Dido's Lament

The story of Dido and Aeneas is set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, as numerous war heroes are making their way homeward from Troy.

This afternoon, I was stunned to stumble on this aria (a classical solo) from the opera Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell.  The soloist, a wonderful soprano, held me spellbound; she was certainly beautiful, but the words and the music caught my attention, like glue.

The plot, I just learned, was that Aeneas and his son were heading to Italy, because the boy had Italian ancestry.  But a violent storm took the boat, and forced it towards Carthage.

At this time, Carthage was ruled by a queen, Dido; and Dido and Aeneas fell in love.  But, fatefully, Aeneas was determined to resume his journey to the North, and departed leaving Dido.  The despairing Dido had a funeral pyre built on the beach, had it set alight, and sings this lamentation: 'Remember me, but not my ending.'  She then stabs herself.

Henry Purcell was a gifted composer, a few years before Bach, and the English claim that, if it hadn't been that he had lived a little too early, he would have surpassed Bach.  (This is a rather pointless argument, but music lovers are as passionate as sports fans in these matters.)

Purcell, like so many brilliant people, was interested in other arts as well, and particularly in the Theatre.  His wife got tired of his coming home late after plays, and locked him out of his house one time.  Reportedly, Purcell caught a bug, and died.

Kay

Dalmatian!

Well, we took our little dog on a brief walk around an 8 or 9 block circuit, and on the way back heard a sharp bark; at around a counter-tenor pitch.  It was him, our sort-of friend, the Dalmatian!  When my friend and I talk about him, we use the name Pongo, after the dog in One hundred and one Dalmatians!  Oh, it is the cutest, quietest young man ever, so well- behaved!  I so want to give him a hug!

Our own member of the canine persuasion, was conspicuous in his silence; he didn't even growl.  Actually, this is good doggie-on-a-walk behavior; we want to avoid escalation at all costs, which could happen.

As I said before, Dalmatians were bred from Great Danes and pointers, and this doggie had his paw raised in a pointer-like way, as if to say "It's them!"  But maybe it's my imagination.

Well, love to all,

Kay.

What's Going On?

Since Donald J. Trump was sworn in as president last year, his government has not managed to accomplish any of the things that he stated as the goals of his presidency.  One set of things that he mentioned in passing were to 'destroy' the government in Washington D.C., the government machine that Obama and Biden managed to make life moderately comfortable for some of the poorest of the poor.  In a few weeks—with the help of Musk—Trump managed to hollow out those complex departments, which ought to have saved the government billions of dollars.  But it is doubtful whether that has happened. 

But he has convinced the world that the US can be governed even if three-quarters of the population are dissatisfied with the government.  Trump probably does not care about that particular outcome (except that, maybe some of the people in his inner circle do).

He has convinced the world that, even if he has committed some crimes that at one time would have guaranteed that he would have been hounded out of office, he wasn't.  It's been a study in the political loyalty of feeble-minded people.  Almost as if he took a bet about it. 

He has convinced the world that the way to control the Gaza Strip, and maybe convert it into a lucrative casino in the desert, is by starving the Palestinian population, or bombing them to death, with the help of the villain Netanyahu. 

He is eager to remain in office for a third term.  He can't get anything done in it; he's already too feeble to even stand straight.  It's just to show that he can, even if he'd be the oldest candidate to ever aspire to the office. 

He has personally acquired a lot of personal wealth.  The MAGA followers aren't helped in any way from that corruption; some of them probably like the fact that "the Libs" are indignant about it. 

Don't forget the fact that soon after the elections of this November are done, lots of laws that effectively defund many welfare services go into effect.  This is Darwin in action: people who are not thoughtful enough to prevent crooks from messing up their lives, will not be able to have children.  (They will be unhealthy, their families will be undernourished, their children will be uneducated.)

Kay