Change Party?

I was surprised and delighted when Alcee Hastings was not given the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee by Nancy Pelosi. I remember only too well how he embezzled funds when he was a judge in South Florida. Also, she has leaned toward not giving Alan Mollahan of Virginia the chairmanship of the Ethics Committee, a guy who enriched himself by 12 to 25 million in four years of House membership. She says she will stop much of the privately funded travel of which ten democrats are at the top of the list. In addition, she says she will stop "earmarks" (I want to see the bridge-to-no-where in Washington State proposed by Stevens dropped) which the Republicans used to buy votes. Hurray for Nancy, keep up this ethical push and I may become a Democrat.

Things Not To Do

There are lists that some people make for things they want to do before they die. I have contemplated making such a list but it soon became apparent that there were more things that I did not want to do. Here are a few: getting a tongue stud, going to the North Pole, wear plumbers pants, get a wig, join the Knights of Columbus, join the effort to save the planet, assist at a brain surgery, go to the Moon, buy and drive an old car, spend a night living on the "street", repudiate my U.S. citizenship, get a sex change, get a tattoo, appear on the Jerry Springer Show, sky dive, and finally, use hedge clippers to trim my toenails.

Puccini revisited

Tim loaned me his copy of "My Favorite Puccini" by London Records. I had told him that I was not pleased with the Puccini CD that I had purchased at Best Buy. Putting it in football terms: my CD was Highschool and his is Professional. In my recording there were no names available to tell who is singing. In Tim's CD every piece is labeled with the singer. Pavorotti sings most of the male parts and he has excellent, clear notes. His voice is astounding when the notes go up and the volume goes up at the same time. Another singer of note is Renata Tebaldi. She whispers some notes and they are clear and crisp, she turns up the volume and the notes are still clear and crisp. Her voice control is so good she cannot be heard breathing. Their is no slurring or sliding off notes. At one point, I heard a breath taken and was startled to hear it. I checked the information sheet and found it was being sung by Leontyne Price. Price was good but not as good as Tebaldi. I have played the full CD twice and my emotion was the same each time. The information sheet gives a thumbnail sketch of what is happening and what is being sung. Tim says he will make me a copy of this CD because he does want it back.

It was a rainy, cool day as I left Best Buy on my way to the Mall. Driving out of the parking lot took some time since the light seemed to be short and the exiting line was long. Once on Blanding boulevard, four lanes wide, it was slow going, very slow going. I inserted my tape of "Carousel" and listened to the music from that show. It was very pleasant relaxing in the slow traffic and listening to Gordon McRae singing "My Boy Bill". I heard the complete tape before getting to the Mall, a distance of three miles. I reflected how lucky I was to have nothing to do but lounge in the car and listen to this good music. A person wanted to get in front of me and I waved him in. "This Was A Very Good Clambake" came on and I tried to sing along but did not hit all the words correctly, it was a bit too styled. There were two lanes turning into the Mall and I was on the outside lane, somebody got caught in the third lane and wanted to turn in, I waved her in. The wipers were working nicely because I had put replacement blades in only three weeks ago. There is nothing like a good sound system in a car, great invention. Life is good.