Even a classical music troglodyte like myself can’t help being affected. Over time there are pieces that insinuate themselves into the most sluggish chunks of gray brainmatter, including mine. For me, one such work is Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Way way back when I was a kid with little money to spend on such things, I decided that I should try to learn at least a little about classical music, including why people listened to it at all, since it seemed boring to me and was impossible to dance to.
Being a pauper meant looking in the record store for classical music on the budget Nonesuch label. For a couple of bucks you could buy a vinyl album, usually recorded by an orchestra or ensemble you never heard of. My first such purchase was The Four Seasons. I don’t recall the name of the orchestra, but I played the album quite a bit over several years before it was lost during one of my spasmodic downsizings.
Recently, though, I ran across this newer album starring a violinist named Justine Jansen. I immediately liked it. It seems so … I dunno … sprightly and quick on its feet compared in with some of the more lumbering versions I have heard in the past. Perhaps because it is being played by a small ensemble rather than a larger orchestra (but that is for people to answer who know something about music, which does not include me).
Here is her version of the first part of Concerto #3 of The Four Seasons: Autumn.
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BTW, there are more than 1000 recordings of The Four Seasons out there. And that count was done in 2011, so who knows by now?
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In response to the reeking river of garbage information oozing from from the Department of Health and Human Services, many medical groups and societies are putting out accurate and scientifically sound health information to help the public make good decisions, especially with regard to vaccines.
My own American Academy of Pediatrics has a site where they refute many of Secretary Kennedy’s know-nothing claims and another where they publish evidence-based recommendations for all childhood vaccines.
Some people think that doctors are in the immunization “business” to make huge profits. Let me clarify this tired canard for you. When I practiced pediatrics in South Dakota, the state provided all of the mandated vaccines to our offices for free, and we were not allowed to charge for them. We did, however, have to purchase, on our own, special refrigerators in which to store the vaccines, and had to keep meticulous records on the refrigerator’s performance and on each dose of vaccine we dispensed.
We were allowed to make a small charge for the nurses’ time spent in preparing individual doses and actually giving the injections. But reimbursements for that time were routinely less than our actual cost.
So instead of being a generous profit-maker, prociding vaccinations was actually an expense for the participating physician. This state/physician partnership worked because both recognized how important vaccines were to the health of the state’s children, and that small sacrifices were well worth it to remove any financial barriers.
But an economic windfall? Fageddaboudit!
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One of the absolute delights of reading is when you come across a word that moves humanity forward. That happened to me today when I read an article by Jennifer Louden on Substack entitled How To Age Without Enshittifying.
Whut? Where did that one come from?
And thus I was off to rummage in my online resources where I found:
Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is a pattern in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers (such as advertisers), and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.
Wikipedia
Originally defined within the digital world (and that was only two years ago, when the word was first coined) it has broadened to include other areas of life. Like the pound of bacon that cost $5.99 becomes the 12 ounce package of bacon that costs $5.99.
Therefore when Ms. Louden provides me with some pearls of advice, I pay attention. Who wants to become part of the problem in yet one more way? Not me, bucko. My momma didn’t raise no enshittified children.
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In a piece on Substack I found this interesting graphic, which was created to try to make some sort of sense out of the manure lagoon swirling around Cluck. It’s one of those times when a picture is worth, if not a thousand words, quite a few.
If the diagram intrigues you, you might want to read the whole piece, which is entitled: Making Sense of MAGA. As I mentioned in last Sunday’s post, “Get your programs here, you can’t tell the players without a program.”
I have to admit that just looking at this repulsive entwinement makes my right hand want to reach for a can of disinfectant and give it a good spritz. Forcing my Macintosh to display it might even be a violation of the laptop’s rights.
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Another fine neologism I picked up this week was coined by Andy Borowitz, when he dubbed the present occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Metamucilini.
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And finally, out of the blue, comes a piece of news that shoves all of the government’s criminality and assaults on our collective lives aside for a few blessed moments.
New Mexico has this week guaranteed child care for every child, regardless of family income. Read the how and the why and the whole story by clicking the link.
Imagine this if you will. A politician who is using her office to make the lives of New Mexicans better. Whose main goal is not to grift, steal, or murder.
Es increible! Es magnifico! Gracias a la gobernadora Michelle Lujan Grisham de Nuevo Mexico por hacer muy algo correcto!
(And thanks to Google translate for doing all the work of creating that last sentence)
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Little Home In The Valley 