Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 384

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Act 5 of Pronouns 2: The Musical goes live this weekend featuring songs with Your (or Yours) in the title. Curtain time is Saturday, 1 AM (Eastern US). FYI: For the advance planners, the will be a very important announcement!.

Recently finished Prague Winter (Madeleine Albright, 2012) about Czechoslovakia. After a short history, she focuses on the years 1930-1949. Chapter 18 about Terezin is a very good, but gut wrenching. Worth the read on its own. Also watched a 90-minute documentary about Terezin – Defiant Requiem. We found it on Amazon Prime, but it may be on Netflix.

Michelle Obama’s Note to Self for CBS This Morning made a lot of news – and deserving! On this link. visitors have a choice of reading the text or watching the video (after the text). Click here to watch on YouTube.

One of college basketball’s great non-conference rivalries happened last Saturday between two schools that are 2.4 miles (3.8 km) apart. Until one moved on, the Crosstown Shootout also involved two unique coaches – each from Cincinnati and each a grade of the school they coach. Well done Xavier and Cincinnati – plus cheers for a decisive Bearcats victory.

Last weekend was also America’s best college football rivalry. Army-Navy is what college football should be about.

My wife’s foot continues to recover – but slower than anticipated. She hasn’t danced since late October, but I try to get one day a week to not get too stale.

What a good laugh? Go to Amazon, then search for “Ugly Christmas Sweaters” – then search for “Make Christmas Great Again” – have fun! Alright – I did it for you and I linked the searches.

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If anyone noticed, nobody commented that I didn’t mention President Trump or the Republican party once in last week’s OITS.

Has anyone seen the entire Rex Tillerson-Bob Schieffer interview? I’ve seen snippets, but not the whole interview. If you find it, please let me know because my search was unsuccessful.

Remember the rumors that if Kelly, Tillerson, or Mattis would leave the Trump Administration, all would leave? Well, only one remains.

Should Congressional House Democrats consider impeachment in January when they take control? Based on what is known at this point, (in my opinion) unequivocally NO.

No matter what President Trump says or does, this statement (that I made long ago) still seems to be the most relevant: The man is a pathetic person and an even worse leader.

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To lead you into this week’s dose of satirical headlines, The Onion provides a pro/con list about seeking out uncontacted peoples.

Weekly Headlines from The Onion (combos welcome)

• Moon now overrun with cane toads after species accidentally introduced during Apollo 17 mission
• Soldier back home from serving at Mexico border still having nightmares about being used as political prop
• Woman trying to wean self off coffee by switching to Long Island Iced Tea
• L.A. adds lanes for cyclists to recover from getting hit by cars
• 4th grader panics upon realizing classmate giving presentation had exact same summer as he did
• Petting zoo all goats

My Combo: Cane toads wean from 4th graders upon realizing goats with nightmares used Apollo 17

Interesting Reads

Thinking about Winston Churchill
Seven climate change charts
Evolution of human language
Why we sleep and why we can’t
How Cincinnati Jews changed how Americans ate
(Photos) Construction creativity
(Video) A 45-second look at unique art
(Infographic) Beer vs Coffee: Effects on the brain

To send you into the weekend, here’s another one from The Temptations. In the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 383

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Act 4 of Pronouns 2: The Musical goes live this weekend featuring songs with Their in the title. Warning: This act will be challenging. Curtain time is Saturday, 1 AM (Eastern US).

Special thanks to Dale for featuring me in one of her Advent posts promoting other bloggers – and cheers to her grand idea of promoting others!

Last week I shamefully forgot to wish Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. In the spirit of Bohemian Rhapsody, this version for the Festival of Lights made me smile. Chag sameach!

Recently, Ohio (my state) became the first state allowing residents to pay taxes with Bitcoins.

The previous post was about my visit to Auschwitz. If I could take everyone in the world to one place on Earth, Auschwitz may be my choice.

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Last Saturday morning I awoke to the news of the passing of former president George H. W. Bush. It’s been a good week of salutes to a good, decent man who believed in honor public service for the country. A salute to a life well lived.

I stated this before on these pages, and the time is right to repeat it: the elder President Bush had it right about Iraq.

Another thought about Bush 41. He may have been the greatest Presidential Statesman of my lifetime.

The funeral signified a glorious sunset on the Greatest Generation. Cheers to that generation!

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To lead you into this week’s dose of satirical headlines, The Onion celebrates the birthday of the computer mouse.

Weekly Headlines from The Onion (combos welcome)

Nervous maid of honor just stringing together random Maya Angelou quotes
Experts recommend just putting up with everyone else
Man hates having to wear condoms all day every day
Study finds dogs twitching in sleep are dreaming about tearing owners from limb to limb
Report: Average American spends 25% of life waiting in line at cell phone store

Interesting Reads

The insect apocalypse
Malta’s last knight
Growing as an artist: 33 rules
Einstein and the religion of science
Drink volcanic purple tea
(Interactive) 500 years of urbanization graphed
(Photos) Comedic wildlife
(Photos) Art and architecture

To send you into the weekend, another trip into the time machine – but this time for a bit of soul. In the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Sky: The Musical – Act 3: Clouds

The Story
The sky towers above – seemingly endless, but is it.

The sky is a place for imagination – imagine the swift flight of a local bird – imagining the float of a butterfly – imagining the soar like an eagle – imagining being on a plane to an exotic land

The sky is a place for dreams – of course, the dreams to fly – but also the dreams to go beyond – dreams of a future love we don’t yet know – dreams of the love we have – dreams of a love that remains for someone who is gone.

The sky – a place for contemplation – wondering about what to do – wondering what will be – wondering what has been.

The sky as a metaphor – a smoke – whether haunting or hopeful – a sign of brightness and darkness – for calm and storm – a blanket – infinity.

The sky is a place for everyday things – a place that never seems the same – the place that is the steadiness of the sun, the moon, the clouds, and the stars.

Welcome to Sky: The Musical.

Program
Act 1: Sky
Act 2: Sun

Act 3: Clouds

Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. (Maya Angelou, poet)

Happiness is like a cloud, if you stare at it long enough, it evaporates. (Sarah McLachlan, musician)

Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same. (Ralph Waldo Emerson,author)

Above the cloud with its shadow is the star with its light. Above all things reverence thyself. (Pythagoras, mathematician)

The writer is a mysterious figure, wandering lonely as a cloud, fired by inspiration, or perhaps a cocktail or two. (Sara Sheridan, writer)

If you learned how to make a cloud, your time is not wasted. (Bob Ross, artist)

In Hong Kong, ‘wonton’ means swallowing a cloud. (Jose Andres Puerta, chef)

Guidelines

• Songs with Cloud, Clouds, or Cloudy must be in the title
• Caution: No songs using Cloud as a compound word (cloudburst, cloudscapes, etc)
• No duplicates songs regardless of artists

Production Note
To prevent browsers crashing from loading too many videos, please 1) include the song title and artist in your text, and 2) paste the URL as part of your last line (not a new line). The latter will provide a link, thus not embed the actual video … but I don’t mind unembedding, so apologies are not necessary.

Announcement
Besides being worth 8 Scrabble points, cloud is noun, a verb, and even an adjective – but also (as the quotes show) a significant metaphor. Ladies and gentlemen. David, Melvin, Paul, Otis and Eddie came all the way from Motown to be with us tonight. Let’s give a rousing welcome for Rock and Roll Hall of Famers – The Temptations with their 1969 hit – Cloud Nine.