Can you Do the Fandango?

I found myself calling out: 'I see a little silhouetto of a dog!'  And I added, Scaramouche, Scaramouche ...

Can you believe how much Queen has impacted our generation—and those immediately following? 

When our daughter and her OM team had gone into regional competition—usually at Berwick SD—they usually had "Another one Bites the Dust" playing over the speakers (and, of course "We will rock you").

A friend of mine, from our choir days (Messiah,  Nelson Mass, Christmas Carols) brought 'A Night At the Opera', and we (and Umanga) thoroughly enjoyed "I like to ride my bicycle" and other jewels!

And last, but certainly not least, there was 'Somebody to Love', and let's not forget the version with George Michael!

They were the Champions.  I should have posted this on the other Blog ... Maybe I can talk our Band "The Encores" into playing a Queen song.

Happiness for Everyone???

Bertrand Russell was one of the most clear-thinking people whose writings I have encountered.

“All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer.
These people can only be refuted by science:"
(Actually, refuted by logic.  Bertrand Russell was a preeminent logician, and it would be justifiable if he were to conflate logic with science; they were so much the same thing in his mind.  He continues:) 

"Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.“

— Bertrand Russell, The Science to Save Us from Science, The New York Times (19 March 1950)

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Harrison Butker???

I only just heard about the graduation address delivered by this football player at Benedictine College on February 5th.  Apparently, he told the graduating women that their diplomas would not be as important as their marriages.

This is a complicated statement to unravel; first off, it is an opinion—I hope he presented it as such—rather than an incontrovertible fact.  (A wife or a mother could very well find her diploma extremely useful, even after marriage.)  And how is one to assess the importance of these things, except relative to their usefulness?

It was a graduation address at a Catholic school, so it is possible that Butker's statement was intended to be theological in nature, in which case, who am I to disagree?  It just seems to me that Mr. Butker's point would have been more appropriate to wealthy women who plan to live a life of leisure and child-rearing, than to hard-working women of today, who have to work at professional jobs as well as raise a family.

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Poetry

This poem is by Christina Rossetti 

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

What is pink? a rose is pink

By a fountain's brink.

What is red? a poppy's red

In its barley bed.

What is blue? the sky is blue

Where the clouds float thro'.

What is white? a swan is white

Sailing in the light.

What is yellow? pears are yellow,

Rich and ripe and mellow.

What is green? the grass is green,

With small flowers between.

What is violet? clouds are violet

In the summer twilight.

What is orange? Why, an orange,

Just an orange!

Menendez

So, they're trying to select a jury for the Menendez trial, and one question they're asking each potential juror is: Do you assume anyone from New Jersey is a criminal?

What a sad reputation to have to live with.  And what a sad thing to have to have a senator like Menendez to represent your state.

Open Your Eyes A Second Time

A few weeks ago, I blogged on noticing things.  But this is not a new idea; long before Education was a thing, there were parables about noticing things. 

In South Asia, and in India, the sages talk about the third eye of God; it was to symbolize this that initially Hindu folks placed a bright red spot on the center of their foreheads.

In one of Terry Pratchett's books, he introduces one of his most delightful characters: Tiffany Aching, who was a little witch.  She had to be tutored by an adult witch, who was Granny Weatherwax (Esme Weatherwax, actually).  Granny instructed Tiffany to open her eyes, and then open them again.  Throughout the world I'm sure there are similar exhortations to young Padawans to look, and to see things that the uninitiated miss.  And for students of music: to hear what untutored ears overlook.  And for Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts exploring the woods: to listen.  This was Baden-Powell's gift to young people, to extend all your faculties.  Reading the Jungle Book, you get the same message, but now it is life and death, and survival.  Jesus taught something similar: He who has ears, he said, let him hear.  (This is not telling you to leave someone who's listening to a podcast alone; it means Listen carefully!)

Life is too short for a teacher to be following you around, saying: Did you notice this?  Did you notice that?

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