Yipee! I made my reservations for the ship. Found I'm paying a senior citizen rate or something, so it was less than half what I thought it would be. I'm pretty excited about it.
Saw in the paper that the Irish American Club in Absecon was having a free presentation last night on John MacCormack, the great Irish tenor. Called Mary Ann to see if she wanted to go, but she wasn't home and I left a message. Didn't hear back from her by the afternoon (she called later to say she had to go to choir practice), so asked Frank and Barbara D. next door if they wanted to go. They did, and they suggested we go to ScoJo's for dinner first.
Hey, don't have to ask me twice. We left at 5:00 and I had--for the first time in years--liver with onions. Now, I realize I'm the only one on the Eastern seaboard who likes liver, which may be why it doesn't show up on menus that often. Even when it does, I rarely order it because often, I'm served with something like old shoe leather, thin, dry,and flavorless. This was excellent and I ate every scrap.
Got to Absecon in plenty of time and the show was superb. This guy, Tim Liam Smith, had been an actor and opera singer, but now owns some business or other in central Jersey. He was dressed in costume and knows everything there is to know about John MacCormack, who was a great favorite of my father-in-law. Smith no only talked about MacCormack in a very amusing, but sensitive way, but sang a number of his songs in a lovely tenor. It was superb and Frank and Barbara loved it, too. I'm thinking about seeing if Desi might want to bring Tim in for a presentation of our own--paid, of course.
WIDER: From John Feffer at Common Dreams:
"Washington is a slaughterhouse these days, as politicians from across the political spectrum take their knives to...dozens of social programs that provide food for low-income women and children, energy assistance to folks who can't pay their heating bills, and health care provided through community centers. In its luxury pen, meanwhile, the sacred pig grows fatter and fatter...the sacred pig is well-marbled with fat. It is content and happy, and when it outgrows its enclosure, the government simply builds it a newer, grander, and ever bigger facility. But as soon as someone, anyone, approaches the pen with a sharp implement, sirens go off and the assailant is apprehended. The Pentagon pig is off-limits. We've designed an entire religion around its untouchability...."
But what is the response of our revered leaders to comments like this? In solidarity with the pig, they cry: OINK!