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Hard to think, right off. Meeting at the University of California, Berkeley in 1940. From left to right: Ernest O. Lawrence, Arthur H. Compton, Vannevar Bush, James Bryant Conant, Karl T. Compton, Alfred L. Loomis

I have a nice personal memory. During a visit to NYC with Andre in 2009 (trip report here: http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3724-three-dinners-with-andre/), we went to a play at a small theatre in the West Village, and Joan was sitting a few seats away. At intermission Andre asked her if I could take a photo of them together, and she said, Of course. She was very gracious, none of the star-shunning-public-recognition crap. But she was also her feisty funny self. After I snapped the pic (in his other hand he was holding a glass of wine from the lobby concession stand), she gestured to the drink and then her jacket and said, "Hey, did any of that spill on me? This thing was four thousand bucks!" When she saw it hadn't, she chuckled and said "Good thing for you."

My Time is winding Down here. It's Sunday afternoon now and I just have tonight and tomorrow. I leave for a day in Hong Kong early Tuesday morning and then back to Ft.Lauderdale Wednesday afternoon. My upgrades came thru for the return, relieving a lot of tension. I've still never done Asia in coach, day will come and not looking forward to it. Friday night I brought back the boy I had on Thursday night. It's amazing what an extra 100 baht will get you. Plus getting together the night before, there is a comfort level. But he really turned on the affection. I didn't think I was going to make it out of the shower. He ended up spending the night. I usually prefer to be alone overnight, but if you have a really comfortable bed and air conditioning, it's like a night at the palace for them. So when he asked, I said ok. It's also fun to get dragged to the shower in the morning by a cute young guy, for the price of breakfast and taxi. Saturday I went for a couple of boat rides on the river. One of my friends needed to stop by a friends and asked if I wanted to go. River taxis are a lot of fun and on cost about .50 Again the weather has held off this weekend. From what I hear there is lots of rain north and east of Bangkok, but just not reaching the city with much more than an occasional quick shower. But with rain upriver, the currents are running pretty good and at times it was hold on time. You hear about the ferry accidents in SE Asia a lot, so I always sit in the open areas. The water taxis are a great way to see the Grand Palace, Wat Po, and the great riverside hotels. Saturday night it was back to Soi Twilight for an evening of people watching. Both Friday and Saturday were pretty busy. I had originally planned to bring a boy back, but after running around all day and eating late, I just quite wasn't in the mood . My friend told me the police came into Soi Twilight Friday night and closed everybody down at 2:30am. He was quite angry as he had a lot of customers, but they close at 3am anyway, so it wasn't that much of a big deal. But who knows, they could come tonight and close you at 1am. He said first time it ever happened. As the sunrises in the US, the sun is setting here, so it's off to dinner, and I think I will find something to bring back to the apartment for desert and nightcap.

Always a humorous label. Do you know what it means? It refers to a gyroscope which is subject to tumbling aka precessing and often takes a considerable amount of time to erect itself (just like me). Fast erection bypasses the normal process and restores the gyro to it useful state. Best regards, RA1

Meow.

