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Our Summer Recital

8/9/2015

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This past Thursday night was my piano students' summer recital,

...the objective of months of practicing,

...before the final rehearsal,

....and finally the big night.

Did all that practicing pay off? It did. It always does.
Was there a wrong note hit now and then? Yes. Of course. But every mini-tangle was followed by a spectacular recovery (teaching students how to gracefully recover from a missed note and go on ranks in importance right up there with sight-reading). And as I endlessly preach to my students, a mini-tangle or two in no way spoils a piece that's beautifully performed as a whole. And, as I also preach to my students, even if they hit every note of their piece wrong at the end of their performance they should still smile and take a nice bow to thank their audience for listening.

` Anyway, in case anyone's interested, here's the link to the video of our recital:

   https://youtu.be/VdP8fTvyGq4

   We have a summer-recital tradition that whether we soar or crash, after we've all performed our pieces we head over to Foxboro Pool for a pot-luck cook-out and pool party,

...which is why some of the students performed in their bathing suits and a tee-shirt, as is acceptable attire for this recital,

...as well as for the post-recital festivities.

A fine time was had by all.

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Walking And Walking And Walking The Fair

8/6/2015

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...Continued From Yesterday:

This little piggy and I connected.

I supposed it's within the realm of possibility to see everything there is to see at The Ohio State Fair in one day. But in the 37 years Tom and I have been going to the Fair we've never pulled off that accomplishment.
During this visit we just did what we usually do, roamed around the grounds for hours and hours - 6 1/2 this time - catching, if not everything, at least most of our favorites.

The Agriculture-Horticulture building:

For the children there was, among other activities, a hay maze and a pool of grain to roll around in.

The pigs:

Children of one of the farmers.

The sheep:

Children showing their sheep for judging.

We nick-named these the ku klux lambs. They're covered to keep their wool clean before their competition.

The Natural Resources Park:

...where we saw , among other things, an urban prairie ,

A log cabin,

...complete with a couple of grannies on the porch,

...a neighborhood huckster who also sang and accompanied himself on the rattlin' bones,

...and a lovely concert by the Ohio State Fair Youth Choir.

Evidently everyone at the Fair had the same idea at the same time we did of swinging by the Dairy building to check out the Butter Cow and grab an ice cream.

There was a line just to get into the building.

We did manage to get a glimpse of the Butter Cow,

...though trying to get some ice cream there was out of the question.

Frankly, I don't know why everybody in that Dairy Building ice cream line didn't just do like Tom and me and zip across the way to the Taste Of Ohio building where there was hardly any line for the ice cream.

Tom got strawberry,

...and I tried the Elephant Ear, which was vanilla ice cream with pieces of elephant ear. Was it as good as the Dairy Building ice cream? Absolutely!

After we finished our ice cream we sat on our bench for a while and people-watched .

Then we did a once-around the commercial buildings:

...then we visited the art exhibit building, inside of which no photos were allowed.

However, we were permitted to take photos of the junior art exhibit inside the Arts and Crafts building:

This one was entitled "Anxiety Attack".

This one was called "Don't Breath In The Bad Vibes". Art with a good message!

And lastly, my favorite, the cake-decorating display:

There's got to be something for everybody at the Ohio State Fair.

Unless. of course, you're only into health food (see yesterday's post).

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Fair Food

8/5/2015

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    There is much I love about Columbus, Ohio, not the least of which is The Ohio State Fair, which graces our fair city every year for the first two weeks in August, sometimes attracting close to a million people.
    I won't go so far as to say that during the 37 years Tom and I have lived in Columbus we've never missed the Fair; I will say that in all those years we've probably only missed the Fair once or twice. Maybe three times.
    Anyway, when August rolls around we do love us some State Fair.

Last Saturday we made our annual pilgrimage accompanied by our daughter Theresa and her hubby Phill,

...happy campers in spite of the long lines to get into the fairgrounds.

In fact it was the general consensus among our none-the-less patient and good-natured fellow line-standers that this was the biggest crowd and the longest wait at the entrance gate that any of us could recall. But it was a friendly crowd.

After we made it into the fairgrounds our first objective was to find some food,

...which doesn't take a whole lot of effort at the Fair,

...especially if you're a gourmet of deep-fried food, for which its prodigious variety the Ohio State Fair is famous:

And let us not forget the Krispy Kreme Donut Burger, which is as hamburger with two glazed donuts for a bun and the newest gustatory addition, the Sloppy Donut.

Which begs the question: Is there nothing we Ohioans won't put into our mouths?

I'll be perfectly honest: I've always longed to eat one of those ginormous. luscious-looking deep-fried funnel cakes:

Specifically, this cherry one:

    But, as I've managed to do for the previous 36 years, I once again resisted, though one of these years I'm bound to crave.
    But not this year.
    While Theresa and Phill went off in their own direction Tom and I headed for one of the grilled turkey-leg, rib, and corn pavillions:

Fair food is kind of expensive. I figure they must charge by the calorie.

Anyway, I had a $6 pulled pork sandwich in a hamburger bun, a $3 ear of grilled corn and a $4 soda.

Tom got the $11 rib dinner, which included on the side miniscule cups of potato salad and coleslaw. He also got the $4 soda.

So that was $28 for lunch.
However Tom's ribs were really tasty,

...as was my corn, and well it should have been since I saw the server dip my ear into a stainless steel bowl of melted butter before he put it on my plate.

Didn't stop me.

The mission of lunch accomplished, we set out to do what there is to do at the fair besides eat.

To be continued....

