My Impromptus today begins with Tufts University — whose student senate last month declared Thanksgiving a “National Day of Mourning.” Ay, caramba, as Bart Simpson would say. My column is the usual smorgasbord: politics, foreign affairs, sports, language, music . . .
Actually, I don’t think I have music in this one. I do have a new episode of Music for a While. It’s headed “Preludes and other short wonders.” Those interested can go here.
Today is Beethoven’s birthday, incidentally. I agree with Lorin Maazel (the late conductor): Beethoven is your best friend. He’ll be with you through thick and thin. He’ll celebrate with you when you’re up, he’ll commiserate with you when you’re down. He will urge you on. What a gift, this fellow: Beethoven. An artist of humanity.
A reader writes,
Your columns always make my day. In a way, they remind me of Ernie Pyle, though they are not quite as grim.
As for the Tufts kids, you think them ungrateful. That tells me they are probably equally unhappy. You cannot be unhappy in life if you are grateful for what you have.
I have never been compared to Pyle before. I have been called a pile.
Impromptus today includes a note on fusion energy — the recent breakthrough and exciting prospects. A reader writes,
Jay,
. . . Back in 1973, at the beginning of my junior year at Michigan, I finally chose nuclear engineering as my major. I remember Professor Kikuchi telling us that fusion was 20 years away. That was the general story even when I left graduate school at Washington in 1981. In fact, it was the general joke in the nuclear industry that fusion was always 20 years away.
Hmmm.
In a previous Impromptus, I had a note on swastikas: They are a Hindu symbol as well as . . . you know. A reader writes,
Dear Jay,
. . . In my hometown of Detroit sits the nation’s best athletic club — the Detroit Athletic Club. I’ve been fortunate to be a member of the DAC for many years. The clubhouse was built in 1915. It was designed by the famed architect Albert Kahn. When you walk into the club’s main restaurant, you notice that the 3×3-inch tiles in the floor are etched with various symbols. The symbols all relate to the many Native American tribes in Michigan. This is the original floor from 1915. Speckled about the floor is the Native American swastika.
By the way, Wikipedia tells us that Kahn’s DAC was inspired by the Palazzo Farnese in Rome — a setting (a bloody, horrifying setting) of Tosca, the Puccini opera.
Finally, an Army veteran responds to the current controversy over vaccination for COVID-19 in our armed forces:
During their first 48 hours in the U.S. military, everybody gets a couple of dozen shots they couldn’t name on a bet. Patton said, “If you can’t enforce simple administrative discipline in peacetime, how do you think you’ll enforce discipline in combat?”
Thank you to one and all readers and correspondents. Again, for today’s Impromptus, go here.