Joan Rivers: the queen of comedy reflects on her past In a 2010 interview, Joan Rivers looks back at a low point in her life. A butler in a starched white jacket opens the door of the palatial apartment in Upper East Side, New York, that is home to Joan Rivers. Supposedly the site of a former ballroom, the main room is decorated in fin de siècle finery, with swathes of pink silk murals and acres of gilt furniture. Two small dogs start yapping. This is, Rivers says, the way Marie Antoinette would have decorated her apartment if shed had the money. In shuffles the self-anointed queen of comedy 47 years in the business and counting and ushers me into a ramshackle, but still grand, library with an open fire. Its been a long day, she says. If you wee, I will kill ya, she adds, addressing one of the dogs a rescued, incontinent Pekinese who, on closer inspection, is wearing some kind of canine nappy. A pillow on the sofa is embroidered with the words I need a man to spoil me, or I dont need a man at all. Joan Rivers, has been described as one of the smartest, funniest and nastiest people on television. She has, she estimates, over the years offended almost everyone in the business with her prodigious swearing and shocking, outré humour: abortions, anal sex, mental illness, disability, 9/11 and the C word all fall within her considerable frame of reference. Jack Lemmon once walked out of one of her stand-up shows, declaring, this is disgusting. Her humour has been politely called the product of female angst but when she gets on stage, she says, she feels rage for every woman on the planet and its that rage that fuels her comedy. Two years ago, she allowed film-makers Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg the duo behind earlier acclaimed documentaries The Devil Came on Horseback, about genocide in Darfur, and The Trials of Darryl Hunt, about a man who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didnt commit to capture a particularly low period in her life, when work had almost entirely dried up. The film, called A Piece of Work and premiering at the Sheffield Documentary Festival on Wednesday, opens with uncomfortably close shots of Riverss surgery-enhanced face without any make-up. Her long-time manager says to camera: Right now they see her as a plastic-surgery freak who is past her sell-by date, who is finished. But God help the next queen of comedy, because this ones not abdicating. She never will. There will be claw marks in that red carpet before she abdicates. Of her infamous obsession with plastic surgery, she says she couldnt stand the hypocrisy of everyone in the entertainment industry doing it and then decrying it. So I became a big advocate for it. Then I became the poster girl. Then I became 'The Joker. In person, everything about Rivers including the effects of those facelifts is softer and gentler. She is, of course, funny: tomorrow night she will be announcing her engagement to one of the rescued Chilean miners on television, she says. But there is little sign of the screaming banshee who yelled abuse at A-listers on the red carpet, where for eight years she hosted the Oscar arrivals. She still contributes to the E! Entertainment channels Fashion Police show, relishing the sartorial missteps of the stars. The performers I know who are wonderful keep it for the stage, she says. You dont need to make an entrance because the lady on stage is your big, mouthy friend who is going to speak for every woman. When I am on E! for the Fashion Police I only care about being a critic. It loses me many friends. I have to say: 'Nicole Kidman, you are in a red dress with a white face. You look like a ketchup bottle. So she wont talk to me at the next party I see her at, but thats my job. At 77, Rivers has lost none of her power to shock. You call it shocking, she says. I call it the truth and I just think you have to face the truth. Just say it and get it out of the way, and stop sugar coating it. However what A Piece of Work really reveals about its subject is that beneath that offensively ballsy stage persona lies a crippling sense of insecurity about finding herself out of work and deemed irrelevant. We are given a glimpse inside her diary, page after page of empty white space. But there are larger human truths in the film that go past entertainment-industry neuroses; growing old, the need to be loved, the fraught mother-daughter relationship. At one point, she is asked by a radio talk-show host: Dont you want to be loved for yourself? and Rivers replies: You just want to be loved, who cares why? At another, she tells a booking agent over the phone: I am a comedy icon. I dont need, at this age, to walk into a room and have it be half full. Later, she openly weeps, saying: My career is as an actress. I am an actress playing a comedienne. Its over, its over No one will ever take me seriously as an actress. This from the woman who has won an Emmy, been nominated for a Tony, written 10 books, appeared in nine films and more than 60 television series, made countless celebrity appearances and sold $750 million worth of jewellery on the TV shopping channel, QVC. Rivers cut her teeth with New Yorks theatrical elite. It was at a dinner party with Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg that Marilyn Monroe turned to Rivers then 17 and in her first year at university and said: Men, they are all the same. They are just stupid and they like big boobs. Rivers wrote the line down in her diary and it became the title of one of her books. From there, she endured humiliation and deprivation for almost 10 years playing tawdry clubs, borscht-belt hotels, and Greenwich Village cabarets before appearing, in 1968, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the show that turned Carson into a figurehead for American comedy and which ran for 30 years. When Johnny Carson said, 'You are going to be a star, my life changed that moment, says Rivers, snapping her fingers. Doors opened. Then you have to work like hell to keep them open. But they opened. That period propelled her into the living rooms of America, and saw her performing her stand-up routine while seven months pregnant with her daughter, Melissa. That was unheard of, she says. Every reviewer said I should not be on stage. In those days it was very shocking. She spent 18 years with Carson, but when she decided to leave to start her own show, it caused a rift with her mentor who never spoke to her again. In 1986, she and her husband, British television producer Edgar Rosenberg started work on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers which helped launch the Fox Network. Immediately there were tensions between the owners, Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller, and Rosenberg. Rivers then had a call from Murdoch saying: The tail doesnt wag the dog. Rosenberg was fired, Rivers decided to go with him, and her show was cancelled. Her husband committed suicide three weeks later. As comedians, we are all laughing because life is so horrible, she says. Life is so difficult and I cope with it by making jokes about absolutely everything. I just wrote today on Twitter: 'Hitler: like him or not, he was a great dancer. Some people ask, how can you make a joke about that, or 9/11? I would have made jokes in concentration camps. You have two choices: laugh or die. This is the way Rivers has dealt with every tragedy life has thrown her way. When my mother died and we were beyond close I remember sitting in the beauty salon the day of the funeral, and she always said to me: 'Look good in front of the relatives when I die. I said to the guy doing my hair: 'If you dont make my hair look good you will be doing my mothers by this afternoon. Thats how I get past everything, and I think its a wonderful mechanism to have. Since the documentary, Riverss career has taken another upward swing, and for the first time in years shes turning down parts. Starting in January in the US, there is a new reality show, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, in which she appears alongside her daughter. And she is writing a Broadway play with a friend. I will work as hard as I do because I love it, she says. Its my drug. It feeds me. If you love what youre doing why in Gods name would you give it up?" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/8096974/Joan-Rivers-the-queen-of-comedy-reflects-on-her-past.html

