SST Blog

1/21/19   It's occurred to me that life is a balancing act; extremes are risky and repetition is boring. When I read recently about a mountain climber dying on Mount Everest, I thought of Mel Brooks. A few years ago an elderly woman approached Mel in a store and told him that she was sorry to hear about his wife's death, to which she added that her husband had just died as well. Mel asked her how old he was. When she responded, "92," Mel quipped, "Then he was asking for it."   So, when are we asking for it,...

Celebrating the American Songbook   1/14/19   Maybe everyone grows up thinking that the world we knew as kids was how the world always was and how it always will be. As we learn history, we become aware that our “modern” world has only been around for a short time, but still, it’s hard to see the changes that will come in the future and blow our world out of the water.   I grew up in the 1950s. The war (everyone called World War II “the war,” as if it was the only war in history) ended less than...

1/2/19   Yesterday I watched Love Me or Leave Me on TV. For some reason, I’d never seen it, which is odd, since it starred Jimmy Cagney and Doris Day—two of my favorites. It’s a fictionalized biopic about singer Ruth Etting. Etting was very popular in the 1920s and ’30s, when gangsters ran the music business, which is at the center of her story.   In real life, her husband/manager was a Chicago gangster who got her to the top of the business. In 1937 she divorced him and married a piano player. Shortly after her second marriage, her first...

12/18/18   As is my daily morning ritual, I was reading the New York Times today. I always begin with the business section (which is short, and of the least interest to me), then the sports section (of which I’m mostly interested in anything about baseball and tennis), then the main section (which takes the most time). I find that in general I’ve become more interested in national news than in local or international.   Today being Tuesday, I follow that with the science section. I’m not particularly interested in most scientific stuff (it’s usually too technical for my sort...

’Tis The Season   12/14/18   Last week I walked past Radio City Music Hall with its huge ad for the Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes. There were only few people standing outside on line. Have times changed! When I was growing up, my parents often took us to Radio City. I recently read that 75 million people have seen the Radio City Christmas Show. I assume that they aren’t accounting for repeat customers. I’m sure that I must be six or seven of them.   What struck me was that back in the 1950s and ’60s, Radio City had...