Dear Everyone,
We just got back from a performance of Wagner’s
Siegfried. It’s a long opera, but relatively
amusing and action oriented as far as these things go. The tenor (Burkhard Fritz) was adequate, but
his heroism was a bit off putting by the set design, which had him dressed as a
petulant child. His physique didn’t help
much either, he looked sort of like a young, overweight Donald J. The soprano who played Brunehilde, Christine
Goerke, was fantastic, and I also thought Alberich and Mime (Samuel Youn and
Matthias Klink) were quite good. We also really liked the dragon, who, however,
has nothing on Meeko in terms of protecting her lair. All we have left in the Ring Cycle is
Gotterdammerung, next year.
While we were at the opera, the Bears had another resounding
win, this time over the Lions. That’s three
wins in a row against weak opponents, way better than three losses. Maybe they will make the playoffs this
year. Democrats did win big in Dupage
County, with Sean Casten beating Trump lackey Peter Roskam. Also, my friend Dan Brat’s (chairman of
pathology at Northwestern) brother Dave lost in Virginia. I don’t think Dan shares (although I haven’t
asked him) his brother’s political viewpoint.
We had my colleagues Jami Walloch and Andrea Blumstein over on election
Tuesday for a bit of drink and to watch election results, which were about what
everyone expected. Now we can finally
see those tax returns. Jami also bought
some supermarket sushi, which he gotten at the giant Pete’s Fresh Market, one
of which has opened up just down the road from us. This store is so big that all summer long construction
was ongoing at the intersection of Route 83 and Plainfield Road (two major streets)
to handle the anticipated traffic. I
haven’t been in yet, but if it’s anything like the one I frequent on Harlem and
103rd street it’s a lot of fun inside, if you like grocery shopping
(as I do).
It was my birthday this week. The kids texted me messages, and Cindy got me
some black licorice. The people at work
chipped in to buy me lunch at a hand pulled ramen joint that just opened down
the street from the hospital. It was a
nice gesture, but the ramen was only so-so.
As far as asian food goes, we took Nicola and Wes out to
Chinatown last night. We wanted to get
hotpot at Little
Sheep, but we couldn’t get a reservation.
So then we tried Little Lamb,
where the wait was at least 30 minutes.
We ended up walking in the cold weather to Minghin, where we had disappointing
pot stickers (dough too thick and greasy), but (in order of increasing
deliciousness) ginger beef and scallions, fried turnip with dried shrimp, salt
and pepper squid, and green beans with shredded duck.
It’s the 100th anniversary of the armistice
today. As Faulkner said, “the past is
never dead. It’s not even past.” We are
still fighting over the remnants of broken empires. Our Cheeto-in-Chief is not helping matters by
insulting our allies on this solemn occasion.
Expecting less from him is never a bad move.
Love, H
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