I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — a career retrospective of the Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. through July 16th.
Photos by Rineke DijkstraCHEERS also to spending part of last weekend away …. while still managing to catch part of the Twilight Zone marathon. A series that is over fifty years old …… which seems as fresh as ever.
THURSDAY's CHILD is a Swiss hero cat— who helped a disoriented (and slightly injured) hiker in the Swiss Alps find the correct trail back to the hostel he stayed at last spring.
Swiss Alps Hero CatWHILE IT WILL NOT make Inauguration Day any less bitter — how I wish they could make professor Robert Reich’s proposed alternate concert a reality! — I think I am finally coming out of the post-election funk (the cave-in by the GOP on ethics no doubt helped).
The final paragraph of the book Fear Strikes Out by the baseball player Jimmy Piersall — who had a nervous breakdown during the 1952 season — has always stayed with me ….. as Piersall recounted his meeting an airline flight attendant who remembered him quite well from that fateful year (but he didn’t recall her, at all).
“I don’t remember anything — 1952 was a bad year for me”.
“You mean because you were sick, Jimmy?”
“Yes.”
“But wasn’t that also the year that you were cured?”
“Yes, it was.”
“Well, then I’d say 1952 was a good year — the best of your life”.
I guess maybe she was right, at that.
And so perhaps the advent of 2017 looms like a sword of Damocles over us … yet perhaps, it might mark our comeback. At least, I’m up for the challenge.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Sweet Blue the Cat— a Virginia kitteh who showed-up at a quilt shop, whose owner didn’t think they could ever replace their late 14 year-old shop kitteh ….. but the quilt shop was, indeed, adopted by Sweet Blue ... whom many people visit the quilt shop just to see.
Sweet Blue the CatATTENTION, READERS - this year's quiz from King William's College (a prep school located on the UK's Isle of Man) - with said quiz known as its General Knowledge Paper officially - is now available.
It consists of 18 groups of 10 questions - with one section on events from 1916 (100 years ago) and another section on events of 2016.
Hint: each group has a common theme (although perhaps not immediately recognizable) that helps if you can answer at least one of that group's questions ... thus giving slight hints about other answers. It is among the most difficult general knowledge quizzes on earth (quite British literature-laden, as you might well imagine).
At this link is this year's quiz - and no talking during the quiz! The answers will be made available in early February. Last year I got a blistering 4 correct out of 180. It's so tough that I need to channel ...... Captain Binghamton:
“I could just scream!!!”BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — Talking Heads founder David Byrne and former Florida governor (and now congressman) Charlie Crist.
Musician David Byrne Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… once again, no time for a full musical profile this week — hopefully, following the holidays, my work schedule will start to stabilize. So let me leave you with a song that I heard on the radio once while doing financial work …. and which was so moving, it made me stop halfway to listen to.
Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) was written with a strong blues/Gospel base by Duke Jordan, recorded in 1963 by the trumpeter Donald Byrd— with Herbie Hancock on piano and Kenny Burrell on guitar (both of whom are still alive and performing) — and was performed at Martin Luther King's funeral.
Regardless of the lack of lyrics … it is as spiritual a song as I can think of.
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