This and That

My kids like to listen to classical music while they do their schoolwork. It plays in the background, quietly, and one really isn’t cognizant of it as one does his work. But there’s always a piece that pulls me away from my own work and makes me perk up to hear it. It’s Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. It is exquisite. It starts out with this light string section, and a then a chorus of voices bubbles up; the voices suddenly fade and the strings rise again. There’s a very short example of it here. It’s so lovely that it catches my attention anew every time it’s played. It’s those strings that grab my heart; so beautiful.

I got an email back from the Stanley Theatre in Utica. Unfortunately, they are not giving tours until April due to ongoing renovations of the theatre. It’s a lovely theatre; I’ve been there twice but hadn’t taken my camera with me. I guess we’ll have to wait until spring.

I came upon my son giggling madly this week while reading his textbook. He’s studying ancient world cultures (fascinating) and was enthused with the ancient Sumerians and Assyrians. In his book, it stated that the most precious possession of the Assyrians was their cow. To be rich meant one had many cows. Therefore, the ancient Assyrian word for “war” literally means “to struggle for more cows.” His peals of laughter gave us all a good belly laugh!

At the dinner table recently, we remembered a very funny joke. I can’t remember who first came home with the joke… my husband tells the funniest jokes, so it was probably him. It goes like this: Many decades ago, during the space race of the late 1950′s, an American astronaut, a Russian astronaut, and a blonde were having a heated discussion in a local diner.

The Russian astronaut pounded his fist in the table and made the coffee cups bounce. “We Russians are going to be the first to get into space!”

The American astronaut smiled at the boast. “Oh yeah? We Americans are going to be the first to get to the moon!” He pounded the table and made the coffee cups bounce higher.

The blonde, not to be outdone, pounded the table, too. (nothing bounced). “Oh YEAH?” she huffed. “We blondes are going to be the first to get to the sun!” She sat back and gave the men a smug look.

The Russian and the American looked at each other quizzically. The American told her, “You can’t do that! The sun is too hot! You’ll burn up!”

The blonde, sensing her moment of triumph at these ignorant astronauts, burst out, “Nuh uh! We’re going to go at night time!”