It's Contagious

When I talked to my mother this morning, all she could talk about was how she is drowning in papers. She wants me to come up and go through things with her.

I pointed out that every time I try to go through things with her, she just ends up insisting that "they" say you have to keep all of this stuff. At least I have finally figured out that the "they" in question is really my Uncle Herb, who is an even bigger packrat than Mom is.

I'm barely catching up on clearing out my stuff, though I did make a decent dent in the Box of Shame this weekend. There is no way I am going to give up a weekend to fight with Mom over what needs to be kept versus what should be shredded.

Candide, in Brief

I went to see the National Symphony Orchestra production of Candide (in concert) at Wolf Trap tonight, with Jason Alexander as Voltaire / Pangloss. I know the score reasonably well, but Leonard Bernstein revised it several times, so parts were unfamiliar. I was less familiar with the book (though I have actually read Votaire). I could tell that was altered to put in some current political references. That was amusing, but I'm still doubtful about it.

Overall, it was a reasonably enjoyable evening. Dominic Armstrong (who played Candide) and Anne-Carolyn Bird (who played Cunegonde) both have fine voices. Jason Alexander, despite being best known for playing Seinfeld's sidekick, George Costanza, does have serious musical theatre credentials, as well as excellent comic timing.

I fear that having just seen this will only reinforce my already annoying mental habit of responding (not, in general, out loud) "for an auto da fe" whenever I hear the phrase "what a day."

By the way, I tried using metro and the shuttle bus to get to Wolf Trap this time. That worked reasonably well, but I had an extremely long wait for the train to Vienna when I got back to West Falls Church. Overall, I think the transit time is a wash, though not driving late at night when I'm tired is, of course, a good idea.