Category: Anecdotes
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The Funniest People Who Live Life, Volume 2 — Alcohol, Animals
David Bruce Anecdotes Alcohol • William Frawley played Fred Mertz on TV’s I Love Lucy. He gave a certain panhandler a dollar for coffee each time they met, and one day he asked what the panhandler really did with the money. The panhandler replied that he didn’t buy coffee with the money, but instead bought whiskey. […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life, Volumes 1 & 2 — War, Work, Actors
David Bruce Anecdotes War • During World War II, the Archbishop of Canterbury was very worried about the Cathedral at Canterbury. Prime Minister Winston Churchill assured him that everything possible had been done to keep the Cathedral safe, but the Archbishop asked, “What will happen if they score a direct hit on the Cathedral?” Churchill replied, […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life — Spirits, Taoism, Television, War
David Bruce Anecdotes Spirits • While climbing Mount Everett in the successful 1953 expedition that resulted in Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reaching the summit, the explorers sometimes passed sacred walls made of mani stones. On these stones was engraved a Tibetan Buddhist prayer — Om Mani Padme Hum, or “Hail to the Jewel of the […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life — Profanity, Public Speaking, Respect, Sex
David Bruce Anecdotes Profanity • In the middle of the last century, Cleburne (Texas) High School star player Jimmy Strickland asked his team to pray before a football game. However, after the kickoff the other football team started steadily advancing across the field, so Mr. Strickland told his fellow players during the huddle, “Men, some #$%$%@ […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life — Problem-Solving, Profanity
David Bruce Anecdotes Problem-Solving • Joan Rivers was serious about getting work when she was a struggling young comedian. She once crawled on the floor with a rose in her mouth — a gift to the secretary of a booking agent. She would sometimes write in the appointment book of a secretary to a booking agent: […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life — Prejudice, Problem-Solving
David Bruce Anecdotes Prejudice • Blues singer William “Big Bill” Lee Conley Broonzy was born during the days of Jim Crow, and all of his family suffered from prejudice. His grandmother was bi-racial, and when she married a black man, her family wanted nothing to do with her. When Big Bill was a boy, he used […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life — Prayer, Preachers, Prejudice
David Bruce Anecdotes Prayer • When Helen Ross was dying of cancer, her friend Fred Rogers (TV’s Mister Rogers) visited her. She asked him, “Do you ever pray for people, Fred?” He replied, “Of course I do: Dear God, encircle us with Thy love wherever we may be.” She said, “That’s what it’s all about, isn’t […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life — Practical Jokes, Prayer
David Bruce Anecdotes Practical Jokes • In the musical Dreamgirls is a scene in which the actors and actresses pretend to be playing musical instruments. One actress whom Derryl Yeager disliked did not want to mess up her lipstick, so she always put the mouthpiece of her French horn not on her lips, but on her […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life — Names, Nuns, People with Handicaps, Practical Jokes
David Bruce Anecdotes Names • Mary Elfrieda Scruggs Bailey married John Williams and became Mary Williams. When she began to record as a jazz pianist, her agent wanted her to have a better name, so he added Lou to her name, and she became Mary Lou Williams — the name that jazz fans know her by. […]
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David Bruce: The Funniest People Who Live Life — Music, Names
David Bruce Anecdotes Music • Ludwig van Beethoven’s creation of the Missa Solemnis caused him to lose two servants. According to his secretary Anton Schindler, Beethoven stayed behind closed doors, “singing, howling, and stamping his foot” in an attempt to get the “Credo” fugue right. Two maids were so frightened that they quit. • Ludwig van Beethoven […]
Anecdotes, ARTS, BOOKS, and Music 