"Amor Vincit Omnia" (Love conquers all)

.....I hope that someone out there had a decent Thanksgiving dinner for I cannot say the same. Three other couples and we were seated at this big round table at the McCormick and something-else restaurant (can't spell it), and I had the traditional turkey plate with white meat turkey slabs underneath which was hidden some mashed potatoes that ought not have been there. To get a forkful I had to lift all the turkey with one hand and grab some mashed potatoes with the other hand. It seems to me that the mashed potatoes ought to have been placed somewhere else on the plate so that I wouldn't have had to look for it/them. However, a load of green beans, some tasteless stuffing and some other unknown inedible substance took up the space where the potatoes ought to have been. I ate a few slices of the turkey and some of the potatoes until I tired of lifting the turkey to get at them. I left the other stuff on the plate. For dessert I had upside-down apple pie, although I haven't a clue as to why they had to turn it upside down--unless they dropped it in the kitchen. For beverages, I had some water, a diet coke, and a cup of lukewarm coffee. For the bill, I paid $65 if you can believe it! Oh, and the valet parking was "complementary." Big deal.

.....I got an e-mail from my cousin in England, Ruth Grimsley, (...how she loves to see her name here), asking that I send her the video of "Pajama Game". I don't know why she wants to see the only musical in which I did not play the lead. However, "Prez" was not a bad part. I used a Bronx "dialect" because you can take the boy out of the Bronx, but cannot take the Bronx out of the boy. Anyway, Ruth said that she loves the music. My big number was "7 & 1/2 cents". She gratefully informed me that in England it's spelled "Pyjama". I often wonder why in England they always go the wrong way--even on the road. Ruth is a wondrous bright lady, and often comes up out of nowhere with quotations like salmons leap out of the water. This time it was another from Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" in what in academician is written in "middle English." Next to Shakespeare, I do love Geoffrey--although I used to get annoyed when a student pronounced it as "Goffry." There is nothing like the sound of Middle English. I can recite the Prologue from memory, and I used to lull myself to sleep repeating it: "Whan that Aprille (pronounced 'Appreel-a') with his shoures soote, the droghte of March hath perced to the roote..." If you go on with the Prologue which describes 29 people going on a pilgrimage to reach a holy shrine you'll come upon the Prioress, a Nun, who wore a brooch "...on which ther was first writ a crowned A and after...(See title above). I'm wondering why a nun would be wearing an "A"? Wasn't it Hester Prynn who wore the Scarlet Letter?

.....Wonderful stuff. O.K. so you don't like it. Duh! Read the comics. (Baron said it. Don't blame me.)