13 Comments

Just received the beautiful cards I had ordered. Probably will want to keep them for myself rather than sending them out. But who knows. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to seeing you in Red Bank in August!

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Although Dvorak composed his New World Symphany while he was in New York, he composed most of his American inspiered works while he was in Spillville, Iowa, also the home of the Bily Brothers" Clocks. There is an exhibit there containing combining the works of both the Bilys and Dvorak.

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Does anyone know if there is a term for the technique in the Charles Osgood limerick, where you have a pattern that, if followed, would obviously produce an (in this case slightly) taboo word, and when it isn't followed, it produces humor? I think there must be a word for this technique, but I don't know what it is or how to find it. (Maybe if I were an English major, I would know!)

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Unfortunately the editor left off the "punch line" of the Charles Osgood piece which is:

"It doesn't rhyme now, but it will when the tide comes in!"

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I dont think the bit about about the tide coming in was the punch line; it was just part of CO's explanation for the humor, so I dont think an editor left anything off.

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Yeah, get the water tested. And maybe cognition also. (You were too gracious to state the obvious)

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GK, your generosity is admirable. Huge accolade for your comment to Ed

Thanks always

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People who oppose trump point out, for example, that he says he can't lose an election; he incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to try to overturn the election he did lose; he invites white supremacists and dictators to dinner at Mar-a-Lago; he was the protégé of Joseph McCarthy's corrupt chief counsel Roy Cohn; he lies constantly and deliberately; one of his few "achievements" as president was to give corporations a massive tax cut, ballooning the deficit; he shamelessly undermines democracy as all authoritarians do; he uses vile rhetoric to pit Americans against each other; he installed Supreme Court justices who have started their tenure by stripping away freedoms our grandmothers fought for (and setting their sights on other hard-won freedoms); he tried to force Ukraine to mount a fake investigation into Joe Biden for political reasons; he's been found liable for raping a woman and faces more than 90 felony counts; he's pressuring the Supreme Court to give him absolute immunity for any and all crimes, including the murder of his political enemies; his "charity" and "university" have been shut down for fraud; he claims that male "stars" can take any uninvited liberty with women's bodies; his idol is Vladimir Putin, who has become the richest person in the world by murdering his enemies and maintaining absolute power over a country with an economy a tenth the size of ours. When Republicans warn against Biden, they call him nonsensical names like "old fool" or "Genocide Joe." That's about it, aside from those who are unusually determined to project a semblance of intelligence and credibility, who speak in the vaguest terms of how Democrats brought this all on themselves. They suggest that they too dislike trump but give every impression that they'll still vote for Him. They are following the example of pundits such as Ross Douthat who want desperately to see their specific religious views (whether centered around God, The Dollar or both) imposed on everyone. Think of the countless Republican patriots who must be turning over in their graves as their descendants put a party that has rotted to its core over our constitutional democracy. Our only hope of surviving this crisis is for Democrats to win enough elections to convince Republicans to stop trying to seize power illegitimately.

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From the CBS Sunday Morning piece interviewing Charles:

Dangerous in more ways than one. For example, this limerick that's racy fun:

There once was a pretty young lass

Who hailed from the Bay State of Mass

She stepped into the bay

on a fine summer day,

and the water right up to her ... knees.

"So, it's funny, but it's not what you would expect," he said, "and you laugh because you expected something else. It doesn't rhyme now, but it will the tide comes in!"

Charlie's audience could bet money on his poems being funny.

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Some are forever Ostriches and continue to dig in deeper in their chosen lack of Truth, and so Blind they can not see! Others learned, long ago, to pull their heads out and actually see reality!

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Love listening to you ... always puts a smile on my face. Have seen you twice in St. Petersburg ... please come back to the Sunshine State ... we all could use some humor!

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The tune Dvorak used is also used as the melody to the hymn “Goin’ Home”.

Here a choral arrangement: https://youtu.be/AAw78FOkhZs?si=u-1Q43IS398dGVFG

The hymn is often played at funeral on bagpipes:

https://youtu.be/Nul-fRaj8F4?si=IgVoOyZz750ERZcZ

(For reason’s I’m not sure of, this seems to be used at the funeral of firefighters who die in action).

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P.S. I’m not sure which came first, I.e. the hymn or the Dzorak symphony (or, perhaps, some other source for the melody).

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