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Most Of Us Want To Do The Right Thing

8/3/2015

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       In response to Saturday’s post on the death of Cecil the lion my good friend Molina offered the following comment:

Down to the nuts and bolts, humans need to stop killing the weakened, the helpless, the unprotected. It is ALL so sad that we have no respect for any of God's creation, horribly, horribly sad!

    Molina's comment was for me thought-provoking, so I started writing a reply beneath her comment and before I knew it I'd churned out enough words for half a blog post.
    So I moved my half-finished thought from the comment section over to here to finish it up.
    So anyway:
     I don't know, Molina. It's true, as you say, that the weakened, helpless and unprotected are killed every day in this world, probably every minute, and yes, there is a lack of respect out there for God's creation and all this is horribly sad.   Yet in my heart I believe that you, me, and most of us do try to respect God's creation the best that we can. I believe this in spite of the Neros, the Adolph Hitlers and the Osama Bin Ladens, the war-mongers, the power-hungry, the terrorists, rapists, murderers and all the mean, hurtful, hateful, warped, sick twists kicking around our there who have the means to make a misery of our lives and our planet.
     But there are 7.3 billion of us on this planet and I believe that most of us want to do the right thing. It’s just that sometimes we really don't know what to do. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where it's just too hard for us or we don't have the strength or resources to do what we wish we could do. Or we find ourselves in a situation where we believe we have no choice but to do something we wish we didn’t have to do.
Of course this wasn't the case with Walter Palmer. The lion whose life Palmer took was not in pursuit of Palmer's life or a threat to his well-being, he didn't need the animal for food or clothing or income to support his family. Walter Palmer was a wealthy, successful man who killed that lion in a most cruel fashion for fun and sport without the least moral compunction.
But I believe that most of us do naturally feel compassion for the weakened, helpless and unprotected. I believe that for most of us it's our natural instinct to help one another if we can. Sadly, sometimes our own life's situation causes us to act against our natural instinct. We humans are complex creatures who are faced all the time with morally complicated situations. We're also extremely suggestible. We tend to believe whatever we're taught from our youth, even the most phenomenally counter-intuitive notions. And we tend to follow like sheep and need the sustenance of social acceptance. Still I believe most of us want to do the right thing if only we can figure out what the right thing is. And if only we're able do it.
And by the way, though I was as sad and angry as the rest of the world over the death of Cecil the lion, still I have no desire to see Walter Palmer sent to some horrible prison in Zimbabwe. I have no desire to see him prosecuted or suffer mob justice. Because what he did, though a crime against God's creation, was illegal only because he accidentally killed the wrong lion. And because Walter Palmer, for all his education and wealth, was a morally ignorant man. What I wish for Walter Palmer is a moral epiphany.

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Mourning Cecil

8/1/2015

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On this day, the first day of August in the year 2105, this world continues to be a harsh place for many of its inhabitants. Not a year goes by that there's not a war or a conflict brewing somewhere on the planet and we've managed - or perhaps it's our leaders who've managed - to create more animosity among us than most of us wish there was.
And yet once in a while something happens that unites us all around the globe in joy or grief, though in truth it's more often in grief. And the grief that has most recently transcended our differences and brought us together is over the cruel death of Cecil the lion.

   Up until last week few of us in this country had ever heard of Cecil, the beautiful,13-year-old black-maned alpha lion who was the star attraction at Hwange National Park. But the people of Zimbabwe knew and loved Cecil, whose life had been studied for years by scientists at Oxford University.
    Nor was big game trophy hunting much in the collective consciousness - I myself would have thought that sort of thing had gone the way of the old 1940's Tarzan movies - but it apparently still exists, though mostly as a leisure activity among a select group of super-rich Americans.
    But now the killing of Cecil the lion by Walter J. Palmer,

the dentist from Minnesota who paid $50,000 to go on a lion hunt, has put both Cecil and big game trophy hunting greatly on the minds of people all over the world and brought us together in shared sorrow and outrage.

    Whoever you are, wherever you are, Cecil's horrible ordeal wounds your heart.
    You can see in your mind this beautiful lion, alpha male in his pride and sire to many cubs, safe and well his whole life, as trusting as a child as he follows that dragged animal carcass, innocent of the least suspicion that he is being lured far from safety and help by the worst of bad human strangers.
    You can picture the moment Cecil, contentedly eating his food, the bait he'd been lured with, is hit by the crossbow arrow; you can imagine his surprise, his pain, his confusion, his terror as he limps bleeding away from his unfinished meal, alone in a strange fearful place.
    We know that Walter J. Palmer and his guides tracked Cecil as he wandered for almost two days, bleeding, hungry, thirsty.
     But here's what's not clear: did Cecil wander for 40 hours because Palmer lost him or was the lion intentionally allowed to wander and weaken so that Palmer could enjoy the illusion of a big hunt and then more easily bring down the already dying lion at the end?
    We also don't know what was going on in Palmer's mind during the two days that he followed the suffering lion. Was Palmer consumed with excitement, the thrill of anticipation purposely and unnecessarily dragged out for the hunter's maximum enjoyment?
   Did Palmer not feel a moment's distress for the lion's suffering?
    Apparently he did not, judging from the photo of himself gloating triumphantly over Cecil's dead spiritless body, flattened by Palmer and his assistant into a posture of defeat and sad submission.

    But the rest of us do feel distress over what was done to Cecil and now many are crying out for vengeance for the crime against this lion and against his cubs, who are now likely be killed by he other male lions in Cecil's pride as they battle to seize his empty place as alpha male.
    And Walter J. Palmer is finally feeling remorse. Not for the life he took, but for the unhappy fate of his own.

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Forward>>

Our Summer Recital

Walking And Walking And Walking The Fair

Fair Food

Most Of Us Want To Do The Right Thing

Mourning Cecil

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