Break out the champaign. It’s party time! The Transportation Security Administration, once the flagship agency in the nation’s $20 billion effort to protect air travelers, is now slated for dismantling. Boy, I didn’t see this one coming. Hopefully, the reports of the TSA’s demise will not prove premature. I’d always assumed that once a government agency was given that much… Read more →
Category: Other
Samson, Delilah, and Student Pilots
Oh yeah, I have a web site. Sort of forgot about that for the past few weeks. It’s understandable. I’ve either been out at the airport trying to keep my students from wreaking havoc on the runway, or in rehearsals for Samson et Delilah at Opera Pacific. Typically I’m flying from 9 am to 5 pm and then in rehearsal… Read more →
Happy Birthday
Happy birthday to me! Read more →
Stingy?
Few things make me truly angry, but this one comes close. In the wake of the rising death toll from the Asian tsunami (currently 60,000 80,000 dead and still counting), United Nations emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland has implied that the United States is cheap because our initial federal aid package is only $35 million. With all due respect to… Read more →
Happy Festivus!
Hey, if a random professor can invent a holiday (Kwanzaa), why not Jerry Stiller? Many real people are holding parties celebrating Festivus, a holiday most believe was invented on an episode of “Seinfeld” first broadcast the week before Christmas in 1997. “More and more people are familiar with what Festivus is, and it’s growing,” said Jennifer Galdes, a Chicago restaurant… Read more →
The Virtual Orchestra
I received an email from a fellow musician that bodes ill for the future of the performing arts. It’s bad enough that the arts have essentially been eliminated in our schools. Must professional theatres go the same way? If major arts facilities don’t understand this issue…. well, I just wonder who’s going to pay $100 (or more) for a ticket… Read more →
A Refresher
For the past week, I’ve been having an interesting discussion over at Damn Foreigner on the subject of military recruitment. Manish wrote an article suggesting that since there are so many supporters of the war, it shouldn’t be hard to find new recruits for the Army unless those who support it aren’t willing to put their money where their mouth… Read more →
The Puffy Shirt Lives!
Leave it to Seinfeld to break new ground by inducting a sitcom joke into the Smithsonian. The outlandishly unfashionable shirt worn by Jerry Seinfeld on his hit TV show went on display Friday at the Smithsonian, alongside Kermit the Frog, Archie Bunker’s chair and Dorothy’s magic slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” At the end of its nine-season run, “Seinfeld”… Read more →
Poetic Justice
I’m not anti-Microsoft, but the folks at Apple and Sun must be smiling about this: Forget trying to flood Bill Gates’ e-mail inbox with junk. The Microsoft Corp. chairman receives 4 million e-mails a day, but practically an entire department at the company he founded is dedicated to ensuring that nothing unwanted gets into his inbox, the company’s chief executive… Read more →
Oh, That Donation Was For 2004?
MSNBC is reporting that Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign had $45 million left going into the final days before the election, plus another $7 million in a legal and accounting complaince fund, much of which was never spent. If Kerry really thought he had a chance to win — and regardless of party affiliation, who didn’t? — why would his… Read more →