When the legend becomes fact...

"You know M.R.F. [my respected father], but not as well as I do.  If you knew him as well as I do, he would amuse you"--Our Mutual Friend

Sunday was the ROLT event "When the Legend Becomes Fact..." with folklore as the topic.  I read the Grimm Brothers stories "The Poor Boy in His Grave" and "The Goose Girl at the Well," and the penultimate chapter of T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone, where he pulls it out.  I was also going to read Hans Christian Andersen's "What the Old Man Does Is Always Right," but someone else volunteered to read it.  Jane read a First Nations story of the creation of the world, and someone else read the first paragraphs in the Ghormengast trilogy.

Thursday was my 53rd birthday.  We bought a strawberry shortcake and ordered Chinese food.  That night I saw a PBS documentary about the Amish.

At choir practice last night we did "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound of Music. (I remember seeing the number in the movie when I was little and feeling embarrassed for these kids having to sing in front of all those people.) Don, who drove me to the subway after practice, died of a heart attack last week!  Beatrice mentioned the death of someone called Don last week, yet I somehow didn't realize it was the same Don.  Now Giovanni will be giving me a lift.

Hell Week starts tonight at the opera.  Two dress rehearsals and four performances in six days!  I'll be bringing my black pants and sweater to wear under my cloak when we're devils dragging Don Giovanni to the bottomless pit.