A Couple of Random Meanderings for your pleasure:

One of our favorite new shows is Reaper. Every episode is hilarious, with a cast FULL of great characters, along with a hottie or two for good measure. What else could one need? How about a Satan character that is PERFECTLY cast. Ray Wise, cast as Satan, was outstanding from the very first episode. I said so during that first episode too. The guy is uncanny good. You should watch it.









Anyway, remember a long time ago when I talked about Funerary Violinists ?? Of course you don't because it was a long time ago (10/06), and you don't pay attention, so I gave you a link to go back and read about it. VERY INTERESTING STUFF, I might add.

Anyway, a couple of things have made me think of that recently. Remember the movie Chocolat, with Johnny Depp as a gypsy? There is a sequel book out by that author. I think the subject is .... shoes.... then I was reading somewhere about a group of gypsy musicians named The Cook Trio. It's a very fun listen for those who love the sound of acoustic guitar, as you know I do. The flouncy melodies and hoppy rhythms are a real treat. These guys are masters of their instruments. Here's a bit about the genre:

It’s nearly impossible to tell the story of the Cook Trio without telling the story of Django Reinhardt, born in Belgium in 1910 and raised in a gypsy camp outside Paris. The first truly influential Jazz artist to originate from Europe, and arguably the first to successfully highlight the acoustic guitar in what had hitherto been a horn-driven, decidedly Black American genre, Reinhardt’s unique guitar work remains beyond reproach and nearly impossible to copy. A fire cost him the use of two of his fingers on his left hand, forcing him to adapt his style to accommodate his handicap through an intricate fingering system, turning a limitation into an inimitable asset. The percussive strumming style of the “Gypsy Jazz” he helped create with his popular Quintette du Hot Club De France during the ’30s and ’40s is the only form of Jazz whose origins are found outside America.

So that's a bit of an "On My Hard Drive" bonus for you today.

And now for something completely different: a quick thought on the happenings in eldo-RAY-do, Texas: They have the wrong people in custody. Early in the press coverage of this whole thing, I said to ThatOneWife that I hadn't seen one single man from the compound being interviewed, ushered out, or being in front of a judge about any of this. Then a day or two later, there were these three dudes, looking like a cross between the Three Stooges, the Keystone Cops, and Our Gang (you know, Spanky, Buckwheat, and whoever else...), they were talking to the press about the whole thing. The one guy opened his mouth and actually said - "umm... last I heard... up til just a very short time ago... it was legal to be married to a 14 year old in Texas."

WTF??

What about being married to four or five of them at the same time?? What about keeping your children so completely in the dark that they can't identify their own biological parents, their birthday, or state how old they are? One of the press reports stated that an authority asked one of these young girls how old she was, and she looked at her "husband", and after a few seconds of thought, THE HUSBAND said, "you're 18." Again, WTF? A 14 year old should be worrying about who she is going to the junior prom with, not about whether her fourth child is going to be healthy. This makes me SICK.

When you are breaking federal law be being married to more than one person at the same time, you should be convicted of that, and put in prison.

One last item: CROCS are still as ugly as the underside of a manhole cover.

That is all.