Category: Weekly Updates

“Pickleball, Trivia, Music”

Our pickleball set arrived on Monday and Diana organized a court for us at The Exchange (indoor with air conditioning) for Tuesday.  I chuckled at a sheet of stickers in the package – stick on the bottom of the paddle handle and then you can use it to pick up the whiffle ball without bending all the way over – they know the target demographic for the game.

Kenny was kind enough to come along and give us some pointers.  It’s the common sense things – “Angle your paddle up unless you’re hitting it really hard”, “get down lower before you swing at ground balls” – that really help.  I had a good time and think Diana and I might make this a regular part of our week.

I might be most comfortable with the backhand – that was the same at table tennis.

On Tuesday afternoon I had scheduled an appointment to have the sebaceous cyst on my back looked at.  I had this several (3 or more) years ago and ultimately had to have it cut out as it got large and painful.  They warned me that it may come back.  Well, now it’s back and still very small.  After consultation with McD, I decided it was a good idea to get it cut out before we switch to a new benefits year (October 1st) and a new deductible kicks in.

Diana dropped me at Baptist on Napoleon and went on to drop some shoe returns off at the UPS store.  I made my way up to the 6th floor and was confused when the room it told me to check in at had a “Women’s wellness and menopause center” sign on the door.  Oh well, apparently that’s where the general surgery patients check in as well.   The lady behind the desk couldn’t find my appointment.  “Don’t worry – I’ll look it up n my phone.  I’m sorry I got the wrong week.  My appointment is next week.”  As if that wasn’t enough embarrassment, I’m leaving the menopause office and run into Julia – “What are you doing here?”   Ah geez!  I explained my situation and gave her a laugh.  She’s recovering from shoulder surgery and probably needed the laugh.

Returning home, I watched a new Cowboys Netflix documentary – “America’s Team, the Gambler and his Cowboys.”  I thought the episodes that I watched were very well done, and that even non-Cowboys fans might enjoy them.  I should have known better than to voice that opinion at trivia with a bunch of diehard Saints fans.  Aikman, Irvin, and Emmitt Smith were amazing – surviving the 1-15 season before all the Superbowls.

On to trivia.  We had a good session on Tuesday evening.  For the first time, I captured some pictures of the questions along the way.  We were behind at half time – all these peppy Tulane and Loyola students back in town and ready to play.  I’ll take you on a bit of a play by play from there:

The half time question – 3 points for every correct answer, up to 4 guesses:

We maxed out with 12 points – Cowboys (they didn’t want to write it down), 49ers, Steelers, and Patriots.  We are often a second half team:

I enjoy the “mashup questions”:

We were looking at the gasses and several of us triggered on “Noble Gasses” – must be “Barnes and Noble Gasses.”  Correct!

The group had settled on “Jailhouse Rock” and then I started trying to process on 1956 and a female blues singer – “Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog” popped into my head.  That was it.

I don’t know “Don Quixote” well, but had some brain flash on this horse name.  Again, we lucked into being correct.  We’re now on a big second half roll.

I should be the right guy to answer this.  I flashed back to a dinner at Tim’s house.  His son, Tegan, was playing “Trouble” with me.  I told him it was called “Sorry” in the UK.  He was very strongly opposed to that concept.  “No, it’s Trouble.”  I told the gang that “Sorry” was the correct answer.  Tom, quiz master, said the correct answer was “Frustration.”  I objected and he came up with an alternative question, that we nailed.  I did some Googling and found that “Frustration” is the current name for the game, and apparently they recently changed it from “Sorry.”  I don’t feel badly for objecting.

For some weird reason, I knew the answer to this.  Not sure how.  Maybe because I watched the series on TV about Uber and remembered the years.  I don’t know.  I’ll take the points.   I was positive on 2012 versus 2013 though.  Thom was thinking 2013 initially.

We were in first place with 101 points going into the final round.  The competitors had 93.  For the last question, one can wager up to 20 points.  Given our standing, we wagered 13 points.  Unfortunately we lost to “Phlat Phil” who got the last question right – we were somewhat close, but no cigar.  Second place and $25 of Dat Dog food and drink.

That’s a lot more trivia detail than I plan to share in the future.  It’s been a hot and slow week so far here.