Get well soon, Joan Rivers - an inspiration, whether she likes it or not She is awful. But she's also wonderful, not in spite of but because of the fact she's forever saying appalling things By ELLEN E JONES Sunday 31 August 2014 independent.co.uk When an 81-year-old showbiz legend was rushed to hospital on Thursday, nobody cracked any tasteless jokes. Not out of a sense of decency, but because the only comedian with the balls to do that is Joan Rivers, and this time Joan Rivers was the one attached to the ventilator. This is the woman who called our beloved Adele "fat" and described Kim and Kanye's baby (a baby!) as "desperately in need of a waxing". Nor does she restrict her sharp tongue to celebrities. In a television interview Rivers complained about staying in her daughter's guest room by saying, "Those women in the basement in Cleveland had more space!" In the midst of the most recent bombings of Gaza she said Palestinians "deserve to be dead". There's no two ways about it; Joan Rivers is awful. But she's also wonderful and I think, not in spite of but because of the fact that she's forever saying appalling things. As a bona fide survivor of 50 years in the biz and a pioneer for women, Rivers would be a prized addition to the feminist icon hall of fame, if only she'd allow herself to be inducted. But as she recently told an interviewer, Rivers finds the gushing praise of bright young fangirls actively repugnant: "I'm still breaking barriers and I can still take you sweetheart, with both hands tied behind my back." She saves her meanest barbs for other women, particularly other women in entertainment. It's telling that one of her fiercest feuds is with Chelsea Handler, a US comedian whose career path closely matches that of Rivers. When I saw Rivers live last year (packed room, sold-out show) she was marching up and down the stage, telling jokes which made the audience laugh and gasp in equal measure. The closest she ever got to sisterly supportiveness is also a fair summation of her comic worldview: "Think like a second wife. You grab and you take. You grab and you take. And when you die, whatever you got out of him you have buried on you. If the next bitch wants it, make her dig for it." Rivers makes you dig for it, all right, but underneath, there's a heart of gold. It's there in her 1997 memoir-cum-self help book Bouncing Back, in which she discusses how she overcame the suicide of her husband, bulimia, bankruptcy, public humiliation and industry sexism, and chucks in a few jokes for free. For people going through difficult times, it's a full of empathy, but as for sympathy? Forget it. As Rivers herself would say, screw kindness, here's the truth instead. Women are so often, and in so many ways, told to be polite and nurturing that it's still a thrill to see a women who isn't polite or nurturing, who always misbehaves. I hope Joan Rivers gets well soon, lives to 110 and never stops saying mean things to people who definitely don't deserve it. That woman is an inspiration, whether she likes it or not. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/get-well-soon-joan-rivers--an-inspiration-whether-she-likes-it-or-not-9701613.html

