That picture up there is no big deal — just Central Park in fall. “Pretty standard,” as a friend of mine would say. I have another one at the end of Impromptus today. A reader recalls a song lyric — and “recalls” is the word: “I recall Central Park in fall.” That’s from “Danke Schoen.”
Another link, before I continue with reader mail: to my latest Q&A, which is a sportscast, with two of my favorite gurus: David French and Vivek Dave. We jaw over college football, MLB, the NFL, and college hoops. Topics include the Big Ten, the Houston Astros, Aaron Rodgers, and Ben Simmons.
I’ll keep the mail on the lighter and shorter sides today. The following note relates to sports, in fact. A friend writes,
Jay,
Here’s a great inaptronym (if that’s the right word). The placekicker for the Washington Football Team (ugh) is Chris Blewitt. Kind of like a golfer named Shanker.
Ha, true.
In a post, I recalled an old line about knowledge and wisdom — the difference between the two: “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable; wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad.” How about this?
That tomato line reminded me of something a co-worker used to say about knowledge vs. belief. He’d say, “Your wife knows the baby is hers; you believe it’s yours.”
The things that stick in your head . . .
I’ll say.
In a column last week, I brought up Rita Hayworth, and her dance genius. I linked to some routines she performed with Fred Astaire (and they are anything but routine, come to think of it). A scholar friend sends me a statement about Astaire, made by George Balanchine in 1961:
He is terribly rare. He is like Bach, who in his time had a great concentration of ability, essence, knowledge, a spread of music. Astaire has that same concentration of genius; there is so much of the dance in him that it has been distilled.
I ended the above-linked column from last week with a picture of an orange McLaren — incredibly beautiful animal. I snapped it in Manhattan. This car occasioned several notes, including the following:
There is an orange McLaren in my city just like the one in your photo. Beautiful machine. I was once behind it at a traffic light and couldn’t help but rev my Mini Cooper’s engine. Such a car really sticks out in a city of about 100K like Tyler, Texas, versus Manhattan, where they’re probably a little less exotic.
I’m not sure about that. Anyway, thank you to one and all. Once more, today’s Impromptus is here.