On returning home, glowing in the second place aura, I watched a Netflix documentary on the band Devo.  Alex mentioned at trivia, and then I learned in the film, that Devo stands for “de-evolution”.  The members of the band attended Kent State university during the Vietnam protest incident – “Four dead in Ohio.”  They decided that mankind had “de-evolved” – “beginning to regress as demonstrated by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society.”  I think they might have been onto something about the present day.

Open in Spotify

We used our “culture pass” from the library to attend the World War Two (WWII) museum on Wednesday.  This is advertised as the “#1 attraction” in New Orleans.  I had heard very positive reviews of this museum from everyone who had attended, and am happy to report that my experience was way better than I expected, even after all those reviews.  Such beautiful, professional, and carefully created exhibits.

The main entry hall was very impressive, with a huge bomber lurking overhead.  I often found that there were massive things overhead that I hadn’t noticed.

Our first exhibit was about the Aleutian islands – fascinating knowledge of these islands that are such a bridge between Alaska and Russia.  Did you know that Russia sold the US Alaska in 1865?

We migrated from there to a D-Day exhibit.  It’s hard to imagine the scale of this endeavor these days, and the commitment of the individuals involved.  This exhibit tried to convey some of the magnitude:

Did you know that a large number of the personnel involved in D-Day were dropped in via gliders?  I had never heard that.  Apparently towed across the Channel by boats and then released to glide into the zone.

My favourite exhibit on my first pass through this wonderful museum was about the war in the Pacific.  We were down in the bowels of a warship and then in a jungle.  The settings, videos and artifacts were amazing:

Of course all this ends up with the Enola Gay on August 6th, 1945.  Followed up with another atomic bomb on August 9th, 1945.   Reading the flight log from the Enola Gay was chilling.  “God, what have we done?”

Open in Spotify

Our final stop was at the Boeing airplane  exhibit.  I’m astounded by how they got all these massive objects inside this exhibit hall – I’d love to see a video about that (haven’t checked YouTube yet).  The 3rd floor viewing gallery had me marginally dizzy (thanks Dad!), and so I rejected Diana’s request to check out the 4th floor gallery.  Look at all these suspended and amazing planes:

Diana wanted to capture my dizzy self with all the massive planes above me:

On exiting the museum I suggested that we visit Taqueria La Lucha – this is a place owned by Kenny’s friend Ryan.  He makes wonderful tacos and an amazing hibiscus margarita.  We had a nice visit with him.  He started off with how difficult it is to run a restaurant in New Orleans in the height of summer – no doubt, and finished with stories about parade rides that his Dad helped him make.  Ryan’s hibiscus margaritas are the best that I have tasted, ever:

Here’s the taco menu that we need to take advantage of soon, when the weather cools off:

We got home just in time to meet Tristan who was going to service our generator.  He changed the oil, filter and spark plug so that we’re ready for the remainder of hurricane season.

Some interesting facts about what happened on August 20th:

In 1882, Tchaikovsky debuted his 1812 overture.  I can remember playing this at the Interlachen casino in Switzerland – such an amazing tour and very difficult bass part. The casino did not reverberate like the mountain churches we had played in the previous few days.   One of the highlights of my brass band career.  Second only to my Albert Hall experiences.  Walking the stairs that Eric Clapton walked in the start of the Cream reunion .

There’s a lot of excitement in Austin and in New Orleans about Arch Manning starting as quarterback for the University of Texas.  Here’s an interesting article in the paper about his bond with his grandfather, Archie:

Arch Manning Time Picayune article

On Thursday morning, I watched the Jennifer Lawrence movie “Causeway.”  This is one of my very favourite movies – understated with huge emotional connections and set in New Orleans.  Unlike some other movies, this could only be New Orleans – almost every scene.

I visited Aidan Gill and Derek for a haircut later on Thursday morning – always a good blether.  Then it was over to Rouse’s to do some shopping for an enchilada casserole that I planned on making.  I ultimately got too tired to mess with that and just popped a “Sicilian” pizza in the oven.  It seemed to be well received by my half Sicilian friend.

