Shreddies

"He recounted the examination he had made of them [Don Quixote's books], those he had condemned to the flames and those he had saved, and at this the canon laughed more than a little and said that despite all the bad things he had said about those books, he found one good thing in them, which was the opportunity for display that they offered a good mind, providing a broad and spacious field where one's pen could write unhindered, describing shipwrecks, storms, skirmishes, and battles; depicting a valiant captain with all the traits needed to be one, showing him to be a wise predictor of his enemy's clever moves, an eloquent orator in persuading or dissuading his soldiers, mature in counsel, unhesitating in resolve, as valiant in waiting as in the attack; portraying a tragic lamentable incident or a joyful, unexpected event, a most beautiful lady who is virtuous, discreet, and modest or a Christian knight who is courageous, valiant, and astute; and representing the goodness and loyalty of vassals and the greatness and generosity of lords"--Don Quixote

It's been over a week since my last post in this blog! (Not much was happening on Thanksgiving weekend.) 

I have been doing a lot of stuff at the Alok Mukherjee campaign office, especially shredding paper.  Shredding is fun, it's so destructive!  I've shredded enough paper to fill several garbage bags. (Does anyone have an upcoming ticker tape parade?)

Last weekend I went to another Crowdreads Meetup.  We were discussing censorship, and I read the first part of No Kiss For Mother, the Tomi Ungerer children's book that prompted a backlash from 1972 grownups.  I also read part of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, about when he was working for a magazine distributor and the government banned a page about birth control from one magazine, so the distributor went around and tore out the page, but McCourt secreted a lot of copies and sold them on the black market!  And I read the part of Huckleberry Finn where he prayed for a fishing line but didn't get hooks.

Yesterday my opera group was rehearsing Tales of Hoffmann at dinner time, and I thought Father and Moira knew I wouldn't be home for dinner, but they didn't!  At the singing group today we sang "The Belle of Belfast City."

On Youtube I found a channel that's posted a lot of clips from Sneak Previews, the PBS movie review show with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert from the late 1970s and early '80s.