Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: Fly BDSM (Taki's Magazine)
For those of you who are new to BDSM, let me explain a few of the basics. The letters BDSM stand for Bondage Discipline Sadism and Masochism. These are the four principal elements involved in commercial airline travel.
Joe Bob Briggs: "'New York Times' Endorses Trump" (Taki's Magazine; from Aug 2016)
I can prove to a mathematical certainty that The New York Times will endorse Donald Trump for president. My forensic investigation started two weeks ago when I wrote a column about media hysteria called " Donald, You Ignorant Slut," and the column got passed around to various teetotaling members of the working press (the alcoholic ones were busy), all of whom sent me emails that started out, "YES BUT…"
Joe Bob Briggs: Donald, You Ignorant Slut (Taki's Magazine; from Aug 2016)
They remember a time when they could also say whatever they wanted to say, too, but that time was more than thirty years ago. Meanwhile, there's some guy at the Daily Arapaho telling them they're idiots for voting for Donald Trump. They remember that guy, he's the snooty one who went to McNeese State. He's a clueless media type. Otherwise he would know that they're not voting for Donald Trump because he's a swell guy, they're voting for the restoration of their personal liberty. Fortunately for their cause, the very fact that the media opposes them means they're even more certain that it's the right decision.
Joe Bob Briggs: How CVS Invaded My Brain (Taki's Magazine)
My grandfather, a Texan who worked for the Katy Railroad and the Dallas troubleshooting division of International Telephone & Telegraph, was 30 years old when Franklin Roosevelt got the Social Security Act passed in 1935, and he refused to register. My grandmother begged him to go down to the post-office building on Bryan Street like everyone else and get his Social Security number, but he always said, "I'm not letting the government number me." […] 81 years later, the Social Security number is such a universal means of profiling that, if you die before the age of 65, it's never been used even once to send you money but used several thousand times for other things, most of which fall into the category of Keeping Tabs on This Guy.
Andrew Tobias: Frank Sinatra - 10 Minute Short
Thunderbird Country Club traces its origin to the early 1950s and among its earliest members were a number of entertainment types including Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Hoagy Carmichael, Bob Hope. However, it was an anti-Semitic club and would not allow Jews to join. (…] So the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, George Burns, Danny Kaye and other Hollywood Jews decided to build their own country club - Tamarisk. Another founding member? Frank Sinatra. He also wed one of his fellow Tamarisk members, Barbara, who had been married to Zeppo Marx. And the primary contributor to the Palm Springs reformed Synagogue? Frank Sinatra.
"The House I Live In" with Frank Sinatra( YouTube)
"The House I Live In" is a ten-minute short film written by Albert Maltz, produced by Frank Ross and Mervyn LeRoy, and starring Frank Sinatra. Made to oppose anti-Semitism and racial prejudice at the end of World War II, it received an Honorary Academy Award and a special Golden Globe award in 1946.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
WORK Anecdotes
• When he was a young man, Daniel Keyes, author of Flowers for Algernon, worked as a waiter for a luncheonette and ice cream parlor, which was owned by an eccentric man named Mr. Sohn. This eccentric man would do such things as take sugar dispensers, salt shakers, and ketchup bottles off the tables and hide them behind the counter-this was an over-reaction to an unfortunate day during which a practical joker had put salt in the sugar dispensers and sugar in the salt shakers. Mr. Sohn also was convinced that someone was stealing his flatware, so he would take the flatware and also hide it. Of course, customers expect such amenities as salt, sugar, ketchup, forks, spoons, and knives, so the waiters had a real problem. However, they figured out what they had to do to survive. They used to hide flatware in their pockets and wherever else they could put it, and they figured out ways to distract Mr. Sohn so that their confederates could liberate the sugar dispensers, salt shakers, and ketchup bottles.
• Soon after he started working for MAD magazine, writer Dick DeBartolo needed an answer to a financial question, and only MAD publisher William M. Gaines, whom he had never met, could answer that question. His boss, Nick Meglin, called up Mr. Gaines-while Mr. DeBartolo was still on the telephone line-to arrange an appointment. Unfortunately, Mr. DeBartolo could hear every word Mr. Gaines said on the telephone: "DeBartolo's on the phone? Who the hell wants to speak to him? Did you tell him I'm in? Oh, Christ, what the hell does he want? He's a pain in the *ss!" Fortunately, when Mr. DeBartolo began speaking on the line, Mr. Gaines said, "Dick, I'm pulling your leg. Relax. I do that to all the new guys. I like to scare them. Welcome to MAD."
• Nina Simone started out as a classical pianist, and she hoped to become the first African-American concert pianist; however, she started to play music in a bar in Atlantic City to make money, and she became a singer through an accident. Harry Steward hired her to play at the Midtown, and he enjoyed her piano playing her first night on the job; however, when he had hired her, he had thought that he had hired a singer, so after he had complimented her on her piano playing, he asked her to sing the next night. When she told him, "I'm only a pianist," he replied, "Well, tomorrow night you're either a singer or you're out of a job." She did sing the next night, and she was immediately popular.
