Incredible amounts of want-to-shares, but we're going out to eat soon (Granny's Kitchen, Fort Pierce) -- and some idiot once advised not to write stuff like that on social media because burglars are waiting to rob your house.

Burglars, beware.  Guard dogs are on duty.

Last night we heard the Haifa Symphony Orchestra of Israel, come to Vero Beach to play Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in g, followed by Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in f, followed by the first encore, solo violist Victor Khristosov featured in a performance of the theme from Schindler's List, followed by the second encore, Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever."  (It was tough letting go of that orchestra.  You can imagine.)

My favorite of Tchaikovsky's symphonies is No. 5, but No. 4 is my second favorite of his.  And Mozart's No. 40 is my favorite Wolfgang symphony.  So it was a good evening.

As they all are.

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Drastic mood change ahead.

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I missed Tuesday's op-ed by NYTimes David Brooks, but caught up with it after seeing today's letters to the editor.

Brooks's piece was mostly baloney, but there was a brief reference to wanna be atheist but became Catholic song writer Audrey Assad whom I will listen to on YouTube if I get a chance, thanks to the Brooks article.

The op-ed was titled "Alone, Yet Not Alone" and dealt with the subject of religious belief.  But as I said, it was mostly baloney.  Sometimes Brooks can write intelligently, but this wasn't one of those times.

Nevertheless, he concluded by quoting St. Augustine, and THAT was worth retyping here:

"It is not physical beauty nor temporal glory nor the brightness of light dear to earthly eyes, nor the sweet melodies of all kinds of songs, nor the gentle odor of flowers, and ointments and perfumes, nor manna or honey, nor limbs welcoming the embraces of the flesh; it is not these I love when I love my God.  Yet there is a light I love, and a food, and a kind of embrace when I love my God -- a light, voice, odor, food, embrace of my innerness, where my soul is floodlit by light which space cannot contain, where there is sound that time cannot seize, where there is a perfume which no breeze disperses, where there is a taste for food no amount of eating can lessen, and where there is a bond of union that no satiety can part.  That is what I love when I love my God."

All very nice, but Brooks writes from the perspective that fundamentalists have a monopoly on these feelings, and that's crap.

Letter writer Elizabeth L. Benjamin, a clinical psychologist from Boulder, Colo., echoes my feelings when she writes:

"The beautiful description of Augustine's experience of loving God is wonderful because it is personal, internal and spiritual.  It is not intrusive, coercive or directed at forcing others to change and conform, or suffer."

You can imagine what the two paragraphs were that opened Ms. Benjamin's letter.  Here they are:

"David Brooks is correct that there is hostility between secular and "orthodox religious believers" in America today.  An important distinction must be made, however.

"A secular person is much more likely to feel anger or frustration not because of what the fundamentalist religious person believes, but because of what religious beliefs drive that person to do.  Suicide bombings, denying civil rights, exporting fear and loathing to other countries, bombing abortion clinics, 'honor killings,' elimination of accurate science in education -- these are examples of toxic behaviors with broad impact that have been justified by religious faith."

The other two letters in today's Times were just as good.  I may have time to retype them later.

Last night, we heard soloist Nobuyuki Tsujii (a young genius who has been blind since birth, not that that matters) play Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"), backed by the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Thrilling as the music was, I was fascinated by the famous Rondo Allegro that concludes the concerto.  Every time Tsujii returned to the rondo passages, all I could think was "theme and variations."  I was surprised I hadn't noticed that ever before.  I've only listened to that concerto about 700 times.  I just never realized how different that particular rondo is from other rondos.  Or am I crazy?

************

Anyway, you get strange things when you Google.  At least I do.  I googled "Liner notes Emperor Concerto" and here's what came up:

From the liner notes of Hélène Grimaud's Emperor Concerto Recording

<:ARTICLE>"One can hear the struggle in Beethoven's compositions, in the way he wrestles with every note, with every chord. He conceived the world in a way that I find absolutely contemporary, not to say modern. We also live in a world we can barely comprehend, one in which confusion exceeds the grasp of its overriding complexities. We also desperately long to give form to this world. Beethoven showed us that working to repair the fissures and flaws in the human existence can result in beautiful music. In his search for a heaven on earth, he was always prepared to stand the world on its head."

