stories

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"Why aren't you turning left?" Sarah asked.

"I couldn't get over to the left lane soon enough." There were a lot of other cars. "I can get over another way. I'll show you." We passed the first street going left, and the second. "We'll take this one. I've never been on this one before."

"Well," Sarah started, "I have, five times! With Grandpa and Aunt Janet and Cousin Lauren. When you and Mommy were little. I hopped out of my mommy's tummy and we went in Aunt Janet's big blue van and we went down the street." I watched for my chance to turn right onto the road we wanted. "And then we turned around, and then I got on the plane and went around the world to China, and I got back in my mommy's tummy and got little again."

I expressed my interest in a non-verbal vocalization. Sometimes words just don't do it.
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cheap cds

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Last week at the dollar store, I looked at the CD rack. Mostly forgettable pop, but there was some small amount of classical music there. Poking around as diligently as I could with Sarah jumping up and down to get out, I decided to spend two bucks for Toscanini conducting Gershwin's best-known concert works (Rhapsody in Blue with Earl Wild and Benny Goodman, Concerto in F with Oscar Levant, and An American in Paris), and a two-disk set of the complete piano music of Chabrier.

We went back the next day to buy another plastic motorcycle toy for Sarah ("...and this time, honey, don't throw it up in the air."), so I went back to the spin rack and picked out a "Best of Vivaldi, volume 2" with mostly anonymous performances of a clutch of concertos, excerpts from Mozart's "Abduction From The Seraglio" and Verdi's "Aida," and a disk of piano pieces by Gershwin, Gottschalk, Lamb, and Blake. A decent haul for cheap.

The hauliness continued today. On the way out of the library, I looked at the dumpster, which had apparently been emptied out and refilled with books again, though not to overflowing this time. A solid-looking volume got my attention, and I couldn't see the title. Finally I unhooked the gate and reached for it. It was volume 1 of a complete catalog of Norman Rockwell's work. There was a slipcover for two volumes next to it, but even poking gingerly didn't reveal the other volume. It's a handsome book, and includes all his advertising work. I'm guessing volume 2 has his magazine and book work, and maybe presidential portraits and like that. I wish I could have found it, but it's nice to get this much. Can't beat the price, but I have to wonder what things are like at the library for them to discard stuff this good.
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the last brunch

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Strangely familiar ad image, already banned in Italy -- and soon in France.

( might be wider than your window )

for max

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Question: What song and early video hit gives the tune away in its lyrics?

( answer on page 2 )