…not spiced with plutonium dug up on the surface of Mars.
- Dear Chicago City Council (and Cook County Council):
Just say no. No to any future "business dealings" with or facilitated by that family. That's not a bill of attainder, because it's an individual-instance exercise of discretion… especially if any "judicial trial" could ever be concluded in the elected Illinois judiciary. OK, perhaps not so much; and given "Blue slipping" for federal judges, perhaps not so much in Illinois federal courts, either.
Or, I suppose, you could just continue business as usual and burnish — even revel in — your reputation as the most-corrupt major city in the country. That family gives a bad name to "machine politics" (whether through nurture or nature). Just continue to maintain disorder, ok?
- Well, the Royal Albert Hall has (again!) convinced me to look elsewhere for superlative musicianship. This is the real irony of classical-music snobbery: The musicians who actually play the material — and especially the very best; Jacqueline DuPre, to name one, was notorious for pop-music jam sessions during rehearsals (depicted in one throwaway scene in the flawed-but-interesting Hilary and Jackie, and I dare most musicians to actually perform "Take Five" or "All Along the Watchtower" so well as those particular popular musicians) — just love engaging with great material, regardless of whether it's material that's acceptable to the snobbiest of the staff. Or, more to the point, the stupidest of the marketing department. Of course, that also reflects backward into the quality of the composition… and that's not something that some of those snobby fans of, say, the lesser works of Elgar (which is most of them, especially compared to some ouevres in "popular music"!) want to hear. I'm not afraid to admit my snobbery for musicianship; I'm ardently not listenin' to you, 1970s-90s California-based AOR/stadium rock. Bow down and worship J. Marshall Hendrix, for you shall have no guitar god before him.
- Mark Whatney will be partially wrong. Commander Lewis's music files will include something from this century… but it'll still be disco. Plus, technically, Mamma Mia as a show has been produced this century; it's highly probable that Commander Lewis had it as an extended-release video file, but whatever. I will not turn the beat around, either.