"As questionable as Beethoven's behaviour may at times have seemed, he firmly believed that things could also be different - that they could be better. His music is marked by these assertions and disappointments, and by a nearly endless sense of hope. He articulated the ambivalence of every individual, which is why Beethoven's music affects us so directly and disconcertingly, while also seeming hopelessly optimistic."

"This piano concerto is like a wild animal for which one has incredible respect. That respect compels you to study it, and in the end this animal reveals itself as a teacher - as a teacher who challenges you to consider things for yourself. One who, through the overwhelming form with which the interpreter has to contend, forces her to reflect on her own contradictions and bring them into an individual form - forces her to transcend her own limits and toss old preconceptions overboard. Beethoven compels the artist to acquire knowledge, because in his music the emotional must be developed out of the philosophical logic. With emotion alone, one doesn't get very far."

- Hélène Grimaud, (c) Deutsche Grammophon

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For more information on Beethoven, try THIS PLACE, lvbeethoven.co.uk.

YET ANOTHER BEETHOVEN LINK -- lvbandmore

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Speaking of links, here's one for ANAMONICS, which I found by googling "Bob Lipton" anamonics, and came across a great article by Jeff Myers.

I got a kick out of this article by Sarah Fazeli, a professional writer who doubles as an extra in the movies.  You will too.  Get a kick out of it, I mean.  This I firmly believe.

I found the article accidentally, just surfing the web.  And you know me.  I like to share.

I'd suggest you see this movie at least twice.  It was enormously entertaining during my first viewing last week, but I missed a lot of understanding because, like all "The Sting" type movies, following the con can be hard, especially when you're distracted by alarming amounts of leg and cleavage and can't get your mind out of the gutter. 

"American Hustle" was directed of David O. Russell, the genius who helmed "Silver Linings Playbook" last year and "The Fighter" the year before that.  The brilliant ensemble cast for this year's AH includes two stars each from the earlier pics:  Christian Bale and Amy Adams from TF and Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from SLP. 

All are magnificent, with Adams and Lawrence being near locks for Oscar acting nominations, and I'm high on Bale as well. 

Adams, who often plays the wholesome girl next door, is so terrific as the conniving ex-prostitute turned schemer, and her dresses are so awesome, that her performance gives new meaning to the word "revelation."

Oh, I guess I should say what the movie's about.

Remember ABSCAM?  That was the '70s FBI sting operation that nailed some crooked politicians by using a fake sheik to induce them to promise favors for big bucks. 

In THIS movie, they warn you upfront with a title card that reads, "Some of this actually happened," that it's pretty loosely fictionalized but based on actual events. 

And I'll just say one more thing.  A lesson to be learned is that if you're going to go after "the mob," it's a good idea to know what you're doing.  Because the mob does not like to be gone after.

Just because I'm posting twice in two days doesn't mean I'm improving my habits.  For people who are interested in what I'm interested in, just consider yourselves lucky, that's all.

The following links are magazine articles that won "Sidney Awards" for 2013, according to New York Times columnist David Brooks.  I believe Friday's column was Part 1 and there's a Part 2 coming.  Hence, more links.

All of these articles appear to be very interesting, so I commend them to your attention.

Steven Pinker

Leon Wieseltier

Caitrin Nicol

Larissa MacFarquhar

IN OTHER MATTERS

My de Quervain's tenosynovitis is just about cured.  I can curl my right thumb and almost reach the palm (without pain) but I'm still wearing the brace when I feel the need.  A few hours a day, at most.

We have a record 13 dogs in the house this afternoon, but two are going home around 8 p.m. and we'll be down to a more manageable 11, but I wish Barbara was home more than she is, to help me with everything, but she's house-sitting for another dog.

I think the last two posts have covered a lot of the important stuff.

Go Niners.

Just no time.

Feel free to read between the lines of an email (adjusted for privacy) I sent to our UU minister just yesterday:

Dear Scott:

I am crying tears of gratitude as I read this correspondence -- all of it.

Most important at the moment -- and it is JUST momentarily of importance,
which is to say, it in no way overshadows my elation of the possible fact of
the reunification that may be imminent -- is the following question:  at
what time is the Sunday Kwanzaa event?  Because I'd much like to attend,
even if it means missing the Packers-Bears game, and other crucial games of
the NFL season's final Sunday.  (I'll search through my recent emails from
UU, just in case you don't have a chance to reply promptly to this email.)

