Monthly Archives: May 2019
Cats Can’t Count and Only Centenarians Should Vote
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th May 2019Cats, like many other species, can’t count. Our feline acquaintances have come up with an interesting work-around to deal with their deficient numeracy. When a mother cat decides, for whatever reason, to move her kittens she takes one by the scruff of the neck to its new location. Since she can’t count she doesn’t know…
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On Wisdom
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd May 2019The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment Before diving into a topic that usually defies accurate analysis, a few preliminaries. The third person singular pronoun is a good marker of the unwise. The degree to which it bothers you is directly correlated with your degree of unwisdom. My rule is as follows. When…
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Goliath – Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th May 2019The subject is the Amazon Prime program, not the Philistine who should have gone up against Giannis Antetokounmpo rather than David. SPOILERS AHEAD. The show has two eight episode seasons available with another in the works. It’s headlined by Billy Bob Thornton as a fallen big shot lawyer who was kicked out of his firm…
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The Met’s House Baritones
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th May 2019I’m using the same criterion to define a Met house baritone as I did for the company’s tenors; ie, more than 500 performances in leading roles. This rule yields 11 baritones over the life of the Met – almost twice as many as for the tenors. They’re presented below by the number of shows they…
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Dialogues Des Carmélites in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th May 2019Francis Poulenc’s moving depiction of religious faith was telecast today throughout the world straight from the center of Sodom. Poulenc was a major composer who struggled with being thought superficial by deep thinkers like Pierre Boulez. He also was a deeply religious Catholic and a homosexual. He also found time to father a daughter. He…
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The Dozen Most Important Advances in Medicine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th May 2019Below are what I think the most important advances in medicine since there was such a discipline. With the exception of the first development they are not listed by importance. But the first is so important that it out ranks all the remaining 11 combined. Many of the following discoveries are interrelated. The reader should…
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Mozart and Schubert at the MIM
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th May 2019The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra presented the third of three concerts devoted to Mozart and Schubert last night. The venue was the Theater of the Musical Instrument Museum. Its a sleek and comfortable auditorium ideal for smaller scale compositions. The program began with the Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, Mozart’s penultimate opera. The scaled down…
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