"There's no business like show business..." (Annie, Get Your Gun)

…..One of my favorite shows is “Kiss Me Kate”, based on Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.”  And my favorite song in that show is “Where is the life that late I led” sung by Petruchio after he marries Kate.  I do remember all the lyrics which I recreate here for your entertainment and enlightenment, and I find this number particularly appropriate for my current station in life:

FROM "KISS ME KATE"

“Where is the life that late I led; where is it now?—Totally dead!

Where is my Becky, my Becky-Weccio; still selling pizza by the slice

     In Ponte Vecchio?

And where’s Rosellio, that fierce virago, who fled to me from

    Trinidad-Tobago?

Where is Carmen, from Venezuela?  Still sleeping with that

     Alcoholic sailor?

And where is Ruthie, my English cuzzin? Still favoring

     Her suitors by the dozen?

Where’s Alfonsina from sweet Firenze, whose flirting

     Always put me in a frenzy?

And Sister Carla, also from Florence, whose kisses

    Rained on me in torrents?

Now there was Rhoda--beneath the cover. So voluptuous 

     I still cannot recover.

And Filomena, from friendly Venice, who played me

    Like she played a game of tennis.

So, now, where is the life that late I led? Where is it now?

     Totally dead!      Come—kiss me, Kate

Not bad, eh. I told you that I remembered all the lyrics.  Now, who was it that wrote this show?  Where is he now?  Oh! Cole Porter?  Forgive me, Cole, for changing the lyrics a bit.

"What a sigh is there. The heart is sorely charged." (Macbeth)

....  Today was a very frustrating day.  At an evening event in our clubhouse on Friday, Rho won a man's watch from Macy's in a raffle.  I have a watch and don't need another.  Today, we decided that we would go to Macy's at the Boca Mall to trade the watch for credit.  Of course, to go to the mall I needed to take the scooter...because I can't get too far with a walker.  Soooo, about 1:30 from our apartment I drove the scooter to the car, put the key in the lift (by the trunk) lowered it, and drove the scooter onto it.  However, when we tried to raise the lift with the scooter on it, the lift simply refused to rise.  Soooo, I had to drive the scooter back to the app'tment and traded it for the walker, hoping that the Mall had scooters available which they sometimes do.


.....When we got back to my car, we noticed that someone had stolen my license plate!  So, anyway, we persisted and we went in Rho's car.  The mall had one scooter left!  Yea!  But the person who had used it, went off with the key! Sooooo, we had to rent a wheelchair which Rho, with difficulty, pushed me to the food court, because at this time (2:30) she was very  hungry...she's big on lunching.  We got to the food court and found that there were only a few food vendors open because the food court had undergone "reconstruction".... To make a very long story short, Rho went to Macy's and exchanged the watch for a gift card while I waited for her in the main lobby watching the world go by on MLK day.  

"Ode to the West Wind" (Shelley)

.....Since I have been called upon to say a few words at the North Shore HS reunion of the classes 1962-1970, I was their teacher & I recall lines from some of the greatest poetry of the Romantic Period in England.  I have already extolled the virtues of Tennyson's "Ulysses" which I taught to many at this reunion.  Now, I would like to have you consider some of the most passionate and emotional lines ever written by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and I quote (with some editing) from "Ode to the West Wind".  Keep in mind that in a long life...and Shelley only lived until he was 30...most everyone cannot fully escape from illness, debilitation, or depression.  And that includes the Baron who has lived 58 years longer than Shelley.  I have had my share of most everything life has to offer, and I am most grateful for it.  It's the last line of this poem that offers redemption...and hope.

                                          
                                     O wild West Wind, thou breath
                                           of Autumn's being, make me

                                           Thy lyre even as the forest is...

O uncontrollable! if even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed	50
Scarce seem'd a vision—I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
O! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd	55
One too like thee—tameless, and swift, and proud. Be thou, Spirit fierce, My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,  Like wither'd leaves, to quicken a new birth; And, by the incantation of this verse,   65   Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!   Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?