At the time of the Republican National Convention, the Baltic states unexpectedly became an issue in the presidential campaign. No one was more surprised than Balts. I visited the region recently, and will have a piece in the next NR. The piece will be about the Baltics, Russia, and NATO.

For “NATO,” can you read “America”? Largely, yes.

On the site, I will have a series, a journal, supplementary to my mag piece. It will be about sundry matters, important and less so. In my opening installment, I have a mention of music. It goes like this:

The Baltics are full of musicians. Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians are very musical people, and they are singers, in particular. In fact, their freedom movement, at the end of the Soviet era, was “the Singing Revolution.”

I would like to link to a post I wrote about the Baltics and music (and ballet). It is here, at The New Criterion.

Speaking of TNC and its blog: Last week, I had a post about Arnold Palmer, the King of Golf. There is some music in that post, believe it or not. If you’re not Palmer’d out — have a look.

It seems to me I’ve been hearing about him, and reading about him, my entire life. Because I have. One thing I don’t mention about him, in my post. He once authored a book that had a slogan on the cover — kind of a subtitle: “Hit It Hard!”

If your swing is grooved, you can swing as hard as you want. If it isn’t — well, it won’t matter much. The exacting nature of golf.

P.S. In Salzburg, I once did a public interview of Benjamin Schmid, a violinist. I asked him about sound and instruments. He said that amateurs could not get a good sound on a Stradivarius. But that professionals could get a good sound on a Chevy (so to speak).

(I don’t mean to mock Chevys. In fact, I’ve coveted Corvettes for years …)