Mom Always Liked You Best

The past couple of days have been incredibly hectic. I went into work yesterday thinking that my calendar was reasonably empty. Just after I got in, I got a phone call asking me to attend a 9 o'clock meeting, largely on the grounds that I would be capable of being dispassionate on the subject. As it happens, thanks to my corporate network, I had some information that was useful for due diligence. I also seem to be the only person around on our floor who knows how to use a particular useful database, so could pull out some budget numbers we needed.

Then we had staff meeting and I got asked to see what I could find out about another subject. Telephone tag is the official Olympic sport of the circle-A ranch and that (with some follow-up emails) filled up the rest of the day. I still made it to game night, where I enjoyed playing Just Desserts followed by Plague and Pestilence with Emily and Michael (and another person whose name I don't remember). Alas, the Busboys and Poets at 5th & K is not really a good venue for game night, since the layout meant we were scattered among several tables. The food was good, though.

I knew today was going to be busy. I spent the morning following up on various odds and ends, as well as digging up information for a quick turn tasker. Then I went downtown to a particularly wonkish meeting, which turned out to be useful as I learned something that may help us mitigate the damages if we lose a battle we're currently waging. (And I also learned what tactic one of the other players is going to use, which may be even more useful.) After that, I had to go over to my corporate office and brief my grandboss on a study we've completed recently.

After work, I went over to the Kennedy Center to see the National Symphony Orchestra Pops with the Smothers Brothers. The first part was just the NSO Pops, with Emil de Cou conducting a salute to Valentine's Day. I haven't quite decided how I feel about de Cou as a conductor. His flamboyant style is interesting to watch, but I think he overdoes it a bit at times. I was amused when he used Lincoln's birthday as an introduction to "The Girl From Impanema," claiming that Lincoln used to dance around the Oval Office. But I thought that his bit of asking people to request Gershwin songs went on too long and was rather silly. (They played "The Man I Love" and "Embraceable You," by the way. The latter is my second favorite Gershwin love song, behind "Nice Work If You Can Get It.") Other pieces they played included "The Carousel Waltz" (which they had opened with), a medley of songs from Lerner and Loewe's Gigi and two pieces from Carmen Jones.

After the intermission, it was time for the Smothers Brothers. They started with a cute version of "Those Were the Days" - "Once upon a time we were on TV ..." Most of the show consisted of their usual routine of bickering as they would start out a song straight and Tom would do something silly that Dick would react to. For example, Tom switches from Spanish to German in singing "Quando Caliente El Sol" and Dick just stares at him for ages. They've been doing this sort of shtick for 50 years and it hasn't changed. There were a few cute jokes along the way, but nothing especially topical. They also did the "yo-yo man" bit, which I remember having started something of a fad when I was a kid. There was a sequence of clips from their TV show, also.

It was entertaining and there were some memorable jokes. For example, Tom went into a whole bit about flying and Dick said "no matter how many frequent flyer miles you have, they never upgrade you to pilot." And they certainly look quite for men in their 70's. I do still wish, however, that they had done something new, instead of relying so completely on nostalgia.