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 Laramie, 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 entitled Harding Meyer: Eye to Eye— a contemporary Brazilian artist known for large-scale Realist portraiture with brushes and palette knife — will have a short run at the Odon Wagner Gallery in Toronto, Ontario from December 9th to the 24th.
CHEERS to a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend …. including meeting an old high school classmate who is the chef of a restaurant near our old favorite record store. We hadn’t seen Mike in 35+ years … and was glad to meet him for 5-10 minutes (in addition to a great meal with old friends).
YOUR WEEKEND READ is this essay by the author, essayist and native Floridian Diane Roberts— who used to be featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday— lamenting how Florida has changed from a New South state to an Old Dixie state in the 21st Century.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Smells the Cat— discovered inside a piece of luggage at JFK Airport, being offered a Thanksgiving dinner.
YUK for today — in her essay on the wedding of Joe Biden’s granddaughter, the fashion writer Vanessa Friedman wrote that Naomi’s dress “had a bodice made of Chantilly lace” … and you probably don’t need two guesses as to which 1950’s pop singer’s booming voice fired-off in my mind (despite trying to squelch it).
MUSIC NOTES— for the first time in the one hundred eighty year-old history of the New York Philharmonic— whose Lincoln Center home (when built in 1962) had no women’s dressing rooms — it has a 45-44 female plurality in its ranks.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Flossie the Cat— an English kitteh who — at the age of twenty-seven — has been declared by Guinness World Records to be the world’s oldest cat (one hundred twenty in human years).
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at my favorite book that I’ve read this year — the NYC local cable news host Andrew Kirtzman’s Rudy: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor — and as Kirtzman had already wrote a 2000 bio on him … well, it’s mostly “The Fall”.
A NOTE on TODAY’S POLL— due to the Trump poll last week, this is a two-week catch-up. And there will be a Trump World poll for the month of December on the Christmas Day weekend … I expect it to be a full slate.
Reader Suggested FATHER-SON?— from Audri: TV star James Brolin and film star Christian Bale.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… super busy this week, so two tributes to the late Christine McVie— first, an Etta James classic Chrisitine sang with the UK blues band Chicken Shack in the 60’s (pre-Fleetwood Mac).
And then in the period of Fleetwood Mac’s history after the departure of founder Peter Green (in 1970) and before the advent of Lindsay Buckingham-Stevie Nicks (1975) — “The Middle Mac” is under-appreciated in my mind — she joined the band and was an important contributor. This song is one she wrote from 1971.