We had an amazing musical experience on Friday night.  John Boutte was playing in the indoor pavilion at the Broadside.  We’ve seen him before as a guest of Jon Cleary, but not with his own band and show.  I was happy when the second song in his set was Louisiana by Randy Newman:

And what an excellent guitar solo:

Who is that genius on the guitar?  It took a bit of work, and I identified him as Caleb Tokarska.  Here’s an Offbeat article about him:

Caleb Tokarska bio

After a while, Boutte started taking requests.  Caleb requested this one, “Blowin’ in the Wind”:

In addition to Caleb on the guitar, Oscar Rossignoli on the piano was a wonderful surprise.  As Diana said, “He could play anything.”  Indeed he could – a complete virtuoso who played all over the map for 2 hours without any music.

I enjoyed Boutte’s story about meeting Paul Simon and this cover of “American Tune”:

And this Cyndi Lauper cover:

Finishing with the song that made him all that HBO money from Treme:

I read this interesting article about living in and leaving New Orleans:

New Yorker New Orleans article

The Krewe of OAK rolled on Saturday night.  This is a walking parade on Oak Street and Carrollton midway between Mardi Gras celebrations.  We met Anne and Jack for dinner before the parade.  Chais Delachaise was close to the parade route.  We found out that Fred, Kelly and Richard had the same idea when we arrived.  Here are a couple of the walking groups:

Meanwhile, on the Mississippi coast, the boys were watching the Marshall Tucker Band, or rather, the one surviving member of the original band.  Apparently they found him after the show:

Open in Spotify

I read “Hell of a Book” by Jason Mott this week.  It wasn’t a long read and one that I should perhaps have abandoned midway through.  I found this a strange book, not totally devoid of great writing and promise, and just not cohesive at all – different writing techniques and approaches that don’t come together, if at all, until the last few pages.

Here’s the AI summary of Amazon reader reviews:

“Customers find the book heartbreakingly poignant and eloquently written, with great insight into the complexities of race and humor throughout. The storytelling receives mixed reactions – while some praise its astounding narrative, others find it confusing at times. The authenticity and pacing also get mixed reviews, with some finding it true and timely, while others question its reliability and find it challenging to follow.”

I can get behind that summary.  It’s always interesting when I don’t love a book that gets universally hugely positive reviews from so many sources, e.g.  from The Sunday Times:

“Brilliant and inventive. What is most surprising, however, is how funny the novel is. Jason Mott, an already successful American novelist, has dared to bring anarchic farce, vertiginous layers of irony, and often riotous hilarity to the Black Lives Matter movement. Striking . . . intelligent . . . ingenious.”

There were certainly some funny passages, but I would not describe the overall novel as “funny” by any stretch of the imagination.

Some passages that I enjoyed:

Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols on “5 Albums I Can’t Live Without”, discussing Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” album.   His list also included Rod Stewart, Roxy Music and Steely Dan.  That last one just makes me smile.  Steve Jones loves the precision and musicianship of Steely Dan.

“I know he had a few albums before that when he had curly hair and wearing dresses. I knew a couple of the songs, but that whole look, the glam look, I was sold hook, line, and sinker when that came out. I saw him a few times. I love Mick Ronson, Woody Woodmansey is a fantastic drummer, and Trevor Bolder. They were just a great band. I know it was basically David Bowie’s thing, and then he left them after two albums. Pretty much all of them anyway. Mick Ronson went on a bit longer to play with him on Pin Ups. That album was definitely one of my favorite albums. Very inspirational to me. Steered me in the direction. I loved all that glam, to be honest with you. T. Rex, Mott the Hoople. Good glam. There was a lot of cheesy glam, which I don’t mind now, but at the time, I was a bit particular. They had to look a certain way. Slade and The Sweet and bands like that, they seemed a bit more just manufactured and Top of the Pops friendly. I liked a bit more avant-garde with Bowie, and the next album, I’m going to say, as well. If you want me to still talk about the rise and fall, I will, or are we done now?”

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all.

“Pickleball?”

I finally had enough of putting air in a tire with a slow leak, and I know Diana certainly was tired of it as well.  Time to get it fixed.  Paul had recommended Al and Al’s shop and what a wonderful experience that was.  Not a place I would ever have considered using from a curb appeal perspective, but I was in and out in 15 minutes with two patches in place.  I would recommend Al senior and junior to anyone with tire woes.

