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 — an exhibition of specialized works by Louis Comfort Tiffany in an exhibition entitled Tiffany’s Glass Mosaics is at the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York through January 7th.
Louis C. Tiffany in CorningTHERE HAS BEEN a concerted effort in the Canadian province of Québec to provide French terms for Anglo popular phrases (such as “courriel” and “fin de semaine” for e-mail and weekend). But this agency has abandoned its efforts to promote “le sandwich au fromage fondant” …. when almost everyone called it .... “le grilled-cheese”.
CHEERS to our family reunion this past weekend (that we hold every two years). Our Saturday night dinner was at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan (where George Washington bade his generals goodbye after the Revolutionary War).
With my four siblings, plus fourteen cousins and familyWe used to all live in the NY, NJ, CT and PA area … but are now scattered across the country (and we grew weary of only seeing each other at funerals). We all get along, nobody holds any grudges, everyone offers to put you up if you visit their city while traveling, and other signs of togetherness — and I first realized this in the early 1970’s after the first divorce … which in many Catholic or other religious families back then caused rifts, but not for us. I am aware that many people reading this have horrible times with their relatives … we’re truly blessed.
THURSDAY's CHILD refused to leave the gravesite of a recently-deceased Malaysian man, who was a cat lover … yet this kitteh (according to the deceased’s grandson) was not his own cat; just one that the man fed whenever he saw him.
Malaysian cemetery kittehHISTORY NOTES — recently, the NPR sports show Only a Game noted how Muhammad Ali was slated to go to jail, as the Supreme Court was prepared to vote 5-3 to uphold his draft evasion conviction in 1971 …. when a clerk to Justice John Harlan named Tom Krattenmaker was able to get Harlan to reconsider … and which eventually resulted in an 8-0 verdict in Ali’s favor.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Sammy the Cat— who was buried by an Englishwoman ….. only to learn that the news of Sammy the Cat’s death (in the words of Mark Twain) was greatly exaggerated after he walked in the front door …. whereupon she found that she had buried a neighbor’s cat instead (who actually was dead).
Sammy the Cat … still aliveBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
FATHER—SON? — two eccentric music entertainers: the late Herbert ‘Tiny Tim’ Khaury and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic.
Tiny Tim Khaury (1932-1996) Al Yankovic (born 1959)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… in part due to reunion preparations, no time for a profile this week. And so, since today is the Autumnal Equinox, here is a famous John Coltrane blues-in-D tribute to the day, Equinox— performed by one of Trane’s band mates who carries on his work today.
He was born Ferrell Sanders in 1940, the son of two music teachers in Little Rock, Arkansas. As a teenager, he played as a house musician for travelling blues musicians, such as Bobby "Blue" Bland and Junior Parker, and one still hears that sound in his tenor saxophone playing today. He was known by his nickname Little Rock - and was a future role model to a part-time tenor saxophonist from …. Hope, Arkansas (who went far in a different field …. as I understand).
Either Sun Ra (deliberately) or the poet Amiri Baraka (mistakenly) called him Pharoah Sanders— and seeing him live was one of my favorite shows of all time. He will soon turn age seventy-seven, lives in the Bay Area and still tours.
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