Morning all:

Quote Of The Week:

“Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.” — Franklin P. Jones

Once the rainstorms clear it’ll be a great day, I just know it. So, Carpe Diem. Here I am sitting with a great mug of fresh-ground fair market coffee and Peter Gabriel on the earphones. Not just Peter Gabriel, but his version of Come Talk to Me complete with bagpipe sounds.

The bagpipe reference is important. See, for as long as I remember I’ve had this thing for bagpipes. In fact, and I was mostly serious, I recommended that pipes be included as part of the music at our wedding. Marcia managed to maneuver that little request into a very nice flute solo—gives you an idea of the influence a groom has at these affairs.

It also brings back memories of several years ago when I was on a business trip in Richmond, Virginia. I happened to meet up with a coworker and we made a decision to head into Williamsburg for dinner. For those not familiar, Williamsburg is a historical town where much of life as it was in revolutionary times is reenacted.

Heading for a restaurant in Williamsburg without reservations is not a smart move. It took a while but we did find a place and were escorted to a side room with five tables of which only one was occupied. Pewter display plates and a waiter who looked like he came straight out of the 1790s made for a good beginning. As our appetizer was brought a violinist entered the room and started playing pieces from that early period.

Here is where fortune enters. It turns out that the woman at the other table played for a symphony orchestra and that our violinist taught at a local college and did these gigs for pleasure and some extra coins. Quickly there was a lively discussion and several requests for specific pieces and composers. One of these had the distinct underlying base drone of a bagpipe – only, this came from a violin.

I asked about this and the explanation was fascinating. It turns out that during the period where King Henry II and Edward I captured Scotland that due to the fierceness of the Scots going into battle while being led by the sound of the pipes that bagpipes were given almost mystical properties. So much so that the English outlawed the instrument (some say that they should have kept it that way). Not to lose the music the crafty Scots took the tunes and transferred them to other instruments—the violin piece I heard came from that period. What an amazing evening it turned out to be!

Since mentioning the English, I came upon an old English piece of doggerel which contains more truth than I have seen in some time. I think that with our presidential hopefuls shrieking around the country making one preposterous promise after preposterous promise, and suggestions that just become more and more desperate, that this ditty is very apropos. When we as a nation have a huge deficit and at the same time have in every budget billions of dollars earmarked for thousands of “bridges to nowhere”, yanking monies from one group to dole out to the “group of the day” is theft, pure and simple. So, here is the ditty:

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common,
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose.
Tomorrow is Cincinnati’s annual “Flying Pig” marathon. 10,000 runners from almost every state and 17 countries will participate. Last weekend I finally got my little Citroen Deux Chevaux (our Duck) out of storage. Marcia came up with an idea and I think it brilliant. Should the weather cooperate, about 7:00 we’ll drive the Duck to a place about a third of the way into the race – right by one of our favorite coffee shops – relax, have a coffee, and cheer-on the runners.

Make it a great week. Be sure to run your own race, whatever it be, and do it well.

Cheers,

Dirk