Same Difference

Hello World, Well, I don't know about where you are, but around these parts, March has given us no reason for complaints so far, and in fact, one might say, has even been a breath of fresh air, and a welcome improvement over February, by all accounts. (That is, except for the Presidential campaigns, which are more hot air than fresh air, with enough mud slinging to usher in a whole new period in paleontology, and which I am calling The Slopozoic Era, as we sink further and further into the morass, thanks not.) For the most part, the weather has been refreshingly mild, and sometimes positively balmy, for instance on Wednesday, with record-setting temperatures in the 70's throughout the region for a delightful change of pace. Of course, warmer weather can't help but turn our thoughts to brighter days ahead in spring, spurred along with early flowers in the yard, some hardy honeybees, and even robins on the wing, looking less and less out of place for this time of year. On the sports scene, you know it's getting far along in Spring Training when the teams have started playing actual games, rather than just drills and practices in the glorious sunshine. We already had the Yankees and Mets meet on the diamond - where they played to a 4-4 standoff, believe that or not - and which would certainly wreak havoc with the standings during the regular season, so it's just as well that these games don't count. This storied rivalry has enough of a draw that it lured Chris Christie to the ballpark for the event, although disgruntled New Jersey citizens might well have wondered what their governor was doing in Florida at the time. It won't be long before Opening Day is well and truly upon us, although it must be said that trying to play baseball in the more northerly climes in April has always been a dicey proposition at best, and a frost-bitten horror show at worst. In cities like Chicago and Detroit, I expect them to offer their patrons hot mulled cider and hearty stews in the place of the usual frosty cold beer, cotton candy, and ice cream of yore - and not to mention, stadium blankets and ear muffs instead of caps and tank tops. Garcon, more mini marshmallows in my hot chocolate, if you please! Last week also saw us observing yet another year of wedded bliss around the old homestead, which according to my calculations, brings us now up to (let's see now ..... if the sun rises in the east ..... divide by the hypotenuse ..... any month without a "Y" ..... then carry the 1 ..... turn counter-clockwise ..... times velocity squared ..... plus compound interest at 5.25% ..... stir to combine and shake until frothy) 5:00 in the afternoon on July 4, 1776. Oh, for heaven's sake, that's when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence all over again.) In any case, we celebrated the occasion by going out to dinner at one of our favorite little hideaways, the cozy Mexican Corner Restaurant on Main Street, where everything is muy delicioso, and that's not just La Cucaracha talking, believe me. Their burrito con huevo y queso with papas fritas is a personal favorite of mine, and Bill is a fan of their rice and beans (hold the plantains) and we both love their luscious copa cabana fruit smoothies to round things out. The place is admittedly chilly in the winter, and way too hot in the summer, with only about 8 tables in the entire tiny space, and no room for bulky outerwear, much less a baby stroller, heaven forbid. But it features authentic ethnic cuisine, and plenty of it, not some bogus revisionist concoction that would be unrecognizable to anyone below the Rio Grande. Or perhaps it just seems that way to a gringo like me, who wouldn't know a chimichanga from a chalupa if I tripped over it - which would probably only happen if I was trying to do The Mexican Hat Dance at the same time. Senor, more cotija for my tortilla, por favor! The night was still young, so we went home and followed that up with a movie on our big screen TV in our recliners, with junk food at the ready, and if there's any way to improve upon that, well, I just don't know what it would take, by golly. We had previously seen "Monsters Inc.," a somewhat whimsical animated feature that we really liked, and so we figured we could give its subsequent prequel a try to see how it measured up - and that was how we wound up watching "Monsters University" on DVD, and finding much to like about it as well. Plus, we had the best seats in the house, and the snacks were exactly what we wanted, and even better, the price was certainly right - all of which cannot be said of the local neighborhood multi-plex, that's for sure. On the other hand, the multi-plex doesn't have cats walking on the table in front of the screen, so everything is a trade-off, I suppose. Meanwhile at church, we had a first for choir (which you would think would be virtually impossible for a congregation that's been in business since 1899) and which managed to be both unexpected and inadvertently comical at the same time, by all the saints. During Sunday worship, at the time of the Offering, the choir duly straggled up to the chancel steps to sing the Anthem, and much to the surprise of everyone present, somehow managed to launch into the piece by singing 2 different verses at the same time, and to the betterment of neither verse, I don't mind saying. In fact, I would go so far as to say that as a musical experiment, this had nothing to recommend it, and would have to be considered an utter failure, not only as an idea whose time had not come, but at this rate, will never come, and thankfully so, I dare say. It's unfortunately true that our current choir consists of only us 5 little old ladies, so it was extremely (one might say, jarringly) noticeable that we were not all singing the same words, as would be expected, and there was no place to hide, once we got off on the wrong foot, musically speaking. For some reason, the left half of the group started in by singing the second verse by mistake, while the right half of us were singing the first verse - and the poor alto in the middle didn't have any idea what to do with herself, and probably just stopped singing altogether, and who could blame her. The obvious solution would be choir anthems with only one verse, but on the other hand, why take all the fun out of something that doesn't have a whole lot of fun built into it in the first place. Now then, ladies, once more with feeling! And speaking of different, alert readers on social media may have been amused to see the recent post asking the musical question TURN BACK TIME, with a request to please "Cher" with others. (This only makes sense for those of us oldsters who remember the popular song from 1989, and understand the play on words behind the seemingly helpful post about the upcoming switch-over to Daylight Saving Time.) In any case, don't you believe it! Remember this weekend is the time to "spring ahead," rather than "fall back" by an hour, Cher or no Cher, or you would wake up to find yourself on Sunday already behind schedule by two hours, with the result that you'd be even worse off than if you had done nothing at all. Under the circumstances, if you feel you must take your time-setting cues from musical icons, you might consider Van Halen's "Jump," or some other forward-looking song that gives the impression of leaping ahead, rather than a wistful look back in nostalgia to a previous time. Ordinarily I would say that Facebook has put the time-shifting foxes in charge of the chronology hen house once again, but frankly, there seems to be nobody at all in charge of the Facebook frontier - it appears to be a wild and woolly outpost of unbridled license, where anything goes, and the normal rules of social interaction have ceased to apply. Sort of like the Presidential campaigns, only with less hot air and better cartoons. Or in the immortal words of Herman's Hermits, "Second verse, same as the first!" (NOT!!!) Elle