I'm just so overjoyed at the tone of M's response, I can't tell you.
(And thank you for YOUR actions, as well.  Just as overjoying.  And
congratulations on the brief item on the front page of today's
Press-Journal.  Great sentiments, great visibility, great everything.) 
M and C are two of my favorite people in the whole entire world and
I really, really hope that they can add their smiling faces to the local UU
scene.

It's been a wonderful Christmas season for Barbara and me, and I'm looking
forward to sharing this with her.  At the moment, she's napping and trying
to get over a case of the flu that has her really, really down.  My hope is
that this will cheer her up.

Unrelated to any of the foregoing, I'll share with you some of what has made
this one of our most joyous yuletide seasons ever.

(1)  As planned, we used much of our dog-sitting income to (instead of
getting out of our financial hole that so many citizens are in these days,
including us) to bring joy to our across-the-street neighbors -- a
financially strapped single mother of three teenagers -- and purchased for
them a very expensive punching bag and stand and assorted physical
conditioning items that we knew they wanted and (sort of) needed -- and we
needed our next-door neighbors to help hide and assemble before this
morning's surprise presentation, which brings us closer to them as well as
to our across-the-street friends.

(2) As UNplanned, Barbara and I decided to have a Christmas Eve dining
experience at Olive Garden -- instead of rushing from our jobs to the UU
Christmas Eve service, which we'd originally considered -- and it was an
especially good evening.  Also, we added $10 to the tip we gave our favorite
waiter, Rick, as a gift.  Rick is the reason we are regulars at the Olive
Garden.

(3)  Finally, because of Barbara's job at Florida Veterinary League, we're
aware of the difficulties of an elderly couple consisting of a blind man, a
wife who has had multiple recent knee operations, and their seeing eye dog
Ralphie who has been a guest in our home on more than one extended occasion,
because the wife was unable to take care of her two companions.  So as a
Christmas gift, we've invited all three of them to be our companions
Saturday night, Dec. 28, at the Quilted Giraffe, where our favorite jazz
singer, Sybil Gage, will be singing from 6 to 9 p.m.  (I hope it's 3 hours;
maybe it's only 2).

I look forward to more frequent attendance at UU services, and to the Jan.
10 initial meeting of the "Security Group."  Or is it the "Security Task
Force?"  I know it's not the "Security Team," according to a recent missive
from P.

Very warmest regards, and Merry Christmas to you and Collins,

Bob

I'm still interested in the movie trilogy based on my favorite novel -- "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand.  I was just now scanning some old emails and came across THIS ARTICLE which I hadn't seen before. 

Not that the subject was unknown to me.  The fact is, the Ayn Rand cultists Kaslow and Aglialoro  may be rich Republican businessmen, but that doesn't mean they know how to make a movie, and it also doesn't mean they have enough sense to find people who DO know how to make (and market) a movie and hire them and let them do what they know how to do.  The problem of filming "Atlas Shrugged" is and always have been that would-be filmers have needed permission from the Ayn Rand estate (whoever those people are) to do anything with the book and the permission-givers (whoever those people are) are slaves to the Ayn Rand cult, which persists to this day. 

It's still a great novel, whatever people say, and I'm still panting to see it dramatized, even if the results make me wince.  I winced at Part Two.  Part One, however, which featured Taylor Schilling as the heroine Dagny Taggart, wasn't bad at all.  It was cheaply produced, and miserably marketed, but the director (I forget his name) cared, and he did the best he could with the skinflinty budget he was given to work with. 

I'll buy a ticket to see Part Three, whenever it comes out, and if the poll results I've seen have any weight whatsoever, we'll see Schilling in the Taggart role again.  Good for that. 

(Apologies for my long absence.  I upgraded to Windows 8 and my home page changed and I haven't yet figured how to get it back.  And I'm lazy in addition to being computer-unsavvy so there you go.)

Haven't time to share my thoughts -- but READ THIS anyway.

Here's the best article on the Incognito-Martin mess that I've seen yet.  It's by Samuel Chi.  My guess is that Incognito will eventually be vindicated, and that Jonathan Martin will enter law school and wind up a successful lawyer.   My hope is that this episode will end well for all concerned.  I'd like to see rookie hazing end, so that we don't have to go through this kind of nonsense again. 