• Dale Messick was actually Dalia Messick, but she took a more masculine name to avoid having her work rejected by male editors and publishers simply because she was a woman. She created the comic strip Brenda Starr, and she kept on producing the strip even after she became pregnant, although she says that her work day became "throw up, draw Brenda, throw up, draw Brenda." She liked doing the comic strip and even named her daughter Starr and dyed her own hair red like that of her comic-strip heroine.
• Emma Caulfield played Anya the former vengeance demon on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Perhaps it is lucky that she got the job; after all, she admits to being a horrible waitress at a restaurant where she disliked the food. Customers would come in, ask what she recommended, and she would tell them that the food was very bad but the drinks were very good. Her customers ended eating little, but drinking a lot, and leaving her very generous, motivated-by-alcohol tips.
• Charles M. Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, was a very careful worker. For the first four years he drew his comic strip, he never had a spelling error for his editor, Amy Lago, to find and correct. When he finally turned in a strip with a spelling error-he wrote "extention" instead of "extension"-Ms. Lago was so surprised that she checked a dictionary to make sure that "extention" was not an acceptable alternative spelling of "extension."
© Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
TRUMPS WORRY LINES INCREASING.
R.I.P. URI. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY HERO.
STUCK!
DIAGNOSE THE ILLNESS!
BURN CONSERVATIVES!
THE MAN WHO PUT HIS FOOT IN HIS MOUTH.
TAKE A KNEE.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit of a marine layer!
Walk O' Fame
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner is truly America's Sweetheart.
The 46-year-old actress received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, and made sure to thank those near and dear to her heart. Before taking the podium, Garner's former co-stars and friends Judy Greer, Bryan Cranston and Steve Carell made heartwarming speeches about the incredible actress. There were definitely some extra special guests in the crowd, Garner's parents, as wellas her three kids, whom she shares with ex Ben Affleck: Violet, 12, Seraphina, 9, and Samuel 6.
"All of you here are the most special people in the world to me," Garner expressed, before addressing her family. "Violet, Sera and Sam. Hi, buddy! And my parents and my sisters, my nieces and my nephews."
"I'm so overwhelmed by what an enormous production this ceremony is," she expressed. "Having Steve Carell and Bryan Cranston and Judy Greer here to speak about me, and the thought they put into what they were going to say, and how funny and charming, how much I adore them. And also for me, I'm seeing I have this whole group of people here that I've worked with for decades and friends from forever. So it is a very, very special honor."
Garner had recently opened up to Southern Living about what she hopes to be able to pass on to her children about country living.
Jennifer Garner
Overtake Michael Jackson
The Eagles
A box set of The Eagles' greatest hits has surpassed Michael Jackson's "Thriller" as the biggest selling album of all time, according to a new ranking by the Recording Industry Association of America.
RIAA said "The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-75," a compilation of the country-rock group's first four albums, has now sold 38 million units, topping "Thriller's" 33 million.
The set had long held the top spot but was overtaken in 2009 by "Thriller" following a surge of sales for the album after Jackson's death.
"Hotel California," the Eagles' 1976 album with the hit single of the same name, was ranked third, with 26 million units sold.
The new ranking includes sales both of discs and via streaming, which had not been calculated for the Eagles since 2006, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
The Eagles
Mocks With Typo-Riddled Tweet
JK Rowling
Acclaimed author JK Rowling has mocked Donald Trump (R-Grifter) for his Twitter posts, likening the president's way of writing to the speech of a school yard bully.
Responding to a tweet from the president accusing the New York Times of being "fake news", the Harry Potter author said Mr Trump's message to that of a boastful child with a poor grasp of the English language, and very few friends.
"I don't care what Kids at School call me because they are all Disgusting Fake Losers and my Real Friends go to a different Scool you haven't heard of and they think Im the Coolest and Smartest and we go to parties and I don't have to tell you there Names for this to be True," Rowling wrote in the tweet, purposefully imitating the president's tendency to capitalise words inappropriately, and his frequent grammatical and spelling errors.
Mr Trump had tweeted to attack a report the New York Times had written that suggested White House counsel Donald McGahn has been cooperating extensively with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump campaign officials.
JK Rowling
Weighs In
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson has weighed in on Donald Trump's (R-OfPutin) plan to add a "Space Force" to the U.S. military.
Perhaps surprisingly, celebrity astrophysicist Tyson is on board with the idea - but he seems to believe that there's another, more urgent issue that needs to be addressed.
"I'm okay with a US Space Force. But what we need most is a Truth Force - one that defends against all enemies of accurate information, both foreign & domestic," Tyson tweeted Monday.
