It’s Me Again (Part 12)

May 5

I like to think I get better with age, but maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder. ~ Bonnie Raitt

There’s a three-month recovery period after triple bypass surgery. It’s now been a little over three months for me – and I feel fine. I don’t really feel any better than I did before surgery (but I had no symptoms beforehand), which may just be a function of age. I’ve been great on the exercise machines during the two-months of rehab so far, but distance walking endurance is a work in progress. And I used to pump out three blog posts a week, now it’s more like one every three weeks. Seems likely I’ll never run the Boston Marathon. ~ Me

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement. ~ Ronald Reagan

March 17

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. ~ Hubert Humphrey

[Here’s looking at you, kid!]

March 18

Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera. ~ Yousuf Karsh

[Ruthie and Quinie . . . ]

March 19

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort. ~ James Herriot

[Laddie awoke one morning with a limp. We thought we may have to bring him to the vet. We brought the carrier in the house for acclimatization. It worked for Quinie. Laddie got better on his own . . . ]

March 22

Either give me more wine or leave me alone. ~ Rumi, circa 1200’s

[A wine tasting at the Garden Bar on 6th hosted by Tania Kranzler . . . ]

Give me wine to wash me clean of the weather-stains of cares. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

[The aforementioned Tania Kranzler . . . ]

Age is just a number. It’s totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine. ~ Joan Collins

[The aforementioned Ruthie . . . ]

Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle. ~ Paulo Coelho

[The aforementioned Garden Bar on 6th . . . ]

Anyone who tries to make you believe that he knows all about wines is obviously a fake. ~ Leon Adams

[Ditto . . . ]

Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages. ~ Louis Pasteur

[The winery owner, the restaurant owner, and Tania . . . ]

A gourmet meal without a glass of wine just seems tragic to me somehow. ~ Kathy Mattea

Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy. ~ Alexander Fleming

[Tania’s folks in the back with assorted friends . . . ]

Drinking good wine with good food in good company is one of life’s most civilized pleasures. ~ Michael Broadbent

[Were released on their own recognizance for this event . . . ]

March 23

We’re all born naked, and the rest is drag. ~ RuPaul

Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects. ~ Nikola Tesla

[The parents and spouse of the aforementioned Nicole . . . ]

People like to put you into a box. I’m afraid I don’t sit in a box. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

[Sprinkled throughout assorted local fans of the theatre . . . ]

The regrets in the theatre have always been the shows that you know ought to have worked but for one reason or another haven’t. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

The one thing I have always felt about musical theatre is that it is, to an extraordinary degree, about construction. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

Two pieces of advice for young composers: Go away during technical rehearsals. And do not have a back operation. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

Well the least favourite question is the one that one’s asked particularly about in Japan is what’s the difference between theatre and cinema and I think, well, that’s about eighty bucks. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

You never know what will happen. There is a thing called zeitgeist. You have to hit it. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

Musical theatre history is littered with bad reviews for now classic pieces. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

You always get a special kick on opening day, no matter how many you go through. ~ Joe DiMaggio

[Sidney and Nicole make sure the trains run on time at TLHD . . . ]

Go out there like every day is Opening Day. ~ Aaron Judge

I think a gentleman is someone who holds the comfort of other people above their own. ~ Anna Kendrick

You cannot help but notice that schools that take music seriously tend to be more academically successful. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment. ~ Carl Sandburg

‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is the biggest thing I’ve ever done, bigger even than ‘Cats’ which, in itself, I never thought we’d top. ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber

Leftovers

A lot of political music to me can be rather pedantic and corny, and when it’s done right – like Bruce Springsteen or Jackson Browne or great satire from Randy Newman, there’s nothing better. ~ Bonnie Raitt

[Photos by Alexandria’s volunteer, Janet Baker . . . ]

I finally learned to accept that I can’t make radio play blues any more than I could get Reagan out of the White House. ~ Bonnie Raitt

One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts. ~ C. S. Lewis

March 25

I have never made fun of religion. Religion is something I don’t even want to mess with, because I am really afraid of the clouds opening up and my being struck by lightning. ~ Alice Cooper

[And because the highlights of the winter months were always to Saturday morning doughnut runs . . . ]

Seen going and returning from the doughnut run: Alexandria’s famed and beloved Viking statue Big Ole, now 51 years old, has a long history including different looks and locations. [https://explorealex.com/big-ole-years]