Saturday edit:  I'd love to let go of this story, and get on to something else -- anything else -- but Jason Whitlock has just posted an analysis so compelling that I'd like to share it with my readers. 

Played yesterday with Steve.  I WON the match, 6 games to 3, but mostly I won because of lucky draws, not brilliant play.

On the de Quervain's, two weeks of resting the thumb as much as possible has not done much good.  But before I try anything as drastic as surgery (I really do think it's a mild case, and I'm surprised at the lack of significant improvement), I have to look into therapeutic massage and acupuncture.

Lots of good information HERE.

Back to the Scrabble match.  I'd already clinched, 5 wins to 3, when we sat down for the last game.  Our friend Theresa decided to record the racks, for later analysis.  I expect to be highly embarrassed, because even though I won, 468 to 411, my first two plays were dreadfully bad, and my third was knowingly controversial, and perhaps as bad as the first two plays.  (I'll be back after church to finish this.)

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Resumption of post, as I toggle back and forth between Jets/Saints and Chiefs/Bills:

In that last game, my opening rack was CDEGLOT.  I saw COLTED but wasn't sure of it.  It's a British word (not in the American Scrabble dictionary, I mean) -- past tense of a verb meaning "to fool."  I thought about playing CLOG, but didn't like keeping DET because D and T are two consonants that lack synergy.  I liked COGLE better because at least it scored 22 points instead of CLOG's 14.  Only problem:  there's no such word as COGLE.  I had it mixed up with COGIE, BOGLE, and FOGLE.  I call things like "COGLE" hybrid words.

Anyway, Steve knew COGLE was phony but he allowed the play because his rack was HILNOST and he was able to play NEOLITHS through the E that I provided.  Those 62 points were much higher than anything he could have scored on an empty board.

I drew AAEIV to go with my DT leave after my opening play.  I saw AVIATED but there was no place to play it.  I looked for an 8-letter word and played VALIDATE through the L of NEOLITHS -- for 74 points.  Nice play, you think?  Not really.  I should have known and seen DIVAGATE, through the G of COGLE, which would have been worth 102 points because it would have hit two double-word squares.  When I looked up the possibilities later, I saw that AVIATED plays through any of the consonants in GIRL POWER:

G - DIVAGATE
R - VARIATED
L - VALIDATE
P - ADAPTIVE
W - VIEWDATA

Something to remember.

Steve held EILNRTU.  No sevens there, but I see that he could have played LINCTURE or UNDERLIT through the C or the D.  But he chose the best play, TENURIAL through the second A of VALIDATE.  Because it crossed two double-word squares, it was worth 82 points.

My next rack was BDFGKS?.  I probably should have traded 5, keeping the blank and the S, but since I was already down by 48, I decided to play KERFS through the E of VALIDATE for 32 points.  I liked the fact that I held the D for a later hook on VALIDATE, where the hook square was a triple-letter square, and in fact on my next turn I was able to dump off GRID at that spot for a useful 34 points.

Two turns later I finally found an optimum play.  I held ADMORSW and was able to play MADWORTS through the T of TENURIAL for 86 points and a lead I would never relinquish.  The only other 8s you can make with SAD WORM and another letter are two words with N:  SANDWORM and SWORDMAN.  I wound up winning, 468-411.  But as I said, the racks were recorded, and when Steve sees how horrible my first three plays were, he'll barf.

A trip to the doctor revealed that I DO NOT have carpal tunnel syndrome.  Instead, my ailment was diagnosed, with certainty, as de Quervain tenosynovitis, named after the Swiss physician, Fritz de Quervain, who discovered and cataloged this condition in 1895.

So I paid $19 and change from some contraption that immobilizes my right thumb, allowing me to get my crossword puzzles and Sudokus done, which is what I really care about.  A few days of rest, with occasional ice packs, and some Motrin PM each night at bedtime, and I expect to be good as new.

Saturday we'll be in DeLand, Florida, at the Thin Man Watts Jazz Fest.  Details at www.wattsjazzfest.com.

I'll be back home in time to catch the finish of Game Three of the World Series.  Go, Cardinals.