Yesterday, the radio opera was “The Hours” by Kevin Puts. Its world premier was just last season. I’m not going to try to describe the plot because it isn’t really a plot. It looks at the lives of three different women in three different time periods, all of whom have some connection to Virginia Woolf. One is Virginia Woolf, one (in the 1950s) is reading Virginia Woolf, and one (in the 1990s) is compared to Virginia Woolf. The opera jumps around a lot between them (I believe they call it being “interwoven”), so it’s next to impossible to follow if you aren’t able to see it. But it’s nice to listen to, and one can always get the book or the movie if one wants more details. Now I’m off to see Virgil.
This has nothing to do with anything really, except that it’s a good reminder not to simplify people. Most people are complex and many-sided, but it’s not always easy to see that or to bring it out. (Yes, it’s the NYT, but it’s a gift link.)
Beau led me to this site – it’s delivered in a way suggestive of fun (at least if you like Bingo) but has some genuine information.
Yesterday was a bad back (and shoulder) day. I wasnt happy about it, but I had to admit I had earned it – assembling furniture, packing stuff up for charity, moving heavy stuff around. I thought I had paced it better, but I guess not. I used the TENS a full two hours, which helped. And today is an opera day (also a filling pill bottles for the next two weeks day) so I’ll make a point of resting physically, and ice if necessary.
This is what clean energy is all about – rechargeable batteries. Not the double A ones you probably use if you have a solar stake in your yard, but big ones. Really big ones.
Eric Adams is not my idea of the world’s greatest mayor – but I do like this. (And, if Trump** doesn’t hand his phone off to one of his attorneys before they take him, they will confiscate it, and there will be no Xeets from it. Not that i suppose the reception is all that great inside.)
Yesterday, Douglas County High bowed to community pressure. I had not mentioned this earlier, but the back story is that they thought it would be nice to have their graduation ceremony this year at the Air Force Academy. Douglas County is one of two counties just north of mine; it’s the one that’s mostly mountain, while the other is mostly plains. Still, someone had the brain and spine to point out that if graduation was held at the Academy, undocumented students would not be able to attend their own graduation. (Also non-citizens without passports and family members with a prior felony conviction would not be able to attend.) So they have moved it again, this time to Parker, CO. The letter announcing the change sounds a little grudging to me, but they say actions speak louder than words, so I’ll take it.
If this doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what will. It would appear Kahn sees Sulzberger the way MAGAs see Trump**. Or maybe the way he sees Trump**. Whatever, it’s not good.
It really is no wonder that Trump** thinks a President can do anything he wants to when so many voters think that Joe Biden can do anything he wants to. I know, I’m the one who put up the meme comparing Joe to wizards, but the fact he is but a decent and law-abiding human being. If he could wave a wand or stomp the floor with a staff or flash a light saber and by doing so achieve peace in the Middle East, I’m sure he would do so (and also in Ukraine.)But he can’t. There are laws and rules he has to respect. Robert Hubbell understands that.
Yesterday, the Smithsonian informed me that there are 2 baby pygmy lorises (endangered) at the Zoo. This is part of a breeding program designed to help the species recover. You need to scroll down a bit to get to the article, but it’s there. And at the bottom of the page, 5 photos are available for download. They are adorable, but I wouldn’t want to cuddle one – slow lorises produce venom (the only mammals known to do so.)
A gift link (no paywall) to an opinion piece at the New York Times. I don’t think there’s anything in it we don’t already know (well, maybe not the exact figures to the last decimal) but I hope – we can hope – it will help to educate some people.
In a related article (both deal with inequality), Robert Reich “destroys” stock buybacks.” Of course they aren’t destroyed, they still exist, but you’ll know in full why they shouldn’t.)
This news cheered up Mary Trump. I hope it helps y’all. Just don’t forget he is still a Republican.
Yesterday, I got a couple of my hospital stay bills paid (with my HRA credit/debit card.) I haven’t paid them all because I haven’t gotten them yet – the hospital got my address wrong and then passed that on to everyone. I have like 8 MSNs (they used to be called EOBs), many have more than one provider, and one of them has so many providers it’s 14 pages. But the combination of Medicare and an HRA is a real blessing. Incidentally, today is Saint Joseph’s Day. Just two days after St. Patrick’s, and coming asthey do in the middle of Lent, they make a nice little break from Lenten fasting … if anyone is still doing that.