The rest of Monday was boring administrative work – bills and other paperwork.

A hearing aid check up on Tuesday took me over to Metarie.  I typically swing by Taco Bell for a snack while over there.  My drink cup usually gets my secret visit busted by McD.  I’m going to have to be stealthier.

Kelly organized a girls Happy Hour for Anne’s birthday at the Columns in the evening.  Seems like they had a good time for three or more hours…

Diana had a busy girls day on Wednesday.  Running with Lori in the morning, followed by yoga.  I found out that Lori refers to her as “Coach D” while she’s pushing her to run further.  In the afternoon, Anne and Kara joined Diana at Merry Lee’s pool for the afternoon.  The brightly coloured bracelets that Diana had manufactured for Anne’s gift were well received.

Of course, the big fish were landed after Kenny and I left Grand Isle.  Thom looks quite pleased with himself and apparently that’s a cobia that Jack has:

Jack was kind enough to drop off some trout fillets for us when he got home.

A text from Diana at the pool asked me if I had interest in seeing the new Jeff Buckley documentary at the Broad theater on Thursday.  I had noticed this on their email an hour earlier and was waiting to ask if Diana would like to go when she got home.  Nice when things work out like that.  We both enjoyed the movie a lot.  Here’s an interview with the director, Amy Berg:

Spin interview with Jeff Buckley documentary director

From the only in New Orleans files, this was the headline this week – our Mayor indicted on 18 counts.  Thankfully she only has a few months left in office.

My book this week was “Culpability” by Bruce Hoslinger.  Here’s an online summary:

“When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident.

During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.

Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.”

This was a thought provoking, entertaining and relatively quick read.  I give it a strong recommendation.

An interesting paragraph that defines “anthropomorphic projection”:

“These systems are designed to respond in recognizably human ways. We give them names like Siri and Alexa. We speak to them as if they share our worldview, or care about our feelings and futures. This behavior is known as anthropomorphic projection. We want our helpful machines to be like us, and so we tend to project onto them our ways of understanding the world.”

“Last Work Day”

Monday was my final work day.  The technicians helped me reimage my laptop and phone to take away most traces of EZCORP.  All of my important personal messages and pictures were carefully saved off to a portable SSD (Solid State Drive).

Tuesday was very much an administrative day.  Figuring out how to sign up for COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) took a while.  You would never know what this is from the name or acronym.  It’s the ability for retirees and other folks with employment events to continue their employers sponsored (and much less expensive) healthcare for 18 months after departure.  Getting Windows 11 to work the way I wanted with some applications also took a bit of work.

Later in the day on Tuesday, we met with Paul, our financial advisor, to make sure we really had enough money to retire.  I know – great timing indeed.  The good news is I don’t have to (at least in the near term) look for another job.

Kenny came over on Wednesday morning and helped change out the air conditioning filter – in way too tricky a spot for me to trust myself not to fall on that hutch with all the crystal glasses.  We had intended to replace the can lights going up the stairwell, but our ladder is too wide and hangs over the nifty tool that Diana found for using ladders on stairs.  That will have to wait until we can borrow a regular ladder.

A late lunch on Wednesday took us to La Petite Grocery.  They had advertised a rhubarb pavlova (two of my favourites in one) for the summer and we were excited to try it.

You can imagine our disappointment when the waitress told us the pavlova had been replaced.  “But that’s the main reason we came.”  “Let me see what I can do.”  We knew there was no way they were whipping up a pavlova just for us.  Our main dishes were wonderful – I had fusilli pasta with mushrooms and peas, Diana a shrimp yozu sauce thing and an heirloom tomato salad.  Then came a surprise – the manager brought us some limoncello cheesecake ice cream on top of a rhubarb and strawberry jam they had made with the last of the rhubarb.  Apparently it was a very short season this year and the chef wasn’t happy with the most recent product.  No charge for dessert and we were very happy with the extra effort to make us happy.  Such a local gem of a restaurant.

We visited the Broadside on Thursday evening for a performance by Valerie Sassyfrass, followed by a showing of her documentary.  Kenny, Kara, Thom, Denny and Jack joined.  Most all agreed that we’ve maxed out on Valerie for a while.

