters. The film added an estimated $24 million over the weekend and is projected to take in $32.7 million by the end of Monday, bringing its domestic total to $125.8 million. Worldwide, “F9” will likely surpass the $500 million mark on Monday.
In second place, the animated “Boss Baby” sequel surpassed expectations opening with $17.3 million for the weekend and $23.1 million including Monday. “The Boss Baby: Family Business” features Alex Baldwin voicing the worldly toddler. And in third place, the latest Blumhouse venture, “The Forever Purge,” is expected to gross $12.8 million in ticket sales through Sunday and $15.9 million over the four-day weekend.
Paramount’s “A Quiet Place Part II” landed in fourth with an estimated $4.2 million over the three-day weekend and a projected $5.6 million including Monday, bringing its total to $145.8 million in its sixth weekend. “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard” took fifth with $3 million for the weekend.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “F9,” $24 million.
2. “The Boss Baby: Family Business,” $17.4 million.
3. “The Forever Purge,” $12.8 million.
4. “A Quiet Place Part II,” $4.2 million.
5. “The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard,” $3 million.
6. “Cruella,” $2.6 million.
7. “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway,” $2.3 million.
8. “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” $1.3 million.
9. “In the Heights,” $1.3 million.
10. “Zola,” $1.2 million.
“F9”
‘Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball 1921’
‘The Shining’
For hardcore fans of “The Shining,” this Fourth of July marks an important anniversary in the history of the infamous Overlook Hotel…and it all comes down to a photo.
If you’ve seen Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1980 adaptation of the Stephen King novel, then you know about the photograph shown at the very end of the film after Jack Torrance (played full throttle by Jack Nicholson) suffers a chilly demise. The photograph shows Jack at the front of a grand Fourth of July ball at the Overlook Hotel, and if the inscription on the photo is correct, then today is the 100th anniversary of that mysterious party.
Over the past four decades, the photo has captured the imagination of horror fans and spawned theories about what the photo could mean. One popular theory is that the photo shows the picture of all the victims that the curse of the Overlook Hotel has claimed over the years.
But Kubrick himself revealed his own intentions behind the photo, saying in an interview with French film critic Michel Ciment at the time of the film’s release that the photo “suggests the reincarnation of Jack.”
So, according to Kubrick, Jack Torrance is the reincarnation of a guest at the Overlook Hotel from decades ago, as was Charles Grady, the previous caretaker whom Jack learned had become bloodthirsty while watching the hotel the previous summer.
‘The Shining’
Female Cadets In Heels
Ukraine
Ukraine’s defense minister is under pressure from members of the government over the decision to have female military cadets wear pumps with heels in an important parade.
“The purpose of any military parade is to demonstrate the military ability of the army. There should be no room for stereotypes and sexism,” said a joint statement from three Cabinet members, including Minister of Veterans Affairs Yulia Laputina.
The statement followed last week’s announcement about the footwear in the parade planned for Aug. 24, the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
It noted that about 57,000 women serve in the country’s armed forces and “have proved their worth not in heels, but with machine guns.”
The military offered no explanation as to why female cadets were wearing a different type of shoe than male cadets.
Ukraine
16 Tons
Los Angeles
A 27-year-old man who stored 16 tons of illegal fireworks at his home, leading to an explosion that injured 17 people, has been arrested, federal officials say.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Arturo Ceja III on Saturday on suspicion of transporting explosives without a license, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On Wednesday night, Los Angeles police tried to safely detonate some of the cache in the middle of a densely populated area but a containment vehicle failed, resulting in a blast that damaged homes and injured 17 people, McClatchy News reported.
A 500-pound lid to the containment vehicle was later recovered from a yard three to four blocks away from the South Los Angeles blast, KTLA reported.
Officers initially found 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks at Ceja’s home, but later discovered 32,000 pounds, or 16 tons, in all, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Los Angeles
Plane Flashing Sign
‘Loser-Palooza’
Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up)’s “Save America” rally in Sarasota, Florida, on Saturday night was once again met by a throng of his supporters — and a plane flying overhead with a scrolling neon sign dubbing the event “Loser-Palooza.”
