Been an interesting week. But this stuff helped a lot:
______________________________________
This is Max Starks.
He’s the offensive tackle for the Steelers, which I had to look up because football is not one of my interests.
He’s also a major Classical Music fan.
In fact, he was on the Board of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for six years.
He likes opera.
He has “O Fortuna” on his warm-up soundtrack, which is absolutely brilliant.
“I’ve never done what’s traditional in my entire life,” Starks said. “It’s made me a better person, it defines your character.”
I’ve decided that this appreciation should go both ways.
The next time my family watches a football game, I’ll watch, too—while I listen to Carmina Burana through my headphones.
(Thanks, Watson!)
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Spring Fair:
I’ve never played Portal. I’ve never played Portal 2. I’ve never even seen it being played.
As far as I know, the kids haven’t, either.
But this is still one of the best things we’ve ever seen.
I challenge you to play this once, and only once.
Too late, right?
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
What’s the State Paramecium?
Jane* wrote to the Governor of Delaware as part of her Academic Fair Project—fourth graders get states.
Along with a nice letter and an autographed photo of Jack A. Markell,** she received a lot of information.
Did you know that along with a State Drink (milk), a State Herb (Sweet Goldenrod***) a State Dessert (Peach Pie^), and a long list of other State Things, Delaware has a state macroinvertebrate?
Me neither. It honestly never occurred to me.
It’s the Stone Fly, and its appointment is supposed to represent Delaware’s clean water systems. Which is all well and good, I suppose. Ecology. Circle of Life. Makes sense.
But frankly, if I found the above in my water system, cleanliness isn’t the first thing that would come to mind. That would be, “Doesn’t Dow Chemical make something to get rid of these suckers?”^^
Delaware’s information department is ever so slightly defensive about this,as if they know they’ve gone just a bit too far.
Most of the blurbs under the pictures say things like, “Milk is Delaware’s State Drink because we have a lot of cows and milk is one of our greatest agricultural products, etc. and so forth.”
Under the Stone Fly, it says, “Appointing the Stone Fly as Delaware’s State Macroinvertebrate is perfectly acceptable, because . . . ”
But Jane and I aren’t judging Delaware at all.
We’re too busy trying to work stone flies into the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge . . .
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Turret Anthem:
I usually save stuff this cool for Saturdays, but I had to share.
Zachariah Scott is a genius.
________________________________________
*Who is holding up very well, and thanks you very much for all for your concern—your supportive comments made her grin and give me a bonus hug (so I thank you, too). She’s already stopped one potential incident in its tracks by asking a Mean Girl to stop commenting on her hat and then telling the teacher when her request was ignored. The teacher promptly told the Mean Girl to keep her thoughts to herself. Jane was amazed.
**The governor. Don’t sweat it—I keep forgetting, too.
***Because there’s no State Allergen. I checked.
^Does Georgia know about this? Do any of the Lisas know?
^^In my defense, the second would probably be “Ooooh. Pretty wings!”
Earful of Cider 
Well, next game is te Super Bowl, which even sports fans like me watch just for the commercials.
But I promise not to get into the intricacies of the new pistol offense, its success in college sports, wax poetic about zone vs man coverage, and other trends in pro football. Maybe I shouldn’t have spent so much time on the sidelines in college.
Go ahead and talk pistol offense to your heart’s content—I’ll have my headphones on anyway.
Apparently, peaches do well in Delaware. Who knew?
Oh, and while Georgia does accept the peach as its state fruit, the state food is grits.
Like you can’t get grits anywhere. Okay, not Colorado – it confuses them, which is odd, because polenta…
Mmmm you said grits… *drooools*
Maybe it’s the white corn that bewilders them?
Watson mentioned that some people “in the North” put sugar in grits. Yeeeuck! Who does that?
That portal thing was like “Luxo Jr.: The Next Generation.” In short, I loved it.
And I’ve always liked Delaware. No sales tax might have something to do with it.
What’s your position on Delaware’s support of macroinvertebrates?
Hey, if it makes ’em happy, then fine. Delawarians deserve to be happy, too.