I suggested to Diana that we celebrate July 4th (my 4th day of independence from the working life) with a burger.  I suggested three options and she chose Toups Meatery.  We hadn’t been there in years and so it seemed like a great idea.  They run a summer program to feed kids that typically rely on school meals for nutrition – another good reason to support the restaurant.

We were very pleased with the burger – the pickles really made it.  A crab salad added something marginally healthy to the mix.

In the evening we joined the rest of the Krewe for swimming and celebration at Greg and Colleen’s home.

Saturday was the 10th anniversary celebration for the Dirty Coast t-shirt company.  I own a number of their shirts and they were donating the proceeds from a silent auction and ticket sales to guess who?  The Toups Family Meal organization.  The first band was a movie and TV themes cover band – very entertaining.

Those folks were followed by Where Y’acht – a “Yacht Rock” band.  Here are a couple of samples.

Do you like McD’s yacht captain hat?

I started but did not finish “Mad Honey” by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan this week.

I just got far enough to read the first big bombshell of the book – not going to spoil it for anyone planning to give this book a try.  I recommend doing that – at a minimum you’ll learn a ton about beekeeping.  And hopefully even more about tolerance of differences.

If you do read this book, see if you can figure out which chapters the authors swapped on.  Jodi writes all of Olivia and Jennifer all of Lily, but they swapped for one chapter.

Here’s the online summary:

“Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.
 
Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start. 
 
And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet she wonders if she can trust him completely.”

Lily is a talented musician.  I smiled at this paragraph – not many people know that the first section of “Money” by Pink Floyd is in 7/4 time:

“I hate this song,” I mutter. He glances at me. “You want me to change the station?” I shake my head. “It’s in seven-four. It’s a weird time signature.” Asher doesn’t say anything right away. “So the time signature is what upset you?” I don’t want to go into it. “You know what else is in seven-four? ‘All You Need Is Love.’ The Beatles. And Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass.’ Soundgarden’s ‘Spoonman.’ ” Asher smiles. “I can’t believe the stuff you remember,” he says.”

An example of the interesting bee information to be found in the “Olivia” chapters:

“One of the bees starts moving in a figure eight, a crazy little rumba meant to tell the others where her food source is. Using the sun as a compass, her moves are a code: the direction of the dance is the route toward the food; the length of the dance is a measure of total distance. Several other bees watch, too, and then fly away, armed with GPS choreography.”

“This waggle dance is also used when a colony swarms. Some foragers will come back and waggle-dance to describe a new location they’ve found. The jazziest dances get the biggest response. If more bees are impressed, they join in the waggling. There may be several factions competing in this dance-off, each advocating for a different home, but once one of those groups has convinced about fifteen bees, democracy wins.”

Revealing the inspiration for the title:

“THERE IS ONE type of honey you should avoid at all costs. Mad honey comes from bees that forage on rhododendrons and mountain laurel, and it’s full of poisonous grayanotoxins. It causes dizziness, nausea and vomiting, convulsions, cardiac disorders, and more. Symptoms last for twenty-four hours, and although rarely, if left untreated, can be fatal.”

How Asher feels after acquittal:

“You cannot ever really go back to normal. You can approximate the axis of what your life used to be like, but as with an asymptote, all you’ll ever really do is get close and never intersect the sweet spot. It is true that the way the legal system works, once you are acquitted you are free to go home, but there’s a cognitive dissonance in the realization that the world has spun away without you. Even innocent, you will still be the boy who was involved in that murder trial. You are blameless, but stained.”

I love this cover of the Elliot Smith classic by Brad  Mehldau – I believe him to be the best pianist working today:

Open in Spotify

Another great cover by the most inventive guitar player I’ve ever seen:

Open in Spotify

And let’s finish with something very mellow and somewhat calming:

Open in Spotify

The guys from Laurel Street music porch concerts posted this great video of the last show we saw:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all.

“One Day to Go”

I have one more day of work to go – EVER!  As of July 1st, I will be fully retired.  I was very touched by this company wide note from our CEO.  Diana came down from her office/gym to tell me that farewell notes don’t get much better than this:

On June 30, we say a fond farewell to Keith Robertson, who will be leaving the company after nearly seven incredible years of leadership and impact.