March 26

There’s a terrific power to music.  You can run any of these pictures and they’d be dragging and boring, but the minute you put music behind them, they have life and vitality they don’t get any other way. ~ Walt Disney

Cartoonist Walt Disney has made the twentieth century’s only important contribution to music.  Disney has made use of music as language. ~ Jerome Kern

But credit for the memorable songs and scores must, of course, go to the brilliant composers and musicians who have been associated with me through the years. ~ Walt Disney

You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway. ~ Walt Disney

[Brad Lambrecht with his pre-concert Maestro’s notes . . . ]

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained. ~ Walt Disney

[Noting that cartoons of days gone by always featured classical music . . . ]

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation. ~ Walt Disney

Music had always had a prominent part in all our products from the early cartoon days.  So much so, in fact, that I cannot think of the pictorial story without thinking about the complementary music that will fulfill it . . . I have had no formal musical training.  But by long experience and by strong personal learning, I’ve selected musical themes, original or adapted, that were guided to wide audience acceptance. ~ Walt Disney

Fantasia, to me is a whole new opportunity. For my medium it opens up unlimited possibilities.  Music has always played a very important part since sound came into the cartoon. Now, the full expression that comes from the new Fantasound opens up a whole new world for us. ~ Walt Disney

Laughter is America’s most important export. ~ Walt Disney

[Brad seriously plucked this unknown-to-him young woman from the front row to conduct for a while. She was appropriately dressed in black . . . ]

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse. ~ Walt Disney

Crowded classrooms and half-day sessions are a tragic waste of our greatest national resource – the minds of our children. ~ Walt Disney

[A cartoon was acted with the music background . . . ]

I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known. ~ Walt Disney

March 27

I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It’s not. Mine had me trained in two days. ~ Bill Dana

[The babies enjoying the sunroom together on a sunny winter day . . . ]

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose. ~ Garrison Keillor

The cat is above all things, a dramatist. ~ Margaret Benson

Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them. ~ Jim Davis

March 28

Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been. ~ David Bowie

[This was a Senior College class – by mere coincidence, our nonfiction book club had recently read this book. Now, we were being taught live by the author . . . ]

Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art. ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. ~ Eartha Kitt

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know. ~ Albert Einstein

March 30

When I hear of nationalism in my country today from the youngsters, I want to sit them down and tell them that flags and songs are not nationalism. Stopping at the traffic signal, opening the door for a lady, doing something for your country is nationalism. ~ Anubhav Sinha

Stages of life are artifacts. Adolescence is a useful contrivance, midlife is a moving target, senior citizens are an interest group, and tweenhood is just plain made up. ~ Jill Lepore

In this country that grows more food than any other nation on this earth, it is unthinkable that any child should go hungry. ~ Sela Ward

Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves they have a better idea. ~ John Ciardi

Before Social Security existed, about half of America’s senior citizens lived in poverty. ~ Bernie Sanders

We don’t grow older, we grow riper. ~ Pablo Picasso

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. ~ Eric Hoffer

[And something noteworthy also took place on this date . . . ]

I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed. ~ George Carlin

The world is not drive by greed. It is driven by envy. ~ Charles Munger

Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there. ~ Bonnie Raitt

[And he received an advertising contract from Calvin Klein . . . ]

April 1

It was April in Minneapolis and snowing, the flakes coming down in thick swirls enchanting the city. ~ Cheryl Strayed

[The Saturday morning doughnut run continued to be a feat of derring-do. March 31 travel was restricted by ice; in the afternoon into the evening more snow created further issues for April 1 morning. At least it was too cold for tornadoes!]

“Snow in April is abominable,” said Anne. “Like a slap in the face when you expected a kiss.” ~ L.M. Montgomery

How strange it is, sometimes, which conversations or events stays with us while so much else melts as fast as April snow. ~ Marlena De Blasi

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. ~ William Shakespeare

April 3

Globalization is simply opening the free marketplace to encompass the entire world. ~ P. J. O’Rourke

[Fine dining last night after the CommEd movies, a/k/a, the meatball that didn’t make it all the way to the table . . . ]

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid. ~ G. K. Chesterton

Everybody should work in their nation’s capitol and see how politics actually work because it was the most eye opening experience of my life. ~ Jake Tapper

Up Next: Getting closer to catching up . . .