My Impromptus today begins with the mask wars, and vax wars. These wars have various combatants, and most of them have a point. I also touch on Edward Said, Sergei Kovalev, and J.R. Smith. Kovalev was a Soviet dissident — later a Russian one, you could say — and a great man. J.R. Smith played in the NBA for 16 years. Made $90 million. Now he is going to college, and he qualified for the golf team — which I think is wonderful.
My latest Q&A podcast is with Maria DeCotis, here. She is a comedienne, and an actress, and a writer, and a singer, and a dancer — a multi-purpose, multi-talented young woman. She was a sensation on social media when she impersonated Andrew Cuomo. She has lost him, but she has any number of other characters in her repertoire.
Feel like a music podcast? Here is the latest episode of my Music for a While. I have some minor composers: George Walker, Lili Boulanger, Florence Price. Two major composers: Mozart and Shostakovich. And one in between, you might say: Paul Hindemith. Anyway, interesting stuff, and wonderful music.
Maybe I could publish two letters concerning my Impromptus of yesterday? A much-admired Georgia friend writes,
J.D. Vance’s qualification for office seems to be that he wrote a book about his relatives. I am reminded of the Carter years. Brother Billy Carter’s antics were such that people were saying, “Why wasn’t he bigger news when Carter was governor of Georgia?” The answer, of course, was, “Around here, everybody’s got a relative like that. And if you think you don’t have one, then it’s you.”
Hilarious.
The second letter:
Jay,
. . . As a conservative, and a Republican, in Oregon, I feel as though I’m hiding these days. I enjoy the rodeo at the county fair, but I hate its pseudo-Christian nationalism. I love our flag, our anthem, and our country. But I’ll confess to feeling almost more patriotic and more American when, at the same county fair, I stand in a long line to pay $10 for cotton-candy art from a tireless Chinese family with thickly accented English. (See photo attached for their excellent work.)
God bless you and God bless America . . .
That photo is below. Thank you to one and all.
