Timing Is Everything -- March 14, 2017

Fact: Ivanka's fashion line setting records, surging. No links, story everywhere.

Fact: Nieman-Marcus, Nordstrom drop Ivanka's line.

Fact: Nieman-Marcus about to go under.

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Quick! A Pop Quiz

What does Dr Hook's Sylvia's Mother and Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue have in common?

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Quick! A Pop Quiz

To what classical music is Allan Sherman's Camp Granada set to?

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Answers To Pop Quizzes

1. Sylvia's Mother  and A Boy Named Sue: both written by Shel Silverstein. I came across that only by serendipity. The latter song has always intrigued me and I was sure Johnny Cash had written it; he wrote much of his own music (at least I thought). The more I read about Silverstein the more "amazed" I am. It is amazing how creative some folks are.

2. The second one turns out not to be difficult at all, but I had no clue. Wikipedia provides the answer: Camp Granada was set to Dance of the Hours, from an opera.

About a month or so ago, I began listening to classical music while driving. It turns out that if our marriage is to survive, May and I have to listen to classical music when we are in the car listening to the radio. Both she and I are newsaholics. She loves NPR, David Muir (ABC), and Steven Colbert. She detests Donald Trump. I prefer country music, "classical" rock, and some contemporary music which she also cannot tolerate. She loves classical music which I used to "not like at all," to put it mildly. Now I love classical music and that's all I listen to when in the car. With one exception. Sophia loves the "early Beatles" so she often asks to hear the Beatles when I drive her home from Tutor Time, but she, too, now enjoys classical music, and even asks for such music by name ("classical music").

I happened to hear Dance of the Hours the other day and immediately recognized Allan Sherman's song. Camp Granada was one of my favorite songs back in the day.

By the way, Allan Sherman had a line in Camp Granada that seemed "out of place" in the song. However, after reading Wikipedia, the dots connect. It is quite amazing. I do believe public school students in the northeastern (US) schools back in the '40s and '50s had an incredible education.  I assume not so true any more.