Keith joined us in October 2018 as CIO and quickly became the steady hand behind some of our most ambitious and complex digital transformations. From major system upgrades to new tech rollouts, Keith led with vision, pragmatism, and calm confidence.

He built and strengthened an IT organization that today is faster, more resilient, and better aligned to the business than ever before. He championed simplicity, clarity, and teamwork, and brought a refreshing approach that made even the most complex tech discussions engaging.

After stepping into the CIO Emeritus role in January, Keith has continued to guide the transition and support of the team behind the scenes. But now, he’s officially signing off, for real this time.

Keith, thank you for your leadership, your humor, and your lasting contributions to this company. You leave a strong legacy and a grateful team behind.

Wishing you all the best.  May your next chapter be free of escalations, outage bridges, surprise updates, and full of fast Wi-Fi and bottomless cloud storage.

With deep appreciation,
Lachie

I’ll share one other note.  This was from our head of HR, replying to a note that I sent:

Reading your message meant so much…  You’ve made a lasting impact here, not just through your work, but in the deep friendships you’ve built.

The word “legacy” really is the right one. You’ve set a standard that reminds the rest of me what great leadership looks like.

It’s been an absolute privilege to work alongside you. You will be missed!

Wishing you nothing but great things ahead.

I will certainly miss these kind and generous colleagues.

We had a belated anniversary dinner at Gautreaux’s on Wednesday night.  This is a classic New Orleans neighborhood restaurant – tucked in just behind Julia’s house.  The menu is a mix of French and Creole.

We started with scallops (absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked) and foie gras (came with an interesting side that was almost like a desert.

Then Diana had the redfish and I enjoyed the trout with sauce Provençal.  Both dishes were very good.

We decided to have a Happy Hour on Sunday to celebrate the coming last day of work.  Diana chose Chais Delachaise which has wonderful food, wine and Happy Hour special prices.  We had our usual moules frites.  It was nice to see that the road construction around the restaurant was finally finished.

I always enjoy new stories from David Sedaris and thought I’d share this one from the New Yorker magazine:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/30/your-hip-surgery-my-headache

My book this week was “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams.  Sarah was a high level executive at Facebook during the massive growth of the company in the 2010s.  I sum this book up in one word – horrifying.  If only 10% of what is reported is fully true, and I believe the majority of it, then we should all stop using anything from the Meta/Facebook empire.  Here are some examples:

Discussing a bad review because people could hear her new baby in the background during evening calls:

“The fact that people can hear her in the background on calls—mostly because West Coast time means I’m often taking the calls on the East Coast in the evening, at home, where my baby lives. Travel is more complicated. I’d relocated to New York, and that meant I now had to travel to Washington, DC, regularly. Where I’m from it’s more usual for a baby to be with its mother or family for the first six months of life if not longer. My family is trying to come up with creative ways to make that happen with my mother, grandmother, and sister all traveling to New York to help. A few weeks after the review, Marne and I are at Facebook’s headquarters when Sheryl pulls me aside. “Marne told me about your childcare situation,” she says breezily. I’m mortified this is something that has been discussed with the COO. But I understand this is her way of caring. She’s trying to be nice. She’s saying this because she likes me. “Hire a nanny,” she instructs. “Be smart and hire a Filipina nanny.” She mistakes my look of horror for skepticism. “Sarah, I’m telling you, they’re English speaking, sunny disposition, and service orientated.” Marne echoes this sentiment. Both have at least one Filipina nanny in their retinue of staff.”

“Good Night and Good Luck”

The girls krewe had Happy Hour at Superior Seafood, typically oysters and frozen French 75s, on Tuesday evening.  This was a get together prior to Anne leaving for Boulder for several weeks on  Wednesday afternoon.  This trio hadn’t had enough fun and walked down to Shaya:

Diana’s Wednesday yoga class was in Audubon park since the studio is busy with kids at various summer camps.  It’s getting pretty hot and humid, even at 10am, so we’ll see how long this lasts.

