Monthly Archives: October 2009
House Healthcare Bill
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th October 2009Below is the complete text of the House Healthcare Bill – all 1990 pages. I haven’t read it but a quick search finds “tax” in it about 275 times. I wonder if anyone has read it. House HCR bill
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How to Get off a Plane Stuck on the Tarmac
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th October 2009About 400,000 airline passengers a year get stuck on the tarmac for three hours or more. This counts only domestic flights. Congress has been debating a Passenger’s Bill of Rights since before Abraham was circumcised. The airlines have an infinity of reasons against its enactment. The gruesome details can be read here. As should be…
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Aida in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th October 2009Verdi’s love triangle extravaganza was broadcast today (Oct 24, 2009) live throughout the known world in HD. This performance was one of the series most successful. The singing and orchestral playing were responsible for the emotional energy that flowed from the 1109th performance by the Met of an opera which everyone knows, but which requires great…
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Bing vs Google
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th October 2009On the basis of a completely non-scientific survey, it appears to me that Microsoft’s relatively new search engine Bing is doing a better job at finding stuff than Google. Just a short while ago Google would find posts to blogs or small web sites within hours of their appearance. Now it seems to take the…
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Flatland Film Festival Opens
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th October 2009Lubbock’s 5th Annual Flatland Film Festival opened last night (Oct 15) at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts. The first half of the program offered four shorts films . The second presented a full length ( 85 minutes) feature, A Quiet Little Marriage. Spoiler alert! The plots of these films are discussed in…
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Tosca in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th October 2009The Met’s new production of Puccini’s “shabby little shocker” (the only utterance Joseph Kerman will be remembered for) Tosca was broadcast throughout the world today in HD. It was booed at its premiere on the Met’s opening night of this season. Let’s get this out of the way first. There’s nothing in this pedestrian mounting…
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PSA Screening
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th October 2009Below is an excerpt from an email sent out a few days ago by the American College of Physicians. It tells doctors that they should discuss the implications of PSA screening before offering the test to their patients. Why they are so far behind the curve is hard to understand. Here’s what I said on…
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Anything But Wagner
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th October 2009The following was originally published at Grandi-Tenori.com, but it’s no longer available there. I wrote it 5 years ago. NK No great composer induces passion the way Richard Wagner does. Knowledgeable opera goers seem to be divided into warring camps, vigorously campaigning for and against the art of the egomaniac of Bayreuth. In 50 years…
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