"There's no business like show business like no business I know".

.....I just published a comment from "Emrys" which my readers may discover in the comments following the discussion about Mark Twain a couple of days ago. Emrys has been an admirer of my cuz Ruth from England, a veritable Encyclopedia Britannia, whose grey matter should be known as "Grimsley's Reference Work." And I'm fortunate to call her a family member. At any rate, Emrys touches base with Ms. Grimsley by "introducing" himself.  My "cuz" commented on the origin of Samuel Clemens' pen name, Mark Twain.  However, Emrys disagreed with Ruth's explanation and gave one of his own.  Reading them both over, however, it appeared to me that they were both saying the same thing in a different form of English; Ruth in "British" and Emry's in "American".  But the following is scientifically verifiable in "Twain" English: Mark maintained that his primary pen name came from his years working on Mississippi riverboats, where two fathoms, a depth indicating safe water for passage of boat, was measured on the sounding line. A fathom is a maritime unit of depth, equivalent to two yards (1.8 m); twain is an archaic term for "two". The riverboatman's cry was "mark twain" or, more fully, "...by the mark--twain," meaning "according to the mark [on the line], [the depth is] two [fathoms]; that is, the water is 12 feet deep and it is safe to pass.  However, Baron disagrees with all three of them--Grimsley, Emry, and Mark.  And thus in "Baron" English, the truth is that the name "mark twain" refers to a running bar tab that Twain would regularly incur while drinking at John Piper's saloon in Virginia City, Nevada. So, let's cut to the chase here, gang, and cut the academic pedagogics, and get down to basics.

......This morning I attended the auditions for the "in house" show scheduled for March. It's a show written by one of the residents--as is usual if we are not doing a "book" show (a wayoffbroadway revival).  The show is called "The Devil Made me do It" --a sort of senior "America loves talent" show.  It  has been a few years since I performed in "My Fair Lady" and I have not been able to slough off my thespian urges entirely.  So, I decided I would audition two songs--"As Time Goes By" and "If I Were a Rich Man".  I did "Rich Man" when I played Tevye about ten years ago; perhaps a little less.  I am not looking for a speaking part or anything else that would require my appearing for rehearsals several days a week at 9a.m. as I had in the past.  The gal who was evaluating the talent told me that I was the only one who received a "10"!  I guess I'm in.  And I'm sure that the "producer" wants me to do "Trouble", Harold Hill's litany against a pool table in River City.  I learned that million word monologue for "Music Man" --also many years ago, but I still remember all of it.   

.....I'm not sure that's a good thing???