Diana dropped me off for a haircut on Friday afternoon, and then picked me up for Happy Hour.  We first tried the new Blackbird hotel on Prytania Avenue.  This place looks nice online and has a day use pool setup at a reasonable price.  My barber, Derek, told me that they made great martinis, but the bartender had broken his arm, and they had various less qualified folks filling in.  We arrived a little after 3pm and checked in with the hostess, saying we would like to have a drink and snack at the inside bar.  “Sure, go on in.”  We did, and the bartender lady told us she didn’t open until 4pm.  “All your online things say 3pm.”  “That’s just the pool bar.”  She was just setting up and could easily have taken 5 minutes to make us a drink.  On the way out we told the hostess it didn’t open until 4pm.  “Yes, that’s right, it never opens before 4pm.”  One wonders why the heck she sent us back there, knowing that.

Diana suggested the Garden District Hotel across the street.  That was almost as bad – the bar was lovely and appeared to be open, but there was no bartender.  We waited 20 minutes, and then Diana went up front to ask.  “We’ll call him now.”  She sent us back there and could see there was no bartender to begin with.  He did show up and was quite annoying, but made an okay drink.  In his defense, Diana thought he was “fine.”

I was determined to have a decent experience before we headed home, and suggested we walk down to Beggars Banquet.  Here we encountered a professional and very friendly bartender.  Greeted us with ice waters, had snack menu recommendations, made a very good drink, and was happy to chat on any topic.  Ahh – we did it.

Sorry for the long ramble on something you had to be there to appreciate – I just don’t have a lot of exciting topics for this week.

On Saturday evening, CNN aired a live broadcast of the Broadway play “Good Night, and Good Luck.”  This is the first time a live airing has happened from Broadway.  George Clooney plays Edward R. Murrow, who broadcast on CBS in the 1950s and is widely recognized as being responsible for bringing down senator Joe McCarthy and his communist witch hunts.

Clooney co-wrote and directed the movie of the same name back in 2005.  The parallels to the politics of today were hard to miss.

We started to watched the 4 hour opus that is “The Brutalist” on Saturday night, and got about half way through.  I enjoyed it and am looking forward to finishing the movie.  Adrien Brody won the oscar for his portrayal of a Jewish architect who escapes Hungary and struggles to find his way in America.

I chuckled to see “Emeritus” in the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle:

After the crossword and other puzzles, I caught up on all the delinquent blogs – a month of them.  Can’t let that happen again as it’s too hard to remember what happened and I keep getting the weeks mixed up.

I took a break for lunch at Juan’s Flying Burrito with Diana.  We shared a new appetizer – street corn dip – excellent.  Then McD tried something new, a “Super Bowl”, and really liked it.  I stuck with one of my standards – Chorizo con huevos burrito.

“Good Night, and Good Luck” showed up again on the Sunday evening news show, 60 minutes, with a Clooney interview, and again at the Tony awards on Sunday night.

Diana and I enjoyed watching the Tony’s – I think it’s the first time we’ve done that.  We were able to pick the majority of the winners from the performances that were given at the award show.  I thought Cynthia Erivo did a very good job of hosting.  My favourite performance was from “Maybe Happy Ending.”

My book this week was “The road to tender hearts” by Annie Hartnett.  This reminded me a lot of Kevin Wilson’s “Run for the Hills” – dark humor, big heart, and quirky and creative characters and storyline.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The online synopsis:

“At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren’t for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. Since then, PJ spends both his money and his time at the bar, and he probably doesn’t have much time left—he’s had three heart attacks already.

But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart, Michelle Cobb, is finally single again. Filled with a new enthusiasm for life, PJ decides he’s going to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to win Michelle back.

Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes Pondville, leaving PJ the sudden guardian of his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Anyone else would be deterred from the planned trip, but PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town. PJ also thinks he can ask Sophie, his adult daughter who’s adrift in her twenties, to come along to babysit. And there’s one more surprise addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack of predicting death, who recently turned up outside PJ’s home.

This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for—a fresh shot at love and parenting—but does he have the strength to do both those things again? It’s very possible his heart can’t take it.”

The big in the 90s band, Pulp, released a new album after 30 years.  Here’s a sample, sounding more like David Bowie than ever:

This song is over 10 minutes long – I heard it on the wonderful local radio station, WWOZ, and had to find out what the song was with that great beat and feel:

Coexist peacefully, with patience and kindness for all!