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work Movie Review By Roger Ebert July 16, 2010 No one is ever too old. You may have that idea about Joan Rivers, who is 75 in this film and never tires of reminding us of that fact. Is that too old? It's older than she would prefer, but what are you gonna do? She remains one of the funniest, dirtiest, most daring and transgressive of stand-up comics, and she hasn't missed a beat. “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” covers the events in about a year of her life. If the filmmakers didn't have total access, I don't want to see what they missed. In one stretch in this film she closes a show in Toronto, flies overnight to Palm Springs, does a gig, flies overnight to Minneapolis, and performs another one. Try that sometime. She has the energy, stamina and aggression that a great stand-up needs. She assaults the audience. She pounds laughter out of us. If you've only seen her on television, you have no idea. I saw her in Vegas, and she had people weeping with laughter. I saw her at a memorial service in Toronto for a friend of hers, and she brought down the house. Was that wrong at a memorial service? Brian Linehan, her friend, wouldn't have expected anything less, and she knew it. If you need devout solemnity, Joan Rivers is not your girl. The way she is funny is, she tells the truth according to herself. She hates some people. She has political opinions. Her observations are so merciless and her timing so precise that even if you like that person, you laugh. She is a sadist of comedy, unafraid to be cruel — even too cruel. She doesn't know fear. She seems to be curious about how far she can go and still get a laugh. That must feel dangerous on a stage with a live audience. Maybe she feeds on that danger. This documentary began filming before she had her latest 15 minutes of fame on Donald Trump's “Celebrity Apprentice.” God help Rod Blagojevich if he'd been on the show that season. Rivers has had hours of those 15 minutes of fame. Her life is like a comeback tour. She is frank about her setbacks. She was Johnny Carson's resident co-host (and gave young Siskel & Ebert their first spot on “The Tonight Show”). She left Carson to begin her own nightly show on Fox. Carson never spoke to her again. NBC banned her from all of its shows until two years ago. The Fox show eventually failed, and it was discovered that her husband Edgar, the show's manager, had been stealing from her. He killed himself. She never forgave him — for the suicide, not the other stuff. She was down. She was up. Her daughter Melissa says, “Her career was like me having a sister.” I wonder if Melissa appears with her on red carpet shows because it's a chance for some quiet time with Mom. She hardly mentions the red carpets for which she is now widely known. For her, it all comes down to this week: Does she have bookings? She looks at blank pages in her engagement calendar and says they're so white she needs sunglasses to read them. What makes Joanie run? They say if a shark stops swimming, it dies. She's not a shark. She's a woman who for various reasons depends on making audiences laugh. They walk in knowing all of her problems, knowing her age, eagle-eyeing her for the plastic surgery, ready to complain, and she forces them to laugh, because she's so damned funny. I admire that. Bernard Shaw called it the Life Force. We see her in the film's first shot, without makeup. A minute later, “Joan Rivers” is before us. Her life is a performance of herself. Yes, she's had plastic surgery. Well, why not? I think it's wrong for most people. But show business is cruel and eats its old, and you do what you have to do. She talks about it. She talks about everything. A portrait emerges of a bright little girl who walked onto stage and never wanted to get off. If she can't have a network show, she'll work a dinner club. There's that need in a lot of comics. Once in the Merchandise Mart, I was riding down in an elevator with Henny Youngman. The doors opened at a private club on the second floor, and there was a big placard there pointing to the room for a wedding. Henny didn't miss a beat. He walked off, asked to be introduced to the father of the bride, and told him, “My name is Henny Youngman. I'll do 10 minutes for $200.” I think “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” is fascinating and has a lot of laughs in it. It's more than that. It's the portrait of a woman who will not accept defeat, who will not slow down, who must prove herself over and again. A brave and stubborn woman, smart as a whip, superbly skilled. You want to see what it looks like to rage, rage against the dying of the light? Joan Rivers will not go gentle into that good night. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/joan-rivers-a-piece-of-work-2010