Robert Hubbell provided a link to a transcript of President Biden’s Gridiron speech. Unlike the White Hose Correspondents’ Dinner, video is never released from the Gridiron, so this is all we’ll get. FactBase, who posted it, attempts to provide reactions along the way. Remember, when you see negative reactions, that everyone there is a journalist. My reaction is very positive to thse remarks.
Viktor Orbán is in some ways more dangerous than Trump**. Unlike Trump**, he knows what he is doing and he is good at it. The meeting Heather Cox Richardson writes about was blatant subversion, and a public slap in the face to the United States (though it wpuld have been more public had the media bothered to notice it.)
Yesterday, I really did not want to get up. It might be the fault of the weather. Today and tomorrow, snow is heavily predicted, starting at 2 am today and going steadily through about 10 Friday morning. We do need the water so I can’t really complain -though the watersheds are where we need it most, and they are at much higher elevations than Iam.
I may be one of the last remaining Americans who actually like Merrick Garland. When I see articles all over Democratic sites blaming him, for example, for Jan 6 rioters getting short sentences (judges do that – not even the same branch of government) or dragging his feet (I do admit to someone not involed in criminal law that it looks like that, primarily because he committed so many of his criomes in broad daylight and plain sight), I find it refreshing to see a different opinion. Especially from someone such as Marcy Wheeler, who has credentials and a solid reputation. The first link takes you to the her main argument, and the second, at her own blog, supplements the first somewhat.
Kerry Eleveld, who is on the staff at Daily Kos, analyzes the shifts in polling produced by the quality of Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. It’s good news.
I’m slipping this in today because I don’t want people to be needlesslay alarmed. (Alarmed is fine if it’s needed.) Wonkette’s style is frivolous butI think handles the story well.
Yesterday, President Biden sent his budget to Congress – a trifling $7.3 trillion. I wouldn’t count on Congres, particularly the House, to act constructively. Also, I learned VP Harris will visit Colorado today. No, I won’t be there, but I expect to get a report from CPR today or tomorrow. And I found a link to the one-woman show about Ann Coulter. It was made in 2020, and will be available through 2026. It runs abou an hour and 53 minutes. If you have never seen it, you may want to – and if you have seen it, you may want to see it again.
Off topic, but, if you havent, please check out the open thread for March 9 – there’s news about Carrie (not, sadly good).
I don’t doubt this would make a lot of people angry – if they would see it – which they probably won’t. “Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait” – Balzac – usually quoted in English as “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.”
If you ever read “The 19th Magazine”, or if you saw this article in their newsletter, you instantly knew I would use it. Women’s History, Black History, even music history, all in one piece – of course I would.
Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino.” If you ever hear someone claim that opera has far-fetched, hard to believe, plots, this may be the one they are thinking of. It starts with the heroine planning to elope, since her father disapproves of her suitor. The suitor is a bit late, and, unfortunately, the father bursts into her room before they have left. He threatens the suitor, who responds by attempting to prove he is not an enemy by disarming. But the gun goes off (in the script he drops or throws it to the floor, which sets it off; this production is less clear about what happens.) And the unintended bullet kills her father, who, as he dies, curses his daughter. I used to say “And from there it just gets more unlikely.” Today I wouldn’t claim it gets less likely – however, it certainly doesn’t get any more likely either. The opera is not performed all that often, not because it isn’t popular (it is), but because the soprano part is at least as difficult as anything in opera, even Wagner’s operas, and Leontyne Prices just don’t turn up every day. There are excerpts from it which are frequently recorded separately – arias for the soprano and the tenor, a male chorus with soprano obligato, a duet with the tenor and the baritone – all of which are in different ways heartbreakingly beautiful.
Just a little exercise in “compare and conatrast” here:
“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today…. History is watching. If the United States walks away, it will put Ukraine at risk. Europe is at risk. The free world will be at risk, emboldening others to what they wish to do us harm.” [President Joseph Biden, State of the Union Address, March 7, 2024]
“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility.” [president Abraham Lincoln – Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]
I did not watch or listen to the Republican response (can you blame me?), and, although some of this article has been “translated,” shall we say, it’s probably all we need to know about it.
Well, this is bad news for anyone with allergies who has ambitions of traveling into space! But I’m sure glad they found it out this way and not in use.