“These are loser rallies where the biggest loser of them all whines, further incriminates himself, and rants and raves like a lunatic,” Brett Meiselas of MeidasTouch, the company responsible for the plane tells TheWrap. “The name ‘loser palooza’ describes it perfectly and we thought it was important to remind all those who attended they do not represent the winning spirit of America.”
MeidasTouch, a political action committee formed in March 2020 for the singular purpose of preventing the re-election of Donald Trump, promptly took responsibility for the prank online as well, posting a video of the plane’s journey on Twitter. “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s our #LoserPalooza plane flying over the Trump loser fest,” it wrote.
The rally was held 3 1/2 hours almost directly due west of Surfside, where crews of first responders continue to search for survivors in the collapse of a residential building outside Miami Beach. As a result of those efforts, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was not in attendance at the rally.
Though Trump did call for a brief moment of silence for the victims and families of the tragedy before he began speaking, he almost immediately launched into his usual talking points, slamming cancel culture and the Biden administration.
‘Loser-Palooza’
Monarch Butterflies
Florida
Every year, swarms of majestic monarch butterflies take wing in a massive autumn migration from the northern United States to a small region near Mexico City — except for a wayward population that diverts to Florida.
Why some butterflies break off toward the Sunshine State is one of the many mysteries of monarch behavior, but an emerging scientific debate revolves around thousands of South Florida enthusiasts who have planted butterfly gardens to help revive an iconic and at-risk species. Some scientists believe that the Florida diaspora, which has naturally existed for a long time, is being unnaturally coaxed into loafing year-round instead of migrating because of a widely imported tropical plant.
What’s alarming is that when monarchs don’t migrate, they begin accumulating a wing-deforming parasite known as OE.
“South Florida is a cesspool of infected monarchs,” said Andy Davis, an assistant research scientist of monarch ecology at the University of Georgia. “Take any given monarch there and it will have OE.”
There is hope that a switch to planting native milkweeds may change the region from a parasite peninsula to a natural butterfly vacation spot.
Florida
Plants Millions Of Saplings
India
More than a million people on Sunday began planting 250 million saplings in India’s most populous state, part of an annual mass tree planting campaign to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of global climate change.
Lawmakers, government officials and volunteers from social organizations swarmed riverbanks, farms, forests, schools and government buildings, planting saplings at designated spots. The effort spans 68,000 villages and 83,000 forest sites in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
India has pledged to keep a third of its total land area under forest and tree cover, but a growing population and increasing demand for industrial projects has placed greater stress on the land.
Social organizations planted a large number of “peepal” trees (Ficus religiosa) in Lucknow, the state capital, which is recovering from a devastating surge of coronavirus infections.
India
Buried in Biblical Times
Fossil Sharks Teeth
Fossilized sharks' teeth from the Cretaceous may have been prized collectors’ items or imbued with some significance in biblical times, a new discovery suggests. Alternatively, some extinct sharks got themselves into places they really shouldn't have.
The Jerusalem old city is not only well inland, but at an altitude above 700 meters (2,500 feet). It's not the place you expect to find marine fossils. Nevertheless, that is indeed what archaeologists digging up a 2,900 year old house found. Scientists reporting on the discovery to the Goldschmidt Conference don't think this is another case like a patch of Kentucky far from the ocean being filled with shark remains from the time when the area was under water. Instead they report in Frontiers In Ecology and Evolution that the teeth got to the holy city via human intervention, teaching us something about ancient societies, rather than palaeography.
The find was made in excavations of the village of Silwan, which is thought to have been part of the original site of Jerusalem. Archaeological digging at the site has been controversial since the area has a predominantly Palestinian population, but approvals are granted by the Jerusalem council.
The teeth were found in material that had been used to fill in a pool that was acting as part of the water supply during a conversion to a large (for the era) house. Also in the material were fish bones, but these were definitely not related to the teeth. The bones were food waste from around the time the house was built, about half of them identified as coming from the Bardawil lagoon, Egypt, while the teeth are tens of thousands of times older.
All 29 shark teeth so far found in the area were from the late Cretaceous. Similar fossils are found in their natural environment in the Negev, at least 80 kilometers away and much closer to sea level. Upon further investigation Tuetken and colleagues have since found teeth from a variety of Cretaceous shark species at other archaeological sites from the same era, indicating their value was widespread.
Fossil Sharks Teeth
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