Text 15655, 126 rader
Skriven 2014-08-09 15:29:00 av NANCY BACKUS (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: Re: wanderings 754
==========================
-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 08-07-14  03:09 <=-

 ML>> Come on, now, some waitresses are intelligent and actually
 ML>> willing to help.
 NB>> Oh, ok... I'll give you that... but I've also known far too many of
 NB>> the others as well....
 ML> It used to be said that the best service is given by the
 ML> professionals, but in recent years I find that the
 ML> transients (students, people who haven't yet figured out
 ML> what they want to do when they grow up, and so on) tend
 ML> to be way more engaged and willing, though not necessarily
 ML> more informed.

True... when my son was doing his stints at being waitstaff or
bartending, he'd generally give pretty good service... Of course, it did
seem to be something he was naturally good at, and that he cared enough
to do right... to know what he was doing wherever possible... He'd fit
into the transients, I'd think... since he only does it as something
between whatever else he was planning...  :)
 
 ML>> and ofttimes anyway that person is a faculty member or at
 ML>> least hired for the purpose.
 NB>> I read that first at "family member" rather than "faculty"... perhaps
 NB>> because I've been that family member... ;)  I hear you... if the
 NB>> pianist was also applying for audition, it would be one thing (I know,
 NB>> you still couldn't give the scholarship that way...), but it is more
 NB>> likely someone one would expect to be more accomplished...   :)
 ML> As both you understand. There was this old guy who didn't
 ML> really look the part - Phil Oliver was his name - who was
 ML> such a great accompanist that he taught the subject both
 ML> at Boston University and I believe the New England
 ML> Conservatory: on occasion he was known to rescue a horrid
 ML> performance by an untalented nobody and turn it into a
 ML> work of art.
 
Now THAT is a talented accompanist.  :)   It is, after all, somewhat
the job of the accompanist to help the soloist shine, but few can well
accomplish that all the same, even with a fairly good soloist...  :)

 ML> The St. Nicolaas church here advertises free organ concerts
 ML> on Wednesday nights ... turns out that last night they had
 ML> a guest artist named Thorsten Goebel and were charging E11.
 ML> The program:
 ML> Bach Prelude and fugue in C
 ML> Choral prelude Schmucke Dich, o liebe Seele
 ML> Mendelssohn Overture to Athalie
 ML> Overture to the oratorio Paul
 ML> Rheinberger Organ sonata 14
 ML> M. Gulbins Organ sonata 3 in Bb.
 ML> Might have interested you more, but I wasn't going to
 ML> shell out E22 for something that we were going to sit
 ML> through at most half of. 

I don't think I'd've shelled out E11 for that either... although parts
are indeed interesting, and I might well have sat through the whole
thing... the last on the list is totally unknown to me... 

 ML> For a free concert I might have been willing to put E5
 ML> a head into the kitty, but more than twice that, neh.

Free's good...  ;)  I went to a free concert in Peebles (Scotland) when
I was there for a weekend, and had an evening with time on my hands... 
Got a splendid picture of a double rainbow while waiting for the doors
to open, too...  :)

 ML>> United has shown greater than typical
 ML>> incompetence, putting me on a flight to Chicago (in
 ML>> coach) without telling me, while putting Lilli on
 ML>> Houston to Amsterdam nonstop without me.
 NB>> That makes it incredibly difficult to be travel companions.. ;0
 ML> Don't you think. They've done this before: Lilli keeps        
 ML> track and claimed that UA has pulled similar tricks
 ML> half a dozen times in the last few months. I can recall
 ML> only once a month, but she exaggerates a little.

Well, six in 3-4 months isn't that much more than once a month... and
if she's keeping track, maybe it isn't much exaggeration...?  ;0 
Begins to sound like a regular-ish practice... to see if they can get
away with it...  ;/
 
 ML> said she really wanted the window anyhow, so we started
 ML> figuring things out. I asked how old her son was - 22,
 ML> as it turned out. I suggested, and everyone ended up
 ML> agreeing, that perhaps he would be perfectly happy not
 ML> sitting next to his mom all that time; I guess I'm lucky
 ML> she listened to reason, because if not, she might have
 ML> made the flight pretty unpleasant. In the end, Lilli and
 ML> I sat in 1D and 1E, the lady got her window 2A, and Mr.
 ML> Bowels had easy access to the toilet from 2B. Yay, no
 ML> thanks to United. And the flight attendant looked
 ML> bemused at all of this, and I remarked to her, screws up
 ML> your manifest, doesn't it, and she said yes. But she
 ML> cheered up and the crew gave us decent service (not hard
 ML> to do, as we slept most of the flight).

I suppose that placated flyers are easier to deal with than worrying
about a messed up manifest...  Nice that it all worked out
eventually...  ;)

 ML>> Flying is sometimes more of an adventure than one
 ML>> would like it to be, and sometimes the adventure
 ML>> is a dull one.
 NB>> EYup...  :)   Sounds like it's easily at that end of the spectrum
 NB>> with this message...  ;)
 ML> Luckily these Dutch cities that I haven't explored
 ML> before have made a very good adventure of it.

That's a good thing... :)

 ML> quickly, drop by tablespoons onto buttered wax paper. Makes 1 1/2 - 2
 ML> dozen pralines. BUT DON'T EAT THEM! Crumble coarsely and measure out
 ML> 3 1/2 cup of the crumblies for this ice cream.

That could be hard to do... not eat the pralines... (G)  But one could
eat the leftovers after measuring out the amount for the ice cream, I'd
think...  ;)   Or, I suppose, if one was very good at resisting the
temptation, one could save the remainder for sprinkling atop the
finished ice cream when serving... ;)
 
ttyl          neb

... I used to be dyslexic, but I'm KO now.

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