Boston Sox!

One should never complain about what one's spouse is a fan of, because there might always be something worse around the corner. Barry Manilow only looks like he's been around since 1918 (or I betcha he does once the makeup comes off), but the prolonged misery of the Red Sox fan is something positively primeval. The Lovely Wife(tm), a New England native, considers herself heir to a tradition of misery and suffering that can only be comprehended by others who think that the covering of a house is pronounced "ruf." Never mind that she couldn't name a single player on the current Sox team or explain the concept of a double play: This is *her* Sox team, dangnabit, and her husband will deal with her dancing for joy in the streets and on the subway.

Now that it's over, I can get back to much more important pursuits, such as tonight's return trip to Scrabble club 56. I haven't had much chance to review my word lists, so I'm not expecting that much of an improvement from my last time, but I'm aiming for at least one win against a ranked player and four bingos...

Still Tickin'

Okay, so like the missus said, the concert wasn't as hideous as it could have been (neither was the root canal that I had a few years back, but I'm no longer allowed to make that analogy). Barry was in very good voice, the concert was only amplified slightly beyond tolerable limits, and there was a Sondheim song in the whole mix (actually, just a Sondheim lyric: The Peroxided One sang a reasonably credible "All I Need is the Girl" from Gypsy before introducing one of his his backup singers). In a blatant attempt to try to win me over, Manny-boy brought out the cast of Harmony, his "coming to Broadway any day now, really!" show, featuring Brian D'Arcy James (one of the highlights of Titanic). Unfortunately, even James couldn't make Bland Barry's lyrics into anything interesting (I really don't see how the show has much of a future, based on the songs that I heard, but what do I know?). Moments of interest: a fairly snazzy vocalise version of the "William Tell Overture," and "I Write the Songs," which gave me the opportunity to sing along with Elaine Brier's lyrics ("I slice salami for the whole west side/ I got the business from an uncle who died (uncle Shlomo)/I make potato salad, cole slaw too/ I am Deli, I'm a Jew"). Anyhoo, survived the show and the "three day yom tov" weekend, and am now recovering from laundry overload.

Ooh! 'Fore I forget... mazal tov to Shlomo & Sara on kid number three and boy number one... may you have much joy and bliss, etc. etc.

About to hit midnight, which means that it's time to wish TLW a happy birthday! Oops, check that... that don't happen 'till 4:00am (she's pushing off that extra year for as long as possible), and if you think I'm gonna stay up another four hours just to be able to share that moment with y'all, you're sadly mistaken.

What I did for Love

My apologies for not posting recently... I've been staring fixedly at a looming storm cloud that has been approaching menacingly for weeks now to the ominous strains of a bassoon-and-drum-laden soundtrack. Yes, the ultimate horror is about to be unleashed. Those with weak constitutions or young children may wish to surf to a different blog immediately.

Are you ready for this? Nitroglycerine pills in order, last meal eaten, etc.? Okay, here goes:

I'm going to a Barry Manilow concert tonight.

There. I've said it. I married a fan of "Mr. Copa" and she decided that I simply had to accompany her to his concert at the Nassau Mausoleum. Never mind that I never made her go to see Rush, or force her to sit through Word Wars; I've gotta sit through two hours of music that I don't know and don't wanna know (the odds of him doing "Marry Me a Little," the one Sondheim cover that he's recorded, are pretty long, methinks). Not only that, but we gotta see him in the sound-distorting barn that is the Coliseum, which means that the show is gonna probably be twice as loud as it needs to be (What the sound engineer did to Billy Joel and Elton John there is deserving of tortures beyond imagination... wait, he'll probably be at this show too! Nevermind...)

I just finished my penance on Yom Kippur; I can't possibly have lapsed so much as to deserve this...