Thanksgiving

As most of you who read this blog know, I am a rather old fashioned and sentimental person. Thus I take Thanksgiving seriously and would like to say that among the many, many things for which I am thankful, getting to know most of you who read this, is high on the list.

I hope you have a great holiday and have as much to be thankful for as I do.

A long post on music

Went to a concert at U MAss last night. The first piece was Verdi's overture to Nabucco. The performance was brilliant; both the orchestra and the conductor, a visiting artist named Ng, deserve much credit. The overture is full of powerful themes and great changes in mood.

The second piece was Wagner's Siegfried Idyll: five minutes worth of music spread out over 20 minutes of notes. Less repetitious than Ravel's Bolero, but not by much. He composed it as a birthday present for his wife and then used it commercially. Some present. Kind of like me giving my wife a derivation of Maxwell's equations as a gift.

The last piece was Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, one of the great achievements of civilization. The performance was pretty good, but the music itself is beyond words.... however I'll try below.


 Last night reminded me that there is good music and great music and then there is Beethoven. Works by Bach and Mozart appeal to the intellect, works by Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky delight the senses. Dvorak and Brahms touch the heart... but Beethoven's greatest works enter the soul..... you feel them in the very marrow of your being.


The program notes were interesting. I reproduce them here. 

The text is informative but the material in the side bars is truly astounding. Note that Verdi sets the record for precocious composers, having written Nabucco, his third opera, fully 42 years before he was born.

Wagner, according to the text, lived in the fast lane. However according to his dates, he apparently exceeded the speed of light and expired prior to his birth.

BTW [ see how up to date I am] they were both born in 1813.

Questions

Psych majors: Why is it that I will sometimes substitute are for our [ as in my last post] when typing on a computer? I would never make this mistake orally or when writing.

Linguistic types: Why do some people use the definite article for things like a computer, as in "I was on the computer when I saw your email message"? Almost everyone will say  "my laptop".

Room mates and butterflies. Early Winter?

 My college room mate and his wife visited this weekend. After all these years I can still see why we chose to room together. We spent several hours in a butterfly conservatory, where, thanks to Peter's insatiable curiosity and need to understand, I learned a substantial amount about butterflies. The butterfly place is now on are list of things we might  do, especially on cold days.

Yesterday was real opportunity for frostbite. The high was 16 and winds hit over 30 mph. We had a dusting of snow to make things pretty  to look at, but I cut my walk to about 1/4 mile just to keep my ear lobes intact.

Its 11 degrees now, but with no wind, so I will go out for a walk soon.

Boston Visit Results

On 11/15 I went to Boston with my wife: she had LWV meeting and I got to walk around a little of Boston and Cambridge and to have linch with three students.

Julie Viola is now working with an education psychologist ( a Harvard prof) and hoping to start her Ph.D.; Sandra who is a senior majoring in the history of science; and Vanessa, another Harvard senior who is hoping to use her computer science degree to get an interesting job.   It was good to see they all still have a huge enthusiasm for life and learning.

Boston Visit

I expect to be in Boston area on Friday 11/15. If you have any interest in meeting email me. If you do not have my email send me a comment on this blog with your email address or phone number and I'll get back to you. Looks like there will be four or so students at this point.

Cats

Since everyone knows the real purpose of the internet is to supply cats a reason to exist here is some cat stuff.

Natalie is about 19 years old know and has decided she is now mature enough to eat with the adults:

while Sally ( although middle aged at 11 years  old) continues her youthful antics which now include sleeping in a basket:

A mid autumn potpourri

It's been a busy few weeks:

Had a visit from a young lady we've known for quite a while who we think of as "the daughter we never wanted", but we love her just the same.

Went for a walk around the neighborhood and said hi to some of the neighbors

and admired the late fall colors:

celebrated halloween:

enjoyed a visit to our friends home in the Catskill Mountains where I hiked to the top of Balsam Mountain with Bob Rapp:

Visited  friends in New Jersey including colleagues at Ridge, Sarah B. ( a favorite student) and folks from my old neighborhood and nearby.

Finally, we had  visitors from our old New Jersey town come and visit us this past weekend. It's ben a great few weeks.

Ridge Visit 11/5

If you would like to get together at Ridge sometime tomorrow (11/5) probably somewhat after 3 let me know,  my cell phone which I only use on the road is 201 444 8206. I'll check my email at about 9:50 AM tomorrow for any messages.

The Joys of Amazon

I ordered a new USB cable and a charger and camera batteries from Amazon. I wanted to order a second cable to be sure I would have a working one, but that cable came from a 3rd party and the shipping exceeded the value of the cable.  Even to buy the batteries/charger and the Amazon supplied cable was a real challenge. The total came to $24.98. Every time I tried to check out it told me the cable would be held back 'til some time in the future when I placed an order exceeding $25. Then the cable would be shipped free, but not the other items. So I found a book I liked for $11 and added that. No good; the book was coming from a third party so it didn't count towards the $25. So I found I book I thought my wife might like for $10 from Amazon. I then started to check out only to be shocked that the shipping brought the total to about $44. So I cancelled that book, found a book of crossword puzzles ( have I told you how much time I am spending on old NY Times crossword puzzles lately?) for about $11 and added that instead. Now my total was over $35 so I got free shipping. So in a real sense the book cost me about -$12. The whole exercise took well over an hour. Placed the order Thursday (10/31) and am still waiting for it.

 I really enjoy purchasing items from real people in real shops with whom you can have a real conversation.