I'm heading to Buffalo and Cleveland (aka the Lake District) to eat some pierogi and do some book readings. Back here on the 29th.
Tuesday evening I joined two friends at The Field for Seinfeld Trivia Night. We made up one of about twenty teams, many of them with very clever names (my favorite: These Questions Are Making Me Thirsty) that should have suggested we were in for a rough night.
I was struck by how much trivia I no longer retain from the show, and by how much that bothered me, even though a depth of Seinfeld knowledge is not a great asset in everyday life. (This despite the fact that the show was about everyday life.) But there’s something about hearing a question – no matter the question – and not knowing the answer that annoys a person. Luckily, my friend Greg knew every answer except one.
His Seinfeld smarts were of no help though, as music was played – blared – after each question, and bonus points were given if you could name the artist. So it was really a Seinfeld and Loud Execrable Music Trivia Night. The first trivia night I attended, at Tarpon River Brewing, also consisted of long stretches of ear-shattering music. Somehow I thought the subject of Seinfeld would make for a quieter evening. Fat chance. The American appetite for loud music apparently is unquenchable. (Been out to eat lately? To a baseball game?) I walked out of the pub vowing never to go to another trivia night.
Yesterday morning I drove to Miami for the Palm Sunday service at Trinity Cathedral. I love Palm Sunday: the beautiful hymns – yesterday we sang not only “All Glory, Laud and Honor” but also “O Sacred Head Sore Wounded” – and of course the palm fronds. As a boy in New Jersey, I found them exotic; now as a Floridian, I cherish them for their mix of the Biblical and the everyday.
I use social media for posting photos (never selfies) and cartoons (one every other week), links to articles I’ve published and occasional promotions of my book. As my late friend David Beaty used to say, “You have to do your fan dance.”
Yesterday Hania, who is not on social media, suggested I post about her birthday on Facebook. This rare personal post – that ran with a picture I took of Hania last year, petting a French bulldog in Charleston, SC – received a flood of likes and comments, many of them from people who hadn’t liked or commented on any post of mine in years, if ever. I was very touched, as was Hania, though I found myself wondering if the people whose names I rarely see find my creative work eminently unremarkable.
I usually pull for the underdog, but when it comes to the Westminster Dog Show I root for the big dogs. So yesterday I was delighted to see Monty the Giant Schnauzer win Best in Show. Though I would have been even happier if Mercedes the German Shepherd had won.
I got a flat tire yesterday, a day that was chilly, wet, as close as we get to raw in South Florida. So far this week we’ve rarely seen the sun, which seems fitting considering the inauguration that took place on Tuesday. It snowed in north Florida; New Orleans got 10 inches. Though this will just serve to convince our new president of the inauthenticity of global warming.