Any of You Lose Something?

Shipwreck with 22 Tons of Gold Treasure Identified off Portugal Coast
Greek Reporter | December 27, 2024 | Luis Mendoza

Marine archaeologist Alexandre Monteiro has said that the coast of Portugal between the Azores and Madeira islands holds golden treasure-laden shipwrecks. This region is said to contain close to 8,620 ships, and 250 of them are said to hold a significant amount of gold treasure.

… For instance, he claimed that near Troia there is a Spanish ship called Nossa Senhora do Rosário, which according to Monteiro was carrying 22 tons of gold and silver. Unfortunately, the exact location of this ship remains undiscovered.

Straight Line of the Day: Literary Classics That Have Warped You Permanently Include: …

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey hit with trigger warnings by university for ‘distressing’ content
The Telegraph via YahooNews | December 29, 2024 | The Telegraph

UK Counter-Terrorism Program Flags Shakespeare and ‘1984’ for ‘Encouraging Far-Right Sympathies’
PJ Media  | 19 Feb 2023 | Robert Spencer

Cambridge University slammed over Shakespeare ‘trigger warnings’
Fox News | 10/19/2017

Cambridge University is being slammed by several academics after it was revealed students were given “trigger warnings” about an upcoming lecture on Shakespeare, amid concerns from faculty the students could become distressed.

Undergraduates were advised in a “Notes on Lectures” document circulated to students that a potentially triggering lecture on Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” and “The Comedy of Errors” would include “discussions of sexual violence” and “sexual assault,” The Telegraph reported Wednesday.

“If a student of English Literature doesn’t know that ‘Titus Andronicus’ contains scenes of violence they shouldn’t be on the course,” David Crilly, artistic director at The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, told the newspaper.

Friday Night Open Thread: Positive Experiences

People seem to like having good things happen to them — like finding money on the sidewalk. These things sometimes happen.

I found a $20 bill on the sidewalk once, and have never forgotten it.

(Unlike Rihar, I didn’t try to find the owner.)

I even won sometimes at casinos, and enjoyed that. Yes, there are more times I’ve lost. I try to forget those, but note this: no one tries to forget the times they won.

Can any of you cite any instances of anything that’s ever happened to you that was positive?

(Don’t get too personal. We probably don’t want to hear it. I know I don’t, for sure.)

But perhaps relate something like getting a 13th McNugget in a 12-piece order, or something like that. That has never happened to me, but I reckon that $20 bill I found makes up for it. (If I ever lose that twenty, I hope Rihar finds it.)

It’s the little things that make life worthwhile.

Next Week: How To Deal With Jealousy Over Good Luck Other People Have Had

I’ve Written My Memoirs, and You’re In Them!

I just had to pad them out to a thousand words or more, per the publisher’s contract. So I named you.

I then counted up the words. Still fell well short of the target.

Then I tried to tell an anecdote, but got lost in the details, and panicked: it ended with a summary of a Gilligan’s Island episode that would never have made it to film.

In the end, my memoirs were slightly more interesting than Hillary’s and Obama’s. And rather more truthful, if I do say so myself.

Oh, and my apologies to DamnCat. I added a few other unnecessary expletives.

IMAO PSA: “Don’t Fall”

Also, don’t run afoul of the mob.

Bill Maher Confronts Jay Leno With Gambling Debt Rumors
Daily Beast ^ | December 27, 2024 | Matt Wilstein

Bill Maher confronted Jay Leno, 74, with a “conspiracy theory” that the former Tonight Show host’s spate of accidents in recent years were the result of a gambling addiction gone wrong.

“It’s a conspiracy theory since you’ve had three accidents that you actually have gambling debts and are being beaten up by the mob,” Maher told Leno, who laughed off the suggestion as he appeared on the Club Random podcast.

“I love the idea that the mob would drive to Greenberg, Pennsylvania, wait outside the Hampton Inn on a kind of sleety, rainy day to throw me down a hill,” Leno joked, referring to the most recent accident—which left him with a bruised face and sporting an eyepatch after he says he rolled down a steep hill and hit his eye on a rock.

Before that, Leno suffered multiple injuries related to maintaining his classic car collection, including one in which he set his face on fire and another that resulted in multiple broken bones.

All of this led to speculation that Leno, whose net worth is estimated to be north of $450 million, was the victim of loan sharks to whom he owed money.

After Maher explained that no one thinks the mob threw him down a hill, but rather that he is coming up with elaborate “cover stories” for his bad luck. However, Leno calmly assured him that all of his injuries have perfectly reasonable explanations.

The comedian went on to recount that his Tonight Show predecessor Johnny Carson did actually run afoul of organized crime after he was caught “hitting on” a pair of mob girlfriends.

“They put a hit out on Carson. So Carson stops The Tonight Show for the week. He just goes, he leaves, because this is real.”

I found the bit about Carson interesting.

Straight Line of the Day: What Would You Do With the Pyramids for a Day?

MrBeast to Rent Ancient Egyptian Pyramids to Explore Parts ‘That No One’s Seen Publicly’
ARTnews | December 18, 2024 | Francesca Aton

The Egyptian government has yet again rented out the pyramids to the highest bidder—this time to American YouTuber MrBeast.

“We got all three of the pyramids of Egypt for 100 hours. I’m gonna do a video where they let me explore anywhere I want in the Pyramids,” MrBeast revealed during the “Beyond the Records” podcast with Noah Lyles.

MrBeast is known for organizing and filming extreme challenges and prize giveaways.

“I’d never been inside of [the pyramids]. I want to just find secrets and go through all the rooms and tombs and that kind of stuff,” he continued. “I’m so excited because there are all these secret corridors deep below too. I don’t know what to expect.”

Accompanied by a tour guide, MrBeast and some of his friends plan to traverse the inside of the ancient monument, where they will also sleep at night. The YouTuber plans to film the experience, probing for ghosts along the way, with the objective of showing people parts of the pyramid “that no one’s seen publicly.”

He worked with the Egyptian government to gain private access and permission to film there.

This is not the first time people have gotten private access to ancient Egyptian sites. Earlier this year, for example, the ancient Egyptian pyramids and the Great Sphinx in Giza were closed to the public for a week to accommodate a tech billionaire’s wedding.

The Great Sphinx and Pyramids are among the world’s most important archaeological sites.