Evidently the winner or winners of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced this Friday. This award, which at least in my opinion, does always recognize someone who has taken personal risks to demonstrate their… A Wonderful Nobel Peace Prize Candidate
So yesterday, Saturday, Ellen went to NYC to provide moral (and physical) support to Miriam to help with her apartment move from someplace in Brooklyn to some other place in Brooklyn (you can tell how well I know Brooklyn). BTW, among other things Ellen spent five hours (FIVE HOURS!!) with Miriam and Miro (Miriam’s roommate) at IKEA. I am not sure what would happen if I was in IKEA (any IKEA) for five hours, but the one thing I could not do is stay there.
Regardless, I was then faced with a dilemma. I could have gone to Synagogue (probably the right thing to do). At Synagogue there were two family events. The way it works at our Synagogue is that often families having family events ‘enhance’ the kiddush meal (making it nicer, adding options). I suspect the kiddush meal was probably pretty nice. ALSO, downtown there was the option to go to Penn Quarter, spend $13 and participate in the all-you-can-eat ice-cream sandwich activity. Evidently ice-cream sandwiches have joined yogurt, donuts, macoroni and cheese, and so on as sort-of gourmet foods (who knew).
However, yesterday was also the opening day of the Maryland Rennissance Festival, http://www.rennfest.com/. And I had a family obligation, since Miriam was coming home for Yom Kippur, Saturday, September 14 (near her birthday), and we all would be going Sunday; there was an opportunity to scout ahead to make the September visit more smooth (I admit that was a pretty weak rationale, but it was the best I had yesterday morning). Also the weather was nice.
The Festival for all who want to know is once again a great event.
I finished watching Ballad of a Soldier earlier this week, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ballad_of_a_soldier/.
Ballad of a Soldier per Rotten Tomatoes, was “the first Russian film to score an American success during the Cold War era”. It was released in 1959. The movie has a relatively rare 100% rating in Rotten Tomatoes, one of the reasons why I added it to my elliptical-walker-exercise-queue.
The story tells of a young Russian soldier during World War II who is given leave to visit his mother at home as a result of him knocking out a couple of tanks during a battle. While traveling home random events occur which lead him to do a number of good deeds for people and end up limiting the time he actually was able to spend at home. We are told at the very beginning of the film that he died during the war, which strengthens our feelings toward these events.
FEDERAL NEWS COUNTDOWN
As many of you know (assuming that there is in fact a ‘you’, that is people who read this), I am fortunate to be asked back by the evidently non-discerning, but always interesting and entertaining, Francis Rose to be on his show the Federal News Countdown, http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=155.
I will be on tomorrow, Friday, August 16 at 3pm, on AM 1500 on your radio dial.
The way the show works is Francis invites two ‘experts’ (his words) who ‘discuss the three news stories they think are most important in the world of government’. I learn a lot from the experience.
First, I am forced to think about what I actually think are news stories that have some importance, at least for the week I participate. I even have to rank them from third most important to the very most important article.
Second, I always learn from the interaction with the other guest. Francis is great at getting together two people who bring different perspectives; it is always great fun for me.
Federal News Countdown, the Nationals, and the Maryland Renaissance Festival
In late 2011, Ellen and I were talking about what we might do for New Year’s, to be honest not my greatest time of year. I am not particularly a social person, or at least… My First Facebook Video
I suspect the subset of the Earth’s population which includes the intersection between those who read this blog and those who want to see Iron Man 3 but who have not yet done so is… Iron Man 3 (Spoilers)
Last night, Ellen and I attended our first “live” event at a location different than the event itself. We had seen advertisements for these often at movie theatres, often for opera performances. This one, seen… The Magistrate
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.” – Through the Looking Glass
On June 29th of this year, Washington experienced a Derecho, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/derecho-behind-washington-dcs-destructive-thunderstorm-outbreak-june-29-2012/2012/06/30/gJQA22O7DW_blog.html.
A Derecho, prounounced “de ray cho” is Spanish for straight and per Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, is a “widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms.”Word Processing
Over the last month or so, we had the pleasure of going to performances by Kristen Chenoweth and Patti LuPone. The first we saw at Constitution Hall, the latter at Strathmore, a facility near us in Montgomery County, MD.
We were on the side at Constitution Hall and in the second row of the Orchestra at Strathmore, so one difference between our appreciation of the two performances was that it was if Patti LuPone was practically in our living room. That is, if we had a sunken living room and could seat a few thousand people.
Both performers are wonderful singers. I was lucky enough to see Chenoweth in Wicked as the good witch Glinda in which she was hilarious and LuPone in Gypsy twice as well as Sweeney Todd where in addition to singing she played the tuba (and triangle).Performing Versus Entertaining
I have learned over the years that doing things that you are passionate about is very important.
This was brought home to me earlier this week when I had lunch with a long-time friend of mine who I worked with during my time at Sun Microsystems. We were comparing job experiences and she remarked that every time she took a job purely because of the money that it ended up being a mistake.
Of course, I recognize that acting on that understanding is not always easy.Follow Your Passion