What's a medically induced coma? Joan Rivers' treatment is explained Medically induced comas are common, Dr. Rishi Malhotra, the director of Neuro Critical Care at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, told the Daily News. They help the brain recover after a major incident, such as comedian Joan Rivers' cardiac arrest. BY Meredith Engel NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, August 29, 2014, 1:10 PM Joan Rivers is currently in a medically induced coma after going into cardiac and respiratory arrest during a routine procedure on her vocal cords Thursday. It might be what saves her life. "A medically induced coma is when we administer anesthetics or pain medications at a dose high enough to limit brain functions, either to give rest or stop something like shivering, which requires a lot of energy," said Dr. Rishi Malhotra, director of Neuro Critical Care at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Physicians induce comas regularly in a variety of patients, he added. They help people with brain injuries reduce pressure in their heads, and aid people on ventilators who are not breathing properly. Medically induced comas are common for people who go into cardiac arrest - as Rivers did - so that doctors can use hypothermia to cool the body. Studies show that cardiac arrest patients treated with hypothermia are more likely to recover well. Shivering, which Malhotra mentioned, burns energy that the brain needs because cardiac arrest deprives it of oxygen. Malhotra says medically induced comas can vary in duration, but someone who experienced cardiac arrest is usually in one for 24 to 48 hours. Rivers is set to be taken out of her coma this weekend so that doctors can assess how much oxygen she lost. Though some people can experience low blood pressure when in a medically induced coma, Malhotra said that they are "generally well tolerated" and "are very commonly done to millions of people in the U.S." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/medically-induced-coma-article-1.1921528#ixzz3BsWT8ym4

Now that I've been here for a week, things are a little more routine. Around the corner for coffee in the morning, then back to the pool for a bit of book reading. Little afternoon nap. I'm usually in bed by 11pm at home, but it's been more like 3am here. Dinner around 6, then it's off to the bright lights of Bangkok nightlife. I was concerned about this trip being in the rainy season, but not really an issue. The last 2 nights, we got real soakers. For about 30 minutes between 8 and 10. Otherwise really nothing. But we had more rain the last 2 nights than California has had in 3 years. Feels strange going out for the evening wearing flip flops and walking in water up to your ankles. But has it positives as you get to see a lot of boys in there skin tight wet shirts. It amazes me to watch the street vendors in a matter of seconds erect the plastic tents and cover over their booths or stoves and tables. We are so spoiled that it rains, and we just stay in our houses or nice offices and try to figure how to get to the car, with out getting a drop of rain on ourselves. These people, don't miss a beat. They can't afford to. I love the people driving down the street on motorcycles using umbrellas. But they are very resourceful people. I've been having a bit of a problem finding my evening entertainment this week. There are a lot of hot boys around. But a real excess of straight boys. I have no problem with that if they are willing to put out a bit. I am hardly demanding as the years roll on, but seems they all just want to be the top and nothing more. I'm not playing bottom now, so that has eliminated most of them. I did pick up a boy last night at the bar. He is 21 and really cute boy. Straight, but I have know him for a bit and we talked it out. He was willing to do anything except bottom, so that worked. I always say I like guys under 6' . He was 5'2" This kid could have won the big cock contest. Suckrates would have been happy. Of course when you 7 or 8" on someone around 5', it makes it look even bigger. I had wanted to put a 3 way together this trip, but with the shortage of gay receivers, it's not working out. Hoping more boys will be working the weekend and I'll have something to report. There is a real shortage of tourism here. There were complaining about the lack of tourist when I was here during the spring protest, but it is worst now. I see very few westerners. Most of them live here, or are Australian. Winter down under, so some come here. Reading the papers, the government knows tourism is an issue. There really aren't any issues going on that should keep the tourist away, so hopefully when the rain ends in a month,they will start to come back. 5:30pm and the sun is still shining. Looks like no rain tonight. So time to head off to dinner and then see what kind of trouble I can get myself into.