In a subsequent tweet, Tyson pointed to the National Academy of Sciences, chartered by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, as the "beginnings of a Truth Force," saying that the academy "provides objective, science-based advice on critical issues affecting the nation."
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Archaeological Finds
Summer
For an aerial archaeologist 2018 has been a bumper year. The long, hot summer has revealed ancient landscapes not visible from ground level, but easily recognised in fields of growing crops from the air.
The principle behind the appearance of cropmarks is simple. If, for example, an Iron Age farmer dug a ditch around his field, over time this ditch will fill up with soil and other debris and will generally retain more moisture than the soil or bedrock it was cut into. Centuries later, a cereal crop sown over this earth will grow for a longer period and ripen more slowly, appearing greener as the surrounding crop ripens to a golden colour. Conversely, a crop planted in soil covering the remains of a stone building or roadway will ripen more quickly and parch, again appearing a different colour to the rest of the crop.
What has made the summer of 2018 so remarkable is that the winter and spring was so wet that plants grew relatively shallow roots, having no need to search deeply for water. So when the drought came this summer, those plants that grew over buried features such as ditches and pits benefited from the greater store of water retained in the infilled soil. Well-drained sandy soils and those over chalk are particularly conducive to revealing features through cropmarks.
Recognising archaeological sites by cropmarks is noted as far back as the antiquarians of the 17th century, although it was William Stukeley - who pioneered the study of Stonehenge and Avebury - who provided the clearest early explanation in his description of features in the Roman town of Great Chesterford in Essex in 1719. In the modern era, at first using balloons, then aeroplanes and, most recently, drones, aerial archaeology photography has become a standard reconnaissance technique.
One area where this has been used widely is the Yorkshire Wolds, among the first to be covered in the National Mapping Programme undertaken by the former Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, begun in 1908, now part of Historic England.
Summer
Tapir Fossil
Alaska
Thanks to her 6-year-old grandson, Janet Klein of Homer recently hosted a few interesting house guests.
Five experts on ancient creatures slept in Klein's Homer house last month as they searched local cliffs for another chunk of a mammal that lived in Alaska millions of years ago. Her guests were Patrick Druckenmiller of the UA Museum of the North, Grant Zazula and Susan Hewitson of the Yukon government, paleontologist Analia Forasiepi of Argentina, and Ross MacPhee, curator of mammology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Along with Klein, a Homer resident and naturalist, the scientists were looking for a rock that might fit into the petrified jawbone of a tapir Klein's grandson Kai found about a year ago on a beach near Homer.
Kai Reising, then 5, was beachcombing in July 2017 with his grandmother; his mother, Deborah Klein; his father George Reising; and his younger brother Silas. In an area where the family had found cool things on other outings, Kai picked up a rock with both hands.
"Kai went over thinking it was a big piece of fossilized wood," Klein said. "When he turned it over, his mom said, 'It has teeth!'
Alaska
Surfing Becomes The Official Sport
California
Surf's up in California, where it's now the official state sport.
Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday that he has signed a bill making it so.
The new law declares surfing to be "an iconic California sport" - though it acknowledges that surfing originated with the Polynesian people and was imported into California from Hawaii.
Still, it says Californians have embraced surfing and made important contributions to the modern sport.
"I am stoked that surfing is now California's official sport. No other sport represents the California Dream better than surfing - riding the waves of opportunity and living in harmony with nature," avid surfer and Democratic state Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi of Torrance said in a statement.
California
In Memory
Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery, a left-wing peace activist who in 1982 became the first prominent Israeli to meet in public with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died on Monday in a Tel Aviv hospital. He was 94.
The encounter took place during Israel's invasion of Lebanon and war with Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), then designated a terrorist group by Israel. Avnery crossed into west Beirut from the Israeli-held east.
"It was the first time Arafat had met with an Israeli, and from this perspective, it could be called a 'historic meeting'," Avnery wrote in Israel's Haaretz newspaper in February.
Secret negotiations a decade later led to interim peace deals with the PLO on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Avnery fled Nazi Germany with his family as a boy and became a journalist and politician, serving as one of the most vocal and articulate voices of the Israeli left.
His meeting with Arafat, after he traveled to Lebanon at the invitation of the Israeli military as part of a reporting trip, lasted about two hours and "dealt entirely with the possibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinian people", he wrote.
It was broadcast the same night on Israeli television and Avnery was questioned by police but ultimately faced no charges.
Avnery served as a lawmaker from 1965 to 1974 and, from 1979 to 1981, as head of a left-wing party. His death, after a stroke, was headline news in Israel on Monday.
In 2003, during the Palestinian uprising, Avnery traveled with other Israeli activists to Arafat's headquarters in the occupied West Bank, to act as a human shield against what they said were Israeli plans to assassinate Arafat after a Palestinian suicide bombing.
Avnery wrote that working to prevent such an act was "the most patriotic thing" to do at that time since killing Arafat would have been a disaster for Israel. Arafat died in 2004.
Uri Avnery
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