After I got back from New York, I was mostly focused on getting two things done: 1) taxes and 2) preparation for Passover. I did accomplish both of those, though not without a lot of whining. I have less to say than I normally would about Passover, because I went to both seders over zoom this year. Sigh ( Read more... )

Celebrity Death Watch: John Mahoney was an actor, best known for his role on Frasier. Alan Baker was a mathematician, who focused on number theory and won the Fields Medal. Craig MacGregor played bass for Foghat. John Gavin was an actor who was in several classic films and later became ambassador to Mexico. Reg E. Cathey was primarily a ( Read more... )

I went to three Capital Fringe Festival shows over the weekend. (I had previously seen Mr. Taken.) Here’s the run-down, plus a note about the neighborhood.

NoMa: All three shows I saw this weekend were at Gallaudet University, which is at the edge of the NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue) area. Since I hadn’t been over that way before and had ( Read more... )

Washington Jewish Film Festival: I made it to two movies this year. There were others I was interested in, but couldn’t make the schedule work for. The two I saw were both comedies - Moos and OMG, I’m a Robot. More about those when I do my quarterly movie wrap-up.

Laura Bush Killed a Guy: I went to see this one-woman play, produced by The ( Read more... )

Celebrity Death Watch: John Bradshaw wrote self-help books, popularizing the idea of the "nner child." Katherine Dunn wrote the novel Geek Love, which I admit I didn’t like as much as everyone thought I should. Andre Brahic discovered the rings of Neptune.

Weather Whine: It was nice out Saturday morning. But we’ve had rain nearly every day for ( Read more... )

Lots of catching up to do, not all of it in this one entry. But let us get started.

Celebrity Death Watch: Hal Hackady was a lyricist. In addition to Snoopy!!! The Musical, he wrote the lyrics to "Let’s Go, Mets." Of course, that’s the theme song from 1986 on and is not nearly as good as "Meet the Mets," but such are the times we live in ( Read more... )

One of the best things about taking public transportation is the conversations you overhear. (It can also be one of the worst, I know, but go with me here.) Tonight on the Orange Line featured two classic examples ( Read more... )

I have been intending to do a catch-up post since before I went on vacation. But work has been crazy and vacation preparations are always crazy and vacation recovery has been slow due to work being even crazier. Oh, enough with the excuses.

Celebrity Death Watch: Doris Lessing won a Nobel prize in literature. I am sorry to say the only book I ( Read more... )

I have plenty of things to write about but I won't get to them for a few days.

I did, however, want to put out a reminder that the USA Science and Engineering Festival is this weekend at the D.C. Convention Center ( Read more... )

Celebrity Death Watch: I have three celebrity deaths to mention. The least famous is Dora Saint, better known as Miss Read. She wrote several novels of English village life. I admit that I haven’t read any of them, but the descriptions I’ve seen suggest I would like them and I’ve made a note to check for them the next time I’m at the library ( Read more... )