Ask Wednesday: Ask Susan

Susan's simple answers

By Susan C. Price

Ok, we’ve expanded this column to include pieces in which readers ask questions and one of us answers them. Susan, daydreaming of herself as “wise” (perhaps due to advanced age), thought this would be splendid. (“What the heck! Dear Abby is gone…clearly there is a gap!”) She envisioned questions about...oh, relationships, personal finance or organization, modern manners, being kind...why some of us cannot grow tomatoes to save our lives...etc.
    Maybe next time. Our chief editor suggested that Susan answer the same question he was asked last week—in her style…“to illustrate the point that answers depend on of WHOM a question is asked.”
    We really would like some FUN QUESTIONS to answer, though, so send ’em in….

Tuesday Voice: To There and Back Again: Part 3

Košice

By James T. Carney

[Sequel to "Budapest"]

We were met at the train station in Košice by Hack Boscovich, who was Merrill’s successor as the minder for the Americans in Košice, and by one of the fellows who worked for Hack (and had worked for Merrill before). They took us to a night club next to our hotel where we stayed until about 1:00 a.m. watching the Slovaks dance to American music. The Slovaks love dancing and will dance till all hours of the night. One of the mildly depressing things about this trip to Europe was to realize the extent to which all of Europe has become Americanized—seeing all volumes of Harry Potter translated into Slovak and CDs with parental warnings (in English) on them because they are made by rappers may manifest the supremacy of American “culture” but it is not a development that I particularly welcome.

Second Monday Music

Tom Hulce in a scene from the 1984 movie Amadeus

Mozart’s Orphic genius

By Geoffrey Dean

[Adapted from “Orphic Artistry”]

We idolize Mozart. We may not be sure what constitutes musical genius, but we know Mozart had all the necessary qualities, including a talent that emerged at a prodigiously young age, incredible improvisational skill, and the ability to compose—as he put it—“as if in a dream.” We also know what he looked like, what he acted like, about his racy jokes and tittering laughter, his awkward frankness when it came to assessing the inferior ability of lesser composers such as Salieri, who in spite of persistent rumors to the contrary did not poison Mozart. But in recalling these “facts,” are we describing Mozart himself, or his reinvention in the 1984 Milos Forman movie Amadeus, based on Peter Schaffer’s play and starring Tom Hulce?

Sunday Review: Shakespeare Uncovered (TV)

The Man even before he was the King's

By Morris Dean

After the inspiration of James Shapiro's Shakespeare—The King's Man [my review], I turned to the 2012 BBC/PBS TV Series, Shakespeare Uncovered, a 2-DVD set I borrowed from my local public library. (Hear, hear for the Alamance County Libraries! May you have a similarly accessible public library near you.)

The gringo who stole the cat

By Ed Rogers

Some of you may remember some time back I told of a cat that had moved into our house. She showed up one morning as I came out onto the porch to have my coffee and read the blog. She jumped in my lap and went to sleep.
    We thought she might be a stray, but then again she could belong to someone. Knowing how hard it is to become unattached to an animal, we made the choice to keep somewhat of a distance, but each morning when I opened the door there would be the cat. I have what was at one time a bodega out back and she had been sleeping there.
    After two weeks and no one asking about a missing cat, we began to let her into the house and our lives. After a month went by and we had taken the cat to the vet, had her fixed, and got her shots. Then I hear there is a story being passed around by the kids that, I’m the gringo who stole Juan’s cat.

Fish for Friday

The sunset of life

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

"Walk with me as I age" is a beautiful poem about growing older. I will quote it for you now, hoping that it will have the same effect on you as it had on me—if so, then my making this effort will have been worth it.
    ...Shit, I forgot the words.

Thor's Day: Couples who stay together

Benjamin Whitrow as Mr. Bennett in the 1995 BBC TV series

The true philosopher, Mr. Bennet

By Morris Dean

It is said that couples who pray together...stay together. In the case of the parents of the five Bennet daughters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, their staying together derives from another source:

Ask Wednesday: How can I know what day it is?

Use a memory device

By Morris Dean

Today's Q & A follows up on previous columns about calendar patterns. On May 15, for example, we explained in verse why we need only fourteen calendars.
    Thanks to the anonymous person who provided today's questions. [His or her questions are set in italics.]

Tuesday Voice: To There and Back Again: Part 2

Budapest

By James T. Carney

[Sequel to "Ljublijana"]

The next morning we walked around Ljublijana a little more, going off to view remnants of the old Roman wall that surrounded the original Roman encampment. Then we took the train to Budapest without even having lunch—something that we lived to regret since there was neither food nor drink during our eight-and-a-half-hour journey. (European trains are not very fast—or weren’t in 2004.) For the first two hours of the trip, we shared a railroad car with a young woman who was completing a degree in chemical engineering at Maribod, which is the second largest city in Slovenia, in the eastern part of the country.) She spoke excellent English and we learned a good deal about Slovenia.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Jim Rix, on bad-hair day

The purpose of a hat used to be to protect the head from sun in the summer and cold in the winter. Now it's to turn this

Sunday Review: Four films...

Jim Broadbent and Cillian Murphy
Perrier's Bounty

From the last four years

By Morris Dean

On four consecutive days recently, my wife and I watched four films from the immediately preceding four consecutive years, all deserving to be recommended here. I had read no reviews and had little to go on besides what I indicate about each below. You—I hope you'll benefit from the following:

Translate feature added

Pick your language in the sidebar

By Morris Dean

Here's an example in German:

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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

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First Saturday Green 101: And so they went to the big cat preserve

By motomynd

It was a quiet holiday weekend in Central North Carolina. With her daughter away at an anime convention, and both looking for something—anything—to get her son away from his computer game addiction, husband and wife talked strategy.
    “How about a movie?” she asked. His look must have said more than he realized. She answered her own question: “Right. Neither of you could sit through that.”
    “How about a hike?” he asked. Her look must have said more than she realized. He immediately followed with, “Yeah, he’ll be whining the whole time.”

Fish for Friday

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

A bit of elegant writing: "Bending with the Twists of Life’s River."

Thor's Day: Do you have blind faith in Him?

By Jim Rix

I had thought of doing a sequel to my article “What is the Cause of Heart Disease?” changing “Heart Disease” to “Diabetes.” It would be easy to present real evidence that supports the fact that Diabetes, like Heart Disease, is a consequence of diet. But, in my efforts over the years to promote the health benefits of a plant-based diet, I have observed that most people would rather be put in solitary confinement with an insurance salesman than hear about food’s relation to health.
    There are many reasons for this lack of interest in the subject. However, from what I’ve observed, the most significant reason people find it difficult to consider whether a plant-based diet is healthier than eating animal products is that He is silent on the issue. For example, if you come to Him with a chronic disease, He will not tell you that your diet is the cause; rather, He will lead you to believe that your “heredity” is.