Dear Mona: The New York Philharmonic got back on track soon enough! You recall that, earlier this year, they went to North Korea. Some people voiced human-rights concerns — concerns that this visit would abet one of the cruelest despotisms in the history of man. Responding, Lorin Maazel, the orchestra’s music director, said, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw bricks, should they? Is our standing as a country — the United States — is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated?”

Now, as people who are familiar with New York music criticism know, I am Maazel’s biggest defender. I am already weeping hot tears over his impending departure (at the end of this season). But the “glass houses” business was not the maestro’s finest moment.

By the way, those who wish to read my National Review piece on the New York Philharmonic-North Korea controversy — a story that is not cut-and-dried — may go here.

I’ve taken the discussion rather a long way from yard signs, haven’t I? Sorry!